There has never been a sensible conversation with the public here in the UK about how tax is spent. There is such a lot of wastage in public finances that people actually dislike paying taxes because they never think the money is going to be spent well. The whole issue revolves around what kind of…
Sudan
Millions are starving and the situation is gearing up to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Access to get aid into the war torn regions is impossible at times and there is no end to the warring between the parties. Hundreds are displaced (5.8 million so far) and hundreds of villages have…
The Journalistic Struggle
I have always been something of an admirer of people who go to war just to get the story for the people back home. It has been a very important part of the world realising what soldiers have always known – there is no glory is victory because it is gained over too many dead….
Land Rights
I was talking to a lady today as we drove to get her shopping and she mentioned that farming was all about money and I mentioned the enclosures of the 17th century. She had never heard of it. In brief there were a series of Acts of Parliament which enclosed common land, creating legal private…
Something Quiet
My neighbour has to move two land-pods he used for guests to stay in. They are sitting too close to the trees and the damp speeds up the growth of a particular mold on the wood which lessens the lifespan of the pods. So he asked a farmer to come over and me to be…
Fascism
When I was at college I understood that anyone you didn’t agree with very quickly became a fascist. Fascism has been with us forever which is why it is absurd these days to continually talk of left and right in politics. A left leaning right wing thinker will have socialist ideas of society and a…
Birthdays
The Romans famously started counting their lives at inception so when they were born they were already nine months old. It meant that mothers and father instead of celebrating a day the mother was creaming her head off for hours, they could celebrate a really good joint climax. I don’t think children felt as squeamish…
Civilians in War
Articles 48 and 51 of the Geneva Convention (written between 1864 and 1949) discuss the targeting of civilians in war and state that civilians are not to be targeted unless they take an active role in the conflict. It does not go on to differentiate between civilians acting under duress and those acting in concert….
Indigenous
Go back far enough no one is indigenous to anywhere but maybe Africa and maybe the Pacific region. There are thoughts that there were several human-like apes around each one of which had a particular adaptation (e.g good hands) but otherwise were more ape and they met up and bred. So maybe bits of us…
A Poem at Last
I wrote a sonnet a few days ago after not writing for years. It isn’t very good, in fact I would suggest it doesn’t work well and fails after the sixth line but I finalised it. For the past two years or more I have started a couple of lines and giving up, nothing was…