You are currently browsing the THE TALBOT FAMILY BLOG weblog archives for September, 2011.
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Archive for September 2011
And now: Let’s lighten the tone a bit!
28/09/2011 by Ted.
I found myself singing this song as I was making the tea this morning.
Have a chuckle!
I’m My Own Grandpa
Guy Lombardo
Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed
This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
My daughter was my mother ’cause she was my father’s wife
To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy
My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother
Of the widow’s grown-up daughter who was also my stepmother
Father’s wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter’s son
My wife is now my mother’s mother and it makes me blue
Because altho’ she is my wife, she’s my grandmother too
Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I’m her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild
For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa
Oh I’m my own grandpa
I’m my own granpa
It sounds funny I know,
But it really is so
Oh I’m my own grandpa
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Politics at it’s best!
28/09/2011 by Ted.
At just 16, Rory Weal was being feted yesterday as the ‘hero’ of the Labour conference for an impassioned speech telling how the welfare state saved his family from ruin.
The schoolboy tugged at delegates’ heartstrings with a tale of his home being repossessed and the family having ‘nothing, no money, no savings’, and only the benefits system to fall back on.
Rory conjured up an image of his destitute family as he told Labour delegates: ‘Two and a half years ago, the home I had lived in since birth was repossessed. We had nothing, no money, no savings.‘I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for that system, that safety net.
‘I owe my entire well-being and that of my family to the welfare state. That is why I joined the Labour Party,
But Labour leader Ed Miliband may be surprised to know he was not so hard-up after all.
For it turns out he is the privileged son of a millionaire property developer who sent Rory to a private school until his business went bust.
Even now he goes to a selective grammar school, which Labour policy opposes.
Rory, ….. later declared he would ‘not rule out’ becoming Prime Minister one day.
The two-faced little creep seems perfect material for a Labour Prime Minister!
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Greetings, brother Richard.
28/09/2011 by Ted.
Lovely to see your post - not just because you are a flatterer, but because I now know that at least one person - and may I say, one of my favourite persons - read them.
My love to you all. You are often in my thoughts. And that (my love and thoughts) also goes to all the family members everywhere, who, if you do not read the blog, will not know that I have sent them anyway.
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Politicians and Talk-talk-talk-talk!
28/09/2011 by Ted.
From the BBC news on line.
Labour should have done more for the 50% of youngsters who do not plan to go to university, Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham is to say.
He will tell Labour’s annual conference that schools have been seen “solely as preparation for university” for too long.
Those who go straight into work or apprenticeships are left to fend for themselves, he will say.
He will also claim ministers are diverting funds from the most needy.
This is very evident common sense.
But will the brave talk have any effect and be put into practice.
If only those saying these things weren’t politicians.
If only we could believe that they were going to do something about it.
If only we didn’t know that the words are only said to ingratiate themselves into public favour so that they can enrich themselves even more at public expense after the next election.
And it isn’t just Labour. Call me Dave and his cronies are just the same. I had such hopes for this coalition. But they just talk a lot and do as little as possible. Straws blowing in the wind. I overlooked that, at heart, they are politicians too!
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Another nail in Labour’s coffin!
27/09/2011 by Ted.
From today’s Telegraph.
Exam board to penalise private school pupils
“A new A-level ranking system which would encourage universities to discriminate against pupils from private schools, will be unveiled today by Britain’s largest exam board.
The proposal by the AQA - the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance - would see students given points based both on the grades they achieved and the type of education they had received.
It means a pupil from a comprehensive with the same grades as a student from a fee paying school would end up with higher points - and potentially a place at university ahead of a private school pupil.
The plan, which is due to be put forward today at the Labour party conference is designed to help universities offer places to students from disadvantaged homes who showed potential but did not perform as well in exams”.
For goodness sake!!!!!
More meddling from the Labour Party who have already ruined our country in their last term of office.
The answer surely is not yet another episode of government sponsored positive discrimination to manipulate badly educated children into elite Universities. The aim should be to improve the State education system from the appalling standard in which the Socialist Party left it, and in which it is now. It is to re-install the quality teaching that existed there when I went to school in pre-Labour, pre-nanny State days. The Comprehensive’s results will then equitably compete with the private schools results without any of this State fiddling.
With regard to private schools, the fees paid by a child’s parents for a child’s attendance at a private school is a parental investment in the future of their child. They most likely already have a staged plan for their child’s education. The parents are “putting their money where their mouth is”. They are 100% interested and involved in their child’s academic success and demonstrate this by the fees they are prepared to pay. During the course of their fee-purchased education they make sure that the child returns the investment they are making by their personal interest and encouragement in the progress of their child. They are behind their child every step of the way! The child accounts to them.
Compare this to the result of positive discrimination where the government of the day fiddles the system so that poorly educated children from “disadvantaged homes” who are not very good at exams get to University anyway. “Disadvantaged homes” are presumably those headed by an unmarried mother and with rarely a father in evidence. I recently asked a bright eight-year-old from such a family what he wanted to do when he left school. His answer? “I’ll go down to the job centre!” The mother just shrugged her shoulders. Not much parental interest there! Judging from today’s statistics most of such children already drop out of University after gaining their unearned places - the direct result of the lack of the back-up and concerned parental interest and support. They are not required to account to anyone for their performance.
In my schooldays children who were not very good at exams became what were called “blue collar workers”, ie the skilled craftsmen who emerged from apprenticeships and other forms of practical, non-academic training into respectable trades, where their practical skills as welders and fitters and engineers made this country into the great country which it used to be. Today skilled trades are not important - just “service industries” who make nothing.
Why do these so-called governments and government agencies think that being a failed university student is better then having a skill at your fingertips which could produce the exports so essential for, but so lacking from, our country.
The last Labour government spent its tenure perverting and manipulating - and failing. For me this further retrograde proposal adds to the appalling record they left. For me, and I suggest for all right thinking people, this proposal is yet another nail in Labour’s coffin.
As an afterthought, I suppose one even now gets an occasional pupil from a “disadvantaged home” (the meaning of “disadvantaged” not being defined) at a private school who does not perform very well with exams. How will the proposed system identify him so that he too can be positively discriminated for, and not against?
Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »
Greetings to all
26/09/2011 by Richard.
Ted, I just want to say thank you to my elder brother for the fabulous posts that you write on this blog.While I may not agree with everything you write I truly admire you for having the guts (I was going to say b—s but remembered this is a family blog) to commit your feelings in such an eloquent manner.Keep up the good work Ted, I just can’t wait to read your next entry.
love to everyone
from the worcester gang
Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »
Give me a ring
20/09/2011 by Ted.
Someone I know is a woman, 45 years of age, who has never been married and has three sons, each one by a different father.
Nothing very unusual about that in this day and age despite free birth control pills.
The father of her latest child, with whom she lived for around 10 years, has just packed his bags and walked out. Before he went he nonchalantly said to me, I am a single man. I can do as I like.
And that is true, and that is just what he has done. He now has his own flat, another woman and he sees his son for a couple of days each week. Job done!!!
The son has now shrugged his shoulders and accepted the latest situation with his dad as best he can.
The mother has no recourse to any married woman’s rights on account of the ten years they shared and the son she bore him. She is also single. However as she has been left with responsibility for caring for the children she cannot do as she likes. She is entitled to maintenance for the child she bore for her latest partner, but apart from that she is on her own without any support at law.
And that is the reason for marriage. It is a formal contract recording the creation of a family so that in the event of the dissolution of the family relationship by death or divorce or whatever the surviving partner and particularly the children of the family are protected by the law. They have rights, and neither partner can opt out by saying, I’m single - I can do what I like.
A Registry Office ceremony costs less than £100. Seems a small price for the security it brings.
Not so long ago - when someone wanted to get serious - the custom was to say, “First, give me a ring - a wedding ring!” Sounds a sensible thing to do.
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Mad Cow Disease
16/09/2011 by Ted.
From the Archive.
“Mad cow” disease
They fed the cattle dead sheeps’ brains.
(Unnatural thing to do!)
To build them up to give more milk –
And make more profits too.
They didn’t think “But cows eat grass –
We shouldn’t feed them brains”.
They closed their eyes to natural ways
Anticipating gains.
But what man sows, that will he reap!
The cows took sick – some died.
“How can this be? Let’s put them down.
The cows are mad”, they cried.
Men ate “mad cows”, they too got sick
(They called it CJD
For none dare say, “Mad man’s disease”
For we are humans, see!)
Though man conceived the evil plan
That makes cows sick and sad,
Then ate their meat – “no risk to us” –
We humans aren’t called mad.
And blame? – Oh there is none at all
As man’s mad schemes abound
With people dying day by day –
To earn an extra pound.
E.L. Talbot ©
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Tea-boys wanted.
16/09/2011 by Ted.
How is it today that people from the EU and elsewhere can come to this country and find employment when there are thousands of British citizens who are unable to find a job.
The official answer is that those finding work are willing to accept lower paid jobs, and jobs where they have to work for their money.
Native job seekers - usually fresh out of University with some sort of a degree are expecting to walk into jobs in middle management or the equivalent when all the experience they have to offer prospective employers is ten years or so at school and another two or three at University, often bringing with them poor knowledge of the basic 3-Rs.
There are, however, loads of opportunities for those who are willing to start a few pegs lower down.
In a nearby town one of the busiest work sites you can find is a car wash operated by half-a-dozen Polish lads. OK, so car washing is not a job one would boast about, and that is why the site stood empty for so long. But these lads decided that even being “only car-washers“ would earn them a living. They gave it a go, set a competitive rate and now they must be making a small fortune. When open the site is rarely without five or six cars in process of being hand-washed at a fiver a time. And they keep on going from early morning until late evening. They work for every penny they earn and they deserve every penny they get.
By contrast, a twenty-two year old British lad who has never worked one day since leaving school popped in a month or so ago to do some job hunting. Apparently he has sent a CV to a number of Agencies listing his educational qualifications (which are not many), and was now waiting with heaven-alone-knows-how-many other unemployed persons for someone to “head-hunt” him, that is, invite him to come and work for them. He popped in to access his e-mail box to see if any such invitations had arrived. Of course, they hadn’t so he turned off the computer and went back home to waste the day watching the television, and bored out of his mind.
Feeling sorry for him I searched my mind for things which he could do and prepared a printed postcard for him for his next visit with the following.
Grass cutting, hedge trimming, garden
maintenance, cleaning, dog walking,
car washing and polishing, housework,
painting, decorating etc, etc . . . .
Any kind of honest work
will be welcomed.
I am honest, have good references, am a
steady and reliable worker.
The next time he called I showed him the postcard and was pleased by what I saw as a positive response. I gave him six copies and said that if he put them up in the local supermarkets I would pay for the same to appear in the classified column of the local newspaper.
I am still waiting for him to display the postcards as he said he would.
By contrast again, I watched a broadcast of The Dragon’s Den a week or so ago when two lads walked in dressed, I thought scruffily, in tee-shirts and jeans. They were looking to sell a 10% interest in their business for £50,000. Before they left they had done a deal. Their business - delivering leaflets! They were already making an excellent living from it and wanted to expand - further into this country and then into Europe. You can’t get much more basic than delivering leaflets, but with their interest and energy it had become for them a profitable business.
If I today had left Uni with a degree that is not getting me a job, I would set my sights lower. I would be willing to start as a “tea-boy” and work my way up from there until I became the Managing Director of the company. It used to be the recognised way to progress through a Company, gaining Invaluable Company experience as you went along. That is the way I indeed progressed in my working life - but not quite to Managing Director. Much more satisfying than being just one of the faceless multitude without a job or the hope of getting one.
More importantly, instead of waiting for the job to come to me - I would be out looking for the job!
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Migrants are having big families to claim benefits, says Asian
16/09/2011 by Ted.
Baroness Flather accused the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities of failing to adopt the values of British society and said they should have their benefits slashed
Well, of course they do. That is why they came to this country in the first place.
In days gone by British parents had to limit the size of their families so as not to outstrip their income. If they could only afford to support two children they did their very best to have just that many. And there was no free birth control then. Contraceptive pills hadn’t been invented. “Accidents” happened and unplanned babies were born (there was no abortion on demand then either, thank God!). So the family buckled down and had to manage. Dad tried to get a better job (yes, children had dads who lived with them in those days!) and the family got along - poor but together and as a family.
I was still a child when the Family Allowance was first introduced. I can remember my parents’ absolute delight - “five-bob a week” from the Government. What a bonus that was. But my dad had still to work hard and long to support his family seizing all the overtime he could and riding his bike to work through all weathers.
Unemployment wasn’t then the socially accepted thing that it is today. If you lost your job you had to go and find another one quickly for the sake of your family. It was impossible for a family to manage on the pittance then paid to the unemployed. There was a motive for that - if your children were going short because you hadn’t a job then personal pride motivated you to find another job quickly.
Slowly, over the years the scale of benefits were increased so that they would support a father whilst he sought his next job. They did not exploit the system. Fathers had a pride then in their role - it was considered shameful not to be employed - not to be supporting your family.
Soon it became more widely known - in the Colonies first - that, in Britain, if you didn’t work the Government paid you money until you got a job. Soon this became corrupted to “If you don’t work the government pays you money to stay at home” - and El Dorado had arrived for the masses of immigrants who had no such luxury in their own country. They, of course, fared even better when they arrived, for they received a rent-free house and money to furnish it and other special immigrant-related benefits - whilst the tax-paying residents of this country who supported their lifestyle had to delay marriage and wait for years on council housing lists for the opportunity for a house of their own. And for immigrants El Dorado just got better and better. The more children they had the more benefits they received - and all still without being required to work or contribute anything to the country supporting them. They didn’t even have to learn the language! They were encouraged to live together in their own community groups and open their own speciality shops and retain their national dress so that they didn’t have to submit to the indignity of speaking English or adopting British ways.
The native population of this country has been seething about these things for forty years, but are unable to voice their feelings because it is classed as racist or intolerance for which they can be arrested and imprisoned.
So welcome to the club, Baroness Flather. Do you think that you can do anything about it?
I bet you don’t!
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More skullduggery!
15/09/2011 by Ted.
Food sell-by dates are to be removed in a bid to cut waste and save shoppers money, ministers have announced.
Oh, yes? Try pulling the other one!
The sell-by date is purely for the supermarket’s convenience and is the way they detect stock which they calculate is stale or past it’s best which should be removed from the shelf and sold off as quickly as possible. The items are usually marked down in price and placed in a separate section - where they are bought by pensioners and other poor people not in receipt of benefits or public service salaries.The obvious beneficiary from this one is the supermarket who can now leave stuff lying on their shelves indefinitely at the full price. The staff who spend part of their day locating and separating out-of-date stock can now be dispensed with saving even more money for the supermarket.
If this is not the intention the supermarket is going to require some other system which will identify stale or past-it’s-best stock to replace the sell-by-date which is being removed - so why bother removing it in the first place?
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To a dandelion seen growing through the tarmacadam surface of a country road.
14/09/2011 by Ted.
As winter rolled away I stretched and thrust my numbed toes deeper into the quickening earth, now impatient to uncurl my fingers and reach upward, out beyond the twilight of my grave. As I waited I reflected on the joy which lay before me as, unfolding, and with increased awakening, I sought and found again the welcoming, long awaited sun. I savoured anew the bursting forth, the spreading, opening and breathing, the gentle swaying in the balm-filled breezes and freshening rain. The budding and opening of my yellow regimented petals to soak in the sun until, fully ripened, my head became hoary with gossamer, a multitude of fragile hairs each flawlessly designed to open and catch the breeze and soar away bearing my precious children. Then, stripped bare, my head would stand proud, a symbol of fulfilment until, slowly shrinking and withdrawing, I returned once more to the cooling earth which would guard me secure from winter’s ills.
But, today, my imprisonment is still complete. The earth is warm, and I know that the time has come to leave my grave. Yet, above me, all is hard and unyielding, unwilling to give way to the thrusting power of spring. And so I push and seek and probe, twisting, curling and searching a path round granite chips and through tiny imperfections in the binding morass. I swell and expand until tiny cracks are forced asunder. Then, suddenly, the struggle is over. I feel the sun and see the light. I breathe and stretch above a strange new carpet which last year had been the greenest grass, but now is a tarmacadam road
E.L. Talbot ©
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Shame on greedy, selfish teachers!
14/09/2011 by Ted.
Trade unions have drawn up plans for a widespread campaign of industrial action over government plans for public sector pensions, the BBC has learned.
Mark Littlewood from the right-leaning Institute for Economic Affairs, said public sector workers were not “the oppressed poor” and also enjoyed “unbelievable job security, more generous annual holidays”.
“Your average worker in the public sector earns 4k more a year in their salary, if you start building in their pensions about £7,000 a year more.
“Overall, average to average, [they are] 35%, maybe 40% richer than the average private sector worker,” Mr Littlewood said.
So why are they threatening to disrupt every private sector worker’s honest days work for an honest day’s pay?
Every decent, honest, hardworking private sector worker in the country will be adversely affected by their thoughtless demonstration of greed. Everyone needs to take action now to protest and stop this vile attempt to get even more than they deserve at the private workers expense. It is sheer greed. The flag in the illustration above is that of the NUT (the National Union of Teachers) - teachers in a failed education system that has, for years, failed to equip our young people with the learning necessary to become an able private sector worker. Their ‘working’ hours and paid holidays are a joke. A recently retired teacher boasted to me that it is accepted practice to work until they are in their fifties and then go sick and retire on medical grounds because of the “stress” of the “part-time job” they do. Because this early retirement is on medical grounds they receive their full pension at once, and then, suddenly fit again, find employment as a private sector worker until they reach the private sector workers retirement age for which they receive an additional pension - or earlier should they choose because they find that they can manage nicely on the double pension they have already fiddled so far thank you. This is apparently how this person had “worked their ticket” at public expense.
The threatened strike adversely affects every decent hard-working citizen in the country and worsens NUT members already abysmal record in fitting our nation’s children to go out and earn their living by depriving our children of even more days at school. They couldn’t care less about the disruption and misery they will cause to you. So give them the boot - make your displeasure known in very way you can think of. Stop the greedy pigs now.
By e-mail, letter, the spoken word, outside school demonstrations - whatever means you prefer - let the greedy public workers know how much you revile what they are, in their greed, planning. Let them know how you feel. If they have any respect at all for the ordinary people who provide their over-generous salaries and pensions they will reconsider what they are planning.
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To ………. ?
13/09/2011 by Ted.
When we danced that first dance so long ago, and your cheek touched mine, you were born in my heart. Since then you have lived there always, and my love for you has never ceased. Memories of our time together are the fragrance of my life, often recalled and ingested to sweeten the hours.
On the day that we parted I mourned; my soul was bereaved.
Since then there have been times of closeness, and, rarely, of intimacy - sweet oases in the passage of time. But there have been long absences too, and during the times of absence, whatever the circumstances, the memory of you - and rarely has a week passed without such a remembrance - has been a time of refreshing, though inevitably tinged with sadness because of your absence.
At last, after so long a time, came an opportunity to see you again. How eagerly I anticipated that first moment. Would it be like the time we first met all over again? When I saw you, truly my heart leaped with joy and my love for you was confirmed.
But you were not alone.
The longing to be close to you, to speak to you and touch you, to hold you could not be fulfilled. That anticipated moment - our moment - could not be born.
And so we went our separate ways again - you to yours and I to mine.
Today my heart enfolds you as it has always done.
My love for you will never die; as I have carried you in my heart, all these long years, so it will always be. My dreams and my longings will continue - as they always have.
These years which should be ours to enjoy together are not yet ours to share. But when times change I will still be waiting, and we shall, at last, begin to restore the years which the locusts have eaten.
As always,
E.L. Talbot ©
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A windy day
13/09/2011 by Ted.
A little windy here in Cumbria today. Has been for the past two weeks, but more-so the last few days. Strong-gale wind speeds of 40-something knots with gusts above that. But the sun is shining today and that makes everything fine.
Had a great walk yesterday. The tide was due in at 1340 and I thought that with a gale behind it it would be worth seeing. So I walked down to the sea-wall and, buffeted by the winds and well-watered by sea-spray, walked along it’s length to White Rock. The sea was grey, the sky was grey and visibility was poor, but the wind was warm and the walk very enjoyable. At White Rock I met my only human encounter on the walk - a tubby gentleman dressed in high-visibility outdoor clothing who exuberantly danced around, arms waving, exclaiming how wild it was. I non-commitedly said that it was a bit draughty and passed on.
At White Rock I had the choice of retracing my steps along the sea-wall or continuing the walk along the beach to Millom Pier, so I did the latter. The sandy beach was sheltered from much of the wind and the incessant buffeting dropped considerably. I walked along enjoying the change and, warmer in the sheltered air, took off my coat and strolled along in my shirt-sleeves. A couple of hundred metres to my right the sea continued to crash onto the sand sending white spume hither and thither. Immediately to my left were low sand-dunes bordering fields where sheep contentedly grazed, ignoring the wind which ruffled their woolly backs. As I walked I appreciated my surroundings and their solitary peace.
This was the same beach I had walked along a week or so ago when I noticed, and remarked in a blog, that today there does not seem to be the flotsam and jetsom being cast up as in former years. Today was just the same. After a week of strong winds and higher tides there was little on the tide line but seaweed and a couple of lager cans. So perhaps an ecologically-manipulated permanent change has taken place, and beach-combing (”Wrecking” is what we all it in Cumbria) is to be no more.
I was suddenly startled by a stinging on the back of my neck, and then noticed that I was in the middle of a sand-storm. The sand on the sand-dunes, which were taking the brunt of the wind’s force, was being lifted by the wind and hurled onto and along the beach at a fair rate of knots. I was now in a cloud of fast-moving dry sand - hence the stinging on the back of my neck.
Ahead of me, propelled by the wind for as far as the eye could see, a river of dry white sand poured water-like along the darker sand of the beach-proper. It was very pretty. A genuine Cumbrian sand-storm.
And later when I got home I found sand in my shoes, sand in my hair, sand in my ears and sand in many other places too.
Almost at Millom Pier I came across a group of gulls who were pecking at something they had found in a pool of water lying on the sand. As I approached they, of course, opened their wings and took off. The gale seemed to have no effect on their flying. With wings outstretched they just turned into it and rose upwards. As soon as I had passed they just as easily returned to the pool. I have often marvelled at their flying skills. They don’t have to think about it - they just do it. I have watched young gulls leaving their nest for the first time and they are just the same. They open their wings, wait for an uplifting draught and let it lift them and they are away. So natural. I would love to be able to do that. But I can’t, so I continued my walk along the beach.
On Millom Pier I was, once again exposed to the full force of the wind and the buffeting began anew. The wide expanse of the Duddon Sands was covered by thrashing grey waves with white caps. Beyond the estuary the Lakeland hills were also grey and partially obscured by the spray blowing off the waves. It was a boisterous kind of day, filled and alive with nature’s energy.
The wind stayed my companion right up to the time I arrived home, but as I opened the front door and anticipated that magic cup of tea, I was satisfied that the wind and the walk had been a good experience.
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The need for Britishness
11/09/2011 by Ted.
During a sojourn in the Midlands some years ago I had a very dear friend named Bob. Today, in my heart, he is still a dear friend.
Bob is West Indian by origin. He came over from Jamaica with his wife, settled in England and raised a family. He also, importantly, became British. By that I mean that he and his family adopted the values of his adoptive country. The family were consequently loved and accepted by everyone they came into contact with. There was no difference. They were just the same as everyone else - well, except by their colour for they have dark brown skins. But when someone behaves and believes as you do you find no difficulty in identifying with them, and a difference in skin colour becomes insignificant and unnoticed.
For me Bob is a pattern for what should be happening in this country today. It is so important for members of a family to be agreed on a commonly accepted pattern and standard of life for the family. This makes for a harmonious relationship between family members and preserves and safeguards family unity. A child adopted into such a family is raised to respect and observe the accepted family pattern.
I have once or twice watched a programme entitled “The world’s strictest parents” in which two unsociable and unruly teenagers are temporarily placed with a family who live by a mutually agreed pattern of family behaviour. The result is always friction and confrontation until the unruly guests eventually choose to accept the family standards when predictably tensions cease and are replaced by a sharing of love instead of hate.
Our British nation is our larger family. On these shores exists a British way of life which our larger British family have shared and loved and respected for many years. Today we have an influx of people from other nations with ways of life which are often indifferent or contrary to our British values. I believe that it is wrong for them to be encouraged and helped to maintain these different values as they settle among us. Conflicting values create tensions and resentment.
Immigrants should instead, like my friend Bob, choose to come to these shores because they wish to to adopt the British way of life and British values. I believe their demonstrated willingness to do this should be the keystone by which their applications for permanent residence in this country is judged. Those not prepared to adopt a traditional British way of life should not be permanently admitted.
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The right to believe
11/09/2011 by Ted.
Some weeks I expressed my prevailing thoughts and feelings of disillusionment at the state our country is in, and contrasted this to my former heartfelt pride in being British.
Last evening I listened to “The Last Night of the Proms” and found it a time of refreshment and joy for my national pride - a robust expression of Britishness delivered in immaculate form.
Last night I fell asleep with “Rule Britannia” and “Land of hope and glory” and “And did those feet in ancient times” reverberating in my head. And when I awoke this morning they were still there.
As I lay quietly this morning the words of “And did those feet in ancient times” caused my thoughts to wander. The feet referred to are the feet of Jesus, who Christian tradition says visited these shores in the company of his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Tradition goes on to say that the Christmas Rose at Glastonbury was actually planted by Jesus.
Now you may believe this or you may not, but it occurred to me that for those who choose to believe it Jesus actually came to these shores with his uncle and planted the Christmas rose. Their lives are then made richer by their belief. They can mentally visualise the events and find joy in them. That privilege of believing what they choose is their inalienable personal right. It is their own personal thing contained within their imagination. It is also their inalienable right to share their belief, whether by word or illustration or song. It only becomes wrong if they seek to IMPOSE their belief on others.
In the past there have been instances of “And did those feet in ancient times” being banned by the political correctness brigade on the basis that the sentiments are not shared by everyone - and it might therefore offend some. The same with the traditional celebration of Christmas and so on. And there are untold instances of the same thing which are not connected with Christian belief. And that suppression is, in fact, the imposing of the personal UNBELIEF of others on those who choose to believe. And that is as wrong as a believer seeking to impose their belief on others.
Last night was free of political correctness stupidity. Thousands and thousands of British voices - and many non-British too - exalted in an expression of British pride. They were expressing what was in their hearts - their belief - their pride in Britishness and what Britons believe. It is our privilege and our right.
It did me good!
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Wrong again!
03/09/2011 by Ted.
From today’s newspapers: DPP says looters should be treated as ordinary criminals
They got it wrong again. Well, this is the UK!
The right way would be for ordinary criminals to be treated as looters - and to receive punishment for their crimes as the looters are doing.
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