May 26, 2005
Political Links
Hopelessly out of date as usual. With a surveillance flavour this time
- The Register - UK Automated Number Plate Recognition
- The Register - The Met Chief on ID Cards
- Bruce Schneier - comment on a report on Global Surveillance Infrastructure
- Statewatch - the report on Global Surveillance infrastructure (big PDF)
Cambridge Links
- Cambridge 2000 Project - lots of photos of the city
- John Beardsworth - lots more great photos. I recognised some of his Cambridge ones from our calendar.
May 23, 2005
John Freestone (1831 - 188?)
John Freestone is my great great grandfather - see the Family Tree
| Date | Event | References |
| 5 April 1831 | John Freestone Born at Union Yard, Chelmsford, Essex to Thomas and Mary Ann Freestone | 1881 census. Parish records |
| ~1850s | Married Elizabeth Jane of Gloucester | 1861 census |
| 2q1857 | Son, John William Freestone born in Sheffield | 1861 census GRO - Sheffield 9c 365 2q1857 |
| ~1860 | Daughter, Caroline Freestone born in Sheffield | 1861 census |
| 1861 | Census shows family living at Brightside Bierlow, Yorks. | 1861 census |
| 3q1861 | Son, Thomas Mansfield Freestone born in Sheffield | 1871 census GRO - Sheffield 9c 398 3q1861 |
| 1864 | Insurance claim for flooding � 62 Mowbray Street, Sheffield Working as a feltmonger (skinner) for George Mills at Neepsend | Sheffield Uni |
| 2q1866 | Son, Charles HM Freestone born in Chelmsford | 1881 census GRO - Chelmsford 4a174 2q1866 |
| 1871 | Lodging in Brightfield Burlow | 1871 census |
| 1881 | At 8 Wood Street, Nether Hallam, York | 1881 census |
| ? | Died |
For John, I’m looking for:
- a death record. There’s a possible match at EcclesallB 9c 183 4q1883 but this may be another John. I can’t find John on the 1901 census so it seems likely to be before then.
- census records for 1841, 1851.
- more information on Elizabeth R Cleveland b1849 and Alexander Cleveland b1854 and their relationship to the family.
May 16, 2005
Investing - Introduction
I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a while, and I haven’t got round to it because there’s too much for one post, and I only really get to think about blogging during the time I’m doing it, so it has to be fairly off the cuff.
So I’ve decided to do this in bits and use my personal experiences to hang the various bits on.
I’m now in my mid-thirties. I left University at 22 and started work on a modest graduate salary with the Woolwich Building Society (as was). Probably the first couple of years I didn’t save anything - I spent what came in on rent, food and going out. So on that basis I’ve been saving for about 10 years.
Once my salary hit about 18k (after I’d been at the Woolwich for a while) I started putting some money into a separate account. In fact that’s probably Lesson One as far as I’m concerned: hide the money you don’t want to spend. Just having it in a different account makes you think about it separately.
I’m going to stick to my small chunks rule: more soon. Probably on IFAs.
May 10, 2005
LibDems take Cambridge
Way too late, but I was pleased to see the end of Anne Campbell’s time as my MP, and her replacement by David Howarth of the Liberal Democrats. This election was the first time I’ve been involved in campaigning for a political party and it was nice that it was the winning one.
I was inspired to get involved after going to the No2id meeting in January. I spoke to a couple of LibDem councillors after the meeting and they gave me the impression that Cambridge was winnable. Since I was well fed up with Labour by then, I started leafletting for them, and I even did a bit of knocking up on Election Day - a slightly nerve-wracking experience, I have to say.
Still, I’m hoping to do a bit more, particularly as youngest Freestone gets old enough not to need a feed at 11pm - that really buggers your evening up (although I am grateful for the fact that she doesn’t need feeding at 2-3am now).
Update on Things to Come
Writing the piece on Henwood below makes me realise I really do want to post a bit more about investing - I have various thoughts on investing and pensions and what I’m trying to achieve, and it would be good to get them out there to see how mad they look when exposed to public scrutiny.
While I’m thinking about my list of things to post about I see I also mentioned redundancy consultations - I think that will have to go on the back-burner for a bit (uh, if there is a burner any further back that is). Touchy subject at the moment.
After tentatively trying to formulate answers for Options, Futures and Other Derivatives into blog posts I’ve given up on the idea - I’m getting through the questions now, so I don’t really feel the need to post.
Updating the site is still on the agenda - just a question of time. I’m also still monitoring my Cambridge blog list so I’ll be updating that at some point with an idea of how regularly the various journals are updated.
Wall Street - Doug Henwood
(Verso, ISBN 0860916707)
Okay, it’s not really a review, but this is so far the only book I’ve read lately, and that only because I heard it was available online for free (via a thread on Crooked Timber). I enjoyed After the New Economy and I thought this was also good.
It’s partly a primer on what the markets are all about, what they’re for and how they work. Since it’s by Henwood, it’s from a left perspective, which in a book about high finance, is kind of a unique perspective. For that reason, even if you know about the markets, you’re likely to learn some new things, or at least have your ideas challenged in an intelligent way.
I thought the chapters on company financing and debt were very interesting - the relative unimportance of raising money in the markets is quite striking, and makes me think twice about getting back into equities.
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