SEPTEMBER 2004
I see that the annual test of the flood-warning sirens in Lincolnshire was cancelled this year due to heavy rain. Cheers.
The proposed Civil Contingencies Bill is supposed to modernise local emercency arrangements. However, it also enables the Government to gain sweeping powers at the slimmest excuse. A real "emercency" need not actually excist.. Something need only, as a matter of opinion, be a "threat": about to happen at home or abroad.
Ministers can make emercency regulations akin to an act of Parliament. They can suspend virtually any Act - even constitutional legislation, protecting our rights.
They can make an individual carry out any action. They can destroy or confiscate any property, without compensation.
They can ban movement, freedom of the press or any other activity (with the curious exception of industrial action, which might actually hamper responding to a real emercency.)
They can hand power to any individual, including foreign officials with immunity from prosecution.
Although regulations should be cleared with Parliament "when possible", there is no guarantee of a jusicial review should powers be used unreasonably. Yet failure to comply could mean prison.
The Government has already moved to discard traditional safeguards such as preventing convictions without evidence. That they have refused to consider protecting legislation is telling - so if drastic powers are provided, it can safely be taken that they are there to be used.
Lord Lucas noted parallels with Hitle's "Enabling Act" in 1933, when emercency powers were used legitimately to uproot democracy.
Copied from www.newalliance.org.uk
Seems like a few people are finally waking up to the fact that we are already for all practical purposes living under a dictatorship. The only hope of democracy in the UK seems strangely enough to be the un-elected House of Lords.
I have just returned to these shores after spending a month in Japan. As expected, the class warriors on the Labour backbenches, fighting a war that was won more than 50 years ago, have finally succeeded in forcing through a ban on hunting with dogs, the last act making Tony Blair's Britain of the early 21st Century similar to Adolf Hitler's Germany of the middle 20th one. Even if the their Lordships should cut up rough they have been effectively, though probably illegally, sidelined. If the People's Party should lose the expected election next year, would the Dear Leader quietly move aside, or would he declare an emercency under the Contingencies Act and rule by fiat. It couldn't happen in a mature democracy like Britain, you say. That's what the Germans said, too.
We all had a nice time in Japan, apart from a smallish earthquake and a hurricane that killed 27 people just over the border in the next prefecture. They sure have had a rough year here; this was the 21st hurricane to strike this season, and the next one was gathering strenght as we were leaving for Blighty.
Kiyoko and I went over to Japan together with the Mayor and Mayoress of Beverley and Ray Grange, the former tourist officer, now retired, all paid for by the Fukuoka Town Council, as it was the authority's 50 years anniversery as a town, and it was celebrated in style. We had a full week living in complete luxury, which was nice for a change, and as the others went home, we stayed on for a further 3 weeks at Kiyoko's uncle and aunt's place.
As usual when I'm in Japan I was kept busy treating people suffering from various degrees of depression. The stress level in the society is just unbelievable, and I'm finding it more and more difficult to treat what I would regard as a normal reaction to a sick environment. Kiyoko's cousin is typical of the Japanese "salary man". He leaves for work at 5:30 in the morning and returns home at 11:30 in the evening. The weekend is spent writing long reports on what mistakes he did during the week, and what he intends to do to correct his unacceptable behaviour. He also has to study hard in order to pass evaluation tests on a monthly basis. Unexpectedly we were dealing with a zombie who scarcely uttered 2 words when we were there. As a result more and more young people are just opting out of society, prefering to live roughh if they have to, and who can blame them.
Back in Beverley the Evening News on the beeb has just reported the closure of a Birdseye factory by the mother company Unilever on the other side of the river. People looked like they had no idea of what had hit them. You know, the usual problems, no other jobs in the area, morgages to pay, families to feed, debt to service. Grown men were shown crying their heart out, and it was all very sad. And still, though sympatizing with them, I couldn't help feeling that this was more a spiritual problem than an economical one. Neither of these people are going to starve; they might loose their houses, but they will not be homeless as there are plenty of council houses available in the area. No, their main problem is that they have allowed themselves to live without facing reality; because they have bought a house, they think they own property, because they have a job, they think they have independence and security. In Stav terms they are trells who think they are karls.
I've just received a phone call from daughter Aki, and it seems like she's buying a farm. She needs a place for her livestock as the farm where she is keeping them now is up for development. Fair enough, except she is sending over document from the bank for me to sign, as she has put up our house as security. Thanks, Aki. I kind of belatedly figured out that I might have to pay her mortgage or join the quee for a council house. I suppose I can always sleep in her barn, though.
The garden was a complete mess when we came back; the grass is up to the knee, the leylandy has had an incredably growth spurt and the crab apple has split off several large branches. The front drive was covered in dead leaves and we could barely open the front door because of all the junkmail (and bills). There were more than a 100 E-mails in the computer, all but 17 were just spam. The house was cold and damp, and I started to run a temperature almost at once. I haven't felt so miserable for ages.
So the first day was spent in paying off the utility companies, buying food and clearing the drive. Then we had to go into Hull to pick up Smokey. My friend Danny had been looking after him, though Smokey has spent a month hiding in a cupbouard under the stairs only coming out at night to eat and use his tray. Danny reportedly tried once to get him to come out, but the doctor who finally managed to staunch the bleeding recommended him to leave Smokey alone. Good advice, in my opinion. We thought we might have a major fight on our hands to get him home, but he came out at once on hearing Kiyoko's voice and jumped into his carrying basket. I'm going to bed; the garden can wait until next week.
Having observed what's passing for an education in the UK today I have concluded that I was blessed with having several teachers that saw it as their mission in life to educate their students, not just acting as babysitters.
My teacher in elementary school from me being 9 and until graduating at 14, always spent September and November getting us through the curriculum, and then we had the rest of the school year free in order to learn something useful. He was born and bred in a small fishing community in the middle of nowhere and hated cities and city people with a passion. He wasn't very tall, but he sure was broad, having to walk through doors sideways, and he could twist horseshoes into knots with his bare hands. But the same hands could also make and play musical instruments. He had a violent temper and would sometimes hang one of us up on the coathangers, desk and all, but he would back us to the hilt if we got into trouble. Once one of my classmates came to school all blue and black after having been beaten up by his no good drunk of a father. Sir took exception and went to have a word. As I heard the story his father closed the frontdoor in Sir's face only to having him walk in with the doorframe hanging from his shoulders. He evidently made an impression, because my friend didn't see his father again for more than 2 years.
We spent a large part of the year in the forest learning to trap and fish or on a plot of land growing vegetables and fruit We learnt to sail and how to build our own boats. But mostly we learnt to question anything we were being told by the authorities, whether that was regarding politics, education or religion.
Sir died of a heart attack when he was only 46 years old, but he had deeply influenced the life of a whole generation of children.
I had another remarkable teacher when I was in what would be the lower 6th here. He was a Greek and he was our French Master. He didn't know any Norwgian, and it soon turned out that he didn't know any French, either, but he was incredibly knowledgable on the subject of warfare in Classical Greece, which we found a lot more interesting than French anyway. So we spent a full year getting a post-graduate education in the subject that could not have been bettered at any university. Unfortunately he came to grief at the end of the school year when exam result showed that none of us could string together a single sentence in French. Up until then our Headmaster had been very impressed with him as the most hardworking member of staff; the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night. In fact he was living in the Teacher's Common Room to save money.
Then there was our Geography Master who spent all lessons teaching geology at a high level. He was very shortsighted so as long as somone was sitting on the front desks the rest of the class could bunk off. As I was at the front I learnt a lot about geology and the rest of the curriculum was easy anyway; if you could read you didn't really need a teacher.
Our Zoology Master rarely bothered to get into school, preferring to teach us at home in the evening. His place was full of animals that had a free run of the house, which made it somewhat smelly; especially his tame foxes had quite a strong pong. Kids were always bringing him orphan hedgehogs, injured cats and dogs and once even a seal that had got its head stuck in a bucket. He always put things right, adviced on what to feed our pets and had us spending countless nights out in the field with him trying to see animals in the wild.
Our Litterature Master had spent 4 years in jail after the war for Nazi activities, though this later turned out to be somewhat of a miscarriage of justice. He had no sympathy for Hitler and his bunch, but he admired and taught the philosophy of Nietze which was enough to get him into trouble. He was still gloriously unpolitically correct, advocating that doctors should not try to keep alive babies with genetic defects, though we all knew that he spent most of his salary on the sly supporting a home for children with Down's Syndrome. In later years he developed Alzheimer's which he saw as a great opportunity to record the detoriation of a mind. I read his diary some years ago and it was fascinating, for obvious reasons the first part more so than the latter.
None of these teacher would have been allowed into a classroom today, and we are all the poorer for it.
INVICTUS by William Ernest Henley (who was born blind)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
Rodney Bennett sent this over recently. Says it all,really.
Rules Of Life
Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
Don¹t worry about what people think, they don¹t do it very often.
Going to church doesn¹t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you¹ve never tried before.
My idea is to sweep the room with a glance.
Not one shred of evidence supports the notion life is serious.
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
For every action, there is an equal opposite government program.
If you look like your passport photo you probably need a trip.
Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel good.
Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
Men are on earth. Women are on earth. Deal with it..
No man has been shot while doing the dishes.
A balanced diet is a biscuit in each hand.
Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist changes places.
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
Junk is something you keep for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
By the time you make ends meet, they move the ends.
Thou shalt not weigh more than the fridge.
Some who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
Its not the jeans that make your bum fat.
If you had to identify, in 1 word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
There is very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness".
People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want to share yours.
You should not confuse your career with your life.
Nobody cares if you don¹t dance well. Just get up and dance.
Never lick a steak knife.
The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
You will never find anybody who can give you a clear compelling reason why we put our clocks back.
You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she¹s pregnant unless you can see the actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside us, we ALL believe we are above the average drivers.
The person, who is nice to you, but is rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.(This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
Your friends love you anyway.
Thought of the day: Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
We're being told that there is a £57 billion hole in the pension funds,( thanks to that nice Mr. Brown), and the Government is saying that there are 4 options available to us. We can work til we drop, we can pay higher taxes, we can put more money into savings (preferably Government bonds) or we can look forward to extreme poverty in our old age. Of the 4 choices I'm sure that our Government will go for all of them.