Saturday 19 March 2016

The emperors new clothes

Iain Duncan-Smith has resigned from the UK Cabinet saying that the cuts to benefits for disabled people couldn't be justified in a budget which found money for tax cuts for the higher rate taxpayers.

It seems Mr Duncan-Smith has woken up to what his critics have been saying all along, as Chancellor, George Osborne has been preaching 'we're all in it together' and the 'broadest shoulders take the broadest burden' but most of his actions have been to give more to the rich and to make life harder for the poor.

It's as if Iain Duncan-Smith can no longer stand the cognitive dissonance and has woken up to the fact the Emperor has no clothes.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Utterly Outrageous

The Lloyd George Museum in Wales is under threat of closure following moves to axe its funding. Facing the loss of £27,000 in council support, it has managed now to secure an extra 12 months grace. A financial appeal is running to ensure that ends up being a permanent saving of the museum rather than simply a deferment of closure. You can support the appeal here.

David Lloyd George was perhaps the greatest Prime Minister the UK has ever had. As Chancellor he drove through policies like the introduction of the Old Age Pension.  As minister for munitions and Prime Minister he did more to win WW1 than anyone else.  He rose from a humble background to towering achievements.

The sum withdrawn by the local Council to cover running cost of the Museum is £27,000 a year. I know of useless Councillors paid more than that. It wouldn't even pay for a MP and staff running costs for a  couple of months.  In terms of Government expenditure, it is nothing, yet the only museum dedicated to a man to whom we all owe so much is under threat of closure.  Incredible.

Monday 7 March 2016

For a Morris Dancer

"For A Dancer" by Jackson Browne
Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)

Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know