31st May 2013

Playing Scrabble with my grandchildren was interesting and fun.

To be so imaginative and creative that all the tiles could be played in random order to make a high scoring word.

There was a great debate about the word quayfump.

It was a word that used all the tiles, on a triple word, with a bonus for using all the tiles, 241 points in one go I was reliably informed.

My grandchildren were not educated at Eton but I seemed to recognise a certain key characteristic if not a quayfump of those who are.

We are living now in an Alice in Wonderland world where as Humpty Dumpty informed Alice, 'When I use a word .... it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'

We are not in a recession. We are all in this together. The mess we inherited from Labour. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We have turned the corner.

In 1985, inspired by a conference speech given by Peter Townsend at a meeting of the Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility a group of Social Responsibility Officers from Diocese around the country, of which I was one, formed a response to the increasing evidence of rising poverty in the UK.

We called our response Church Action on Poverty.

At the end of the New Labour Government I was of the view that CAP had done its work, that poverty and in particular Child Poverty, whilst still in evidence, was decreasing.

There was some satisfaction in knowing that a campaign such as this had had some effect, borne some fruit, helped to shape anti poverty legislation and inform government strategy.

Today after three years of coalition government in the UK poverty is once again endemic in the body politic.

The main sign of this is the massive increase in Food Banks.

According to The Trussell Trust a leading Food Bank Charity 13 Million people currently live in poverty in the UK.

Last year foodbanks fed 346, 992 people including 126,889 children.

There are currently 325 Food Banks in the UK and the trust is aiming to open a Food Bank in every Town in the country.

All the evidence points to rising costs of food and fuel, static income, high unemployment and changes to benefits.

How is the coalition responding?

On the one hand the Banks and the Fuel Companies are allowed to continue without their business practises being challenged, indeed they are assisted with further public support either because they are too big to fail or because they are seen as contributing to the continued and unnecessary growth of the economy.

Meanwhile, the poor have what little support is available changed, removed or subject to increasingly intrusive investigation by a DWP and its agents tasked to reduce benefit dependency.

Humpty Dumpty would feel right at home on the front bench of coalition politics.

This is an administration which the United Kingdom Statistics Authority has accused the Chairman of the Conservative Party Grant Shapps, of deliberately misusing statistics on disability benefits.

The UKSA has also accused Iain Duncan Smith of misusing figures with regard to the coalitions benefits cap.

David Cameron has been challenged over his claims that the coalition is paying down the deficit.

Words mean what they want them to mean.

Meanwhile the queues at the Food Banks grow longer and the people who are not served by their own government are increasingly left to fend for themselves for themselves or rely on the comfort of strangers.

Maybe quayflump is just the word because I am simply quayflumped that the coalition is still in office.

27th May 2013

On holiday in Scotland I went along to church on Sunday.

Given that I am retired it was somewhat disappointing to realise that I may well have been the youngest person attending the service.

The service was sparsely attended.

But the age and numbers in the congregation reflect a reality about the health of the church that the new archbishop is trying to lead.

Richard Dawkins might be pleased to read of this decline as supportive of his own views about the nature of religious belief and the views peddled by the churches.

But I suspect that a much more significant factor underpins not only the decline in church attendance but also the withdrawal of interest in the political process to the detriment of democracy itself.

The political and religious landscape of two nations tells a story.

In the USA citizens’ level of interest in politics is matched by their interest in religion.

People in the US, attend Church, vote and attend town meetings.

Democracy in the US appears to be alive and active.

Whether there is a direct link between these two phenomena is hard to say but a case could be argued.

Certainly the contrast with the UK is clear.

Here church attendance has fallen to a remarkable and disturbingly low level and the average age of congregations is by comparison high.

This lack of engagement in the body spiritual is reflected in the body politic.

Membership of political parties is lower now than at any previous time certainly in the post war years and the percentage of people voting is also lower whilst, it seems, as with church attendance, the average age of those exercising their franchise is high.

I’m not sure about this but I suspect that there might be a connection between active involvement in matters of faith and the exercise of your franchise in politics.

Most of my working life as a vicar was spent in the area of the churches ministry called social responsibility, that area of work has largely been abandoned by the churches.

This decline in social responsibility activity has been a function of declining numbers, a failure to see the connection between faith and society and the pernicious and growing influence of the evangelical wing, especially in the Church of England.

We are a dismissive society: dismissive of the claims of religion, dismissive of politics and politicians.

But whilst we no longer vote for our government we vote in huge numbers for celebrity fame and fortune, dialling the 08 numbers until the lines jam and paying premium rates to ensure that our favourite voice or song wins the latest Overrated Instant Celebrity show.

In the US, there is a public debate between Democrats and Republicans. The Tea Party campaigns against socialism and gun control. Protests are raised, challenges levelled against the President and all he represents and the pulpits are used to promote and protest the issues that are at stake in the body politic, as though they matter and as though faith has something of value to say.

Here the con-dems continue to promote their metropolitan elitism benefiting both the South East in general and their immediate supporters in particular, whilst the pulpits remain anodyne in their promotion of a disengaged and largely irrelevant theology of individual and personal salvation.

18th May 20

My Wellington's started to leak.

So this spring, already a washout, has become a two wellington year.

I bought my wellies in a store which sells animal food and pet supplies as well.

I stood in the queue waiting my turn, the person behind me had a bag of peanuts, presumably for feeding the birds in his garden, as my question was going to take a bit of time I let him go first.

The peanuts cost over £50, it was a very big bag, opening his wallet he peeled off three twenties and carried his nuts out to his car, when I came out he was loading the peanuts into the back of a Range Rover.

I was on my way to undertake a small task on behalf of the co-op, a cheque from the community fund for a multi-cultural festival in Carlisle.

Alongside this work of supererogation, the area committee is trying to undertake some work to support our local foodbank.

I couldn't help think as I passed the Range Rover, that we live in a world that is not only divided North from South, not only divided London from the rest of the UK, but divided within as well as without.

I have no personal animosity toward a person who wishes to feed the birds in his garden, none whatsoever, but I can't help wonder, not so much about individuals priorities, but about our priorities as a society.

What does it tell us about our society when some of our fellow citizens have to stand in line in the Salvation Army Citadel in order to receive food to feed their families, when others can spend more than the value of a bag of groceries on Bird Food?

My Wellington's cost a tad less than the bag of Bird Food so I have to review my own priorities as well, of course, that's the real point at issue with the coalitions policies, they are divisive.

But isn't it fascinating that the real cry of outraged of Oswestry or disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, or bemused of Birmingham, wondering of Wolverhampton is not the attacks on the poorest in our society, the condemnation of shirkers and the promotion of strivers but that all the Con-Dems can find to argue about is Europe and Gay Marriage.

This is a classic oranges and apples degree of philosophical confusion as the hapless Mr Hammond displayed on Question Time in his debate with the Gay Europhile MP Chris Bryant.

Having been privileged to some some time in both Italy and Spain over the past couple of years, it seems to me that the great European Project is an unqualified success, not quite peace in our time but certainly peace in Europe for sixty plus years, the open borders being the real sign of how successful the project has been, the Euro Zone problems are in effect a result of that success, but the quality of life, as enjoyed by so many ex pat, British Folk in the Costa's and elsewhere is the only sign you need, and the current issues arising from the goomazonbucksyah snook that has been cocked at our taxation rules, arises not because we are in Europe but because we are not in the Euro Zone, give a talented tax accountant and they quickly find and exploit any loop holes there may be, so if I had bought my wellies on Amazon I would have paid for them in Luxembourg.

And as for Gay Marriage, well hooray, why shouldn't any loving couple who wishes to commit themselves to one another in a lifelong and faithful relationship not be able to?

Well, let's put these issues to bed (sic!) once and for all.

Let the real debate begin. The debate about how a society cares for all its people, ensuring that there are minimum standards of living below which no-one should be allowed to fall, that there is a relationship between the incomes paid to the highest and the lowest earners in society and that firstly families have sufficient to eat and can afford to feed their families, that the birds also can remain well fed and their plumage stay glossy and that my feet remain dry when I am walking my dog across the muddy, wet, flooded paths in this, sadly becoming all too common, (with Global warming, unproven! says UKIP!), Cumbrian spring .........

14th May 2013

Today is my Father's ninety third birthday.

He has been married to his second wife for almost as long as he was married to my mother, who died when she was sixty three.

As I have passed the sixty three mark by a good margin myself I am wondering if I might have inherited his genes.

But it is not only genes.

When he married his second wife he moved to live with her in Australia.

So, alongside his genes, he has enjoyed warm weather, plenty of sunshine and according to his letters in the early days of his time in Australia, plenty of activity including sailing, motorcycling and volunteering in various community projects.

Ageing will increasingly become a matter of public debate and concern.

The welfare budget simply cannot afford to bear the weight of an ageing population. Care costs will increasingly rob the next generation of any possibility of inherited wealth being passed down through the generations.

The welfare system, as introduced by Beveridge, anticipated that the working generation would pay the relatively short term costs of benefits and pensions.

However as industrial production has collapsed, jobs have been exported and a high proportion of the working population themselves either in low paid employment or claiming income support and as the average life expectancy rises, so it becomes the case that old age is a luxury society cannot afford.

So what must be done?

Politically the answers are increasingly unclear.

Labour supporters are increasingly unsympathetic to those on benefits, but does this include the largest group of claimants, the retired themselves?

The Conservative Party, in time honoured tradition, make a distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor, but will the undeserving increasingly include those who have no occupational or private pension, alongside the state pension?

The Liberals want a low cost but acceptable level of pension?

Only UKIP seem to have the answer: A Substantial Citizen's Pension, which  means?

It is becoming increasingly clear that Welfare needs to be radically reviewed and re-invented.

Beveridge envisaged an economic system of full employment, living wages and short retirements. His welfare system was designed for that reality.

But reality has changed.

The original welfare system was the product of cross party deliberation, so it would seem that one step is to abandon the confrontational approach to policy formulation and recognise that a new and radical system of welfare is needed.

Alongside this the retirement age needs to be reviewed upwards.

But of course neither of these responses will work unless we address the critical issue of where and how wealth is produced and how it can be shared equitably in the UK.

Which means that the welfare review is only part of the answer, we must also examine how taxation can be modernised to ensure that the welfare budget can be funded into the future.

The current con-dem review is deeply unfair and unjust, it is critical of the poorest and judgemental into the bargain, but the debate needs to be had if we are to respond to the challenges posed by our older citizens living longer.

Unless of course we banish all those over sixty five to a sybaritic life of unlimited sunshine, unlimited golf, long lunches and siesta's on the Costa's or export  the elderly to the Southern Hemisphere like the convicts that preceded them.

3rd May 2013

It's pretty scary.

Yesterday I took off on the Harley. Felt like I was 18 again. Brilliant, apart from the rubbish weather, I smelt the rain, then I felt the rain, then I felt and heard the hail hammering on my helmet which is when I cut the ride short.

Then the next day I went out to vote. I was looking for a party that could promise me better weather to ride my bike, less rain, blue skies and unbroken sunshine.

Then I thought that I would take the car to the polling station and then pop down to the car wash and wash the Cumbrian muck off. However halfway to the car wash I realised that I had forgotten my 'phone and my wallet and had to head back home to get them both, at least I didn't get the whole four miles to the car wash.

I felt about a hundred and eight.

But there we are, time and tides, they wait for no-one.

It would be really helpful if someone could invent a phone app or a sensor which could be fitted to the over 65's. Like a hearing Aid that could whisper advice in your ear, ask questions and then check that you have everything before you set off.

You know the kind of thing, as the priest leaves the rectory he crosses himself.

Spectacles, Testicles,  Wallet and Watch.

 It would certainly help me maintain a sense of vigilance as I set about the business of getting on with life in my seventh decade, making sure that for example, that I immediately remembered where I had left the keys to the motorcycle rather than forcing me to spend two hours searching, or, as I did this morning, panicking because I couldn't find my hat.

I had left it in the shed with the bike when I took it off to put on my helmet!

Didn't have too much choice in the local elections either, one conservative candidate and one independent, socialists appear to be a rare species of politician in this part of Cumbria. If I had known I might have stood as a Co-op Labour Candidate, after all people deserve a choice.

I had wondered what I might do if the choice was between a Conservative and a UKIP candidate.

I could have refused to vote or spoilt the ballot paper I suppose. Or I could have .... No, I couldn't!

Interesting though that so many people didn't do either, instead they put their cross against the UKIP Candidate.

It is remarkable. A return to smoking in Pubs, is one policy that might be popular amongst people who visit pubs and have no desire to stand outside in the rain.

The UKIP spending and tax policies seem a touch out of touch, the math just doesn't work.

Increase spending whilst reducing taxes sounds wonderful and apparently it will all be paid for by the savings on Europe and making sure that benefit and health tourists, i.e. pretty much anyone who seeks to come here, especially from Bulgaria, is kept out, presumably that includes the Wombles?

I guess realising that in fact the Health Service is pretty much dependent on Nurses and Doctor's coming here from elsewhere is a bit beyond most people to accept.

But if Mr Farage is speaking for the typical British Citizen, and the typical British Citizen seems to be voting for Mr Farage, coming second in Sunderland was no mean feat after all, then what do UKIP policies tell us about what is happening to to us as a Nation.


After all the people elected to Local Councils will have no ability to implement policies such as , lowering taxation, or controlling immigration or reducing the EU Budget.

They might find effective ways of opposing wind farms because they don't believe in global warming which is viewed as a Myth, they are unlikely to have any impact on policing numbers, although they might be able to introduce and debate a motion to cut council executives and managers whilst maintaining front line services and of course we could all make real decisions in our local communities whilst taking responsibility for keeping local conveniences open and well maintained rather than closing them altogether.

But is that really it. Surely it's just a protest against politics?

Or possibly a protest against austerity? Or a protest against the coalition? Surely no-one actually believes this stuff?

Sadly I suspect they do and that is pretty scary ........

26th April 2013

Growth appears to be the only economic tool that is understood by politicians, whether it is the milli-balls or the con-dems, they all want growth.

But what the growth lobbyists do not take into account is that we live in a finite globe, with finite resources and the possibility that we are approaching the end of history.

Our energy supplies are diminishing rapidly. But the pro growth lobbyists point to fracking as a way of releasing gas from the earths crust in order to convince us, as they have already convinced themselves that we can go on burning our future.

Last night I went to a book group which was looking at the Book: Prosperity Without Growth by Professor Tim Jackson.

It is a challenging thesis which was first aired in a report, also by Professor Jackson and produced by the Sustainable Development Commission, a body which was swept away in the bonfire of the Quango's in the early days of the coalition.

The idea of prosperity without growth is a spiritual idea.

Individuals settling for less as a way of increasing personal well being.

Sharing out work and rewards for work in an attempt to get work and life into some kind of balance.

Investing in technologies that will make for a greener world.

In my own journey from a workaholic to retiree, I can look back and recognise how much better it would have been to spend time with my family as they grew up, how the stuff we acquired has been given away or sold off as we have downsized and how much richer and more fulfilling my life is now.

I am uneasy that my state pension is so generous.

I am uneasy that not all pensioners are as well off as I am, with too many people dependant on pension credit.

I am uneasy that my post retirement income means that I have more than some folk have to raise a family.

And I try to address that in various ways.

I am angry that some 350,000 people are now relying on foodbanks to feed their families.

I am angry that the Government rehearses a narrative which bears no relationship to the lives that people are actually living.

I am angry that the world cannot discover more peaceful ways to settle its differences.

Watching Question Time last night I was surprised at how the Leader of the Green Party seemed to be so angry and how the Leader of UKIP seemed so relaxed and at ease with himself.

Righteous indignation confronted by irenic wrongheadedness.

Global warming is wrong we heard.

Europe is wrong also, of course.

Apparently all the crime in London (or at least most of it) can be laid at the door of immigrants from Europe.

The panel was at odds with itself, angry words were exchanged and voices raised.

Now The Fabian Society has entered the debate by asking whether pensioners should be challenged to bear a greater share of the deficit, embrace austerity and surrender their heating allowances and start paying their National Insurance Contributions.

Some folk are affronted by this. How dare they?

But in reality the public discourse needs to be engaged with by all parts and all parties. It is time for us to hold a calm and measured debate about what kind of society we want to be in the finite world we inhabit. Finite resources are being pillaged with abandon.

We are in Crisis.

But the Chinese word for crisis means both threat and opportunity.

We need to face the threats honestly and grasp the opportunities we have to shape a kinder, gentler more humane society in which human beings can flourish and in which we can share the resources more equitably for our common well-being and the future security of our planet home.

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