Mea Culpa - I like discussing politics

So today is apology day as I understand that some people are complaining about my use of facebook [and other social media] as a platform for my political views. So I would just like to apologise for expressing my fears for the old, the sick, the unemployed, the poor, the vulnerable and the dispossessed in not only our society but across the world. I have probably annoyed many people during the General Election campaign for upping my output of 'propaganda' [aka known as the truth] about my perceived political opponents who were - in my opinion of course - determined to make the lives of so many worse if they took power after the election. And of course since the election I have been such a bad loser that I have vilified unfairly the new government by suggesting that they may not care about the groups I have identified. 

But as an explanation for my  bad manners I would like to offer an explanation. I thought that we joined facebook to connect with our friends, family and make new friends. After all as it says in the small print: 'Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open & connected' .  I thought that we shared our interests and discussed what is important to us. That's why you will find on my timeline lots of pictures of my gorgeous children and grandchildren, places to which I have travelled, bits about books I have read and music I love. Oh and occasionally maybe [!] politics. I trust that those who are linked to me ignore the bits they don't like. The politicos and journos probably are not in the least interested that Eldest Daughter lives in the house that my father [another political activist] bought in 1961, although I must say that Peter Hain was last year. 

Looking back on my timeline for the past few days to see what dreadful things I have shared, they includes comments made by Boris Johnson and Charlotte Church; worries about the repeal of the Human Rights Act; Douglas Carswell on Nigel Farage; a quote from the late lamented Bob Crowe; ditto Malcom X; lots of adverts for my political blogs. Oh and a link as to how quickly make whipping cream; a photo of my new 'phone case; a 'cheeky' [in more ways than one] photo and quip; and - guess what - photos of one of my grandsons.

So in breaking news, if you don't like it, don't read it. I love a good discussion and have enjoyed the crack with a lot of social media contacts during the election and will keep it up. 


I don't put pictures up of my latest craft production because usually when I have worked on one for so long I am unsure as to how interesting it will be. But you will find a photo on here just in case.

Family History, Funerals and Facebook

Melbourne Argus 31st October 1950

Bless her, I hear you say, Elizannie has really lost it now. Not only does she provide a scintillating [not] blog title but then she gives us a boring picture to boot. Well all I can say - to quote Miranda's 'chum'* "bear with...."

Yesterday was a sad day for my family as a beloved older cousin was laid to rest. She was 88 years old and for all but the last few days of her life had been as bright as a button, had a fantastic sense of humour, great common sense and possessed a wonderful kindness and generosity of spirit. No wonder she will be missed by so many. But in the aftermath of the funeral - which had been arranged by her, she wanted us all to have a drink and something to eat 'on her' it has to be said that it was good to catch up with some members of the family who hadn't seen each other for years. We have a large extended family and there were a few games of 'Do you know who I am, then?' Edna would have loved that, as she was also the keeper of many of the family records. And following in her footsteps there are a few of us who are trying to write the family history too and last year many of us got together with old photos and stories to try and collate the facts.

Over the past few years we have not only collected and collated the facts when we could meet up, but we have used the often abused social media to keep in touch. Facebook has been great and whereas 50 years ago we all lived close enough to keep up the family gossip face to face we now can do so easily with facebook!!

This morning, with torrential rain outside providing an ideal excuse not to clean the windows or anything silly like that, I decided to have another go at finding a few errant ancestors via the internet. And I struck lucky and that elusive 2x great grandfather who emigrated to Australia in 1873 suddenly came to life [well actually I found his obituary!] via the Australian newspaper archives. And a question which had always bothered me, had he and his second wife produced any Australian half-cousins for me and the rest of the family was finally answered.

But here is the really exciting thing and something which maybe my longstanding readers may find interesting. I may have mentioned that my political journalist father was sometime the London editor of an Australian newspaper, back in the 1950s. So, seeing the name of that newspaper pop up during my archive search, I thought, why not? Let's type in his name and see what comes up. And yes, loads of articles did. He obviously had a weekly column where he told the Aussies what was going on in Westminster, sometimes throwing in a bit of gossip as well.

I haven't kept very many of my father's newspaper articles. Well you don't do you, when every day of one's young life a newspaper plops through the letter box and one's father has at least one byline, and that often to the headline. Although it gave me a big thrill a few years ago when the shop 'Past Times' was selling a pack of various newspaper replicas from the 1960s and one of them was the old Daily Herald with my father's byline on one of the articles! And going back a few years more, one of my cousins opened one of those Reader's Digest pictorial History Books and there was a picture of my father lecturing on Pacifism in the late 1930s. However I have been printing out some of these articles found today. And some of the political comments, written in the 1950s sadly make me realise that times haven't changed that much. His comments about wages and income tax are very interesting. And maybe others will now understand my dislike and disgust with Winston Churchill. These are two articles posted on here as photographs with 'translations' below.

Forgive me if I am being a bit self-indulgent today. I am dedicating this to Edna and all my lovely, huge family xxx

Melbourne Argus 19th December 1950

Text for the photos:

Attlee will introduce more socialism

SPARKS will fly in the political spheres of Britain tomorrow. By then the world will know from the King's Speech what legislation the Labor Government intends for the next Parliamentary session. The Opposition leaders and newspapers here are kidding themselves that the Government is going to coo as gently as a dove because of its small majority in the Commons. Don't believe that tale if you've been told it. The Government's new legislation will be challenging and belligerent. It will contain two proposals at least which will rouse fierce passions.

One will be a radical sugar nationalisation project - and the other will be a bill to make permanent the economic and industrial controls made necessary as temporary measures in wartime Britain.

And there will be another bill dealing with leaseholds that will bring all the backwoodsmen on one of their rare - and angry - visits to the House of Peers.

I sniff an electoral battle in the air.

February will see the struggle at the polls, I think.

When an election does come; cost of living will be a big issue.

Though it has been kept in check here better than in most countries in the world - and certainly better than in Australia - it is surely going up.

Fear of further price increases is making Christmas shoppers buy early this year.

Prudent husbands are buying their wives a something-to-wear present weeks ahead of the usual time.

Some shops have already sold more coats than during the whole of the winter season. 

Handbags and shoes are more popular than ever, and in both cases rising costs are likely with the increased leather shortage.

Handbags are already costing between £9 and £40. 

Everybody's feeling the draught, including higher income groups.

19/6 in the £

JUDGED by the income tax standards, the British millionaire is now almost non-

existent.

Last year there were only 86 people in the United Kingdom with over £6,000 income after tax.

In 1939 there were 6,560.

Tax at the highest rate ontop-level incomes in this country is 19/6 in the £.

Stiff, yes; but it doesn't begin at 19/6; it only reaches that at the supertax stage of £2,500 a year.

Lack of income has driven an Anglican parson out of his job.

He is the Rev. Austin Lee, talkative 45-year-old vicar of St. Stephen's, Hounslow, Middlesex.

He is offering his services as a cook for luncheon and dinner parties. To those ready to take him on he will also be prepared to bring a former Cambridge undergraduate as a waiter.

Oratory takes a  tumble

IF Australians still think of Winston Spencer Churchill as The Voice of England, they ought to shed their illusions. I sat in the House of Commons last week and saw Britain's wartime Premier descend, in the course of a few sentences, from the high level of a statesman to the abusive personal slanging level of the parish pump.

It was the most astonishing,  most impudent, and most insulting Parliamentary performance I have seen.

All the more so because Churchill's taunts and gibes were neither spontaneous nor unconsidered.

They were part of a meticulously prepared script from which Churchill spoke in a critical foreign affairs debate.

Coming at the end of a speech in which he had generally supported the Government on its Korean policy and had paid tribute to Mr. Attlee's mission to Washington, Mr.Churchill's charge that unless

the Government dropppd the act to nationalise steel he would "doubt their loyalty to the people of this country" was not only irrelevant-it was a studied reflection on the integrity of the men of whom Churchill has said he could have asked for no better Ministerial allies during the war.

What is the mystery behind all this? Why did Churchill deliberately destroy the non partisan atmosphere in which the debate on foreign affairs had proceeded up to that moment?

The answer is not easy to give, for it is many-sided. But one thing I can say with certainty: The hold of Churchill on the Tory Party is not as tight as it might be and to fasten his grip he must not make too many speeches even on foreign policy, which can be interpreted as support for the government.

Another reason it that, however grave the international situation, Mr. Churchill - and Tories generally-always have one eye cocked on the next general election.

*TV comedy starring Miranda Hart. Her chum is always uttering 'bear with' when answering her mobile in the middle of a conversation with A.N.Other. How rude.

You Really Couldn't Make This Up, Sadly

Something I love about facebook is the way that it can spark a train of thoughts which ends up as a blog on this site! But a post from one of my friend's today had me almost speechless [odd I know!] and wondering if I have somehow 'shifted' into some kind of parallel, satiric world.

The link which this friend posted was to Wings Over Scotland
which is a 'Scottish political website, which focuses particularly on the media – whether mainstream print and broadcast organisations or the online and social-network community – as well as offering its own commentary and analysis' [to quote from their 'about us'] and the post upon which I am concentrating is from July 31st and entitled The Pride of Britain. Do please read it.

The premise of the article - which shows photos of various MPs [across parties] - opening food banks up and down Britain - is how can representatives of the people look so happy to be opening what is surely symbolic of something which shows the shame of Britain. The idea that food banks are necessary in the 21st century because welfare benefits and wages are insufficient for many to be able to feed themselves and their families surely must fill any caring citizen with concern? The idea - boasted about in parliament last week - the job centres refer claimants to food banks - is, to me, toxic. Patrick Butler wrote an excellent blog about the the DWP shenigans via the job centres  in the Guardian earlier this month. Please read this too.

I have 'lifted' the photograph above from the Wings over Scotland article. In their words it shows

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, opening a foodbank with a cretinous smile on his face as if being a member of the government of a modern industrial nation in need of foodbanks was something to be happy about

In the 60s satirical TV programmes arrived on our TV screen and were welcomed by my generation and shocked the older generations. We laughed at the scenarios posed by That Was The Week That Was, The Frost Report, Rowan and Martyn's Laugh-In, At Last The 1948 Show and more. Nothing approached this true life stupidity.

I have posited before that we are returning to the 19thC ideals of the 'Deserving Poor'. [BTW that link refers to the Disraeli novel Sybil, subtitled Two Nation another prase often heard. Read it and weep]

Well, I seem to have given you all a lot of reading homework. I must have temporarily forgotten that I am retired and no longer lecturing. But if we don't learn the lessons of the past and additionally remain aware of what is going on in our present, we will have severe problems in the future. 

The Abyss

To the disgust of many the first thing I do in the mornings when I eventually make it down the stairs [!] is turn on my laptop and log in to facebook to catch up with friends, family and political comrades and opponents! Occasionally something sparks ideas for a blog or other piece of writing.

Today a discussion about the cuts regarding disability living allowance and the proposed cap on total welfare benefits led me into a longer comment than I could fit onto facebook - hence this blog.

I am going to apparently digress a little. Listening to one of those radio 'phone in discussion programmes a couple of days ago. The subject was whether the proposed cap on benefits was a good idea or not, a rather desperate lady [let's call her Mary] had called in and was explaining how although she and her partner had lived and worked in London all their lives, paying their taxes and council taxes, through no fault of their own they had lost their business last year [like so many in this present economic climate] which in turn had led to them losing their house. With three young children settled in schools, they obviously wanted to rent a house in the area in which they had been living but rents were so high that if the proposed cap on benefit went ahead there would not be enough money to pay rent and have money to live, eat, clothe the children and all other bills.

When the radio presenter suggested Mary was, well almost selfish for wanting to stay in a high rent part of London, Mary pointed out that if she stayed there she would be near family who could help out with child care IF she was working. The presenter seemed then to change tack and refused to believe that rents were actually so high.

And this seems to be part of the problem - the refusal of so many to accept the problems that the vulnerable have to face to get out of what E.M.Forster described as 'the abyss' in Howards End:

The boy, Leonard Bast, stood at the extreme verge of gentility. He was not in the abyss, but he could see it, and at times people whom he knew had dropped in, and counted no more

Forster was writing in 1910 and just over 100 years later we are returning to a society that has citizens like Leonard Bast teetering on the edge of falling into the Abyss. Unless we act quickly we could even end up with an underclass of our people living as the communities described in George Gissing's The Nether World in 1889:

But that those who sit here through the livelong day, through every season, through all the years of the life that is granted them, who strain their eyesight, who overtax their muscles, who nurse disease in their frames, who put resolutely from them the thought of what existence might be--that these do it all without prospect or hope of reward save the permission to eat and sleep and bring into the world other creatures to strive with them for bread, surely that thought is yet more marvellous.

I also notice not many seem to be making a call for the restituion of social housing with fairer rents or suggesting that private landlords who are often making large profits renting out properties, some of which may have been built as social housing and previously bought at a reduced price by long term tenants but have since passed into the housing stock, may be 'capped'. After all this is a free market [sometimes difficult to type with my tongue in my cheek]

So Facebook and my friends there, you've done it again, got me so exercised first thing in the morning that I felt a blog coming on.... And Clarice may have to take off her housework rubber gloves and write about The Nether World and Howards End sometime this week.

The photograph shows the splendiferous Samuel West who play Leonard Bass in the film of Howards End.

Social Networking and other low places! [with apologies to Paul O'Grady]

This blog is a bit of a personal rant so apologies in advance. I really dislike when someone feels it is permissible to criticise [without invitation] one's taste and activities!

I like Facebook! I am not ashamed to say so although many people seem to think that -like watching soaps or reading thrillers - Facebook and other social network sites are too 'low culture' to admit to any participation!

So Facebook... I really love it. I can - within the space of a couple of hours -'meet' various friends and discuss all sorts of different subjects. Just the other day I spent quite a time discussing H.G. Wells with a friend who lives about 250 miles away. Later I had a very long political discussion regarding disability rights with another friend living in the opposite end of England to me. Over then to a friend in America who has just bought an antique chair and sent me a picture of the restoration process. Then I saw the picture of a friend's new baby and finished with a 'family chat' with my cousin. All without having to dress up or leave the house! Lazy? Perhaps but my brain was stimulated, I could coo at the baby and I would never have got to America and back in time for tea and also have been able to do some writing in the meantime! I also belong to various organisations on FB, including political, charitable and social. All good so far.

There is another side to all this, and I don't really like to play the personal card but here goes. I am unable to leave the house without a companion due to my neuro problems so our trips out - which luckily are often - usually have a purpose and I don't 'dilly dally' as I used to and don't get the time to gossip with strangers in shops or in the street - which I used to love! So my gossiping time is fulfilled as well!

Of course there are down sides - as in any walk of life. I know of instances when families/friends have fallen out due to personal details etc being revealed to all and sundry - but then that can happen in the real world as well as the virtual. Although officially children are not supposed to use - for instance - Facebook, too many parents do let their children participate which may not always be suitable. And of course nothing beats the lovely feeling as when last night an old friend I had not seen for years rang the door bell and over many cups of tea we talked for hours.....

I love Twitter too. I 'follow' and am 'followed by' many journos and politicos and in fact generally use them for my news sources. When something big is 'going down' [like today's student demos] often someone will be tweeting away from the spot - and sometimes supplying pictures too.

I used to teach and lecture, amongst other subjects English Literature was one of my specialities. But here again, there is too often a terrible intellectual snobbery that surrounds this subject [like so many 'Art' subjects], I often think in an attempt to turn it into a mystique which excludes others. In fact I was listening to a radio programme a couple of weeks ago in which an eminent playwright, novelist, critic and lecturer lambasted any adults who read the Harry Potter books and/or Tolkien's works. No doubt there will be some who will agree with him - fair enough and those like me who disagree - again fair enough. But surely it is better to keep ones views to oneself [not that I am!] rather than upset lots of those who are happily enjoying something different and not harming anyone in the process. For the record I love Tolkien and Harry Potter - in different ways! And at the moment I am reading a 19thC novel and a 20thC 'whodunit'.

Soap operas - well actually I don't really follow them apart from Radio 4's The Archers, which I always maintain is not really a drama but real life! [I remember the night Grace Archer died but I really was very, very young...] But if someone is a soap opera fan - so what. There are a lot of things on TV and the cinema I don't like but I do like lots of things which others probably dislike. They are not going to change my viewing habits anymore than I wish to change theirs.

What I have attempted to say here is that no-one should feel they have to justify their tastes although the old 'high brow versus low brow' argument will always continue across all the artistic forms. It took the championship of John Ruskin to make the Pre-Raphaelites become popular after all and someone turned down the Beatles before they got a recording contract. Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads were thought revolutionary when published. Enjoy what you enjoy, try something new occasionally but do not waste time with something you think you ought to like but don't just because someone has told you 'it is better for you'!


Don't waste time trying to find Elizannie on Facebook or Twitter. She is there but under a pseudonym. Occasionally kind friends advertise her blogs - for which she is most grateful....




The picture of the The Archers cast [2006] above courtesy of guardian.co.uk