Monday 31 December 2012

31st December 2012


Some people embrace retirement, some have retirement thrust upon them.

I retired twice.

My first retirement happened in 2007. I actually finished work in 2006 and following a period of re-adjustment and numerous unsuccessful job applications decided to retire and draw down my occupational pension.

This, combined with some self employment, generated sufficient funds for me to pay the mortgage and eat.

But it was a worrying three years.

My second retirement happened three years later in 2010 when I turned sixty five and qualified for my State Pension.

As 2013 dawns on the morning of January 1st I will have been without gainful employment for six years.

They have been mixed years.

My leaving work was not anticipated and the level of anxiety about the future and how I would manage both emotionally and financially was high, but we did manage, somehow!

During this period I found myself wondering not only about the events leading to my finishing work, but to the ugliness of the word used to describe my situation, redundant.

It is a horrible word describing a person as no longer being useful in any way.

I was also aware that I had worked in what was meant to be a caring profession, as a minister in the Church of England, and yet, whilst my pension arrangements were dealt with in a highly professional manner, nobody, from my previous Bishop to the Bishop of the Diocese in which I 'retired' or any of their staff bothered to pick up the 'phone to ask, 'how are you doing?'

Perhaps they were afraid of the answer I would give, afraid that they would somehow become responsible?

During the six years opportunities have opened up and one of these opportunities has meant that as a retired clergyman I am from time to time offered a Locum Duty in the Diocese of Europe.

Basically I get somewhere for the indoor critic and I to live and in exchange I spend some time assisting the local church to fulfill it's calling, to break bread and to look after the church building.

I have worked in both Italy and Spain.

Now it might be the Mediterranean diet of Olives and Tomato's, it might be the Seafood or the Menu del Dias in Spain or the Caffe Corretto in Italy, but it seems to me that old age and retirement offer something different in those countries.

In Italy retirement translates roughly as pensione, so Olive Oil etc notwithstanding,a pensioner in the UK would be a pensione in Italy, with an added 'r'.

Perhaps with a little more respect shown, after all Berlusconi is a pensione, it must be the Olive Oil after all, or the Tomato's?

But in Spain there is another word altogether, Jubilacion!

In our local town, amongst the various shops and bars opening and closing and changing hands, a clothing shop is closing down.

Above the door is a sign saying that they are closing due to 'Jubilacion'.

In other words the owner is retiring.

Soon he will be spending his days on the corner by his house, sitting in the january sun chatting with friends or playing dominos in his local bar.

After a lifetime of work; Jubilacion!

2013 promises to be a good year.

I am hoping that my sixth year of retirement will be a year of and for Jubilacion.

Friday 28 December 2012

28th December 2012

This is the time of year when we review the past twelve months.

Wettest, windiest, wildest, most wearisome, you know the kind of thing.

The newspapers are full of books and records and films of the year, some of which, having seen or read I am secretly pleased with myself and my good taste and some I think, glad I didn't waste my money.

I guess that I place myself in a pretty easily caricatured place if I admit that my best book was a close race between Will Hutton, Changing Britain, why we need a fairer society and The Big Music, by Kirsty Gunn, my favourite record was a close run thing between Bob Dylan and my friends Jinski, Down Home and my favourite film without a doubt, was Killer Joe.

But Music and Film and Books are not the only things that we must review, of course we must also review the performance of both the Government and the Opposition.

Essentially the summary of all the reviews must be: The most austere year ever!

Like many commentators and bloggers some of what you may have read in this blog was wrong and some was OK and some was right.

But the consensus must be that we have experienced policies which have left the poorest poorer, some the same and the better off, well, even better off.

This coalition Government has proved itself to be friends of the wealthy and no amount of self righteous indignation from the Deputy Prime Minister will ever convince me otherwise.

Commentator after commentator in Newspaper after Newspaper has opined that the drift to the right, the economic policies, the cuts and the attacks on those dependent on benefits, have out Thatcher'ed Mrs T by the power of a considerable blue margin.

The only thing that  has not happened is that we have not waged war against a belligerent enemy or engaged in any argy bargy.

The opposition gets a beta minus for its efforts.

There is an economic plan which works to lift those at the bottom of society, the poorest, the children, the elderly and the disabled to a level where they can enjoy the benefits of a society becoming richer without disproportionately damaging those innovators and entrepreneurs who generate wealth.

It always strikes me that the comments of the Chancellor about folk lying in bed behind closed curtains whilst others get up and go to work were meant to be damaging and insulting to a section of society who are sometimes called welfare scroungers or cheats.

But how much more damaging and insulting is the view expressed by both Mrs Thatcher and her heirs and successors that the wealthy only ever get out of bed and draw the curtains because they want to make more and more money and become the subject of satirical derision by Harry Enfield.

The Opposition must in the year ahead begin to spread two truths about a modern capitalist system.

The first is that wealth does not trickle down.

The second is that if the jobs are not there then wages are the wrong mechanism for distributing wealth effectively.

As 2012 slowly and painfully limps to its conclusion, with only Jools Holland's Hootenanny to save it from total ignominy, we can only hope that 2013 will fare better.

I look forward to a warm spring leading to a heatwave lasting from May to October followed by a mild autumn and a bright cold winter lasting from December the 22nd until December 31st.

The depression of 2012 will be followed by twelve months of sustained growth with all Millionaires voluntarily increasing their tax payments to 90% insisting that the money be used to lift all children out of poverty, ensuring the elderly are warm and well fed and that those needing health care and social support be given priority treatment in the new NHS Hospitals that will be built.

As this programme of social distribution gathers pace the Chancellor will address the double whammy of taxation on the poorest by ensuring that inflation is managed better and only impacts on the upper wage earner and that Lottery Tickets are taken off sale altogether.

Both inflation and the Lottery represent a tax on the poorest in society who see incomes eroding and who have a greater chance of being run over on their way to buy their lottery tickets than they have of ever becoming a millionaire by winning the lottery.

Of course during 2013 I will also be delighted to witness the formal procession, using the traditional open topped bus, from Eastlands, possibly via Maine Road, where the bus will automatically change colour from blue to red, to Old Trafford, as Roberto Mancini and his blue shirted acolytes return the Premier League Cup to its rightful place in the Old Trafford Trophy Room, the other much rumoured return of course is Christiano Ronaldo together with Jose Mourinho assuming the Mantle of Managership from the shoulders of Sir Alex.

So from the Theatre of Dreams to a year of dreams.

I think I will keep my brolly handy just in case.

Friday 21 December 2012

21st December 2012

Yesterday the indoor critic and I set out for a Carol Service in Benalmadena.

The service was for the English Speaking congregations who meet in the Catholic Church of The Virgen  del Carmen in Bonanza Square, Benalmadena, both Anglican and Roman Catholic.

As we drove down from Alhuarin el Grande the temperature was a steady 24 degrees centigrade, hardly an appropriate temperature for attending a service of Christmas Carols.

We had set out early, quite intentionally, because it was such a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky and we intended to treat ourselves to a little promenade, what in Genoa we came to call passeggiata and which in Spain we have learned is paseo.

We parked the car in Benalmadena near to a Mosque on the sea front, the Palm Trees, and the gentle wash of the sea on the sand below made a perfect combination.

As we set out on our walk we passed a Statue and in the way of those with time on their hands we went across to look at the Sculpture and read the Memorial.

The sculpture was of a man called Ibn al Baitar, he was born in Ben al Madina, as it was then called in 1197.

He was a Pharmacist, although in practice that meant herbalist and a Botanist.

Looking at the statute reminded us not only that this part of Spain was then part of the Caliphate, but that science and knowledge and a concern for human advancement was, in the time of Ibn al Baitar very much part of the heritage of Islam.

Ibn al Baitar died in 1248 in Damascus, at the age of 51 having served as herbalist to the Ayyubid sultan Al Kamil.

Later that day on the News we saw the pictures of the people assassinated by the Taliban for innoculating children against Polio.

There is something essentially tragic in comparing these two expressions of Islam one a careful, lifelong commitment to understanding the healing nature of plants, the other a woeful ignorance, seeking to turn  the clock back to an altogether darker age, whilst claiming to be operating in the tradition of Islam and calling for the return of the Caliphate.

But Ibn al Baitar also pointed to another link.

His birth in Ben al Madina, is duly celebrated by the memorial but, as a Citizen of the Caliphate he was free to travel and his research into the healing properties of plants took him from mainland Spain to North Africa, Asia Minor and the Middle East.

He published two books which were a resource to healers around the world far into the 19th Century.

But his death in Dasmascus draws another connection; with a tragic nation being bombed into the dark ages not by an enemy without, but by its own Government.

Having enjoyed our walk and as the sun began to set, we drove up to Bonanza Square and the huge Church of the Virgen del Carmen.

When we arrived the daily  distribution of food was underway.

This important ministry of the Church, supported by Catholic and Anglicans together, is another aspect, not only of the deepening recession in Europe but also of the manner in which Southern Spain, along with Italy and France have become the gateway for refugees, both economic migrants and refugees from war and hunger, seeking a better life in the West.

As long as Britain and other wealthy nations continue to allow their economies to be shaped by desire for profit and the pursuit of materialism the steady decline in public values will continue and a return to a darker age, where the Barbarians will not be camped at the gates because they have been running things for sometime, will happen.

After the service we called in to view the Bellen in Fuengirola, a Nativity Diorama set up in a private home and showing the story of the Nativity from Bethlehem to the flight into Egypt.

The Bellen and the Carol Service were both part of the annual reminder of the essential message of Christmas, that the peace we seek has arrived in the form of a vulnerable and gentle child, born to a woman whose first response to the threats made against her child was to seek refuge in another country.



Friday 14 December 2012

14th December 2012

Of course I should have written and posted a blog on the 12th of the 12th 2012 preferably at Noon.

Having failed to catch the moment I have to wait a whole century until 12th of the 12th 2112.

But by then things will be very different.

If the trends continue as they have been reflected between the 2001 and the 2011census then it seems likely that there will be few if any left who will identify themselves as religious, almost an 11% increase by those reporting no religion means that a quarter of the population now identifies itself as having no religious affiliation, projected forward, if the increase of 11% every ten years continues as a straight line, year on year increase then by the 12th of the 12th 2112 God will not only be dead but buried.

However the other reported increase is in those born outside of the UK and again a trend, whilst not as marked, suggests that the UK is becoming a society that can be properly described as multi-cultural, with London and other large cities hosting the largest multi-ethnic populations.

By definition a multi-cultural society can be accurately defined as a big society.

There is something energising and enriching about living in a society where many people from different faiths and nationalities can co-exist with mutual respect for different traditions, practises and habits.

At the very least food becomes an essential characteristic of such a society with different cuisines broadening our appetites and helping us share and experience difference as a positive aspect of our cultural experience.

The biblical image of the nations sitting in peace and sharing a banquet is a very powerful one and whilst religion appears to be declining at an accelerating pace, this image of the peoples of the nations breaking bread together in peace works as both a religious and a secular image.

But what else will change by the 12th of the 12th 2112?

The UK may well have lost and regained and lost its triple A credit rating a few times by then.

The very well named Standard and Poors, the rating agency appears to have identified falling standards in GB Ltd's trading performance and decided that we are set to become poor.

So despite the protestations of the Chancellor and the Treasury it seems that GB Ltd is set for a poor performance over the next few years.

This may be a good time to identify and root out the carpet baggers from our midst.

If we do lose our triple A rating as a country it will be almost certainly possible to see where the money went, identify just who ate the pies, see who got rich quick through scams and schemes, and who having taken the money ran for cover.

The most recent use of the term carpet bagger came when individuals were identified moving into mutual organisations such as building societies in order to de-mutualise them solely for personal gain, although it has to be acknowledged that the success of some of these schemes owed a great deal to the fact that some members of the mutuals saw a short term advantage opening up and a quick profit to be made.

Now of course the shoe is on a different foot, or the carpet on a different floor, now the success of mutuals is beginning to look more attractive.

There are different forms of mutual organisation but what they have in common is that they are member owned, some businesses are employee owned such as the John Lewis Partnership, some are customer owned such as the CWS and some like credit unions are owned by the savers and borrowers jointly.

It is interesting that the Shadow Chancellor is a Co-operative/Labour MP and it will become more evident I suspect as the Labour Parties Manifesto begins to be written that what will be on offer is a more mutual form of arrangement in both financial services and commercial activity generally.

Pursuing my theme of the big society however I find myself making another different and somewhat speculative connection between the recently published results of the 2011 census and the possible loss of the Triple A rating.

Over the last ten years religious faith has quite clearly been on the decline whilst carpet bagging was on the increase?

In a decade when the Labour Party was relaxed about the filthy rich it seemed that Gordon Gecko style greed was good, it was somehow assumed or implied that we all benefitted when the money trickled down until the trickle dried up because the money was in a carpet bag in the overhead locker of a jumbo jet.

Now we have Labour Politicians lecturing major companies on when tax avoidance as what is legal comes to be seen as immoral.

I have an altogether old fashioned sense that somewhere in all this there is a link between the decline of religious belief and the increase in fiscal immorality.

Whilst Christianity continues to be the largest faith group in a declining community of those claiming religious affiliation, down from 71.7% to 59.3%, the smallest faith group by number, Islam increased from 3.0% to 4.8%.

Watch this space.

In Jewish, Islamic and Christian economic teaching there is a fascinating distinction between price and value and an emphasis on social responsibility, it is a distinction and an emphasis that will become increasingly important as the economic debate builds in the lead-in to the next election.




Thursday 6 December 2012

6th December 2012

Now is the winter of our discontent.

From Shakespeare to Steinbeck this is a ringing phrase.

It summons up deep feelings and strong emotions. Richard's envy at his brother; Ethan's deep despair that he has fallen on hard times, working as a store clerk in what was his own business.

Yesterday's Autumn Statement was not in fact a statement made in the Autumn.

By any definition of the seasons December is in the winter and anyone looking for signs of hope or opportunity in the Chancellor's statement came rapidly to the conclusion that all they had to look forward to was discontent.

The longed for possibility of a glorious summer postponed into the distant future after the next election.

So what was promised, the short sharp shock of austerity, leading to recovery and the restoration of both individual and national success, has turned into the long, drawn out, painful route march into an as yet undetermined future.

Like the people of Moses after they left the land of Egypt, there would be a forty year walk through the wilderness before they glimpsed the land of God's promise.

Now the land of Mr Osborne's promise has also been delayed for some time to come, if not indefinitely.

Fuel prices will not increase and the A1 will be improved, however child benefits and working benefits and benefits for those unable to work will increase by a measly 1%.

The good news is that Starbucks has promised to pay its taxes in full, so at least folk can buy their coffee with an easy conscience.

Watching and listening to the Autumn Statement and the various pundits who discussed it on the TV News the word that came into my head again and again was the word, iatrogenic.

Iatro is a prefix meaning healer or in some cases treatment.

A consultation with the doctor used to end with a request to come back in two weeks if its no better, the average doctor working on the hypothesis that the human body is perfectly capable of healing itself and most things clear up after a couple of weeks.

Iatrogenics describes the situation when the treatment (or healer) causes more harm by prescribing than not actually treating whatever is wrong would cause.

Listening to Mr Osborne's prescription for the economy I found myself wondering what would happen if we did nothing?

What is the condition we are treating?

I guess that it is public indebtedness in one form or another.

We are spending more as a nation than we are earning.

So we need to spend less and earn more.

Dickensian economics would have it that earning a pound and spending a pound and ninepence results in unhappiness, whilst earning a pound and spending nineteen shillings and sixpence equals happiness.

The commentary on the Autumn statement suggested that those at the top were paying less than those at the bottom but this was denied by the Chancellor.

One figure emerged that savings in the top rate of tax would make some people seventy five pounds a week better off which is exactly the sum that some folk have to live on each week.

So what if we did nothing at all about the situation we find ourselves in?

Well to start with we'd muddle on, like Ethan in Steinbeck's novel we might have to sell the store and end up working for the new owner, but there is a sense that we're doing that already, most of our power generators, our car manufacturers, steel manufacturers and  public utilities are owned by individuals or companies based outside the UK.

Inflation would continue to erode savings and incomes and costs would rise creating a disproportionately large 'Tax' on the poor.

Unemployment would continue to rise.

Living standards would continue to fall.

We'd start to take in each others washing to survive, start bartering services for goods and vice versa, discontent would  increase and public restlessness would grow and we would almost certainly arrive in the most complete sense of Shakespeare's phrase, in the midst of a real winter of discontent.

Memories of the three day week and sitting in the cold reading by a lamp powered by a car battery.

At the height of that winter of discontent a Marxist reading of Shakespeare's speech might recognise that what was going on yesterday was the expression of the belief of the privileged in our society that their privileges were enjoyed as a right.

Which leaves both the Chancellor and The Shadow Chancellor arguing over what  it will take to turn this winter of discontent into a glorious summer and Nick Clegg shaking his head over the Mansion Tax.