Tuesday, February 27, 2024
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Update: Jonathan Arnott - A Local Preacher - Has now Had This Amazing Chess Venue Up and Running For Some Time. Sheffield - Indeed The North of England - Thanks You!
Jonathan Arnott: Ex-UKIP high-flyer swaps politics for chess.
"Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess," admits former politician Jonathan Arnott.
The candidate master (three steps below grandmaster in the world chess hierarchy) once hoped to succeed Nigel Farage as leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
Today he's left his political career behind and is back in his home city of Sheffield where he's turned part of an out-of-town industrial estate into the new South Yorkshire Chess and Education Centre.
It's only the second such venue outside London and is worlds away from the parliamentary hubbub of Strasbourg and Brussels where he made his name - although strategy and tactics play an equally big role in chess as in politics.
His own passion for the game started early.
'North-south divide'
"I began playing when I was about three or four. I played a few games against my dad and I was beating him so he stopped playing. He taught me chess to shut me up really. After that I just kept playing in local leagues and in competitions."
He won his first competition aged just five; then went on to win the British junior under 16s and became a member of the England Under-21 squad. But he says he suffered from a "north-south divide" in the sport.
"There really wasn't much coaching available up north at the time. Someone of my ability, if I'd lived in Kent, I'd have been on the radar of grandmasters who would have been coaching me from the age of six.
"Broadly speaking I was self-taught and that isn't always good as there were huge gaps in my knowledge. It was very difficult to keep up with the top juniors in the country."
That may now be about to change with English chess set to get a £500,000 funding boost from the government to help young talent develop. This includes plans to expand chess in schools and install chess tables in local parks.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously said he wants to get more children playing chess. "It's great to see the government finally recognise the benefits of chess in terms of concentration, mental health and overall life skills," Jonathan says. t's certainly time that 'mind sports' were given a level playing field alongside physical sport as they both significantly benefit health and wellbeing. "Ironically he believes his own political success - he became UKIP's General Secretary aged 27 before being elected to the European Parliament - held back his promising chess career. "I've been involved in politics one way or another since the age of 20," he says. "That time between 20 and 30 is when you'd normally be improving but politics is so demanding as a career that it sort of got in the way. If I'd not gone into politics I would have been a lot better at chess. "He competed in the European Chess Club Cup in Slovenia and Bulgaria as well playing in Las Vegas. He also represented Great Britain at the board game Stratego. "At my peak I was in the top 200 players in the country and I'm probably not too far off that again now as I've been playing regularly." So no pressure then when we lined up the pieces on one of the dozen electronic chess boards and set the clock. Generously he gave me six minutes to make my moves and just one minute for his own. I t was no surprise to anyone that I didn't win but sobering that Jonathan only needed seven seconds of his allotted time to finish me off.Won't mention UKIP.Political fortunes over the years have been more arduous. He was elected as UKIP's first MEP for the North East of England in May 2014 after six years as the party's general secretary.
In July 2016, following the resignation of Nigel Farage, he launched his bid to become party leader, although he eventually withdrew from the contest.
By that point he was already becoming disillusioned. He eventually resigned from UKIP in 2018, warning it was heading in a wrong direction. He remained in the European Parliament until July 2019 sitting as an independent.
He remains a staunch supporter of Brexit but won't use the word UKIP, saying he "doesn't like to mention" the party's name as he's "no longer comfortable being associated with what it later became".
And besides, many of those at the chess centre "probably aren't even aware I used to be a politician".
The image of chess got a boost in 2020 when Netflix released The Queen's Gambit which told the story of fictional American chess prodigy Beth Harmon and her rise to the pinnacle of the chess world while facing problems with drugs and drink.
Its success raised the profile of the game, especially among younger and female audiences.
Chess also saw a boom in popularity during lockdown with people able to play at home and online.
But the pandemic wasn't so good for the coaching and development of junior players at club level.
Jonathan says he "accidentally inherited" the Sheffield junior chess club at this critical moment.
"We couldn't meet during the pandemic and lost nearly everybody," he recalls.
"We were down to about 4 or 5 players and it was collapsing. We lost our venue because we were meeting at a school.
"Children were being schooled online - so the last thing they wanted to do when they finished was to be taught chess online in a class environment."
Once the pandemic was over he set about fundraising. The centre, of which he is a director, opened in July 2023 and has about 35 paid-up members - both children and adults who play together.
As well as offering chess coaching and hosting competitions, the centre aims to be a social hub too, with home-made pizza nights in a chess-themed café.
Jonathan admits it "doesn't yet break even" but remains confident there's a bright future for the game. He's less optimistic about party politics.
"There's no political party now that represents what I believe," he reflects.
"Conservatives have badly lost their way and the newer parties need more of an ideology of what they are for, not just what they are against."
As a former maths teacher, it's a "passion for education" that he says motivates him. The chess centre could eventually expand to include writing courses, maths tuition and lessons in Artificial Intelligence.
Hmm.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/utah-house-votes-to-allow-chaplains-in-public-schools.html?utm_source=Freedom%20Post&utm_campaign=Freedom%20Post&utm_medium=newsletter
Monday, February 26, 2024
Assisted Suicide.
Warnings sounded against assisted suicide amid fresh calls for law change.
(Photo: Getty/iStock)Fresh calls for assisted suicide to be legalised are being challenged over concerns for the vulnerable.
TV personality and philanthropist Dame Esther Rantzen reignited the debate this week after telling BBC Radio 4's The Today Podcast that she had joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and plans to go there if treatment for her stage four lung cancer is unsuccessful.
Legislation to change the law was last defeated in 2015 but Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said this week that he "would not be averse" to a new Commons debate.
The 2015 bill was supported by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who said on Friday that there were "grounds for changing the law" on assisted suicide.
Assisted suicide remains a crime in England and Wales and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Critics of a change to the law have warned against introducing assisted suicide because of the risk to vulnerable people.
They point to countries like Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands where legalisation has been a "slippery slope" towards ever expanding criteria, including assisted suicide for mental health issues and minors.
Dr David Randall, lead campaigner for Our Duty of Care, a coalition of doctors opposed to assisted suicide, wrote to The Times: "Sir, Esther Rantzen is the latest public figure to come out in favour of assisted dying. Educated, articulate and well-connected, such individuals have an experience of life that is very different from the patients I look after.
"In 15 years of working as a doctor in east London, I have been asked only once by a patient to end their life. Far more commonly, my attempts to institute humane and effective end-of-life care is hampered by fears that I might be trying to do exactly that.
"Our politicians are to be commended for rejecting the beguiling claim that assisted suicide offers an easy solution to the complex challenges of suffering and death.
"Instead they have preserved a law that protects those whose voices are marginalised, a law that enjoys widespread support among disadvantaged and minority groups."
Others have expressed concerns, with crossbench peer Lord Alton saying that assisted suicide "represents danger to the safety of the vulnerable & disabled people".
Danny Kruger MP has said, "All experience shows legalising assisted dying is dangerous for the most vulnerable. It is deeply wrong that its advocates ignore all this evidence to promote a policy that will undermine end-of-life care." CT.
That Story Made My Day.
Street preacher arrested in Glasgow wins substantial damages from police.
Angus Cameron being led away by police in Glasgow city centre.(Photo: The Christian Institute)Police Scotland are to pay thousands of pounds in damages to a street preacher who was arrested and detained in Glasgow in 2022.
Angus Cameron, pastor of Cumnock Baptist Church, was told by the arresting officer that a complaint had been made about "homophobic language", a claim he strenuously denied.
He was searched on the street in front of members of the public, handcuffed and told he was being arrested for "breach of the peace with homophobic aggrevation".
He was then held in the back of a van for over an hour before being released and told that the matter would be dealt with "in due course", said The Christian Institute which provided legal assistance to him.
Mr Cameron received a phone call from the arresting officer two days later telling him that he would not be prosecuted but that a 'non-crime hate incident report' had been logged against his name in the police database, despite no crime being committed.
He has now won £5,500 for his unlawful detention by Police Scotland, as well as £9,400 in legal costs, but has decided to donate the amount in full to The Christian Institute.
The organisation said that the logging of a 'non-crime hate incident report' amounted to a "shadow" over the Mr Cameron's good name in police records.
The Institute's Deputy Director for Public Affairs Simon Calvert welcomed the settlement.
"His preaching was not targeting individuals; he did not use offensive language; he was not aggressive; he did not try to cause offence; he simply quoted the Bible. There was no criminality at all," he said.
He continued, "We were pleased to be able to help Angus bring a legal action and we believe it was because of the strength of his legal claim that the police were forced to reach an out-of-court legal settlement and pay damages and legal costs.
"In addition, we were able to get all reference to this unsubstantiated 'non-crime' deleted from Police Scotland's records."
Police Scotland recently announced it was reviewing its policy on the controversial recording of non-crime hate incidents after figures released in December revealed that more than 3,800 had been recorded in a single year - more than the number of genuine hate crimes.
Mr Calvert welcomed the review and said that The Christian Institute hoped to contribute "constructively" to it.
"We can act as a bridge between the police and street preachers in this vexed area," he said.
"In light of Angus's case and Police Scotland's announcement of a review, we will be contacting them, and offering any constructive help and assistance that we can provide." CT
The Times.
I rarely look at this Daily Mirror for posh folks these days but shall be visiting its pages even less in the future.
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If Anderson Is Wrong - Fine. But If He's Right ...
The Conservative Party has announced that it has suspended former deputy chairman Lee Anderson from the party after he refused to apologise for asserting that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is controlled by “Islamists”.
The Conservative MP for Ashfield and former deputy chairman Lee Anderson had the whip suspended from him on Saturday evening as the Tory Party bowed to pressure from leftist Labour Party London Mayor Sadiq Khan and liberal members of the political and media classes who expressed outrage on his behalf. Breitbart.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Helping Persecuted Christians.
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