tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46978451389373033782024-03-19T11:29:41.044+00:00Phil's BlogPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-78587263003706106612016-11-02T11:30:00.000+00:002016-11-02T11:37:55.377+00:00"Falling"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/%20484277766150807142/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/48/ef/e2/48efe2d1800bd04ea726bd3090519580.jpg" title="Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman. 1937" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/%20484277766150807142/" target="_blank">Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman. <br />1937, Etching, aquatint, and drypoint </a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Written for Halloween 2016)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is a moment. In a bar. Across a crowded room. In an
office or a factory. In a street. More than once at the school gates. In the
middle of a riot. In a busy market. Once in deep snow. At a railway station,
late at night as the rain blusters and billows across the platform.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She is not beautiful. Well, not so beautiful as to attract
attention. But she is incomplete; she needs and, in that regard, like any
human, is perfect for her purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She does
not dress to attract. Indeed for many years her dress has been poor,
threadbare, worn. But at times she has been dressed in satin, plush, lace with
jewels to sparkle. At all times she has been perfectly at one with her
surroundings.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She can, however, when required, hold herself with
confidence; head up, back straight, hands flat on the bar or table or in her
lap, eyes steady. Or she can be vulnerable, fragile; a slight turn, eyes
glancing down, a shy smile.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So there is always that moment. The moment when she sees
them and when their eyes meet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then she holds their gaze. She holds their gaze for a
little longer than they expect.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And she falls in love.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Their fate is sealed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">They are all different, of course. Each one, unique. Though
she can hardly remember them all now. She remembers the places first – and, curiously,
the smell – and then the person and then their story. Sometimes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The man with a scar. The married man – many of those – who
is afraid of his wife. The man who doesn’t care about his wife. The man who has
never fallen in love...until now. The soldier just about to go to war who
suddenly has so much to lose.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The lost man, wandering the countryside in search
of his life. The widower who feels no right to happiness and weeps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman - oh yes there are women too - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the woman who is surprised that she feels this
way but is inspired, overjoyed...at first.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The man who has several mistresses
and treats each with contempt. The young man, ridding himself of his dominant
mother. The poor man for whom she is the most precious gift. The rich man who
feels he could risk everything for her.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How many? She can’t remember. But it happens only once,
sometimes twice a year. But each has their own time. Each story plays out to
its inevitable conclusion. And now it has been what, three hundred years? So,
four hundred stories? Perhaps.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It started in a time before cars or telephones. On dirty
streets and in desperate lives. Still, love sprang up like brambles, thorny and
obscene, frail flowers to give hope of redemption. She falls in love and they always
fall in love with her. Some for ever, it seems, some only for a few days,
moments really. Some joyfully, many wretchedly. But always.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During wars and riots, great masses taking to the streets in
anger or celebration, falling in love was easy. In the tired trudge of life
towards the grave, love was more unexpected but more compelling.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To begin with she had wondered about her purpose. She had no
name for her existence. Not an angel, though many had used that exact word to
describe her as they made love. She did not know how she had come into being,
she felt only the drive to find them, these chosen people, to allow their eyes
to meet and to fall.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She wondered for many years if she was sent. Perhaps each
one was selected? But she knew no creator, no God. Now she knows that she is
alone and she herself chooses. She simply looks. She has a sense. It only takes
a moment. She holds their gaze. She <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">makes</i>
them fall.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then each story unfolds. Unfurls. Unwinds. Uncurls. Uncoils.
Untwists and turns and writhes and slithers to its bitter end.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In all these long, long years she has been loved too deeply.
She has been neglected. She has been ignored, abused, cast aside. She has had
entire lives built around her. She has been one amongst many – all ill-used. But
each step deeper in love takes her nearer the end.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sooner or later she is standing on a street, looking up at a
window watching as he kisses his wife. She appears at the party of a distant
friend, or the office, knowing he will be there. She follows him home to
discover his other lover. She bumps into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her</i>
husband and befriends him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She writes. She writes. She writes. She phones. She phones
at two a.m. She stands in the market place and denounces him. She reports him
absent without leave. She whispers in the ear of an indiscrete friend. She has
carried bastard babies into homes and factories; she has torn the ragged clothes
from her body in despair; she has sent the wrong text at the wrong time; torn
extravagant pearls from her throat and scattered them across the ballroom
floor. She posted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> photograph
online.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are so many ways. But it ends. As end it must.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is another moment. A look, an fogged emotion across their
faces. Eyes still or flickering, widening or narrowing. Sometimes shock,
sometimes fear or anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorrow.
Sometimes they are simply puzzled.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A knife, often. Slips between ribs so easily. A sickle. An
axe. A blunt instrument; hard first time is better than repeated clubbing. Sometimes
a gun, but rarely. A car. A cliff edge. Hands closing around the throat or head
held under water until the last bubbles disappear.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And at that moment, she is complete. Satisfied.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And there she lies, blood spreading like a cape on the
ground or with her head crushed or with water filling her lungs, and she is at
rest.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And her lovers meet their own fate. Their guilt, their
agony, the desperate attempt to cover up her body and to leave no trace, but
with fear and mistrust following like a mangy dog. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sometimes confession; grief, sobbing regret and the
trembling surrender to the police, the gallows or suicide. None of them escapes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She rises up, in another body, unbroken and therefore whole
and therefore beautiful, but in need again and therefore incomplete. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She finds herself in a bar, or on a factory floor, lamp-lit
in a midnight railway station. On a crowded avenue. She is holding a glass, a
cup of tea, a baby, nothing at all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">She catches their glance, holds it for just a little longer
than they expect. She smiles.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And she falls.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">© Philip R Holden 2016</span></span></div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-53602396269345436352016-08-18T10:01:00.000+01:002016-08-18T10:01:40.664+01:00Cornwall<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAgsWCPR6Xc92AMrdfdQKkPHnb3hp7aw0GLsg7b9LVz4TUKQ40mUxrAUg1lZVVL0yv8MR8HxhQQ9xhmNpGxXUTBelC19OuytGMWZIC7zk9CHQeZhyh3wq9eNvzIqHeGFMoVEUYAbg1VjvQ/s1600/portholl-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAgsWCPR6Xc92AMrdfdQKkPHnb3hp7aw0GLsg7b9LVz4TUKQ40mUxrAUg1lZVVL0yv8MR8HxhQQ9xhmNpGxXUTBelC19OuytGMWZIC7zk9CHQeZhyh3wq9eNvzIqHeGFMoVEUYAbg1VjvQ/s320/portholl-view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The great mill far out to sea<br />Unfurls giant sheets of mottled blue-green, hammered by winds<br />Torn edge, white core, it flutters by the charred remnants of the ragged land.<br />A desiccated map, now over-grown by moisture, mold and mildew.<br />Oil on glass, a cracked table-top, reflects badly the blue,<br />Scuffed with impossibly optimistic clouds;<br />A child's imagination of a sky.<br />Each sheet, a page, tells the story of the coming and going.<br />Whole lives drawn out upon the hours and tides.<br />The mill, relentless, driven by unknowable celestial forces, turns.<br />New pages unfurl, through the press of ancient knowing;<br />Hands, caresses, promises and glances.<br />Fortunes, shining dreams. Loss.<br />Despair, deceit, wonder, horror.<br />Greetings and goodbyes.<br />Each written in the lightest hand.<br />Palimpsest; washed, scratched, scrubbed, rewritten by sea and sand and cliffs and time.<br />Too long ago even now to be forgotten.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-36510107211960681382016-07-01T10:41:00.002+01:002016-07-01T10:41:25.186+01:00Somme<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3935734.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Battle-of-Albert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3935734.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Battle-of-Albert.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture credit: Mirrorpix <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/first-day-battle-of-somme-8318629">http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/first-day-battle-of-somme-8318629</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span>
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Before I went to France,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I read the painful hand-written lessons in my school book.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">"I am, you are, we are, they are".</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">My first journey to another world.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Je suis</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I did not know what was "over the top"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I could not see.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The mist-shrouded horizon.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The blue sky above, smiled.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">But I knew, I knew, that life would one day end.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">And why not now?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Nous sommes</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I did not know what was beyond <i>me</i>.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I could not see beyond</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The fear-clouded faces.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">My new friends smiled, tense.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">But I knew, I knew that they were here and now, sharing fate.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">What? Now?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Ils sont</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I did not know what was beyond life.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I could not see.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The promise-blurred horizons.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The angel-smiles, God's grace?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">And I wanted to <i>know</i>, be sure that others lived.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">A thousand questions left, no time to answer.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Ils ne sont pas</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I cannot see what is after my time</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I could not then imagine.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">You are beyond my horizon.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The same blue sky above you but please understand; it does not smile.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Do you know, do you know, that life will one day end?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Why then? Why now? And how?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Vous êtes</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">There is no translation across time.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I cannot tell you how I lived or died.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">No grammar for two lives that never overlap.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I did not know if I should be remembered </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Or if the whole world crumbled in June and died by Christmas.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">But perhaps you are as dead as I.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">When time rewinds and verbs are practised to bring us back to mind.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">My now is then, your now is already gone.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">We were, we are, we can be joined.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">If only in the painful writing,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Of a lesson in a schoolbook-story of another world.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-53370335166754253762016-05-24T16:13:00.006+01:002016-05-24T16:13:53.320+01:00One day<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://miriadna.com/desctopwalls/images/max/Red-morning-on-the-road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: blue;"><span></span></span><img alt="" border="0" src="http://miriadna.com/desctopwalls/images/max/Red-morning-on-the-road.jpg" height="200" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>18.......</b>If life was a day, our childhood is done by 4.30 in the morning.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>27.......</b>For you, at 6.45, perhaps the sun has only just risen.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>48.......</b>Midday comes and goes.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>55.......</b>The sun has gone past its height by a 1.45, </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> but the day could be hotter than it has ever been.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> The afternoon stretches before us.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> These are the lazy afternoons, relaxed, perhaps the best. Enjoy these hours. <br /><b>64.......</b>By 4pm, we can take it easy. Maybe finish work early. Have fun.<br /><b>72.......</b>By 6 it's starting to cool.We think of pulling on another layer, </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> We huddle closer to the fire.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> The warmth is fading, the sky a deeper blue.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Each moment becomes more precious with the fading light.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Sun sets. But there is yet life to be enjoyed.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> We hope we are home with our loved ones.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>88.......</b>But 10 o'clock comes and goes and hours are not so common as minutes.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>96.......</b>Until the distant midnight chimes to leave the day for others</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Or on for a few more fleeting moments? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> A glimpse of tomorrow?</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://miriadna.com/desctopwalls/images/max/Almost-night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://miriadna.com/desctopwalls/images/max/Almost-night.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-37672590505140475112015-10-29T07:50:00.000+00:002015-10-29T07:57:05.625+00:00All Souls’ Eve - a poem<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This poem was written for the Tunbridge Wells Writers 'Fright Night' held around Halloween each year, though of course, it's not intended to be frightening.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is, however, about death and it takes inspiration from the All Hallows Eve traditions of saying prayers for the dead, as well as going door-to-door, singing and being offered 'soul cakes' (apparently called 'harcakes' in parts of Lancashire - an idea that completely passed me by in my Methodist childhood) the forerunners of today's Halloween trick or treat customs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So, in saying prayers or lamenting the dead, we might remember all the times they were as distant and removed from us in life. Other people are always, to some extent, separate - 'other minds' - and are no more or less alive in our imaginations when they shuffle off this mortal coil: where <i>coyle </i>meant bustle or disturbance, the real performance of life</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8bVhg6xaXp1T2CbSPHGJMQFadA-yVNB2elKQT-93GkAEszh6vsJQAe8HKI-h8tHZ9AXTi9wpItMlKwCRg50BqZ6RMsjqOkfQdugtM5-tQBXQhpghCpV4LtXUvrjN5Yf4-eXiB7nJe5WZt/s1600/old-home-bw.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8bVhg6xaXp1T2CbSPHGJMQFadA-yVNB2elKQT-93GkAEszh6vsJQAe8HKI-h8tHZ9AXTi9wpItMlKwCRg50BqZ6RMsjqOkfQdugtM5-tQBXQhpghCpV4LtXUvrjN5Yf4-eXiB7nJe5WZt/s200/old-home-bw.png" width="91" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All Souls' Eve</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you closed the door, you were no longer there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the light was extinguished and you refused to speak. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were
not there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A soul, a soul, a soul cake! </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mixed and proved and baked and cooled.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were once, and now you are not there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you left the house to work, you were not there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you hid behind a book or ghosted into TV-land, </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you were
no longer there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A soul, a soul, a draught of wine.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grown and picked and pressed and kept.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were once, and now you are not there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you sang and soared, </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">became
another, you were no longer there.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you stayed away; when you travelled far. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were
not here or there</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A soul, a soul, a catch of song.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Plucked from the air and pinned to the stave, </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">flung
from string into echo.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were - once: you are no longer.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you stopped, you breathed no more.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you closed your eyes and refused to speak, you were not there</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A soul, a soul, a soul-shell.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Born and mixed and raised and pressed and pinned </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and flung
and kept and cooled.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were not there, you were not there</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For none of us are here or seen or heard,</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unless we are here and seen and heard.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">©2015 Philip Holden</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-86738627632224154692015-02-27T13:04:00.001+00:002020-06-17T22:11:28.507+01:00<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.illustrationx.com/images/artist/grayjolliffe/56685/full/500/couple-undergarment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://media.illustrationx.com/images/artist/grayjolliffe/56685/full/500/couple-undergarment.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://www.illustrationx.com/artists/grayjolliffe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div>
<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br />
Willy</b><br />
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
I've a willy in my trousers
<br />
<div>
It's been there since my birth</div>
<div>
Though it hadn't got much length</div>
<div>
And it hadn't got much girth.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've a willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
I had it as a boy</div>
<div>
My Mummy said "Don't do that,</div>
<div>
Your willy's not a toy."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've a willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
It led me on to knowledge</div>
<div>
It allowed me in Boys Grammar School</div>
<div>
Which got me into college.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've a willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
I've had it all my life</div>
<div>
It helped that it grew up with me</div>
<div>
And helped me get a wife.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've a willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
It gets me higher pay</div>
<div>
I never have to use it</div>
<div>
I only have to say -</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"I've a willy in my trousers"</div>
<div>
And I can be the boss.</div>
<div>
You haven't got a willy?</div>
<div>
Oh well, my gain, your loss.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now, the willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
Has many roles, though chiefly</div>
<div>
It helped me help make babies</div>
<div>
If only very briefly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And the willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
Doesn't ask for me to thank it</div>
<div>
But occasionally gets restless</div>
<div>
And then I have to ...readjust myself and try and think of something like Jeremy Paxman or the weather.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The willy in my trousers </div>
<div>
Will be with me when I go</div>
<div>
Though it's silly to be worried</div>
<div>
Because nobody will know</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If my willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
Made me kinder; made me meaner</div>
<div>
Or that if I'd been a woman</div>
<div>
I'd have called it Wilhelmina </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've a willy in my trousers</div>
<div>
And it's made me what I am</div>
<div>
Not a genius or hero</div>
<div>
Just a silly willy man.</div>
</div>
</div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-83074651153961273472015-01-19T10:41:00.000+00:002015-01-19T10:41:01.536+00:00Early Winter (2015)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The breath is held. Why give up warmth? Why give way to the
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The step is tense. Why slip? Why lose one’s footing?</div>
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We are on the edge.</div>
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In time we may say. “What happened to Winter? It was mild,
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That was when...</div>
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Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-34725025944091765552015-01-09T17:18:00.002+00:002015-01-09T17:18:16.846+00:00The paradox at the heart of the Paris murders.<div>
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I think have an eye for puzzles. I 'see' them before I understand them. </div>
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So it was with the murder of the journalists, cartoonists and police officers in Paris on the 7th January. It was not the obvious shock and the futility of death but it was something to do with the narrative, the supposed causes and effects. There was something self-defeating and contradictory. It seemed so convoluted that, at first, I couldn't even explain it to myself. But it was there. A puzzle.</div>
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Let us, first of all separate out the idea </div>
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that these were 'Islamic terrorists' from the act they committed.<br />
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There are, it seems, some Muslims who would argue that they are at war with, presumably, anti-Muslims. I don't know this for myself, since the only source of this idea is the media I consume.</div>
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It's this same media that sometimes makes me think that some Muslims are getting a poor deal - along with many other people; Christians, Buddhists, atheists, women, men. Indeed, it is the media that tells me that some Muslims are being persecuted and I conclude that this is wrong. Whatever their beliefs, they should be able to live in peace. </div>
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And it would seem (from what I've read) that many people of all religions (and none) agree with me. It is probably one of the few things that an overwhelming majority of the world's population agree. Not, as it happens, freedom of speech, but freedom of <i>thought </i>as well as freedom to live.</div>
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So what effect could anyone (of any religion and none) think killing people who expressed a thought could or should have?</div>
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If Charlie Hebdo had NOT published satirical takes on the prophet Mohammed, then the gunmen would not have known that people held (apparently) anti-Islamic beliefs. In fact it gets more twisted because, of course, simply because such articles and images were published does not demonstrate that anyone holds a particular belief... These are expressions of thoughts, parts of a conversation that takes place between the creators of the images and stories and their readers and thence between other readers and, indeed, prior to their creation between other people and the creators.</div>
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If I say to you I think God is stupid for creating different religions what can it possibly say about my beliefs? That God exists? That he is a he? That he can't possibly exist because he makes stupid things happen? That he actually does exist and is stupid? That I can't fathom his divine plan? However you interpret it, I can't believe all those things at the same time and (depending on your point of view) so which one would you elect to judge me on?</div>
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In truth the printing - ink on paper and, what, 60,000 copies? - of any article in Charlie Hebdo is a matter of little consequence. Like the tip of an iceberg it represents only the visible manifestation of a thought, a passing thought at that, that contributed to a flow of conversation. It echoes (and is contested) in hundreds if not thousands of other conversations taking place in streets, bars, homes, on Twitter...sometimes in print...and yes, in churches and mosques all over the world.</div>
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And what these gunmen did was choose, quite arbitrarily to impose a judgement on a group of people who they presumably held responsible for part of this conversation.</div>
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But what they did was not only random it was also illogical. </div>
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For the self-same freedom of thought is so basic, so universal, that the gunmen themselves depend upon it.</div>
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Even as the gunmen drove away from the site of their atrocity in Paris they relied on the common decency of ordinary French people to allow them to do so. To drive on the right side of the road to give way to them where instructed. They themselves depended on the common humanity of people to allow them to take on the sole responsibility for their actions, trusting the masses who assembled subsequently in city squares NOT to turn into a mob and begin judging anyone who expressed a contrary thought.</div>
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Should they be caught (and not die in a shoot-out, which at the time of writing seems likely) what will they expect to happen? They may anticipate being brought to trial when they may be defiant and uncooperative, but they will be afforded respect by the very people who condemn their acts. They may confess and shout threats from the dock, but they will know that they will not be summarily executed for doing so. </div>
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They will rest easy in the fact that the vast majority of people in the world respect their right to think things that are abhorrent to most of us. And they will rest easy in the knowledge that that same majority will not hold their families responsible for their crimes nor condemn the doctors, police or prison officers who will care for them in the way that police officers attempted to care for the staff of Charlie Hebdo.</div>
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Their actions - the random and ill-conceived murder of genuinely innocent people who job was to print thoughts for other people to consider, and indeed reject - achieve nothing. It is, by definition, self defeating.</div>
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Rather like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, if you kill everyone who disagrees with you, you are not 'right' (since there is no-one to observe you being right)...you are just alone.</div>
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And then... <i>vraiment, vous etes un charlie</i>.</div>
<br /></div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-40359645353771515302014-10-29T11:06:00.000+00:002014-10-29T11:11:54.044+00:00The Letter, A Story for Halloween<!--[if !mso]>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "iNked God"; font-size: 28.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">THE <br />
LetteR</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The following letter comes from the old British Museum Library
collection in Bloomsbury where it was found folded tightly into the spine of an
old book in amongst a collection gifted to the Museum during the First World
War. The donor was long forgotten and the collection was a strange mixture
of scientific treatises - mostly human anatomy - eastern mysticism and magic,
of the black variety, dating back three hundred years. The collection had been
unexamined until just a few years ago when the reading room was renovated and
the contents of many such boxes were catalogued. The books and accompanying
papers have now been digitised and may be read by anyone with access to the
world wide web. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This particular letter is a puzzle. It is dated October 31st
1849 and is addressed to a Miss D. Hallsworthy in Lincolnshire
and consists of two pieces of paper. Though clearly both written by the
same person one sheet is large, closely written on both sides whilst the second
is somewhat smaller and the writing more untidy, perhaps frantic. It is a
mystery then that the first sheet is typical mid-nineteenth century cotton rag
paper whilst the second is an example of paper from the Millington paper mill
produced only from around 1912, leading some to believe that the whole is an
extravagant hoax. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">One final curiosity is a note fastened to the cover of the topmost
book, in a bundle bound together with leather straps reading simply
"Examine the contents of the box very carefully. Assure yourself there is
nothing inside. Tell everyone."</span></span></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This is the letter.</span></span></span></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span></div>
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" /></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<br /></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">"My dearest, dearest Sister</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">What a wretch I am. And how wretched are
you, though you do not know it; cursed beyond imagining. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I hardly dare describe what I am about to suffer
nor the fiendish person that has brought me to this end. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Please, I beg you, do not tell Mother the
contents of this letter. I am afraid that it would drive her to madness and I
cannot bear to think on that. You, I know, are strong and have ever been my
support. But even you I fear to be crushed under the weight of knowledge
that I must share.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I have been given but one hour and barely the
light of a single candle to write this. I am sick with fear and dizzy with
disbelief that I should be in this predicament to which, through my words, I
must bring you in mind and imagination, though thank God, not in your person.
However, write I must, making my account as full as time permits.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Believe me when I say, were it not for the
foulest threats ranged against you and Mother, I would have summoned up the
courage to fight, even to the death. But then I fear you would have heard
nothing from me, nor could I then have protected you from the vengeance that is
now being wreaked on me. Hence, I have no choice at all. My fate is before me
and is terrible.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I should explain how I came to this pass.
As you know, I have been working in London these five years for Mr
Eldridge, editor of the London Advertiser. My fond ambition to be a writer I
thought that the position as junior clerk would afford me some opportunity and
I was as industrious as any youth of seventeen years could be.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I believe that Mr Eldridge soon came to see in
me some accomplishment and he sent me to attend Bow Street to report on the
dramas that there daily played to a small crowd of reporters and the city's
lowest creatures.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Having discharged my duties thus in short
reports of crime and punishment, I occasionally added embroidery to what
sometimes seemed dispiriting commonplace lives held up to the blind judgement
of justice. Eldridge would grunt, strike out my most lurid prose and,
gradually, direct me to work that afforded more licence for the artistry I
thought I possessed. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Within two years I came to be Eldridge’s principal
reporter of entertainments, offered at the many music halls of which I know
Mother would not approve. I may say that both on the stage and off, I saw such
things that completed my education as a man of the world, or at least that
nether-world that exists, I suppose, in all great cities and away from the gaze
of good Christians. And I wish to God I had stayed reporting honest thievery
and murder.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">But enough. It was, I think just a week ago that
I was instructed to attend the performance of a Fakir or a magician who had
excited some attention from an acquaintance of Mr Eldridge and I attended late
that afternoon the second house at the Green Gate Tavern, opposite the much
more salubrious Eagle, in the City Road.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">It was a dark, wet and foggy evening and the
roads were filthy with mud. A few miserable citizens ventured out and only
hardened drinkers lingered in the Tavern. Yet, it was at the Green Gate that
the magician was to be seen. Amongst the broken drunkards and incorrigible moll-hunters
of the tavern was an imperious Chinaman with a painted face and dressed in a
red silk gown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An easel on the stage
declared him to be "Fu-Chow the one true magician of the East".</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">He was not commanding the attention of the crowd.
He produced living lizards from a red flame and caused a bottle of water to
boil over and turn to bubbling tar, yet the crowd jeered and continued with
their drinking. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Finally, it seemed in a rage, the magician pulled
at a damask cloth, uncovering a cabinet; a red painted box little taller nor wider
than a coffin. He opened both the front and the back to show it empty and
invited a volunteer to assist. The first drunken man to stagger forward
proved too corpulent to fit within the cabinet and he gave way to another who
was smaller but no less inebriated. The smaller man walked with a stoop
and used a cheap bamboo walking stick in his left hand. After stepping into the
cabinet, the doors front and back were closed.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">After a moment and some incantations, almost
inaudible over the din of the Green Gate customers, the Chinaman opened once
more the cabinet to reveal not, as one would expect in this age of cheap
trickery, an empty cabinet but instead a skeleton. I was intrigued, especially
as the skeleton both stooped and held, wedged between its bony fingers the same
bamboo cane which the cripple had taken onto the stage. The Chinaman, far
from being triumphant cursed and kicked the cabinet violently. Even then, the
audience bayed and catcalled, one shouting that they were well rid of the man.
Then a bottle was thrown and, no doubt in fear, Fu-Chow called for the curtain
to be rung down.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Out in the street I pondered a little on the
trick I had seen, for a trick it surely was. No rational mind would spend more than
a moment on it. I decided that the stooping man was a confederate of the
Chinaman and that there was no more to the illusion. Would that I had
thought longer and even ventured backstage to enquire of the man. I did
not. And instead I wrote a mocking account of the ‘One True Magician of the
Green Gate Tavern’ which was published in the following evening edition. I
was, I must admit, too proud even to admit to myself that I was troubled by the
skills of the magician I had seen, and instead I sought to belittle him and his
conjuring in the eyes of our readers.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">It was the day after publication that a message
reached me at the Fleet Street office of the Advertiser to request urgently,
but politely, that I attend a house in Clerkenwell that afternoon where Fu-Chow
himself would be glad to show me some of the secrets of his trade.
Perhaps you have already guessed that the magician was seeking some
recompense for my dismissing his performance and I am afraid you are correct.
To my lasting regret I did not think on this until it was too late. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">The magician Fu-Chow himself answered the door
at my first knock and smiled at me broadly. He was indeed from the east, his tanned,
yellowish skin was taut, over a round, clean-shaven face. I estimated him to be
perhaps forty-five or a little older.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Immediately he began gabbling at me in a mixture
of broken English and what I supposed was his own tongue. No sooner had I
entered the house than I was led down to a cellar lit only by candles in which
stood the same red painted cabinet I had seen on stage. Fu-Chow explained
to me that I should examine the cabinet very carefully. He urged me to assure
myself that it was empty. These were undoubtedly words of English that he had
practiced for his performance, for they were pronounced clearly and carefully
unlike his earlier gibberish. Finally, and comically I thought at the time, he
prompted me to "tell everyone", although there were only the two of
us in the cellar room.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">He gestured into the box and I innocently
stepped inside as he closed first one door and then another. A small chink of
candlelight illuminated the inside which appeared plain and smooth. I
tried to make a joke of the unsettling situation by asking him questions. Whom
did he suppose I should tell about this cabinet? Was I too to be
transformed into a collection of bones?</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">My dear sister, he laughed. It was a laugh so
high in pitch that it seemed to pierce my heart and it spoke only of his
demented triumph at my imprisonment. It was then that he slipped this
paper and a small pencil through the crack in the cabinet and told me to write
an account of what I had seen. Though he assured me that I would not be
transformed as the stooped man had been at the Green Gate, I was - I am -
fearful that he was hiding his true object from me so that I should write this account
to you. Further he swore that, should I not co-operate, he would seek out
all my family and cause them to enter this self-same cabinet to face who knows
what end?</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I have but a slender hope that you
will receive this before I die. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">Though I can hardly place my faith in this
loathsome beast. He has promised that he will deliver this letter. My
entreaties to bring this letter direct to your hand have been met with silence.
On one occasion only has he uttered anything about his intent. Through the
merest gap in the cabinet - through which the faint light of the candle seeps -
I heard his fearsome voice tell that my letter would be 'found'. </span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I cannot but suppose he means that it will be
after my death. Or that he is completely without his wits for, in his
ranting, he says there will be a time when my letter will fly through the air
like a vapour to materialize before the eyes of hundreds, if not thousands of
people. Quite insane. He wants me to tell you that one day his magic will be
understood and welcomed by all peoples, by emperors and paupers and on that day
will my letter be seen.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">I have no more paper and so must close with only
love for you and Mother. Your fond brother, John.</span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"> </span></span><img alt="" src="data:image/png;base64,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" /></div>
<div align="center" class="LetterText" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The second, smaller sheet is undated...</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">--------------------------------- </span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">My <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dear</i> sister, on this second page I have to continue but I hardly
know how to explain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what has happened</i>.
In the blink of an eye my fear has increased tenfold. </span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">No sooner had I slipped my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">letter to you through the narrow gap than
the room in which this cabinet sits was</i> bathed in light. It was a harsh, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sickly light</i> so unlike the candle it
replaced. I cannot say that I had slept for it was but a moment. I had
sighed, closed my eyes momenta<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ri</i>ly
and opened them again as I heard a hissing and the now familiar crackling <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">laugh of my tormentor. Still held in my hand
was the pencil I had used, b</i>ut the room, such as I could discern seemed,
indeed smelled, changed.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">called out, asking the Chinaman what had happened and he answered with</i>
a laugh.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">"It has worked<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">" he called triumphantly. Yet his voice
sounded changed, his command</i> of English more accomplished. I asked
him <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what time it was, fearing that I </i>had<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> been drugged. Again he laughed</i> and
slipped me this second sheet of writing paper with which to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">continue my letter and then he urged me to
record this, the most ins</i>ane story of all.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">He claimed to me that it was
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now t</i>he year<i> 1914 a</i>nd that he had
caused me to die, to waste away in this box, and then to come alive again at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his</i> bidding. As he spoke I peeped out
into the now brighter room in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">which I</i>
had been ensnared and I s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aw </i>not the
flushed face of the man I had met just moments before but the grizzled face of
an ancient, bearded <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">man. The voice was
recognizable; the same strange</i> accent but now undoubtedly far older and
creaking as if he had but few breaths left in his body.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Oh sister, should you be
delivered of this letter read it only once and then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">destroy it. <u>Do</u></i><u> not seek help</u>, do not cause any other
living creature to read its content. The fiend has explained, and I cannot but
believe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he has the</i> power, that he has
placed some kind of hex, a spell over the very paper and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the words that I am writing. He has told me,
with a cold voice that commands my</i> absolute and terrible faith, that it is
so arranged that the cabinet, with my living body within, will be buried here
under the floor of this cellar and that I shall die as I feared I would, trapped
and without hope. </span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">But he has a yet greater <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">torture p</i>repared for me. He tells me
that I was revived after sixty years by his reading the first page of my letter
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thus, should</i> these pages be read
in their entirety, then no matter how long I have been beneath <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the earth and</i> no matter how corr<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">upt </i>my body I should be revived...I
should become alive again, though trapped, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">order to die</i> once again within this cursed cabinet.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Mark my words</span></i></b></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">, sister,
should by some miracle, you receive this do not I pray, cause it to be read
again. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroy it</i>. Allow me t<i>o rest
i</i>n peace.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="LetterText">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Ete<i>rnally yo</i>ur brother, <i>John</i></span></b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK1;"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-2336502622810444732014-05-31T15:58:00.000+01:002014-06-16T14:31:12.440+01:00Fear and loathing in UK politics<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I had an interesting Twitter exchange with Peter Hitchens (reproduced in full below) in which I took issue with his (and others') celebratory reception of the results in the European elections.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was - if you can be bothered to read it - not entirely a satisfactory debate. I don't think Hitchens was especially clear about what he believed and why, beyond some assertions that I think could be questioned. I don't think my own counter-arguments were especially cogent either.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mUr1BeHlA7nopNsq82VtTNRUfRFOtydLEFwtrGkjwLBfdiYkhzNpVxeov63cox8oEHyX2_EWw3KVGPyeSqriwH-8fCu9ATJRNe4Z_ZbfxEkJHdjuUbNXgDCKcGzfBz-yVp-PFPXOhQT2/s1600/HitchenTwitter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mUr1BeHlA7nopNsq82VtTNRUfRFOtydLEFwtrGkjwLBfdiYkhzNpVxeov63cox8oEHyX2_EWw3KVGPyeSqriwH-8fCu9ATJRNe4Z_ZbfxEkJHdjuUbNXgDCKcGzfBz-yVp-PFPXOhQT2/s1600/HitchenTwitter.png" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pondering, as you do when you argue and leave issues unresolved (let's give Hitchens the benefit of the doubt and accept that he was almost certainly too busy to reply, rather than crushed by my last tweet) I wondered why I felt so strongly about UKIP. What <i>was</i> the logical argument against celebrating their apparent victory in what can only be labelled a free and fair election?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I think - and I only put this forward as my own, current, idea - that there are two arguments for considering the May results a"bad thing'.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The first is that the vote for UKIP is an irrational reponse to the situation in which we find ourselves. The second is, by contrast, that the success seemed to have been built on an abuse of emotion.</span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The irrational vote</b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Voting in any free election is as subject to emotion as it is to rationality. That's a given. But if people were making a rational decision to put an X next to one of UKIP's candidates then I would suggest they didn't think it through. Or we're working on inadequate evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For a start, these are European elections. The clue, as they say, is in the title.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A party that champions withdrawing from Europe utilises a European mechanism to gain a measure of power, in Europe. Well, there is, possibly a tradition the 'fight from within' but bear in mind that UKIP don't want to fight within Brussels, they just want to leave.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So that's an interesting way to exercise the legitimate power they claim to have from the electorate. Vote us into the body that we say has so much (too much) control over your lives ...and we'll leave it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At the heart of this is the logic (and I wouldn't question that there is indeed, a logic) that Britain is better off governing itself. There is no question that, in fact,we do. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some time ago, we elected people (admittedly under a less fair system than the version of PR that returned Mr Farage) who took us into Europe. They didn't, I'll admit, double check with us that we <i>really</i> wanted them to govern. But then they didn't double check, for example, that we wanted an NHS some years before nor, for that matter some years later, that we wanted to spend billions on an IT system (that didn't work) for the NHS.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Incidentally, the last time we <i>were</i> asked about something it was about a fairer electoral system. We couldn't be bothered. Prior to that? We voted to join Europe.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But Britain does, indeed, govern itself through elected officials of which (currently) none belong to UKIP. But we also, in fact, govern ourselves (and several other countries as well) through a similar democratic system called the European Parliament.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bemoaning that 'we' don't get our way in this somewhat larger entity is a bit like complaining that not all national policies favour the Kent consituency where Farage lives. Of course, in these kinds of systems, there will always be compromise.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But more than this; the idea that we can 'take back power' is a fiction. Back to where? To Westminster? But that is the exact same institution that decided that it was, on the whole, in our interests to be a part of Europe. And, in addition, the logic suggests that once back in Westminster, power should be further devolved, indeed to Kent and Leicestershire and Cornwall.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But then why stop there? We can't have Maidstone telling us in Hastings what to do. We can't have those in Hastings telling us in Rye what to do. We can't have people in Rye telling me what to do in my own home.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Where does independence end? And why is Nigel Farage the final arbiter of that? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There is a further, logical problem. It lies in the notion that somehow Europe 'over-regulates'. The argument is, roughly, that if we weren't in Europe, we wouldn't have to submit to European regulations. Try telling that to countries such as the USA who have to sell to the EU. If we trade with Europe, they will impose regulations on our products and, indeed, our businesses.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If fact, you might expect that if we leave Europe, those that remain might feel justified in imposing additional regulations on us and setting standards that favour their own products and services. A non-EU country that wants access to one of the biggest markets in the world would go to Germany or France or the Netherlands.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ah but, the critics might reply, if <i>everyone</i> in Europe feels as we do (look at the rise of 'anti-European' parties) then maybe <i>everyone</i> will leave the EU. And then? Well then you'd have 28 countries making their own regulations to suit themselves. Would it really be better for a UK company to have to meet a completely new set of regulations for every country with which it traded?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ah but (again the Euro-sceptics object) we want a single market, but not all the regulation and imposition of straight bananas. OK, so how do you get that without being 'in' and negotiating? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emotional hijacking?</b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The emotional arguments are, perhaps, more thorny.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Why did people feel that the UKIP represented their best interests? What convinced voters that a vote for UKIP was a good move? I can't believe it was entirely logical.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One issue was, I think, the rhetoric. I'll concede that politicians haven't been very good at communicating what they intend and why. Likewise, what opportunities have the electorate had to question the governmental response to the global financial crisis, or bankers bonuses or, for that matter, our relationship with Europe?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The problem here, in part, is a lack of democratic engagement. Again, the system doesn't involve its citizens very much.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But I think there is a wider issue with the emotional content of the debate that ensues, perhaps shaped by a feeling of impotence. Our voice doesn't count, so we have to shout louder (or shout ever more incendiary words) to make our feelings known.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some politicians, perhaps instinctively, have recognised this - as indeed - many media people have. The reponse is to provoke more of this kind of language and the expression - I might say the 'normalisation' - of disaffection. And alongside, the normalisation of selfishness.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The process, for promoting unease, which I suspect is fairly well documented in studies of propaganda (I must read about it...), runs something like this.</span></div>
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<ol>
<li style="text-align: start; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Find out what worries people (fairly easy as we all have worries) something like health or our income.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: start; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Make it specific. So not just health, but something like "If I fall ill, will I be looked after? Will I even get better?"</span></li>
<li style="text-align: start; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now take a (not necessarily a related) matter that you would like to promote. Oh, let's say...Europe. And, maybe add in another (again, not necessarily related fear or matter).</span></li>
<li style="text-align: start; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now nail them together in a statement that implies causation without explicitly linking them.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: start; text-overflow: clip; text-shadow: none; word-break: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And stir.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What you get is something like -</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The NHS is under stress, less money, more regulation and yet we have completely open borders with a limitless number of Eastern Europeans able to come to the UK and access our health services.</i></div>
<div>
<i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></i></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The statement is laden with implications that require substantiation before they can be understood. As I've just said, there isn't enough political engagement or debate to thoroughly question such statements. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Furthermore, the immediate response to these kinds of assertion is a limbic, stress response; someone (with apparent authority) is warning you, alerting you to danger; your brain-stem responds with a slight dose of fear. You are being manipulated into associating worry for your own health and future with the 'problem' of immigration.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's telling I think that pretty much every issue that the UKIP (and to a lesser degree, many of the other parties) promote, can be summed up as a kind of fearful "Yeah, what about me?"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sadly there isn't an obvious emotional counter argument. How can we counter such conditioning unless by logic and reason?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The simple fact is that we're not required to deliberate over our political decisions. Our one political act (a blunt pencil X, in a box, on a piece of paper - a chimpanzee could do it) simply infantalises us. It's an irritant, even ,which may be worse, a duty.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In every other aspect of life if we feel any kind of compulsion to do something simple and there is no obvious cost for non-compliance we expend the minimum effort to minimise our feelings of cognitive dissonance. If I can get away with minimal time, thought, effort, I will.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Swimming against the current </b></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since we are relentlessly assured both by commercial and political communications to put ourselves first that is, largely, what we do.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since we are told, and indeed learn by experience, that we are powerless and our contribution to political debate is a single X every five years, then that is what we accept.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since we are told, again relentlessly, to be afraid - of the 'others' who are trying to take away what we 'own', of each other, of illness, of death - we live our lives defensively alert to any reminder of these threats.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">UKIP - and, as I say, other parties as well - depend on this. They remind us of our worst fears - of our worst selves - and keep us impotent and fearful. They say, they can change things, but they ask in return for more power. Trust us they say; we're different.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A true liberation politics would be to give power to the people. Not as individuals, to be divided and conquered and not as represented by political parties that exist only to exert power and not a for-profit companies that exist to collect surplus value for the owners but as families, associations, co-operatives, self-help groups, art organisations and many others that exist for mutual benefit and are not owned by the few.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">UKIP unsettle me, not because they propose a revolution, but because they are the epitome of political self-serving manipulation. They frighten me because they demonstrate that the disengaged, irrational public (that's me and you) are so easily manipulated. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">See my other blog at www.pleasewalkonthegrass.com and this especially on a <a href="http://pleasewalkonthegrass.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/marketing-illusions-that-make-us-selfish-part-1/" target="_blank">Marketing Illusion</a>.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div>
<i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">* I apologise if these prove not to be in quite the correct order. Some messages overlapped and it's quite difficult to reconstruct a reliable thread. If any corrections are notified, I'll gladly update this.</i></div>
</div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-76835759203719896632014-02-16T12:40:00.001+00:002014-02-16T12:40:12.972+00:00Pantomime<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The President of the United States of America shifted in his seat. The lady he was watching was probably the same age as his wife, but she had one hell of a voice on her and, most of all, a hypnotic smile. What made him uncomfortable just now was that everyone around him clearly found her hilarious. He didn’t know why. Dammit. She was pretty hot.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She was tall and blonde, and her dress was extravagant. A cascade of purple sequins tumbled from her right shoulder, across her very significant chest and down to a frothy train that snaked behind her.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He always felt lonely on foreign visits. His wife was staying home for Christmas, whilst he had to be on another damn State visit, pretending to be nice to the British. They didn’t have anything he wanted and, thanks to the NSA, he already knew every bargaining chip they held.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Looking along the row of seats he could see the Prime Minister was beaming. Occasionally he would throw back his head and bark a laugh that could only have been developed at Eton. Or Oxford. Or wherever the hell prime ministers went to school these days.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Immediately behind the President sat his four bodyguards. And within the first four rows of theatre seats were various mediocre ministers and heads of tiny British Government departments. He should have sent his Secretary of State. But then he wouldn’t have met her.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He looked back toward the stage. The lady with the great smile was still singing and she was dancing too. A long leg with a glittering garter kicked from the slit in her dress. True, she wasn’t the most beautiful but, man, that smile!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An hour or so ago, when he had been introduced to her just before the show, she had seemed…what was the word? Irresistible. He stared at her smiling and working the room. Throughout the champagne reception she had been giving clear ‘signals’ in his direction.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She was dressed differently then; silver, shimmering like fish scales. It had been amazing. He had been introduced, but he hardly caught the name. Julienne? Something like that.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The President started in his seat, surprised by the sudden and enthusiastic applause that greeted the end of the song. The object of his fascination had curtseyed extravagantly and then began to announce something.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She was speaking English, he guessed, but the words were delivered in great swooping cadences and in an accent quite unlike the Prime Minister’s. The President just about made out that her character had a son called Jack who was evidently late back from doing something with a cow. It seemed to be causing the poor lady some distress, but still her smile sparkled mischievously.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No-one had seemed to notice when the President left the reception. It had only been for five or ten minutes. He had told his close security to go away with just enough expletives for them to take him seriously. Then he’d silently followed his new friend, the actress, into a small adjoining office where she had locked the door.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On stage, another character had now entered and was standing towards the back. Julienne pretended not to have seen the new actor, her soaring voice imploring the audience to do something. Something to do with Jack.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The audience responded and, for a moment, the President felt panic rise within.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“He’s behind you!” They screamed; their faces alight like the evangelical audiences he’d encountered in the Primaries. He looked along the row again. Yes, the Prime Minister was joining in. And his rat-faced Foreign Secretary. It was like the whole audience was possessed. Maybe there was something in the champagne? Then he noticed Jack and he knew something was wrong.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There was no doubt that in the play, this was the longed-for son Jack, because the lady with the scintillating smile was calling his name over and over…</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Ooooh! Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack!!”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She was clutching him to her substantial bosom and kissing his head. Again the audience found this hilarious. But the President was preoccupied. Was he the only one who had noticed?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Whatever else Jack was, he couldn’t be Julienne’s son, or anyone’s. Though not quite as voluptuous as the creature in purple sequins, ‘Jack’ had obvious, jutting breasts. His legs, clad in sheer tights and poured into long leather boots, went on forever.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The President shook his head, murmuring to himself. Weirdo British.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">–</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After the final curtain the VIPs were quickly led to the waiting queue of black limousines. It had been a strange day. On the plus side, the President had enjoyed the intimate attention of a beautiful stranger, and there were absolutely no witnesses.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As his car drew away, the glass partition in front of the President slid down and a figure in the passenger seat turned to him.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Oh, Mr President.” It was the rat-like Foreign Secretary. “I hope you had an enjoyable evening.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“What the hell …?” The President was irritated but stopped abruptly when he saw the envelope being offered to him.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We thought you might like to see these. Before we get back to negotiations.” The rat smiled.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Frowning, the President lifted the flap of the envelope and slid out a handful of photographs. A series of stills taken from surveillance cameras. They showed two people in a small office, seen from above; one in a dinner jacket and another in a glittering ball gown.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As he flicked through them, his skin prickled. He took a moment to calculate. They couldn’t use these, could they? He looked up as coolly as he could.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Well? I wouldn’t be the first President to get caught out. It’s a cheap trick.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The rat didn’t flinch. The President continued.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“So, she was a honey trap was she? A sting?”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For a moment the Foreign Secretary looked puzzled and then a smile spread slowly and menacingly across his face.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Her? Oh you mean Julian Barclay? One of our finest Shakespearean actors. You’re very fortunate to see him in Panto. You really should see his Lear.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The President looked back down at the final picture in the sequence. The figure in the silver gown was kneeling in front of the man in the dinner jacket, refastening the Presidential flies. His face was turned towards the camera with a dazzling smile.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The President sank back in his seat.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think I just did.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Written for the Tunbridge Wells Writers Group Advent Calendar from the keyword <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;">Pantomime</strong></em></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-38039616466796820212013-11-18T13:56:00.001+00:002013-11-18T13:56:57.728+00:00Make your own excuses<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9OaKrce99mSIMfjoQkwR-nnCsEuSBXBlmYOHxhlDESeuUWy8NO_Kc_2CVP_ZYuFZqQ89YGqpEA7EkJXaPrSHbBfr5J6tV3moGcPLbISqSvEM5BrApkrN9STks9PVofxW-IwGC_BvM2Br/s640/blogger-image-1701472838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9OaKrce99mSIMfjoQkwR-nnCsEuSBXBlmYOHxhlDESeuUWy8NO_Kc_2CVP_ZYuFZqQ89YGqpEA7EkJXaPrSHbBfr5J6tV3moGcPLbISqSvEM5BrApkrN9STks9PVofxW-IwGC_BvM2Br/s640/blogger-image-1701472838.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>http://tubesign.herokuapp.com</div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-56802341858185140422013-11-10T18:16:00.001+00:002013-11-10T18:17:20.668+00:00An Underground Psalm<div>The Lord's my Shepherds Bush
</div><div>I shall not Wanstead</div><div>
</div><div>He maketh me to Leyton in Parsons Green,</div><div>
</div><div>Ealing me besides Canada Water.</div><div>
</div><div>He restoreth St Pauls; he leadeth me in the Plaistow of Rickmansworth for his own Southgate.</div><div>
</div><div>Yeah though I walk through Maida Vale, I will fear no East Ham</div><div>
</div><div>For thou art Wimbledon, thy Roding Valley and Stockwell, they comfort me</div><div>
</div><div>Thou preparest Totteridge & Whetstone, Preston Road and Marylebone: thou annointest my Hampstead with Oval; my Chalfont & Latimer, runneth over.</div><div>
</div><div>Surely Gunnersbury and Morden shall follow me all the days of Mile End: and I will dwell in Manor House or Theydon Bois for ever.</div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G6h3uSVw6dGlqV7vS6Uj5tlDQ-JQ-ETbg-1SyFyrhEPUmKe4nizeEDburF5wB_bRiDQ-EdxfzVxqpf3sLPiqb7q2LCkvfhpNOCRHdm0LaQepb3VDOGYkhF94dcSTRjhCpzsBmj6oHTn8/s640/blogger-image--2058028580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G6h3uSVw6dGlqV7vS6Uj5tlDQ-JQ-ETbg-1SyFyrhEPUmKe4nizeEDburF5wB_bRiDQ-EdxfzVxqpf3sLPiqb7q2LCkvfhpNOCRHdm0LaQepb3VDOGYkhF94dcSTRjhCpzsBmj6oHTn8/s640/blogger-image--2058028580.jpg"></a></div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-44557229183368777812013-10-30T13:25:00.000+00:002015-03-27T16:18:41.248+00:00999 word story for Halloween<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<i>This was read at the recent <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/twellswriters/" target="_blank">Tunbridge Wells Writers Group</a> 'Fright Night'. Since the brief was to write a story for Halloween in 1000 words or less, I used exactly 999.</i><br />
<br />
<h2>
<a href="http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/img_vk/gypsy-fortuneteller.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/img_vk/gypsy-fortuneteller.gif" height="187" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: x-large;">Nine Hundred and Ninety-nine words.</span></h2>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The velvet tent had been dark and damp in the misty rain. On
a sign with peeling paint had been the name ‘Cassandra’ and a promise that she
would ‘reveal the future’.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Well, that had been a waste of five pounds.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The rest of the fairground seemed to be closing; it seemed
unlikely that many customers would arrive now, and it was only as he was
cutting back across the damp field towards the car park that he had noticed the
tent, a dim glow peeping from the gold braided entrance flaps.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Inside was musty and still dark despite a battered oil lamp
suspended from a hook. There was a heavy
lace curtain towards the back of the tent and a table with two chairs. A carved
wooden box placed in the centre of the table.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It took a few moments for him to notice another chair – a low
armchair to his right – and a figure, immobile and hunched sitting there.
Cassandra, he supposed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Uncertainty fluttered in his stomach but was immediately
interrupted by a coarse whisper from the dark figure as she stirred.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Don’t go.
Sit.”</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He pulled the nearest chair towards him and sat, observing
the figure unfold into a short and thin old woman with several shawls wound
around her shoulders and head. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He found himself squinting towards her, trying to look under
the shadow of the outermost shawl drawn around her face and neck.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She sat in the other chair across the table and gloved hands
emerged from her layers of clothing to rest gently on the carved box.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“What would
you like to see?”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> she whispered, and for a moment he saw bright black
eyes glance at him. Like a mouse, he thought.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“See?” he answered, his own voice sounding unnaturally loud.
“I don’t know. Er. The future?” There was a pause. The hands remained on the box,
motionless. Perhaps it was the wrong way
to ask.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Oh, here.” He pulled out a five pound note from his pocket
and held it out. One hand left the box and gently patted the velvet
tablecloth. He put the note down.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“You are…an
artist”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> It seemed as if she had been considering this throughout the
silence. <i>“No!”</i> She interrupted any
answer he might have offered. <i>“You <u>think</u>
…you are a writer.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i> </i> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Now the black eyes were levelled at him, staring steadily.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> “Huh” He let out a
small breath, partly surprise “Well, yes, I suppose I do...Well done!” He
offered as an afterthought.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Then, slowly, the hands spread over the carved box and began
to open the hinged lid. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As it opened he began to make out the pattern sculpted into
the dark wood. Trees framed the design and swirling leaves and clouds coiled
around three naked figures. The yellow
light from the oil lamp played across the surface of the lid emphasising the
depths of the shadows. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">As the lid tilted, the leaves swayed and the clouds curled.
The figures – perhaps women, though they seemed strong and sculpted like Greek
statuary – turned as if in the midst of a dance captured in slow motion.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">More tendrils tumbled from the trees and fused with the
leaves. The arms of the dancers curved through the air and held a momentary
pose, almost floating, in front of his eyes.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Then he realised that the light was wheeling around in the
other direction; the lid was slowly closing.
The figures turned and the leaves settled. The clouds drifted towards
the trees. The scene flattened and dissolved into the carved box once more.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He blinked and glanced up at the woman, her gloved hands once
again resting on the box.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Well?” He was indignant. “Aren’t you going to tell my
fortune?”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She sighed<i>. “You think you are a writer.”</i> Again the
black eyes held his gaze. <i>“And now, you have
something to write.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“What? You think I
should write about that? That box?” He glanced back down at the table, noticing
that the money had gone. Well, that had
been a waste of five pounds. “I thought
you could see the future?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“No.”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> There was
a thin dry chuckle that unsettled him. <i>“I
can’t see your future. I reveal it…to you.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Her gloved hands moved forwards and her thin fingers scooped
into the palms of his hands and lifted, to place them gently on top of the box.
She placed her own hands on top pressing into the back of his hands with the
lace gloves.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Now”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> She said. <i>“Think what you have seen.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“There were trees and leaves.” He frowned as he pictured the
lid of the box moving under the lamplight. </span>The air in the damp tent seemed colder now.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“There were three…people…naked…dancing. They turned.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She was pressing his hands hard now onto the box and he could
feel the curls and twists of the deep carving rippling under his touch.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“And …you
have a number?”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> She asked.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“A number?” Yes, yes he had. As the dancers had momentarily
stopped, as the leaves had fallen and the clouds paused, there had been a
number. He laughed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Yes… I saw three nines. Nine hundred and ninety-nine?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He saw her nod. <i>“That is your life measured out for you.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He drew his hands away. “Nine hundred and ninety-nine days?
But that’s…that’s not even three years!”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“No.”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> She shook
her head and for the first time he saw her mouth. A thin slash like a cut which
parted to reveal yellow teeth. She smiled but it was a pitying smile and the
cold of the tent seemed more malevolent now.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> “No”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> She said again. <i>“You will live as long as you need. To write.
And then you will die.”</i> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He was standing now. He didn’t have to listen, did he? He didn’t have to believe her.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“But, nine hundred and ninety-nine?” He was backing away. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Nine hundred and ninety-nine what?” He asked “Novels?
Stories? Poems?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Again the smile, and the dry chuckle. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“No…”</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> she
whispered <i>“…words.”</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-53014861441970607612012-07-10T01:28:00.003+01:002012-07-10T01:32:40.477+01:00How much is education worth?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://rikowski.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/education-crisis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://rikowski.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/education-crisis.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://rikowski.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/education-crisis.jpg?w=150&h=114" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
Higher education is, increasingly, run as a business. Though of course, it is unique, with particular customers and particular needs.<br />
In that respect at least it is like every other business.<br />
But the point in this post is about how much money we should spend on educating people - specifically at University level. How much is enough?<br />
I don't think there is much doubt that the UK needs to have the best educated and most entrepreneurial workforce it can possibly have. It needs people to go out into the world and create new things, ideas and to discover elemental new knowledge. Like sub-atomic particles.<br />
I also think that we should encourage more and more pure and 'liberal' subjects ensuring that scientists are well funded and have the opportunity to play with their subject...and, alongside, give them courses in the philosophy of science.<br />
Likewise any arts students should be free to explore and think (and drink, if they wish) and put on bad plays and pretend they understand postmodernism. And along the way, they should be compelled to do a practical course like...plumbing, painting, basic mechanical engineering. So at least they don't end up becoming political researchers with no more idea about hard work than a penguin has of spaceflight.<br />
All that said, the following is not about denying Oxbridge resources, but rather a plea that all teaching and research should be well funded and that the paring of research budgets happening right now should be stopped; reversed and consigned to a footnote in history where future generations will say"You'll never guess what they <i>nearly</i> did! They nearly switched off the life support system of the knowledge economy! Phew!"<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here I've made some simple comparisons between a new
university and an elite institution. These are illustrative of the diversity of
the HE sector in England and are not intended to make any point about the
financial or other status of the institutions. The figures are from the
respective institutions annual report and accounts for 2009 and rounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question is, which needs (more) Government funding? And, as they say in exams, explain your answer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid black; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid black; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td colspan="2" style="border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A new university</b></div>
</td>
<td colspan="2" style="border-left: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jesus College Cambridge</b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Income </div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£168,500,000</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Income </div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£11,363,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Expenditure </div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£158,200,000</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Expenditure </div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£10,300,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No of students</div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
27,000</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No. of students</div>
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<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
704</div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Income per student</b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">£6,240</b></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Income per student</b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">£16,140</b></div>
</td>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Expenditure per student</div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£5,860</div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Expenditure per student</div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£14,630</div>
</td>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Balance sheet assets</div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£31,300,000</div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Balance sheet assets</div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
£218,000,000</div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid black 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 125.9pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Assets per student</b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 105.15pt;" valign="top" width="140"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">£1,160</b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid black 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid black 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 121.65pt;" valign="top" width="162"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Assets per student</b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-color: -moz-use-text-color black black -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; text-align: right; width: 109.4pt;" valign="top" width="146"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">£309,752</b></div>
</td>
</tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-33199911018612149982012-06-08T12:32:00.002+01:002012-06-08T12:32:50.388+01:00Geoffrey Ackers Holden<div id="article-body-blocks">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/18/1334748788164/Geoff-Holden-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/18/1334748788164/Geoff-Holden-008.jpg" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Geoff Holden and his wife passed on their passion for music <br />and performance to their sons and grandchildren</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My father, Geoff Holden, a proud Lancastrian, who has died aged
85, was a teacher, school governor, scout leader, league hockey player
and actor in and around Accrington, as well as a member of the Labour
party and the Methodist church.<br />
He was born in Blackburn. His
schooling was badly disrupted by illnesses including scarlet fever and
chickenpox, and breaking both hips in a fall. But as adults left for
second world war service, Geoff went quickly from being a scout himself
to troop leader, when barely out of his teens.<br />
In the final year
of the war he was called up for the Royal Artillery as a gunner. He
served in Cyprus, Egypt and Palestine and rose to the rank of sergeant,
once narrowly escaping an explosion that destroyed a bank from which he
had just collected the regiment's wages. The army taught him to drive
and introduced him to hockey, which he continued to play into his 60s
with Blackburn Hockey Club.<br />
On demobilisation, he returned to
Lancashire and completed the "emergency" teacher training programme at
Bamber Bridge College, near Preston. On his first teaching assignment he
met Eunice Nicholls, also a teacher, and they married in 1951. Geoff
taught for many years at St James' primary school in Blackburn and by
the time of his retirement in 1987, was deputy head there.<br />
Geoff
and Eunice were active in the Methodist church, as circuit steward and
organist respectively. Even as they raised four sons – Andrew, Simon,
Peter and me – Geoff led a scout troop and Eunice a cub group, once
taking cubs, scouts and three sons (by train) camping in Cornwall. Geoff
volunteered as a representative of the Schoolmasters Provident Society
and was an active member of the NASUWT teachers' union. They both
appeared on stage, first with Accrington Amateurs, then Bel Canto
theatre group, with Geoff also working front of house and Eunice playing
the piano. Their passion for music and performance was passed on to
their sons and grandchildren.<br />
Eunice died from cancer in 1987. In
retirement, Geoff helped establish and run a credit union for his
community, continued in the theatre and the church, volunteered for
Meals on Wheels and sang with Haslingden choir. In his 70s he undertook a
month-long touring holiday in the US, accompanied by his sister,
Dorothy. In the latter part of his life, he found happiness in simple
things – a good cup of tea, an occasional cigar and hikes in his beloved
Lake District.<br />
He is survived by his younger brother, Brian, his sons, nine grandsons and a granddaughter, and three great-grandchildren.<br />
</div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/apr/19/geoff-holden-obituary" target="_blank">Guardian: Other Lives</a>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-22067472605073145722011-11-23T12:37:00.000+00:002011-11-23T12:37:56.321+00:00November<div style="line-height: 160%; margin-top: 10px; padding: 12px; text-align: center;"> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: small;">It's all jolly dull out there. Just fog and getting colder. Hmmmmm...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">November</span></b></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size: x-small;">by Thomas Hood</span></div><div align="center"> No sun--no moon!<br />
No morn--no noon!<br />
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--<br />
No sky--no earthly view--<br />
No distance looking blue--<br />
<br />
No road--no street--<br />
No "t'other side the way"--<br />
No end to any Row--<br />
No indications where the Crescents go--<br />
<br />
No top to any steeple--<br />
No recognitions of familiar people--<br />
No courtesies for showing 'em--<br />
No knowing 'em!<br />
<br />
No mail--no post--<br />
No news from any foreign coast--<br />
No park--no ring--no afternoon gentility--<br />
No company--no nobility--<br />
<br />
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,<br />
No comfortable feel in any member--<br />
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,<br />
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,<br />
November!</div></div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-80829757648963333902011-02-16T16:00:00.000+00:002011-02-16T16:00:33.055+00:00LeisurewearI was reminded of this poem the other day. I may want it at my funeral.<br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Leisurewear</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">With apologies to William Henry Davies</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 115%;">What is this life if, full of care,<br />
We have no time for underwear.<br />
<br />
No time to fasten trousers on<br />
Nor ward the cold with thick long john.<br />
<br />
No time for laces, well might we crow,<br />
When shoes are quicker with velcro.<br />
<br />
No time to tie, a broad fat kipper,<br />
No time to don the plump plaid slipper.<br />
<br />
No time to gawp at Beauty's glance,<br />
And watch her in her underpants.<br />
<br />
No time to wait till jacket’s buttoned<br />
To see our lamb securely muttoned.<br />
<br />
A poor life this if, just to scan,<br />
We have to shop at Matalan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-75769940887485311802011-02-01T20:47:00.000+00:002011-02-01T20:50:51.605+00:00The Importance of 5th MayOn the 5th of May UK voters have a choice.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi20FHrIeMpZBNA6wedgd4DzxocIPkUVe99X3WKyHof4u8mkbGwva2dTnlrqDMVl6GysxsD3tjoosjyJiX8MN_72KMQWJc1jt_KmQnf5VZ-0eCr0c3z6eSVHbeo1tOAb-OsRu7xPf3WBWez/s1600/voteyes.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi20FHrIeMpZBNA6wedgd4DzxocIPkUVe99X3WKyHof4u8mkbGwva2dTnlrqDMVl6GysxsD3tjoosjyJiX8MN_72KMQWJc1jt_KmQnf5VZ-0eCr0c3z6eSVHbeo1tOAb-OsRu7xPf3WBWez/s320/voteyes.png" width="237" /></a></div><br />
Despite what people say - the choice is really quite simple.<br />
<br />
We can leave the system as it is and forgo the right to debate and question how our MPs are elected and how they claim to represent us. If we lose this chance, we won't get another for years...perhaps ever. Many politicians want to keep things the way they are. No surprise there.<br />
<br />
OR we can change the system so that people begin to realise the power their vote has. They will become more involved in local politics and in evaluating the alternatives. They will be encouraged to vote and to see the effect it has.<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the current system is rather like running a restaurant where everyone has to eat what is 'the most popular item' on the menu. Well you all have one vote...so everyone eats chips.<br />
<br />
The alternative being proposed is not proportional. It is a variant of the first past the post system that we already have. In this case you choose from the range available and you put them in order of preference.<br />
<br />
So I'd like B then A and (if I must) I'd go for D but I'll never vote for E or C. Quite a complex reflection of the voter's preferences and requiring some thought from the voter. A good thing I would think.<br />
<br />
I'm sure it will take some time for us to get used to it, but also the political parties will also take time to understand them (you can bet they'll be working out the system even now). But at least they can't count on a "winner takes all" system. There will be no such thing as a safe seat.<br />
<br />
You can read the arguments at <a href="http://www.no2av.org/%20">http://www.no2av.org/ </a>and at <a href="http://www.yestofairervotes.org/">http://www.yestofairervotes.org</a>.<br />
<br />
But don't try looking for www.yes2av.org ... the people at the no campaign thought it fair they should buy that URL and link it to their own website.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-88847535685039119592010-12-19T19:22:00.000+00:002010-12-19T19:23:15.043+00:00Snow thoughtsWhy isn't it spelt (or spelled) snough?<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">------- </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/209485839.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1292786537&Signature=tgrO1AReUYLsXsVz2yRCCx%2F2q7o%3D" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/209485839.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1292786537&Signature=tgrO1AReUYLsXsVz2yRCCx%2F2q7o%3D" width="200" /></a></div>It was pretty deep stuff, but still some people like whizzing around it in their 4WD trucks pulling people out of the snow.<br />
Thoug some people complain that we don't know how to cope with snow, but seriously, it only happens for a few days each year and for many people it's simply another 'bank' holiday.<br />
The news organisations certainly enjoy it. It enables them to run their "paralysed Britain" stories.<br />
<a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/201299607.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1292787186&Signature=fY%2BYotScOWe%2B9N3ilo1CMsPLNsk%3D" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/201299607.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1292787186&Signature=fY%2BYotScOWe%2B9N3ilo1CMsPLNsk%3D" width="200" /></a>I must say, it's pretty awful for passengers to be stuck on trains or aeroplanes for hours not going anywhere. What I find most awful is that companies such as <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23902750-passengers-stuck-on-a-freezing-train-for-eight-hours-in-the-snow.do">Southeastern </a>(see the story and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11915002">response</a>) <b><u>don't</u></b> move heaven and earth to provide hot drinks and food for their customers. If you worked for them you'd surely be phoning everyone you knew to get a four-wheel drive to call by the nearest takeaway...wouldn't you? Go on, use my credit card you'd say. Think of the positive publicity you'd get. Think of the kudos. Has no-one got any idea of how extraordinary circumstances require and extraordinary response?Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-58473672023915892242010-10-21T17:51:00.000+01:002010-10-21T17:51:54.099+01:00A happy thing......happened on Tonbridge High Street last Saturday...<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/53NT5De4SEk?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/53NT5De4SEk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-1025321948871434502010-10-18T13:51:00.000+01:002010-10-18T13:53:07.940+01:00He is nothing like a dame!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3UJ_owNLbMkJd9d3Lw1cYiqagZqAN3Qz0W3-xRSSCRJVTObToiq9iJRHTrWQois75KUKNlDaOtTepCgVGhtwHtcclABpkOUJhXAU6feIcVvfxDXzQGktcIpQQa4tTVjxPfxXudZ058b_/s1600/DameGideonOsbourne1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3UJ_owNLbMkJd9d3Lw1cYiqagZqAN3Qz0W3-xRSSCRJVTObToiq9iJRHTrWQois75KUKNlDaOtTepCgVGhtwHtcclABpkOUJhXAU6feIcVvfxDXzQGktcIpQQa4tTVjxPfxXudZ058b_/s640/DameGideonOsbourne1.jpg" width="426" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They say it's going to hurt ("Oh no it won't!"). Meanwhile the future Baronet Osborne of Ballentaylor and is said to be worth about £4m (including 15% of Osborne & Little - so that's his first pension sorted out).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I think he also gets £131,000pa. Do you think he's worried about having to cut back a bit?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I know it's dodgy photo-shopping, but this just looks right somehow..</div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-82531265239513908592010-09-09T10:39:00.001+01:002010-09-09T10:39:32.607+01:00Genius...because it's true, and funny<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qpVTUdfcEMg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qpVTUdfcEMg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-69083941929507129342010-09-07T00:26:00.000+01:002010-09-07T00:26:33.268+01:00Feed a family of four for £100 a month?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/images/brazilnutbutter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/images/brazilnutbutter.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Well these <a href="http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/">guys</a> seem to think it's possible. You might want to pick your way through the menus, for example you might wonder at 'Brazil and Seed Butter'. I'd try it...<br />
The whole thing looks quite well worked out and makes mention of the importance of <a href="http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/leftovers.html">avoiding waste</a>.<br />
The recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tkr88">BBC show</a> on the subject was shocking not for the celebrity chef angle but the sheer scale of waste and how much the presumed taste of consumers is taken as an excuse to destroy perfectly good food. You can read about the Love Food Hate Waste campaign <a href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/">here</a>.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4697845138937303378.post-49970746282357093222010-06-24T15:15:00.000+01:002010-06-24T15:15:43.013+01:00Cuts...feels like we're on the brinkThe budget has made me wonder if the Tories really understand the economy. Or, for that matter whether anyone (especially me) does.<br />
There is no doubt that, ideologically, it's easier for them to cut Government and public sector spending. So when George Osborne says he had no choice he's just plain wrong.<br />
<a href="http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/The_New_Statesman_title_card.jpg/275px-The_New_Statesman_title_card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/The_New_Statesman_title_card.jpg/275px-The_New_Statesman_title_card.jpg" /></a>There are always choices about what to cut expenditure and where to increase income. An increase in the top rate of tax and even another tax band would have been seen as fair and would have affected fewer people. By definition, the people paying such tax are fewer in number than those below the threshold.<br />
So, the only conclusion you can draw is that it wasn't 'politically desirable'.<br />
The other mistake is to believe that cuts in public expenditure are somehoe free. There will be job losses and an increase in unemployment. There will be an increase in benefit claims. Do these figures stack up?<br />
And if unemployment ends up costing more than the preceding savings - how would this Chancellor balance the books? More cuts?<br />
<br />
Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks Osbourne looks like he should be a pantomime dame? When he speaks he also reminded me of someone else and I couldn't quite think who...<br />
I think it may be Piers Fletcher-Dervish, the hapless Tory MP sidekick of Rik Mayall's Alan B'stard. Time for Marks and Gran to return?Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02610206469912756770noreply@blogger.com1