Brexit is the Only Show In Town

Saturday 10th December

The NHS crumbles on, waiting lists lengthen, trolleys block up A. & E., old people languish in beds because there is nowhere in the community for them.  All the arguments about Academies and Free Schools and now even Grammar Schools are themselves now academic; no-one really cares, the kids are in schools, we have other things to worry about.  Global warming gallops on at a pace, air pollution increasing daily, fracking is set to begin soon and will simply add to the problem – but, hey…who cares.  Deficit reduction has been given up; well, money is still cheap so let’s just borrow some more.  Donald Trump continues to tweet about anything that flits across his mind when he cannot sleep, upsetting all and sundry – but, that’s America, that battle is lost for four years and this is happening right now.  Or not, actually…

Brexit hasn’t happened yet.  There is a long way to go.  An inordinate amount of money is being squandered at the Supreme Court to decide who actually has the power to trigger the thing.  And no-one has a clue what sort of Brexit, soft, hard or ‘red, white and blue’ (hahaha…the worst line ever) Mrs. May will be aiming for.  Then there will be the negotiations, then the French and German Elections which may upset things too.  And even when, and if (because no-one has said what will happen if the U.K. and the E. U. cannot find common ground) an exit is agreed, it will go to the European Parliament (where incidentally UKIP will still have its overpaid and destructive MEPs) and then it will have to be ratified by all 28 (including us) countries of the current EU.

How long all of this will take is debatable, but I predict that there will be little else discussed at Westminster for at least three years, which will bring us to an election…

And what will the parties talk about….that’s right, Brexit.

Getting Old

Friday 9th December

One of the things we know from when we are very young is that one day we will be old, if we don’t die before then of course.  But we really don’t like to think about it that much, even when we see on the telly old people sick in Hospital, or shuffling slowly along as we rush to catch that bus.  A bit like smokers who though they know that the cigarettes may well be killing them, manage to push all the gory packaging to the back of their minds as they relentlessly puff away.  And so we push the idea of getting old further and further to the back of our minds; oh yes, it will happen someday but not for a few years yet.

I can remember as a child that anyone over retirement was definitely old, and even people in their fifties donned the clothes of the old, behaved as if they were old, and actually became old – despite their relatively young years.  But being ‘young’ has become a religion, we worship youth and do everything including surgery to stay looking young.  As if we are ashamed to admit that we might be getting on a bit we cling to the idea that we are still young.  “Why, I don’t feel any different than when I was forty” we hear ourselves saying.  But it is a lie.  The body, although pampered like never before, is ageing.  But we are persuaded that nothing is now off-limits for us ‘oldies’; parachute jumps, marathons, line dancing – you name it, nothing is impossible.   And somehow if you aren’t up and dancing, or cycling miles each day, or just pretending that you don’t ‘ache in the places where you used to play’, as Leonard sung so wonderfully, then you are in danger of becoming old.

And so we smile and when people ask how are we “Ca va?” we reply automatically “Tres bein, merci.”   We are afraid to admit that we might be getting old and feeling it a bit, the worst sin in this golden age of eternal youth.

S – is for the remarkable Judee Sill

Thursday 8th December

Another artist you may have never heard of, and maybe for good reason.  She only made 2 albums and both sold miserably during her lifetime.  I bought them at the time and played them constantly, though nobody I knew had heard of her.

Although born to fairly wealthy parents in California, Judee fell into bad company and drug addiction.  She was involved in armed robberies, prostitution and stealing and forging cheques.  However…

She had taught herself piano and guitar and was writing her own songs and occasionally playing in bars.  Somehow she came to the notice of Graham Nash and David Crosby and opened for them a few times.  At the time she was turning tricks and living in a car.  She sold her song ‘Lady-O’ to The Turtles who had a hit with it and then she miraculously got signed to the newly formed Geffen Records.  Her self-titled album was actually the first release on this hip new label.  Graham Nash produced the single ‘Jesus was a Crossmaker’ and Henry Lewy worked with her on the record, layering her voice in tiers and introducing quite complex orchestrations.  Judee’s music was heavily influenced by Bach but the songs are semi-religious and feature personal redemption and some sort of union with a God-like figure.

She took control of production of her second album Heart Food which was much more orchestral and almost a series of hymns.  Both albums are superb, her voice angelic and distinctive.  Despite excellent reviews both records sold poorly.  She slipped back into heroin addiction and fell out of the music scene and lost her record contract.

Judee died of a drug overdose in 1979, penniless and on her own.  A third album of demos was released a few years ago, but it is poor compared to her two masterpieces.  A live at the BBC album is much better but somehow these acoustic versions of her songs lack the power of the studio versions.

Her two albums ‘Judee Sill’ and ‘Heart Food’ are an essential part of my record collection, and of course of late she has achieved cult status and is cited as an influence by many young artists; such a pity it has all happened far too late.

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SIPS, SLIPS AND SNIPPETS OF LOVE 13

Wednesday 7th December

Looking back Harriet thought her mother hadn’t wasted much time, she had her sister Jane only two years after her firstborn.   But Harriet didn’t mind really, Jane was younger than her and always would be younger too, and no matter how much she tried she would never be top dog.  Harriet was the apple of her father’s eye from day one, he couldn’t get enough of her, and Jane would barely get a look in.  Harriet reasoned that that was just how it should be; she was the oldest and Jane was her younger sister; Harriet would show her everything all in good time, she just had to be patient.  Harriet considered her mother satisfactory in her own quiet way, but somehow she never really loved her, unlike her father who she admired and loved instantly.  Harriet felt that June never really loved her either, there was always that slightly guarded look in her eye; she didn’t love her child in the same unconditional way her father did.  Dad simply worshipped her, she could make him do anything she wanted, but she was never really sure where she stood with her mother, it was as if she wasn’t really there half the time. Harriet would speak to her, but would sometimes have to say the thing twice before she even realised the child was speaking, let alone to her.  After a while Harriet didn’t really bother asking her things, besides she had Jane to talk to by then.

*  * *

All  things considered Phil thought it would be a good idea for June to have another baby, he didn’t really want her going back to the shop again, not now he was being lined up to be a Junior Partner, and they could just afford it now.  And so Jane was planned, unlike Harriet who came out of the blue.  Phil still loved them both, of course, but they grew up so quickly.  One minute they were sleeping in their cots and the next off on their first day at school.  That all cost money too, but he was a Junior Partner by then and earning quite a good salary, and little opportunities to make a bit more money on the side kept coming along too.  He had thought he could put a stop to all of that, but it was harder than he thought.  He just kept getting sucked in, half the time he went along with it because he didn’t want to fall out with who turned out to be some quite dangerous acquaintances, and though he knew the law very well, they ended up having to cut so many corners he was really quite worried.  It all seemed to have a life of its own, Phil had started off being in control, but soon enough it seemed to be controlling him, and he was having to watch his back, even in the office.

*  * *

Jane was a far easier birth; they say the second one always is.  But June was determined that that was enough, two children and no more, even if it would have been nice to have had a boy, two girls it turned out to be.  And Jane was far more placid than Harriet had been; she would simply sleep, wake up and feed then drift back to sleep again, whereas Harriet had kept her up night after night, and even after her milk she didn’t seem tired.  Then just as the sun would come up, she would nod off at last.  June was exhausted those first few months with Harriet; she would just grab a few minutes of sleep sometime in the middle of the day if she got the chance.

The good thing was that she had stopped seeing Ted; he never bothered her at all while the girls were babies, and somehow that madness, that reckless desire for him, seemed to be wearing off.   Not that she fancied sex at all, even when Phil suggested they should try for another child.   June was just so tired all the time – sex was the last thing on her mind.  Well, she did get pregnant anyway, and Phil seemed really happy now.  He said they had the perfect family, Phil, June and their two lovely little girls.  June had to agree with him, but sometimes she wondered if the bargain was worth the price.  She had a lovely big house, and money seemed easier now too, but Phil was never on the same wavelength as her, unless he was working he seemed distracted and June never really knew what he was thinking; thank goodness he couldn’t read her thoughts either.

An odd couple, she used to muse to herself, but then maybe every couple is odd, maybe we are all like this, a bit disjointed, polite and kind to each other, but not really together, not like you read about in books and magazines.  And then before she knew it the girls were off to school, and she was at a loose end.  She had the housework to do, and it was a big house, but they weren’t using half the bedrooms, and two rooms downstairs they hardly went into either, besides she soon got tired of keeping house.  Phil had insisted that she get a twin-tub, and a Hoover to make life easier but there is only so much dusting a woman can do.   She would have liked to have gone back to work really, she missed the customers and the other girls, but she knew that wasn’t a possibility, the only women who worked after having children were obviously hard up and Phil would never have wanted people to think that.  So she mooched around the house and waited for Harriet and Jane to come back from school, and the more bored she got the more she got to thinking about Ted and all the fun they used to have.   Deep down she knew it was just a matter of time, but the sensible voice in her head told her not to be so daft, all of that was over and thank goodness too.

Philosophy

Tuesday 6th December

We had a Vernissage at the Cafe on Sunday night; it is a sort-of ‘meet the Artist; event.  And I got talking to one of the Artists, a photographer – but whose real passion was Philosophy.  I realised pretty soon that we had much in common, and that although I often seem obsessed by Politics, it is really Philosophy which is at the core of my thoughts.  It is that eternal struggle to discover just what it is which makes us, the possibly cleverest and certainly most dangerous of animals, that little bit different – in essence what it is that makes us Human.  And the struggle for a decent humanity, a way of living your life at peace with a World of chaos; of reconciling the contradictions both within and outside ourselves, and finding if not the answers then at least the correct questions to be asking.

Now, I never studied Philosophy so, like most people I suspect, my Philosophy is a home-baked mixture of basic Christian values tempered by my life experiences.  And I realise that everything I write is part of that attempt; to put into words, which is all I have at my disposal, a view of how we should be living our lives.  The books I read, and even much of the music I listen to is also part of that process of discovery – what it is to be Human.  I suspect that almost everybody is much the same, even if they have never sat down and tried to define what life is all about.  And Politics is just a part of trying to work out the best way of putting that Philosophy into practice. We didn’t ask to be born, and at times Life is a trial, often of our own making; but we must make the best of it – this Life is, despite most Religious views, the only one we have.  And part of that getting on with living is discovering what makes us Human.

Philosophy, the only real subject that should be taught in schools is sadly neglected; I didn’t really know it existed until I left school and had to contend with the real world. But maybe it was always there, simply undefined; waiting to be discovered like Love itself.

A Short history of the Universe – part 4 – Time

Monday 5th December

Time is quite meaningless in the Universe.  Most of it is light years away, and unless we can ever travel faster than the speed of light then we will never visit even a tiny fraction of it, which given our track record on this little planet might not be a bad thing.  Scientists currently think that around 13 billion years ago there was a Big Bang, where the entire Universe was condensed into a tiny space and suddenly expanded, projecting everything outwards, where most of it is still hurtling along.  The heat and pressure was so intense that everything was created, all the atoms which made up the elements coalesced into stars and planets and comets and all that other stuff out there.

But it all happened a long time ago.  And there seems to be no evidence of anything before the Big Bang.  And anyway, does it matter?  Fascinating as the Origins and History of the Universe may be, does any of it matter to us in the 21st Century?  As long as the Sun continues to shine, that is.  We have other things to contend with, such as Global Warming, and we may not have that much time to sort that out either.  In fact the way we are going our time in the Universe may end up having been very short indeed – and of absolutely no consequence either.   If the History, the entire time the Universe may have existed for, were represented as a clock face, humans would have been around for a few milliseconds.  Which does rather beg the  question; if god created Us in His image – how come it took him so long to get around to it?

Anyway, time I was going….that is it really, my Short History of the Universe; far more we don’t know and may never know than any of us can contemplate.

 

A Short history of the Universe – part 3 – Stuff

Monday 5th December

Even though the Universe, vast as it is, is mostly huge spaces of nothingness, the bits of stuff out there are pretty big.  Our own planet is smaller than some of the moons orbiting many larger planets.  And our own Sun, though burning brightly for millions of years (and a few more to come, we all hope) is tiny compared to some out there.  So what is all this stuff?  No-one is really sure where it all came from; maybe it has always been there.  The scientists tell us that everything is made of atoms, though they are far too small to see.  And even the most solid thing imaginable, an iron bar, is made up of billions of atoms.  And just as unbelievable they are not necessarily packed tightly up against each other but there is lots of nothingness between them too.  And even atoms aren’t the smallest things, each atom has a number of electrons and protons revolving around the nucleus, all held in place by that mysterious force gravity, almost replicating the Universe itself only far far smaller.

And that isn’t the end of it either.  Phycisists reckon that there are sub-atomic particles even smaller than the electrons and protons inside tiny atoms.  And every so often they discover or think they might have discovered evidence of even smaller sub-atomic particles.  The search for small stuff is almost as intense as the search for big stuff.

And the number of those electrons and protons inside atoms determine what the stuff actually is.  My memories of the Periodic Table are pretty vague, but Hydrogen only had one, and Oxygen had eight.  Chemistry is in essence the exchange of electrons and protons between atoms resulting in different chemical compositions.

And if you think there is a lot of stuff, even on this planet, let alone in the Solar System, as it is all made up of trillions of atoms – there ‘aint half a lot of stuff in the whole cosmos. The big questions are where did all this stuff come from, and why..

The Christmas Message

Sunday 4th December

At this busy time of year it may be wise to stop for a moment and consider the real reason for Christmas.  Firstly, why is this festival, this cornucopia of consumption, this fanfare of frivolity held in one of the coldest months of the year; indeed just before the big freeze sets in.  The Early Christians weren’t stupid, and nor were the Pagans before them.  Winter was a miserable time of year, especially if there had been a bad harvest, and poor peasants would be in for a desperate few months before Spring returned.  What better idea than to have a party.  If you are going to run out of food sometime in February then why not stuff yourself stupid at the end of December.  And besides if you let the peasants get drunk they were less likely to storm the Lord of the Manor’s house.

And then along came the Victorians who made Christmas what it is today, they brought us the tree and the turkey and plum pudding and copious helpings of alcohol.  Most Victorians hadn’t heard of any of this before Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ but hey, you had to cry for little Tiny Tim, didn’t you.

And then along came America and Hollywood and Bing Crosby and all that schmaltzy weepy-eye stuff.  As a child Christmas was never complete without watching “White Christmas” on the telly.

And then along came Amazon and Black Friday, which stretches for at least three weeks these days. “Spend spend spend”.  That is the real message of Christmas.  I know from working in the Restaurant Industry how important the real message of Christmas is…”Loosen Those Purse-Strings, folks”.  And if you haven’t got the money, there are always Credit Cards.

And actually cutting through all of that we now discover that John Lewis and M. & S. have discovered the real message of Christmas.  Their adverts are now anticipated with bated breath as we seek another dollop of sentimentality, taking us away from the nasty awkward facts on the telly like ever-growing queues at food banks, ambulances backing up at overrun A. & E. Departments, children being bombed in Allepo and Mosul, even starvation looming again in parts of Africa (quick Mum, pass me those mince pies, and change the channel quickly before we become depressed).

Don’t Despair….

Saturday 3rd December

It is tempting to despair of mankind’s stupidity, especially in the light of 2016’s two big Democratic cock-ups; Brexit and Trump.  Facebook is full of predictions of doom, and despair at the apparent rise of the Right and the demise of the Left. And as each day passes and some of the predictions regarding Brexit manifest themselves with more and more dire forecasts regarding our economic future, and the apparent vacuum at the Heart of Government regarding our plans, both for the Brexit negotiations and life after, it is easy to think that the end is nigh…

When we see the news coming out of America, with Trump handing out jobs such as Environment to complete Climate Change Deniers and even the head of the CIA (a known Republican) warning the President Elect about the dangers of loosening Nato ties or befriending Russia, one does have to wonder if it is all some grotesque nightmare – or is it really happening.  Well, it is happening, and we are just going to have to get used to it.

But we must not despair.  We must organize our resistance and wait.  There will come a time, hopefully not too far in the future when the Right-wing will fail.  All Presidents become unpopular, and the Donald was elected by less than half the voters; the Brexit result was only won by a very small margin.  There are already a lot of unhappy people.  In two or three years time things may look quite different.  Jeremy is now seen on television every week at PMs questions and he is getting better, eventually his message will start to get through.

And one day the pendulum will start to swing back…

And as if to re-enforce this message, last night the Lib-Dems on a proud anti-brexit message beat Zac Goldsmith in Richmond.  The fightback has begun…

A Short history of the Universe – part 2 – Size is Important

Friday 2nd December

The Universe is quite large.  In fact it is so large that we simply cannot comprehend how vast it is.  We measure most of it in light years; that is how many years that light, which travels at 186,000 miles a second, takes to reach us.  And what we are seeing is light from years ago; the very stars we can see may have already burnt out long ago, and certainly will be by the time we ever travel to them.  And although the Universe is so vast it is almost entirely made of nothing.  There are huge spaces between planets and stars; our own planet is 93 million miles away from the Sun, which can feel so warm on our skins even when it is low in the sky.  And out there in that vast nothingness there is no friction to slow things down, once on a trajectory planets, comets and stars just keep going until they come within the gravitational pull of some other star or planet.  And then size becomes important, or rather mass does.  The heavier a planetary body is the greater the gravitational pull.  And the whole thing is hanging together on invisible threads of gravity, just as the Earth is strung along lines of forward motion from wherever we came from and pulled by the Sun’s gravity into an orbit we can never escape unless something bigger comes along and drags us away.  The whole of our Milky Way is like a cats-cradle with Stars and planets whirring around but from afar appearing static, all held in motion by Gravity.  We are spinning madly around the Sun and yet feel no motion at all, held still by that very same force of Gravity.  And our moon cannot escape us either, held in place by our own gravitational pull.  And even the satellites we send up and all the bits of debris we are littering space with are orbiting just far enough out to be held in check by gravity.

We are still exploring our own incredible yet tiny Solar System where the planets are millions of miles apart and yet all part of the same gravitational pull exerted by the sun.  And elsewhere in the vastness of the Universe are billions of Solar Systems all equally oblivious of each other but trapped and strapped to each other by their relative size and gravity.