MAGGIE'S FUNERAL

So much for “We are all in it together”, “Times of austerity”, “We must all face cuts and tighten our belts”.

After spending millions of pounds of tax payers' money on the Queen’s jubilee, an event that was mostly held and benefited London, the Tory-led coalition has decided to spend around £10 million on a funeral for one of the most despised Prime Ministers since the introduction of The Six Acts in 1819.

£10 million is the estimate that is without the cost of the security measures surrounding the event. All Police leave has been cancelled in the London Metropolitan Police force. Snipers are been deployed on the roofs along and around the route of the funeral procession, which has been named “Code True Blue”.

The name “True Blue” I feel reflects how the Prime Minister and the Tories feel about the Late Prime Minister Thatcher and how she was for the business community the City of London and the rich. The workers and their communities were seen as an obstacle to be oppressed by her and her peers.

The Prime Minister Cameron, the Tory Party and many of the right wing press such as the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Sun are appalled at some of the vitriol being expressed in the social media, (twitter, etc.), and by public figures and M.Ps such as Glenda Jackson and Morrissey. (Also look up “Margaret on the Guillotine” by Morrissey on You Tube music).

The pro-Thatcherites are outraged at this and use the excuse that a dead person should not be vilified as Thatcher is.  An example. I did not hear anyone saying this after Gaddafi's death as he was abused by the same press and media that are now attempting to silence the people’s voice about protecting and tempering criticism of the dead. Before anyone rises I am not in anyway comparing the late Maggie Thatcher to Col. Gaddafi, it is only an example of the hypocrisy of the press.    

The Tory right wing media are always banging the drum about democracy, free speech and freedom of the press of course this only applies when the “Press Barons” such as Rupert Murdoch, agrees with what is being said and represented. If The Sun and The Daily Mail feel you are attacking what they believe in, the establishment, the City and /or its leaders they will attempt to discredit the messenger by looking at their past and present lifestyle and occupation and smearing the person and leading a campaign for them to be sacked from their job if it is in anyway connected to public service. Such as the Drama teacher Romany Blythe and the Police Sergeant Jeremy Scott who has since resigned after the Daily Mail vindictively mounted a campaign to have them both sacked.

Police Sergeant Jeremy Scott has resigned.  He had served over twenty years in the Metropolitan Police Force and was facing possible suspension and an investigation into his twitter account @thinbluespeck..

Thatcher’s Grave

Let the bonfires burn bright,

The trumpets gaily play,
The Drummers drill away,
Let the Bagpipes blaw,
To be heard far away,

The children gaily play,

As I Dance on Thatcher’s Grave,

Monday was a beautiful day.

by McTaggart

Are the Irish politicians aware we are now in the 21st Century?

I ask this regarding the case of Pauline Conboy a 46 year old woman with Down’s syndrome who had her passport confiscated.  Her crime was to attempt to fly to Florida to visit her brother and family to see if she would like to live there.    

Pauline lived with her Mother until her Mother’s death last year. Pauline needs some support to live but is mostly independent. It was planned that if Pauline liked it she could live with her brother and his family in Florida.

Here comes the crux of the matter: for some reason the Irish passport office took Pauline’s passport off her denying her the right as human being to travel to meet her brother and family in the U.S.A. The reason for this to quote:  “The Irish Passport Office took my passport and my rights away just over a year ago because they claim they got a "report" but it's a secret report and they won't show it to anyone - I'm not kidding!”

Pauline’s plight has been ignored by the passport office officials and the Passport Office Director responsible for the passport office. The Director had the arrogance, or was it he felt embarrassed and shameful about the situation, to leave his office early on a Friday afternoon when he knew that Pauline and her sister in law were packing their bags and trying to contact him to leave on a plane to Florida.  No doubt he had to go to his weekend retreat and prepare for his evening dinner party.

The Irish passport office will not budge and appears to be hiding behind smoke screens and feeble excuses by stating that a disabled person needs to have a “legal guardian”. The Irish Passports Act 2008 allows people with disabilities to "duly authorise" anyone to fill out and sign an application form so there is no need in law to have a “legal guardian”.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.

I ask this question: Are the people involved in the decision to confiscate Pauline’s passport to embarrassed to admit to their mistake and stubbornly standing by the decision to save criticism and face?    

Is it not a fact that the Irish Government has allowed Pedophile Priests to leave the country without any questions, harassment or charges to travel to the other countries with their passports intact. 

From Pauline’s site:

Please call or email the Irish Passport Office at +353 1 671 1633, Email: Joseph.Nugent@dfa.ie, and ask them to give Pauline Conboy her passport PC8471397 back right away. It is so hard on me and my family to be kept apart like this for no reason.  We have done nothing wrong to deserve this.  I just want to spend time with my family who love me, just like I did in the past before my passport was taken away. It's not fair that I am now being stopped from leaving the country for no reason.  Thank you for helping me because by helping me you are also helping other people with disabilities as well as helping preserve everyone's rights.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.”
The Minister for Foreign affairs is Eamon Gilmore T.D. who can be contacted at:
Office of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Iveagh House,
80 St. Stephen’s Green,
Dublin 2.
Believe it or not he has a degree in Psychology from the University of Galway.

McTaggart

Happy New Year? It was until the Tory-led coalition once again began its attack on the poorly paid

It was until the Tory-led coalition once again began its attack on the poorly paid.

In fact the attack on the low wage earner and the people on benefits began just after Christmas with the right wing Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne demanding that the National State Welfare budget be cut by £10 billion. Where did that figure come from? Was it just plucked out of the air as a good “sound bite” figure to ensure the headlines would follow in the Daily Express and the Daily Mail?

I have not seen any figures to justify this claim that it is £10 billion that needs to be cut from the Welfare budget. It appears to tally with the Tory led coalition aim to cut the loan deficit.

I am also astonished, as far as I have seen/heard at the way the media such as the BBC television and radio channels, Channel 4 or the ITV news have never crossed examined the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on how he came to this conclusion.  Just a thought, I find it a wee bit strange that you never see George Osborne give interviews. Is that due to his past performances in live interviews and gaffe blown comments?

On Tuesday 8^th January 2013 the House of Commons voted to restrict any rise of benefits of working age to 1% over the next 3 years. This included Working Tax Credits, a payment by the taxpayer to boost the pay of low-paid workers rather than have the worker being paid a living wage by the large companies who make billion of pounds profit to pay their shareholders a large dividend at the tax payer’s expense.

When I say shareholders I am not talking about the person in the street who may have a few shares in a company but the very large global companies listed on the London, New York and the Tokyo stock exchange which make billions of pounds/dollars profit every year.

--McTaggart

NYE Retreat 2012: Shining Your Light

Mindful that New Year's Eve 2012 was likely to be challenging, being my first New Year in recovery from addiction, I wanted to mark it in a special way. I was lucky enough to be awarded funding to go on a 3 day spiritual retreat at the beautiful Buckland Hall in South Wales.

In my difficult early days of recovery, back in February 2012, meditation and mindfulness had been extremely important to me but as the year went on I had let my spiritual practice lapse and I was anxious to re-connect with this. The retreat fulfilled all these objectives and more. It brought me into contact with like-minded people, and I was so happy that they wanted to know the real me-without alcohol or drugs clouding the picture.

The theme of the retreat was “Shining your Light”. On NYE afternoon we were asked to write a poem on this theme. Now I am someone who cringes at the mention of poetry, yet I was able to write a few heartfelt lines that seemed to move my friends on the retreat. I’d like to share this with Unheard Holler and it gives me great pleasure to be able to give something back to SHP who helped me get back on my feet in 2012.

The Light

I thought my light had been extinguished

By suffering, loss, betrayal and addiction

But all these things have only made it burn brighter

Brighter than a perfect Kylie pop song

Radiating wider than the ocean

Sparkling through my eyes

Attracting more light

Warming my skin like a balmy summer breeze

And touching those close to me

Rays of compassion and kindness

Forged in the furnace of fear and loathing

Transformed into hope and love

 
By Richard Kiddle

TUC Anti- Austerity March Saturday 20th October 2012 London

Are you going to be at the Anti-Austerity march leaving from the Embankment, London at 12.00 p.m.to Hyde Park?

If not, why not?

There will thousands of people from all over U.K. arriving by coach, train and motor car to demonstrate against the Tory led Coalition government austerity cuts and the Tory dogma that it is the poorest who have to suffer for their austerity programme to work.

There is definitely a hollow ring to the Prime Minister David Cameron’s slogan “that we are all in it together”. Little or no pay rises cuts to social welfare funding and changes to how benefits such as Housing Benefit will be paid whilst cutting the tax threshold that the highest earners in the country have to pay.

The disabled, sick and the terminally ill being passed as fit for work by a biased and disgraceful medical assessment procedure.

Cuts to the N.H.S. budget meaning less staff, ward closures and worst of all hospital closures.  This week it was announced in several counties in England that ambulance stations will be closed in local areas and main “hubs” will replace them. This will mean an ambulance travelling many miles further to an emergency taking a longer tome which is often crucial in saving a person’s life.

Let us make it clear to the Government that we, the people are very unhappy with this Government’s policy on the economy and their programme for austerity cuts.

Join the march on Saturday 20th October at 12.00 p.m. at the Embankment London.

Remember, “We are many but they are few”.

Autumn Online: 'Why I Blog' by McTaggart

Until April this year I knew very little about blogging. I was confused as to what a blog site was and Facebook, I thought they were the same. So it shows how little I knew about the workings of a blog site and the inner workings of social messaging.

This all changed when I was invited along to a blogging workshop at the S.H.P. office at Grays Inn Rd. I was surprised how easy it was to “blog” I didn’t need great computer skills just a basic knowledge of a computer such as how to press a letter on the keyboard to create a word. There were staff on hand to guide me slowly through the “blogging” procedure with plenty of encouragement from the staff and the other users of S.H.P. who were interested in using the S.H.P. blog site “Unheard Holler”.

I and the others were soon blogging away.

What I enjoy about blogging, the word used to describe using a blog site to add new material or update a present blog, is the freedom it gives me to express how I feel about certain issues, share my knowledge, experience or expertise on any subject or life my experiences.

It can be accessed by anyone in the world and they can add their comments to my blog.

I felt proud and very pleased when one of my blogs was picked up by a journalist from the BBC Newsnight programme and he/they ended up using it as the lead article and main theme for the Newsnight programme. It was about the N.H.S. hospitals in London keeping wards empty for the exclusive use of the V.I.P.s Olympic family in case of an accident or illness.  So a blog message can have an influence and effect on people.

On the Unheard Holler blog site I and others can write articles on any topic/subject draw, post photographs, post cartoons or use prose and poetry to express how they feel about anything.

People have blogged about their addiction, their medical assessment procedure, politics, poetry, having a baby, in fact anything they feel strongly about or wish to share their life experiences to encourage or educate others.

Personally I enjoy blogging, (writing), about topics I am interested in or I feel people may like to be informed about.

McTaggart

Justice

Where's the justice in the world?

With mouths unfed in droves

where God has now become gold

and the power and the glory belong to those who war

the very same who make the law!

The gun and drugs and alcohol are killing the innocent and the youth,

is this the way we establish our truth?

Good Crime?

Imagine the scenario: It’s this time next year and following a recent spate of gang related stabbings across London, question time in the House of Commons is the focus of fervid media attention.

A Commons member, allied to the moderate left, is addressing the House and expressing his shock at a recently published article by a renowned but controversial academic. The article states that the apparent moral panic is disproportionate to the crimes, and that the criminal incidents in question are not only to be expected, but are actually ‘good’ and even ‘healthy’ for society.

The Rt. Honourable Gentleman is claiming, with some justification, that the article is insensitive and an insult to members of his constituency, particularly those who themselves have been victims of violent crime. His claim is met with widespread endorsement. Even sections of the liberal and left wing press express an element of disdain at the academics asseveration.

Now try to imagine the degree of outrage and controversy the academic’s statements might have encountered if they had occurred over a hundred years ago, and that this is not London but Paris, France, a country that only abolished serfdom - a form of land owned peasantry, no different to slave labour - just forty years before.

Bear in mind that France, like most of Europe in the late 19th century, still had lynch laws and kangaroo courts, particularly in rural areas. Here, crimes as petty as blasphemy, swearing and even sloth were met with public humiliation, such as flogging and tarring and feathering.

Even today it would be difficult to find support for the academic’s comments, but in the late 19th century, attitudes to crime were still seen to be sacrilegious, as law was still seen to be ‘Gods Law’. The academic would have had few sympathisers in 1898.

That academic in question was Emile Durkheim, who held the belief that crime pushes the moral boundaries of the collective conscience of society and forces society to change, and subsequently, grow. He argued that crime is necessary in order to change what is acceptably wrong, immoral, and dysfunctional in society.

For example, the suffragettes were committing criminal acts and so would therefore challenge a lack of morality – which was a basic civil right to vote. The ANC, on the other hand, took to crime in order to have an immoral law (apartheid) abolished.

Both the suffragettes and the ANC committed acts of crime that challenged the moral boundaries and so changed the collective conscience of their respective societies, which was necessary in order to achieve what is perceived by most people to be a morally appropriate social change, enhancing the healthy growth of society in the process.

So what about the ‘spate of knife crime’ in our imaginary scenario? Well, neither teenage violence nor knife crime is new to society and both have been on a steady decrease since 1992 and 1986 respectively. This is due in part to social welfare organisations, for example Youth Offending Teams (Y.O.T’s), having learned valuable lessons from previous generations of juvenile delinquency, such as football hooligans of the late 1970’s and 80’s who. Despite being not only more prevalent, but also more violent than any of their predecessors of young offenders, the football hooligans contradicted all the stereotypes from history in that they were upwardly mobile, confident, flamboyant and very much a part of mainstream society. What the football hooligans of that era lacked was an emotional outlet or an emotional landing pad, which is a vital lesson in child and teenage development for today’s society. Durkheim’s theory that crime was good for society was based on what he called ‘social fact’. He dismissed all biological and psychological reasons for crime.

He also claimed that if crime was unusually high, it was solely down to weak or corrupt government, and would cause society to malfunction to the point of virtual collapse. However, if crime was unusually low, society would then adopt high moral collective sentiments, meaning that even minor behaviour defects, such as impoliteness, would then become an unacceptable breach to the moral value. The outcome being that society would stagnate, forcing the condition of anomie, resulting in an unusually high number of suicides.

Countries with unusually low crime rates today – Sweden, Finland, Japan, Lithuania, and China, for example – have above average rates of suicide, China’s being alarmingly high with 49% of the worlds suicides, yet only 19.4% of the worlds population.

According to Durkheim, if society crushes the individual mind of the criminal, it will crush the individual mind of the genius.

Crime, to a certain extent, is therefore necessary, healthy and good for society.

Kevin Henaghan