Trevor Lockwood

Jane Fonda is reported to have suffered a nervous breakdown after completing a film.

I sympathise.

As we slide through this life we have ups and downs. Mine has been more down than up, but never mind, we survive.

I have one worry: that’s the survival of mankind on this planet.

That’s a serious concern. We have an increasing shift to the right in politics. In Europe we have experience of what that means. In the USA there is a simple-minded, yet arrogant President.

In the UK we have an equally spoilt-brat as Prime Minister. He masquerades as British, that’s not strictly true. He’s a second-generation immigrant from Turkey.

That’s OK. The UK is now full of immigrants, and most are doing a good job. We need and welcome their enthusiasm. Perhaps the problems arise when their offspring, born in this country, are well-established and have money and influence. They become arrogant.

England (specifically) is a nation of peasants. Folk who have been under the yoke for many years. We’ve not had a voice that’s been effective. We tried in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt, but that failed.

Richard 11, then just 14, met the peasants but the Mayor of London stepped in and killed the peasant’s leader Wat Tyler. Richard promised to meet the peasants demands: that all men should be free and equal.

So much for promises. Government troops went to the villages and hanged any man who took part.

We have promises from politicians today. With a coming election there will many of the people who choose to believe those who wield power. They may be wrong to believe promises.

The Chartists in 19th Century (1838) wanted constitutional reform, presenting six demands. They failed.

Despite objections (10,000 extra police standing by) the Chartists presented a petition to Parliament, signed by 6 million people, it was largely ignored.

In a quiet way the same situation is occurring again. This time a Tory Prime Minister held a referendum. Read carefully it did no more than promise to look at the result. Unfortunately a small majority voted to leave the European Union (EU).

That cause consternation amongst the ruling classes. They were aware that the EU were changing the tax laws meaning that overseas investments would be taxed. For some that became a good reason to leave the EU.

Unfortunately, for them, this ruse was soon spotted. A new Prime Minister, Boris the Turk Johnson, is now holding another election. Which he hopes to win.

Boris Johnson was born in New York City on June 19, 1964. His great-grandfather was Ali Kemal, an Ottoman Turk. Kemal fled to exile in England in late 1909, They already had a daughter named Selma. Kemal stayed with his mother-in-law Margaret Brun (née Johnson). Is that where Johnson’s name came from? His nationality hangs on a thin thread.

Who knows what will happen on 12 December?

I have an evil plan: if Boris wins and we leave the EU I shall go to Holland and plead asylum as a refugee I have some links in my ancestry to Holland, and even more in France where my family founded a Christian order, which still exists today: https://www.lasalle.org

I hope he loses. We need Europe, and Europe needs us.

Just a selection of podcasts I’ve made, in no particular order. There will be many more!

Don’t you feel that way? The system has taken control, and you are no longer in charge, not just of the words you write but how they are displayed, and who decides what will happen.

One day recently I was told, by a friend, that my site was down. It turns out that the server company I have used for the past 20 years had gone bust. I heard nothing from them. Years of work disappeared overnight. Very disappointing.

We move on. I find a new company. All seems well. It seems that I can migrate the content of my old site to the new place. That was true, but for one problem. I no longer have access to my old site so cannot add the software that will allow the migration, that came from https://www.siteground.co.uk/

Let’s move on to Stripe.

This is a Californian-based company offering similar services to PayPal. I wanted to use their services. Set up by Patrick Collison, an Irishman, it seemed like good news. The online form asked for my postcode. I gave it, and was told that it didn’t exist. I emailed my concern, only to be told that Stripe makes the decisions, and there’s nothing I can do about that. Sounds Irish enough for me.

Recently Marks and Spencers https://www.marksandspencer.com closed their store in my town. I had a Sparks card, sort of a thank you by the company, that awards points based on purchases. I had 5,000 points, but they were not showing on my online account.

I sent the M&S Referral team an email. I received a quick reply from Emma, I respond, then Sally replies, I respond, Sarah replies, I respond . I received a total of twelve replies from different people before they agreed to issue a new card. I was told to telephone their company when I received the card. Thirty minutes on the phone, with me paying, before the lovely girl sorted it out for me. I now have 5000 points on a card. Now what do I do with these? I’d offered to take the last lady away for the weekend, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

These are not just moans. They are relevant. Our job, as clients and consumers now only amounts to paying as much money as can be squeezed out of us. The real purpose is to make money.

We need to start resisting.

 

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