Sharpe by name and sharp by nature.
English surnames were derived in the medieval years from nicknames that described the person's character, so that other people in the town or village would recognise who you were talking about. Hitherto, people just had first names. But before the plagues that wiped out a third of the population in England, poulation was growing and there were too many Jacks and Jills, hence the introduction of surnames, family trait names. Smith for the blacksmith, Carpenter, Brown for the colour hair, and Sharpe for being keen, cunning and witty. Sharpe was a very popular name. The first one recorded in London 1273 as William le Sharpe (Anglo Saxons were still under Norman Invasion influence).
So Sharpe by name and sharp by nature ( a welsh saying) has stuck. Even Allan in Celt North Wales can be seen over every door. It means "exit". So the name fits the bill, as there has been many an exit for me, when others were not on my wavelength and did not appreciate my wit, especially as an answer, ha ha.
What follows are the Ides of March in my life. Loyalty, yes that is a two way thing, but often people expect it but don't show it, demonstrate it. One way traffic, leading to a no through road cul de sac (more Norman influence! Thank goodness I was in the Saxon House at Grammar School, not Norman, they were red, we were green, hate green, except in gardens !!)
The Case of the Seven Sisters, the BBC and the Monopoly Commission.
When I was at the BBC, the TV screen emblem was the globe turning. I think the BBC reached its peak in the '80's the time I started there. BBC did cover world events world news, we brought stories to the TV screens of Britain from around the world. Even I made films in Spain, Portugal, Canada, America.
The BBC was all powerful, tremendous resources, skilled manpower built up since the birth of broadcasting in the 1930's. BBC employees felt that power. The power to influence. We dined with Parliamentarians, we influenced changes in the law, by bringing causes for concern to the attention of the authorities.
In the 90's petrol in Britain was expensive, as it is now. Heavily taxed, taxes on taxes, because it had two types of tax attached, customs duty and value added tax. 70% of the price of petrol was tax.
However in the 90's the supermarkets started to increase the competition with the main petrol suppliers. In America in the 20's the cartels had been broken up after it was found the petrol companies were consulting with each other fixing prices. Hence the name Seven Sisters.
Petrol is sold through a system called vertical integration. The Petrol Company owns it , drills for it, refines it, sells it. The supermarkets started to compete. They built their own pumps and forecourts and undercut the petrol companies prices by 10p a gallon. It was the only competition the petrol companies had ever had since 1900.
Now the petrol companies say the price of world crude is dictated by the markets, and they have no influence. They don't make much profit from selling petrol and diesel. So they say.
Today the price at the pumps is higher because of inflation, but the petrol companies sell at more or less the same price as the supermarkets, 20 years on from my programme.
20 years ago, my programme, told you the viewer, that petrol was petrol, there were only 7 refineries, and that the different brand tankers filled up at whatever refinery was near. BP in Hindenburg, Jet in Hull, Shell in Chester, Esso in Essex and so on. So BP Shell and Esso tankers as well as ASDA Tesco and Sainsburys supermarket tankers would fill up wherever. In Scotland, regardless of the brand owning the forecourt, you got BP petrol, because that was the refinery that supplied Scottish tankers. Welsh mainly had Texaco from Milford Haven.
The programme also stated that the oil companies could sell their petrol at the undercut supermarket price if they wanted to but they did not want to. Remember 10 years later they changed their minds.
Now I had been given the interim Monopolies commission report into petrol selling. I had it delivered to me in a brown paper envelope, exclusively.
The Government Monopolies Commission ahd the year before looked into the pub and beer industry and decided to make radical and decisive changes to the vertical integration in that business. No longer would brewers be allowed to brew and sell beer. They could chose to own breweries or pubs, not both.
The iterim report was equally as damning on the petrol companies.
My programme went out the month before the main report was published to beat the news and our broadcasting rivals. I was sure of my ground, of my stance.
After the programme Shell went ballistic, with 87 points of criticism, 84 of which I could counter. 3 of which I had to wait for the government report to be published.
Looking back, I was naive to think, little old Allan Sharpe, the boy from Willesden, London NW!0 could take on the Multinational Oil Conglomerates.
The Monopoly Commission report when published had wholesales pages ripped out of the interim copy. Civil Servants got at, back tracking ?? Well the rug was pulled from under my feet. Never mind what happens today, and some may say I was proved right in time. Those 3 points I had to concede that were in the programme script and the final report no longer supported me.
All programmes are vetted by BBC lawyers, Journalist have to back up their claims, all t's crossed all i's dotted. That interim report was my reliance. But The Monopoly Commission rewrote the final draft. Did a complete u turn. Took no action like with the pubs, and said all was fair in the petrol world. Well money talks huh. Money has power and influence. My position was untenable as Deputy Editor. I was demoted back to Senior Producer and had one year left at Watchdog. No allies, just deserters of a sinking ship. Except I am not the Titanic. I might list, I might get holed, but I go into dry dock, lick my wounds and come out again guns blazing.
I remember as a child , reading the story of HMS Hood. 1941 in the Second World War. I read encyclopaedias as a child. Fact not fiction apart from comics, the Beano and Dennis the Menace.
HMS Hood was Britain's biggest and most powerful battleship, the pride of the navy. Along with the battleship Prince of Wales it engaged Bismarck off the coast of Iceland. Bismarck was German and bigger. A threat to the Atlantic convoy lifeline to the British Isles . It had to be stopped, but at such a cost. 1300 crew were blown out of the sea, when a salvo from Bismarck hit the magazine weapons room on Hood and blew the ship up. there were 3 survivors. It was another devastating blow to Winston Churchill Britain's war Prime Minister. BUT, just before the Hood exploded, she fired one last salvo at Bismarck crippling it's steering. Prince of Wales had to retire badly damaged. However the British fleet was able to hunt the Bismark down and sink her eventually because of Hood's final salvo.
That taught me a lessons as a child. If you are going to go down, go down guns blazing and take as many of the bastards with you.
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