Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. Robert Frost

Its been a funny few days. Good: we had a few days recuperation 'at home' in the South West after my bout of bronchitis and the weather was really kind to us. Not so good: the residue of the weather not having been so kind this winter was evident everywhere. Driving across the Somerset Levels and seeing how Muchelney is still cut off by the floods, huge 'lakes' of standing water, sodden fields etc. Talking to a friend from Burrowbridge who had been flooded and comparing our experiences of the floods in Chertsey. Our cliff top dwelling campsite is now smaller than it was as a large area has fallen into the sea. Most unexpected, but then so were the wild waves which reached the height of the cliff top.

It was good as always to catch up with friends and family, but not so good to receive an email from a friend of nearly 40 years standing to say that she couldn't put up with my inane ramblings [ramblings I admit to, inane seemed a little harsh] any longer and our friendship is over. I suspect that my political opinions which differ to hers, never discussed face to face but which I air [ you may have noticed dear reader] on the world wide web annoy her. Since I have friends from all sides of the political spectrum, different faiths and ethnicity and - you may have noticed - enjoy a good discussion on all sorts of issues, I find this rather sad but am not about to change my ways.

And then, for holiday reading, I have been re-reading the late Tony Benn's Dare to Be A Daniel which kind of says the same thing as the Robert Frost quote of the blog title. Except I somehow feel Tony Benn was better at putting it across than I.

The Robert Frost quote was sent by a cousin this morning and is quite humbling really. It reminds one of just why and how people like Tony Benn stood up for their principles and could do it for a lifetime. I hope I can do the same, and remember why I am a political activist.



P.S.   Talking about principles, I am so disgusted and offended by the Grant Schapps post budget 'Bingo & Booze' 'infographic' I can't reproduce it on my blog, but it can be seen here. However I will show the satire of it tweeted by David Schneider this morning: 

For Duncan xx

Tony & Bob

Due to a combination of the floods and  unwellness [is that even a word?] February and early March has been a wash out in the Elizannie/Other Half household and we are actually off on a bit of a recuperation for a few days later today. But how could I leave without paying a tribute to two of our political heroes, one whom I knew and one I would have liked to have known.

The announcement of the death of Bob Crow on Tuesday this week came as a complete shock. A man of very strong principles - and I may not have agreed with all of them! - but someone who looked after his union members, stood up for justice for so many other causes such as Football against Racism. I remember listening to Boris Johnson blustering and puffing on a radio station before the last scheduled train strike when Bob Crow 'phoned in because that was the only way that he could get Boris to talk to him. Pure Genius. He will be sadly missed and the photograph below of the tribute to him by his members at Convent Garden Tube station says it all:

Tony Benn's death was not so unexpected but still very sad for those who had loved and maybe also known him for so many years. I was furious when I found out some years ago that he used to visit my father's house when I was a child tucked up in bed! - but made up for it by meeting him later in life. There are many wonderful obits out there so I will just say that when I awoke to the very sad news of the passing of Tony yesterday I realised that we had all lost a true Socialist, a Gentleman in all senses of the word.

The last time we saw him was at Kings Place theatre in March 2013 where he was due to appear in his 'Writing on the Wall' show which he shared with Roy Bailey. Unfortunately at the last minute Tony had to cancel due to his poor health and Roy carried on on his own. Just toward the end of the evening, Roy was called off stage and returned with a very frail Tony who had not wanted to let his audience down. Roy was crying and Tony got a standing ovation. He looked so frail but when he spoke his voice and words had all his usual strength and conviction. So many of us had tears streaming down our faces that night. 

Thank you Tony for so many things - you will be sadly missed but you have left us all with great memories and many good quotes.

Tony & I at a peace rally in Trafalgar Square.

I had just given him a great smacking kiss 

and he laughed and said 'That was very nice'!

Who now is the benefit scrounger? Running backwards to the 19th Century

Many times I have said how much I love the internet and how often it alerts me to a piece of commentary I may have otherwise missed. This morning, whilst catching up with various cousins: wishing one a happy 18th birthday; four of us having an inappropriate giggle over a silly news item; finding out how a dear friend in the US is faring healthwise; smiling at the latest cute picture of Second Youngest Granddaughter - I was alerted by a facebook 'political friend' to a piece in yesterday's Guardian by Suzanne Moore.

Lots has been written about Monday evening's Channel 5 programme 'The Big Benefit's Row'. With a title like that it really was not worth watching, but in the true 'Triumph of Hope Over Experience' spirit and because some good people were on it I thought I would give it a whirl. I didn't take into account that because it also boasted some people who I dislike, the whole thing could turn into a shambles ......

So, in my opinion, the show consisted of people like Ken Livingstone, Jack Monroe, Annabelle Giles, 'White Dee', Owen Jones putting [or rather attempting to put across] reasoned arguments for, statistics about and true case studies of those receiving welfare benefits Edwina Currie and Katie Hopkins hurled abuse and shouted down everyone with whom they disagreed. Yes those two woman really were that bad.

Audience members were not exempt from the opprobrium of the two women. One woman in the audience said she was out every day looking for a job, Currie shouted back at her 'Try harder'.  Panel member Rachel Johnson [editor of 'The Lady' and sister of Boris] put her arm round Jack Monroe and tried to defend her from the worst attacks of Currie and Hopkins. In my last blog I mentioned how benefits campaigner and disabled rights activist Sue Marsh was asked to come on the show and then sidelined and forgotten about. You can read her account here.

And of course someone had to mention during the programme how that dreaded and now demonised group - PENSIONERS - are taking the biggest chunk out of the welfare budget. How DARE they! Most of them having worked for forty plus years, paid tax and national insurance [okay some received Family Allowance. Big deal. Seven shillings and sixpence a week [thirty seven and a half pence] for the SECOND child was my stipend in 1975. And then - oh my - we were granted it for the first child also around 1978. I holidayed in Florida on that. NOT.

It was truly an awful programme. But it seems people are still talking about it [so am I, here!] and when I went out with a large group of friends the evening after the programme it seemed as if the discussion naturally turned to the programme. We all went to uni together back when rocks were soft and now we seem to represent all shades of political opinion and life experience, all of us aged around the 60 age mark, some of us now drawing our state pension. One of our number, who has suffered some truly calamitous life events and after her employer was forced, due to the recession, some years ago to close down his business can only find a job with one of the biggest employers in her village. She 'admitted' that - as she is only paid the minimum wage for her 40 hour week - she needs benefits to top up her wage. In fact most of the employees in her factory have this top up. But her employer is a respected local employer with all the trappings of a wealthy man? Sound familiar to students of the 19th? Who now is the benefit scrounger? The employees or the employer?

I could also talk about my niece who has been for so many job interviews, told on one occasion she must attend wearing a 'business suit' and yet when she arrived was told the person she was to see was 'out for the day'. No-one repaid her travelling expenses or for the suit she had bought [the job centre hadn't sanctioned it. The call for the interview had only been made the night before so presumably the interviewer had had a better offer between making the call and my niece arriving, despite having demanded the correct wearing apparel]; I could talk about the young man I was trying to help find a job for weeks by letting him use my lap top to search the job centre web site. Lots of jobs, pages and pages from one of the pizza delivery shops: zero hours contracts and must provide own car. However tips could be kept; I could talk about the cousin who was struck off DLA by ATOS despite a letter from her consultant and walking with two sticks, and how she had tried for two years to get smaller social housing from her council as she could not afford the heating bills only to be told there was nothing smaller in the area but as soon as the 'bedroom tax' came into force she was fined for having a spare bedroom; I could talk about the single mother who forced to move because of the 'bedroom tax' applied for a bus pass for her son to get to school only to be told he was not eligible as she had 'chosen' to move.

I could talk about all these immoral acts - but what would be the point when those like Edwina Currie, Katie Hopkins and members of this uncaring coalition government would not listen, care or shout me down?



The picture above is from January 2013, I could not access a more upto date one. Below are the figures for 2011/2012, which will obviously have changed thanks to ATOS and the 'bedroom tax'.

For Richer, For Poorer ....

Travelling around the country last week gave lots of 'thinking and discussion time'. Listening to the news and commentaries on the car radio, quickly turning off if the Environment Secretary or Michael Gove started to stutter out their excuses - and believe me excuses they were - led to discussions. Looking at scenery we have known and watched change - not always for the better - for fifty plus years led to discussions. Looking at housing estates built on what were previously known as flood plains led to discussions. Not being able to drive across usual routes on the Somerset Levels due to the extreme flooding, roads and houses that have been flooded for up to a month now, led to discussions. Observing derelict local schools which we knew to have been happy, community orientated places of learning but now replaced by the school bus which took young people to larger anonymous buildings miles away where youngsters became the equivalent of numbers rather than names and were growing up to feel much less community minded - especially when local amenities like their libraries, shops, doctors surgeries and more had been removed and travel to a larger 'centre' became a necessity led to discussions.

Of course, we were also reminded courtesy of the car radio that times were bad [due to the last government of course] and there is not the money to spend on luxuries. No mention of the damage done to the areas of S.Wales where we spent some time, by Maggie Thatcher in the eighties. The mines that closed there [and in other parts of England and Wales] and had all traces obliterated in a fit of spite - recently released Government papers have revealed that which many of us suspected. And of course the closures brought with them the loss of so many other jobs tied to other local businesses including shops. In one small valley this could have been the only local food store until the villagers themselves took over. You see, in these areas there has always been the sense of community referred to in the last paragraph, something those in Whitehall will never understand.

Moving on to Somerset there was a sense of bewilderment in the communities there who feel completely forsaken by their elected officials. Discussions reported in the media as to whether it would be better to spend money on flood defences for the countryside or the town are truly irrelevant - in much of the countryside river dredgers have been sold off so that flooding becomes inevitable and additionally clearance of trees in upland areas and building on the flood plains has created a [excuse the pun] 'perfect storm'. However the excuse that there is not enough money to go around to help everyone becomes ironic if one considers that there is always enough money for military campaigns and hardware...... Still Prince Charles is visiting today, so that's all good....

Michael Gove's ideas to change the Head of Ofsted are documented here and in other parts of the media. Putting politics aside, I would prefer an experienced person like Lady Morgan to an inexperienced individual whose only qualifications maybe his/her political allegiance. A story to watch.

And just to plug a blog that is about last night's Channel 5 'The Big Benefit's Row' programme, and its up to you, dear reader, to decide who you prefer, Jack Monroe or Edwina Currie. I am sure you will understand who gets my vote!

Just to leave you all with a picture of the River Parrett in Bridgwater on Saturday evening. It may look photogenic, but the water level is frighteningly high.

Pete Seeger: Gone to Greater Glory. May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014

Pete Seeger died last week but I couldn't get to my blog to write my tribute until now. Many far better and far more eloquent writers have written thousands of wonderful words about one of my heroes, but I still want to add my tribute and play you some of his songs.

Pete has been a great influence on my for over 50 years now. His music, his life, his political activism, especially his peace campaigning - the whole man. Other Half and I have been off on our travels for the past week and spending hours in the car managed to pick up quite a few tributes and programmes on Pete on the car radio. Last night coming home and listing to yet another tribute we were trying to decide if we were to just choose one song he sang to sum up our feelings which one it would be. Of course an utter impossibility but bear with me as I describe a few and why they illustrate his life and my feelings.




I thought of the first song of his I heard which pierced my evolving teenage activist awareness: 'Little Boxes'. In this song he expressed exactly what I felt I didn't want to be - conformist in a society that seemed to want to pigeon hole its citizens into 'people like us'. Looking back over 50 years I wonder how much I have kept true to this ideal and deviated from the norm.... Some I hope!




Of course the iconic anthem 'We Shall Overcome' sung by so many - Other Half and I and our family included - at so many demos and marches over the years doesn't need an introduction. Pete reworded an old spiritual and this link is not the best rendition musically but historically and emotionally it cannot be bettered - a civil rights concert in the US in 1963. Thank you Pete for all you did.


The picture above shows the first album cover which Other Half and I bought and played to death in the first home we shared [incidentally the small record player developed a fault which periodically tripped the main fuse off and plunged us into darkness but we sang on regardless... ] Although this album [and 'LP'] disappeared over the years as LPs got outdated and through housemoves, many of the songs on it were replaced on new purchases of CDs and MP3s and even DVD*s. 


I had two favourites on this album,  'Abiyoyo' 

  

and the German protest song 'Peat Bog Soldiers' [In German and English] 



Other Half in our discussions nominated a song from the album - by Bob Dylan -'Masters of War' as one of his favourites. [Another thing about Pete, he was never precious or vain, singing others' songs as willingly as his own and always pleased to share when others' sang his songs] Sadly, I couldn't find a youtube or audio link to this so instead I am putting in a link to another anti war song, originally written by Pete during the Vietnam war but here adapted for the Iraq conflict and Pete is joined by Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Ani DiFranco   



{*I bought the DVD 'The Internationale' which tells the story of how the internationale workers anthem and how Pete persuaded Billy Bragg to rewrite it in a more modern version 

  

[Original version in French with English commentary by Pete] Billy Bragg version of 'The Internationale', with his comments of how he wrote it at Pete's request:

 }


Moving on, I love this link which shows Pete singing 'Amazing Grace' with Arlo Guthrie 



And here is Pete singing one of Arlo's father's - Woody Guthrie - songs: 'This Land is Your Land' 

  at his 90th birthday celebration


My final song for you all is a personal one with deep memories, again written by Bob Dylan but Pete's choice to perform on the 'Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Honouring 50 Years of Amnesty International' CD




Pete's biography can be found on many sites across the net but this is a rather good one. And the same with obituaries but here's one from the Guardian.



Sleep gently, Pete and thank you for everything.

Whose history of World War One will you believe?/ How I became a pacifist

This is the headline and photograph on the BBC news website this morning. Click on the headline to read the whole story. My blog & comments are on this page underneath.

Blackadder star Sir Tony Robinson in Michael Gove WW1 row

Sir Tony Robinson (centre) played Baldrick in Blackadder Goes Forth

And now for my blog!:

Its only the 6th of January 2014 and I didn't want to add so soon to the debate about how or whether the commemorations/celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One should be enacted. After all on this day alone I have many other subjects upon which I could be commenting: 

• Should 'perks' for 'wealthy pensioners' be removed/means tested [no - they are already means tested by something called the tax system]
• Descriptive and historical look at our trip around London yesterday
• Doesn't the house look clean and freshly decorated now that the Christmas trimmings have been removed

Oh well, that's covered that lot then.. So on with the debate....

On reading the news item shown above, the old hackles immediately rose.

Gove should and surely does understand that 'official' histories of the First World War were challenged long before 'Oh What a Lovely War'/'Black Adder'. The War Poets like Sassoon and Owen and more explained to many what was happening at the time; the war autobiographies of Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, Sasson again and more in the years between the armistice and the outbreak of  World War Two gave poignant memoirs and the testament of all the returned military personnel from the ranks to their families convinced so many that War could never be the answer. Gove has a BA in English from Oxford Uni and depending which area he studied he may have come across some of the authors and poets previously mentioned.

I was born, admittedly a few years before Gove!, into a 1950s household where my parents had been conscientious objectors in World War Two. As I grew older I understood what this meant, my father had had to appear in front of a tribunal where his plea was rejected as he refused to condemn all wars, allowing for a just war. His brothers fought in the war as his father had fought [and been very badly injured] in World War One. My mother's brother fought in World War Two as her father and Uncles had fought in World War One. So I suppose I subconsciously absorbed their views and classed myself as a conscientious objector two. That is until I went to University and in my English studies read some of the works of the war poets and 'war authors'. And didn't stop at the works on the reading lists but kept on reading other memoirs, histories backwards and forwards in time. I realised too that I could not reconcile any Christian view of a 'Just War' and had to change my alliances to a form of Christianity which would accomodate and reinforce my own views.

So gradually, when filling in biographical forms and talking I found myself declaring my beliefs to be 'Pacifist'. Many years later I overheard one of my children saying that my pacifism was one of my most important defining features, a proud moment, but one which I wish I could completely live up to, i.e. I still have too much of a temper to feel completely pacifistic! And of course in a situation where mine or my family's lives were threatened of course I would retaliate. I am all too human and frail.

Back to World War One. Many, many years ago I watched a documentary where soldiers who had survived the first world war were  interviewed and asked how they felt prior to and at the time of enlisting. One man who had been a trade unionist before war broke out said that men such as he had never believed that working men from one country would fight against working men from another country. Sadly it would appear that he discounted the power of patriotism. Many of those who enlisted on any side did so for their 'King and Country' - not being aware of/understanding the complex set of alliances between sovereign countries which came into play once the assasination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand happened was the cause of the need for their call to arms.

In his biography [third volume] Siegfried Sassoon also suggests that a large part of the raison d'etre for the war was financial and cites the British Forces capturing Baghdad in 1917 to ensure oil supplies. Remembering this as the Kuwait Oilfields blazed during the Gulf War over eighty years later gave one a sense of deja vue.

One of the last soldiers to die from WW1, Harry Patch, said many wise things about the war. 

Strange Meeting BY WILFRED OWEN

It seemed that out of the battle I escapedDown some profound dull tunnel, long since scoopedThrough granites which Titanic wars had groined.Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and staredWith piteous recognition in fixed eyes,Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall;By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.With a thousand fears that vision's face was grained;Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan."Strange,friend," I said, "Here is no cause to mourn.""None," said the other, "Save the undone years,The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,Was my life also; I went hunting wildAfter the wildest beauty in the world,Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,But mocks the steady running of the hour,And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.For by my glee might many men have laughed,And of my weeping something has been left,Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,The pity of war, the pity war distilled.Now men will go content with what we spoiled.Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.Courage was mine, and I had mystery;Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery;To miss the march of this retreating worldInto vain citadels that are not walled.Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheelsI would go up and wash them from sweet wells,Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.I would have poured my spirit without stintBut not through wounds; not on the cess of war.Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now. . . ."

Suggested Booklist:

Autobiographies/Biographies:

Goodbye to All That: Robert Graves

Testament of Youth: Vera Brittain

Siegfried's Journey: Siegfried Sassoon

The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, The Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Trenches :  Harry Patch and Richard Van Emden


Fiction:
All Quiet on the Western Front: Erich Maria Remarque
Regeneration Trilogy: Pat Barker

Non-Fiction:

Great Britain's Great War: Jeremy Paxman
The First World War: An Illustrated History: A.J.P. Taylor
The Great War and Modern Memory: Paul Fussell

Poetry:
Poems of the Great War: 1914-1918 (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) 

New Year Wishes/Onward into 2014/Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby/Undecking the Halls

Here's hoping that you all had a bit of a rest of the Christmas/New Year break whatever festival you may or may not have celebrated. In the Elizannie/Other Half household this is the day nominated to take down Christmas decorations or as in the post title 'undecking the halls'. This means that the dwelling will look bigger and cleaner without actually doing any cleaning so rather a good day for me.... Life is returning to the normal Saturday morning of Other Half on a demo and Elizannie listening to Ken Livingstone and David Mellor on LBC whilst ranting on the internet.

Have you made any New Year Resolutions? As I usually break the obvious ones like losing weight and taking up more exercise, I am going to sneak up on these ideas this year. But something that is not a resolution, more a way of life, is not to let any politician/observer/media commentator get away with any untrue/misleading quotes/comments/rabble rousing ideas.

Of course I do have 'New Year Wishes' which to be honest are easier to do as I am not quite so involved as in a resolution..... although I am if I carry them out, or to imitate Charles Kingsley's character* I become a Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby perhaps they are in fact harder to enact?

So here are some of my New Year Wishes:

• Newspapers, TV & Radio journalists please check your sources and only quote the true facts of any case. Do not speculate/exaggerate but present these speculations/exaggerations as 'fact'. Please question politicians more outrageous statements by asking them to verify/present proof.
• Politicians, please read the previous wish and think whether you have ever been guilty of a gross exaggeration/presentation of apparent facts which have not been verified. Have you ever dismissed a case presented by a constituent as being too unlikely/small to bother about? These are the cases that may mean the world to that person - put yourself into their place for 24 hours. Better still live with them for 24 hours. Now how do you feel?
• Coalition Government, please stop blaming the previous Government for any nasty measure you are taking now. Maybe, just possibly, over the past four years there has been something that the previous administration got wrong and needed reversing. But after four years and World economic problems can you really still need to use that excuse? Please give the electorate credit for seeing through this excuse.
• Back to the media - if a Newspaper prints a false story/article the apology should be the same size as the original. Then the Editor may think twice about being so careless in the future.
• 2014 sees 100 years from the start of World War One. By all means remember all those from all sides who lost their lives/were greviously injures/the families who never recovered from the effects. But do not let us 'celebrate' or relive those battles. War is wrong, however often we look at it. And how many of those young men who marched off in 1914 from the UK alone knew why they were going? The complex arrangement of treaties which meant that Countries were supporting their Allies really had very little meaning to the man in the street who were somehow never the less whipped up into a frenzy of patriotism that meant they enlisted 'to fight [and too many to die] for their country'.
• Please, please can we all just be nicer to one and other. Maybe this comes under the heading of 'good manners'/politeness? I just posed a question on my facebook page, wondering how others would have dealt with a 'situation' yesterday: "Still a bit annoyed over something that happened yesterday and wonder how others would have dealt with it. In a shop with Eldest Granddaughter and due to my hearing problems didn't realise someone was trying to get past me. When I did realise I apologised profusely but didn't mention my deafness, however the two women were very rude which upset Granddaughter. Should I have explained I was deaf which was why I hadn't jumped out of the way immediately as they seemed to have expected or just let it go as I usually do when I am on my own?" [Just to point out that the hearing aids that I wear, whilst great, do not help in a large and noisy shop in the sales, especially when someone is speaking to me from behind!]

Please feel free to add your own New Year Wishes in the comments section! And may I wish you all a New Year filled with Peace and Joy.

 *Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby in Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies taught the water babies to act toward others as they would wish others to act toward them.
The picture above is an illustration 'Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby took Tom 
in her arms'. Illustration for The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (Ernest 
Nister, c 1880) artist Arthur A Dixon.