celebrity status

Talking of things that we do not really need, we seem to be in a phase of decline in which anyone who has been on TV becomes a celebrity, and that status draws in the worshippers like moths around a flame. The media is obsessed by them and whole sections of newspapers are dedicated to the raising of mere mortals to pedestals that they can only fall off.

I watched Celebrity Pointless on tv the other day. Not only did I not know who any of the supposed celebrities were, but could not see how on earth they had gained that status. What did become obvious throughout the show, was that whatever they had done, clearly did not require a brain, and the whole show was a demonstration of sheer stupidity, something that they all seemed to revel in. Stupidity has become a badge of honour, something that anyone can strive for and achieve with minimal effort.

Celebrities are role models for the next generation; it is no wonder that educational standards are falling. 

Things that we really do not need.

This is the season when we are reminded constantly that we live in a world where the only think that matters is money.  Without it you are in trouble and it seems that the more you have, the more you want. So many people have far more money than they can possible spend in a thousand lifetimes and yet they still want more.  In pursuit of more money we are exposed to barrage upon barrage of temptations and expectations that are designed to separate us fools from the money that we have. In consequence we buy mountains of garbage that we could really do without. In no particular order we have -

Bottled Water.  We live in a country where tap water is cheap and clean and yet there is a flourishing market for bottled water, much of which probably comes for a tap anyway. It is seen as essential to have a bottle of water with you wherever you go and you must also drink it the right way. It has to be drunk through the side of the mouth, not the front, and it must also have the right label.  So we are accumulating vast quantities of plastic waste simply for the sake of fashion.

Christmas wrapping paper.  Thousands of miles of printed paper is used each year to wrap gifts that no-one really wants and is torn up and thrown away into landfill along with the excessive packaging that seems necessary to make cheap plastic rubbish  attractive and saleable at inflated prices.

Christmas crackers.  Was there ever any product more ridiculous or less desirable?  How many tons of materials and how much energy is wasted in their production each year? I am sure that the chinese economy is maintained by them but really?

Christmas lights.  Ever since the Griswolds' Family Christmas, it seems that some people like to illuminate their neighbourhoods for the month of december. They are wasting so much energy and goodness knows how they pay the electricity bill when it comes. On top of that other people drive around their neighbourhoods to look at the displays, thereby wasting fuel and pouring more exhaust fumes into the already polluted air.

Christmas food generally.  Super concentrated calories that have short lived appeal. Christmas cakes and puddings laden with sugar, fruit and alcohol seldom get fully consumed and much of what we put on the table gets left and discarded.

Plastic toys and games.  I remember when plastic was a novelty. It has worn off!

Christmas cards. Why oh why do we send them?  Probably because everyone else does and though the post office makes a fortune, it is an annual chore that most people would quite easily shed.

I could go on, and I know that I do tend to, but then what is this blog for? Maybe we could do without that too.

That time again

I went on the bus into town yesterday as I had one or two things that I wanted to buy and for once I chose not to leave everything until the last possible moment.
Being a monday and being not too close to the actual event, the shops were not the usual feeding frenzy and all seemed pretty quiet and almost normal. Normal that is apart from the fact that all of the shops seem obliged to play endless streams of christmas muzak and many of the poor workers were dressed as elves. I did feel for them, sitting at their tills for hours on end, looking both bored and stupid.  I don't think my tenuous grip of sanity would last a day in those conditions; give me ten minutes of Bing Crosby or Wizard and I would need to insert the nearest christmas tree into whoever was responsible for inflicting so much agony on so many people.
Anyway, job done I returned home feeling quite smug, now able to complete the small part of the process that I have any responsibility for.
There was a time, many years ago, when my main cast at Christmas was to fill the children stockings. Sorry if this is a spoiler for anyone, but the man in the red suit and the rest of it is a myth.  I would of course leave it until Christmas Eve and late on christmas eve at that. I would have been to the pub for a few drinks with friends and would return after closing time to find a mince pie and glass of sherry waiting for me.  Having struggled to deal with this offering I would then fill the socks with bits and pieces and quietly transfer them to the foot of each of their beds. They never once woke up so I guess I was able to keep quiet.
Now it is the grandchildren that hang up socks on christmas eve and it is their parents job to maintain the myth and the harmless lies that we tell our children, while we look on and enjoy the memories of our own childhoods.
So we are near to the end of the process; so much time and energy spent on wondering what to buy and then buying it. So much umming and aahing about the annual christmas card battle and the huge expense on stamps, the stocking of vast quantities of alcohol and food, the yards of wrapping paper and the real enemy - sellotape, the end of which is forever vanishing.  Soon it will all be over and the landfill sites will be festooned with the waste and the big businesses will count their profits while we wander witlessly into another year.
Wishing that anyone reading this has a joyful time with friends and family, enjoy your Christmas or whatever you choose to call this festival of capitalism gone crazy.

Conspiracy theory

By and large, the world's press is an out of control machine, designed to promote propaganda and the views of the wealthy owners.  Yes there are newspapers and other media outlets that try to present information in a balanced and truthful manner, and then there are the rest who see their role as sellers of newspapers and advertising.

Rather like politicians, the media are no longer trusted and many look at each story as being a fabrication, or at least a distortion of the truth, and who knows? they may well be right. However to see every catastrophe as a conspiracy is probably not a good thing.

There are plenty who believe that America never put a man on the moon, that area 51 hides evidence supporting the existence of aliens, and that the attacks of 9.11 were either bogus or home grown as a means of turning the west against all things Islamic.

The social media give a platform to anyone who has an opinion. Last week, the tragic events in Paris were being blamed on Israel. Allegedly the killers were not fundamental Islamists, but Mossad agents, there to encourage France to make war on Syria.  An interesting idea, and one can see that any action against the Arab nations by the west would be applauded by the Israelis, however it does seem unlikely that however demented they may be, Mossad agents  are unlikely to become suicide bombers.

Some believe that Jeremy Corbyn's rise to the leadership of the Labour Party was engineered by the Tories, knowing that he could never lead the party to an election victory. His humanitarian views, his care for social welfare and for those unrepresented by the government make him an easy target for the tory press and so the labour party are and will remain toothless for the foreseeable future.

Many believe that ISIS is a construct of the West and that it is supported and fuelled by arms manufacturers and governments that make profits from war.  This does seem believable, though the truth does have a habit of seeping out eventually, so time will tell.

It gets harder and harder to keep anything quiet. Any organisation that fosters wrong doing will, sooner or later be exposed by whistleblowers, either out of a wanting to do the right thing, or out of revenge. Public shaming is so easy today and in that there are dangers.

The truth is out there somewhere, and probably lies between the press and the social media. Perhaps we are not ready to accept it yet.

Fools and their money

Groupon has an offer this morning, selling two acre patches of Lunar land for ten pounds.  For this sum, you also receive a certificate that purports to prove your ownership.  No doubt there will be some eager to purchase such a thing and I am sure that many will receive these certificates as christmas gifts. It would seem that the purveyors of snake oil have resorted to online sales.

Plastic crap seems to drive what is left of the economy. Everywhere you look there is ready made garbage that appeals to children and is bought by the tonne by adults at their wits end trying to appease the voracity of appetites for Peppa pig, Ninjago or whatever happens to be in fashion right now.   Within weeks the garbage that is being purchased now  will have lost any sort of attraction and will  be consigned to the black bins along with the superfluous wrappings.

Much of what we buy has redundancy built in.  So we no longer maintain or repair, we just replace things because that is the cheapest option and of course the skills needed to repair things are slowly dying out as are venues where repairs can be done.  I cannot remember the last time that I had shoes repaired for example. Maybe modern materials are better, but my shoes seem to last forever and if they should wear out they will just be replaced.

Everyone wants your money. Never a day goes by without some charity or other sending out pleas for cash, online scams are there in abundance and comment are bleeding the bank accounts of the unwary and unprepared. Of course if you have any left then the tax man wants to take his share too.

I remember a friend who got involved in a pyramid scheme and tried to convince me to participate.  I think it was a company that sold cleaning products. Each salesperson was supposed to recruit eight others, each of which made some payment to the recruiter and so on.  What he hadn't realised was the exponential nature of the scheme and how quickly the population of the world would become Amway salespersons if it continued.  He eventually conceded that it was a stupid idea, unfortunately he had paid in his dues.

So should I buy up a chunk of lunar land in the hope that prices will rise?  I don't think so.

Subservience

The leader of the Labour party certainly makes an impact. We all know that he can never become Prime Minister, and yet there are plenty out there who love to criticise and condemn him for even breathing. He is it seems a man of principle and he is not afraid of challenging the status quo; for that I admire him.
The tabloids have been pointing out his refusal to bow to the queen; a move that some see as shocking behaviour. Why should any human being bow down to any other? It is an act of subservience and one that says "You are my better and I know my place."  Throughout history the ruling classes have had their way, they have been obeyed and worshipped even and the population as a whole have been kept in their place.  Children have been brought up to follow along in the same paths as their parents and so the process has continued.
The monarchy and their underlings have enjoyed this for long enough and it is high time that political leaders,  of whatever party, used their own free will rather than continue along the usual lines just because it has become deeply entrenched in our traditions.
Maybe humanity has evolved to be led by the nose by those deemed stronger or fitter or smarter than they are. The current Royals seem neither strong, fit or even smart, and the most likely next monarch is certainly not one to command a great deal of respect.
Royalty, like religion, has served a purpose, in the suppression of free thinking and thus maintained a stable society in which the wealthy use and abuse those less well off. Fewer and fewer people are so easily conned by either organisation, despite the efforts of the press, and Mr Corbyn was right to demonstrate his refusal to adhere to the ritual, however symbolic it may be.  To accept that someone is better than you is also to accept that others are worse and in a modern world that is not acceptable. I will bow to no-one; we are all human beings.
  

Educational standards

Never a week goes by when someone is having a go at schools and/or teachers. Every one of society's ills is blamed on the establishments that are charged with the education of our children. If kids display a lack of manners, it is the school's fault, bad behaviour, abuse of drugs, knife killings, you name it are all the fault of the school.

We are living in strange times where the needs of the workplace are constantly shifting and because of this, the politicians like to fiddle with the running and the purpose of our education system. More and more is being squeezed into a curriculum that has been overburdened for decades; more and more is expected of teachers, who are constantly bombarded by "new" initiatives that pop in and out of fashion every few years or so, and then there is the accountability that has shifted from student to teacher.

I was browsing through some of the old textbooks that we used in the seventies; the Nuffield Science scheme and the Schools Council Integrated Science Project, and the quality of the material and the demands placed on students were worlds apart from what is expected today. Yes students are still expected to learn, but it seems to me that the emphasis is no longer on the process of learning but on the assimilation of a lot of unrelated facts. Practical work is being phased out on economic grounds, and health and safety concerns have reduced worthwhile experiences to a complete sham.

Taking children out of school has become an administrative nightmare as well as a dangerous activity, taken on only by the brave or foolish, and so for many children, school has become intolerably dull.

Social pressure is a huge factor in how attitudes have changed too.  Learning is seen as being uncool and succeeding academically has very little street credibility. Many young people want to be successful, but their role models are footballers or talentless celebrities that shoot to fame via reality TV shows.  Some come from families that place no value on education, but see schools as containment for their children for part of the day.  They are not taught the most important of life's lessons at home, the parents expecting someone else to take on that role, or not caring one way or the other.  Education is not valued by much of the population; it is seen as irrelevant by some and who can blame them - for many the curriculum is irrelevant. We seem only to value things that we pay for and everything else is taken for granted.

Educational standards are not down to the schools, they are the responsibility of all of us, parents, grandparents and adults in general have a role to play is changing the attitudes of young people and engendering responsibility and self worth in a generation that is in danger of losing its way.

Poppies

Every November, the British Legion takes to the streets and floods every retail outlet with trays of artificial poppies.  This is their big fund raiser and I assume that the cash raised goes to good causes, though these days you can never be sure.  Apart from raising money, the idea is to raise awareness of the terrible events of 1914-1918, when so many lives were lost in a seemingly avoidable conflict. The poppy is seen as a symbol of peace and it is easy to imagine the battlefields, once red with blood, changing in the aftermath to fields festooned with the fragile poppies.

It seems ironic that now the poppy has become a point of conflict in itself. Some feel that everyone should wear a poppy in November, and because that is the way that they think, anyone seen without a poppy is branded as some sort of traitor.  There is a jingoism that blossoms every year and the symbolism has been hijacked by the far right groups such as Britain First, which seems to have taken over from the BNP and the National Front.

There are a number of pro military organisations, that seem to be emerging and growing in size with passing time, and just like in the first world war, it is those who get killed or maimed for life that are labelled as heroes.  In reality of course, some that go to war were heroic, but the majority were ordinary people in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no choice in their actions.

Modern warfare is very different to that of the early twentieth century. Much of the carnage is now delivered from afar and soldiers do not spend months at a time knee deep in mud in trenches infested with rats. Hand to hand fighting and the ridiculous charging at machine guns probably never happens. Those that had to do so had no choice - they either faced the hail of enemy fire or were shot by their own officers if they refused.

Being killed in warfare is tragic and rarely heroic. Yes of course there were men who sacrificed their own lives to save their comrades but for most soldiers they were trying to survive as would anyone in their position.

Petty arguments over symbols have a habit of escalating and each year the conflict over who wears poppies and their "Britishness" seems to grow.  While the poppy is seen as a support for war in general, many people will refuse to wear one and I do not blame them.

More and more silliness.

This has always been a silly time of the year. When we were kids, this was the time when we'd have access to fireworks. Penny bangers appeared in october and we would buy as many as we could afford. Tuppence bangers were better but of course you didn't get as many, so we would wander the streets armed fully with pockets filled with explosives.  They were of course relatively harmless and would frequently explode in your hand if you were not careful; it was painful but I still have all my fingers and I don't remember anyone getting hurt. They were materials for experimentation and we'd explore their potential to the full.  They were quite small and slender, no more than three or four inches long including the blue touch paper and a short fuse. That was the unreliable part, a fuse burning could take two or three seconds but sometimes they would burn almost instantly and so throwing them at each other was risky in so many ways.  We would insert them into plastic airfoil models that we had grown tired of, causing our Messerschmidts and spitfires to shatter and burn and we'd wrap them in clay so they would sink in the river hoping to kill poor unexacting fish. The results were always a disappointment.  One day we discovered that soft parcel string would smoulder for ages and therefore made a great time fuse. We'd put timed bangers under people's door knockers and then run away to watch from a distance.

There was always a village bonfire night. It wasn't well organised and families would just take their own boxes of fireworks to the recreation ground where the communal bonfire had been constructed. It was an opportunity for people to get rid of their rubbish and that pile seemed to grow and grow through october until by november it seemed enormous. Quite often it didn't make it as far as the fifth because some idiot would ignite it just for fun and so we'd have to build a new one.   The fireworks were generally pretty tame and lasted a very short time and as the fire diminished everyone went home. WE'd all dash down in the morning to find the heap still smouldering and we'd get it going again, piling all the unburned debris at the perimeter on top. Then we'd look around for failed fireworks and throw them not the fire too. Our pleasures were very simple in those days.

We now have the continuum of craziness that begins in October with Halloween and runs through until christmas with a media driven spending spree, parting the people from their money with a fluency that is frightening.  Even the film industry chooses this time to release the huge blockbuster movies.

November the fifth is now about huge commercial displays and the consumption of mountains of processed food and the sales of chines manufactured rubbish designed to attract the eyes of children who seem to be given anything and everything that they want.  The parties and displays are not limited to the gift either, they seem to begin as soon s Halloween is done and continue for many days afterwards.

I still love fireworks however and wallow in the smells and sounds that take me back to times when austerity was the norm.

Stocks and shares

Jon Ronson's book "So you've been publicly shamed" is the current choice of my book club. I confess to almost giving up on it after sixty pages but I tend towards the "I've started so I will finish" school of readers.  It deals with the social media and the ways in which people, through little fault of their own, (Max Mosely aside) become the victims of hate attacks via the internet.  It reads a little like a Panorama programme and documents a number of high profile events that brought shame upon various persons. It would seem that Flickr and Facebook have become the modern day equivalent of the stocks.

Stocks were meant to inflict shame on those convicted of petty crimes that were not worthy of the hangman's time, and brought attention to individuals who in the eyes of the law had inflicted criminal acts on the local community. There are arguments that favour the return of such devices but it would seem that the social media are there first and are inflicting horrible punishments on some people.

It also seems that some are immune to the shaming process. Take the Tory front bench for example, or in Ronson's book, Max Moseley, who was discovered in a BDSM, Nazi themed club, enjoying himself enormously. The fact that his father was a well known Nazi supporter probably had a lot of bearing on the way that the press went for him. It would seem though that the exposure and the judgements made of his behaviour fell off him like water from a duck's back. He confronted the attackers and bore no shame of what he was doing.

It appears that human beings fall into two categories when it comes to shame; those who have none and those who find the experience mortifying.  Those in the latter category have frequently been driven to suicide as the result of mass personal attacks.  The attackers of course are part of a mob and remain anonymous. They have no notion of the harm that they do and are easily whipped up into a feeding frenzy like sharks given the smell of blood.  Crowd behaviour is a scary phenomenon. The Nuremberg rallies, Tory party conferences and football crowds all demonstrate the way in which masses of people in the same place can behave like one organism with only one identity. A crowd has no conscience and no capacity for shame, it allows the baser instincts of normal individuals to take over.

Do people experience little shame today?  It seems that most behaviours, as long as they are legal are publicly accepted and that shaming is an externally inflicted thing based on the prejudices of others and the capacity of humans beings for hatred and shared bigotry.

Tax credits

I do not understand the economy.  I do know though that our system demands that money is circulated and that each time it changes hands tax is paid to the government, thus meaning that all of that money should end up in government vaults. Of course if you are wealthy enough and clever enough you can ensure that you pay as little tax as possible and that you can squirrel away as much as you like in offshore accounts or in other schemes designed to help the rich.

The government borrows billions of pounds in order to finance various projects. Where does that money come from?  I assume that it comes from the bank accounts of those same tax dodgers who then profit from the loan paybacks at interest rates dictated by themselves.  Public debt is huge of course and it seems that it gets worse as time passes and yet those that lead our financial organisations pay themselves millions in bonuses every year.

So this week the nasty party decide to pass legislation to take money from the poorest and according to the media, expected the upper house to rubber stamp the bill.  Of course they didn't; you don't get into the Lords by being stupid and they know well that their very existence is precarious. To pass such a bill would have strongly associated the upper house with the nastiness of the current government and given the fickle nature of public opinion and the fragile nature of the place of the house of Lords, a yes vote would have been a suicidal step.  As it is the Lords have gained credibility and the Tories will shrug off the defeat and simply change the wording of the bill which will probably be passed next time.  They are determined to claw back money from the least well off whilst happily encouraging the wealthy to get wealthier.

It is the poorest that spend money in this country; the wealthy are more likely to spend elsewhere and so it seems to me to be nonsensical  to punish the already impoverished, but as i said - I do not understand economics.

Spectre

Yesterday we ventured into our nearest cinema complex to see the latest James Bond movie. Even though we left in plenty of time, the traffic was so bad that we arrived with only five minutes to spare. I am almost phobic about being late for anything and so we hurried in to find our rebooked seats, the lights were already dimmed and the back row was in complete darkness so  seat numbers were invisible. Fortunately we knew that we were sitting next to a gap and found our seats. The place was barely half filled when the programme began, first the interminable adverts and then the obligatory trailers of course. During this time, the place began to fill up, mostly with large people waddling to their seats carrying buckets of popcorn and monster trays of very unhealthy looking foods and large sized soft drinks.  There is a law, I am sure, that relates the lack of punctuality with the seat positions and the last to arrive are always the ones sitting in the middle of the row, thus making sure that the largest possible number of people are inconvenienced.

Next to me were two middle aged women who had a prolonged conversation whilst periodically examining their photo albums on their mobile phones and digging out consumables from crinkly packets and generally annoying me to the point where I wanted to move; but of course by this time there were no seats left.

Once the film started the volume drowned out the distractions but by this time I had remembered what I dislike about people in general and of gatherings such as this one.  I feel that many people no longer have any consideration for their fellows and feel that they can do whatever they want regardless of others.  Perhaps consideration should be taught in schools as it no longer seems to happen in families.

The film was as good as expected and kept to the Bond formula with all the usual spectacles and violence and it is good to see these things on the big screen,  but on balance I think I prefer to watch movies at home.

The end is nigh

Now that the ruling classes have the upper hand again, it seems that they do not care anything about what they say or do. They have no opposition and can do and say anything they please. In such circumstances the true face of greedy and selfish can be seen, but of course by the time of the next election will have been forgotten.

In just a few days we had Liam Fox suggesting that pensioners benefits should be axed an the basis that many of them will be dead by the next election and those that survive won't remember who was responsible.

Princess Michael of Kent declares that animals have no rights as they do not vote and pay no taxes. (Does she?) Clearly then,  children and the poor have no rights either.

Jeremy C Hunt says that those on low income need to work harder if they want more money. I wonder if he ever did a hard week's work in his life? I suspect not and certainly not for the pitiful payments that those on minimum wages receive.

The NHS is in dire straits, again, and by slow and devious means the tories are dismantling it along with many other services that this country has always been proud of.

The BBC is under attack constantly, mainly for having the audacity to present opinions that are balanced and out of step with their own pernicious plans and schemes.

They sell off to their wealthy Saudi Arabian buddies, as much of the family silver as they can get their hands on in order to feather their own nests and while all this is going on we have Cameron and Osborne cleaning that they represent the middle ground and blatantly stating that they wish to fix our society's problems.  They have no interest in fixing anything and most of the problems of our society have been created under conservative governments.  Thatcher was bad enough but the current incumbents are even further to the right and have been let off the leash.  Is this how revolutions begin?

Royalty

Someone said the other day, and I can't remember who it was, that the current Queen is the longest reigning monarch and yet in that time, she has done or said nothing that counts. I don't know enough about the royals to either agree or disagree, but it does seem to me that we have an institution that has long outlived its usefulness.  Yes there is a lot of support for the Royal family, but there is also a lot of antipathy towards the ruling classes in general. Prince Philip is the sort of person that you want to slap in the face; he doesn't give a damn about anyone outside of his privileged little circle and has the manners of a pig. Prince Charles, poor man, comes over as a well meaning but clueless buffoon while the rest of them try to keep low profiles and get on with their less than ordinary lives.

We are constantly told by the press that the economy actually benefits from having them; I am not sure how but there it is, I know so little. Is that a good enough reason to maintain the situation where a very expensive and exclusive group are given the illusion that they mean something?

Just imagine what it would be like if they actually had power.  The next monarch would probably abandon the NHS and replace it with alternative health services including homeopathy for all. Architects would all be fired and new builds would all be along neo-classical lines. He would I am sure want to be a hands on leader and would lead us into so much trouble that he would make the Tory government look competent.  Oh let us hope that it never happens.

Waiting

It is a little depressing, yet a sign of the times, to sit down in a doctor's waiting room, to find, along with the usual magazines, a collection of novels. I am sure there are places and situations where appointments are managed well, but it seems that these places are getting fewer and further between. As it happens this morning's appointment was only a few minutes late, but we were the early birds and would not normally expect the hefty delays associated with our overburdened NHS.

I was brought up to be punctual and polite. The latter tends to slip now and then but I always strive to be punctual to the extent that I am usually early for everything. When we lived on the Isle of Wight, it was a bit of a joke that whenever we went away, we were always back in plenty of time for an earlier ferry than the on we had booked.

We wait for everything it seems.  Buses and trains rarely arrive on schedule, we sit in traffic queues for hours, ferries are held up by weather conditions and immigrants desperately trying to get into the country. We wait for hours at airports, both in attempting to leave and in returning to the country, and we wait to be served in shops pubs and restaurants.

On the other hand, some facets of our lives have improved and waiting times have all but disappeared. Online purchases often arrive within a day, and TV programs can be accessed at any time with ease and no more do we wait for movies to be sent by post, they are watchable at the touch of a button.

What would we do with the time that is wasted waiting? Very little I suspect, we all seem to dash around from place to place or from job to job, slaves to the clock and desperate to save time. Whatever we do the time will pass and that, there is nothing we can do about. 

Testosterone

I do enjoy a curry. Friday nights are really made for a few drinks and a visit to a good restaurant, and so that is what we did last friday. The night started well despite getting the table nearest to the toilet, and the poppadoms were excellent.  I always think that the quality of the poppadoms and accompanying chutneys are a good indicator of the overall quality of the restaurant.

At the far end, nearest the window was a table of eight youngish people, a mix of men and women, clearly having a good time, and two of their company had extremely loud voices. AS they drank more, their volume increased almost exponentially and of course the rest of the customers had to raise their voices in order to hear and be heard.  Positive feedback meant that the loud ones got even louder and so on.

I have a hearing problem, in that only one ear works, the other being there just to stop my glasses falling off, and so all sound comes to me via the one ear. What this means is that stereo is wasted on me and that I am unable to filter out voices from a cacophony of sound. As a result I was unable to engage in the conversation at my table and was forced to enjoy the riotous shouting and laughter coming unattenuated from the far end of the room.

Noise, not only pains me but also makes me angry, and I felt the pleasure of the meal waning very quickly. I rose from my seat to confront the problem but was pulled back down - no-one likes to make a fuss do they?  The meal ended quite rapidly and we called for the bill much sooner that we otherwise might have done.  My wife headed for the loo and I seized the opportunity to head for the far end which was on my way out anyway.  I could not resist the temptation to say something and what came out of my mouth was "Thanks for the headache, enjoy the rest of your meal." I then turned and started to leave. One of their company, well out of reach muttered the word "Prick." I didn't hear it, but my son did and we went back to the table and a less than respectful slanging match began. This was rather silly and I suggested to my six foot five son, that we should leave. There were after all eight of them and I am really too old for this sort of thing. So we left and stood outside waiting for my wife and exchanging mouthed expletives thought the window.  There seemed to be some concern at the table; perhaps they imagined that we were waiting for them to come out, but there were just the two of us, one of whom was not likely to last long in a fracas.  After a few minutes of posturing, two of the guys came out, accompanied by two of the women. I thought for a moment that things were going to kick off and felt the adrenaline surge again.

As it happens, they had come out to apologise and did so with some grace I must say. We all shook hands and as soon as my wife emerged we left. They went back to their table and I hope that the other diners had a more peaceful evening as a result.

Refugees

What a fucked up world we live in. Look around and the two main culprits are politics and religion, and when the two are combined, the effects are catastrophic. Syria, like much of the middle east is a mess, the dragon is eating its own tail while millions of innocent people are suffering and being forced to leave their homes in the hope of finding a better life elsewhere. ISIS lunatics, driven by fundamentalist dogma is destabilising as much territory as it can, and other Islamic organisations are creating mayhem among the poor and dispossessed people of many African countries. Add a result we have myriads of homeless people fleeing for their lives; Muslims running from Muslims by and large, seeking sanctuary in the west, that so many Muslims despise.

In truth these are real human beings and of course they should be given a safe haven, few would argue against that, but of course the world of Islam does itself no favours.  To many in the west, the word terrorist is synonymous with Islam and over the last few decades people have begun to fear or at least distrust the Islamic world and its peoples.

The press love to stir people's emotions and recent events and images of drowned children have been tragic. We hear that these poor people are escaping from war zones and yet, it would seem that the latest wave of refugees have been living in Turkey for three years. There is no war in Turkey at the moment and I wonder why suddenly so many have decided to make a very unsafe break from the safe haven that they were living in. Why have some parents put their children at such risk simply to head for the west?

A huge wave of sympathy is engulfing people and public pressure is sure to win out and more and more of these people will be allowed into various European countries. That must happen and Islam will continue to spread throughout the western world. Populations in the west are shrinking and rather than adopting  the cultures of the host countries, many newcomers prefer to maintain their own cultures, languages and religion.  The intention of Islam to take over the world is becoming a reality and that reality is a scary one.

Provocation

I guess that this is a continuation of my last entry, in that it refers to those who seem to take offence at the slightest of provocations.  Each day we read about bloggers who are being persecuted for their beliefs, or should I say lack of beliefs, for it seems that the victims recently are being attacked because they are atheists. I some parts of this ridiculous world, to run against the tide is seen as a criminal act and the Islamic world in particular likes to murder or torture those that do not believe in what they are told to.  To rail against fundamental Islam is a brave act indeed and I respect those who take a stand and try to expose it for what it is.

On a different but related note, I feel very sorry for those thousands of migrants, leaving their homes because conditions for them are so bad and yet they travel huge distances across Europe in order to get to Calais because they think that England is some sort of paradise. Most of these migrants are from Muslim countries so why do they not make their way to Saudi Arabia or Qatar, where they would probably fit in better?  I do find it strange that people who are fundamentally anti the West, will risk life and limb to head in this direction. They are unlikely to get treated kindly by a Tory government, and the native population seems to become less and less tolerant of people that move in and fail to integrate with the culture that they have struggled so hard to become a part of.

Perhaps I should keep quiet on this issue as I really do not know a great deal about the situation as a whole, though I do feel that there should be a freedom to criticise anything and anyone, even Muslims and women.

Being offended

I don't think that I understand the word offensive. I cannot think of ever being offended in the sense that some people seem to enjoy on a regular basis. I know that there are things that I do not like or disapprove of, but to say that I am offended would have little or no meaning.

There are moves afoot to produce an exhibition of cartoons that some sectors of society may find offensive, and there are others who find the idea of offending others as offensive and so the intention to offend in itself has become a contentious issue. Why is the idea of such an exhibition being held up as an affront? Those who many take offence surely are not dragged screaming and kicking to experience such an exhibition and the majority of us probably don't give a damn one way or the other, so by reacting to the intention, the act itself is being given the oxygen of publicity.

I find it very hard to understand why those that follow religion should be upset when others attack or make fun of their beliefs. Are they so deeply insecure in what they have been told that they are angered at any sort of challenge?  I am a great devotee of the process of evolution, it seems so clear that this is the way that life on earth has come to be. It is supported by overwhelming evidence as well as sound and logical argument and yet the doorstep evangelists who tell me that it is nonsense and that the earth was created a few thousand years ago, do not offend me or even anger me. Please all you fundamentalists mock me all you like, print as many anti atheist cartoons as you like and I will laugh along with you.

If your belief is based on anything other than flimsy dogma passed down the generations, then it should be solid enough to stand up to any counteractivity thrown at it.  If the skin is so thin that you have no tolerance for the beliefs and values of others then your belief is fatuous and worth challenging.

Binge culture

We want it all and we want it now.  Matilda is two and came into the house the other day, her first words being -"I want Peppa Pig - Now."  No Hello granddad, just a demand for what she wanted. Instant gratifications seems to be the norm and I feel uncomfortable with that thought.

I am as guilty as anyone else in some respects, especially when it comes to wine and TV series. There was a time when a bottle of wine would las a couple of days and a series on TV would take weeks to watch and savour. Nowadays one bottle inevitably leads to another and it is very easy to watch multiple episodes of a series at one sitting while imbibing the aforementioned.  A bar of chocolate has a tendency to vanish almost instantly and I can order anything that I want on the internet and get it the next day. Waiting always seemed to enhance the pleasure of so many things and yet now we are not prepared to wait for very much at all. If we are kept waiting we moan and complain, convinced that our own time is far more important than anyone else's.  In all we are becoming spoiled and the next generations are simply going along with it. We cannot blame them for our shortcomings.

Sports day

I just got back from Oscar's sports day.  Restricted to the lower school it was a lovely display of children competing in a totally supportive environment and it was so nice that in every event, all that entered finished even when hopelessly beaten.  I believe that all of the children participated and a good time seemed to be had by all. Only one boy who was squeezed out of first place lay on the ground, writhing in imaginary agony, clearly having watched too much football.

It is a nice end to a school year and this was well organised. Everyone got stickers for their performances and all were cheered on for their efforts but parents grandparents and teachers alike. Oscar now moves from reception into year one and has been separated from many of his immediate friends; time will tell the effects of that move, though his teacher maintains that he has been placed with children that he works best with and that has to be a good thing.

When I was at school, sports day was generally held to be a good day. We could enter for any event that we chose and each event had a standard time or distance that we aimed to reach or better. Should you reach that standard you were awarded a house point and thus it didn't matter too much who won or lost. There were certificates for first three places but reaching the standard was the most important thing.  House points were awarded for all sorts of things during the course of the year, all sporting events counted towards the house, as did debating society, drama groups and public speaking, and at the end of the year a shield was awarded to the house that had accumulated most points during the year. All pretty meaningless in the long run but it did encourage a team ethos and gave the feeling that you could contribute something.

Many schools abandoned the house system along with most things competitive on the grounds that losing is a negative experience.  It can be, Oscar hates losing, but we cannot always be winners and learning that can only be achieved by losing. Parents and schools today seem to reward every form of behaviour and encourage kids towards mediocrity. Exams can be taken over and over again in order to achieve a grade that is acceptable and that in itself makes many exam qualifications pretty meaningless. Some grow up thinking that they are wonderful and that the world is there for the taking. They find that life is not like that and that there is competition for everything in the real world and those that can compete are the ones most likely to succeed.

Participation in sports day is important and learning to lose gracefully is also a life skill. On the other hand it is also important to try hard to succeed and to aim for a high standard in all we do even if we cannot always be number one.

The world is full of ass holes

At the front of the house, stuck away in a corner next to the garage, there is a water butt. The plastic lid was subject to the wind removing it and so I placed a couple of bricks on top to keep it in place. This morning I found the lid and the bricks missing, There was no wind last night and besides, it would be some breeze to lift two housebricks.  Someone stole the plastic lid of my water butt, probably the same person who stole the solar light that illuminated the from steps a while ago.

I can see that a passing drunk might engage in mindless vandalism but to steal two bricks and a plastic lid seems very strange to say the very least. Sometimes I despair of the human race and what it is changing into.

So fortunately I had a spare lid lying around - I don't throw much away, and that fitted perfectly. Sadly I felt the need to screw it in place, thus making it much harder to remove, though I suppose someone will tear it off if they feel the need. I never thought the day would come when I felt the need to protect a water butt.

I know that there are plenty of nice people around but it seems that they are in danger of becoming a minority and so my tendency to avoid people is encouraged once again.

There was a wonderful episode of Hancock's Half hour, when Hancock, tired of society in general becomes a hermit. I think it was called The wild man of the Woods.  Driven to desperate measures by the people that he had dealings with, he abandons society altogether and moves into the wilds of East Cheam.

His peace and quiet is short lived as others see that way of living as being desirable and soon the woods are filled with hermits and before long they have shops and a cinema set up. It seems that it is impossible to get off the bus and we are all being dragged along on the same journey.

My own need to be with people outside my small circle of friends and family, is dwindling as time passes, and although I would not wish to live alone, I wish to steer clear of something that I cannot change.

Star Wars

The latest obsession seems to be Star Wars. Not me I hasten to add, but Oscar, who, at the age of five seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things to do with five of the six movies. I am holding back on the Revenge of the Sith as it is rated as a 12 and I have to make some attempt to be a responsible grandparent.  We have watched all of the others together and discussed what he sees as issues at great length over and over again. For someone who talks all the way through the films he seems to be very aware of what goes on and knows all of the main characters including Darth Maul's brother who I didn't even know existed.  He clearly talks a lot about it with his school friends and of course he believes everything that they tell him.  I have tried hard to convince him that there is no Star Wars Ten and that even Star Wars Seven has yet to be released, but he insisted that his mates know the real truth.

Kids have a good  idea of the differences between good and evil, though Oscar seems to distinguish these traits through the colours of the light sabres. Even a broken stick in his imagination becomes a light sabre in his fertile imagination and he will re-enact fights over and over again, mostly choosing the character who wins, whether it be a goodie or a baddie.  It seems that the fighting is the best part for him and the space ships, battle stars and relationships other than enemies, are trivial in comparison.

Of course his sister, who is two, gets sucked in to his fantasy world and goes along with him as well as she is able, even though she has not seen any of the movies.  This is ok as far as it goes but alarmingly the other day she said to her mother - "Mummy, I choose the dark side."  I am now in trouble.

A sense of humour

At the weekend I went to the Hexagon theatre to see a performance by a stand up comedian. This was a first for me and I admit that I enjoyed his show enormously. Milton Jones manages to entertain his audience without resorting to profanities and seemingly avoided being offensive to anyone in particular. Having said that I am sure the there would be people who would have found something offensive in his jokes but it is unlikely that they would have been there in the first place. Most of us will avoid deliberately attending things that we know may be offensive and yet there are those who seek out such experiences and gain great pleasure from complaining.

Comedy is about underlining the ridiculous and of course most things that we take seriously can be seen as ridiculous  when viewed from a different perspective. We all do things that seem ridiculous to others and have all been laughed at. Mostly we brush it off but for some, being laughed at can be a torture, especially when young.

There was a time when comedians could joke about anything and offend anyone and everyone with relative impunity, but those days are long since gone.   Professor Tim Hunt, recently made some pretty poor jokes about women scientists at a convention. They were not funny or even accurate depictions of women but he has paid a huge penalty for his remarks and was forced into resigning from his job.  A career wasted and a life changed dramatically for a few misguided words that were not particularly offensive.

To lampoon Islam in any way shape or form is even more hazardous than the criticism of women. So far no-one. as far as I know has been murdered for mocking women, and yet public challenges to Islam are seen as capital offences and the world seems to have taken this on board and no-one will dare to stand up and highlight the ludicrousness of a cult that is above criticism for fear of being attacked physically.

Marge Simpson had a way with words; she loved Canada because it was "So Bland".  We are in danger of going that way. Blandness offends no-one, it challenges no-one and has nothing much to say. Things unchallenged will continue as they are, which though comfortable for some is not necessarily a good thing.  The world is in danger of levelling out and I think that in itself is pretty dull. No-one should be above criticism, even women and Muslims.

Crop failure

There is quite a lot of the Christian philosophy that I do not disagree with.  One of the fundamental tenets of most religions seems to to be about loving one's neighbour and being tolerant  of other ways of thinking.

History tells a different story however.  Wherever a state is taken over by a religion, the basic message of that religion seems to be overlooked and the reality is that it is all about power and the manipulation of people to do the will of the rich or the powerful.

People, and I include myself in this, complain that the government serves the rich at the expense of the poor. It is a truism that does not alter much whichever political party happens to be elected. Wealth corrupts, and the more we have, the more we want; there never seems to be enough and modern life seems only concerned with the accumulation of things. We are bombarded with commercials that successfully convince us that we do not have enough and so we respond by spending our money on things that we don't really need or even want.

The majority of the populace do not really give a damn about the poor and the incapable unless they happen to fall into their ranks, and so we elect a government that  appeals to the greedy and acquisitive side of human nature that seems to predominate.   There are some who care, but the numbers of poor people will always outrun the capacity of the carers to do anything for them. It is a societal issue and yet there are ways of reducing poverty on a global scale.

Many of the poorest nations are dominated by Roman Catholicism, and as such are unable to exercise free will when it comes to contraception.  So they are overpopulated and become dependent on foreign aid. Thus more people survive and breed and so on. Most poverty is due to overpopulation and this is something that can be controlled.

The churches all seem to pray for an end to poverty and yet in reality, they depend on it for their survival. The Churches are major landowners and are fabulously wealthy, and yet like the rest of us, are not prepared to shed that wealth, choosing instead to sing along with the capitalist songs and increase their wealth whilst bleating their platitudes from the pulpits. If their Jesus ever existed, which is debatable, he would be ashamed of what has sprung from the seeds that he sowed.

The Bridge

I have just finished, well not literally this minute, the Swedish/Danish crime thriller The Bridge. I confess that I have actually seen it before but it is so compelling and the visuals so good. Of course it is subtitled but that doesn't matter. It is a pretty amazing piece of TV and Sofia Helin is just gorgeous.

What prompted me to write about this, is that whilst browsing through Netflix for something to watch, I came across a second series and watched that in a couple of sittings. It was only when I had seen the second series that I realised that I couldn't remember the plot of series one and so, i watched series one again. Now i can't remember too much about series two so should I watch it again? Maybe not as by the time I see the end of it I will have forgotten series one again and so on - groundhog day.

I am the same with books. I can read and enjoy a book and only days later I forget what it was about and sometimes forget whether I have read something or not. Maybe I am just lazy but my memory has never been wonderful and in recent years it is getting worse. I find that writing this blog gets more difficult as I have difficulty remembering what I have already rambled on about.

I do remember some things well. Long term memory is pretty much intact though always there is case for suspecting the accuracy of this memories. We do tend to be pretty selective in some respects and often blank out things that we would rather not recall.

Anyway Sofia Helin, mmmmm, plays a detective with some form of autism. She finds it very hard to relate to others but has a tenacity and single minded approach that makes her a good detective. Her performance is wonderful and so believable as she tries hard to find her place in society. The story line is excellent and like most scandinavian tv, beautifully filmed and edited.

I must watch groundhog day again one of these days.

Book club

Not long ago I joined a book club. It was an attempt on my part to become more sociable,  a skill that seems to be slipping away from me as the years go by.  I find conversation more and more difficult, probably because I have less and less to say.

I missed the first meeting for some reason, maybe because I hadn't read the book, though it seems that doesn't bother some people, who turned up anyway. So anyway having flunked the first meeting, I gritted my teeth and made the effort to go to the next one. I had no idea what to expect, and frankly, my first thought went along the lines of what am I doing here. I felt like I was at the dentists with a room full of strangers waiting for something to happen. There are thirteen of us, enough for a coven, and the first meeting did feel very odd. The chosen book for that one was We are all beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, not something that I would have chosen to read, but as it  happens I did read it and found it reasonably interesting. The meeting though had a weird formality to it, each person in turn giving their own particular opinion and once we had all had a say, that was it, meeting over and the next book chosen.

The next book was The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth. Again a book that I may never have picked up as it is written in verse. However I did read it and found it strangely compelling. So I turned up to the next meeting. Opinions divided between those who loved it and those that didn't get past the first page or two. I tried to broaden the discussion and did have a degree of success though I still know almost nothing of the other members of the group and would be hard pressed to recognise any of them in a crowd. Most of them have been together as a group for quite some time and i am still a newcomer and a old fart at that.

I am not sure that it is helping me to enhance sociability, there is a get together dinner taking place next month and I cannot make that which is a pity but I probably won't be the only one. I will stick with it for a while anyway and if nothing else it gives me a new range of reading material.

The current book is To Kill a Mockingbird and it takes me back to my schooldays and O level English. I am sure that there will be plenty of issues raised in the next discussion - maybe we should take along some old O level papers and see how we do.

Post 678

I didn't realise how many posts I had created until today; 677 pages of randomness with no sense of coherence or even much sense. However it must be serving a purpose of some kind as i am still doing it. I rarely look back at what I have already said and so it is quite likely that I have repeated myself, or have covered the same issues over and over again.  I haven't had an anti religious rant for a while, so maybe I have said all that I need to on that particular issue.

I went to a concert the other night. Rochester is not far away and the sixteen were appearing there in a programme of renaissance Spanish music. Under Sir Harry Christophers, the sixteen are a remarkable  group of performers and the acoustics of the cathedral accentuated the sheer beauty of the music and of the human voice.

The evening reminded me that there are two groups of humans, those that create and those that do not. I know - an arbitrary distinction but never the less a very real one. I admire creators, and I know that I am not one of them. The real creators are those with visions that enable the evolution of the human race, whilst the vast majority of us are dragged along in their wake. The composers, the artists, the scientists, the architects and the engineers are those that make the world a much better place, while the rest of us do little more than produce problems for them to solve.

Fundamentally most of us are pretty useless. We are probably more helpless than our cave dwelling ancestors. I have never produced fire without matches or a lighter, and although I am quite practical, I  could not make the tools that I need to make anything.  Most people have never grown their own food, caught their own fish or hunted an animal. Even presented with an whole animal, most of us would have no idea how to prepare for eating.

Stranded in the wilderness, most of us would not survive. Even finding water fit to drink would be an issue and as for clothing ourselves, well no chance.  As a species we are so reliant upon those that can do things that we cannot and upon a technology that is way beyond our comprehension, and yet the things that are valued pay little homage to what is really important. As a species we have been sucked into the consumerist pursuit of money and it is those that manipulate money that seem to be valued. Bankers and other money launderers create nothing and yet they are sitting in the control seat, determining the direction and speed of our journey into oblivion.

Education is a political football that  has been manipulated and tinkered with for dogmatic ends and any real creativity in schools is being stifled before it has a chance to grow. The arts are being attacked by a government that cannot reason beyond the end of the cheque book, whilst our universities are just another tool of the marketplace.

Those that can create things that are worthwhile are becoming less and less abundant as the Conservative clone army grows and grows.  Already things are getting very bland in so many areas. Modern music is pretty much lacking originality, enabling ancient bands to keep touring, simply because what they have has not been replaced by something better.

The sixteen, and other highly skilled groups of musicians seem to attract an audience with a very narrow age range. I guess it was always thus, but what future is there for quality?

Beating my wife

I love scrabble. Well at least I did until recently. There is a scrabble app on Facebook that has enable me to play with a lot of people, many of whom I have never met. It is a pretty good app in many ways but there are some differences between it and the board game. To begin with it is impossible to cheat, or to accidentally knock the board when you are losing, scattering all the tiles on the floor.  It is also easier in some ways as you have the facility to try out words before you play them and so incorrect words cannot be challenged. As a result, some pretty odd words frequently find themselves onto the board, many of which have little or no everyday use. Of course the permitted word list grows as the language changes, and many new words are added each year - it is quite hard to keep up.

One of the secrets of success is knowing all the two letter combinations that enable the playing of overlapping words and increase your chances of fitting that seven letter word into place. Words like AA, OE, BO, QI, ZO and so on are all valid and the latter two are frequently used.

We used to play with the local vicar and his wife many years ago and adjusted the rules so that bonuses were added for any dirty word. Another variation was that you could play any word you wanted as long as you could come up with a definition that made any sense; you cannot play these fun variations online.

Anyway, it seems that the online version is having issues and I can no longer play on my computer. This is frustrating as I have many games on the go and I seem to be on a good run at the moment. I can get into the game on my iPad but somehow it just isn't the same. We seem to have lost the proper game with the plastic tiles and the ancient board and so we are limited to onscreen versions. This is just as well as online I seem to be able to beat my wife.

Lost and found

I was on the bus the other day, taking my granddaughter into town for lunch. Bus drivers rarely wait for people to sit down, and so I held onto her tightly, not wanter her traumatised by the experience. We found a seat and she loved the journey, probably on the basis that she was not strapped into her seat but able to bounce on granddad.  All went well and we headed int a pub garden ready to order lunch when I discovered that I was without wallet.  Clearly it had fallen out of my pocket whilst attending to Matilda on the bus.

The ramifications of a lost wallet are far reaching and apart for the cash that it contained, there were all of my bank cards, my diving license and other personal items that are hard or expensive to replace.  The first step was of course to get home and cancel all of the bank cards which is not as easy as it sounds, but a necessary step as any dishonest person could easily use credit cards to make online purchases. So that done, I was left with a sick feeling that lasted the rest of the day. I called the bus company and was told to phone back after six, which I did and was told that nothing had been handed in and that I should call back in the morning.

I called back in the morning and was told that a cleaner had handed it in, which was an unexpected and pleasant start to the day. They did say that there was no money in it, which was not surprising but at least my driving license etc would be back. So off we went to the bus depot and claimed my wallet. Having a bus pass in there meant that my photo was an easy identification and I was delighted to get it back. Looking inside everything was there, including the cash which I keep in a not very obvious pocket.

The sound of music

Musical taste is a very personal thing and what sounds wonderful to one person can be quite terrible to another.  I listened to Bradley Wiggins on Desert Island Discs this morning, and although he was mildly interesting, it was clear that his taste in music had almost no overlap with mine. For those who are not familiar with this radio 4 programme, guests are interviewed and asked to select eight discs that they would want to take to a desert Island.  Though I will never be a guest on the programme, I have tried this exercise many times and probably come up with a different list each time.

Some people would like to see classical music forced upon children from a very early age, an interesting notion in theory, but as the vast majority of adults seem to have no interest in classical music, I don't see that it would work in practice.  Music is something that comes to us via our day to day lives and so our tastes grow from our own experiences. For many children today, their musical experiences are more likely to come from video games and Youtube. They do have access to a wealth of material but probably much of what is available will go unexplored.

As I write I am listening to Mahler; something that I never used to enjoy. I had a friend at college who listened to very little else and at the time I could not appreciate what he was obviously enjoying. Over the years I have persevered and now his music is by and large a delight. So yes, tastes can change, even at my advanced age I can still adapt and adjust to new things, though I must say that Rap and Hip Hop leave me cold and uninspired.

There are moves to include the Beatles into the curriculum, GCSE music is to undergo changes in some sort of effort to broaden the experience of our children, but I suspect that they will still manage to find their own likes and dislikes, fashion and peer pressure count for a lot, and then of course there is Simon Cowell and his ilk who and the main drivers of popular music today.

I like to think that my own tastes ate eclectic, but of course they will be very different from those of anyone who chances to read this. On the off chance that one day a grandchild may possibly stumble upon this, then I will include my current eight choices.

1. The Vespers of 1610 by Monteverdi.
2. The Division Bell by Pink Floyd.
3. The Dream of Gerontius by Sir Edward Elgar.
4. Tuesday Afternoon by The Moody Blues
5. Missa Page Lingua by Josquin Des Pres
6. Budapest by Jethro Tull.
7. Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina.
8. Dantes Prayer by Loreena McKennit

Where do we go from here?

The immediate outrage and anger seems to have passed if the social media are anything to go by,  and the cabinet reshuffle has been done. More of the same seems to be the order of the day and so we brace ourselves for what is to come. One thing is clear and that is that we have not been told the worst of what they have to inflict upon us. In the last five years most damage was done to those who could least afford it whilst the wealthy gained hugely and offshore bank accounts filled with their ill gotten gains. While this redistribution of funds was going on, the national debt increased as the government continued to borrow; ensuring that their supporters could feather their nests.

Protests over the weekend led to a number of arrests, the violence being blamed on left wing activists, but possibly instigated by disgruntled UKIP supporters. The events were scarcely reported, after all the press tell us what the tory masters want us to hear.

There is a public appeal for a change in the electoral system but this will fall on deaf ears, why would they want to change a system that favours them after all?

So we will grin and bear it, we will tolerate their repressive education policies, their unfair approach to the welfare system and their unshrinking support for the wealth takers, and tax evaders that are really bleeding the country dry.  We will tolerate their continued attempts to fool us into thinking that we are all in this together and lives will go on.

The smug and deplorable tories that threatened to leave the country in the event of a Labour victory will be unconscious of the fact that for most people such a thing would be unthinkable if not impossible, and no doubt a new swathe of MPs will be looking to buy second homes in the capital, uncaring of the fact that millions of people are unable to find the wherewithal to find decent accommodation that they can afford.

Nothing is going to change for the better for most people, but we will be told that everything is ok so that is fine.

A sad day

The British electorate has had its say and the nasty party looks like being in charge for the next five years. Of course they gained around 35% of the vote which suggests that 65% of those that voted do not want them to be there and then there are the others who didn't or couldn't vote. We will have a government that represents the views of a small minority of the population and the interests of even fewer.

Society is sick and getting sicker. It was Thatcher that sowed the seeds of its destruction and her influence has been profound and long lasting. People no longer care about others; self interest is all that matters and the accumulation of wealth seems to be the sole motivation of so many.

Millions of young people cannot afford decent homes while landlords are allowed to charge exorbitant rents for squalid and unacceptable accommodation. This problem is particularly acute in London, and Boris Johnson opposes any move to regulate private rents, suggesting that any move to do so would destroy the city.

Young people have no representation at all, the Tory party being driven by the blue rinse brigade and the media that are in their pockets. Is it any wonder that many people feel utterly disillusioned by this outdated and unfair electoral system.

The Liberal Part has vanished in a puff of apathy, largely due to Clegg aligning them with the tories and renaming on his pre election promises of 2010, so now we have an opposition that has neither Balls nor cohesion. Fortunately UKIP has not taken more seats but their support has grown; clearly the tories are not nasty enough for a large number of voters.

So what now? The ballot box is not giving the population what they need. Something like 70% of the population feel unrepresented and with further attacks on the have nots, the tories are fermenting an underclass of dissidents that they will need to control. I fear for the future.

Les Revenants

It has been a while since I put finger to keyboard. Well actually that is a lie, I put fingers to keyboard quite a lot most days of the week, so what I meant was all about context.  Writing this blog is a little like shouting into the wind; it can be cathartic but in the end, no-one pays attention and so it is easy to give up.
We are of course heading towards a general election and all the horses are lined up, displaying their promises and everyone knows that all is just a façade and that very little will change once all the hoo ha is over and done with.   The public has little by way of choice, the nasty party has been in charge for five years and has presided over a relentless attack on this who can least defend themselves, whilst allowing their financial backers to fill their bank accounts. Despite efforts by their media friends, many people now see this as a bad thing and are edging away from the Tories but it is a sign of the times that they are drifting even further to the right and are backing the even nastier  UKIP.
UKIP is fundamentally an evolved BNP which in turn evolved from the skinhead movement if the seventies and eighties, and yet they are becoming a significant player in this most disturbing lead up to the May election.
The Liberal Democrats have shown their true colours or absence of colours and might well be heading for deserved extinction. We can only hope that will be the case.
Labour support is gaining a little ground but they are dependent on the support of other minor parties, who, if Labour should defeat Cameron and his old Etonians, will hold the balance of power. It is a possibility that our next government will be steered from the back seat by the militant Scots or Irish.
The Greens have no real credibility, and like most small parties will promise everything, knowing that they will not have to deliver, and they like all of the other unelectables simply divide the votes and make it more likely that there will be no majority government.
So who do we vote for?  I really do not have a clue and yet I will exercise my democratic right, if I remember to, and put my cross somewhere. I live in an area where a goat in a blue ribbon would be elected and so my vote will be as meaningless as so many millions will be. People like Russell Brand urge others not to vote, but where does that leave us?  The extremists will always vote and but opting out we simply and passively let them have their way.
The system as it stands is not working and it has to be time for some real and radical changes in the way that we elect a government. Party politics is so divisive and maybe a thing of the past. Let us dispense with it and elect independent candidates on the basis of their abilities rather than their political colours.