U.K.Energy in A Conflicted World.

 

GLOBAL INSECURITY AND POLITICAL EXTREMISM

HOW IS THE UK AFFECTED?

The Strait of Hormuz Explained

Background

On February 28^th, 2026, Israel and the United States began a campaign of military strikes against Iran. In response, Iran launched air strikes against Israel and U.S. military bases plus other targets in many nearby Arab states including energy infrastructure. And additionally, Iran both threatened, and then acted against, ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane which links the Arab/Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and beyond, to the wider sea. The result of the Iranian Gulf of Hormuz air strikes resulted in a massive decline in shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz thus
curtailing the export of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf. By mid-March 2026 the International Energy Agency estimated that around 20 million barrels of oil had been affected by the Iranian-imposed reduction in shipping volume in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil production cut by at least 10 million barrels in the Gulf countries, equivalent to about 10% of global production. Liquefied natural gas exports from the region, notably from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have also been severely interrupted. The result of this disruption to energy supplies has been a sharp rise in the prices of oil, other petroleum products and natural gas in international markets. Brent crude [an international benchmark price for oil] rose from around $70 a barrel, pre-conflict, to over $100 a barrel, with volatility in prices resulting from the uncertainties of the developing situation which also contains the terrible possibility of military escalation.

Effects on the UK.

The initial economic consequences of the conflict were immediately felt globally. This single act has disastrous potential for the world. As an example, U.K. wholesale natural gas prices rose by roughly 75% between late February and 23 March 2026 together with other petroleum-based products, such as jet fuel and heating oil, with attendant costs inevitably increasing sharply. The Persian Gulf is also an important hub for fertilizer production and exports; thus, fertilizer prices have also risen, raising agricultural costs and potentially, threatening future crop yields. Petrol prices have risen between 28 February and 23 March, by approximately 14 pence a litre (10%) while diesel prices have risen by 29 pence a litre, (about 20%) and farmers have reported large increases in the costs of their fuel and fertilizer. The National Farmers’ Union has already warned that food prices will rise due to the higher costs of energy and fertilizer while the manufacturers’ trade body, Make UK, has underlined the impact of high industrial energy costs on the manufacturing sector.

Prior to the conflict, the U.K. inflation rate had been expected to fall from 3% at the beginning of 2026 to closer to 2% from April 2026, remaining at the lower rate for the rest of the year. It remains difficult to forecast likelihoods, as uncertainty over the duration and extent of the Middle East conflict continues, but the Bank of England had a shot on 19 March 2026 and suggested that the CPI [Consumer Price Inflation] would likely remain between 3% and 5% for the rest of this year. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee [MPC] on the same day announced that its main interest rate continued at 3.75%.

As the UK is a net energy importer, higher energy costs are almost certain to lead to UK economic activity weakening. Just yesterday [May 28] we learnt that household energy prices will rise by 13% a year in July -- an average increase for households of £221 a year--as households continue to pay the price for Trump's disastrous war with Iran. Indeed, the rise in energy prices has led to a record high level of domestic energy consumer debt, totalling £444.15 billion at the beginning of 2025, up 150% since late 2021.

Prior to the conflict, the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast GDP growth at 1.1% in 2026 Forecasts for UK GDP growth in 2026 have now been cut, with slightly varying figures suggested for growth: Barclays, and KPMG, 0.7%; Oxford Economics, 0.4%; Pantheon Macroeconomics, 0.6%.   to  The Government has taken steps to address energy poverty, including proposed reforms to winter support schemes and an ambitious Energy Debt Relief Scheme which is well-intentioned and gratefully received, but which has added £2.4 billion a year in interest over 14 years. The rise in energy costs is painful, not only domestically but importantly over the widely-varied business sector, much of which is energy-dependent and therefore hugely handicapped by the attendant spiralling costs.

Slower GDP growth maybe the result leading to downward pressure on inflation as reduced demand for goods and services leads to, at least, some firms pricing more competitively in order to attract more customers. However this is a slow and unsteady process which could easily be overwhelmed by sudden oil and gas supply shocks pushing up prices against a background of continuing global turmoil.                                      

The above summary outlines some inevitable consequences of global conflict and political extremism not necessarily initially involving the U.K. but nonetheless hugely affecting national and domestic economic life.                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

Remembering Dementia.

 Can we forget it?  Not if we have witnessed the effects of this devastating disease. Apprehension over the possibilities of dementia does in fact feature strongly in the fears of all those ageing into their sixties or beyond. And understandably so when the statistics show that one in three of us will go on to develop the disease. Dementia is, in fact, now the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for more than 76,000 deaths in 2024 with the economic consequences ever-mounting as the cost to the U.K. economy soars to £42 billion in 2024.

Despite these facts, dementia has long been comparatively neglected as a major health condition, with late diagnosis, substandard treatment and insufficient support for afflicted families featuring as normal. Research from University College, London, shows that it takes roughly three and a half years from first symptom to full maturity of the condition for diagnosis, with up to one third of sufferers remaining undiagnosed.  My sister who died with the disease nine years ago is an example; she remained clinically undiagnosed, partly because her family held the popular belief that it was all part of the normal ageing process.

Last year, the UK Govt. announced a Modern Service Framework for Dementia and Frailty, to improve the quality of dementia care and treatment in England.  Michelle Dyson, CEO of Alzheimer’s Society suggests that this new framework provides a great opportunity to showcase two main ambitions; notably to reduce deaths and importantly, enable sufferers to live longer and better lives outside of care homes. Achieving this will require a two-pronged approach to prevention: earlier diagnosis and intervention, with that formal involvement backed by all departments across Govt. committing the same levels of urgency and ambition as that generated by early cancer campaigns. One of the biggest positives is the renewed backing for the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals Programme, an initiative originally campaigned for by supporters of  Alzheimer's Research U.K. This Programme is committed to speeding up research into new tests and treatments and is a key vehicle for delivering the Governmental promise to transform how dementia is treated in the NHS.

Perennial Problems

Late diagnosis and misdiagnosis can lead to problems for patients.  For example, many clinical trials where patients can try life-changing new treatments are only available to those in the early stages of dementia. Paresh Malhotra, Professor of Clinical Neurology at Imperial College, London, believes that earlier, specific diagnosis for everyone is needed. “Everyone in the country deserves an MRI scan and specific blood tests when they present with symptoms rather than having to wait years.” Linsey Farnsworth, Labour M.P. for Amber Valley, observed the longer-term effects of misdiagnosis for her father who was initially diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but then, eventually, with Alzheimer’s.  Several years after the initial diagnosis, he received a CT brain scan confirming he had frontotemporal dementia suggesting that his earlier treatment had been ineffective and the drugs administered had been mainly a waste of resources.

The NHS is expensive; the annual per-person cost of mild dementia is £28,700 compared with £80,500 for severe dementia and these escalating charges can lead to cost problems for any innovation. Two new disease-modifying therapies, donanemab and lecanemab, which slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s rather than just managing symptoms, were approved by the UK medicine’s regulator in April 2015 and are being used in private healthcare settings but not in the regular NHS. NICE decided that the small benefits of their use did not justify the cost. Yet, Professor Malhotra believes that their full benefits will not be realized until they are more widely used in clinics, and that, as new treatments are developed, then incorporated, into combinations of therapies,                                                                                                success will more likely be achieved.

Dementia patients are often discharged from specialist care such as neurological or psychiatric and sent back to their G.P. after diagnosis, which may well result in less specialized care and can lead to a lack of support for families. The new framework is seeking to trace a coherent treatment path for dementia patients where continuous care from specialists is available and patient information is shared between GPs, specialists, care home and clinical research programmes. Recent data shows that only 55% of care staff have received any dementia-specific training and Farnsworth has backed the Alzheimer Society’s call for dementia-specific training for the social care workforce. Meanwhile, Dame Louise Casey is currently undertaking an independent commission on reforming adult social care and has called for the creation of a dementia czar, rather like the creation of a cancer czar more than 20 years ago which brought significant success. 

Professor Malhotra believes that the medical emphasis needs to move from thinking about treating dementia to addressing the diseases and ways of living that cause dementia in the first place. It is estimated that nearly half of all dementia cases worldwide are preventable, with major contributors to its development being mid-life hearing loss, loneliness, physical inactivity and high blood pressure. And better public health messaging, like the effective ‘Stop smoking’ campaigns for cancer, could also raise awareness of the 14 lifestyle factors which increase dementia risk. C.E.O. of the Alzheimer’s Society, Michele Dyson, feels it is very important to provide much more help for carers and families and she urges that this new Modern Service Framework gives a once-in-a-lifetime chance to seize the opportunities presented by recent research to devise systems to respond to the immense challenges of what is being described as the UK's dementia crisis. For too long, dementia has been treated as an inevitability to be managed, rather than a condition where earlier intervention can make a meaningful difference to lives.

John Constable 1776-1837

John Constable 1776-1837 Self portrait in pencil

 The 250^th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s most beloved artists, John Constable, is near, the important date being June 11, and there are various celebratory exhibitions in both Suffolk and in London. [See below] His views of rural England are treasured as the embodiment

Boat building near Flatford.

of the nostalgic essence of life then enjoyed. They picture our imagined way of life then prevalent, in picture-perfect country scenes far removed, it must be said, from the hardship and squalor often experienced by much of the population, both in town and country. 

Constable found inspiration locally; in places familiar to him from childhood; the local village church; the mill his father owned in Flatford; the tow paths and lock gates of the canalised River Stour, and the wooded lane down which he had once walked to school in Dedham. In his youth, Constable enjoyed amateur sketching trips in the surrounding Suffolk and Essex countryside which he grew to love. He felt that these familiar and beloved scenes “made me a painter and I am grateful.” He listed, “the sounds of water escaping from mill dams etc. willow, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork. I love such things.” Such everyday sights would not normally have been considered worthy of artistic endeavour but Constable was determined to prove otherwise.

The Vale of Dedham 1822

The Cornfield  1806

Although he might have been expected to take over his father’s business,  in 1799 John managed to persuade him (Golding Constable) to let John pursue a career in art while granting his son a small allowance to permit this life choice. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, Constable attended life classes and anatomical dissections while studying and copying the old masters. He found works by such well-known artists as Gainsborough, Lorrain, Rubens, Carracci and van Ruisdael, particularly inspiring. In 1802 he refused the position of Drawing Master at Great Marlow Military College [now Sandhurst] to concentrate on establishing his main career. 

Around the same time, he wrote to painter, John Dunthorne, articulating his determination to become a professional landscape painter. “For the last two years I have been running after pictures and seeking

The Hay Wain 1821

the truth at second hand. ….  I have tried to make my performances look like the work of other men. There is room enough for a natural painter.” His early style shared many qualities of his later mature work, including a freshness of light and subtlety of colour, and exhibits the influence of the old masters, especially the work of Claude Lorrain. But his usual subjects, scenes of ordinary daily life, were unfashionable in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins.

Constable was, however, desperate to become a Royal Academician but he could see that his modest rural landscapes could easily be overlooked.  He attempted to persuade the art world to take him more seriously by upsizing! Starting in 1819 he began to paint canvases that were much larger than hitherto, scaling up his Suffolk landscapes into oils that were six feet wide. Despite their modest subject matter, the ‘six-footers’ as he called them, were eye-catching and impactful and made even mundane scenes of boats and barge horses seem monumental. These huge canvases were difficult for him to accomplish but proved to be a winning formula in his quest for fame. Thanks to masterpieces such as The White Horse (1819), The Hay Wain (1821) and The Leaping Horse (1825) Constable made a name for himself as a specialist in landscapes that sparkled with vitality and freshness, in the process of which he immortalised the Stour Valley so that, in his lifetime, the Suffolk/Essex border became known as ‘Constable Country’, a fond tribute still heard today.

The Low Lighthouse and Beacon Hill. 1820

By the time he was in his late 40s, dark clouds had begun to gather in Constable’s personal life. His wife, Maria, was 
suffering from the disease that plagued the period: tuberculosis. With the hope that sea air might improve her health, the family moved to Brighton, and the foreboding Constable felt at this time is communicated within the coastal studies he painted on the beach which depict a shaft of light being obliterated by an incoming wall of rain, and which seem to capture his troubled state of mind. Meanwhile, the immediate family situation was hopeless, and Maria died in 1828. Profoundly affected by her loss, Constable’s later works are notable for their change in outlook. The blue skies and summer sunshine that had characterised his childhood remembrances gave way to storms and shadows. He also went on to experiment with printmaking, converting many of his paintings into darker, moodier versions in black and white mezzotint that reflected his grief and anxiety.

Constable's wife, Maria Bicknell who died
of T.B. in 1828.

Maria Constable with two of her children. 1822

Rainstorm over the Sea 1824/28 View from Brighton.

Cloud study 1822
Constable believed that the sky was 'the chief
organ of sentiment' for a painting. It set the tone
for the rest of the picture. 

Curr Curr CurrCurrent Exhibitions. ChrisCristchurch Mansion in Ipswich is hosting not one but three exhibitions: Constable: A Cast of Characters (until 14 June), The Hay Wain: Walking Constable’s Landscape (11 July–4 October) and Constable to Contemporary (24 October 2026–28 February 2027) Step into Constable’s world at the National Trust’s site in Flatford. The Trust has teamed up with Essex Cultural Diversity Project to commission artists Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton on an exhibition and participation project inspired by Constable, titled The Rivers and Skies Gainsborough, Turner & Constable: Inventing Landscape is on at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury until 11 October John Constable and David Lucas: A Unison of Feeling is a display exploring the artist’s print series, English Landscape Scenery, at V&A South Kensington until 14 June

Journalism: A Dangerous Occupation

 

At work.

Yet another journalist has recently been killed when reporting from a war zone.  Perhaps to be expected? Not really; certainly not necessarily; not even always accidentally because of dangerous surroundings. The more one reads about the daily horrors of war in Gaza or in Sudan, the more resigned, if quietly horrified, one is to the steady, deadly tattoo of journalistic risk and death. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded 129 deaths of reporters and other media workers in 2025, the most it has ever recorded. The overwhelming majority of journalist deaths in 2025 happened in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. According to the CPJ, Israeli forces were responsible for two thirds of all the journalist killings around the world last year.

Ceasefire in Gaza.

The most dangerous areas in Gaza are near the ‘yellow line’, the demarcation line marking the areas separately occupied by Israel and Hamas which was established under a partially observed ‘ceasefire’ last October. (2025). Israeli troops regularly fire on anyone approaching this line which is indistinct or
unmarked in places and has crept forward in certain areas over time so that it is often hard to know exactly where the edges of the danger zone are.

Malak Tantesh reporting from Gaza.

The Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent, Malak Tantesh, was evacuated at the beginning of October 2025, along with her photojournalist sister, Enas, following 18 months of gruelling and dangerous work in Gaza. Their planned evacuation almost never happened. The road out of Gaza was blocked with 
rubble and by the time this had been cleared, a gunfight had erupted around the evacuees’ bus and the escorts from the International Committee of the Red Cross called off the mission. After an hour’s deliberation, the bus carrying Malak and Enas, together with a group of young Palestinians awarded U.K. university scholarships, resumed its journey and eventually reached safety. The sisters’ cousin, Seham Tantesh, stepped into their journalistic shoes and, rather bravely, continues to file reports for the newspaper.

Reporting from the West Bank

Nowhere is more dangerous for journalists than Gaza but the West Bank is hardly risk-free. Israeli settler violence, frequently armed, is on the rise, often with the acquiescence of the security forces who also have a record of opening fire on journalists. Reporters visiting settlements or besieged Palestinian villages in the West Bank, pack body armour, helmet and medical kit; inform the international desk of their newspaper
where and how they are travelling; and give their expected time and date of return.

The United States has seen a dramatic increase in violence
against journalists since Donald Trump took office.

Lebanon too is not safe from Israeli air strikes and journalists have been killed there. William Christou, the Guardian’s correspondent in Beirut, has lost four professional colleagues during the last three years and dodged targeted gunfire himself several times.  When he must travel to southern Lebanon which is at the heart of the Israeli-Hezbollah militia conflict, he always informs the U.N. peacekeeping force, Unifil, of his exact routes, and the expected timings of his return.

Lebanon mourns 7th child
killed in Israeli air raids.

For the first time, more than half of all countries have been placed in the 'difficult' or 'very serious' categories for press freedom. Across both authoritarian and democratic regimes, a dangerous pattern has emerged: governments are using legislation such as national security laws, to target the rights of the free press. Donald Trump only favours journalism when it is complimentary to him and his repeated attacks on the press and journalists have been described as a 'systematic policy' amplified by his increasing use of legal suits as a lever of power. During his second term, he has launched suits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journall, CNN and the BBC, among others - often seeking dizzyingly high amounts in damages.

This means that press freedom around the world is at its lowest ebb in a generation. And yet, in a world facing huge geopolitical crises, the importance of well-resourced, unimpeded journalism has never been more important. The U.N. Plan of Action on the Safety of  Journalists was instigated in 2012 and under its umbrella, the issue of impunity addresses the fundamental aspects of prevention, protection and prosecution. This is the first-ever systematic global strategy to address the protection of journalists seriously and brings together U.N. bodies, national authorities, media and civil society organisations. 

Among the many positive results of the U.N. Plan of Action are included:

1.The creation of the U.N. Observatory of Killed Journalists.                                                                  2. At least 50 National Protection Mechanisms for the protection of journalists established since 2012.

3. More than 30,000 judicial operators and more than 11,500 security forces from 160 countries trained

    on the safety of journalists and the concomitant freedom of expression.

4. 500 lawyers trained in 30 countries with 1,000 cases of legal assistance provided for journalists in          distress during 2020 and 2021.

• 
  

  

  
  

  Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian fields.
  E.U. foreign ministers formally approved sanctions against
  Israeli settlers over attacks on Palestinians in May 2026
  after the death of a journalist.

 

Antonio Gutteres: Secretary General of the United Nations.

• Post Script.

Today, May 22nd, marks the final day of The Guardian campaign to attract 60,000 contributions towards protectin,g independent journalism. Its publicity asserts that the economic model of news is creaking under the weight of threats from big Tech as well as a surfeit of political and legal challenges. It reasserts its determination to stand up for democracy and the truth.and well-funded, independent news plays an indispensable role in both.

Reassuring to read of huge positive support for journalism in a public arena.

NEETS: A Lost Generation

Explanation below!

And who are the NEETS, you may ask? They are the 16-24 year olds not currently in education, employment or training. An astonishing, perhaps frightening, accompanying statistic to that description, is that around one in eight young people are currently NEETS with the overall figure in Britain reaching 957,000 earlier this year. Even more daunting is the related fact that researchers can now predict whether a child as young as three will end up as a Neet at the age of 16, once factors such as health, geography, parenting and socio-economic background are considered. Another shock to the system is to discover that the Neet demographic is not new, despite the considerable publicity being accorded them at present. The rate has not fallen below 10 per cent for three decades.

A New Statesman article [1-7 May] on NEETS which aroused my ignorance, suggests that the nature of Neet-hood has changed: those included are now more likely to be men, rather than young women whose babies keep them out of work or education, and they are less likely to be looking for work. Indeed, 61% of NEETS are not looking for work at all because of personal problems or health-related issues such as mental illness, learning difficulties and neuro-divergence. Britain spends more now on health and disability benefits than it does on apprenticeships. The Labour Government has just announced that it will pay employers £3,000 per Neet hire while unaccountably making it simultaneously more expensive to recruit young people by raising the minimum wage. Employers complain that the anticipated reduced rate of immigration [a Govt. goal] will contribute to skills shortages while one in eight of Britain’s teenagers represent nearly a million-strong missing workforce.

Alan Milburn; reviewing the NEETS problems.

Alan Milburn, a former Labour Health Secretary and a Blairite, has been recently appointed to review the NEETS problem.  Milburn feels that blaming the young people themselves is pointless and wrong; they are a consequence of the system itself, and he is sure that there something in life in contemporary society which is creating a more anxious generation. The Governmental response so far to the NEET situation, has been to provide a rising benefits bill which is acknowledged as unsustainable. Milburn himself was a council estate boy brought up by a single mother in Newcastle, and he remembers his own early conviction that he would do better in life than his mother’s generation. And as Millburn’s example suggests, NEETS do not present a new problem; there have been 30 years of policy intervention, good intentions and public handwringing about it, but no remedy has emerged to deal effectively with it. Milburn believes a wide-ranging societal re-set is needed, beginning with the early years in school, through skills development into health and welfare. The approach must change, and society focus its intentions on investing in future generations. Controversially, Milburn would scrap the pension lock. Pensioners account for 55% of the welfare bill which Labour failed to reduce when it cut disability benefits in 2025. Thus, one section of society, pensioners over 65, have the guarantee of the triple lock while youngsters have no such luxury.

Definition of the Triple Lock

Introduced in 2010, the State Pension Triple Lock is designed to protect pensioners’ income from losing value over time. Each April, the State Pension increases by whichever is highest among three measures: the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation; average earnings growth; or a minimum of 2.5%. This ensures that State Pensions keep pace with the cost of living and wage growth, providing financial security for retirees.

The Triple Lock is an agreed political choice made on behalf of society. To modify the present system would be challenging; there are other significant possible changes awaiting in the queue, such as the reform of sickness and disability benefits again or perhaps reversing the commitment to bring the 18-20-year-old minimum wage rate up to adult levels. To effect such changes will require extensive, difficult public debate and Milburn is rooting for optimism in future goals with the brave intention of harmonising Governmental action with public demand even though public demand comes from many varied voices.

Dr Howard Williamson led 1993 
research on NEETS. Advised Tony Blair's
Social Exclusion Unit.

Dr Howard Williamson, who led the 1993 research on NEETS, focusing on 16- and 17-year-old boys 'doing nothing’ with their lives and who advised Tony Blair’s Social Exclusion Unit, asserts that the labour market is changing and reminds us that NEETS, in the past, classically got working class jobs which are no longer available. The future lies in a technologically-driven market with less demand for such young people. Milburn focuses on employers who, in the past, have been easily able to import already trained, cheap foreign labour. Can’t NEETS simply take on jobs formerly farmed out to this foreign labour? The difficult answer lies chiefly in the cost. NEETS are simply more expensive than foreign labour and it is doubtful that the private sector has the resources or capacity to soak up the cost or the numbers involved.

This NEET saga touches on so many of modern British compulsions and anxieties; the mental health and ADHD epidemic: welfare spending: intergenerational unfairness: the supposed social contract. There have been several Govt. promises, or publicly announced intentions, over the years, to ‘level up’, build a ‘Northern powerhouse’, or spark a ‘national renewal’. But there remain hugely deprived areas like Blackpool, Hartlepool and Redcar with families, not just NEETS, struggling to make good lives against all the odds. Against this backdrop, NEETS can be seen, less as a lost generation, more as representatives of families straining to make ends meet in a hostile world of neglected streets, and jobs, where entry-level vacancies are vanishing; opportunities in hospitality and retail are falling; and understaffed sectors like care are chronically underpaid.

Abandoned factory in deprived area.

 

 

A neglected street in Croydon where discarded trash
is a subtle inviitation for more to be added.

 

 

A symbol of a depressing social and educational problem
which could be solved with designated finance, technological education
and national determination to invest in young people's future.

A Partial History of The Tulip

One view of countless others of the Keukenhof Gardens.

 I seem to be buying tulips almost every week.  I do love them and they appear to be increasingly ubiquitous and incredibly varied.  This has aroused in me a certain curiosity about their back story, their history, and in researching that story, I have uncovered a veritable flower garden of delightful tulip information. This is a partial history because the full history I suspect, would fill at least one book!

Fields of tulips in Lisse, Netherlands

Tulips were originally found, growing wild, in the landscape stretching from Southern Europe to Central Asia, and thus, in their natural state, they were at home on steppes and in mountainous areas in temperate climates. But, since the seventeenth century, they have become widely naturalized and cultivated.  Flowering in the Spring, they become dormant in the summer once the flowers and leaves have died back, emerging above ground as a shoot from the underground bulb in early Spring.

Semper Augustus
antique drawing.
See below.

The Persian and Turkish peoples were the first to cultivate tulips, as early as in tenth century Persia, and tulips were certainly growing in Iranian gardens by the late ninth century while, by the fifteenth century, they were among the most prized of flowers, becoming the national symbol of the later Ottomans. Although tulips were cultivated in Byzantine Constantinople as early as 1055, they did not come to the attention of Northern Europeans until the sixteenth century when diplomats to the Ottoman court observed,and reported on, them. Although it is unknown who first brought the tulip to North-western Europe, the most widely accepted story is that it was Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq,  an ambassador for Emperor Ferdinand 1 to Suleyman the Magnificent.  According to a letter, he saw "an abundance of flowers everywhere; Narcissus, hyacinths, and those in Turkish called Lale, much to our astonishment because it was almost midwinter, a season unfriendly to flowers."  

Keukenhof Gardens, Lisse, South Holland.

The Persian poet Omar Khayam’s 11th-century poetry frequently featured the tulip as a symbol of ideal feminine beauty. However, in 1559, there is an account by Conrad Gessner describes tulips flowering in Augsburg, Swabia in the garden of Councillor Heinrich Herwart. They were rapidly introduced to Northern Europe helping to create the eventual absurdity of an investment bubble, a speculative frenzy, during what has become known as the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1634-1637 and this, incidentally, led to the invention of the ceramic tulipiere,  devised for the display of cut flowers, stem by stem. (illustration below). Vases and bouquets including tulips often appeared in Dutch still life painting during the Dutch Golden Age, becoming strongly associated with the Netherlands, the major producer of tulips for world markets ever since. To this day, tulips are strongly associated with the Netherlands and the cultivated varieties are often called Dutch tulips with the Keukenhof Gardens boasting the world’s largest permanent display of tulips. 

Loudon's Hortus Botanicus
Catalogue of all plants indigenous,
cultivated in, or introduced to Britain.

Carolus Clusius is largely responsible for the spread of tulip bulbs in the final years of the 16th century; he planted tulips at the Vienna Imperial Botanical Gardens in 1573 and finished the first major planting of tulips in 1592 making extensive notes of the colour variations. After he was appointed the Director of the Leiden University’s newly established Hortus Botanicus, he planted both a teaching garden and his private garden with tulips in late 1593. Thus, 1594 is considered the date of the tulip's first flowering in the Netherlands, despite reports of the cultivation of tulips in private gardens in Antwerp and Amsterdam two or three decades earlier. These tulip plants at Leiden would eventually contribute to both the Tulip Mania and to the establishment of the tulip industry in the Netherlands. During the time of Tulip Mania, a viral infection of tulip bulbs had the happy side effect of creating variegated patterns in tulip flowers which were much admired, valued and propogated.  Tulip specimens of the variegated type currently available, are part of the group known as Rembrandts, so named because Rembrandt painted some of the most flamboyant blooms of his time.

Tulips spread rapidly across Europe during the sixteenth century, and more opulent varieties such as double tulips, were already known in Europe by the early 17th century. These curiosities fitted well in an age when natural oddities in many fields, were cherished especially in the Netherlands, France, Germany and England, where the spice trade with the East Indies had made many people wealthy. Nouveaux riches seeking status through wealthy tulip displays, embraced the exotic plant market, especially in the Low Countries where gardens had become expensively fashionable. 

Srinagar Tulip Gardens in Pakistan;
Asia's largest display of tulips.

The craze for tulip bulbs soon grew in France, where in the early 17th century, entire properties were exchanged as payment for a single tulip bulb. Tulip bulbs had become so expensive that they were treated as a form of currency, or rather, as futures, forcing the Dutch government to introduce trading restrictions on the bulbs. The value of the flower gave it an aura of mystique, and numerous publications describing varieties in lavish garden manuals were published, cashing in on the value of the flower. An export business was built up in France, which became an important European tulip hub supplying Dutch, Flemish, German and English buyers.

 Iran.

The word for tulip in Persian is ‘laleh’ and this has become popular as a girl’s name and is also used to name commercial enterprises such as the Laleh International Hotel and in public facilities such as Laleh Park and Laleh Hospital. 

Persian tulip fields.

The celebration of the Persian New Year, or Nowruz, dating back over 3,000 years, marks the advent of Spring and tulips are used as a decorative feature during these festivities. The twelfth century Persian tragic romance, Khosrow and Shirin, similar to the story of Romeo and Juliet, tells of tulips sprouting where the blood of the young prince Farhad had spilt after he had killed himself upon hearing that his true love had died; a false story, discovered too late. The tulip was also a topic for Persian poets from the 13^th century and one famous poem, Gulistan, by Musharrifu’d-din Saadi, described a visionary garden paradise: “The murmur of a cool stream/bird song, ripe fruit in plenty/bright multicoloured tulips and fragrant roses …..”

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khameni

In addition, the tulip is the national symbol for martyrdom in Iran and in Shi’ite Islam generally, and has been widely depicted on coins and postage stamps. It was a common symbol during the1979 Islamic Revolution, and a red tulip adorns the national Iranian flag redesigned in 1980. The sword in the centre, with four crescent-shaped petals around it, create the word ‘Allah’ as well as symbolising the five pillars of Islam. The tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khameini is decorated with 72 stained glass tulips, representing the 72 martyrs who died at the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, and the ubiquitous tulip is also used as a symbol on billboards celebrating casualties of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq. The tulip also became a symbol of protest against the Iranian Govt. after the Presidential election in June 2009 when millions turned out on the streets to protest the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These legitimate protests were harshly suppressed and subsequently the Iranian Green Movement adopted the tulip as a symbol of their struggle. 

Iranian flag.
The current flag was adopted in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown.
The stylised Arabic inscription, 'Allahu akbar' [God is great]is repeated
22 times in honour of the date of the 1979 revolution.
The words 'Allahu akbar' are used by the muezzin to call faithful Muslims
to prayer five times a day. They are also an Islamic battle cry.

Ottowa Tulip Festival

  Introduction to Canada.

During WW2, from 1941-1943, Seymour Cobley of the Royal Horticultural Society, donated 83,000 tulip bulbs to Canada to honour Canadian involvement in the war. In 1945, the Dutch Royal Family sent 100,000 bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future Queen Juliana and her family for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In 1946 Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs for a major hospital display with a promise to send 10,000 more tulip bulbs each year. These generous tulip donations triggered the establishment of the Ottowa Tulip Festival which, by 1963, featured the inclusion of more than 2 million tulips, rising to nearly 3 million by 1995.

                                                             Addendum.

Semper Augustus tulip

 The Semper Augustus tulip could lay claim to a certain fame during the early seventeenth century. The beginning of the Dutch Golden Age saw unprecedented levels of prosperity through trade, and with strong disposable incomes, merchants and other nouveaux riches, in particular, sought ways to display their wealth but strictly within the Protestant value of modesty. Tulips, relatively recent arrivals, were much sought after for their novelty and beauty with the added charm for the elite, that the rarest, were expensive. The discreet Semper Augustus with its small scale flamboyance in petals and its high cost, presented a perfect but discreet example.  

Vintage tulipiere vase. 
One of many designed specifically for
exhibiting tulips to advantage.

  

 

   

 

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