I did good

As we begin the descent into winter many of our feathered friends, who pop in of a morning for a quick snack and douche in the bird bath, are leaving, for warmer climes.
It was always a scene to enjoy, each type or family of bird species performing  a roll in (forgive me) the pecking order !! 


The most common and amongst the smallest,  is the House Sparrow. A cheeky little guy, always the first in the pool (see bird bath) there were sometimes six or seven of them frolicking in the water fluffing out the feathers,and shaking the water off before diving under again. They are like small children seemingly oblivious of whose watching. The Song Thrush and the Blackbird, 


hopping around on the grass or hanging onto the seed feed basket, hanging in the tree, their beauty is in their song,particularly the Blackbird, with those strong penetrating notes, in perfect pitch, vibrating through the early morning air to remind us all of the wonder of nature.

More devious callers are the Starlings and the bully boy of them all, the Magpie. They would strut about, warning the others off and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Alert and confident, the cat is all they had to worry about. 

Now we are left with the cheeky, loveable Robin. No fear, he hops right up to one, as if to say, we are in this together mate you look after me and I will bring a smile of recognition to your face every morning. 







The pond and a few sluggish goldfish, (the water is getting colder) are all we have. The water lilly is dying off slowly waiting until next Springs rebirth and the frogs, where do the frogs go in Winter,(answers on a post card please).
The yearly cycle of the frog is a marvel in its self. Springs warmth brings them back, from, I know not where but as of clockwork they are there in the pond.
The sexual life of these creatures is rigorous to say the least, no holds barred they seek a mate. Sometimes the poor old female has a bevy of male frogs attached to her, each hanging on for dear life, sometimes to the exclusion of the females life as she seems to have the life smothered out of her in the primeval need to procreate.
You might think I am mad (Marie said I was) but in my concern for one foggy maiden who was enveloped in the grasp of five, overzealous male frogs she was turning translucent as they squeezed the life out of her.
I picked up the slimy ball of interlocked arms and legs and began to unfasten the grip of each until she was free. I'm not sure if it counts for much in the "Women against rape movement" but in froggy terms,  I did good !!!              

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A small price to pay for being civilised.

 I have been watching the Liberal Parties Conference. The speakers were addressing the needs of people with disability. I was reminded as I watched how valuable the input of people are who see the issues of disability as an opportunity to educate us and improve the lot of the disabled and not solely an issue for the people who are disabled. 

Watching and listening to these able bodied Liberals one is reminded how different we all are and how our own narrow world lacks understanding.I have myself thought, over the years that we seemed to, go on and on, about the subject. We were encouraged to believe that, with "money and the will", we could eradicated the obstacles to the disabled to move around and offered equality with the rest of society.
I held an instinctive belief that to be dis-"abled" meant they weren't fully "able",  they were not the same, and couldn't attain the ideal of "equality".

I remember being amazed at the regulations that required new buildings, of two stories and above, to have a lift facility so that any disabled person would not be prejudiced from applying for a job with any company in that building. Multiple floor buildings already have lifts, ground floor buildings were not a problem so the issue was, medium sized  buildings where, in the past it had been presumed a flight of stairs was

satisfactory. 

It must be remembered that the installation of a lift is expensive,perhaps the most expensive part of the building and to demand that all buildings in future must have one was, in my view a bridge too far. My own opinion was that there would always be things and places where the disabled could not find access and therefore should accept this limitation as a fact of life.

Listening to the people on the Liberal Democrat platform, who make it their business to push out the boundaries on our moribund attitudes. I knew that I would still "question" the basic premise.

Of course one only has to remember the magnificent achievements at the Para Olympic Games, the absolute astonishment at how fast, how high, how resolute they all are.
They certainly put my meagre achievements to shame.

Disability compensation, welfare compensation, sickness benefit are all the result of our concern to assist the less well off, the disadvantaged. Of course this has led to an inability to see the wood for the trees. and we have spawned a compensation industry which creams off 10% of our GDP !

 Perhaps this is a small price to pay for being civilised ?

Cultural difference

I was thinking this morning about the comment I made in a recent blog regarding minority rights.

Society is complex and according to our norms it should be inclusive. It should include all measure of man and women. It should at least "understand" the  the views held by people living within the society even if one doesn't agree with them. A sign of a healthy civilised society is the way we deal with the differences between us.
The differences that lie between us inside the national boundary has become greatly magnified over the last 50 years as the people have grasped the ease of travel and the globalisation of industry and capital has meant that skills are readily transferable around the world. The differences then are not skill or industry based differences but cultural.
Each minority group in one country belongs to a majority group in another and until the second and third generation have sufficiently distanced themselves from their ethnic root the norms of the old majority culture remain strong.

How do we evaluate another man's culture when set against our own especially if there are major differences. How do we, and should we, make allowances for a way of thinking that is alien to our own.
Remember of course the wide and multinational differences in our own society, within our own ethnic stock. They, in themselves reflect our willingness to allow people the right to be different.

The Islamist, Shari Law brings into sharp focus the difficulty we now experience in our generosity of purpose, to allow people to be different.
Shari law appears to us as, "in extremity", cruel even barbaric in its sentencing. Chopping off a hand, having been caught stealing. Stoning a women to death for adultery, these are the ones that catch the headlines.
    
It was not too long ago that we in this country hung murders. Go back a little further and we have "draw and quartering" to add to the list of acts that those in authority could use as a deterrent to the law breaker.  The use of a deterrent was deemed justified since the law represented the view of society at that time.
There is no doubt that deterrents work, not all the time but they do work. I am sure the numbers of adulterers and those willing to steal are greatly effected by the barbaric end result if caught.Of course here come the nub of the problem, no one setting out to break the law expects to be caught. When they are and the State wheels out the apparatus of deterrent it has to use it, otherwise the purpose of the deterrent is nullified.

In this country we have whittled away our notion of deterrent to a minimum. The contract we now have with the populous, both criminal and non criminal,  is  education and, through education  a reliance on society at large not to commit crime and the person who has committed the crime of seeing the error of their ways of not committing crime again ! Its a long shot and I think the criminal community have won the day.
Notice I use the word community since they the criminal are a community and like the other communities they have rights and must be respected.

Where do we go from here.  Well statistics tell us that the "moderation" of the current ethnic view in this country will diminish as "we" the Anglo Saxon element become the minority in about 2050. Then the majority may, if they wish bring in more punitive laws and sentences which it is assumed the then majority approve of. Of course something else might happen. The new majority might, overtime, decide that the old, shall we call it, primitive way of conducting society was wrong and the way forward was to absorb new ways of thinking about ones fellow man within a wider society.

The key is the hold that religion will have, in 2050, over our society at large ? 
 

Killing the goose

Watching the tele and seeing the frenzy of the police in Spain reminded me of my reference the other week in a blog about Mrs Thatcher and her ideological contempt of much of the working class.

The ferocity from the police, came not from a need to "use" excessive force but of a desire to inflict a message on the minds of the protesters. We represent the authority of the state and therefore the  government of the state and we will not lend ourselves to any "democratic right" you may think you have to protest.
 
The right to protest arises of course from the swinging cuts in pay and services that the Government has inflicted on the ordinary people. Up to a 30% reduction in pay. Much of this retribution is for the profligacy of the people who were encouraged to spend, and spend by the very people who are now wielding the financial stick. The contrast is stark with the brunt of the hardship being weighted on the poor whilst the rich and the influential escape practically unscathed.It is a recipe for the total breakdown, over the next months and years of the social fabric of this part of Europe.


Mrs Merkel and the Germans have an obsession with stringency as the only way to balance the books. Any businessman will tell you, that to become secure you must develop your markets through presentation and efficiency which normally means spending money to activate the potential market. Shutting up shop is a sure way to fail. The only way to get out of this financial mess is to trade your way out of it. Easier said than done but there are areas of consumerism in newly emerging markets and it is to these new kids on the block that we must turn our attention. The old world is dying, its had its day as a vibrant, expanding, consuming group. With a negative birth rate and an ageing population, the time is rapidly approaching when the patient will become moribund.

The Germans have done very well out of the creation of the European Community A ready market for the plethora of goods they produce and a strangle hold over the financial infrastructure.     
Are they ready to kill the golden goose ?
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A special status

I've received a coolish response from some of the more politically correct amongst you regarding my piece on the Muslim rioting.

There seems to have developed a mind set, (particularly amongst youngish people), that to imply criticism of a section of the worlds society, is rash and unhelpful.   This mindset  I believe to be the result of years of advocating, to the the impressionable, an imprecise view of the world and the people who inhabit it.

We are all born equal (what a lot of tosh). 
We should all respect and avoid criticism of others, no matter what they do or what their values are, since "minority" rights have preference over majority rights for the reason that the "weaker", (why is that implicit in a minority?) must at all costs be protected.

This has led,amongst other things, to the,"all must be winners" syndrome in our schools and an "over protectiveness" of our children in all avenues of life.

It is hard to distinguish the difference between the politically correct lobby and the, "peace at all costs" reminiscent of Chamberlains appeasement leading up to World War 2.  It was a curtailment of the obvious to deny Germany had anything other than military aims in Europe.  There was a  willingness in a certain type of person to shy away from reality at any cost, particularly if it impinged on the "ideology" that  encased it.

Religions are in effect, faith base ideologies. 
The good that religions "do" is seen within their respective communities and their efforts outside their respective community. The Salvation Army comes to mind but there are many others. 
The congregation that sits or kneels in worship are galvanised by their leaders to do good works and to view others within the sect, with love and compassion.
Unfortunately this act of reciprocity is often played out within the particular faith and, although there are important benefits to society at large, because the benefit given to the individual, the individual now views "others" in a "wider context", outside the obvious religious one.
 
It would be churlish to underestimate the humanitarian, humanising factor of faith based religion.  But what binds the followers to the cause is outside the revelation that Darwinism brought to our understanding of species.  Even more troubling is the confusion the quantum world brings with its "chaos" theories when the religion is based purely on "faith".
  
And what is faith ?     I can have faith in my ability to walk to the shop, I have faith in many of the systems that have evolved in society to make our work and play easier. I have faith in things that I understand and are "of this world" so to speak.

The faith that troubles me is the faith in a "supreme being" that created Adam and Eve as the first humans on earth. From this flows the chronology of the Flood, Noah's Ark and so much more. Much of this special status seems to have arisen as a need to create an identity for the Israelites. The historical time scale and the archaeology are against virtually all the Bible has to say about the creation.

The Quran, passed from God to Mohammed, describes the roll played by Adam (the first prophet) and others in the biblical story. It therefore has as its base the same question --able characters which make up the Old Testament and, in its self must therefore be flawed.Having a "Faith" in God, based on the Old Testament and the Quran seems to be an act of "faith" which is unsustainable by reference to scientific fact. 

Are we to indulge these religions with a special status ?

Christmas on the tele'

The evenings draw in,the day shortens and the heating is switched on whilst, in the Southern Hemisphere, the reverse is happening.

Having friends and family who live on the other side of the world it all becomes relevant. Like an animal hibernating we are settling down for the winter long haul,we might not store our nuts and settle down to sleep it through but I suppose there are some similarity's. We don't do our daily shopping when it gets cold by walking to the shop for the incidental item, enjoying the exercise. The heating in the house does induce our willingness to drop off in front of the telly or head for bed much earlier so perhaps we should take to eating nuts whilst we also wait for Spring and natures regenerative warmth.
As I write in this environment, the mail drops on your electronic doorstep in a totally different environment,

 bright open sky's, the beach, and the irritating mosquito replace the rain and the ever thickening jackets that identify our landscape. Would I put up with the Mrs Mossie to be free of Mr Drizzle ? A good question ?
As you are freeing yourselves of the cold weather, November / December beckons, how the time flies.  Christmas, the sound of carols in our shops the choice of gifts, the sway of what we can afford and what we actually cough up is on us again.   Its Party Time !!

How we change in our passage through life.

When in ones teens Christmas was a time to loose ones inhabitation and let your hair down.  
Parties were pretty wild, followed by a long walk home, (as we ignored the bus timetable), and brought plenty of time to consider the evenings lost opportunities !!
In the 20s I was too busy, usually on my own, poking my nose into new scenes and new ways, to celebrate the festival.

The 30s brought a major change. Responsibility, heaps of it with the arrival of 2 "little people" and the influence they had on everything. Christmas was a time of excitement, "their" excitement, which was infectious. The buying of presents, the hiding of presents, the wrapping and the late night creeping down to the Christmas tree to pile them up as Santa's little helper !!          

The 40s/50s brought a tailing off of ones influence over Christmas and sadly there seemed nothing to put in its place. The parties had become stale as we met the same people who were there last year. All spoken for, no excitement to find out who that is in the corner, only the inevitable remark to point out, "you've had enough" and "its time to go home".

The 60s /70s are now a time to avoid the parties altogether. To sidestep the issue, stay at home and watch the tely'  
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Secular values

As an Atheist I am really getting quite fed up with all the religious upheaval and the special pleading by the Muslim religious group.
In what is a secular society we seem to bend over backwards to maintain affable relations with certain groups who have a mind set a million miles from the bulk of the inhabitants of this country.
We have to apparently accept and even pretend to understand the weird observance of Religious figures who lived hundreds of years ago and whose followers are currently reaping havoc across the world because of a silly video produced in America. Enough is enough we simply don't believe in the relevance of your faith to the modern world and whilst we, unlike you, are willing to accept your right to believe in the Prophet, we don't, and demand that you stop behaving in this way.
If you feel aggrieved then go and live in the country,countries at the source of the religion and leave us alone and in peace to get on with our secular way of life which, incidentally includes accepting "criticism" of much of what we stand for but allows others to hold and speak those views without our turning out on the street, rioting.

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PM condemns chief whip's cop rant

PM condemns chief whip's cop rant  The issue should also address the problem we all face these days of the increase in petty officialdom and with the plethora of petty laws we are governed by each day.  As a regular visitor to Downing street surely common sense should be applied and his mode of transport accepted. The police officer should be able to use his judgement and not always rely only on the letter of the law or in this case the rules applying to the movement of people in Downing street.

A thankless job

The police have been in the news for good and bad reasons.
Hillsborough the scene in the late 80s of a hideous drama, played out in front of the cameras, people being crushed in front of our eyes with the authorities seemingly powerless to help.
The claim by the police was that "drunk fans", who had arrived at the ground after the kick off had broken the entrance gate and were responsible for the ensuing crush.
After 20 years of campaigning the relatives forced the authorities to reopen the investigation and the autopsies carried out at the time by the coroner. There had been a massive cover up of the truth. The police had opened the gate and to compound the tragedy, refused access to the ambulance staff to tend the injured who had been moved onto the pitch. People had been allowed to die who could have been saved.
The big question was why ? One can't help but be influenced by the extremely poor relations between the police and football fans at large. In the Thatcher era the police were used as a private army and were particularly harsh against the miners in the miners strike. 

There was a mind set that had grown up of a You and Them mentality which was fostered from the top. Mrs Thatcher held no truck for the lower echelons of our society and her attitude was allowed to seep into the the bureaucracy around her and the message was passed on. The Police viewed the football fans as low life. The cover up was a massive fraud with over a hundred and forty police reports doctored to blame the fans. The police senior officers were guilty of the most basic crime. The manipulation of evidence has to be the one thing the police can never be accused, otherwise the whole system falls down.
Not one of the police chiefs has been brought to book and the most senior holds a senior position to this day.
The shooting of the two police women, who were apparently drawn into an ambush by a maniac who was already out on bail accused of a previous murder, highlights the danger the police face now-a-days.


The UK are amongst 5/6 countries in the world who do not arm their normal police.  Apart from the countries that make up the British Isles, the others are Samoa,The Falklands, Pitcairn,and Finland. Other than Finland they have historical links to this country. 
Of course the make up of our society has changed massively over the last 30/40 years. 40 years ago the Police were held in esteem by society at large. One Bobby (Policeman) could, (through the significance of his uniform and what the uniform represented to the general public), control a noisy crowd and get it to disperse.
The glue, the unspoken acceptance of societal figures meant that there was sense of order and people responded to that sense of order, it didn't need an escalation of force to maintain order. A peaceful, respectful society can only come about if the public accept the countervailing forces that are  implicitly held by the man in the street. Break the belief in the fairness of the system and the authority of the people charged with running the country and it becomes open season for unruly elements to come to the fore.



A major difference these days is the make up of today's society. Eastern Europeans have a very different attitude to law and order and to the use of weapons. The Nigerian Mafia are feared across the world, the Somalis, leaving their ruined country are well schooled in violence. They have no internalised set of values that are the legacy of being an island race that has not been effected by turbulent overthrow.
We are in deep water today as we try to evolve an equal society with common values.These hopes lie only in the minds of the chattering class and are far from the ghettos of Bradford, Birmingham, and Balham.

Imagine

Imagine I have just woken up. Imagine that my room is of a size to comfortably take the bed,the wardrobe, side table and bookshelves, heaving under the weight of many books. Imagine that next to the bedroom there is the bathroom and other bedrooms. Imagine downstairs the lounge the kitchen and a fridge full of food. Imagine outside the front door sits a car and beyond a well maintained road,other houses are similar and not far away is the small supermarket. If I walk, or drive the other way, is the small market town of Bishops Stortford, whilst to the south/east the river Stort and the tranquillity of the river bank.


Imagine awaking in a room stuffed with people, brothers and sisters,Mother and Father all sleeping in the same room. Imagine the noises and the many interruptions to ones sleep. Imagine the call of nature drawn to a smelly hole in the ground 15 metres away. Imagine the 50 metres to the single water tap. Imagine, above all, last nights hunger,that deep unsatisfied demand from ones body for food,a hunger which will not be satisfied today, or tomorrow. Imagine the 5 mile trek to school, to sit on the dusty floor, no books to follow the lesson, no pencils or paper to capture the facts. Imagine that this is as good as it gets, there is no sense of an opportunity to get out and away, only the deprived continuum.

Imagine imagine imagine, but we don't. We only grumble at our lot in life as we contrast ourselves with others close by.


What a cruel irony that our lives are dependent on chance. The chance of where we are born and to who we are born. We place so much value on "who we are" in the context of where we are and the current circumstances that we forget to place ourselves in the context of humanity at large. We judge others on our own small experience, we criticize others on not having our values without realising how important the chance element of where and to who we were born colours virtually all of our ability to evaluate and reach balanced opinions.   

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An unnatural tension

How can people in a secular society understand the emotions of people who are devoutly religious ? They come from such diverse positions, positions that are not political do not simply belong to current affairs but are based, on the one side in deeply held fundamental religious beliefs whilst, on the other,  belief is largely of this world and largely, materialistic.

The Muslim faith transcends boarders, goes beyond national boundaries and demands a type of allegiance that some are asked to die for and all are expected to put their faith before their earthly comforts. The writings of the Prophet, centuries ago taught a straightforward code by which man should live. Christ taught a similar set of tenants by which we can all coexist. Buddhists have a similar project in hand which rely's not on the belief in a god but in our own power to become concerned with everything around us.  





Christianity indulged in witch burning, the Inquisition, and deep intolerance. Its track record relied on absolute unanimity amongst its followers and implied that all the non believers were bound for hell. The slow degradation of the Christian faith has come through the questions that science raised regarding the fundamental biblical story. Time scales relevant to the biblical story, and the revelation that the evolutionary message had for mankind , countered much of what the Bible had to say but of course, left the question of " faith" unanswered !!


In the case of the Muslim faith, for reasons of geography and a lack of material development in the region, the subculture remained unchanged over time. 

Unemployment and the habit of congregating in groups on the street, within the call to prayers and under the influence of the Imam. Islam has very strong social powers.  It is this unity, tied in with a belief system which itself  seems way out of kilter with modern life in a European society, makes the whole business of building bridges towards some sort of common understanding very difficult.


The blind rage of the Muslim crowd as it attacks the US Embassy's in the Middle East, because of a slur on the Prophet is amazing and deeply troubling. We can't get our heads around it, it doesn't make sense but then we, who have lost much of our belief system are not in a good place to make a judgement.             
   

Ignorance was bliss but bliss was hell

I mentioned in an earlier piece a writer called Victor Serge. I described him as an Anarchist a man who passionately believed in the cause of humanity a Belgian who spent over 17 years in Russia during the years of the revolution,, Who lived through the rise of the Bolsheviks and the suppression of dissent, as Russia descended into totalitarianism.


The purges under Stalin who suffered a psychosis and feared his own shadow. The reign of terror that produced a State Apparatus, the GPU a political police that knew no boundaries in terms of human oppression and the use of terror to suppress any form of dissent. 
No one was free from a knock on the door, the interrogation, the falsification of evidence and the trumped up charges which led to death or deportation to central Asia, Siberia. Even the men at the top of the apparatus that propagated the injustices, themselves became the victims and were shot.
Only Stalin was free from the terror and he had his own demons to deal with.  Molotov and a few others survived, but many, over time were denounced and disappeared.
It wasn't only at the top but the whole of Russian society which was ravaged. The land owning bourgeoisie were stripped of their possessions and shot or deported to labour camps in their thousands, the peasants were to die in their millions of starvation through the collectivisation and the massive inefficiencies which entailed. The intelligentsia were pummelled into submission but in many cases retained their spirit of dissent and we have today the memories of those times, seen through the eyes of these brave men and women.





The West was of course complicit (Roosevelt and Churchill) in all of this because they needed a bulwark against Fascism and the enormity of Russia was eventually the main force that brought the most efficient fighting machine to its knees outside Stalingrad !!    

What stands out in the writings of the dissident authors is their love of Russia and its people. Mother Russia with its extreme climate and equally extreme history seems to have fostered a people who could bear literally anything, accept the most horrendous privation and yet find a way to live !! I suppose that the country being so huge and the people being remote from others, they had no yardstick to measure the condition they lived in.
Ignorance was bliss but bliss was hell !!!   

Which is best ?

This is not so much a sentimental hand over the distance which lays between us but a quiet reminder that, it can be attractive here, just as attractive as other parts of the world.  The importance is to think and recognise that difference doesn't necessarily mean one is better - just different !!!

I struggle for perspective. My struggle is of one who has been there, done that so to speak.

Life can be divided up into segments, which in great part relate to age, ones inner vitality and confidence.  
I am at a stage where, old age is the relevant factor, vitality (I wish) and confidence (also fast disappearing). And yet I remember with great fondness the drive and open ended-ness of those years of travel.
The climate, the light, the people and their different methods of living and playing, these were the on going revelations that never once induced me to look back over my shoulder.




Yet as I sit here in England and tap tap this message I look back and ask myself were these places better or just different. 




When I return to South Africa I return as a stranger. The old has been replaced with something different and whilst the material pieces on the set are largely the same, the interplay between the people has altered. No amount of warmth or light would tempt me back because the other ingredients, trust and security are missing.


Australia I didn't know, like I knew SA but it had many of the same ingredients.   It has an open society that has great self belief and has the vigour to pursue its ends. It has the space to provide each Aussie with the sense that they own their piece of the country and are not hemmed in by the incessant need to share the resource of space and time with so many others. You are your own man !

Of course this comes at a cost. There is a lack of "subtly" in the overall arrangement. The bonds that exist in the Italian or the Greek communities are there but are coarsened by there connection with the Anglo Saxon lack of respect for things, other than money and success.


In Europe the European society had grown through an organic readjustment to times and circumstances, each period leaving behind a flavour of the past.   It is this flavour that is so beguiling, it is rich in the sense of a developed culture which has fostered societies that are unique.The fervour of a person from the Mediterranean is considered in their love making, and their consideration of "time" as something they own, not the company that would own them ! 


 Northern societies are much more conformist, much more militaristic in their willingness to put off personal pleasure and be willing to entertain a plan,someone "else's" plan. The ideologies are poles apart but make rich pickings for someone to explore. 

As I become, more and more, an observer the texture of my surroundings becomes more important. The English countryside is rich and complex. It comes with a more benign relationship to the man or women who is enjoying it. The scale is complementary to the humans ability to get around.





 No three day exposure to heat and drought, no particularly poisonous reptile or insects to compete with and there's always a pub within reasonable distance !!!             

Ode to a curmudgeon

Enough,enough. I'm too curmudgeon for this world ?
The celebrations go on and on and on. The crowds turn out in their thousands. The word-smiths reach ever deeper into hyperbole as they pour words over the athletes, the volunteers, the organisers, (the only ones who "never" get a mention are "we" the Tax Payer, who paid for it all) !!
It all went against the grain and yet as I watched and listened there were tears hovering around my sockets.

What is it that has captured the nation and why.   I kept thinking. Why aren't these people at work, why were they prolonging a good thing, let it go, like any party, go home at a reasonable time, don't be the last to leave and not legless.     

The speeches have been made in front of Buckingham Palace and the crowds slowly disperse, tomorrow, hopefully to go to work (if you have a job).


Cameron the Prime Minister made a typical politicians speech,flat and largely unconvincing. Princess Ann made a good sensible speech, she reflected her position very well and I liked her.   Finally the "Clown Prince", Boris Johnson wowed the crowd with a barnstorming delivery which had everyone cheering (except Cameron). 
He's a total enigma. An Eaton toff who bumbles through an important job, London Mayor,where he avoids the London Mayoral Chambers councillors questions with a smile and a gag and seems to rely on his quick witted turnabout, like a comedian at the Apollo. Yet the "people" love him !!!

But the original question, why. Why have the Poms made such a good fist of following the games. Why have they bonded so well with everyone, in the stadiums, and on the pavements waiting patently for a glimpse of something or other,happily parting with their money.
Normally we are known for our stand offish, insular nature.We sit in the tube staring ahead, talking to no one and showing our distaste if someone did.

Don't they know we are in the midst of a serious depression, don't they know their jobs are insecure. We haven't (unless we are executives or bankers) had a pay rise in three years and it could be another three (five,ten) before we get one. With inflation, that means we are poorer by 30% and counting. 



Did "they" know that we would be in such a state when they signed up for the Games seven years ago, what foresight.Obviously they had seen the books.
They were in power and knew the direction of future finances ?

Lead them by the nose and they will arrive where you need them. Remember the Somme, remember Passchendaele they queued to get on the troop ships because they had been convinced that their country needed them. When they got there they were treated as cannon fodder.
Can we trust the current crop of leaders to treat these people, who have shown such willingness to respond to the national call, with respect and take them into the political calculation.        



   

Sad old bugger

Someone recently asked me whether or not my writing came from another source, was it copied?   In effect my writing comes from deep felt beliefs about “circumstances”. Circumstance’s  which afflict us all.                      

 In every "news bulletin" issues are raised about the condition of our way of life and the world around us. The bulletins can be accepted as just a “background” to life’s events as they are acted out around us, or the bulletins contain  information which affects us because it mimics much of what troubles us.  

One of the books that I’m reading at the moment is by Victor Serge. He was what is now called an "anarchist".  Of course the word itself brings to mind someone who is not very wholesome, is a danger to the society in which we live and therefore must be rejected. And yet this man spent his life fighting for humanity. His profound beliefs came from a time when people would take the time to think, form their “own” opinions and draw together with others of a similar mind-set. The point I am trying to make is that here we have a person who gave all his energy, not to making money, not to building a big house, owning a flash car, going on the latest holiday bonanza. Here was a man and there were many in his era, who felt strongly that mankind’s condition could be made easier and through their effort, would become easier. 

The more one reads the more one is influenced by the mind of the author. Each book is the outpouring of another person’s experience and it is through these many experiences that one begins to gain some perspective of one’s own life.

One of the first books that I was directed towards by a teacher was by the author Jerome K Jerome, “Three Men in a Boat”. In those days we were given time during the school day to read in class and I well remember chuckling away at the images in this book. I was also fortunate to have gone out with a librarian in Johannesburg, she introduced me to a whole range of existentialists’ writers. Gunter Grass, Andre Guide, Kafka, 

Dostoevsky ,Solzhenitsyn, and many others. It was heavy going but it taught me that writing was invariably about people and about the deep schism that lie at the root of all of us.

With all this marvellous verbiage laying in the nooks and crannies of my mind it is easy to borrow a word, a phrase, a concept and mix it with it with one’s own experience. It is the basis of any creative project that you have the tools to do the job.

 Language and the subtlety which lies in its ability to describe the deepest, lightest most frivolous set of ideas.

The danger is that one has a pet project and can then become like a stuck record, always repeating the same mantra. I know that I go on a bit about banking and the debts that the current banking system has brought mankind. There is no end in sight to the damage that has been done to the social fabric within Europe. There are of course always winners and losers and perhaps it is our turn to become the losers but that does not excuse the financial manipulation that was carried out on by the banking fraternity to gamble with our future.

Amazon is a marvellous invention. I know that it has driven many high street outlets into the red but as a service I can think of no better. The excitement of receiving the package delivered to the door, a book, is palpable.  The expectation as one opens the book and begin to read the opening lines is as good as it gets. Sad old bugger you might say!

  I'm listening to the Australian tenor Peter Dawson. Its a "memory lane" event as I remember sitting, as a child, listening to those hard scratchy shellak records pour out their songs and lyrics.          We had time to listen in those days, we had the desire to listen, we felt we were in the presence of something special something we didn't possess but had been gifted the opportunity to listen to someone    

                                           who had.

This was pre television, each home reflected something unique and individual. The tone was set by the interests of the parent, particularly the father as head of the household. We followed his lead, largely without question. His interests became the bench mark,and we found no conflict or desire to kick against this bubble. Sitting and being educated through taste, be it of music or news print, books or political opinion, we were happily led!! This shared event, this shared desire to absorb something of quality had a cement like effect.

Those were the days when the generations were defined not by their differences but by there common tastes. It bound us in a way that is now missing and can never be rekindled. A pooling of emotions, a sympathetic sharing of a deeply founded commonality that had links through the nation.
Intelligent, sensitive men and women, regardless of class could find common cause in a timeless episode of appreciation which touched deep human feelings.
Episodic events today are derived from the TV and of a far coarser a nature!

The Proms still seem to buck the trend. Its a shared community, an audience that is both reverential as well as a substantial part of the event. Enthusiastically gay,impatient in their desire to show their appreciation, and impress on the conductor their understanding and love for the music.   In so many concerts the process is very formal, the gods hand down their offering in a style that emphasises master and servant. Not in the Proms, an invention of joy not a benign pleasure but an outpouring of fun and appreciation.         

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