Norwegian Grace

I was travelling to Kidderminster when I heard the news that a bomb had killed several people in Oslo, my first reaction was blasé and not worthy even if that had been all that had happened – media hype, overreaction, oh well. The next day I could have cried, and find myself even now with tears in my eyes if I think about the events and find myself unprepared.

Was it 60, 70, 80 or 90 people shot on the Island of Utoeya, it hardly matters in one sense, it was an act of hate, intolerance and sectarianism that betrays the evil in humanity , it betrays all that is wrong with our societies based on privilege and exclusion – be it economic or otherwise. The act of calmly killing all those young people (and in a sense it does matter that they were young, because Brevik was killing the future) was the manifestation of all our hates and fears, all our prejudices; if there was act in 2011 that deserved the death penalty than that was probably it, I would have voted for it there and then.

The press and Cameron soon responded (The Sun very quickly blaming Muslim terrorists) the words were supportive, strong, and defiant, they summed up the feeling that most right-minded people would be thinking, we want revenge and retribution – we want the people, or the person, to pay, for this atrocity.

After reading the news reports and watching the developing story on TV I was ready for almost anything that day – well apart from the response Jans Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Prime Minster.

His words hurt me, they challenged my humanity and my conditioned responses, they made me feel as bad as Brevik was for clinging to tradition of revenge and yet inspired me to something greater showing me how my reactions were barbaric, he moved the argument from revenge to solution in a few short sentences.

We will fight this attack on freedom with more democracy

We will educate people

We will not give into the hatred that caused this atrocity

There are few politicians that have me humbled, and the Norwegian Prime Minister was one of them, the King & Queen of Norway wept at the Memorial Service for the victims articulated the pain of the country at this act of terrorism, at which even the King wept.

A few months later I heard my Prime Minister talk about revenge, ‘clamp downs’ during the UK Riots, I hear the lack of communication between the Politicians and the People, the divide and why things have got so bad when we have had it so good, and see the decadence of Class and privilege, the divide between the people, and wonder if the cost of our prosperity is too high.

Cameron does not give the country hope, continuity or meaning – he gives us reform, greed and division, this is not what people need in time of trouble and grief, we do not need to wallow in the negative, instead we nee to be taken above the ‘here and now’ and taken to what we can be, what we should be – this is not escapism, this is empowering hope. Amazing Grace, – written by a former Slave Trader and ‘hymn’ of the Socialist movement The Red Flag both inspire me to tears, they acknowledge the hardship of the struggle yet take us beyond that to our goal, the end journey – the empower us. Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of his country immediately to hs country’s grief and turned it into a hope, a vision.

Sadly I believe that Prime Minister Stoltenberg has this hope in his heart, a vision, enormous compassion which I don’t think David Cameron has, Cameron has an agenda but no hope, he plans but no soaring aim, he sees British politics as a game to be won, not the United Kingdom to inspire.

I wonder what has gone wrong with my country, or what has gone right with Norway?

If anything has restored my faith in the dignity of the human condition it was the tragedy of Utoeya mad the triumph of reason over the raw emotion of tragedy.

As the survivors of Utoeya waited for their rescue they sang ‘The Internationale’ – I am not sure I can say anything about that, apart from there are tears in my eyes every time I think about that, or hear the Hymn.

Divided we will fall, united we willl stand; the choice is yours and mine.

Can You Send The Cavalry? (or How I surivived ‘Sung Mass’)

Midnight Mass is always a ‘must’ for Christmas for me, and before I go any further I have to confess that before I moved to Swindon I used to attend an Anglican Church in Southampton, the early morning service was traditional but not what I would class as ‘High Church’ and a fairly evangelical service mid-morning, both had their strengths and were good, the point here is to say I know my way around the Book of Common Prayer, and love it!

The church I attended Christmas Eve was Anglican, so I should have been fairly comfortable, to be quite honest I had never set foot in the place, but St Marks was on the way home from work; the path was nicely decorated with paper lanterns, so someone had given some thought to the evening, walking into the church was the first shock!  I have been to ‘High Church’ before but I was not prepared for the almost Catholic iconography, the ‘Stations of the Cross’ and the big statues of the Virgin Mary (fairly appropriate I guess) all dating from the 1850’s though looking fairly 1930’s to be honest – I knew I was going to be uncomfortable from the start!

It was interesting to hear comments from the ‘Greeters’ that they had not expected these numbers, the church was about 75% full, and were quickly asking people to share the ‘Order of Service’ – which again was fairly Catholic in design.

The service was lovely, full of hidden meaning which I thought was pretty self-defeating as Church, as I understand, has a function to bring the people nearer to God; one of the ‘design features’ as I remember was that the ‘Altar’ or ‘Holy of Holies’ is exposed so that the Congregation are admitted to the sanctification of the elements, but it seems that in a retrograde move over the past 2000 years the Church has sought to mystify the process again.

After a couple of processions with the incense the Gospel was proclaimed, one of the wonderful traditions at this part of service I love, and can access, is that congregation turns around to face the Gospel being read, as the Bible is brought into the midst of the Congregation, and then back to the mysticism and incense.  I suppose to an extent the mysticism is what is the ‘crowd puller’ on Christmas Eve, but then again I wonder what happens for the next 364 days?

Certain elements, as I said, I could access, the Gospel, the prayers for ‘Jonathan our Bishop’, the sick, and more importantly ‘the Peace’ but all in all the focus of the evening – I assume – the Communion was not accessible, I did not feel I could take Communion simply because I was distracted and felt over awed by the ceremony and gold braid.  I cannot help but wonder at services like this how Jesus (you know the bloke whose birthday we are supposed to be celebrating) would have felt in the service, or how he would have conducted the service (I guess he wouldn’t have been able to become a Priest as he did not have enough qualifications, rather like the Apostles really).

Don’t misunderstand me I love the Anglican Communion, like the Labour Party it is a broad ‘church’ – where the Labour Party had Clause 4 to coalesce around the Anglican Church has the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds as the touchstones (there is the Athanasian Creed but this one does my head in, it’s all about the Trinity and is fairly existential to me), I love the service because it makes the congregation join in and be a part of the service, and not just a passive observer or unpaid Choir.

The only question I ask is how accessible the Church is and do I want to go back this afternoon, or next week?

Peace be with you

Merry Christmas Aidan Burley

Merry Christmas Aidan Burley.

Merry Christmas Aidan Burley

There are a lot more important things than Aidan Burley, trust me – so will he just resign?

He has brought the Houses of Parliament into disrepute which should be enough reason for him to resign, or Cameron to show him the doors to the Palace of Westiminster – well that is if our MP’s had a shred of decency and actually thought they were working for the people that they represent and not just feathering their own nests.  There is something about the ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ of how MP’s can brazen these things out. When a Prime Minister who lectures the population on Christian morals, and then turns his guns on the Archbishop of Canterbury (a man with far greater credibility on practical Christian values) I get angry, I get angry the blatant contempt he holds the electorate in, especially when he will not sack an MP who has brought this Country into disrepute.

I am sure it started out as ‘its in a Sunday paper, don’t worry it will be over in a week‘ and then it appeared again, with photographs – I know we’ll sack him from an unpaid post that gives us the headling ‘MP sacked’ and it will be all over and done with, nothing to worry about, we can spin this; the only problem it is that it is not going away, it is here to stay and a member of the ruling coalition is treating the electorate of Cannock Chase and the United Kingdom with contempt reserved for corruption racked countries – please draw your own conclusions.

The latest revelations, which Aidan is not addressing is that he allegedly hired the Nazi costume for his mate, presumably (if true) because it is not available in France – with good reason, its illegal!  What fuckwit (as we would say in the office) can’t join the dots together that if something is illegal to buy in a country then it is likely to be illegal to wear it in public, and sheer bad taste if it was for  ‘private’ use – which there is no indication.

I don’t want him sacked just for being incredibly insensitive, I want him sacked for be totally and irredeemably stupid.

There is an argument us neo-pinko-liberal Socialists use about freedom of expression and that you should be able to wear what you want, and I think the argument is good, but like freedom, has to respect other people; Nazi uniforms are reprehensible for what they represent and the connotations – and even if it was legal to wear one (like Prince Harry) then it is still reprehensible.

What is probably more disturbing about all this is the Conservative Party’s arrogance, and the feeling it has a right to do what it pleases and ignore public opinion.

Vlaclav Havel was buried, a man who united his Country, Czechoslovakia, resigned when it split into the Czech & Slovak Republic, and then went to lead the Czech Republic – a man who did not want to be President, but found himself serving his country.  One of the comments on the TV which made me wish for the leader like Havel was that the Archbishop of Prague shared a Prision Cell with Havel, and not for trashing a restaurant, but for standing up against an oppressive and tyrannical state, just like the one the Nazi one represents.

The entire affair of Aidan Burley shows us this Government has no honour, that Aidan Burley has no sense of personal responsibility – and yesterday they buried a man who had all those qualities.

Aidan, just go.

The Strange Case of Aidan Burley

Walking around in a Nazi uniform is a fairly serious thing in Europe, and rightly so, it is symbolic of ideas that are abhorrent to civilised people – in France and Germany it is a crime, and rightly so; in the UK it is not, it is just frowned upon and seen as a bit of a naughty giggle – a bit like trashing a restaurant for the fun it as the Bullingdon Club, that Cameron and Johnson belonged to, did for a larff – something the idle rich can do and get away with. The symbology of the SS Waffen uniform and the associated symbology is approaching something a ‘race memory’ and needs little explanation, in fact the swastika – an ancient Christian symbol – is banned in Germany, it is totally reprehensible in a civilsed society.

For legal reasons, the fact I do not want to spend time ‘at Her Majesty’s Pleasure’, and for fairness Cameron did not trash a restaurant, he left before his ‘mates’ entered into the frivolity, and Aidan Burley did not dress up as a SS Waffen Officer.

What is puzzling is that Aidan Burley has friends who hold these views, I certainly would not associate with people who hold those types of views, and why on earth when he saw what was unfolding he did not ‘excuse himself’ – again if I was at such a gathering I would be making a polite exit.  I just wonder if at any point he thought ‘shit, this is going to get into the papers?’ If he did think it might be making it into the Sunday tabloids then he is a dimmer than then he appears already.

It is this blaise regard for ‘family values’ that let Jeremy Clarkson ‘off the hook’ with a mealy mouthed sort of an apology from him and his ‘mate’ David Cameron unable to bring himself to say ‘shooting Strikers in front of their families’ was both nasty and offensive.

Cameron blasted the Archbishop of Canterbury for lack of moral leadership, to be honest I do not see the Prime Minister showing moral leadership either, kettles calling pans black I think. If any MP was at a gathering, even if by accident, then he should leave and exercise discretion and remember they are representing the UK on and off duty, but they should not know these people.

I have to be honest and say that I still cannot over a MP being at such a function, or having such friends – our friends reflect who we are.

The reaction of Cameron, he of the Bullingdon Club, seems very slow; only after he made his Cameron’s Christian Values speech did he actually do anything , an entire week of glorious inaction from our Action Man of Europe who vetoed the amendments of Lisbon Treaty –  not very decisive David.

The BBC is headlining that the Member for Cannock Chase has been sacked, well technically that is true – he has been sacked Parliamentary Private Secretary to Justine Greening who is Minister for Transport, the PPS role is unpaid so basically Burley will be, presumably, spending more time with hs ‘historical reenactment friends’ and hasn’t lost anything, apart from credibility which was lost the moment the story hit the news stand.

Cameron’s call for Christian morality should be extended first to his MP’s, well the whole of Parliament, and I would have hoped that Aidan Burley would have done the ‘proper’ thing and applied for the post of the ‘Steward of the Chiltern Hundred‘ or ‘Steward of the Manor of Northstead’ – in other words resigned as an MP, it would have been the honourable thing to do, though honour and the Conservative Party (when in power) are rarely words that go together.  Personal responsibility is a major theme of the Tories, unless it affects them.

Surely when a Member of House of Commons has publicly brought the Parliament into disrepute they should be an immediate enquiry and automatic suspension, I know if I had done at work I would not be sitting at my desk the next day – why does Parliament have such lax morals, and why should we take moral leadership from these people who cling onto power and privilege so embarrassingly?

During World War Two after a string of disasters and long debate ensued and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain debated long and hard to justify his position, in the end Winston Churchill rose to his feet and gave voice the feeling of the House and uttered the famous phrase:

“In the name of God go”

Aidan, do the right thing and resign, you bring shame on the Country and Pariament, you made a gross error of judgement and just saying sorry really isn’t good enough!

Camerons Christian Challenge

I am not going to be lectured bt David Cameron on ‘Christian morality’

I am too fed of this 5th Cousin of Her Majesty of the Queen who is running this country into the ground to stand by and take in the statement he would like a return to Christian morality– again Cameron is trying to take the moral conservative high ground when to all intents and purposes he stand morally bankrupt, he should be leading by example not preaching to people who are probably a lot more Christian in their morality than he could dream.

As a member of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford he was the elite, he and Osborne belonged to a club that revelled in drunken riotous behaviour, on occasion – though he maintains he left before the event – they wrecked a Restaurant, paying for the damages in cash, he did not mind taking part in other activities, is this the Christian morality that he is talking about?  I am being a little harsh, we all have made mistakes and in true Christian fashion lets leave the sins of the past, lets look at the sins of the present, where he is preaching from.

Jesus mentioned a widow, Cameron knows a lot about Widows because his Government is looking at scrapping the Widows allowance after the first year, whilst we need to save in these hard times picking on the weak in society is not exactly Biblical, though it is mentioned in James:

Ezekial 16:49 Behold, this was your guilt for your sister Sodom: she and her daughters has pride, excess food, and prosperous easy, but did not aid the poor and needy.

I know the economic argument is that we need to save money, cut the expenditure, but inflicting it on Widows who are struggling with loss of their partner and the loss of the income is totally wrong, and I am not taking morality lessons from Governments who can think it, let alone propose such action, it is reprehensible.

It is not only the Widows Cameron is looking at, it’s the Children, whilst the idea of to nearly £500 Milion to target the 120,000 families in the UK is laudable, lets look at the small print, the Government will only provide 40% of the funding and cash strapped Councils the other 60%, but Councils are already paying for Social Workers who do this job, and wait a minutes doesn’t the scheme sound a little SureStart ? SureStart is a scheme that was started by the previous Labour Government which helps families become more like a family, this helps children, families, and society; Cameron in Parliament even admitted in a Parliamentary answer that SureStart actually saves money, for every £1 spent it saves £4, a good deal, so much so that Cameron promised none of them would close – so far 124 Sure Start Centres have closed.

1 Timothy 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

My favourite phrase about this ‘Government’ is ideological thuggery.

This Government that is preaching ‘Christian standards’ have seen the weakest members of society hit disproportionately hard, the is the poor people are taking the brunt of the cuts whcih hurts them much more than the middle-classes – the poor are the hardest hit in society, bottom 30% in society are losing 3 times as much as the top 30% – an unholy Trinity;  I am fairly confident this is not very Christian.

But surely Christianity is about more than just giving to the needy, well that it is, it is about Social Justice, and whilst God thinks that religion, in its place, is a good thing from what he said through Isaiah I think Cameron I think he would have something to say about how this Government plans to trample on Workers Rights, how this Government has demonized the people who have sought refuge – and ridiculously so with Theresa May’s – and I am not making this up – Cat Story, or about the return to the deserving poor, or about the Tory Peer who said that the Welfare Act would encourage the poor to breed.

Isaiah 1:17 says “Learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of the orphans, fight for the rights of Widows

I am waiting for your Christianity to show Mr Cameron.

Proverbs tells us a character of man can be determined by the company he keeps, RebekahBrooks, Andy Coulson, Jeremy Clarkson are but a few on the Cameron Christmas Card list, tell me that does that tell us about his character?

No I am not going to be lectured by David Cameron until he can answer a straight question in the House of Commons, rather than his arrogant, aggressive, antagonistic retorts to simple questions, stop preaching Mr Cameron, and start doing.

National Health, a Service or a Business?

Its Midnight in Kidderminster, the cold is not too biting, central heating has been on, I am downstairs with my partner fretting in bed upstairs – yes a little strange but having an Asthma attack I don’t want to keep him awake, though it is a case of ‘I know, he knows, that I know’ that he is not sleeping, but the pretense relaxes me a little. The wheezing is bad enough, and when it comes I can just about cope with that, it’s the shortness of breath that really gets me and starts a primordial panic stirring in my head. I could stay like this for some time, but it’s not going to get any better, it is just going to get worse; no matter what I do, no matter how I lay, no matter what position, it gets worse.

If you want to know what it is like to have an Asthama attack, then run half a mile and when you stop breathe through the tube of a Biro, that is a close approximation.

Being brought up by Grandmother I am loathed to engage the National Health Service ‘it is only for sick people, anyhow if you go into Hospital you never come out’ her words echoes over the decades, though not required as this mantra is ingrained in my head; in fact my Grandmother paid for the NHS by enduring the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s but I inherited it from the Attlee Government and see it as natural and as right as, well, I can’t think of anything that is less part of me. I see the justice that health care is a ‘right’, a part of the contract I have with the State, I give it money to build Nuclear Missiles, which I don’t want, and it gives the NHS, which I do want. More than a contract a National Health Service, free at the point of need, is a mark of a civilised society – I don’t want to guilty rich to decide who are the deserving poor that should be beneficed by a hospital, I don’t want at Doctor collecting his ‘dues’ and if you can’t pay, well …. Bevan, the father of the NHS wrote in his White Paper ‘In Place of Fear’ – and from my Grandmothers generation being ill was a real fear, a fear that is returning

“The collective principle asserts that … no society can legimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means”

The telephone call is made, after the necessary questions the last question ‘do you want an Ambulance’ the fuss of sirens, the inconvenience of worrying that the Ambulance could be used for someone more ‘needy’ – the answer is ‘No’ the reply is ‘you aren’t able to complete sentences, I really think you should have an Ambulance’ – the logic is sound but I know the NHS has more worrying things do than send an Ambulance for an asthmatic – well that is the what the little voice in my head keeps telling me, takings its cues from Grandma – buts that’s the point, they haven’t, its someone in need; eventually the ParaMedics are sent.

A brief chat, a large form – A3 – standard tests are done and the Nebuliser administered, I hear my Grandmother tut-tutting in my head ‘you weren’t really ill, they didn’t take you to Hospital’ … but the offer was there and declined, not once asked for my ‘Payment Book’ or records – I was ill FULL STOP.

Fast forward six hours I am walking to the Railway Station in Kidderminster, dropped off by a rather tired ‘+1’ – when I say walking I have to stress attempting to walk, I am gasping for air again, lurching from one prop to another, I might pay a visit to the A&E after all, a few steps more and I am unable to breathe, or that it is what it feels like, a fish drowning in Oxygen. Being a fraud again I ask for an Ambulance again, not a good innings this visit is it? They arrive within minutes, a man having difiiculty in breathing does attract the attention; again the same process, the apologies, the gratitude, the same ‘we would rather treat you now than have to do all the paperwork for a DOA, anyhow we have a reputation to keep, none of our patients have croaked (no they did not say ‘croaked’ that is there for literally effect, but I am sure if I had asked them they would have).

Thank goodness we’ve always had, and will have, the NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE – but that is not true, in fact its a lie.

Before 1947 too many people were too poor to be ill, they simply died, or suffered in appalling conditions because of the effects of poverty, bad housing, and worse working conditions, but thanks to the landslide LabourVictory of 1947 (not so much a landslide as much as a political earthquake) things changed; the National Health Service was born in the face of almost total opposition by the Conservative Party and Doctors fearing loss of business, every Government since, including the Thatcher’s, had to maintain the NHS, and every Government had to accept a legal responsibility to provide Health Care until this Government that is.

The proposed changes to the NHS – by a Government that has no electoral Mandate, No majority, and promised NOT to make radical changes to the NHS – threaten to eat away at this fundamental pillar of my life, and make it a worse system. The British Medical Association condemn these changes and so do most people who care to listen to the news; not only will these changes remove the statutory of the Minister of Health care in England but will introduce competition, which will be wasteful as duplicated services will be provided, standards of health care reduced, and ultimately a winner that will become another conglomerate – rather like McDonald’s – which will skew competition so as to deny competition.

Not only are the Governments plans wrong, they are self-defeating by their own goals and objectives also – to be honest – I don’t want my health a matter of profit, because when you become ‘unprofitable’ to treat, what happens then?

Because of this Governments ideological thuggery and divisive polices I have to agree with Aneurin Bevan who in a debate said “Tories are lower than vermin” – the National Health Service should be enshrined not as a monument to Socialism but a monument to humanity, a monument to the Nation as something everybody benefits by and contributes to; this something everybody should be proud of, and something we protect, if we haven’t got the NHS, then what do we have?

The clock is ticking, this Government is destroying OUR National Health Service.

A couple of links below I would like you to look at:

Joyce Brand at the N30 Rally, speaking about life before the Welfare State – she’s not a brilliant speaker, wait she is ‘cos its from the heart

Interview with a Nurse who started before the NHS & has charted the changes over its life

A reminder from Germany how not to reform the NHS. costs have soared, drug bills increased & easy Operations increased.