Lottsathoughts

For a passing moment, around six weeks ago, Brenda from Bristol unwittingly became the people’s spokesperson. Her unrehearsed soundbite in response to Theresa May calling a General Election seemed to sum it up for many, “You're joking? Not another one? Oh for God’s sake – I can’t honestly stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment. Why does she need to do it?” Merriam Webster defines politics as, “The activities, actions and policies that are used to gain and hold power in a government”, whereas the OED definition simply relates politics, “to the government or public affairs of a country”. Brenda, I think, had the first of these definitions in mind. For many outside of the Conservative party, the calling of an election just 2 years into their term appeared to be a cynical opportunity to grab power and rule almost unopposed for a combined 7 years. It’s a position that I find uncomfortable at best. And noting that only 24% of registered voters voted Conserv...

I was recently prompted to do something I'd been meaning to do for months and signed up as a monthly subscriber to the The Guardian. We have all seen derogatory comments about the Guardian - claiming that it is biased to The Left etc. Well it may appear that way, but I think that misses the point. I do so wish we could get away from the over-simplified and pointless posturing of left v right. We should consider policies and politicians in their own right. The terms 'left' and 'right' are helpful as an act of linguistic closure to enable reference to a broad body of ideas, but dismissing anything from either side without a fair hearing is to narrow one's own thought-horizons. IMO. To my reading, The Guardian is the paper that most often publishes investigative or at least, original, journalism. It has articles which question the Establishment and the status quo. It is, in short, the best we have in daily independent and critical journalism. If, as a result,...

We awake today to a new sadness. Yesterday was the unspeakable, wailing grief for innocent lives so brutally and foully destroyed in the bombing in Manchester. Today's sadness, of soldiers on our streets, won't provoke the same gut reaction. Many will read this news with a shrug. Some will celebrate. I however find the valve for tears, which yesterday were denied me by the shock. I wrote yesterday of the fear. How we must not let fear govern our lives. It's a daily struggle at many levels. And please do not misunderstand me. Yesterday's act was horrific and anyone with young children will be frightened. We can no more prevent ourselves from feeling fear than we can always protect our children from every danger. To be afraid for our children and ourselves is natural. But to allow that fear to dictate how our lives are lived is ultimately self-defeating. Mrs May is quoted as saying: “Let us remember those who died and let us celebrate those who helped, safe in...

Fear isn't just around the corner. It's always there on the periphery of our vision. Maybe life's meaning is found in overcoming fear. In the beginning God saw everything and it was good. But at the first opportunity, Adam and Eve were disobedient and immediately were afraid and hid themselves. I don't read this as literal history but as myth to explain the human situation. Throughout the Bible, again and again, we hear the words "do not be afraid". Fear is what keeps us in unsatisfactory jobs or unhealthy relationships. It stops us exploring the world or experiencing unfamiliar situations. It holds us back from emotional commitment. It makes us hoard today against fear of tomorrow, and in so doing we deny "enough" to another's now. It isolates us in retreat behind fences and locks. It holds us at a distance from our neighbours. For some the fears are real. Real terror of violence, hunger, pain and loss. For some of us, it is an illusion....

I wonder when our governing politicians are going to start taking climate change seriously. Or when we, "the people", are going to wake up to the scale of the crisis and insist the politicians respond. Yes we have the Green Party who speak quiet sense every day. But with only one MP they must feel they are banging their heads against a concrete jungle. At the moment we are wasting time and energy and money, hand over fist, on some absurd fantasy of sovereignty in the form of Brexit, all the while failing to notice that it doesn't matter. Nothing matters one jot if the whole planet is drowned. Other progressive parties are finally beginning to get it. But the Conservative Government? Mrs May scrapped the Department for Climate Change last July. One of her first acts as Prime Minister. We can't afford the Tories to hold power any longer. They want to argue about who's in charge of the laundry cupboard while the Titanic sinks. https://www.theguardi...

People tell me they "don't do politics". This is a position of privilege. Politics "does" us. If you are not currently in a demographic being directly threatened by Mrs May, then you might like to take a ticket and wait in the queue. She's targetted immigrants, the disabled, the sick, the unemployed, nurses, doctors, police. She's coming after pensioners with her new manifesto. And school children. Who's next? We have been taken down a rabbit hole with Breixt and everyone admits it was lies what done it. Even Brexiteers cheerfully admit the lies. I watched, incredulous, as Nigel Farage on the morning after the referendum, told breakfast television audiences that the £350m a year promised to the NHS was “a mistake”. Everytime I ask a committed Leave supporter about this, they just shrug and tell me "you lost, get over it" or "all politicians lie". The knock-on problem we now have is that decisions based on lies are problemati...

How is it ok to maintain this so-called bargaining-chip stance with regard to the status of EU citizens living in the UK? We are playing with the lives of innocent people. This wasn't their fault. This wasn't their battle. How is this different in its moral-foundation from the use of human shields? Or collateral damage in military campaigns? Or hostage-taking? I know that sounds extreme but it seems to me that we are behaving appallingly on this. Three million innocent people live in our country, entirely legally, and often at our direct invitation (I'm thinking of deliberate recruitment of EU nationals to staff the NHS for example). Some have been here for forty years or more. This IS their home. They have married here. Have children here. Own houses here. Have friends here. Belong to social groups such as choirs and sports clubs. Have memories here. They have worked and paid taxes here. Paid into pension funds here. They have donated to charities here and volunteere...

Am I alone in feeling like the whole political debate is backward-looking and stacked against younger generations? It seems to me that anyone under 50 is in a different world from the powers that be. To be clear - this isn't a dig at individuals over 50. Just observation of the general direction of policy. Brexit - itself an overindulgence in misplaced nostalgia. The very essence of its message "take back control" or "make Britain Great again" is about turning back time. It's quite understandable: when we are anxious, we instinctively look back to the point when everything felt ok. But it doesn't always make sense. The world has moved on. Trade deals are done differently now. Climate issues should be paramount across borders but were barely mentioned in the early 1970s. Public health issues cross borders. Security and terrorism-concerns cross borders. The world has been opened up via the internet and easy travel. Research is a multi-disipline, mult...

How do bullies work? Do they stop once they get what they asked for? They wanted out of the EU. (But absolutely no one was talking about leaving the Single Market. Stop the hysteria...) Now they want out of the Single Market. When they get it, what will they want next? The NHS will be the first to go. We are getting closer to the point of no return on this.

I've been to The Jungle in Calais several times to help with the refugee crisis. What I did was almost nothing, and yet alongside thousands of others who also did almost nothing, it all helped. But this extraordinary woman was in it for the long run. I met her on my first day when she showed me around and told me how things worked. She led the warm-up and daily briefing for volunteers. Her testimony reminds me of what I saw. The unexpected blossoming of love and beauty in the jaws of degredation and barbaric humiliation. She and dozens (hundreds?) like her gave all they had. And to witness such selfless giving from another moved me in a way I had never imagined possible. She will pay for that gift for the rest of her life. No one should see what she saw. Don't imagine this is over. The goalposts have moved for sure. But refugees are still risking daily arrest and a beating just for surviving, in hiding. Volunteers now risk fines for handing out food. Watching thi...