17th April 2013

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.

W H Auden's poem was made famous by the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Today in our house we are avoiding the News in order to allow the event's of the day to pass us by.

There will be no party unless Manchester United win this evening, but equally we have no interest in seeing a former Prime Minister laid to rest with full military honours.

We do wish that her policies, currently being pursued enthusiastically by her successors, could also be laid to rest, but we are aware that is unlikely.

What kind of society do we wish to create?

How do we see the future opening up for our children and grandchildren?

The founder of the charity that I spent the last seven years of my working life trying to move into the 20th Century used to say, 'Do something useful everyday, and don't get found it'.

Simple acts of kindness was the way in which I tried to modernise that sentiment.

Simple acts of kindness serve to make the world a better, fairer more humane place.

It would be excellent if the current members of the coalition in Cabinet could find it in themselves to think more honestly and openly about the nature and impact of their policies on individuals and communities.

There are issues about the use of statistics.

There are issues about claims made and the language in which and with which policies are introduced.

The narrative in which the coalition tells its story is the narrative of workers and shirkers, strivers and skivers.

But when I look around my community I don't see that distinction having any validity.

I see human compassion being celebrated and exercised by the folk who run the local Foodbank, I see the level of sharing and caring in the local poetry group and when I attend my Co-op Area Meeting I see the exercise of values and principles that serve to make the world a better place.

We do this by helping, as far as we are able, people to help themselves, taking responsibility for and answering to our actions.

In the Co-op, our members, those who shop with us, have a say in the way our business us run, one member, one vote is a key democratic principle, and our democratic structure is there to ensure that we carry out our business in a way that is fair and unbiased.

Seeking to be open and honest is central to the ethical principles on which co-operation is founded.Some of what we do is to monitor and question the way in which the businesses are manged and run, managers have to attend our committees and demonstrate how the the values and principles of the movement are reflected and honoured in the work we do.

At the next meeting we will be distributing funds to charities and local community groups, sharing our profits not only with members but the wider community in order to encourage people to take responsibility for their communities and work to improve them.

Whatever goes on today, and we have stopped the clock and cut off the telephone, so hopefully we won't know.

But what will be celebrated and protested appeared as a divisive philosophy which appeared to argue that there was no such thing as community.

I published this poem in Marxism Today, it's not quite W H Auden, but it reflects a point of view.

Mrs Thatcher’s Fair Isle Knitting Pattern

Knit me a coat

With barbed wire and wool

A coat that will survive

And protect me

A barbed wire wool coat

That won’t rust in the rain

A coat that won’t stretch twist

Or strain

The old ladies needles

Danced in their hands

As they knitted the coat

She desired

They used plain knit and purl

Cable stitch and stocking

Arran and Fair Isle

and Rib

As with barbed wire

And pain they cast

Stitches in time to complete

Her perfect design