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? 🤔😬😱 

Oh how we’ve bitten the hand!

I am a believer in science and scientific evidence. As I have written before I do not believe in a God, therefore I am atheist. So as a believer of the first, I fully realise we are killing the planet we live on. Call it what you will, Climate Change, Environment, Green or any other epithet you care for, the human race is destroying Earth in the name of progress, money and most importantly power.
I have espoused previously that the human race are a pest, not in the numbers that we generally think of in the insect world but more deadly and dangerous.
There are too many of us and we are increasing too quickly. In all the media I hear or read not one person has (to the best of my knowledge) suggested that we cull ourselves!  What a horrific idea! Let me clarify, we have to put the brakes on a continual rise in our populations. Let nature take its course with its natural way of balance! Unpalatable, sounds like the suggestion of a madman, brings to mind all sorts of historical horror, yes it does sound like that! I’m not suggesting wholesale slaughter to reduce our numbers, just control of our future growth.
It’s not palatable to most and I don’t like suggesting it. It has obvious implications that will cause major outrage.
I merely suggest it should at least be discussed? Realism is never comfortable.
Personally, and I hate being pessimistic, I think the “ship has sailed” and whatever we do now is too little too late!
I have read this morning about Greta Thunberg’s  impassioned speech, she is absolutely correct, how dare we! What a terrible future we have provided for our youth, we should be ashamed. We may have not realised soon enough but once we did, what have we done, not enough! I write lots of words but I’ve done little myself, so I know my hypocrisy!
I began this piece by stating I believe in science and scientific evidence, unfortunately it’s as responsible for our current position as much as it is for providing the evidence of where we now are, ironically! You can’t win!

Lies lies contempt & more lies

Prompted by the photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging in a Parliament, last night, I felt compelled to send the picture to my local MP Michael Ellis and ask if he could either explain or defend the behaviour of The Leader of the House? This one demonstration of smug privilege has quite possibly done more to damage Boris and his cohorts slim chance of persuading the voters of his “cause” than almost anything else . Rees-Moggs reaction when finally told and shouted at by fellow MP’s on all sides, to sit up, was one of a naughty schoolboy, who cares little for the rest of the members of his chamber, contemptuous does not do it justice, it is utter disdain for his fellow parliamentarians and demonstrates exactly how the Johnson Government is treating us!
These are desperate times and how desperately we need sensible leadership, a succession of MP’s have let us down, they have been and continue to be in complete disarray.
What’s to be done, I wish I knew, there has been so much spouted by all sides that I’m sure that none of us are able to make a coherent decision, to what would be the best way forward. There are many who stick to their steadfast view that we must leave and those who stick to a second referendum to allow the “people” to decide. All I know is it is a total mess and one that could have been avoided.

Strange times

We live in strange, one might say bizarre times. Odd leaders in the West, great division everywhere, disenfranchised electorate in many European countries, the right wingers ebbing and flowing in and out of favour and always some maverick voice able and willing to stir the pot!
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, was it? We were supposed to be in a bright future of plenty, harmony beginning to reign and equality becoming accepted no matter what your persuasion. Plenty for all and fair distribution of wealth! Okay that all sounds a little utopian and unrealistic perhaps even harks back to the days of “peace & love” but not a bad thing to wish for no matter how unlikely? Instead we stumble on, into what many consider is chaos and anarchy. It is not all doom and gloom, very often the world needs shaking up in order for a better future, however uncomfortable it is, whilst the shaking occurs. And things have improved, generally, many would say not enough and still to slowly but slow has always been the pace of progress in human improvement. Change is often resisted particularly by those who have wealth and power. It is said that “money is the root of all evil” and there is much truth to that but power is a far stronger aphrodisiac, there will always be those who want it and those who will fight to keep it!
For some unfathomable reason, I am still optimistic and believe things will get better. For me personally, it’s not so important, I am comfortably off and no longer involved in the daily rat race,  thats the reason I can pontificate from the comfort of my electric recliner but I do have hope that the younger generations will sort out this mess, my generation has left them in, our complacency having fucked it all up.
I should have involved myself far more in causes but I was and am too lazy. Like I said pontificating is easy!