Left with the sea

Subject: Left with the sea.

How stupid how short sighted I was last year to grumble about the inconvenience of a walk into the town centre.  Now, only 12 months later I can't walk the distance or even drive after dark because one eye has stopped working, which makes night driving difficult and my ankle has packed up, making the walk painful. 
"The Tyranny of expectations" one could call it.  The expectation that things will go on as before without giving much thought as to the components in ones life that make it so.
Health is a particular component on which most other things hinge. One can accommodate the economic variables fairly easily, one can adjust ones spending or modify the assumption that holidays or a new TV are necessary, one can even find pleasure in simplifying ones life style, discarding the old for a new edition of what is meaningful. But health is on a whole different level of importance it's the linchpin pin to who we are and the way we see ourselves.  A lifetime of walking without a thought as to the physical parts which come into play when you get the thought into your mind, 'I want to go there'. The assumption that you will always be able to is fundamental to our sense of self, take away the ability and one loses part of ones esteem.
Now I'm not talking of the Steven Hawkins's dreadful incapacity, Motor Neurones Disease or the equally dreadful Asbestosis where every breath is an effort of survival and there are many people wracked with such pain I can't  imagine how they continue to want to live, or the millions cast into a dark place by mental illness. No I am thinking more of an inconvenience, a curtailment of past accomplishments, a realignment of ones thinking and especially of ones "expectations".
The old adage, 'do it while you can' is never taken seriously since we are blessed to see ourselves in the clothes of the past, doing and achieving, much as before until some how, undefined, we can't. For instance dementia like cancer creeps up out of nowhere, the signs are minimal, almost understandable as we adjust to ageing, the difficulty in remembering or making sense of the progression of thoughts in some sort of cognisant way is normal to ageing but it's when the normal slips into the abnormal then ones expectations take on a whole new meaning.
So one day you are the old version of you, the one who wore many name tags, (not all of them to your liking) but who could trace a history of achievement and failure and who, if you are lucky, you quite liked and defended. Suddenly the mechanism missed a beat and then another, nothing much to worry about that day but as the days progressed the old becomes replaced by the new and even the new is is a work in progress. Deep down the system is beginning to fail. Like the main engine on a ship, the sum of all its parts enables it to reach port, its loosing more steam than it is generating, its having to work harder to overcome the friction in the prop shaft and  as the ship slows to a halt in mid ocean a tiny ship amidst a huge ocean, its unerring ability to cross the sea questioned, and in the end, you are left with the sea.

Immunity from prosecution

Subject: Immunity from prosecution 

I'v had to turn it off, I'v had to turn away from the news for fear of being drawn into the compounding issue of Brexit post Johnson's victory. From a distant room down a long corridor I hear snippets of banality, Johnson's triumphant cock calling, phrases like, the commons voted "out by the 31st" (without the epithet 'and to hell with the consequences'). My mind jostles with the memory of those experts brought to the Commons Committees who explained the tremendous difficulties of extracting ourselves from a 40 year enmeshment in the European Union in which the fine balances in trade and finance are thrown out for we know not what. The phrase of "oven ready" some how seemed banal compared to the articulation prompted by the people who had made it their life's work to know about these things. And now the glee as the "oven ready" brigade parade their strength in the first of many votes which will pass into law so many unpalatable things which will effect all our lives. 
Perhaps the only way is to close the door and sit in a darkened room since in essence it can't effect me much in my final years. Why must I worry for the grey haired woman in Warrington or the year weary faced chap in the high street, they were convinced by the words on the side of the bus, they were hoodwinked and mesmerised by the hooded cobra that is Boris Johnson as he sways ungainly in his contempt for the common people who were so easily won over. His view of the upland path as it nears the cliff edge is different to mine, he has a parachute to glide back down to earth as we the lemmings plunge to their death, he can always accept the offer from Donald of immunity from prosecution. 

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Are norms the same as ethics

Subject: Are norms the same as ethics.

Morality and ethics loosely distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, people think of morality as personal  or normative, and ethics the standard of good and bad distinguished by a certain community.
What is normal. Is our normality the same for all cultures or are there different norms for the Indian Hindu or the Pakistani Muslim do the stories coming out of China or Russia reveal a different norm to the one we supposedly hold precious here in this country. Do the people who decry what others do in the form of tradition or in the form of some sort or religious ritual have some sort of God given right to proclaim their abhorrence of other people's norms.
Normality when it comes to human actions or interaction, are they a fundamental, like the laws of mechanics or does it rely on the ethical process, a process of logic to finding a route through this short life without hurting others. 
The Greeks were famous for their ethical and moral debates but they borrowed much from earlier civilisation which had evolved in the Valley of the Euphrates and the early founding of the Indian seat of learning in the Indus Valley, and of course the Chinese who in their hidden kingdom were developing the philosophical and creative skills which only emerged in Europe 2000 years later. We the pronouncers of all which is right and proper today we're running around as primitives whilst these great culture flourished. Areas such as Egypt and Syria in fact the whole of the Middle East which today we decry for their apparent lack of humanity towards each other were the garden in which ethics and moral judgement were born and later debated by the Greeks to be passed on through the Romans to the western extremities including ourself. 
Christian teaching of the Commandments which came from the older Jewish religion holds a different connotation when practiced by a Jewish orthodox believer who seem content to go along with the Israeli concepts of peace and good will whilst the Christian from Minnesota is happy to pronounce for Donald.
'The lay of the land' seems to be the prevailing view which has as much pragmatism as ethical judgment and at our peril we pronounce against others.   
Comedy from the 1960s and 70s has these days to have a warning attached so as not to hurt the sensibilities of a more modern audience and yet the swearing which the modern comic uses to embellish his or her act are embarrassing to a 60s 70s audience.
The times are a changing and with it we perforce must change. If I lived in India I would have to accept the Caste system, if I lived in China I would have to get used to the authoritarian edict, and if living in South Africa during the days of Apartheid the laws had to be obeyed, even though your interpersonal relationships could soften the excesses. The undeniable fact is we sublimate our reasoning on the alter of our survival. It's a numbers game, we lose sight of those other norms which we held in the comfort of an overseas pampered environment and start to see the evil spirit under the bed (the tokoloshe) which given the chance will bite us all.
Given my submission that there is no such thing as an ethical or moral norm and that these pinch points in philosophical progress are always in flux as humankind adjusts to its new surroundings, then the so called philosophical,  ethical and moral norm which appears to flow naturally usually pampering  the the majority, is often seen differently to that which is taken up by the minority as it struggles to make its case. 
In the name of democracy, the people have spoken, overwhelmingly for another 5 years of Tory rule, which if history is anything to go by, the self same people have chosen willingly to bang their heads against a wall. But then the norm, in all its phases is nothing much more than what others tell us is normal, and the telling comes in many shapes and sizes, creeds and ideology's.
If it's a woman stoned to death for committing blasphemy or a man tied down onto the electric chair or incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, these barbarous acts are seen to be outside the normal but seen from the ideology of patriarchal Sharia law or a modern Nations concept of self preservation, other people's norms can be argued away.
He who throws the first stone, beware of the consequences.

There's a food bank near you

Subject: A food bank near you.

The knifes are out and the analysis of what went wrong is flooding the airwaves with questions about Corbyn's leadership, Corbyn's link to causes he felt some sympathy with years ago, Corbyn's lack of decisiveness when faced with the problem of who to support in the Brexit debate when the bulk of his party in the labour heartland of the northern urban sprawl had voted to leave the European Union and yet he knew that the economic argument for staying in was overpoweringly true.
Listening to voters on the street the morning after and interviewed about their reaction to what had happened to make a fifty in some cases a one hundred year old Labour seat turn blue and swing their support around Boris Johnson the lack of any sort of deeper political analysis was so so evident. The arguments of whether socialism tops conservatism as to catering to the needs of the poor, whether their personal needs are better suited by a 'trickle down' hope that having won all the cards in the pack the other side, those who live another life in a different tree lined part of the town, 'maybe' just 'maybe' something will get done on a whole host of urgent needs in that other part of the urban sprawl. These working class men and women who repeatedly claimed that "nothing has been done for us in years" and were angry about it didn't seem to think that the government, 'the decision maker' regarding the allocation of funds was the party they had just voted for. Because labour had held the constituency they felt that the Labour Party was to blame and that by voting labour out, things would change and get better.
In a similar vein they believed getting out of Europe would now improve their lot,  that the stories they read in the newspapers demonising the EU was the cause of their way of life becoming harder.  There had been no alternative voice, no explanation that the EU had for years funded the projects in their town on the basis that the EU funds the poorest parts of Europe as a collective responsibility.  It could be asked why a beauocracy based in Brussels was more in tune with the needs of the people in Hartlepool than the national government in London but we will soon find since, having cut that funding stream and now solely reliant on Boris's gang, whether the projects continue or die as the myopic gaze of Westminster Governance takes hold and the public schoolboys turn to their real interests, the City and the rich pickings from a timely Short. 
Ones immediate reaction is to join the ranks of 'the don't care' about others outside my immediate circle. If they behave like headless chickens let them get eaten by the system. Why bother if, having voted Tory, in their simplicity, they await the riches the established Tory party members have, seemingly for having been a Tory. If the rich pickings which have come over the last decade to a tiny section of the society are now accelerated by the decisions of a wealthy cabal who sit almost unopposed on the government benches, if these pickings now don't take off into the financial stratosphere and the Etonian grip on our country is strengthened to literally choke the life out of the rest of us.  Don't be surprised if your towns and the services, including the NHS don't wither over the next decade into some sort of dystopian landscape in which the food-bank will be as common place as the Tesco corner store.

The morning after the night before

Subject: The morning after the night before.

Well that's me out. The Tories are set to smash Labour by a bigger margin than in the 1980s. It's a disaster for the country but given the stupidity of the average voter they deserve to see the NHS privatised, the BBC privatised, any sense of care in the community privatised, the bankers and their ilk set to stratosphise the gap between them and us. 
We will join the United States as a client state fitting in with their idea of the social aspects of how to treat its citizens.
Ideals out of the window as the lier extraordinaire takes his seat knowing that the public are so gullible he can tell them anything and they will lap it up.
It's a sad sad day for the country
When I talk to the ordinary man in the street and see his newspaper consumption of the tirade against Corbyn ever since he came into power the reality of a shrinking social state, the school sizes, the austerity and the withdrawal of central government  funds to the municipalities and town councils which saw an erosion in wages and services, when the people of Warrington and Halifax, Bishop Auckland and Trafford wake up from their slumber and the true face of rightwing conservatism shows it's true unadulterated face, then the bruised relationship they have experienced for the last 10 years will be as if they had been caressed, not kicked in the head. 
The man and woman in the street have not seen anything yet but they deserve every ill and every exploitative action soon to come their way. Boris will waste no time in pulling us out on WTO rules but perhaps he hasn't noticed his pal Donald has just castrated the WTO by withdrawing two of the judicial representatives, in effect closing WTO down. Just another small detail hidden from us as the confidence tricksters imposed this idea of a backstop if we walked away from Europe. It's becoming a jungle out there and in any jungle the weak and vulnerable will get eaten first. Just the guys and dolls who were magnetised by the hype of Boris and so ably abetted by the Express, the Mail, the Sun, and the Telegraph.
As a person of advancing years will I ever see a compassionate 'people' orientated party leading the country. Will I witness many of the things which in my lifetime have made me proud to be British. 
The people have voted.  My own opinion for what it's worth is that they didn't vote rationally but voted for a slogan, 'Brexit let's get it done' or that equally stupid slogan 'Brexit oven ready'. When people vote for slogans rather than looking under the cover of what those slogans mean then we have become a country of pigmies, hollowed out by an educational system fit more for the jungles of New Guinea than a 21st century modern society.
How will I survive watching 5 years of Boris Johnson waffle and pontificate at the dispatch box as he sells off the silver like some African despot. As the divide between the rich and the poor widen and the food banks swell to compete with Tesco, as the down and out are swept off the streets using a version of the water cannon he bought for London in an effort to cleanse our streets, as the school class sizes in the newly won conservative seats of Warrington and Halifax swell to 40 maybe 50 per class and the teacher becomes a conciliator not a teacher, as pricing and charging begin to creep in to the NHS to cover the increase in cost of drugs and services as the American pharmaceuticals make inroads into our unique free at the point of need service.
I wonder if the poorly shod, poorly housed, poorly fed unemployed man and woman who, across a swathe of the country put on the blue rosette for a bit of a laugh because they couldn't vote for a socialist could they.
Of course it could be considered sour grapes on my part but if it's only the grapes which sour then I apologise for my rant. But if the Etonians clap and cheer relived that they hold on to their charitable status and that their man is now firmly at the helm, that the top 1% are released of not being asked to be relieved of more of their boodle in the form of higher taxes, the privatised train operators can continue fleecing the pockets of the commuter now the threat of nationalisation has been removed. The very people who are the antithesis of Warrington man, (the men and women who focused on 'Brexit, oven ready' rather than their own perilous economic state), will be chuckling behind their Financial Times this morning as they plan the next 5 year bonanza.

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Election Day

Subject: Election Day

So the day has arrived a day when our airwaves and our newspapers will, by force of law be silent on the matter of politics. 'No attempt shall be made to persuade the citizens as to the way they will vote'. Its as if we are in the eye of a hurricane, a stillness has descended after weeks of storms, of lightening and thunder, of rain and wind everything has gone quiet as we turn out in our millions to put a cross against the party candidate we wish to enter parliament and represent us. The business of parliament reaches into all our lives, no one is immune from the laws which are passed or the investment of your tax money on projects supposedly to enhance your living standards. 
Election night is the night when the media stutters into action with the election night programs which swing into life once the elections booths are closed and the counting of votes is started. 
The pundits are rounded up, the usual media personalities appear to debate the possible outcome based on information, not gained inside the polling station but from outside the station where what are called 'exit polls' are undertaken to try to flush out the voting trends. Statistics and statisticians. become the grist to the mill as the information filters in from across the country and slowly begins to define which seats will fall to which Party and from these projections, who will be the overall winner. The counting continues throughout the night and as we move from the small hours through to daybreak increasingly tired observers lay aside their pencils and abacus and the politicians line up in the municipal halls up and down the country to acknowledge the winner in their specific patch..  We at home, if we have bothered, stay up and watch the trends, the graphs and swing indicators which flash onto our tv screens indicating which party will lead the country for the next five years. The losing politicians appear in front of the cameras each trying to hold their dignity, the winners, over the moon.  The teams of canvassers and backroom staff who for weeks and months, if not years have focussed on this one event, this one night of winners and losers sit huddled in their gloom or euphoria.. The leader of the party makes a jubilant or crestfallen speech depending on the result, if the Prime Minister has won he gets to sleep in the same bed, if he has lost he parades his family outside No 10 having gone to see the Queen to submit his resignation and then tiptoes offstage left as the winner, the new PM joyfully thanks all and sundry before entering through the door of No 10 to start work, no doubt almost immediately dismantling  much of what had been promised and scoring out much of what had led the millions to vote for him or her in the first place.
It's a sham of course, promises broken, scattered like confetti in the wind, no one to hold him or her to account for the truth or the lie, only the same old same old obfuscation and downright deceit. 
The manifestos held aloft to attract the votes now discarded for another five years. Words written without any intent, which if we were in a court of law and the meaning was deemed contractual then heads would roll but in this phantom political universe different rules apply in fact I must amend that, 'no rules' apply and in this virtual reality world of subterfuge, we allow the mendacity to run on and on as if we, the headless chickens want nothing more than to continue running blind.

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Cheap but expensive

Subject: Cheap but expensive.

The fire which broke out in a factory in Delhi, causing the death of over 40 people who it appears were mostly sleeping inside the factory is part of the jigsaw which makes up the global economy. It's that part we don't see but which is essential to the slave economy  and the price we so ignorantly accept in our shops in the high street. We never question the price of a garment, there are the expensive labels and there are the myriad cheaper brands manufactured in just such a place which burnt down. It's all part part and parcel of the bonanza inherent in globalisation, the ability to exploit workforces and working conditions across the globe. It's a two edged sword, with the advent of 24/7 advertising which exploits the people living in the more affluent parts of the world stimulating them to buy things they don't need but are excited by slick presentation and the low price, a price dependent on people living and working on the other side of the world, living in abject poverty, working 15 hours a day for a penance, sleeping on the factory floor when not actually working. 
Can you imagine the discussions around the boardroom tables of investment banks discussing the financial opportunity given by exploitative manufacturing, exploiting men and women because they can. No minimum standards, no health and safety features, no limit to the hours demanded, all part of the delicious laissez a faire, market driven, smorgasbord of human manipulation practiced well away, out of sight but which similar industries, within our shoreline used to try to compete with.
The new economic order brought about in part by the use of the internet and immediate interactive communication. The factory in Delhi or Bangladesh an adjunct of Matalan  but seen only in terms of orders and delivery, a simple entry in a ledger with no sense of what happens in the factory. The rapacious public little concerned about a price which allows the purchaser to cast the dress away after a couple of nights, distressed only at the thought of being seen wearing something too often yet not distressed at the way it is landed in the shops at a price impossible to be made locally. 
We are all complicit in this exploitation of human misery. We all know but never the less  traipse off in search of the cheapest bargain but is it a bargain for everyone concerned, who cares. 
The argument that without these sweatshops the poor doomed employee wouldn't have a job is compelling in a society where inequality is engrained in the spectre of caste  an abomination of religious principles if ever there was one but to be so complicit, to not ensure that there has to be some sort of quid pro quo and that our 'Order'  is accompanied by some sort of audit as to the wages and conditions. Surely we should all be concerned to ensue this is the case.