Author: Paul Flint

A good month for our publicity in the April local magazines. Except for the Link (Oakley) not featuring our report, the remainder carried the report on the talk given by our new member, Michael Luck, about credit cards. Clearly a timely piece in view of the latest security activities by the banks to ensure that only the named card holder has access to their funds.

The CommunityAd publishers used a report for their Old Basing & Lychpit Community Newsletter, previously used in their magazine for Bramley & Sherfield, which is why the Eurovision Song Contest report is shown.

The phrase, generally attributed to, but denied by the actor Sir Michael Caine “Not a lot of people know that!” could be applied to some of the information that came from the talk at the latest meeting of the Probus Club of Basingstoke.

The talk, titled Play Your Cards Right by Bramley resident Michael Luck, an expert in card payments systems, was about the history of credit cards and how their security has changed over the years with advancing technology. One fact that instantly connects to the phrase above was that a pin number, used to confirm the user, is not seen by the bank when making a payment but stays within the chip on your card.

The first on the scene was the Diners Card in 1950 followed by the American Express card in 1958, both of which were printed on cardboard. This goes some way to explain why today being made of plastic they are still called cards. Amex changed to a plastic card with embossed lettering in 1959. These two early ones were in fact charge cards in that the full amount had to be paid off each month.

Barclaycard arrived in the late 1960s with a credit card as we know them today. Zip-Zap imprinters used three-part payment slips which the user had to sign.

The magnetic strip, as still seen today, was introduced in 1970 and contained the name, card number, expiry date and some other data. Point of Sale electronic terminals in 1980 used to swipe the magnetic strip which was considered secure as there were no computer viruses and hackers in those days. The latest chips contain even more information which means that in all probability the magnetic strip will eventually vanish.

It was the French, in 1975, who developed the use of a chip placed on the reverse of the card while it took until the early 2000s for the Safeway supermarket chain being the first in the UK to use this technology.

Contactless cards were introduced into the UK in 2008 and had very slow acceptance as people were concerned that if their wallet was close to a terminal that a payment just might be actioned. Young people, as with many technological advances, saw the ease of use and this was especially so when in May 2011, the restaurant chain McDonald’s introduced this no signature required system. With most of their sales transactions below £20 this was seen as a great benefit by the company and today they have one of the most sophisticated card payment programmes in the World.

The Covid pandemic saw the rest of the UK rapidly come to accept this system especially when the maximum limit was raised to £100. However, this also brought about increased fraudulent activity if a card was stolen as no signature was needed.

What next, you wonder? The future has arrived and as from March this year, as banks and retailers boost their security systems, customers will be sent a code by their bank to enter online or at a terminal in a retail establishment as proof that they are who the card says is the account holder. This is called Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). This will not happen on every occasion, perhaps one in four, especially for small value transactions, but if a retailer is not ready for the new process there could be times when a card is declined.

Some retailers are already using this system when large values are involved or when a customer uses a web site for the first time. There is a problem that a user might be confused as not all banks use the same criteria. PayPal is included and Apple Pay on mobile phones already use a code, fingerprint or facial recognition to approve the payment.

If there weren’t so many dishonest people in the world these changes to the security systems would be unnecessary but the banks are doing their best to ensure that only you access your money.

The funeral service for Dennis Freeman was held on Tuesday 8^th March 2022 at All Saints’ Church, Fairfields, Basingstoke followed by interment at Worting Road Cemetery.

Dennis had been President of the Probus Club of Basingstoke 1988/89 and must have been one of the youngest holders of that position probably helped by retiring at the age of only fifty-five in 1980.

He had left school at 14 and studied to become a draughtsman. He wanted to become a pilot during WW2 but was rejected because he was colour blind. Instead, he trained people in aircraft recognition at Biggin Hill.

Dennis joined Lansing Bagnall as a draughtsman and designer, becoming a senior consultant with LB Technical Services, which was then spun off as Modern Materials Management in which Dennis served as a director.

With his wife, Dorothy, who predeceased him in 2013, they enjoyed a long retirement engaging in various activities including travelling to Australia where one of their daughters lives and who came to the funeral. The service was well attended by his family and friends and by some of the regular congregation of All Saints’ Church where Dennis was a member.

He had been a regular attendee at the Probus evening meetings at the church in Chineham and then for a while at our combined meetings at the Test Valley Golf Club. During the last couple of years when his health deteriorated, he enjoyed attending the Memory Club in Basingstoke.

Our club was represented by Honorary Secretary, Stephen Thair and Ron Baxter MBE, who had been President 2005/06.

A good result in the local March magazines for the H-Bomb story which appeared in the Rabbiter, Kempshott Kourier, Bramley Mag, the Villager, Loddon Valley Link and on the web site Basinga Extra.

There was also success in the CommunityAd magazine for Bramley & Sherfield who ran the report about the Eurovision Song Contest. Things that I send to this publisher are dependent on them requesting a report as they need to fill a page before they go to print. And as they tend to publish their range of magazines around every three months, or so, I send them what I have instantly available.

We did not appear in the March Link (for Oakley) or in the two quarterlies of the Brighton Bell and Winklebury Way. It is the usual situation with these magazines that they want to use local reports and our Probus reports are considered general interest and therefore are useful as a fill in.

There will be many readers from the older generation who remember the nuclear bomb tests in 1957/8 that took place in the remote South Pacific on Montebello Islands, Malden Island and perhaps more famously, Christmas Island. David Stiles, the speaker at the latest meeting of the Probus Club of Basingstoke, while he was not one of the military personnel who witnessed the Hydrogen Bomb tests, was in the RAF but he was based in the tropical paradise of Hawaii.

Many aircraft in those days did not have the range to fly none-stop from the west coast of USA to the H-Bomb test islands. The USAF Hickman base near Honolulu on Oahu in the Hawaii islands, 1,335 miles away, became a staging post for aircraft on their flights to and from the nuclear test sites. The speaker was posted to this paradise purely because he was a specialist instrument and avionics engineer.

The RAF used Handley Page Hastings aircraft, introduced after WW2, as both cargo transporters and troop carriers. One day a Hastings, en route to Christmas Island, arrived with a top-secret VIC. This turned out to be Vitally Important Cargo. A large bulbous object was lashed securely with a tarpaulin cover that had its fastenings wax sealed. The pilot claimed not to know what it was, but most people had thoughts that it was needed for an H-Bomb test due in a few days’ time.

The plane had arrived later than expected. The reason, as explained with fruitful language by the pilot, was that there was something seriously amiss with the navigational equipment that had forced the plane off course several times resulting in extended flight time. The plane was fitted with a dual system of a magnetic compass and a giro compass. A magnetic compass would behave differently the closer the plane flew to the north pole and the giro compass was there to counteract this action. On this flight it had proved impossible to make manual adjustments and the plane had veered considerably off its flight plan.

The speaker was charged with rectifying the problem and went through a series of procedures including having the aircraft physically moved around to check the compass readings which proved accurate. At the upper end of the port wing was a small square hatch cover over an electronic device whose purpose was to use signals to synchronise the giro compass to maintain a true heading. This equipment was held in position with small nuts on its underside which made it difficult to remove for inspection. In order not to drop the tiny spanner used for undoing and tightening the nuts in this very difficult position, and working by feel only, a piece of string was tied to the little spanner and looped on to his little finger so that if dropped the spanner could be easily recovered.

After several frustratingly unsuccessful attempts at undoing one of the small nuts the little spanner slipped from his grasp. Aghast, he realised the safety string had inadvertently come off his finger. Now both string and spanner were lost but had to be found.

Feeling blindly into the dark abyss, he miraculously discovered not only the tiny spanner and string, but another huge spanner not remotely used in that area, but in the engine bay 30 feet away. How come this large spanner was under the detector unit causing huge magnetic errors for the gyro compass? Each time the aircraft banked the large spanner moved, causing yet further errors.

Ironically, by accidentally losing his little spanner and string, he discovered something that could have seriously jeopardised the plane, that Vitally Important Cargo and the testing of an H-Bomb.

The questions then centred on how did the spanner get into the sealed cavity at the end of the wing?  It was the size and type used on the plane’s engine maintenance, but it could not have slid along inside the wing as the fuel tanks completely blocked any access.

Was it sabotage? Enquiries were no doubt carried out, but no findings were passed down to this RAF NCO. His reward was to receive a promotion and eventually be returned to UK duties working on Victors, part of the V bomber force in place during the cold war.

Perhaps enemy forces had hoped that by creating navigational problems the longer flight time would have caused the plane to run out of fuel and crash into the Pacific Ocean. Two days after finding the spanner the final H-Bomb test took place on Christmas Island. Would this have happened if a tiny spanner tied to the end of a piece of string had not solved the navigational problem?

The report about the talk on the Eurovision Song Contest was carried by all the February magazines. There was one exception. The Basinga gave it full coverage in their EXTRA web site – hence why there are two pages on display.

Because of timing differences, I also sent this report to the two quarterlies, Brighton Bell and Winklebury Way – both edited by the Labour group leader on Basingstoke council, Andrew McCormick, and publication will probably appear at the beginning of March. It was also sent to the CommunityAd magazine for Bramley & Sherfield and their magazine is expected at the end of February. Hopefully I shall be able to show these results in my report in March.

Over the years watching the Eurovision Song Competition you probably wondered about the voting pattern of various countries. Gordon Lewis, the speaker at the latest meeting of the Probus Club of Basingstoke, knows that your suspicions are correct. The winning song being voted on by all the countries, is influenced by politics of the day and PR pressure through parties held at the highest social level.

And Gordon Lewis knows what he is talking about because as a journalist he had attended eight Eurovision Song Competitions over the years and had seen these influences at first hand.

Song festivals had long existed in Europe – for example the film The Sound of Music showed the situation in Austria in the late 1930s. After the conclusion of WW2, the European Broadcasting Union was set up in Switzerland to facilitate cooperation between European countries. At their 1950 AGM, held in Torquay, it was considered that a song festival to find the best song in Europe would help relationships. Current technology prevented this idea progressing until 1953 when the BBC succeeded in broadcasting the Coronation to our neighbouring countries of the Republic of Ireland, northern France and the low countries.

Advances in technology meant that in 1956 the first Eurovision Song Competition was held in Lugano, Switzerland. Seven countries took part but was it a coincidence that the winner was the host country where the headquarters of the European Broadcast Union had been established to bring harmony to viewers? The UK joined the song competition in 1957 but did not win until 1967 when the barefoot Sandie Shaw sang Puppet on a String.

Other UK winners came in 1969 when Lulu’s Boom Bang-a-Bang shared first place with three other countries,1976 had The Brotherhood of Man with Save your Kisses For Me, and in1981 by Bucks Fizz and Making Your Mind Up.

The speaker gave many examples of how countries vote for the top award of douze points. Greece always supported Cyprus claiming to be because of a common language but in 1999 the free choice of language meant that many songs are sung in English. Geographical and historical connections are logical as seen between Norway and Sweden and commercial interests as seen between Russia and Azerbaijan due gas and oil. UK and Ireland used to support each other but this has not been evidenced in recent years.

The dreaded nul points will always be the case between Serbia and Slovenia because the latter country was the first to break away from the old Yugoslavia which led to the Balkan disaster. Armenia will not support Azerbaijan because of a border dispute and France does not support UK for a variety of reasons perhaps going back to the Hundred Years’ War. 2003 saw UK receiving nul points because of anger in EU that Britain had entered the Iraq war. Georgia will not vote for Russia because of their invasion and eventual withdrawal but was forced out of the 2009 competition because their song was about shooting President Putin of Russia.

Direct political influence happened when General Franco needed to boost the tourist trade to Spanish beaches and enlisted the assistance of President Tito of Yugoslavia. Cliff Richard singing Congratulations was the clear favourite but was beaten by one point by Spain’s entry La La La that contained 120 repeats of the title. There is little merit in the winning song, which was instantly forgettable, but the political end of increasing tourism to the Spanish costas was met.

Circumstances can also influence the result. In 1974 France backed out because it was the funeral of President Pompidou. The Italian entry had been favourite to win but those countries expected to support the French entry then had to vote for another song. The unlikely winners from Sweden was a group named ABBA with the song Waterloo. The rest, as they say, is history.

Such political influence goes back a long way to 1959 when married couple Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson sang the UK entry Sing Little Birdie Sing. Teddy was at a bar when he overheard Italy and the Netherlands agreeing not to vote for the UK entry. This, you will recall, was a song contest with the aim of bringing countries together.

UK last won in 1997 with the song Love Shine A Light by Katrina and the Waves. While the backing group, the Waves were British, Katrina is American. She came to live in England as a child when her father was stationed here in the US Airforce.

In recent years some non-European countries have been allowed to participate: Israel and Australia being examples. This is because they are full members of the European Broadcasting Union which allows their entry. New Zealand are upset because their associate membership fails to permit their entry which means they lose the ability to promote their country to the watching millions.

In 2022 the competition will be hosted in the Italian city of Turin. No doubt the same influencing and politicking will continue unabated – after all the Eurovision Song Competition would not be the same without it.

Publicity in the local magazines for January has always been sparse – mainly because most of the magazines have a combined December/January edition. The only magazines these days that have a specific January edition, since the closure of Popley Matters and the Chineham Chat, are the Kempshott Kourier, the Link (Oakley and surrounds) and the Basinga (Old Basing).

All three carried our report about the visit to the Brooklands Transport Museum.

For a change, it was a Christmas lunch this year, held at the Test Valley Golf Club.

President, David Wickens, welcomed members and wives/partners/friends to the occasion that was, again, superbly organised by Alan and Liliane May. They also produced all the printed items so necessary to ensure everyone received their correct choices for lunch and had been creative in developing a Christmas themed quiz that occupied minds during the meal.

Their concept of the raffle was different this time that ensured all couples received a prize.

David Wickens made a presentation to Alan and Liliane in appreciation of their hard work that was supported by applause by all present.

The entertainment was different to reflect the time of day with singer Serena Lin in the background with a medley of tunes that resonated with most attendees.

Thanks are due to Chris Perkins for being the happy snapper.

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With no major events to report before the copy dates of the local magazines it was a case of creating something to say if our publicity efforts were to be maintained within their December/January editions.

The Remembrance Sunday parade to the war memorial outside of Basingstoke’s civic offices had our President, David Wickens, laying a wreath on behalf of our club, and Paul Miller was there in a civic capacity as the deputy mayor.

After that it was a matter of talking about the upcoming visit to Brooklands Motor Museum and the Christmas lunch due on Wednesday 15 December.

Four magazines and the Basinga Extra web site carried this news and the Loddon Valley Link and the CommunityAd magazine for Overton, Oakley and Kempshott ran the story about Douglas Bader’s leg.

January will be a quiet month as only the Link (Oakley) and the Basinga publish in January.