Language

I had the great pleasure of attending the inaugural meeting of a Writing Club yesterday. Naturally it was local and took place in a very pleasant place called the J Gallery.
Meeting others who appreciate language and the use of it, for me is a delight. Language is power, it’s romance, information, tragedy, joy, infinite stories and everything in between. Language can persuade, destroy, depress, enlighten it can transcend the everyday and equally describe it in vivid reality. I wax lyrical deliberately and to make a point!
A word out of place can be the most hurtful of things but the right words can change lives forever.
I love words for there own sake, the feel of them, the spelling, the multiple meanings, there variety, colloquialisms, sayings, phrasing, puns and all the myriad ways we use them in our daily lives.
Language changes all the time, it morphs and bends, admitting the new, whilst other words fall into disuse. It’s a remarkable living, unlimited kaleidoscope,  a pandora box’s full of delights and horrors all at the same time.
I hope we cherish our language, keep it safe, make it live and breath, making sure each generation understands and loves it.

Downbeat but VOTE

I sit here on this cold and frosty morning in my warm dinning room pondering on many things! Since retiring earlier this year I have had more time to ponder! I’ve always been ponderous, just musing on everything that is happening both foreign and domestic, big and small. When one has the time to ponder ones mind wanders into uncharted territory and you realise there is no solution to almost all the worlds issues because in reality both yours and the collective will is unable to find them!
I humbly suggest that we all know what is right but are either unwilling , unable, incapable or just to apathetic to try?
Selfish, self-centered, insular, to wrapped up in our own little lives, we find every excuse we can to not engage. It does not matter what I say or do it won’t make any difference. In many cases this is true.
People do engage, protest, demonstrate, write, broadcast and it can have an effect. Voting is one way of enacting change but I would suggest that when looking at our choices, after the shenanigans of the last few years and the many before, it promotes a reaction in most of a heavy sigh!
We don’t believe anymore, we have no faith, no trust, we feel betrayed and bereft, no one listens, so why bother!
All sounds very depressing doesn’t it?

Well that was deliberately pessimistic, not a false report on the way I see things but purposely downbeat.

I urge you all please register to vote and then use it!
You may not demonstrate, protest, write, broadcast but you ALL can VOTE!

Privilege

I not a great supporter of the  Royal family. Frankly I don’t care about them one way or the other, though I will confess to having enjoyed The Crown.
This Prince Andrew thing is just more proof of how this privileged twat has continued to get himself in serious trouble. He obviously cannot be trusted and is morally compromised, his judgement is flawed, not least because he agreed to do this interview, which just makes him look guilty of everything he is accused of!
This too will pass and we have more important stuff to concern ourselves with.
He is a first class knob though!

Green or pest?

The environment and green conservationist politics are rightly at the top of the agenda and have been for some long while. Naturally the vast majority of humans are appalled at how we have treated our home. Earth is full of wonder and beauty. Whilst I  support the call to treat our environment with respect and to try to reverse the terrible damage, humans have inflicted and continue to inflict, I am very sceptical of either our collective ability or will to do so?
I separate my rubbish into different plastic bins, try to be frugal with water and energy, drive as little as possible, as do many I’m sure. I have know idea if this has even the slightest minuscule effect but we must try. I suggest that while people do think about their green credentials for most it has no impact on their daily lives. We are essentially selfish by nature and want a comfortable life with all the perks that modern consumerism gives us. We want good health, long lives and to look after our families. We wonder what more we can do? We are frustrated by the power and profit makers who may talk a good game but are really only interested in furthering their own growth and to protect their wealth! All whilst so many of us enjoy the benefits of what is produced.

The solution, if there is one, in addition to all the so called green measures, offsetting carbon footprint, stopping deforestation, reducing greenhouse gasses etc: is a complete overhaul of the social and commercial structure we currently operate under, a radical change of the way most of us live. No cars, no planes, complete change to alternative energy sources. Less humans, yes I do mean restricting the world population! Our ingrained habits have to undergo a fundamental rewrite.
I understand that this is easy for me to pontificate upon in my warm house, with fast broadband, writing on my iPad  and that I am not offering much in the way of detail or how we effect this change, frankly I’m not clever enough but I know one thing if continue to operate the same way we have we will continue to get the same results!

One more thing, I’ve said it before and I know I’m not alone in this opinion, humans are just a the biggest pest nature has produced and it is our ultimate fate to destroy the very planet that sustains us!

Have a good day!

Election UK

So here we go again! Boris wanted an General Election and finally, after some parliamentary manoeuvres, he got his wish. So off we go to the polls and put our cross in the box of our choice? 
Except many of us have little choice and our vote is meaningless. You must vote, if you do not and you can, don’t ever complain after and especially not to me, you will get no sympathy. Having said that, in a first past the post system, for many of us our vote is wasted! In the constituency I reside in, it is or has been for the last 3 elections a safe Tory seat. Michael Ellis is the incumbent, his majority is not large and who knows he could lose. When he first stood, I made it my task to study all the candidates and decide who would best represent our constituents, irrespective of the party they represented. Indeed at the time I espoused the idea, that should everyone vote on that basis and not just for the party they supported nationally, it might change the face of Parliament as we know it? I voted for Michael. To be fair he is not the worst MP we have had. I could not bring myself to vote for him again. The party he belongs to (Conservatives) just horrify me and he has become yet another Tory toadie, who when questioned (I have had much email correspondence with him) just tows the party line and supports everything their leader does without fail.
He is now in the Cabinet, so it works! 
If Sally Keeble stands again, as his Labour opposition, I cannot in all conscience, vote for her. My darling wife, is bitterly opposed to her for reasons I won’t explain here but her reasons are good enough for me!
So that leaves us with the other candidates, Liberal Democrat, Green etc and they, as past history shows, don’t have a prayer. 
I’m sure this scenario is repeated in many constituency’s, up and down our country. 
So what to be done? You MUST vote, it is your right and the only way everyone can take part in the democratic🤣 process! Who for? If you go in knowing your vote is a waste, what is the point? You could spoil your paper as protest but that in itself is a meaningless gesture! You could argue that if you don’t vote for a candidate whom has little chance of winning, they never will. 
It is a dilemma that I would suggest will tax many people’s minds over this campaign. It might be one reason why many never vote or won’t vote this time?
We know the main issues and we all know why this election is so important.
Our countries future is always at stake but now more so than ever.
The way many in Parliament have behaved is outrageous and at times disgusting, over the period since Mrs May disaster at the 2016 General Election (and before), their inability to reach any agreement or consensus, the insults, intransigence and plain hostility towards each other and us, has been plain for all to see (naturally there are many exceptions)!

I have no clue as to the answer to everything I’ve just typed! I’m baffled and tired of it all but I know we have to decide, I just don’t know what my decision will be? 🤔😬😱