I don't know about anyone else but to me a customer is someone who buys something: I go into a shop, select an item, pay for it, have it packed for me and I take it home. Or I go on line and as I did a few months ago buy a robot vacuum cleaner which is the most wonderful invention ever devised by humans and it is delivered to my home.
Last week I became a "customer" in a very different sense and it started me thinking. I have been unemployed for over one year and I have been placed on A4E's "JobFit" scheme to help me find work. The induction meeting was held by a trainer who guided the eight other "customers" and myself through a series of forms. This was the first time I have ever heard myself described as a "customer" in the context of a work scheme and it didn't make sense - I am an unemployed person looking for work and struggling to get by, I am not buying anything from A4E, in fact if I get a job they will make money off the back of my efforts. When I left the meeting I began to think part of the problems we face in this society is we have stopped calling things by their true names and therefore our judegement and understanding gets clouded when we try to define ourselves and our experiences.
In Buddhism clarity of thought and expression is extremely important but at the moment everytime you listen to any politicians, banker or other feral rich creature trying to protect their wealth and justify their position of power there are only illusions, half truths and buck passing coming out of their mouths.
Without going into every nook and cranny of the various scandals which are coming to light from phone hacking to drug money laundering I think we should start to re-evaluate our society and find new ways forward which will take our economy out of the Depression we are in, you notice I call this time a Depression just like the Depression which started on Wall Street in 1929 and continued into the thirties. I want to make suggestions about the economy because that is the driver for everything else - education, free health care, good affordable housing, sane happy people to name just a few.
Lets get rid of Income Tax and instead use VAT which would be charged on everything the entire population buys as the "New Income Tax" system. We know now that there are trillions of pounds hidden away in tax havens and offshore accounts that will never be recovered by the taxman, okay, leave the money where it is but think how all of us would benefit if every time one of the feral rich bought a bottle of Bollinger, a tub of caviar or a new luxury car they had to pay VAT, we would have that tax paid to the Treasury automatically (no more deals with top HMRC officials over long lunches). We, the ordinary people really would be "consumers" in the truest sense of the word able to use our full wages as we saw fit in our own communities.
We would also have to rethink what we wanted to spend the VAT on everyone wants free health care, education, council services and affordable housing but we have to ask questions and debate honestly for example, why do we still have costly, in every sense of the word, nuclear weapons and want to spend billions updating them when, we are continually told it is the terrorist who is our greatest enemy. You can't nuke a single ragged fighter with a rocket launcher - these are the sorts of debates we have got to start having and soon if our economy isn't going to continue to stagnate for decades to come and I will be an old woman writing a follow up book to "Days of Thrift" entitled "100 Years of Thrift".
Dedicated Follower of Fashion
When I knew him he was in his late fifties - corpulent with a florid complexion and a nose which was becoming swollen from too much alcohol. He wore the most expensive Saville Row suits I had ever seen with a small touch of colour on the dark cloth in the form of his matching socks and top pocket handkerchief, this was his only flambouyant gesture. He was extremely well connected and respected in the City of London and dined at all the best gentleman's clubs, attended the annual Royal garden party, Henley, Ascot and the various banquets which bored him greatly. I don't know why he took a liking to me perhaps because we were so different, I was 30 years old, left wing and a feminist but perhaps aside from the entertainment value he thought I was as ruthless as he was. I was ruthless but only about myself, I hated what I called my laziness and ignorance and how slow I was to learn, I wasn't ruthless in the way I treated other people and slowly I realised that was the difference between us. He took it upon himself to "teach" me about the City, I think it amused him to tell outrageous stories and laugh when I would refuse to believe that power and money were the only things that mattered in life. "Star gazy pie" was his phrase for people like me, why couldn't I understand that "they are sheep and we shall shear them" was the only true philosophy to live by? There would always be wealthy families like his although he was too lazy to really chase the big bucks that you could make in banking, hedge funds and investments; his father and uncle had set up the offshore companies and accounts to protect their wealth but he made sure he always had a number of seats on the boards of various companies and a few directorships and consultancies to keep his coffers full but don't ask him what those companies did or how their businesses worked.
Looking back I realise he was lazy, insular and totally indifferent to everything except those things which affected his comfort. These aspects of his nature were well hidden behind an erudite, charming exterior with huge amounts of bonhomie and wit but it was all skin deep but even though he knew it was all an act he felt proud of his effect on others, rather like an actor producing an Oscar winning performance. Despite having so many friends and so much wealth and influence he was afraid it wasn't enough, whatever his definition of enough was and what he did have was leaking away, drained away by the things he hated most - modern life and all its gadgets (he refused to use a mobile phone), unions, having to pay too much tax to support the state, a state he despised because it had banned foxhunting and all the while he was struggling to find new businesses to mentor and "consult" because the young entrepreneurs coming onto the scene with their dot com enterprises didn't need his entree into society to succeed and that made him furious.
It had been years since I had thought about this City grandee and now my memory was jogged as I watched the news and saw an interview with Marcus Agius, the Group Chairman of Barclays, he was apologising for Barclays but the fury beneath the apology was red hot, that he should have to account for his actions was intensely humiliating, you could hear it in his voice - how dare the "Great Unwashed" who are not known to him challenge his behaviour.
So, the scandal goes forward and all the old guard of elitist, entrenched, powerful, wealthy entitled people who share my old grandee and Mr Agius beliefs of entitlement and they are fighting a rearguard action for their very lives: they did nothing wrong, they brought prosperity to Britain and have given their staff jobs how can this be wrong? When this argument is challenged they fall back on how expensive it will be to have a judge led inquiry and what a long time it will take to present its findings, let Parliament, the same Parliament they fund and manipulate, do its job and have a committee look at this instead.
Just as I did you have to step away from their influence and take a very hard clear look at what they have done with their feral banking practices; how many years has this been going on? I think it is for longer than 14 months and it has affected a great deal more in our society than just the rigging of an unimportant, obscure, if you believe the bankers, inter banking rate. LIBOR affects mortgages, credit cards, pensions and business loans. How many people and businesses have gone bankrupt and lost everything they own? How many pensioners have lost assets and seen their nest eggs shrink? No one will ever know.
But what I do know is there are several things we as ordinary citizens can do. Move our bank accounts to ethical banks and Building Societies that don't award bonuses, use credit unions which I have written about in an earlier blog entitled "ABC" and petition our MPs demanding an impartial judge led inquiry.
I gradually moved away from the grandee's circle because I grew up and didn't like what I saw and heard as I sat at dinner in the various country houses and Belgravia flats, none of these powerful people ever questioned themselves about their behaviour, they are unthinking, dedicated followers of fashion. A fashion that is regressive, anti democratic and ultra right wing red in tooth and claw capitalist. I learnt about real politicks and saw how the world worked but I wanted a different world; one that is fairer, more honest and honourable and I still do.
Looking back I realise he was lazy, insular and totally indifferent to everything except those things which affected his comfort. These aspects of his nature were well hidden behind an erudite, charming exterior with huge amounts of bonhomie and wit but it was all skin deep but even though he knew it was all an act he felt proud of his effect on others, rather like an actor producing an Oscar winning performance. Despite having so many friends and so much wealth and influence he was afraid it wasn't enough, whatever his definition of enough was and what he did have was leaking away, drained away by the things he hated most - modern life and all its gadgets (he refused to use a mobile phone), unions, having to pay too much tax to support the state, a state he despised because it had banned foxhunting and all the while he was struggling to find new businesses to mentor and "consult" because the young entrepreneurs coming onto the scene with their dot com enterprises didn't need his entree into society to succeed and that made him furious.
It had been years since I had thought about this City grandee and now my memory was jogged as I watched the news and saw an interview with Marcus Agius, the Group Chairman of Barclays, he was apologising for Barclays but the fury beneath the apology was red hot, that he should have to account for his actions was intensely humiliating, you could hear it in his voice - how dare the "Great Unwashed" who are not known to him challenge his behaviour.
So, the scandal goes forward and all the old guard of elitist, entrenched, powerful, wealthy entitled people who share my old grandee and Mr Agius beliefs of entitlement and they are fighting a rearguard action for their very lives: they did nothing wrong, they brought prosperity to Britain and have given their staff jobs how can this be wrong? When this argument is challenged they fall back on how expensive it will be to have a judge led inquiry and what a long time it will take to present its findings, let Parliament, the same Parliament they fund and manipulate, do its job and have a committee look at this instead.
Just as I did you have to step away from their influence and take a very hard clear look at what they have done with their feral banking practices; how many years has this been going on? I think it is for longer than 14 months and it has affected a great deal more in our society than just the rigging of an unimportant, obscure, if you believe the bankers, inter banking rate. LIBOR affects mortgages, credit cards, pensions and business loans. How many people and businesses have gone bankrupt and lost everything they own? How many pensioners have lost assets and seen their nest eggs shrink? No one will ever know.
But what I do know is there are several things we as ordinary citizens can do. Move our bank accounts to ethical banks and Building Societies that don't award bonuses, use credit unions which I have written about in an earlier blog entitled "ABC" and petition our MPs demanding an impartial judge led inquiry.
I gradually moved away from the grandee's circle because I grew up and didn't like what I saw and heard as I sat at dinner in the various country houses and Belgravia flats, none of these powerful people ever questioned themselves about their behaviour, they are unthinking, dedicated followers of fashion. A fashion that is regressive, anti democratic and ultra right wing red in tooth and claw capitalist. I learnt about real politicks and saw how the world worked but I wanted a different world; one that is fairer, more honest and honourable and I still do.
Writing Madly in All Directions
I have just written and published as an ebook my children's stories entitled "The Artistic Yetis Cafe" which is available on Amazon. It was my third book and the one which caused me the most problems. When I wrote "Days of Thrift", my first work, I wanted to help people (which is a very big category to satisfy). I had worked for a very large multi national company as a Customer Service Advisor for twelve and a half years and every day I had spoken to customers who did not know how to deal with the real world; so many did not know how to live within their means, they didn't know how to save money, or how bank accounts worked or what interest rates were. I learnt how to express economic concepts in simple terms a child would understand. Every day I tried to educate people who couldn't protect themselves from the hard times I could see were coming. I enjoyed writing "Days of Thrift" because I felt I was making a difference.
Out of that book which included some autobiographical stories I realised that I had lived a full, unusual life which in some ways could rival a Danielle Steel or Catherine Cookson novel. Looking at events on the page I saw I had been born into poverty and family conflict but I had become a playwright and then script writer for film and television, had started as a second hand book dealer's "runner" and finally after years of hard work on the markets and at book fairs I ended up having my own bookshop in Bristol. So, I wrote my autobiography which I called "Pulling Myself Towards Myself". I found that title because it was like pulling a long rope of sticky toffee through a dark room where I couldn't find the light switch and kept falling over the furniture. As I wrote first "Days of Thrift" and then my autobiography some strange characters started to demand their own stories be told. For a long time I didn't know where the four Yetis who run a cafe in Bristol came from and then I remembered that when I lived in Bristol I had told my nephew a story about three naughty pigs who lived in a secret attic and roamed through hidden passages in our house and how they stole items from us, the humans who lived in the house to build a hot air balloon which they used to fly to the city of Granada in Spain. They returned the stolen items to the very confused humans in a large box with a thank you note, a fan, a shawl and a pair of castenets.
I told him this story because although he was only four at the time he was convinced his life would never be exciting and he would never go travelling or have adventures like his mother, father and aunt had done. I wanted to convince him that even small piggies could have dreams they could make come true.
I had written first drafts for four of the twelve stories I had outlined when my nextdoor neighbour's son visited to see my cats. He was about ten years old, as we talked and I told him about my Yetis and their amazing cafe and all their adventures he told me in such a sad, desperate voice he didn't think he would go anywhere. I was shocked, this was worse than my nephew because he sounded so resigned and accepting and he was so young. I started telling him funny stories about riding a mule down the Grand Canyon and I went onto the Grand Canyon webcam so that he could see it, then Granada and the Alhambra Palace came up and we took the virtual tour while I told him about the swallows swooping in the evening sky and the gypsy dancers; then the Hermitage Museum for the Faberge eggs. I told him that he would travel and see all these things and so much more, he went back home with a list of sites to look at on the internet where he could see various cities, their architecture and works of art, I don't think anyone had ever treated him like this before. The family moved house before last Christmas and I don't know where he is but I hope when he grows up he will travel the world.
As I sat thinking about him after he had gone home I began to see how I was going to have to draw all sorts of ideas and deeply held beliefs into my Yetis stories and I completely rewrote the outlines and reworked my first drafts over the next two weeks. Suddenly, my stories were taking over the page, the Yetis and their friends had hopes and dreams and took action sometimes in ways I hadn't expected.
When I published the book I thought that the Yetis had finished with me and I began planning my next book "Travels with My Robot" but yesterday I woke up in the morning with a story where Zog, the oldest Yetis and Head Chef of the Cafe has a cookery book he is writing stolen, I am sure the story will include solar powered rickshaws, eccentric friends and dark scandals.
What I have learnt is that all my work is interlinked and I seem to write madly in all directions but as long as I am true to myself and try to create value in my work then all the directions are the right path.
Out of that book which included some autobiographical stories I realised that I had lived a full, unusual life which in some ways could rival a Danielle Steel or Catherine Cookson novel. Looking at events on the page I saw I had been born into poverty and family conflict but I had become a playwright and then script writer for film and television, had started as a second hand book dealer's "runner" and finally after years of hard work on the markets and at book fairs I ended up having my own bookshop in Bristol. So, I wrote my autobiography which I called "Pulling Myself Towards Myself". I found that title because it was like pulling a long rope of sticky toffee through a dark room where I couldn't find the light switch and kept falling over the furniture. As I wrote first "Days of Thrift" and then my autobiography some strange characters started to demand their own stories be told. For a long time I didn't know where the four Yetis who run a cafe in Bristol came from and then I remembered that when I lived in Bristol I had told my nephew a story about three naughty pigs who lived in a secret attic and roamed through hidden passages in our house and how they stole items from us, the humans who lived in the house to build a hot air balloon which they used to fly to the city of Granada in Spain. They returned the stolen items to the very confused humans in a large box with a thank you note, a fan, a shawl and a pair of castenets.
I told him this story because although he was only four at the time he was convinced his life would never be exciting and he would never go travelling or have adventures like his mother, father and aunt had done. I wanted to convince him that even small piggies could have dreams they could make come true.
I had written first drafts for four of the twelve stories I had outlined when my nextdoor neighbour's son visited to see my cats. He was about ten years old, as we talked and I told him about my Yetis and their amazing cafe and all their adventures he told me in such a sad, desperate voice he didn't think he would go anywhere. I was shocked, this was worse than my nephew because he sounded so resigned and accepting and he was so young. I started telling him funny stories about riding a mule down the Grand Canyon and I went onto the Grand Canyon webcam so that he could see it, then Granada and the Alhambra Palace came up and we took the virtual tour while I told him about the swallows swooping in the evening sky and the gypsy dancers; then the Hermitage Museum for the Faberge eggs. I told him that he would travel and see all these things and so much more, he went back home with a list of sites to look at on the internet where he could see various cities, their architecture and works of art, I don't think anyone had ever treated him like this before. The family moved house before last Christmas and I don't know where he is but I hope when he grows up he will travel the world.
As I sat thinking about him after he had gone home I began to see how I was going to have to draw all sorts of ideas and deeply held beliefs into my Yetis stories and I completely rewrote the outlines and reworked my first drafts over the next two weeks. Suddenly, my stories were taking over the page, the Yetis and their friends had hopes and dreams and took action sometimes in ways I hadn't expected.
When I published the book I thought that the Yetis had finished with me and I began planning my next book "Travels with My Robot" but yesterday I woke up in the morning with a story where Zog, the oldest Yetis and Head Chef of the Cafe has a cookery book he is writing stolen, I am sure the story will include solar powered rickshaws, eccentric friends and dark scandals.
What I have learnt is that all my work is interlinked and I seem to write madly in all directions but as long as I am true to myself and try to create value in my work then all the directions are the right path.
Can I Have My Bookmark Back?
Years ago I was interviewed by the KGB. I was travelling through Eastern Europe and wanted to visit the USSR, this was when the USSR really was the USSR. I had all the right papers and my entry visa which included the full names of my great grandparents. I had been through customs and had my luggage checked, I was waiting in the queue while the last checks on our tour bus were completed when I was taken out of the queue and escorted to a small room by two men wearing trilby hats and brown leather coats. Neither of them identified themselves but I knew and I was terrified, my knees locked and my throat closed up. Very politely and speaking perfect English they explained that they had noticed I had some novels in my luggage, they would like those novels and in exchange they would give me some books they thought I would enjoy. My first thoughts were all jumbled together; how did they know what I liked to read, what lovely leather coats they were wearing, the leather glowed in a rusty gold kind of way and what had "Jane Eyre", "Middlemarch" and "A Bridge Too Far" done to be confiscated. Of course I agreed, these charming handsome men could have had anything they wanted just so long as they didn't hurt me. They gave me a set of beautifully made, wonderfully illustrated books on the history of Russian art. It wasn't until I was back on the coach driving towards Moscow that I realised they had my favourite bookmark, it had been marking my place in "Middlemarch", page 126 I think.
I had completely forgotten about this strange incident and my bookmark until I was watching Channel 4 news last night. It had an extended piece on Syria including an interview with the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. He is fluent in English, has a sense of humour and charm and what he said opened my eyes and brought the memory about my lost novels back.
Ever since the awful fighting and slaughter started in Syria I had been mentally abusing the Russians for not taking a harder stance against Syria's policy of killing its unarmed citizens. I couldn't understand why they had blocked the UN resolutions and now because of their actions children and women had been murdered. The Russians deplore the murders but as the Ambassador explained they won't change their attitude because they see themselves as holding the line against anarchy in the Middle East. Their nightmare scenario is this; if the various plans put forward by the Security Council or Arab League were implemented how easily the whole region could fracture, whole countries splinter and the cost of oil which is already high would spiral out of control. He was exactly like those two men all those years ago so charming but completely focussed on what they wanted to do and my fear was irrelevant, regrettable but, well, that's life and you did get some books in return for a few minutes discomfort.
I finally understood some of the Real Politick everyone has been battling with, but standing by, doing nothing, mouthing platitudes while you wait for something to happen that's what I did all those years ago at that checkpoint. Instead of saying hang on a minute, don't bully me, why do you want my novels and if I give them to you I want my bookmark back I did nothing. Well, this time I was going to do what I should have done, stand up, but my question is what to do, what can I do?
I had watched the documentary entitled
"The Real Mr and Mrs al-Asad" just the other night and I am going to try and set up a petition addressed to Asma al-Asad asking her to use her influence to set up safe havens run by the Red Crescent, allow medical aid and food to get through to the people in desperate need and ask her to beg her husband to find a different path than violence in resolving this situation.
It won't get my bookmark back but I can at least try to change this poisonous situation into something resembling the ceasefire/peace plan Kofi Annan the UN Envoy wants to implement.
When I have set up the petition I will let everyone know about it.
I had completely forgotten about this strange incident and my bookmark until I was watching Channel 4 news last night. It had an extended piece on Syria including an interview with the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. He is fluent in English, has a sense of humour and charm and what he said opened my eyes and brought the memory about my lost novels back.
Ever since the awful fighting and slaughter started in Syria I had been mentally abusing the Russians for not taking a harder stance against Syria's policy of killing its unarmed citizens. I couldn't understand why they had blocked the UN resolutions and now because of their actions children and women had been murdered. The Russians deplore the murders but as the Ambassador explained they won't change their attitude because they see themselves as holding the line against anarchy in the Middle East. Their nightmare scenario is this; if the various plans put forward by the Security Council or Arab League were implemented how easily the whole region could fracture, whole countries splinter and the cost of oil which is already high would spiral out of control. He was exactly like those two men all those years ago so charming but completely focussed on what they wanted to do and my fear was irrelevant, regrettable but, well, that's life and you did get some books in return for a few minutes discomfort.
I finally understood some of the Real Politick everyone has been battling with, but standing by, doing nothing, mouthing platitudes while you wait for something to happen that's what I did all those years ago at that checkpoint. Instead of saying hang on a minute, don't bully me, why do you want my novels and if I give them to you I want my bookmark back I did nothing. Well, this time I was going to do what I should have done, stand up, but my question is what to do, what can I do?
I had watched the documentary entitled
"The Real Mr and Mrs al-Asad" just the other night and I am going to try and set up a petition addressed to Asma al-Asad asking her to use her influence to set up safe havens run by the Red Crescent, allow medical aid and food to get through to the people in desperate need and ask her to beg her husband to find a different path than violence in resolving this situation.
It won't get my bookmark back but I can at least try to change this poisonous situation into something resembling the ceasefire/peace plan Kofi Annan the UN Envoy wants to implement.
When I have set up the petition I will let everyone know about it.
Standing on a slag heap in the rain
I was going to write this piece in January but my disease intervened and I ended up in hospital and then I had a fall so this is the first blog of the year. Lying on a trolley for hours looking at the strip lighting they use in hospital meant that I thought more about the subject than I had before. Anyone who has read my autobiography "Pulling Myself Towards Myself" knows my family was really poor, we lived in a cottage next to the gasworks by the train line. We had two fireplaces in the house - a kitchen range and a living room fireplace both of them were always alight because in the 50s people were sold the lie that it was cheaper to keep the fire burning than to let it die out and re-light it each day. This was just a government "spin" to make sure the coal industry was supported. Every month the coal man would deliver a bag of coal but by the third week the coal shed had only a few pieces of coal left in it. So, my mother and I would push my pram through the fields that ran next to the train line and we would go to the slag heap where the steam engines emptied their fireboxes and we would pick through the slag to find pieces of coal which would then be put in the pram, when we had a full pram we would drag our load home and empty it into the coal shed. I think I must have been about 4 years old when I started doing this with my mother and I was very proud of my skill in finding bits of coal and by looking at coke I could tell if it was usable as some slag, if it wasn't burnt completely was as good as coal. I always remember these forays as being in the rain and my coat would be soaking wet, my hair would be dripping down my face and my hands were so cold I couldn't feel them but I was proud of myself for helping the family and saving us money. The first time I saw children picking over a heap of garbage in Brazil it wasn't a shock to me I had a version of this myself, what I hated was that it was still happening and nobody had any answers to this poverty. I still hate it. So, what to do? At the moment I feel as though I can't influence anything as all the political turmoil is being picked over just like rag pickers, by the IMF, the European Bank, all the other acronyms, the politicians and the plutocrats who are desperately trying to firefight the Depression, and I do mean Depression, not recession, we find ourselves in. I can't stand for more than a minute before the pain in my back and legs makes me feel faint and I have to sit down so I can't demonstrate on the streets or be part of any movement like a climate camp and I really wanted to join the Republican demos against Brenda and the Diamond Jubilee illusion! But what I can do is what I have spoken about before in a previous blog ABC, local action, caring for the people in my street (I bought a portable football net for the children who play football in the street so that instead of kicking the ball against people's windows and cars they now have a net and can play safely without adults complaining about them, kids get so much stick in this country and it only alientates them instead of engaging them in their society) and when the summer holidays start I will offer the kids tuition in improving their reading and writing for free, no one in my street can afford tutors and I was a librarian and have written 3 books and don't ask how many scripts for television. These are the ways I am trying to change things so that a new generation of children don't have to stand on a slag heap in the rain.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle
When I heard about David Cameron and what he had done in Europe my first thought was "now we will be an offshore tax haven" then I thought don't be silly and didn't think about it again until I heard a political commentator make a joke about becoming a tax haven and the Tory politician he had been interviewing laughed and agreed.
David Cameron's party is bankrolled by the very richest men and companies in the UK and he served his masters well in Europe this week, he has protected the City of London against the transaction tax, the regulations which will control feral banking practices and he has delighted his party by using the veto and in their minds starting the process of taking Britain out of the EU, no wonder they all had a big party at the Mansion House.
Years ago I saw Bette Midler at the Paladium, she was wonderful and she had a joke in her act where she said "when it's 15:30 in the afternoon in New York it's 19:40 in London" at the time I thought that was a bit unfair about us but it was only a joke about England being old fashioned. I don't think its 1940 any more I think we have gone further back in time than that. The politicians seem to think we have an Empire again and are a great and powerful country again. We don't have an Empire any more, we don't have any natural resources, we have no industrial base and we have no influence.
I know what I am saying will upset the people who wave the Union Jack and turn out for the Queen "God Bless Her" and really mean it but we have become a client state of America and act as her native troops fighting in her wars and hoping for the crumbs and we have just isolated ourselves from the one power base which would have helped us out of the Depression we are in, we could have become a big prosperous player in Europe and we the people not the City of London, would have lost nothing and gained so much.
But the City of London would have had to pay a transaction tax, would have had to follow regulations which in their minds would stop them making money so the Con Dems turned their backs on the national good and have gone back in time to the "golden days of piracy" I hope I am wrong but we may end up being a tax haven run by privateers, buccaneers and pirates with David Cameron as a version of Francis Drake, Captain Morgan of Jamaica and Captain Jack Sparrow but with we hope better personal hygiene. Britain as a ship anchored off France - 24 hour a day casino banking? That's the Captain's Cabin, corrupt speculation you need the Quarter Deck, hedge fund bets down the gangway to the Purser's Cabin while the ordinary people well, we are in the bilges pumping out the sea water, being flogged with a cat o nine tails when we dare to complain - what a terrible thought, I hope I am wrong.
David Cameron's party is bankrolled by the very richest men and companies in the UK and he served his masters well in Europe this week, he has protected the City of London against the transaction tax, the regulations which will control feral banking practices and he has delighted his party by using the veto and in their minds starting the process of taking Britain out of the EU, no wonder they all had a big party at the Mansion House.
Years ago I saw Bette Midler at the Paladium, she was wonderful and she had a joke in her act where she said "when it's 15:30 in the afternoon in New York it's 19:40 in London" at the time I thought that was a bit unfair about us but it was only a joke about England being old fashioned. I don't think its 1940 any more I think we have gone further back in time than that. The politicians seem to think we have an Empire again and are a great and powerful country again. We don't have an Empire any more, we don't have any natural resources, we have no industrial base and we have no influence.
I know what I am saying will upset the people who wave the Union Jack and turn out for the Queen "God Bless Her" and really mean it but we have become a client state of America and act as her native troops fighting in her wars and hoping for the crumbs and we have just isolated ourselves from the one power base which would have helped us out of the Depression we are in, we could have become a big prosperous player in Europe and we the people not the City of London, would have lost nothing and gained so much.
But the City of London would have had to pay a transaction tax, would have had to follow regulations which in their minds would stop them making money so the Con Dems turned their backs on the national good and have gone back in time to the "golden days of piracy" I hope I am wrong but we may end up being a tax haven run by privateers, buccaneers and pirates with David Cameron as a version of Francis Drake, Captain Morgan of Jamaica and Captain Jack Sparrow but with we hope better personal hygiene. Britain as a ship anchored off France - 24 hour a day casino banking? That's the Captain's Cabin, corrupt speculation you need the Quarter Deck, hedge fund bets down the gangway to the Purser's Cabin while the ordinary people well, we are in the bilges pumping out the sea water, being flogged with a cat o nine tails when we dare to complain - what a terrible thought, I hope I am wrong.
Here's another fine mess you've got me in
When I wrote "Days of Thrift" back in March of this year I never thought that in the first week of December everything would be so changed. We are looking at a new Europe emerging very quickly from the ashes of the Eurozone implosion, a Europe Britain will have very little influence in if the politicians don't start to change their ways. I never thought when I was writing the chapter about being unemployed and how to buy cheaper food and how to barter that so many millions would be on the dole and more losing their jobs every week and some driven to suicide by the awful situation they found themselves in.
Back in March I didn't understand what the Government was doing, I thought that they were just stupid, too stupid and lazy to think through their policies but I think I have worked it out. They are aping the right wing extremist ideology of America. All the policies for shrinking government by sacking public workers, privatising health care, closing libraries, encouraging schools to become sponsored acadamies, early childhood projects and youth clubs must all be supported by sponsorship from business, rich people must not be taxed or questioned too closely about their wealth and the poor when they lose their homes due to a cap on benefits will not be "homeless" they will be socially mobile i.e they can move their cardbox anywhere they want to. These are the cruel ideas of the Koch brothers, the Bush clan and all the others who believe only in money and power and have no social responsibility.
I think that these ideas and the situation in Europe will destroy our coalition government. The reason I say that is there is a schism in the Conservative Party over Europe, Cameron has been out manouevered by Germany and France who are going to go forward with what you could call the Republic of Europe Britain has no control over this because we are not in the Euro and Cameron has already been told to stop annoying the grown ups while they sort Europe out. If treaties are re-written or new treaties created part of his party will want to pull out of Europe and they will demand a referendum about Europe to get their way ignoring the fact that Britain cannot withdraw if for no other reason than our trading and export links. This row will shatter the Cons.
As the catastrophe of the ConDem policies have overtaken our country more and more people have become politicised, people who have never stood on a picket line have gone on strike, UK Uncut, the various blogs and sites, left wing comedians, some interesting documentaries about money and power and the serious talk shows have started to talk truth to power and there is no Murdoch Press to spread lies and the right wing agenda because the Leveson Inquiry is showing all of us just how disgusting they have been and that they are not to be trusted to put the cat out.
I am not looking forward to any of this, I wish we had intelligent people in government not greedy, ignorant fools only interested in finding the next trough to stick their snouts in but that is our reality and we owe it to ourselves to think, read, discuss and understand politics and not say things like I don't have any opinions some one else who is cleverer than me can decide what to do, that isn't democracy and we need more democracy not less right now
Back in March I didn't understand what the Government was doing, I thought that they were just stupid, too stupid and lazy to think through their policies but I think I have worked it out. They are aping the right wing extremist ideology of America. All the policies for shrinking government by sacking public workers, privatising health care, closing libraries, encouraging schools to become sponsored acadamies, early childhood projects and youth clubs must all be supported by sponsorship from business, rich people must not be taxed or questioned too closely about their wealth and the poor when they lose their homes due to a cap on benefits will not be "homeless" they will be socially mobile i.e they can move their cardbox anywhere they want to. These are the cruel ideas of the Koch brothers, the Bush clan and all the others who believe only in money and power and have no social responsibility.
I think that these ideas and the situation in Europe will destroy our coalition government. The reason I say that is there is a schism in the Conservative Party over Europe, Cameron has been out manouevered by Germany and France who are going to go forward with what you could call the Republic of Europe Britain has no control over this because we are not in the Euro and Cameron has already been told to stop annoying the grown ups while they sort Europe out. If treaties are re-written or new treaties created part of his party will want to pull out of Europe and they will demand a referendum about Europe to get their way ignoring the fact that Britain cannot withdraw if for no other reason than our trading and export links. This row will shatter the Cons.
As the catastrophe of the ConDem policies have overtaken our country more and more people have become politicised, people who have never stood on a picket line have gone on strike, UK Uncut, the various blogs and sites, left wing comedians, some interesting documentaries about money and power and the serious talk shows have started to talk truth to power and there is no Murdoch Press to spread lies and the right wing agenda because the Leveson Inquiry is showing all of us just how disgusting they have been and that they are not to be trusted to put the cat out.
I am not looking forward to any of this, I wish we had intelligent people in government not greedy, ignorant fools only interested in finding the next trough to stick their snouts in but that is our reality and we owe it to ourselves to think, read, discuss and understand politics and not say things like I don't have any opinions some one else who is cleverer than me can decide what to do, that isn't democracy and we need more democracy not less right now
