Resolution

I don't make New Year resolutions. I generally don't keep them so I accept defeat. I'm never going to be perfect, I just generally try to live my life according to my own moral code.  

This is an opportune time to look back over a life beginning as the second world war ended. I acknowledge the many huge changes I have seen. My life today bears little resemblance to my life as a child, teenager & young adult. In many ways it is a much better life, certainly more comfortable & more informed. However it is hard not to hanker after a less complex, simpler life. Or is that just "rose tinted spectacles?"

I find myself dwelling on the lack of resolution I see around me & in the world. Change for the better is rarely simple. It demands a willingness to see a different perspective. It demands sacrifice & hard work. It demands seeing the world and everything in it as an interlinked & co dependent bio system. Every choice an individual or a group or a society makes has consequences. We just aren't very good at thinking long term what the consequences of those choices might be. 

Just take plastic. Bakelite was the first plastic, invented in 1907. It started being mass produced & widely used when I was born, after the second world war. Then again there was a boom in the 60's & 70's when I was in my late teens & twenties. We all took it for granted. No one gave a thought to the possible problems caused by the amount we were using & it's disposal until the late 1970's when the National Marine Mammal Laboratory concluded that plastic entanglement was killing up to 40,000 seals a year. Annually, this amounted to a 4-6% drop in seal population beginning in 1976.

Think about war. Every war's outcome is uncertain. A military victory does not guarantee a stable and lasting solution. History shows the consequences of war are complex and unpredictable & often unintended. Perpetuating the cycle of violence may well create new conflicts. War does not resolve problems, people resolve problems by talking & negotiating. 

I do believe that we, as a species, have the intelligence & capability to resolve the many problems that beset our world today. In order to do that we have to let go of the things that are the root causes of the problems. I'm not going to list them, I think that deep down, we do all know what is wrong with our world. The trouble is that many of us are not ready to face up to the actions needed to resolve them.

We could create a much better world for everyone & everything in it. We just have to resolve to do it.

 

Now. 

Christmas Spirit

Regular readers will know that Christmas isn't my favourite time of year. Yesterday I fulfilled a long term ambition, to do something positive for the many people who aren't as fortunate as I am.

I went to a huge centre in West Oxford to wash plates & peel veg for a huge charity Christmas lunch today for over 500 people. It's all run by one woman & has been for years. She is amazing. It was very jolly with lots of helpers. We only did 2 hours & I was exhausted. Some volunteers work all day. It made me realise that even amid all the bad news the ability for compassion in people is still there, but you don't hear much about it. I hadn't heard about this, someone at the school my daughter teaches at asked us to help.

I simply could not believe the logistics of this wonderful undertaking. Furniture had to be moved, vast quantities of donated veg had to be prepared, plates & cutlery had to be cleaned, turkeys & stock had to be prepared, (fortunately by men who were obviously chefs), volunteers had to be effectively organised. On the day transport has to be organised to bring people to the venue. The whole thing involves a huge army of volunteers. Although the lovely woman in charge is very organised she actually doesn't necessarily know who will turn up to volunteer or how long they will stay. She is just wonderfully optimistic that it will all come together at the end & it always has - even in Covid.

That is real faith. That is real philanthropy. That is the true spirit of Christmas.

For one day I actually felt that there is hope in the midst of the appalling problems we have in the world. If one woman can achieve all of that & give so many people a wonderful time think what humanity could really achieve.

We just need to have the will to do it.

 

 

A Good Death & Freedom of Choice

Ideally I'd like to just die quietly in my sleep. I don't fancy pain or a long lingering loss of function & quality of life. But we don't get to choose. We just do know it's going to happen, just not when & how. As friends & family die around us it reminds us of the inevitability. 

 

I listened to Esther Ranzen this week. She has stage 4 lung cancer & is considering going to Dignitas if she wants to end her life. Because of her high profile there may well be a new free debate & vote on assisted dying in the UK. Personally I would welcome that & hope that it would pass into legislation.

In my youth I naively thought that I could control life. I know better now. But I do always have a choice in what I do or don't do. The choice may be difficult & coloured by the effect on other people, but it is essentially mine to make. The same is not true of my death. At the moment I have to put up with whatever happens & whatever medics can do about it. 

The most important tenet for Medics is "First do no Harm." They want to do everything they can to make patients better. But that isn't always possible or what the patient wants or needs. The patient should be the centre of any decision making. They should be able to choose whether they want invasive treatment which may well not cure them, but just delay the inevitble & give a few extra weeks or months. 

Tolerating pain, being disabled, having no quality of life & having to see the impact of that on people I love is not what I would want. It's not what a lot of people who are much more affected by illness than I am want either. As long as I am capable of making an informed decision I want to be able to exercise that right to live or die. 

Actually I have tried to control my end as much as I can by leaving a Will, Power of Attorney & a Letter of Wishes. I've also done a "Pick & Mix" funeral list of music & readings I like & stipulated nothing religious. I drew the line at writing my own Eulogy though! But that isn't enough. I'm not sure that I would be able to commit suicide, I don't think I'm brave enough. But I would want to exit at a time & place of my own choosing if I had simply had enough.

At the moment I'm not allowed to do that. If I went to Dignitas it would have to be alone, so that my daughter didn't run the risk of prosecution. I just don't agree with the logic. I think this question has been kicked into the long grass for too long. It's in the "too difficult" box. We need to face up to this & find a caring way to deal with it. 

The mere fact that I'm writing this now when I am relatively well & happy in my life shows that I am able to make a reasoned choice. That should be respected & it should not be beyond the wit of man to sort it out. It's cowardly not to.

Consumerism, Christmas & Conflict

I don't need a Christmas card from friends & family to know that they wish me well. I gave everyone a year's warning when I was going to stop sending Christmas cards, but give the money saved to charities. I am now considering being even more radical about Christmas than that. I need to make my mind up soon whether to go ahead.

This year it isn't just all the unhappy Christmases of my childhood, teenage & early marriage, when all the grandparents were alive, that makes me not enjoy Christmas. It's more that I look at our world & it just seems so wrong to be celebrating in the way we do, whilst listening to the news about war, famine, population migrations, with climate change hovering over everything. Here at home we have unaccelptable levels of poverty & homelessness.

I do think that it's good to be with & remember friends & family. I do understand that all the Faiths have a celebration in mid winter for very good reasons. I just think that our over consumption & overspending has lost sight of what really matters & how unbalanced the world is between the "haves" & "have nots". Listening to "Today" this morning just made me really sad & caused real heartache.

I know I can't right the wrongs, but I'm beginning to feel that I really don't want to participate in it all. If I don't withdraw, I'm in danger of really saying what I think at Christmas "Do's". I don't want to do that because it would embarrass everyone & spoil their festivities. Everyone has the right to decide what they want to do. But there is a lot of pressure to go along with Christmas & all it entails in the UK. I have spent Christmas in Malta & in Libya. Not everyone celebrates in the consumerist way that we do.

This conflict within me has been going on for years, but it's worse now because of the dire situation we face at home & in the world. I'm trying not to be too negative, but when I think of the huge numbers of people in the world who have little or nothing I find it hard to believe that this is acceptable. 

https://www.finder.com/uk/christmas-shopping-statistics

 

Friendly Fire & Collateral Damage

"Friendly Fire" is a euphemism & a metaphor for firing from your own side as opposed to the enemy. It is attributed to the"Fog of War," the confusion inherent in warfare. People who fight wars are good at euphemisms & metaphors. "Collateral Damage" is the unintentional deaths and injuries of people, overwhelmingly women & children, who are not soldiers, and damage that is caused to their homes, hospitals, schools, etc. How you can call it unintentional when we have smart weapons systems & satellite GPS guidance to target precisely where the bombs & rockets fall I really don't know.

Yesterday 3 Israeli hostages were "mistakenly" killed by Israeli soldiers. How can you mistakenly kill people holding a white flag? How can unarmed people be a threat? They weren't wearing shirts so weren't suicide bombers. One of the men had long ginger hair & blue eyes. not your average Arab. I imagine many of the Israeli soldiers in Gaza are young & may be anxious & need to react to threat quickly, but this just shows how futile war is.

The consensus of everyone who understands the history of war seems to be that all wars eventually can only be fixed by negotiating directly round a table. Armistices, surrenders, and ceasefires have interrupted combat in varying ways. They silence weapons but also maintain the state of war, which ends only with a peace treaty.

According to the Chopra Foundation there are 10 ways to resolve conflicts & end wars;-

1. De-escalate the concept of enemy. An enemy can be reframed, in progressive order, as an adversary, competitor, partner, teacher, and finally your equal.

2. Treat the other side with respect. Otherwise you lose them before you start.

3. Recognize that there is the perception of injustice on both sides. This is a point of agreement adversaries can join in.

4. Be prepared to forgive and ask for forgiveness. Here forgiveness means letting go of your desire for retribution and revenge. This is an act of true courage. Even if you believe that the other side doesn’t deserve forgiveness, you deserve peace.

5. Refrain from belligerence. It will be taken as bullying and arouses renewed antagonism.

6. Use emotional intelligence, which means understanding the other side’s feelings, giving them value, and making them equal to your feelings.

7. Reach out to understand the other side’s values, both personal and cultural. The fog of war descends when two adversaries know nothing about one another. The result is a war based on projections and prejudice. The goal is mutual acceptance. At the deepest level we all want the same things.

8. Refrain from ideological rhetoric over politics and religion.

9. Recognize that there is fear on both sides. Don’t be afraid to express your anxieties and to ask the other side what they are afraid of.

10. Do not insist on being right and proving the other side wrong. Give up the need to be right allows you to focus on what you actually want.

 

It isn't simple, but it makes perfect sense. Any thinking person knows that it is true. Why is no one capable of doing it in Israel, Gaza, the Left Bank, Russia & Ukraine? Because they are blinded by another euphemism & metaphor - "The Fog of War." They are literally blind to the futility of what they are doing.

Presents and the Present

I have been wrapping Christmas presents for my small family for 2 days. The annual struggle to think of things they would like or need is over. I do try to put effort into thinking about what I can buy. I am unsure whether my choices will please or go to the present drawer or charity shop. I don't mind that at all. It's just a shame if anyone is disappointed. 

Giving presents on special days to people you love is important. It is a way of showing that you care & it is a joy if you can see genuine pleasure in receiving.The problem is we all have so much & there is little we want or need. 

Christmas is a ritual, but it is a ritual that many simply cannot afford. There were 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2021/2022. That is one in three children. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has revealed 1 million children in the UK experienced “horrifying levels of destitution” in 2022. Destitution has almost tripled since 2017– an increase of 186%. According to government figures more than 2 million children are eligible for free school meals in England. This is 23.8% of state school pupils, up from 22.5% in 2022. It all makes me think of Dikensian England. 

 

Christmas is uniquely a Christian celebration, but Hindu's celebrate Diwali, Jews celebrate Hanukkah, both are festivals of lights, Buddhists celebrate Jesus as a teacher. Millions around the world today won't be celebrating anything. They are living in war zones, under dictatorships, suffering poverty, disease & famine. The dichotomy & polarisation is stark, both within our own country & around the world. 

Currently politicians are trying to reach agreement on COP28 & the climate emergency, on whether  Britain is going to ship refugees & migrants to Rwanda, on what to do to end war in Gaza & Ukraine & the many other areas of conflict in the world. 

It's hard to think that presents are important in the present.

 

Packaging

I bought some sliced turkey in a plastic tray with vacuum sealed plastic film on top. I couldn't open it. The seal was so tight I had to attack it with a knife despite the fact that it had a corner tab to aid opening. I regularly cannot open bottles & jars. Opening a tin of anchovies is life threatening. Opening tetra packs of soya milk always, always, ends up with milk spilt. The frustration levels are high. I have 5 completely different tools to help me with this problem. 

Then there is the guilt about all of the packaging that can't go into the recycling wheelie bin. Plastic is the obvious problem. Not least because of how many different types there are.

Unrecycled & much recyclable plastic either goes to landfill, what a bizarre rabbit hole that was to go down, or is exported to poorer countries. Did no one consider that dumping waste in the ground couldn't go on for ever & was a very bad idea? "The UK exports around 60% of the over 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste it creates. Turkey is the main destination for this waste. British plastic waste (is) being dumped and burned in Turkey, causing “irreversible and shocking” environmental and human health impacts"- UK Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

The food & food retailing industries have a lot to answer for. They have changed the world landscape. They have created mountains, huge pits, lakes & rivers of plastic waste with little or no consideration of the consequences of their actions. All for their convenience & profit. It's about time they paid the price of cleaning up the mess. They can't rectify a lot of the damage to species & environments, but possibly nature could recover in time.

But we, the public bear responsibility too. We haven't questioned what we were buying & the impact unnecessary, non biodegradable, packaging might have. We have opted for convenience too. Now we all know what we have done. So we all have a responsibility to do something about it. We must not just complain, we must refuse. We must take all the packaging back to the store of origin & make them deal with it responsibly. 

We have to live symbiotically with our planet & stop destroying it. There isn't another option. We humans are too destructive.

An Adversarial, Competitive & Selfish Life.

It seems to me that in my lifetime people generally have become more adversarial, competitive & selfish. I understand that could be because of the speedy world of instant communications that we live in. I also understand that negative news gets reported far more than positive news. However, as a generalisation, I think that humans have become quicker to demand their rights & ignore their responsibilities. I believe many have lost the innate filter which stopped them being verbally abusive, also many more people are physically abusive to others. We tolerate bad behaviour more than we should. We do not enforce existing moral mores & legislation.

We humans want things for ourselves. The difference is that today we want gratification now. I remember having to do without, save up to buy things, make do with second hand. I'm glad that generation after generation sees an improvement in living standards, but I think the time has come to count the cost of consumerism & constant growth. In particular, although I understand the complexity of international disputes, I don't understand why politics tolerates the huge human cost of dictatorships, land grabbing, resources grabbing & ultimately the horror of war.

What is the point of the United Nations if they are unable to reach consensus & negotiate effectively?

What is the point of International Law if it isn't policed, enforced & brings culprits to justice to answer for their crimes?

Obviously the 2 major current conflicts in Ukraine & Gaza are at the forefront of my mind. But Syria, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan are in there too. Many of those have been ongoing for years. Innocent people, mainly the old, women & children, live with suffering & death constantly. 

How do we, living in conflict free zones, tolerate that suffering? Do we compartmentalise what we see as not our problem & too difficult? Do we think of it like a computer game rather than real life? Do we just think that there is nothing we can do & it isn't our problem? Yes, I think so. All of those. If humans can commit the horriffic acts they do in wars, they can certainly disassociate themselves from things they see on TV or Social Media.

But it will all come back to haunt us if the underlying problems are not tackled & solved. We are all directly affected by conflict in the world. At a simple level by the shortages in the supply chain. At a complex level because doing nothing makes us less human.

We have to learn to tolerate difference, share land, resources & opportunity more equally. If we don't, if we continue in this adversarial, competitive & selfish life we will get what we deserve & it won't be Nirvana. 

 

Voting - FPtheP or P R ?

Are you completely disenchanted with politicians & politics? Do you agree with the policies & decisions of the last 13 years? Do you think that democracy in England is dead in the water? Would you help change all of that if you could?

You can. You just have to make your voice & everyone else's voice be heard. Currently that isn't happening.

 

According to https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/first-past-the-post  71% of votes were wasted in the 2019 general election. We need a system where all votes count equally. Seats in Parliament need to reflect the votes cast. The only aspect that counts in F P the P is getting one more vote than the next-nearest candidate in each seat. Where you live is often the biggest factor in deciding how many representatives get elected to parliament. The Conservative vote is highly concentrated in specific areas. The other parties are disadvantaged by the system because their vote is more spread out across the country.

Most democracies use P R. Most people in the UK want P R. Over 100 countries use either Proportional Representation or a mixed system to elect their primary chamber - 40 of the 43 countries in Europe use P R. Less than 50 countries worldwide use F P the P, one of which is the United Kingdom. Those who do tend to have it as a result of being former British colonies. https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

In September 2022 The British Social Attitudes Survey found that 51% now favour reform to the voting system for general elections. https://natcen.ac.uk/news/half-britain-wants-voting-system-change-clear-majority-among-labour-supporters   Labour, the Lib Dems & the Greens support P R. The Conservatives don't because they know that they would lose a huge advantage, which gets them elected time & again without a majority vote.

F P the P was introduced in the 1884 Reform Act - 139 years ago. It's past its "best before" & "sell by" dates. The UK today bears no resemblance to the UK of 1884. F P the P is not fit for purpose or the 21st century. Our devolved nations use a type of proportional electoral system. Scotland & Wales use versions of the ‘additional member system’ (AMS); Northern Ireland uses the ‘single transferable vote’ (STV).

Only England clings to the outdated F P the P system. How ridiculous is that!

 

Human Bargaining Chips - A Long History

Humans have used eachother for personal gain from ancient times. Different cultures, nationalities & religions have abused other people since hunter gatherers roamed the earth. By the time of the first civilisations in Mesopotamia in 3,500 BC, slavery was institutionalised. We have a very long tradition of not caring for the suffering of others. You could be forgiven for thinking it is "normal" behaviour.

Slavery & human traffiking is an international problem. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 49.6 million. Slavery in the 21st century generates an estimated $150 billion in annual profits.

Today people, mostly women & children, are being exchanged across the border between Israel & the West Bank. Both sides, the Israelis & the Palestinians are ruled by extremists who tolerate abuses of human rights. There are many countries in our world where ordinary people, mostly women & children, are not safe from the brutality of men. 

It doesn't just happen in war zones. In 86 countries, women face some form of job restriction and 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work. Globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights afforded to men. Currently Afghanistan is the least gender equal country, but Iran must be a close second.

What is it about the human brain that allows individuals to close their minds to the complete immorality of what they are doing?  How can individual human beings treat other, often more vulnerable, human beings so utterly without any feelings of sympathy or empathy? How do human beings demonise other human beings? 

Psychological abuse is well studied. The feeling of being powerful and in control gives some abusers immense pleasure. Abusers may also derive pleasure from seeing people suffer. Narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists may be drawn to emotional abuse because of the pleasure they take in having power over others or seeing them suffer. 

But there must be more to the current Middle Eastern situation that that. Surely not all combatants on both sides of the  equation can be narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists. Training & indoctrination must play a part. So I have to question the role of  both Religion & Armed Forces. 

I think it comes down to repetition & brain washing. In both religion & the military there is a reliance on membership of & duty towards the group. Soldiers & terrorists are taught to be killers by repeatedly firing at an image of their enemy & are drilled in obeying orders without question. All religious groups follow patterns of communal behaviour which they believe will lead to their salvation. There is only one God & it's my God not yours. 

This has all been so deeply entrenched for such a long time I don't think that there is much chance of it changing despite the huge effort of more enlightened humans. There is good & evil. At the moment I feel that evil is winning. 

Tolerance & Intolerance

Should intolerance be tolerated? What behaviour is tolerable or intolerable? Who decides?

I met some friends who I haven't seen for a very long time yesterday. It didn't go well. I was at school with the woman & we have always been very different in everything. The friendship lapsed for years after school. When it resumed our husbands became good friends. So after my husband died we continued to meet very intermittantly.

The pub we met in got good reviews but really didn't live up to expectations. It was cold & not very busy. My friend & I ordered fish & chips. The food came quickly, which maybe should have been a clue. It was dreadful. The peas were cold & watery. There wasn't much fish inside the batter & it was overcooked, as were the chips. I did complain about the peas, but didn't want to make a fuss so ate the meal without peas. When the waitress cleared the plates my friend complained, very aggressively I thought, to the waitress. I was embarrassed because I wouldn't speak to someone in that way. Especially as it wasn't the waitresses fault & we had eated the food.

My friend was annoyed that her husband & I hadn't supported her, although I had agreed that the food wasn't good. I think his meal was fine. I said that I thought that the way she had complained wasn't how I would have handled it. I didn't say I found it embarrassing, but I did. My friend got more & more annoyed that her husband & I obviously thought that the complaint should have been handled better. We paid & parted.

The interesting thing about this little episode is it raises the question of what we as individuals should overlook & what we shouldn't. I find myself wondering whether I should not have said anything when I was challenged for, in her view, not supporting her complaint. 

In my view my friend is convinced of the rightness of her opinions. She prides herself on speaking out. There are no grey areas. You are with her or against her. I don't feel that she has a filter, or much capacity to hear other points of view. She tends to speak for her husband & dominates the conversation. 

There had been an earlier disagreement about entitlement to respect. My friend felt that as a 79 year old she is entitled to respect & people should not refer to her by her Christian name without asking her permission. Her husband & I disagreed. I don't care if people I don't know, like medics & receptionists, call me by my christian name. I care more about how they do their job. A title seems irrelevant to me & is quite old fashioned. But my friend was annoyed that we didn't agree with her. 

So a longstanding, but very on & off friendship bites the dust. I am a bit sad, but also relieved. I don't have to tread on eggshells anymore. I don't have to bite my tongue. I do wonder how her family tolerate her behaviour though. But then that is what familes tend to do, so the behaviour continues.

 

Cruella Suella Braverman

Suella Braverman elicits such huge antipathy in me that I feel the need to try to understand how such an obviously intelligent woman can espouse core beliefs which make me feel so completely negative towards her.

 

Her parents were both Indian in origin. Her mother, a nurse & a councillor, came here from Mauritius & her father, who worked for a housing association, came here from Kenya. A fairly ordinary background, but possibly surprising for a very right wing politician.

 

She is a Triratna Buddhist. They believe in Pali - the cultivation of Loving Kindness. Meditations revolve around Positivity – an other-regarding, life-affirming attitude. Receptivity and spontaneous compassionate activity. Puja is a ritual practice intended to awaken the desire to liberate all beings from suffering. I find it hard to reconcile Bravermans comments & political beliefs with these core tenets of Triratnas. It has to be said that Triratnas have generated a fair bit of adverse publicity.

 

She has 2 children & is married to Rael Braverman a manager for Mercedes, who is also politican, & keeps his personal & professional life well out of the spotlight. Their combined net worth is reported to be several millions.

As secretary of state  at the home office Suella earns £155,817.00 per annum which is £599.30 daily. She has previously been Attorney general, reflecting her Barrister qualifications. She has been an MP since 2015. 

There is much to admire in that back story. A clever woman making her own way & being successful. It's what she says that completely alienates me;-

"It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders"

"The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast, and which party is not"

"I would love to have a front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda, that’s my dream, it’s my obsession"

“We have got a lot of carrots to get people into work but we have got to add more conditionality and a bit more stick,”

"It’s the coalition of chaos, it’s The Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati"

"We cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice."  

world leaders “will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.”

"the Human Rights Act should be renamed the “Criminal Rights Act”

She warned of "a hurricane” of mass migration and attacked the “luxury beliefs” of liberal-leaning people"

I just don't get what game Braverman is playing. Other than I am fairly sure that the goal of that game is to be leader of the Conservative party & hopefully Prime Minister. If I'm right, god help the UK, because she isn't a team player, she doesn't believe in Cabinet ot Collective Ministerial responsibility. She believes in whatever will get her the most votes in the party & in the country.

I hope that her gamble has misfired. We are in a dreadful mess now following on from Boris & Truss. It can only get worse if Braverman succeeds.

 

Prison

I posted a Blog about Prison in 2017 - "Prison isn't Working". Since then the "justice" landscape has changed - Not for the better. 

The MOJ publishes weekly statistics on prison populations. On the 3rd November 2023 the prison population was 87,764 - 84,168 men & 3,596 women. It is projected to increase steadily to reach 94,400 prisoners by March 2025 and between 93,100 and 106,300 by March 2027. The biggest age bracket is prisoners aged between 30 - 39 at over 28,524 prisoners. There are only 3,625 prisoners aged 15 - 20 years old. Most prisoners have previous convictions. 70% of custodial sentences are imposed on those with at least seven previous convictions or cautions, and 50% are imposed on those with at least 15 previous convictions or cautions. Non-violent offenders tend to be the most prolific criminals. Prisoners without a substantial criminal history have usually gone to prison for committing the most serious crimes. 

27% of the prison population are from a minority ethnic group, which does not reflect the ethnic make up of Britain. Ethnic minorities are more likely to get custodial sentences & are more likely to serve long sentences. Britain has the largest prison population in western Europe - Third after Russia & Turkey. However, the United Kingdom's crime rate remains relatively low when compared to the rest of the world,

https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/project/race/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1138135/Prison_Population_Projections_2022_to_2027.pdf

The UK has 120 prisons, (16 managed privately). The newest prison, HMP Fosse Way, opened in May 2023. The oldest prisons date back to the Victorian era. According to We Own It prison privatisation simply does not work.

https://weownit.org.uk/public-ownership/prisons

What is prison for? The primary purpose is to punish wrongdoing, protect the public & hold prisoners securely while they serve their sentences. In theory prison deters people from further offending, which doesn't seem to be borne out by reoffending statistics - Of those sentenced to less than 12 months in custody, 63% will reoffend within a year of release. Compare this to Norway's reoffending rate of just 20%. Finally to rehabilitate.

It has been shown that, when available, there is a positive impact on reducing reoffending, by offender behaviour & education programmes and drug interventions. Cognitive-behavioral programs in prisons consistently reduce recidivism by 15 percent or more, with some leading to reductions of closer to 30 percent. Unfortunately the UK system is focused on punishing offenders rather than rehabilitating them. The amount of money spent on prisons far outstrips the funding available for social programmes and rehabilitation. There are worrying understaffing issues in prisons, so rehabilitaion courses can't be offered. In addition, Inspectors found that in local prisons 31% of prisoners report being locked in their cells for at least 22 hours a day, rising to 37% at young adult prisons. If they are in their cells they are not being rehabilitated.

The vast majority of prisons are providing inadequate conditions or unacceptable treatment, according to an Observer investigation. A Guardian article says that widespread overcroding and the refusal of the German court to extradite a man to the UK because of concerns about jail conditions in Britain both point to a system that is underfunded, understaffed & failing.

Don't for one minute imagine that being in prison is anything other than a real punishment. You canot envisage what the loss of freedom & any control over your life does to a human being unless you have seen it first hand. Suicide, self harm & depression are worryingly commonplace.

There must be a better way for our Justice System to work. Norway's prison system is renowned as one of the most effective and humane in the world.  Only 20% of Norway's formerly incarcerated population commit another crime within two years of release. Even after five years, the recidivism rate is only 25%. 

It isn't rocket science or magic. If they can do it why can't the UK?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cars - The Price we Pay

It's about time that we really added up the price we pay for our cars. Not just financial & in terms of air quality. Just think about the amount of land that is taken up with roads & parking. 

Knight Frank did a survey for the government in 2020 showing that there are 103,000 public and private surface car parks across the country, which comprise a land area of 20,000 hectares. Of this, some 7,555 hectares are owned by the public sector. 

https://www.knightfrank.com/research/article/2020-07-15-government-owned-car-parks-could-hold-the-key-to-110000-new-homes

Their estimate suggests that this alone could yield 2.1 million homes. Releasing this land could provide much needed new housing & generate income for the government. I found watching "Britain's Housing Crisis" - BBC deeply disturbing. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001rkn5/britains-housing-crisis-what-went-wrong

The Standard did an interesting article for World Car free Day 2019 

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/property-news/world-car-free-day-2019-80-000-homes-could-be-built-on-london-car-parking-spaces-within-a-mile-of-a-tube-or-train-station-a133491.html   

Parked cars take up two per cent of space in London — land worth £172 billion on which much-needed homes could be built. There are 868 car parks in London within a mile of a train or Tube station

Acording to the RAC 18 million (65%) of Britain’s 27.6 million households have – or have potential to have enough off-street parking to accommodate at least one car or van. 

https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/cars-parked-23-hours-a-day

All of this seems ridiculous when you consider that the average car or van in England is driven just 4% of the time, a figure that has barely changed in 25 years.

We have become wedded to our cars. We put up with the high financial cost & the frustration of traffic congestion & frequent gridlock. We struggle to find parking. We tolerate poor air quality which causes short & long term health problems. In 2021, 10 of the 43 UK national reporting zones suffered with illegal levels of NO₂ pollution. This is twice as many as in 2020, when lockdowns led to a temporary dip in NO₂ levels across the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) last year radically overhauled their pollution guidelines. The recommended guideline for annual average NO₂ pollution is now 10 µg/m - four times lower than the UK’s current legal limit. 

https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/news/uk-air-pollution-how-clean-is-the-air-you-breathe/

This is a complex issue encompassing multiple areas of our lives - Health, Housing, Infrastructure, Finance & possibly more. But we are literally using up precious land & adversely impacting our health for the privelege of owning our own cars. A working integrated transport system is vital to our survival as a functioning nation & to each of us individually. 

Until we have that, the problems will simply grow exponentially. According to Wikipedia the UK has a road network totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km) of paved roads—246,500 miles (396,700 km) in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and 15,800 miles (25,500 km) in Northern Ireland, but I doubt that is up to date.

We are literally letting vehicles dictate health & land use because successive governments have known all of this for years. They have had all the information about housing & transport issues, but do not have the guts to action what will be difficult policies to really tackle this. All political decision making on this has been populist & short-termist because the politicians want to remain in power instead if doing what is best for the people of the UK. I haven't even touched on the cost of road maintenence.

It has got to stop. 

Life, Death & Funerals.

I have had heart issues for years & am now on my 3rd pacemaker. I've just spent 3 days in Cardiology in hospital having emergency surgery. Currently I can't drive or do much with my left arm. But thanks to the NHS, which, whatever it's problems, cares for acute patients amazingly, I am waking up each morning & functioning independently. The average survival after pacemaker implantation was 99.4 months (about 8.3 years). So I'm doing well, I've had one for 14 years.

Being alive seems to be the point as far as I can see. Those of us who have a life to live without war, famine, deprivation & all the ills besetting so many people in the world now, we are very lucky. Unfortunately it is all too easy to take our life for granted & not do very much with it. What is the point of a life if the living don't contribute something to the greater good? Maybe we should all think about the legacy we will leave behind before it's too late. Possibly we should keep a running tally of the good & the bad things we do day to day & try to make sure there is a positive balance.

Not everyone can do something really impressive, like invent a vaccine. But everyone can make someone elses life a little better. Everyone can care & be kind. Everyone can stand up for truth, peace & justice.

A friends husband has just died & I will go to his funeral this week. There is so much death in our world today that I worry that we will just become inured to it. Treat the news coverage like a CGI film. We are all dying. It's normal. I'm truly not afraid of illness or dying. The only thing that does bother me is the thought of dying alone in my house & being unable to contact anyone. The unacceptable face of death is what is happening today in places like Palestine, Yemen, Ukraine, Syria & Israel...... 

Grieving & Funerals vary a lot around the world. There are cultural differences. In the Middle East burial takes place as quickly as possible after death. The body is washed and covered with a sheet by family members. Here that is handled by undertakers. Family & friends attend the service, but are largely passive.

There is no right or wrong way to grieve or deal with the dead. There is only a right or wrong way to live ones life.

Perfume & Sensory Memory

When I think of my mother I think of 4711 Eau de Cologne. In 1693 Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis created a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, today best known as eau de cologne. 4711 has natural essential oils of lemon, orange and bergamot (revitalising) with oils of lavender and rosemary (both calming and relaxing) and neroli (creates a positive mood). There wasn't much money to spare for anything other than basics, but she did love 4711 so buying her a gift was easy.

Interestingly when I came to research all the perfumes I have worn through my life, I realise I have always preferred green, citrus notes. I'm now wondering whether that is because of the strong sensory memory of my mother. The sense of smell (or olfaction) is our most primitive sense and yet is one of the most powerful senses that cannot be turned off. Of all the senses, the sense of smell is the most important trigger of memory. 

I like vintage perfumes. Over the years I have worn;-

• Sortilege - Le Galion
• Femme - Rochas
• Je Reviens - Worth
• Arpege - Lanvin
• Ma Griffe - Carven
• O - Lancome
• Chloe - Chloe
• L'Occitaine - L'Occitaine
• L'Aimant - Coty
  
• Aqua di Parma - Aqua di Parma
• Beautiful - Estee Lauder
• Georgio - Beverley Hills

I'm really surprised there have been so many. But then I have been wearing perfume for 60 years!

Perfume dates back to when ancient cultures burned incense. The word perfume comes from "per fumus" meaning through smoke. The earliest recorded use of ‘perfume’ is when the Mesopotamians first discovered incense 4000 years ago. Perfume first arrived in Egypt around 3000 B.C. Queen Hatshepsut popularised it. Persia dominated the international perfume trade for centuries. The Chinese were also influential in perfumery. 

The online database, updated weekly, archives profiles of over 17,000 perfumes, listing brand name, corporate group, creative director, gender, perfumer, date, country of origin, bottle designer, fragrance family, an image, an olfactory pyramid and a pronunciation guide. No wonder I can never make my mind up in airport duty free. Chanel No 5 is the world's favourite perfume. The global perfume market size was valued at USD 45.85 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from USD 48.05 billion in 2023 to USD 69.25 billion by 2030. Utterly staggering statistics. 

Clive Christian's No1 Passant Guardant is officially recognised as the world's most expensive perfume - a statement of unbridled opulence and luxury. The website doesn't give the price. But the bottle is made of gold & diamonds. I can't help feeling that the money could be better spent in the world today.

Like most women I do love perfume. Everyone wants to be pleasant to be near. Today stores are selling Dupes, cheap yet often indistinguishable copies of the real deal - Zara, M&S & Aldi just to name 3. Dupes is short for duplicates. But maybe it also points to how women are ripped off by expensive perfumiers. Are we just paying for a name & fancy packaging? 

 

Free Speech, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories

Article 10 of the Human Rights Act -  a right that's fundamental to our democracy means we're free to hold opinions and ideas and to share them with others without the State interfering. But the State does modify that. There are a range of restrictions in the Malicious Communications Act 1988, which covers indecent or grossly offensive, threatening, false or believed to be false content. In addition, if the purpose for sending the message is to cause distress or anxiety. The Communications Act 2003 criminalises “indecent or grossly offensive” messages and threats.

Fortunately it isn't 1984 & we don't yet have "thought police" technology. I am free to think what I like, which is fortunate because I am of a generation that is not "woke" enough to social inequalities such as racial justice, sexism and LGBT rights. So, for example, I simply don't understand how there can be between 72 - 107 different genders. I can grasp male, female, straight / heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian & trans. That's about as far as it goes. The danger is that possibly due to ignorance I could contravene free speech. I have certainly had my 18 year old grandsons tell me "you can't say that granny!"

To my mind it is important that speech or opinion is not hidden away or "no platformed". If someone makes a defamatory statement such as Libel, (a defamatory statement that is written) or Slander (a defamatory statement that is oral), the Law can intervene & protect the person being defamed. But if we don't hear adverse opinion that we don't agree with how can we argue our case or challenge the ideas? The "bad " ideas simply go underground, are hidden & insidiously build up momentum.

In our post truth world of deliberate lies & misinformation facts are becoming irrelevant. There are now a whole host of fact checking websites & organisations aiming to counter this tide of misinformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fact-checking_websites. The BBC has introduced BBC Verify / BBC Reality Check / More or Less for example. 

I find it shocking that lies have become a common currency of Political discourse. It's brazen & completely amoral. 

It's now up to each & everyone of us to ensure that we are not simply accepting everything we are told. We also have to be aware that Conspiracy Theories abound & most are utter rubbish. The EU has a website devoted to identifying Conspiracy Theories   https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/coronavirus-response/fighting-disinformation/identifying-conspiracy-theories_en

We all have to be aware that just because something is being spread about it isn't necessarily true. We have to be responsible for our own Fact Checking. We shouldn't run with the herd. We shouldn't be swayed by influencers & charismatic leaders of politics or international companies. The immensly powerful & wealthy have their own axe to grind. They are not necessarily on our side.

If we want a well ordered & peaceful world we have to stop being lambs to the slaughter & start using our brains to fight for our human rights through real democracy.

Instant Gratification

We fortunate ones, (Haves), are used to instant gratification. We want to go somewhere, we get in our cars or use a public transport system. We want to buy something, we use our credit cards, which delays actually paying for it. We have clean water on tap. We have instant gas & electricity for light & heat. We have shops & online outlets everywhere for anything our hearts desire. We have takeaways & restaurants. We have a huge selection of leisure opportunities. We have hobbies we enjoy in our spare time. We go on holidays. We have purchasing power & we are safe. We have expectations of what we are entitled to & we are blessed. We take all of this & more for granted. 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/standard-of-living-by-country - The UK ramks 22 in the quality of life index.

According to World Vision 

• 719 million people — 9.2% of the world’s population — are living on less than $2.15 a day.
• Children and youths account for two-thirds of the world’s poor, and women represent a majority in most regions.
• Extreme poverty is largely concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 24% of the world’s population, which equates to 1.9 billion people, live in fragile contexts, characterized by impoverished conditions and dire circumstances.
• By 2030, more than half of the world’s poor will live in fragile contexts.
• About 63% of people older than 15 who live in extreme poverty have no schooling or only some basic education.
• 1.2 billion people in 111 developing countries live in multidimensional poverty, accounting for 19% of the world’s population.
• 593 million children are experiencing multidimensional poverty.
• Over 37 million people were living in poverty in the U.S. in 2021. Children account for 11.1 million of those.

These are the "Have Nots". Absolute poverty is when a person cannot afford the basics, such as food, shelter, and clothing. Relative poverty is a household income below a certain percentage, typically 50% or 60%, of that country’s median income. Even if a person’s income is above the poverty line, their family may still not have basic services such as electricity, access to clean water, sanitation, and education.

https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts#how-many

 

The question is how on earth can this extreme polarisation be changed so that human beings everywhere get a reasonable share of the things we feel are necessary for a good life? If we cannot solve that problem & reduce the disparity between people, the world will continue on the disastrous path it is on currently. Worldwide instant communication means that the disposessed & the Have Nots know how the other half live. The Haves also know, very clearly, just how fortunate they are. 

It isn't a recipe for worldwide peace & harmony. We have to learn to share. We Haves need to forgo some of our "perks". If we don't, armies & fortresses won't protect us from the displaced, the disenfranchised & the economically challenged who have very little to be grateful for. 

There are 2,640 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.2 trillion. Today Bernard Arnault CEO of LVMH is the richest man in the world with $211 billion. Followed closely by Elon Musk with $180 billion. There are 47 million millionaires globally. 28,420 are so-called centi-millionaires worldwide.

How is it acceptable for individuals & their families to have this level of wealth when so many are suffering huge deprivation? It's a resipe for civil unrest.  

 

War, Pestilence & Malthus Theory of Population

I did Biology at A Level. Hard work, but fascinating. I remember well the bit about "Malthus Theory of Population". Since then I have become a member of a charity called "Population Matters". That too is facinating & the most reliable source if you really want to understand the complexities & dangers of population growth. https://populationmatters.org/campaign-graphics/

Back to Malthus, who believed that the human population grows more rapidly than the food supply until famines, war or disease reduces the population. He also believed that population growth is exponential but food & resources growth is linear, which triggers catastrophe & population decline, forcing correction back to a more sustainable level. It's the Malthusian Trap.

Does any of this sound at all familiar?

The modern version of this is Galor & Ashraf's theory that as long as higher income has a positive effect on reproduction and land remains a limiting factor in resource production, then technological progress has only a temporary effect on per capita income. While in the short-run technological progress increases income per capita, resource abundance created by technological progress would enable population growth, and would eventually bring the per capita income back to its original long-run level. 

Are you still with me? In simplistic terms humans need war, pestilence & natural disasters to keep the population at a level that our planet can sustain. Because there is no alternative Earth. 

I don't believe in God in the organised religion sense. Religions are too male dominated & hierarchical & have far too much bad stuff to answer for as far as I can see. But I do think that we live in a wondrous, complex, interrelated, biosystem that I can believe didn't just happen on it's own. A system that we are comprehensively damaging to the point of complete destruction of the human place in it.

So I have to wonder is what has been happening since the Arab Spring in 2010 all part of an inbuilt cosmic control system? Our major religions all have something to say about the end of the world. Christianity - Book of Revelation. Hinduism - Vishnu's return to battle evil. In Islam the end of the world is referred to as the Hour. In Judaism the Day of the Lord.

I hope we aren't already in the End Game. But it does seem to me that catastrophic events are arriving fast & furious. At the very least it should be a warning that we heed & take action to control to enable a more equitable sharing of the undoubted gifts we have been given

 

Outrage, Emotion, War & Collateral Damage

Outrage is a strong moral emotion characterized by a combination of surprise, shock, disgust, indignation & anger, usually in reaction to violence & brutality or a grave personal offense. The important word in that definition is emotion.

Emotion is an instinctive or intuitive strong feeling or mental state as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.

When I listen or watch the news now I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to understand how the many conflicts ongoing in the world have anything to do with rational thought. I was tempted to say that war is less likely to happen if leaders are women, because women are more empathetic & work more collaboratively than men. I could only think of Thatcher & the Falklands. It seems that I am wrong. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2022/03/08/sheryl-sandberg-says-female-leaders-dont-go-to-war-heres-what-research-says/?sh=c7f86dc1fa77

One of the most unacceptable phrases in the English language is Collateral Damage - deaths and injuries that are a result of the fighting in a war but happen to people who are not in the military. In 2017, at least 630 million women and children—10% of women and 16% of children worldwide— were either displaced by conflict or resided dangerously close to armed conflict events. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612212/  If you don't have the time to read the whole thing skip to the Key Messages.

Wars are not won by anyone. One side may vanquish another, but everyone loses. The price is too high. Eventually there has to be negotiation & some sort of peace treaty. Wars cause death, appalling injury, suffering, destruction & damage beyond comprehension. 

Why do people go to war? Wars have been caused by competition over land, religious conflicts, nationalism, imperialism, racism, & slavery. I would argue that the root of all of that is Power & Fundamentalism. 

While the arms industry continues to be such a money spinner wars will continue. UK arms export licences more than doubled to £8.5bn in 2022. The biggest sales were to Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Qatar. The United States is the biggest arms dealer on earth. From 2017 to 2021 it sold weapons to over 100 nations, and in 2020 alone, American companies made $111 billion from foreign military sales. The estimate of the financial value of the global arms trade for 2020 was at least $112 billion.

Currently what we are seeing in the Middle East & Europe is beyond any logic & rational thought. It simply is "Beyond the Pale". I use that term advisedly - look up the origins.  

Its all about money & power & we should be outraged at the leaders who allow this to happen so often. Or actually cause it.

 

Pain's a Pain

I follow "Versus Arthritis" because I've had osteoarthritic pain for decades. Probably since I was in my late 20's early 30's. Around 15.5 million people in England (34% of the population) have chronic pain. Approximately 5.5 million people (12% of the population) have high-impact chronic pain and struggle to take part in daily activities. 10 million people (22% of the population) have low-impact chronic pain.

I have also had Fibromyalgia for decades. It's quite common, possibly 1 person in every 25 may be affected. Many people do not seek medical help, or are misdiagnosed so there are more. There may be 1.5 to 2 million people in the UK with Fibromyalgia. It's more common than rheumatoid arthritis. The main symptoms of fibromyalgia are chronic, widespread pain throughout the body at multiple sites, tenderness throughout the body, as well as fatigue and trouble sleeping. Pain is often felt in the arms, legs, head, chest, abdomen, back, and buttocks. People often describe it as aching, burning, or throbbing. People with the disorder have a heightened sensitivity to pain, so they feel pain when others do not. It tends to run in families & is more commen in women - I am my mother reincarnated.

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/chronic-pain/background-information/prevalence/

I would say that Osteoarthritic pain is skeletal & Fibromyalgia pain is muscular. So it's a double whammy.

Chronic pain sufferers have to live with the effects of pain 24/7. In many cases there is no cure. A doctor can't wave a magic wand. Surprisingly, given the above statistics, Medics get very little training in any aspect of pain. https://www.pathways.health/blog/how-much-pain-education-do-medical-professionals-receive/  In my experience the main treatment for pain is a "suck it & see" system of various pain medications from Paracetamol to Opioids.

I am an expert in pain management. I have years of experience of what works & what doesn't. I use a variety of techniques to manage daily life. When I have an acute "flare up" nothing works, including painkillers, apart from, given time, a good osteopath. I just have to "live with it". When it comes down to it pain is very isolating. In my circle of family, friends & aquaintances there are few who have any idea what living with chronic pain is like.

The point of writing this is that the NHS, for all it's sucesses, fails chronic pain sufferers. We each have to become well informed, pro active, managers of our own conditions, because the majority of people we come into contact with, including medics, have no idea what our lives are like & what to do about our disability. 

If sufferers are financially secure & can pay for alternative therapies, physiotherapy, gym & pool memberships, exercise classes....they can maintain a reasonable level of fitness. If not the pain & disability must be overwhelming. It is truly a "use it or lose it" situation. Inactivity is the worst thing for chronic pain.

 

Braverman the Afghanistan "Evacuation" & Human Rights

I watched the Channel 4 documentary "Evacuation" last night. It was shocking, despite the fact that I had followed the withdrawl from Afghanistan on the news at the time. Hearing the first hand accounts of professional soldiers was heartrending & very difficult to stomach. How they live with the memories they must have I simply don't know.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/evacuation

That is juxtaposed, in my mind, with Suella Bravermans alarmist Washington speech about the need for human rights reform because, according to her, immigrents are an "existential challenge" to countries. 

The UK is on the UN Security Council & helped to shape international law, including the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights). Braverman was suggesting that the conservatives might decide to leave that agreement. The ECHR was created in 1951 so is more than 70 years old. The world has changed. It may well be that the convention needs to be brought into the 21st century. 

We live in a world of mass continental population movements due to war, discrimination, poverty, climate change... Maybe there needs to be a discussion about where the boundary between persecution and discrimination is & what we should do about it. What we shouldn't do is throw the baby out with the bathwater - Literally. "Evacuation" showed the impact of the withdrawl on so many babies & children & the impact that had on the soldiers forced to do a job most of us would have been totally unable to do with any humanity.

Humanity seems to be in short supply in our world today. Yes there are things wrong with the United Kingdom. Yes many people are struggling now to have the basics - food, warmth, a home, a job, good health...But we generally don't live with an existential threat, we aren't in fear of our lives, we don't suffer appalling discrimination as do women & gay people in many parts of the world. We can mostly get by. We have a temperate climate, clean water, freedom of speech, rule of law....We are lucky to live in the UK.

The extreme right wingers of our world would do well to really think about what they would do if they lived in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Yemen or any of the numerous countries really suffering today. If we lose our ability to empathise we lose our humanity. Ultimately no amount of political power can replace that. There will be a reckoning ultimately. 

 

Politicians Promises - Keeping your Word

Apparently Boris Johnson made at least 50 U turns, from the "windfall tax" to "partygate" while he was PM. Rishi Sunak hasn't been in power as long, but has learnt from his predecessor - https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/rishi-sunak-u-turn-house-building-nhs-fines/  Johnson was PM for just over 3 years. Sunak has been PM for coming up to a year. They both seem to be very comfortable with changing their minds on important pledges to the nation & even international pledges.

Vacillation isn't confined to the Conservatives. Keir Starmer has a track record too https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jul/04/u-turns-labour-keir-starmer-tuition-fees-income-tax

The important question is, should we be concerned, or should we welcome the fact that these men adapt policy to supposed changing circumstances?  

Changing your thinking can lead to changing your attitudes & behaviour for the better. There can be benefits;_

• Avoiding rigidity in your thoughts.
• Learning new things.
• Keeping your brain healthy by choosing to think differently.
• Variety can avoid staleness of ideas and mental paucity.
• Actively questioning your decisions helps you refine systems and processes consistently. 
• Changing your mind often is not necessarily a sign of indecision or impulsiveness. It shows flexibility, empathy, and a willingness to learn.

I would argue that there is a difference between an individual changing their mind & breaking promises & a politician doing it when it was part of a public manifesto, a treaty or an agreement. Those sort of pledges are how the public, in a democracy, decides who to put into power to carry out the will of the majority. Those commitments are the basis for co-operation between countries & governments. 

A government that goes back on its word is not a government that can be trusted not to go back on any agreement reached in the future. Other governments cannot afford to take the vacillating government seriously. Trust is lost.

When the reversals & failures in policy are as important as the Sunak ones I think we have to be concerned. In January he made 5 pledges to the British people - to halve inflation this year; to grow the economy and create better-paid jobs across the country; to see national debt fall; to shorten NHS waiting lists; and to pass new laws to stop small migrant boats crossing the Channel. He said “We will either have achieved them, or not. No tricks, no ambiguity; we’re either delivering for you or we’re not. We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all. I ask you to judge us on the effort that we put in and the results that we achieve.”

Last week Sunak announced a major U-turn on the government’s climate commitments as he promised to put his party on a more radical path. Climate scientists & environmentlists were in despair. Now we are waiting for confirmation that he will cancel the Northern link of HS2. These are not unimportant U turns. They are not a simple change of mind. They are broken promises to the world & to the UK.

Those last two paragraphs are linked in my opinion. The conservatives have made a "pigs ear" of government over 13 years, but very notably through the Johnson & Truss premierships. Sunak inherited a "poison chalice" & a party at war. Now he faces an election next year & he wants to hold on to power. He thinks his U turns will create a dividing line between Labour, who are doing far better in the polls, & the Conservatives. In September the Stats were - Labour 44% (-1) Conservatives 24% (-4) Liberal Democrats 12% (nc) Green Party 8% (+2) Reform 4% (+1) Others 7% (+1)

Who knows if the strategy will work? Its a dangerous game to be playing when New York is suffering unprecidented flooding & a state of emergency. Extreme climate events are now the norm  https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/extreme-weather-events-2023-storms-floods-wildfires-b1105866.html

 

 

Buddhism & Life

Buddhists believe that all creatures suffer - Suffering is caused by selfish desires - Suffering can be ended by the Eightfold Path - The Eightfold Path is all about doing everything, (Understanding, Thought, Speech, Action, Livlihood, Effort, Mindfullness & Concentration), in the correct way. Simple!

In my experience life isn't like that.

We humans let our Ego, (a persons need for self esteem or self importance), interfere with everything we do. Our Ego experiences and reacts to the outside world. There is a constant battle between the Ego & the primitive drives of the Id & the demands of the social & physical environment. The Id is the part of our mind in which innate, instictive and primary processes happen.

We are basically animals. But we are intelligent. We are capable of considering, reasoning, using rational judgement. The trick is to use that ability & not to let emotional thoughts & desires determine everything we do. Simple!

There are times, & today is one of those times, when I'm struggling with the rational & intelligent part of myself. I have thoughts about certain situations in my life that are basically emotional responses. I know that these thoughts are negative. I know they are based on expectations of others. I know, that I can only have expectations of myself. Others have to live their lives according to their personal code & beliefs.

Our world shows us that humanity has the capacity for great generosity, kindness & good. People can be very selfless, brave & idealistic. They can also be incredibly thoughtless, cruel & self serving. 

There is not only a personal battle to be fought. There is a battle between good and evil. 

We all have to fight both if humanity is to "live well & prosper" (Mr Spock).