Reversing into space

 Unions are important. A marriage is a Union. A friend of mine calls his band Hadrian’s Union because he was born at one end of Hadrian’s Wall and now lives at the other end and the band members come from various towns along the wall. Unions are important as I discovered when I was in dispute with an employer, with the support from the Union I was able to defend myself, reject some of what had been falsely claimed and leave with my dignity intact and all the false allegations dismissed. In the light of this inadequate and failing Government it is clear that, as shareholders, business leaders and bankers are unfairly rewarded, the people who create the wealth that the employers share amongst themselves are being punished by pay rises far below the rate of inflation amidst calls for ‘pay restraint’ from the same shareholders, business leaders and bankers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer appears to be completely out of ideas as to how inflation can be managed and the associated cost o...

 One of my treasured possessions is a signed copy of Harold Wilson's book a Prime Minister on Prime Ministers. In the book Wilson reviews the leadership of twelve Prime Ministers from The Younger Pitt to Harold McMillan, all fare well in his generous review. Of course Lord Wilson is not here now to review the current Prime Minister, although he does quote from a satirical review of the shortest Prime Ministerial administration, that of the Earl of Bath, which lasted 48 and 3/4 hours, 7 minutes and 11 seconds, and: 'which may truly be called the most honest of all administrations: the minister to the astonishment of all wise men never transacted one rash thing; and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the Treasury as he found in it'. I leave you the reader to make your own judgement as to what Lord Wilson might have made of the Johnson administration! It is my opinion that Wilson was the best of all the Prime Ministers who have served in that office in my lifetime...

 Like most people the Accession and the Coronation have become linked over time so at the street party on my estate in Carlisle most of the conversation was linked to memories of the Coronation. One of our neighbours in 1953 had bought himself an old Riley motorcar, he couldn't afford the petrol (some things it appears never change) so instead of driving he sat outside in his car and listened instead to the Coronation on radio. My family boasted one TV between three families and so we had to travel on the 210 Trolley Bus to Hyde so that we could watch the Coronation on my Aunts Black and White TV with its 9 inch screen. That is where the old Manchester joke comes from: Where do flies go in winter? Through Denton to Hyde! I guess at 8 years of age I just thought the weather in London was just grey and misty and wet. The highlight of the day was the model Coronation Coach that my grandfather bought me in order to remember this great occasion.  I still have the Coach. It is somew...

It can be difficult at times to know what is going on. Today I took my car into a garage for an oil change. It should have been a simple procedure. Undo a sump nut place a bowl beneath the engine block stand back wait until the first flushing becomes a dribble tighten the sump nut and pour the new oil into the car.  But nothing these days is what it seems. So the job became more complicated because the mechanic having put the car up on the ramp discovered that my four wheel car was in fact a two wheel car. The prop shaft had been removed at some point in its life.  Panic! Given that (at 77) I no longer have any enthusiasm for crawling underneath cars to repair them, I have in the past but not now, the lack of a prop shaft had passed me by. So I drove the car home with the same dirty engine oil and began to wonder why, having passed four or five MoT's, had repairs to both clutch and rear differential, no-one had thought to mention the missing propellor shaft. Indeed was it ther...

Through my rear view mirror the past, as Meatloaf warned, seems much closer. There was a mention on TV last evening about a time, 30 years ago, followed by the year in question 1990.  1990, but that was only yesterday, we both said in unison. But of course 1990 was 30 years ago. Time flies? I was ordained, deaconed, in 1969, and that was 53 years ago. I was 24 years old. Far too young to take on the responsibilities of a curate in the Church of England, there were still young people, teenagers, in the congregation, but much of my pastoral work involved sitting with the dying, taking funerals and visiting the sick and the lonely. Now 53 years later I have retired for the 2nd time. My first retirement was, as an Archdeacon commented, far too early, this retirement was, as another Archdeacon implied, far too late. Like dinosaurs and dodo's and other extinct animals I am it seems, as Chris Farlow sang out of time: You don't know what's going on You've been away for far to...

I Each letter rehearsed Punctuating silence Emphasising meaning Emotions underlined By hyphen comma semi breve So we dare to risk Revealing our heart’s truth II Seeking truth in the margins Scribbled notes at pages edge Reflecting nuances of meaning Each word redefined clarified Images of grandmothers Holding me as a child strong Names Cecilia Florence Strong women deep memories As the clouds of war lifted I became for better or worse A hope for the future of family Of district of city of a better world So we set our faces to a positive Change of circumstance sunlight Caressing new growth rising Teasing possibilities of harvest Always change and reshaping Of the familiar into novel forms Leaving the past behind shaking Dust from my sandals a personal Intafada leaving behind that which Is of no value disbursed dispensed Embracing in its place a positive And welcoming future III Seeking truth in the margins Scribbled notes at pages edge Reflecting nuances of meaning Each word re...

Elections are a crucial element in any democracy. I was born in 1945 in The Lakes a private maternity home in Ashton under Lyne, four years later my sister was born in a National Health Service Maternity Unit. The difference was an election. The Labour Party was elected and became the party of Government in 1945 against all expectations, the pundits got it wrong, because the public, exercised their votes because, clearly, they believed that a Labour Government would pursue a programme of social reform that would benefit the nation as a whole in those grim post war years. Sadly, since then, there have only been a very limited number of Labour Governments the best of which in my view after Attlee was the Wilson Government which introduced the Open University and kept Britain out of Vietnam. The Blair Government was a mixed success much of the benefits were driven by Gordon Brown as a fiercely independent Chancellor, including Sure Start, lifting thousands of children out of poverty and b...