May the New Year ring in
Resolve renewed
And may your highest wishes bear
The very best of fruit.
May you stride with grace
And rising purpose
Into Future
With the courage, strength and confidence
To trust in your own judgement
As you face oncoming tests.
And may your life be blessed with celebration:
May you feel more Love
Perceive more Light,
Hear more Truth,
Know good Fortune,
Speak more Wisdom
Taste real Progress.
*~*
Happy New Year, Dear Readers 🥂 xXx
Every December people speak hopefully about the next year being better than the last and no more so than of these last few years. But better, though infinitely possible, is made elusive. Worse is still accelerating and such yearning sentiment, by the arbitrary turn of a clock, has become a naive cliché of wishful thinking. Hope requires follow-through.
Bad things happen. We know this. Sometimes they come out of the blue, sometimes little could have been done to prevent an event but, more often than not, the bad stuff is merely the consequence of dreadful and preventable decision-making. Nothing so new in that, is there? In fact, I can’t remember a time when ideology, incompetence, indifference, self-service, arrogance and complacency have not been political staples. You could fill a page with appropriate descriptors. Once upon a time, such poor character and method were mostly judged by hindsight. Today, we see a great deal of it as it happens. Today, by our “will”, we are even charged with creating much of it.
But one seemingly simple choice can change everything. Tomorrow, then, we shall be as responsible as those whom we have blamed. Amazing, how quickly we have lost control but, really, the choice made that inevitable. Power is being wielded without wisdom. Wisdom is a betrayal. Tribe is all. Comfortable; collegiate; anchoring. Divisive. Narrowing. Dangerous.
There are better ways to express and grow our national character but our current trajectory is not derived of sufficient integrity, principle, foresight or rationality. We live in the age of at least and whataboutery. Relativity unto distortion. We trip on shifting carpets, measure truth by reaction, lean on there but for the grace of and count our luck and blessings as though they were the deferred successes of good, sound judgement. We have crunched the outer rim of thought and our emotions find and leave us wanting.
The past has overtaken the future and the present cannot – will not keep up. If you believe it can’t get worse, then you have not been paying attention and you are in for a bit of shock. 2018 is going to make this year look like a picnic. Buckle up. Brace. Keep a sense of humour and look, always, for the pockets of Light. Hold on to your loved ones and your hats. It’s going to be fraught.
Happy New Year. ⚡️
Light and Love
Be all withal
A call in every One
For by our hearts
We are the parts
Of Beauty’s greater sum.
✨
May you be bathed in light and love
May you be where you feel at home
And not feel lonely if alone.
May you feel warm and dry and full
May you find inner strength and joy
And take time to enjoy it all.
May you laugh loud and longer than you row
May you be blessed with gifts of kindness
May you know the wealth and health
Of a peace of mind within our Now
And please you, have a Merry Christmas! 💫
Identity is Brexit blessed
Our passports,
Wherever they be pressed,
Though living memory holds them black,
In navy blue, are coming back.
But standing out in any queue
Is easier with red, white and blue,
Then English dicks could boldly shout
And wave their union flags about.
But stay put and put your pounds to use
Where less is duty’s first excuse.
To freely move can ill-afford
And isn’t London still “abroad”?
And who’d leave Blighty, anyhow?
We’re, all of us, Remainers, now.
But symbols grow most as they rot
And Law is real world, like it or not.
***
The blue passport is taking back control? – “The new US requirements have been imposed on the UK via the EU.. the UK would only be able to escape these requirements after Brexit by giving up visa-free travel to the US”’
Consular protection rights of EU citizens – ”Any EU citizen in a non-EU country where his/her own national state has no representation is entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any other EU state. EU citizens are entitled to protection under the same conditions as the nationals of that country.”
”It would be ludicrous if our passports were made in Europe.” 🤭
Spark
Promise
Breathing Life
Into the Bright
* ** *** ****
Good Solstice ⚡️
Hark! The herald agents spin,
“Glory to the new Norming!
piece the earth and purchase wild,
gods and monsters reconciled!”
Fearful, all ye nations rise,
feel the terror, land and sky;
with all ancient ghosts, now fight
faith as all, without insight.
Hark! the herald agents spin,
“Glory to the new Norming!”
Prophets laugh and sigh and yawn
every time a cult is born:
when, again, some men, assured,
by their holiness applaud;
snake oil from the Godhead squeezed
into earthen deities;
pleased for our Free Will to quell;
their utopias to swell.
Hark! the herald agents spin,
“Glory to the new Norming!”
Mark! usurpers of the Peace,
Mark to market, fallacies.
Light and Life from which they shrink;
Artifice and Rapture drink.
Trumpets wearing banners ply;
slaves consume, resisters die
by the neo-fascist scourge
evil-bound for all it’s worth.
Hark! the herald agents spin,
“Glory to the new Norming!”
[December 2015]
Daily Mail, why are you so angry? Your front page is, yet again, so disappointingly petty. It implies that you do not understand what is at stake if the Government is not held to scrutiny and account. Of course, you are not the only newspaper to constantly be furious but you are the daily publication that the government and Today would seem to pay most attention to.
Why aren’t you over this silly and divisive behaviour, though? Why do you feel so threatened? Don’t you like the idea of Parliamentary sovereignty, anymore? The people keep being told that there will be no second referendum and I keep reading about polls saying that even Remain voters don’t want to stop Brexit. Your sense of betrayal is very odd, Daily Mail. Is the “will of the people” not made indelible? And does not Brexit mean Brexit? Do you regret your enthusiasm for triggering Article 50 so that you could just get on with it? You said that you knew what you were voting for.
I think you’re being ridiculous. And mean. Yesterday was a good day for Humanity and Democracy. For a start, we woke up to discover that that awful, bigoted, misogynist, Islam-hating cowboy and Trump-licker, Roy Moore had lost Alabama to a Democrat. A Democrat won in Alabama! It uplifted our hearts and restored some faith. And then, we went to sleep, knowing that here, at home, some true public servants had bravely fought a righteous battle for the well-being of our own country. And they won! We felt the joy of small but significant progress. It was one good day after a drought. Why would you begrudge us that, Daily Mail? You can afford to be bigger than this. You won, remember?
Why begrudge us the comfort of the sovereignty you so fussed about when you still believed that the EU had actually taken it? We have humiliated ourselves, yes. Plenty. But not by this vote. Our country has acted “in accordance with its own constitutional requirements” as Article 50 expects. The EU respects this. How can you so despise Parliament for simply doing its job – its patriotic duty? Why are you not more proud? Why so much paranoia over a victory that you, too, will benefit from? Do you no longer want us to take back control? What is wrong with you?
***
[A link to this prolific and pathetic rag? Ok, then. Here]
Chris Grey: Two cheers for amendment 7 – “All it really opens is the tiniest keyhole of possibility for affecting what happens with Brexit… This has been so ever since Article 50 was triggered”
God rest ye merry, Government
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Price is everything
And you are getting paid
To save the few of no value
While all the rest be played
O tidings of contempt and rage
Now being waged
O tidings of contempt and rage
From gods of craven worship
The blasted Con men came
And unto certain sycophants
Gave entrance to the same:
How in the land of Buccaneers
All’s done in Profit’s Name
O siding with self-int’rest and might
Hubris with bite
O siding with self-int’rest and might
And when they viewed the mayhem
Whence their dear saviour streamed
They found their way in danger
Of running out of steam
The population keeling o’er
And ripping at all seams
O riding on serfdom to peers
War and small beer
O riding on serfdom to peers
Now to themselves bring conflict
All those who rule our space
By their cruel ideology
Society’s disgrace
The wickedness of idiots
Must surely be displaced
O hidings of Justice, Old Boys
(Comfort and joy)
O hidings of Justice, Old Boys
[December 2014]
We have a ‘#BrexitDeal’!
We’ll get our country back, control our borders and make our own laws and forge our own trade deals. It will be quick, easy and absolute. We will thrive beyond our wildest dreams.
No, not that deal.
And it isn’t a deal. It’s just Phase One of Article 50.
The UK has agreed to all three of the key EU demands on the divorce settlement: finances, citizens’ rights and the Irish border. It is a relief, of course, because it takes away the cliff edge of ‘no deal’ or ‘hard brexit’ that would so imperil us but it is also kicking some hefty cans down the road and it drives us towards exactly the ‘soft’ kind of Brexit that highlights the absurdities. We leave, having stayed. We are staying with having left.
Relief that we are not going over the cliff is merited and palpable, if you ignore the Faragists. Really, though, we are leaving the favour of the big house on a grand estate, where we helped to make the rules, so that we can keep to ourselves, in our crumbling old shed, at the edge of the grounds, while continuing to pay our old maintenance fees and to do as we are told. What a pity that George Osborne did not fix its roof while the sun was shining.
No cliff
For the Brexit feels
Nor milk and honey
Facts got real
Fudge found appeal
An utter waste of time and money
***
’Joint report on progress during phase 1 of negotiations under Article 50 TEU on the United Kingdom’s orderly withdrawal from the European Union’ – gov.uk
“No, the Brexit deal hasn’t just ‘sold the country down the river’” – Oliver Norgrove
”The EU deal is a victory for a softer Brexit” – Osborne’s Evening Standard
“All sides have signed up to something, but nobody is clear how it will be achieved.” – Irish Times
The phase 1 deal and where it takes us – Chris Grey
Oh and just to rub it in, the EU and Japan finalised negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement, today: Joint Statement
***
Say it with me, dear Reader: ’Soft Brexit’ takes the piss out of both Leave and Remain. There is still no Brexit available that is better for Britain than no Brexit, at all.
Radio 4 Today’s John Humphrys was twitter-trending, this morning, as he often does but, this time, it was actually under the correct spelling of his name. Previously he has been ‘Humphries’ and ‘Humphreys’ and ‘Humphry’. No divergence, today, from the accuracy of what actually exists. That is what progress looks like when the manifestation of perception is in “full alignment” with reality. Take note, Brexiteers.
It’s gonna be quick
It’s gonna be easy
We’re gonna thrive
It’s gonna be great
Can’t wait
”Data? What data?” laughed Davis
“We have our judgements and wishes
Look! over there! Foreign fish! By gods:
They’d better have visas!”
These things take time
It’s complicated
We will survive
Nothing has changed
This is fine
***
Bulldog Blighty Brexit Secretary, David Davis: how it all unravelled – BBC
“It’s incredible to see a man so utterly ignorant of facts leading this country towards a destination that hasn’t even been determined” – James O’Brien
’What Brexit impact papers?’ – Guardian quiz on what David Davis said
“If the Referendum result makes Brexit inevitable then within the spectrum of ‘soft’ to ‘hard’ to ‘no deal’ Brexit the hard Brexit possibility disappeared this week” – Chris Grey
Easy-read report on the evidence from Norwegian and Swiss customs officials to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – Flipchart Rick explains why there are no magical solutions.
“But if we’re going to make the best of it, the government needs to listen to sound advice on trade. We haven’t had enough of experts” – Philippe Legrain
***
”Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair”
’A Windmill In Old Amsterdam’ https://youtu.be/2fg7w49UnGA
juxtaposed 