Henry VIII is often popularly viewed as a lovable rogue, a champion of wine, women and song. In fact he was a monster, who set a precedent for the sort of self centred greedy bastards who have been running this country ever since. Marrying 6 times, he pioneered a complete disregard for the sanctity of marriage.

Central to his Reformation manoeuvres was the dissolution of the monasteries, who until then had provided for the impoverished in the form of land for them to cultivate and live on. This land was taken away and given to his cronies, creating a new landed gentry beholden to the crown. It is claimed that a fifth of England’s landed wealth was redistributed in this way. Suddenly there were tens of thousands of dispossessed poor with nowhere to go, and no means of support.

Henry had created a new underclass. This alienated much of the population outside London and led to a northern uprising, the Pilgrimage of Grace comprising some 30,000 rebels. Their leader Robert Aske was arrested, charged with treason, and executed along with some 200 of the rebels. This put an end to the disturbances.

How was such a fiend allowed to wield such absolute power? To this day the English are accomplished at murmuring and complaining, but have little enthusiasm for revolutionary action. So the prevailing bullies go about their nasty business, encouraging the population to drink up and forget about it. Cheers mate…..

Originating post: remembering St John Fisher and the monstrous King Henry VIII

I hold Margaret Thatcher and every jackass that followed responsible. Now in 2010 a fresh but frighteningly similar bunch of goons are asking that we elect them into power. They speak blithely of ‘change’ and ‘the common good’ and ‘a brighter future’ in tones that wouldn’t convince an 8 year old. In fact all they can honestly promise is that the will more or less perpetuate the stagnant, diseased behemoth their predecessors so cynically threw together.

They keep insisting that a vote for anyone other than one of them(the 3 main parties) is a wasted vote. Can we wake up now please? What’s on offer is a media-savvy slew of snake oil salesmen. Its all about what you are being seen to be rather than what you are. Who are they? They barely know themselves. All they are qualified to do is appear at ease among TV people and journalists. The real world? I don’t think so. You wouldn’t want Jonathan Ross to run the country would you?

The only thing worse than voting for one of them is not voting. Make a little effort. Its not too late to go out and form a personal opinion about one of the alternative party candidates. You will probably find that you like them much better. They probably wont win this time round. But every vote the same old greedy bastards don’t get is a nail in their coffin. They have to go. Lets make it sooner rather than later.

Dont be afraid. Vote with your heart.

Originating post: vote with your heart

How many of us are truly passionate supporters of these gangs of greedy bastards? This is a time when the Australian voting system would serve us well. Australians are required by law to vote, but there is an extra box on the ballot paper enabling voters to register there dislike of all the available candidates. Were we given that option in the UK, and we voted honestly, it would make for some interesting arithmetic.

If we are to have fresh blood taking over the reins of government, we have to vote for them. Yes they may lose at first, but the more people that vote for minority candidates, the more others with similar convictions will be inspired to do the same. And the more the incumbent fat cats will tremble in their custom made loafers. Instead of allowing the status quo to discourage potential future alternatives from running, we can positively encourage new candidates to step forward.

The only wasted vote is not voting at all. Don’t let the big boys fool you. They don’t care about you. Vote for someone who does.

Originating post: wasted votes

This is indeed a venerable ‘seat of learning’. Great men and women have studied, researched and taught here for centuries. Many students have gone on to become world leaders or captains of industry. The feeling of proximity to the ‘corridors of power’ is tangible.

Yet on a trip to town on Monday, it was all to easy to forget this side of Cambridge.

To a great many people who live in and around it, Cambridge is overwhelmingly about one thing only….shopping! The Xmas frenzy is in full swing, and as I wandered through the pedestrian zone, making my few humble purchases, I was struck by how grim it all seemed. The excess of it all, disgusting as it is, is no longer a surprise. But the spirit of good will to all men seemed thin on the ground. Armies of shoppers, laden with bags and parcels, barging through dense crowds, seemed more like a refugee nightmare.

Cambridge has been plagued with traffic problems for a very long time. Yet the city fathers have seen fit to allow the construction of not one but two shopping malls in the centre of town. I thought half the point of shopping malls is that they be on the outskirts of towns, to attract traffic away from the centre, and allow more spacious parking facilities.

In the 1960s, Petty Cury, one of the most beautiful old streets in the city, was largely demolished to make way for the hideous Lion Yard development.

Then in the early 1980s, after years of bitter argument, much of the area known as the Kite was raised to the ground to make way for the Grafton Centre shopping mall. A lot of terraced housing, shops and popular meeting places were destroyed.

In early 2008, after a long period of construction, the Grand Arcade was opened, making the now decrepit looking Lion Yard, to which it was attached, look like an afterthought.

Traffic now queues for hours to get into one of the expensive multi-storey car parks that sit alongside these cathedrals of commerce. Shoppers eventually emerge from their cars, tired and belligerent before they have even begun.

It is hard to understand why anyone would put themselves through this misery. Yet the social and commercial pressures are such that great numbers do. Thus in the minds of the greedy bastards responsible, it is all a great success, and the disregard for aesthetics and history is thoroughly justified.

So a unique and beautiful old town has been transformed into just another multi-million pound trading centre, with the same stores and products found in any walking street in Europe.

Perhaps the big winner is internet shopping. Given the choice of a day in the concentration camp conditions in town, or a quiet couple of hours at home in front of a computer arranging to have purchases delivered to your door, what would you prefer?

Originating post: I live in a shopping mall

Why does this still affect me? Its not that I want to rush out and buy all this crap, but rather that I feel guilty because I don’t want to. The arch winks and sly grins of a high sheen cast of glamour cats and kittens, would have me give in to their blandishments and START SPENDING MONEY!!

I have lived with this contradictory attitude for years. Like millions, I know perfectly well that the origins of Christmas have nothing to do with money, yet each year I wind up spending more than I can afford. Which means that the commercial pressure on us all works on me whether I like it or not.

What irks so many of us is how early the campaign begins. By the end of October it is in full swing.

How refreshing it would be if we could contrive to ban all mention of the impending feast till, say, December 15. No gift buying, no plans, no advertising, and no preparation of any kind. This would free us up to have a last minute, chaotic, spontaneous good time of our own devising. The best parties often happen this way. Sadly the forces of commerce, overwhelming as they are, would never go for it.

Years ago I used to do all my shopping on Christmas Eve. It was exciting, hair-raising and a party in itself. Might I humbly suggest that any number of us can quite happily resist all this profit seeking hoo-ha, and keep what little money we have firmly in our pockets. If enough people did it, we could bring the greedy bastards to their knees.

To usurp Nancy Reagan’s famous slogan, “Just Say No!”

Originating post: just say no

From determining which part of the vegetable patch was whose, the use of borders grew to define first villages, then cities, and eventually countries and empires. However, one fundamental objection remained unanswered.

How can anyone claim exclusive ownership of even a grain of sand?

Yet drawing lines in the sand, once the urge took hold, grew to building fences, walls and fortifications. Then of course doors, gates and shutters were needed, and catches and locks to keep them closed. And so an open plan world became a closed up, fenced off one.

Then the world was no longer our world. Instead this corner was his, and that corner hers. Personal patches were rapidly staked out and claimed. Soon it became clear there were not enough patches to go round. Then the bullies came into their own.

Now that everything was up for grabs, the use of force became inevitable. Soon neighbourhood bullies recruited armies and became warlords. In many different parts of the planet small fiefdoms were established, offering protection, and, well, not much else. In return for their spared lives, the have-nots and dispossessed were obliged to work for their protectors, remain within the borders, and be available for any whim that might take their captors fancy. With the benefit of hindsight we call this slavery. For the unfortunate victims, it was just survival.

A couple of hundred years before Jesus was born, Delphic priests in Greece listed four freedoms that distinguished liberty from slavery. They were status, personal inviolability, the right to work as one pleased, and the privilege of going wherever one wished.

I’d like to focus on the last one. Migration is integral to human history and the most sophisticated civilizations are always those through which human traffic is the heaviest. Imagine London, Beijing, Mumbai or New York without all the many residents from other countries. The character of each may be regional but without the international contributions they would be provincial and dull.

People have always moved around. In some parts of the world, tribes would traditionally be in different areas at different times of the year. Planting and harvesting, hunting and gathering, celebrations, and burials, each took place in specific appropriate locations. A good example of this is North America. Before Europeans moved in, there were no frontiers, no travel documents, and no police. America proudly and correctly states it is a land of immigrants, but in the last 50 years it has become increasingly difficult for non-Americans to get in.

Today, attempts to control immigration everywhere are tighter than ever. To what end? The ‘war on terrorism’ is a favourite excuse. The truth is terrorists are several jumps ahead of immigration officials and come and go as they please. And arent our border controls one of the central factors that incite such extreme behaviour? The message we are sending out is ‘We have got much more than you, and you cant have any of it.’

It doesnt work. All borders were a mistake in the first place, and the mess we are in now is a direct result of perpetuating and compounding this very basic wrong. Why cant we just do away with them?

We can. But the ‘greedy bastards’ dont want to. So an ill-informed public is persuaded that immigrants bring overcrowding, street crime, religious fundamentalism, and benefit fraud to our shores. They are also taking our jobs and undermining our way of life. Many of the ills of our pampered society are summarily dumped at the feet of hapless foreign nationals.

I, for one, would be proud to live in an area that has no border controls, a place where people are treated with equal respect, notwithstanding race, wealth or creed. Yes, we would have to settle for less. We would have to share what there is with our brothers and sisters. Do we have any choice? How much longer can our societies continue to deny the four freedoms mentioned earlier to millions of people worldwide?

Its time to open the gates, and re-train immigration authorities everywhere to be orientation counsellors.

Originating post: no borders, please!..

I watched the above this morning, and loved it, but by the end of it my chuckling was a little hollow. If George Carlin was right, and it is very tempting to believe he was, then there is no hope whatsoever of changing or influencing the status quo. In worldly terms, our predicament is hopeless. At best we are doomed to be, as John Prine once sang, ‘…happy sailors dancing on a sinking ship…’

This got me pondering the nature of hope. ’..Hope springs eternal…’Alexander Pope would have us believe. We never really get what we want, but we never stop expecting it. On a daily basis, we make fresh plans for a perfect life. Hope seems to be hot-wired into our psyches.

As a Christian, I believe hope to be a virtue. Nietsche, on the other hand, argues, ‘…it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man’s torment.’

I certainly dont expect the world or its ‘owners’ to provide the impetus for things to improve. My hope each day is that I will know God a little better, respond to my fellow creatures with more compassion, do what I do with humility and fortitude, and provide for my immediate family.

Is this self centred twaddle? I dont think so. I believe there are plenty of us round the world similarly inclined. Enough in fact to indeed make the world a better place, or at least those parts of the world we inhabit. And in so doing we render our worthless proprietors impotent.

So thank you, George Carlin, for illuminating some truth, for making me laugh, and for being a living example of the parts the ‘greedy bastards’ can never touch.

Originating post: hope

Yet in every developed country, armies of angry, frightened citizens focus on protecting themselves rather than helping those in need.

The French authorities have undertaken to close down the ‘jungle’ of makeshift shelters and tents affording temporary homes for migrants around Calais. Where do they expect them to go? All this guarantees is that their miserable lives will be made even more difficult.

It fits in with a pattern of persecution of the less fortunate by governments everywhere. If you vote and pay taxes you must be protected from those that dont.

Heres a personal message to ALL world leaders. There is only one GOD, and you are not it. ALL God’s creatures are equally entitled and deserving of your respect and care. As long as you are protecting the ‘greedy bastards’, you are one of them. A greedy bastard, that is.

Originating post: we dont want them here, we dont want them there….

I wont pretend to be sufficiently knowledgeable to explain what is happening. However like you, I can glean an impression from the deluge of reporting and comment we are being inundated with. Its not a pretty picture.

The basic right, within what is still the wealthiest nation in the world, of every citizen to have access to basic health care, is still being denied. It is being discussed again, thanks to President Obama’s current initiative to implement some major policy changes. What are the chances of success?

Unless ordinary citizens, in their tens of millions, stand up and speak out as one undeniable, booming voice, then what they really want, what they so clearly deserve, is not going to come to pass.

ALL Americans need to wake up to the fact that the greedy bastards in Washington are masters at this sort of conflict.  Their only interest in you is that you might get your hands on what they think is theirs. They have already got most of it and they want more. They want it all. They have writers, comedians, Hollywood directors, actors & musicians, TV commentators IN their pockets. They are bringing every variety of persuasion to bear on the issue at stake. And they will convince you that they are doing it for ‘the common good’.

But of course the truth is that a small number of very powerful men have been getting immensely rich, by systematically denying ordinary citizens the drugs and treatment they have already paid for. Check out http://sickforprofit.com/.

The fact that the President and his administration are up against some very heavy opposition is no surprise. The effect these powerful groups, drug and insurance companies in particular, appear to be having on his core values is deeply disturbing. But just by the fact that I am writing about HE highlights one of the problems.

We cannot unburden all our woes onto Mr Obama’s shoulders. He can speak up for us, but he cannot carry us all. Its time for the democratic process to get up off the sofa, disconnect the entertainment toys, and start working out. Maybe it is not too late to develop some muscles to flex.

Every last citizen CAN phone, write or email the President, and their local representatives and make their voices heard. That is what they now MUST do. Have a look at Robert Reich’s take on this

Yesterday I was thinking that there was nothing we in the UK could do. This is America’s problem. We have had a health service for 60 year for heavens sake! Come on America. Today I feel differently. Its not just health care, but democracy thats at stake here. We can no longer opt out and watch from the sidelines. Unless everyone gets involved, it is not democracy.

Think how governments in recent years have gone ahead and carried out disastrous actions despite overwhelming opposition from the people they represent. The war against Iraq is the obvious example. Why did they do it? I’m afraid it is ‘greedy bastard syndrome’ again.

With our health services already in place, we ordinary European citizens can, at least metaphorically, stand shoulder to shoulder alongside our US cousins and add considerable strength to their cause. Its up to us all. If we all act, and make sure that as many people we know act as well, then there is a fighting chance.

All of us in the ‘free world’ are guilty of gross neglect. A true democracy involves everybody. We have got used to washing our hands of the whole business and leaving it to our elected leaders to deal with. This clearly doesnt work. If you like, look at this way; they desperately need our help.

Originating post: stamp your democratic feet