Calendar
May 2012
S M T W T F S
« Jan    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
Categories
Latest Postings
Links
Archives
Meta

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 »

A breath of fresh air from Cumbria

26/09/2011 by Ted.

imgp0306blog.jpg

imgp0312blog.jpg

imgp0311blog.jpg

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.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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  ©

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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!

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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!

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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?

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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  ©

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

Shame on greedy, selfish teachers!

14/09/2011 by Ted.

fair-pensions-for-all-blog2.jpg

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.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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  ©

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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!

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

Doing what comes naturally (again)

29/08/2011 by Ted.

Some yeas ago I had the  privilege of travelling to Brazil and, courtesy of     P & O, cruising up the Amazon River.  During the course of the cruise passengers were invited to board a motorised canoe to explore the nearby igapo - a water-covered area of tropical rain forest - and to catch Pirhana fish. As we journeyed among the densely packed trees in our canoe we came upon a clear area and there saw, on a hill overlooking the igapo, a settlement of Brazilian Indians, men, women and children, whose bronzed skins were clad in loincloths and little else and some clutching what appeared to be spears or staffs.  Alerted by the sound of our engine they watched us pass by just as we, passing by, were watching them. And as we and they watched our Brazilian guide remarked, “They are not jealous”.  My knee-jerk response, seeing the little community of people standing there in the sunshine in that beautiful place, was, “No, but I am!”

I have often thought about them since then and compared what they are and have to what is going on in our country today.

It is a fact that in wherever “uncivilised”  man has been discovered he is observing the same basic order for his society - an order based on the family.  Invariably there is a male adult and a female adult living together and producing the next generation. Also invariably the male adult is the breadwinner responsible for begetting the necessities of life for his family, whilst the female adult has the responsibility of taking the necessities he provides and using them for the benefit of all the family members.  The community of families comprising the village or tribe all corporately share an often unspoken responsibility for the welfare of the individual families and individual members of the village or tribe, providing the support and whatever is needed in times of crisis, bereavement and so on. They rejoice together, they grieve together, they suffer together.  A village or tribe leader assisted by elders oversees the well-being and safety of the whole community, corrects transgressors, and safeguards the rules of behaviour essential to protect the community’s accepted and agreed way of life.

The UK tribe was governed by the same natural order of things up to around sixty years ago. From that time changes, too numerous to list here, have been introduced which have resulted in the fragmentation and destruction of this natural order. Today we are an unnatural and consequently sick nation.

Our tribal leaders are invariably self-seeking with energies and efforts reserved for the begetting of their own enrichment - not the welfare of the tribe. The family unit is considered  non-essential even though what has taken its place is obviously ripping the tribe apart. With the collusion of our tribal leaders the social and sexual standards of behaviour which used to  protect the family unit and the tribe in general no longer exist.

“Enlightened” tribal members argued that the pattern of life we lived by was restrictive and prevented people from doing whatever they wanted. So the pattern was discarded and allowed to be replaced by social and sexual anarchy. Seemingly, everyone is now permitted to do what seems good to them, and for them, regardless of the consequences for the rest of their fellow tribes people.

It can only get worse, for today the country is multi-racial, that is, multi-tribal. Beneath the common family pattern of each individual tribe, each sub-tribe has its own standards  of accepted behaviour and norms.  One sub-tribe may believe this is right and another believe it to be wrong to do it that way and so on.  The country now contains a mish-mash of often conflicting norms all of which have equal value and equal validity because we have dissolved the tribal rule which once gave the standard of behaviour which applied to all who lived here - whoever they were and whichever tribe they came from. And the result of that mish-mash is seen worked out in our midst every day in confrontations, conflicts and violence.

Furthermore, perhaps worse, having allowed our own tribe’s norms to dissolve into a state of social anarchy, we see ourselves now qualified to terrorise other tribes living within their own territories and to enforce them to “better their ways” and align their culture with what we do.

Today whenever I remember the folks in that little community on the hill in the Brazilian rain forest I am glad that there are people who are still living  a natural life, untroubled by all the woes and sickness of our “civilised” ways.  And if I thought that they would have me I would be there like a shot.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

Where has all the flotsam gone?

27/08/2011 by Ted.

Years ago it was true that if you needed an odd bit of something to finish a job or fill a hole you would find just what you needed if you took a walk along the tide-line on the local shore. There, washed up by the tide,  you could find a never ending supply of almost everything under the sun, from a wooden barrel or a message in a bottle to a piece of plastic or a length of rope, there were bottles and cans bearing mysterious inscriptions in strange languages - well,  just about anything.  A walk along the shore was a magical thing, almost a treasure hunt.

I remember when I was young I was particularly thrilled to one day find the weathered wooden hull of a model  yacht lying among the tangled seaweed and assorted flotsam and jetsam the tide had left behind. It had originally boasted a mast and sails, of course, and, as I tenderly picked it up  I imagined some lad sailing it, perhaps from Morecambe beach, on a receding tide and, dismayed,  watching as it was inexorably drawn out to sea by the tide.  Whatever the reason for its loss, the little yacht must have tossed around in the Irish sea for ages until, stripped of everything, the sun and sea-bleached hull finally became a castaway on a Cumbrian beach. I had never possessed a boat of my own, and that sea-worn hull became a treasured possession until at some time, as I grew up, it went missing again.

But, today, things are not the same as I particularly noticed the other day.    In this area of the coast, at least, there is very little bric-a-brac coming in with the tide.  There is the customary seaweed and on the day I was walking a number of deceased jellyfish of various sizes and one or two coke cans …….. but nothing else.  No plastic bottles, no corlene rope, no pieces of torn fishing net, no broken spars or planks of wood.

I imagined that this lack is the consequence of years of brainwashing about being green, re-cycling, not chucking stuff overboard from ships etc. - all very ergonomic and environmentally correct, but it has taken a lot of fun away from a beach-combing ramble on the seashore.

On the other hand the tides are low at present and the summer weather calm. It may be that the coming winter gales and high seas will bring in all the missing treasure to replenish that which is  now lacking, and that next year I can once again use the bounty of the seashore to provide what I am looking for.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

Millom Ironworks Local Nature Reserve.

23/08/2011 by Ted.

When I read that Copeland Council had created the Millom Ironworks Local Nature Reserve on a local slag bank, the unlikely partnership of slag bank and nature reserve did not impress me.  I didn’t even make the effort to go and see it.  The location was on the site of the long vanished iron works. I just couldn’t imagine it as anything worth either the construction or the effort of going to see it.  I was so wrong!

I hadn’t intended to visit it yesterday. The morning was bright and sunny with just a gentle breeze.  (Some might call it a wind, but anything up to a force 3 or 4 counts as a gentle breeze round here).  I had intended to follow my favourite walk through the RSPB nature reserve to White Rock and then along the beach to Millom Pier (remains of). But on my way I chanced to see a sign indicating that I was passing the entrance to the Millom Ironworks Local Nature Reserve, the home of Natterjack Toads and an abundance of worth-seeing flora and fauna. So I turned off my planned route to have a look.

The short road led to a stile which gave access onto the slag bank.  I climbed over the stile and felt the slag crunch under my feet as I ascended the bank.  I didn’t know what to expect when I got to the top, but there was my first pleasant surprise for in front of me lay the beautiful sands of the Duddon Estuary flanked on the far side by a panoramic range of the Lakeland Hills. An impressive and beautiful surprise indeed.

Just ahead of me on the slag bank was a mostly-dried-up pond which a nearby notice board said was the Natterjack Toad breeding site.  About four hundred metres further on towards the estuary was a form on which two (elderly?) gentlemen appeared o be having an animated discussion about something. And just a few hundred feet ahead of me lay what might be termed the Ayers Rock of Millom - a gi-normous iron ingot almost as big as a house, presumably created by the late Millom Ironworks and then either lost or abandoned by them.

Apart from the aforementioned Ayers Rock of Millom and the two gentlemen I had the place to myself.

The path of crushed slag gave way to shale and led off to the right. I followed it’s twisting course until it brought me eventually to the shore of the estuary.  Here a dozen brightly-painted boats lay scattered on the  sand - the tide was well out and the whole estuary was sand with just water-filled hollows and channels here and there. Noisy seagulls were making their voices heard as they waited for the tide’s return. It was a breathtaking sight. So very beautiful.

The path finally petered out and I realised that I was now walking onto Millom Pier.  This is not a pier as at Blackpool or Brighton built for entertainment purposes.  Millom Pier is massive, one of the former industrial props of Millom Iron Works, built for ocean-going ships to use for imports and exports to and from the Ironworks and Millom.  Today it is just a shadow of its former glory, but it is still massively impressive. No ships call here now.  It is scarred and has been abused by the ravages of nature and man, but it still makes its presence felt, and in a new way today.

Just like most of Millom’s former industrial sites it was accounted unworthy of further development and abandoned to nature. And over the intervening years she has turned it from an industrial showpiece into a place of natural beauty with rabbits and wild plants and sand dunes and marran grass where myriads of wild flowers grow. Today it is one of my favourite places, and, for me,  a fitting finale to my unintended venture into Millom Ironworks Local Nature Reserve. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

Just imagine …..

16/08/2011 by Ted.

As a picture projected onto a television screen is only an image, so what I call “seeing” is only the perception of light energy protons reflected from an object onto the retina of my eye. The object I see may exist as a physical entity, but what reaches me is merely an image carried by light photons – a form of energy. The physical substance of the object imaged on my retina is only my assumption.

When I close my eyes and imagine, what I perceive are, again, images – images as unsubstantial as the images impressed upon my retina by photons of light when I have my eyes open. The images are, however, created by me and may be of anything I choose.

For instance, there may be a number of rabbits in the park. When I walk past them with my eyes open I observe them move under cover when they see me, and their images then become unperceived as far as I am concerned.

However if I later close my eyes and perceive the rabbits with my imagination I can cause them, instead of moving under cover, to move towards me unafraid. They allow me to stroke their fur, and I am able to feel the texture of their fur beneath my hand. My mind’s eye easily perceives the colour of the fur which I am stroking.

Both instances are the impression of unsubstantial images upon my senses. Both are composed of the same basic energy which comprises everything. So which image is most real – or is each as real as the other?

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

What happens when you die?

05/08/2011 by Ted.

Don’t panic - this is not a religious tract.

In about 2001 I came across and purchased a book, Life after Life by Dr. Raymond Moody, in which Raymond Moody investigates more than one hundred case studies of people who experienced “clinical death” and were subsequently revived. Dr. Moody’s findings were exciting and triggered my interest in actively investigating what other evidence existed concerning the after-death state. The internet provided the means to discover and access this evidence.

Perhaps my first encounter was with a gentleman named Frederick Myers, one of the co-founders of the Psychical Research Society.  He was a victorian who had no belief or interest in life after death until his wife died - and then, according to some, apparently personally contacted him in a way which convinced him that she was still a living, conscious entity and not “dead and finished” as it was fashionable to believe. So significant was this wifely contact that his life from then on was devoted to an investigation into the evidence for and against survival after death. His research is minutely detailed in large Victorian tomes which now rest in the archives of the Psychical Research Society but to which access is available on the internet. However, despite his unceasing search for evidential proof that life continued after death, he died without discovering it.

Then, “within a few weeks of Myers’s death in 1901, some very strange communications began to be received by psychics in England, the United States and India. They came through automatic writing to a total of a dozen psychics and continued for a period of thirty years and then later by his fellow leaders of the Society for Psychical Research, Professor Henry Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney as they too died. What was strangest about them was that they made no sense. Or perhaps they did - for they were so mysteriously worded that it almost seemed their meaning was being deliberately concealed. And most of them were signed, “Myers.” In all more than three thousand scripts were transmitted over thirty years. Some of them were more than forty typed pages long.

But although the text of the messages seemed indecipherable, the ‘instructions’ which often accompanied them were clear. These instructions repeated a number of themes. The ’script’ should be sent to a particular person, who would turn out to be one of the other psychics involved. Or it should be sent to the Society for Psychical Research. And that although its content may seem to be senseless, it was in reality anything but: it was an attempt by the deceased communicator to prove his continued existence. These instructions and explanations were, in fact, frequent and explicit. “Record the bits,” wrote Myers, “and when fitted they will make the whole.” And again, “I will give the words between you that neither alone can read but together they will give the clue.”

These communications are today known as the Cross-Correspondences.

(the above paragraph is an extract from http://www.trans4mind.com/spiritual/myers1.html, which please read for the remainder of this fascinating window into survival after death.)

Posted in Family Chat | No Comments »

« Previous Entries | Next Entries »