Keeping Calm And Carrying On

On occasion I write a title with no idea what I'm going to say, knowing from experience that once I'm, "in the flow!" Something of interest will emerge, at least of interest TO ME.  Oh yes.

I fought alongside socialist friends for the Labour Party in last month's election, and am still saddened by the result. That we lost, is a deep wound. Fighting for the homeless, the hungry, the stranger, for redistributing wealth so that working families are raised above the poverty line, protecting workers rights and universal healthcare was important to me. I console myself with the thought that I stood with the good guys, and I have no regrets for doing so. A deeply conservative neoliberal administration has been given an unassailable majority and will take it as permission to continue the process of ripping apart the social fabric of this nation. But not with my consent. 

How then do I deal with disappointment verging on despair? To acknowledge it, and to make something of lasting significance, if possible, I suppose. 

Maybe the worst won't happen. (It won't happen to ME, at least ...) I hope not. But if catastrophe is to be avoided,  everyone of good will is going to have to step up. When you have elected  a government that will withdraw from caring for its citizens, you need to choose. Are you prepared to watch more people die from broken services and the removal of a welfare safety net, or will will put the energy you mustered for  a political fight into a humanitarian one? 

The omens are not good. 

So, "Keep Calm And Carry On"? Not there yet. I'll keep you posted. 

Election Reflection

Twitter Thread 02/01/2020

I’m taking my head out of the sand. The Labour Party in not fit for purpose. It cannot be an effective opposition while it’s ideologically riven by irreconcilable worldviews.

We on the left watched in fascinated horror, as RW Party members continually undermined Corbyn.

Just to enumerate a few examples: the leadership challenge, the amplification of antisemitism, the disgraceful treatment of left-wingers expelled from the party, the endless media appearances attacking the party leadership, and now, the insistence that people like me be purged.

And now the gleeful assertion that the left is responsible for the GE defeat, and the insistence that to become, ‘electable’ we return to the policies and mindset that led to a decline in vote share before the 2017 election, which Corbyn, to the shock of the right, halted.

I’m not going to submit to this. I’m not going to rally round Andrew Adonis, I’ll not be voting or supporting anyone who wants to take the party back to some mythical centre where we are acceptable to Murdoch, and palatable to the comfortably well-off:who will vote LDem anyway

The defining issue of our age is the impending climate catastrophe. Does anyone believe that the neoliberal free-market free-for-all that brought us to the brink of the sixth mass extinction, is capable of mitigating the effects? Conservatism and Liberalism have no solutions.

When society begins to break down, and WAKE UP PEOPLE, it WILL, who do you want deciding your grandchildren’s future? A fake-Labour ‘Trust us, we’re not really socialist, honestly... “ faction, or true socialists committed to a just society that works for all?

This coming leadership election will be one of the most important votes I have ever cast. Whichever, ‘side’ wins, be sure of one thing:,there will be no truce. There will be open warfare, and you know what, I WELCOME it. I’m tired of putting up with being vilified.

@UKLabour simply cannot go on with influential RW members constantly subverting what was a popular revolution in 2015. This was never about a man, it was a massive call for radical change.

We must vote in a socialist as our party leader. And bugger the consequences.

And finally: Modetn Monetary Theorist Bill Mitchell explaining how Labour lost the North and Midlands, and why we deserved to:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/macro-n-cheese/id1453085489?i=1000459589014

Deleting Facebook

I doubt that this will come as any surprise to many, given my level of engagement on here, but I have decided to close my Facebook account. 

I cannot in all conscience lend my name to a company that disseminates lies to further the aims of the neo-fascist party that the Conservative Party has become. 

If you question the strength of my words, read the manifesto, with it’s promise to criminalise the lifestyle of the Roma people, and the Traveller community,  through new trespassing laws, and it’s determination to place the judiciary under political control. 

I am of Roma descent.  

I respect the independence of the judiciary. 

I will miss checking-in on my friends worldwide, and ‘liking’ pictures of my grandchildren- but this is a stand I must take. 

Let me close my last post with this:

Can a politician lie about Election Day on a Facebook ad?

AOC:

“You announced recently that the official policy of Facebook now allows politicians to pay to spread disinformation. In 2020 election and in the future. So I just want to know how far I can push this in the next year. Under your policy using census data as well, could I pay to target black predominantly zip codes and advertise them the incorrect election date?”

MZ: “I think, probably...”

Watch it here: 

https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-mark-zuckerberg-video-congress-facebook-questioning-2019-10?r=US&IR=T C:  

Stream Of Unconsciousness

Unusually for me, I have been unable to sleep.

I observe this phenomenon with a certain degree of antagonism. I am a gold star sleeper. I believe I inherited this gift from my father, God rest his soul, and it is priceless. Waking at 3 am is not unusual, necessitated by an ageing bladder, but I am usually able fall back into the arms of Morpheus in an instant.

Not this week.

There seems to be no reason for my wakefulness. There are no pressing issues, no anxieties, nothing disturbing my conscience. I know this because night after night, I lay awake interrogating my wakefulness with a grudging curiosity, drawing a blank.

I am a little slow on the uptake, by day four I realised there was a work to do here. Pray.

Of course! My sleep deprivation episodes began immediately following a bible study on the Lord's Prayer, where I retold the story of Penny and the Vacuum Cleaner to explain for sure that I have absolutely no idea what prayer is, or how it, "works".

Penny and I often sat together in what we grandly called, The Prayer Room at the Mission Hall, but was in fact, a tiny space en route to the toilet. Our role was to pray for the Mission workers and our friends who had dropped in for coffee and a snack in a warm and hospitable environment.

Penny prayed with fervour, with deep faith and with profound intent. I said Amen. My contribution, was to vocalise the mystery by praying in tongues, don't ask me to go there, you either believe it, or you don't, let's leave it at that.

Do I 'believe" in Prayer? I do. But I have no ides what I'm believing in. Back to Penny. She became very sick, "I'm praying for a miracle," she told me, and I prayed that she would know what her miracle was before she died. You hear the difference? She died in peace, so I am sure that she did.

I held the notion of a miracle open as an option, I know that amazing healings are possible having received one. I held out real hope for my friend.

So yes, I prayed, and when Penny died, I cried.

Two weeks before Penny's death, I am cleaning the Church Office feeling very virtuous about it, when I hit a snag. The dust canister of the top-of-the-range cordless vacuum cleaner wouldn't budge. 'OK, I said to the Cosmos,I'm here doing a good deed, so show up and fix this thing!"

To be absolutely clear, I am venting frustration, this is not a conscious prayer. Someone calls my name. It's Mary, asking for a key. I look up from the trash can where my struggle with the Dyson was playing out. The guy with her says, "I've got one of those, do you need help with it?'

Look, there are coincidences, and there's this.

You might think I'm grateful. I'm not, I'm furious.

"My friend is dying of cancer, and You fix the bloody vacuum cleaner?! I just don't get it."

I don't. I think that's the point. "Not my will, but Thine be done."

Now that I've worked that out, I expect to sleep soundly tonight. I'll let you know.

 

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