28 October 2007
My daughter doesn’t read my blog. Of course she’s in a minority but unsurprisingly so, she’s a mere child (16) and still incapable of considered discrimination in her choices of reading matter.
Since she doesn’t read the blog, I’ve been taking advantage of drive time to share my unique and entertaining views. The problem is that I am beginning to believe that she’s seeing through me. Today I was sharing my mordant perspective on shallow, meaningless, expensive socialising by individuals with empty lives.
After listening to me for a few minutes (a very few minutes), she gave me a considered reaction, “You, Dad, are a wanna-be cynic. Your cynicism is shallow and poorly presented.”
When I asked if I wasn't a cynic what exactly it was that she thought I was, she said, “You are a crappy happy person.”
I don’t really have anything to add, I’m a bad cynic. I’ll try to get better at it.
28 October 2007
27 October 2007
Smirkily self-satisfied on a Saturday night...
or, how I explain sitting by myself with a glass of wine and another television travelogue ...
27 October 2007
Bristol
Here’s my list of things that have irritated me today:
1. Someone who ought to know better, primping around in a tuxedo, organising some theatre bar and entrance for a play that will be both boring and amateurish. The person is around 60 years old, surely old enough that we ought to expect him to behave maturely and not be a party to such self-indulgent silliness. Instead, he prances around in a black tie, mesmerized by some completely inaccurate self-image.
2. Dinner, cocktails, dates, dances, whatever, with inane people. I’m sitting here, on a Saturday evening, in a Bristol apartment, writing something, sipping on a glass of wine, gloriously alone (the wife has gone to visit her Mom and the rest of the family). This is soooo much better than being with people whose opinions I do not value, certainly do not respect and, frankly, do not want to listen to, even if I’m given free alcohol.
3. How much money do you think is poured down the gurgle every night, every week, every month, in every town, around the world, on meaningless ‘social’ events that add nothing to either the sum of human wisdom nor to the life of the individuals involved but represent, instead, another futile battle against loneliness? What if, instead, we spent that money on technologies that counter global warming? What if we spent it on bicycles and more bicycle lanes in our cities? Hmmmmm …
So, this is about loneliness. What you need to know is that loneliness is good for you. It’s another facet of what it is to be an adult, a realised human being. It’s not just analogous to sticking together in a marriage, through thick and thin, not choosing to take the seemingly easy way out, divorcing a partner for a newer, apparently faster model, indulging yourself (notice how indulgence is a feature of this piece?), being an adult involves coping with loss, with loneliness, with failure and remaining an adult throughout, a decent, human adult, a civilized human. But there is an upside, being an adult is also fun and fulfilling. There is no relationship to match one that is fully realised. And how do you define fully realised? Easy, a ‘fully realised’ relationship is simply one where your love and your admiration for the character of your partner deepens every year. A few wrinkles, an extra pound, these things don’t matter, not even a bit.
But, as always, I’ve digressed. I wandered away from the issue of loneliness. Loneliness is good for you. You have to introspect and, eventually, you will learn something about yourself. It’s a selfish time as well: you can read, you can take a walk, go to a museum by yourself, contemplate a painting, a view, an essay. You can lie in bed and take a trip into the back corners of your mind and the side-streets of your memories. An indulgence but not destructive or wasteful.
This scribble has been a bit of a mental wander and is probably both boring to the reader and seemingly self-indulgent but it surely felt good to me to express the feelings. Also, I’m actually right about self-indulgent, selfish, lonely, immature people. And, by the way, much of the time, I’m one of them; you see, not a single one of us is fully realised (if you really are, you are probably not reading this, you’ve exploded in some cosmic moment of incredible self-realisation, quite certainly leaving a considerable mess for your partner and associates to clean up), we just hit moments of realisation. Loneliness is a way to have more of those moments. Learning to love maturely is another.
I do enjoy preaching but must admit that all of it is directed at some element of me and not whoever is my audience (if anyone). Like everyone except those guys I mentioned above, the all-the-time fully realised, I could use the advice.
27 October 2007
Bristol
Here’s my list of things that have irritated me today:
1. Someone who ought to know better, primping around in a tuxedo, organising some theatre bar and entrance for a play that will be both boring and amateurish. The person is around 60 years old, surely old enough that we ought to expect him to behave maturely and not be a party to such self-indulgent silliness. Instead, he prances around in a black tie, mesmerized by some completely inaccurate self-image.
2. Dinner, cocktails, dates, dances, whatever, with inane people. I’m sitting here, on a Saturday evening, in a Bristol apartment, writing something, sipping on a glass of wine, gloriously alone (the wife has gone to visit her Mom and the rest of the family). This is soooo much better than being with people whose opinions I do not value, certainly do not respect and, frankly, do not want to listen to, even if I’m given free alcohol.
3. How much money do you think is poured down the gurgle every night, every week, every month, in every town, around the world, on meaningless ‘social’ events that add nothing to either the sum of human wisdom nor to the life of the individuals involved but represent, instead, another futile battle against loneliness? What if, instead, we spent that money on technologies that counter global warming? What if we spent it on bicycles and more bicycle lanes in our cities? Hmmmmm …
So, this is about loneliness. What you need to know is that loneliness is good for you. It’s another facet of what it is to be an adult, a realised human being. It’s not just analogous to sticking together in a marriage, through thick and thin, not choosing to take the seemingly easy way out, divorcing a partner for a newer, apparently faster model, indulging yourself (notice how indulgence is a feature of this piece?), being an adult involves coping with loss, with loneliness, with failure and remaining an adult throughout, a decent, human adult, a civilized human. But there is an upside, being an adult is also fun and fulfilling. There is no relationship to match one that is fully realised. And how do you define fully realised? Easy, a ‘fully realised’ relationship is simply one where your love and your admiration for the character of your partner deepens every year. A few wrinkles, an extra pound, these things don’t matter, not even a bit.
But, as always, I’ve digressed. I wandered away from the issue of loneliness. Loneliness is good for you. You have to introspect and, eventually, you will learn something about yourself. It’s a selfish time as well: you can read, you can take a walk, go to a museum by yourself, contemplate a painting, a view, an essay. You can lie in bed and take a trip into the back corners of your mind and the side-streets of your memories. An indulgence but not destructive or wasteful.
This scribble has been a bit of a mental wander and is probably both boring to the reader and seemingly self-indulgent but it surely felt good to me to express the feelings. Also, I’m actually right about self-indulgent, selfish, lonely, immature people. And, by the way, much of the time, I’m one of them; you see, not a single one of us is fully realised (if you really are, you are probably not reading this, you’ve exploded in some cosmic moment of incredible self-realisation, quite certainly leaving a considerable mess for your partner and associates to clean up), we just hit moments of realisation. Loneliness is a way to have more of those moments. Learning to love maturely is another.
I do enjoy preaching but must admit that all of it is directed at some element of me and not whoever is my audience (if anyone). Like everyone except those guys I mentioned above, the all-the-time fully realised, I could use the advice.
22 October 2007
This one ought to stir things up a bit ...
22 October 2007
Boy is this going to infuriate some Catholics.
Here are the difficult issues today:
1. The Pope ought to retire when he becomes too old and infirm to serve as Pontiff. This just makes sense – John Paul II connected with the young, the poor, the disenfranchised very well in his early days, the dynamism of the man was just what the Church needed. But, you have to question how effective he was as an old, bent-over man. Why not give him some time off – let him retire to a life of prayer and contemplation? Put in someone else to carry the burden. You don’t make retirement mandatory based on age, you just use common sense.
2. The Papacy ought to be open to women. This is not a question for God, it is something for humanity and it’s right that women ought to have the opportunity. Why are we denying ourselves 50% of the candidates for important, critical roles? We ought to pick whoever is best for any role, regardless of sex, religion, colour, age, weight or whiteness of teeth.
3. Abortion is wrong unless there are serious extenuating circumstances (the mother’s health, incest, rape).
4. Birth control is good. We have too many people and you can’t stop those we have from being really stupid. They are going to copulate, no matter what the Church says. Better that they are on the pill or using condoms or something to prevent another unwanted pregnancy and a child that grows up neglected, poor and under-educated. That’s just crazy.
5. Celibacy ought to be optional. If you are a priest and you want to get married, it’s okay. If you are already married and you feel the call to be a priest (or priestess), it’s okay. We need committed people – of both sexes, married or, if they choose, unmarried.
6. From the above, it’s clear that I already think that your sex has nothing to do with whether or not you should be a clergy-person. If you feel the call and it’s what you want, go to it. I want to be ministered to by someone who genuinely feels the call and is serving humanity equally. How can you join something so exclusive as a fraternity of judgemental, celibate priests and then call yourself a person of God? Jesus has got to be laughing himself silly at the way in which we’ve perverted his life and mission.
7. And, you’ve got to know this one is coming from the penultimate sentence in item 6: Judge not lest ye be judged. It’s up to the individual to decide if they are fit to take communion, you can’t turn them down if you are really God’s Church. It isn’t your church, it’s God’s. You can’t presume to speak for Him if you’ve got one real ounce of reverence and perspective; you can say how you feel about something, that’s not just a right, it’s your duty but you cannot judge – that’s imply arrogating to yourself a power that is waaaaay beyond you! If you are a Priest/ess, you have the obligation to accept that an individual has judged him/her-self worthy of communion if they present themselves. You are the instrument, not the player. Give them the wine and the bread and let the rest take place between that person and God.
8. I really can’t see that these are the difficult issues. There are others, real doozies, that are problems that you’ve got to come to grips with in your life – your relationship to God is one that you’ve got to work out for yourself, no one can do it for you. It’s your obligation to listen to, even seek out the views of others (including those of the clergy) but, in the end, you’ve got to be an adult and do your best, you are going to take that step into eternity that everyone does but, like everyone else, you are going to have to do it alone and in your own way. That’s just how it is – there is nothing I’ve seen that says it’s easy and nothing that convinces me you should cede the responsibility for your relationship (or lack thereof) with God.
9. Good Luck! Thanks for the all the fish!
10. I'm not Catholic. It's not possible to be a lapsed Anglican -- I heard it on BBC Radio 4 this morning so it must be true -- but, if it were true, that's probably what I'd have to lay claim to. So, go ahead, tell me I have no right to an opinion. Frankly, I don't care, I'll still have one.
Boy is this going to infuriate some Catholics.
Here are the difficult issues today:
1. The Pope ought to retire when he becomes too old and infirm to serve as Pontiff. This just makes sense – John Paul II connected with the young, the poor, the disenfranchised very well in his early days, the dynamism of the man was just what the Church needed. But, you have to question how effective he was as an old, bent-over man. Why not give him some time off – let him retire to a life of prayer and contemplation? Put in someone else to carry the burden. You don’t make retirement mandatory based on age, you just use common sense.
2. The Papacy ought to be open to women. This is not a question for God, it is something for humanity and it’s right that women ought to have the opportunity. Why are we denying ourselves 50% of the candidates for important, critical roles? We ought to pick whoever is best for any role, regardless of sex, religion, colour, age, weight or whiteness of teeth.
3. Abortion is wrong unless there are serious extenuating circumstances (the mother’s health, incest, rape).
4. Birth control is good. We have too many people and you can’t stop those we have from being really stupid. They are going to copulate, no matter what the Church says. Better that they are on the pill or using condoms or something to prevent another unwanted pregnancy and a child that grows up neglected, poor and under-educated. That’s just crazy.
5. Celibacy ought to be optional. If you are a priest and you want to get married, it’s okay. If you are already married and you feel the call to be a priest (or priestess), it’s okay. We need committed people – of both sexes, married or, if they choose, unmarried.
6. From the above, it’s clear that I already think that your sex has nothing to do with whether or not you should be a clergy-person. If you feel the call and it’s what you want, go to it. I want to be ministered to by someone who genuinely feels the call and is serving humanity equally. How can you join something so exclusive as a fraternity of judgemental, celibate priests and then call yourself a person of God? Jesus has got to be laughing himself silly at the way in which we’ve perverted his life and mission.
7. And, you’ve got to know this one is coming from the penultimate sentence in item 6: Judge not lest ye be judged. It’s up to the individual to decide if they are fit to take communion, you can’t turn them down if you are really God’s Church. It isn’t your church, it’s God’s. You can’t presume to speak for Him if you’ve got one real ounce of reverence and perspective; you can say how you feel about something, that’s not just a right, it’s your duty but you cannot judge – that’s imply arrogating to yourself a power that is waaaaay beyond you! If you are a Priest/ess, you have the obligation to accept that an individual has judged him/her-self worthy of communion if they present themselves. You are the instrument, not the player. Give them the wine and the bread and let the rest take place between that person and God.
8. I really can’t see that these are the difficult issues. There are others, real doozies, that are problems that you’ve got to come to grips with in your life – your relationship to God is one that you’ve got to work out for yourself, no one can do it for you. It’s your obligation to listen to, even seek out the views of others (including those of the clergy) but, in the end, you’ve got to be an adult and do your best, you are going to take that step into eternity that everyone does but, like everyone else, you are going to have to do it alone and in your own way. That’s just how it is – there is nothing I’ve seen that says it’s easy and nothing that convinces me you should cede the responsibility for your relationship (or lack thereof) with God.
9. Good Luck! Thanks for the all the fish!
10. I'm not Catholic. It's not possible to be a lapsed Anglican -- I heard it on BBC Radio 4 this morning so it must be true -- but, if it were true, that's probably what I'd have to lay claim to. So, go ahead, tell me I have no right to an opinion. Frankly, I don't care, I'll still have one.
14 October 2007
Tom Lantos ought to read Orhan Pamuk!
My wife and I lived in Turkey for about a year. It is a beautiful European-Asian country. It’s people are welcoming, it’s cuisine is remarkable and it’s religious tolerance is an exemplar (the first friends we made in Istanbul were Turkish Jews, descendants of 15th century refugees from Christian Spain). Turkish is a sophisticated world-language whose range extends from the far West of China right up to the East of Europe; Turkish literature, art and music are all important elements of world-civilisation.
And there’s another plus – the wine is very drinkable. This country demonstrates what modern, secular Islam can be. I am even impressed at the recent election of a more conservative Muslim as President – I am sure he will be true to the secular spirit of Ataturk while trying to encourage people to adhere to the positive moral values of the Quran. You see, Turkey is mature; it will swing, of course (every country does), but it will swing within tolerable limits and it will remain true to itself and its values. This is the country of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver. It is the country of Ataturk. It is also the country of Orham Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner. It is Turkey the Brave and Turkey the Wise. Of course it’s got problems, who doesn’t?
About a hundred years ago something pretty terrible happened in Armenia. I don’t know who is responsible and I don’t know exactly what happened; a lot of people did die, I don’t think anyone serious disputes this. What I do know is that I don’t know a Turk today who would either endorse or encourage anything like this. That the current Government of Turkey does not wish to apologise because it contests the causes and the detail of the event is probably more of a contemporary political problem than anything to do with Armenia or what happened a century ago.
Here in England there has been a brouhaha over a proposal that the City of Bristol should formally apologise for it’s role in the slave trade – the source of much of the city’s wealth. They didn’t actually kill them (most of the time), but the slavers were complicit in a terrible evil that puts the Holocaust and Armenia in the shade. This cool Sunday morning I rode my bike down to the Imperial and Commonwealth Museum – an institution that tries to present a balanced view of some 400 years of British international policy. This year is the anniversary of Wilberforce’s historic success in getting the British to act against what many thought was their own self-interest and outlaw the slave trade. Before the terrible business was finally ended, though, some 24 million Africans were ripped from their homes and crammed into stinking, fetid, rocking ships that carried them into exile and life-long captivity. Of those 24 million, however, 12 million were murdered by the system itself before they ever formally became slaves, they were just poor kidnapped wretches who died.
Maybe we ought to clean up our own past before we clean up anybody else’s?
However, before I'm misinterpreted, let me be clear that I'm absolutely not advocating that we ought in any way to ignore any contemporary act of inhumanity, anywhere. I'm not even saying we should not study and learn from our past. Far from it! We must behave morally now and do what is right for humanity now. We ought to aim to be the first generation that no one in the future will have to apologise for. However awkward the structure of that sentence, that’s a pretty admirable objective, isn’t it?
But, as always, I digress. I was talking about Turkey, not about slavery and how Bristol got rich. Moving on, and this is not a non-sequitur: I want to point out that Tom Lantos is behaving stupidly. This US Congressman from California has decided that he ought to be one of the sponsors of a resolution in the US Congress that condemns Turkey for the Armenian Genocide a hundred years ago.
Amazingly, Lantos has decided to do this in the middle of a war when Turkey, one of our best and most loyal allies, is supporting our troops and giving us access to facilities in their country that are critical to our war effort. Turkey has even shown remarkable forbearance in the face of growing cross-border attacks by Kurdish terrorists (both the US and the UK have listed the PKK as a terrorist organisation). At the specific request of the US, they have not moved their very capable military across the frontier. They have given the US a chance to get an administration up and running in northern Turkey that might be able to control the PKK and bring peace to that troubled border. US policy is failing, mainly because the Iraqi Governemnt is weak, incompetent and corrupt. The Iraqi side of the frontier with Turkey is, essentially, no-man’s land and the PKK is running wild.
So Turkish soldiers and civilians have been murdered as a result of PKK terrorist incursions from the Iraqi side of the border. The US and Iraqi forces have not been able to prevent this – there are too few Americans and the Iraqis are not capable. So, to protect its citizens, the Turks have prepared to cross the border and take care of business. Frankly, I can’t blame them.
So, Tom Lantos and all you other idiots in Congress, please think these things through. Stop behaving stupidly! Why don’t you pass a resolution thanking Turkey for half a century or more as a loyal and brave ally? Why not speak up about the suffering of innocent Turks today? If you want the Turks to behave with restraint, you ought to treat them respectfully as serious and mature partners, not as some sordid, petty 3rd world bully – something they most definitely are not!
By the way, I have to declare my interest a bit further; it doesn't make me biased, it makes me more balanced, unlike Mr. Lantos. When I lived in Turkey I made a lot of Turkish friends, including Jews, Armenians and Greeks – all of them Turks! My daughter’s god-parents are Turks, Muslim Turks. Their values, their understanding, their compassion and their wisdom would do credit to any peace-loving, tolerant religion, anywhere! I am grateful for their friendship and the love they have given Alex – indeed, to all of us!
And there’s another plus – the wine is very drinkable. This country demonstrates what modern, secular Islam can be. I am even impressed at the recent election of a more conservative Muslim as President – I am sure he will be true to the secular spirit of Ataturk while trying to encourage people to adhere to the positive moral values of the Quran. You see, Turkey is mature; it will swing, of course (every country does), but it will swing within tolerable limits and it will remain true to itself and its values. This is the country of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver. It is the country of Ataturk. It is also the country of Orham Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner. It is Turkey the Brave and Turkey the Wise. Of course it’s got problems, who doesn’t?
About a hundred years ago something pretty terrible happened in Armenia. I don’t know who is responsible and I don’t know exactly what happened; a lot of people did die, I don’t think anyone serious disputes this. What I do know is that I don’t know a Turk today who would either endorse or encourage anything like this. That the current Government of Turkey does not wish to apologise because it contests the causes and the detail of the event is probably more of a contemporary political problem than anything to do with Armenia or what happened a century ago.
Here in England there has been a brouhaha over a proposal that the City of Bristol should formally apologise for it’s role in the slave trade – the source of much of the city’s wealth. They didn’t actually kill them (most of the time), but the slavers were complicit in a terrible evil that puts the Holocaust and Armenia in the shade. This cool Sunday morning I rode my bike down to the Imperial and Commonwealth Museum – an institution that tries to present a balanced view of some 400 years of British international policy. This year is the anniversary of Wilberforce’s historic success in getting the British to act against what many thought was their own self-interest and outlaw the slave trade. Before the terrible business was finally ended, though, some 24 million Africans were ripped from their homes and crammed into stinking, fetid, rocking ships that carried them into exile and life-long captivity. Of those 24 million, however, 12 million were murdered by the system itself before they ever formally became slaves, they were just poor kidnapped wretches who died.
Maybe we ought to clean up our own past before we clean up anybody else’s?
However, before I'm misinterpreted, let me be clear that I'm absolutely not advocating that we ought in any way to ignore any contemporary act of inhumanity, anywhere. I'm not even saying we should not study and learn from our past. Far from it! We must behave morally now and do what is right for humanity now. We ought to aim to be the first generation that no one in the future will have to apologise for. However awkward the structure of that sentence, that’s a pretty admirable objective, isn’t it?
But, as always, I digress. I was talking about Turkey, not about slavery and how Bristol got rich. Moving on, and this is not a non-sequitur: I want to point out that Tom Lantos is behaving stupidly. This US Congressman from California has decided that he ought to be one of the sponsors of a resolution in the US Congress that condemns Turkey for the Armenian Genocide a hundred years ago.
Amazingly, Lantos has decided to do this in the middle of a war when Turkey, one of our best and most loyal allies, is supporting our troops and giving us access to facilities in their country that are critical to our war effort. Turkey has even shown remarkable forbearance in the face of growing cross-border attacks by Kurdish terrorists (both the US and the UK have listed the PKK as a terrorist organisation). At the specific request of the US, they have not moved their very capable military across the frontier. They have given the US a chance to get an administration up and running in northern Turkey that might be able to control the PKK and bring peace to that troubled border. US policy is failing, mainly because the Iraqi Governemnt is weak, incompetent and corrupt. The Iraqi side of the frontier with Turkey is, essentially, no-man’s land and the PKK is running wild.
So Turkish soldiers and civilians have been murdered as a result of PKK terrorist incursions from the Iraqi side of the border. The US and Iraqi forces have not been able to prevent this – there are too few Americans and the Iraqis are not capable. So, to protect its citizens, the Turks have prepared to cross the border and take care of business. Frankly, I can’t blame them.
So, Tom Lantos and all you other idiots in Congress, please think these things through. Stop behaving stupidly! Why don’t you pass a resolution thanking Turkey for half a century or more as a loyal and brave ally? Why not speak up about the suffering of innocent Turks today? If you want the Turks to behave with restraint, you ought to treat them respectfully as serious and mature partners, not as some sordid, petty 3rd world bully – something they most definitely are not!
By the way, I have to declare my interest a bit further; it doesn't make me biased, it makes me more balanced, unlike Mr. Lantos. When I lived in Turkey I made a lot of Turkish friends, including Jews, Armenians and Greeks – all of them Turks! My daughter’s god-parents are Turks, Muslim Turks. Their values, their understanding, their compassion and their wisdom would do credit to any peace-loving, tolerant religion, anywhere! I am grateful for their friendship and the love they have given Alex – indeed, to all of us!
A Rant About the Pillsubry Dough Boy
I’m still very upset about the dirty hospitals! No, actually that's wrong; I'm not upset, I'm furious, I'm hugely pissed off! I am deeply offended that this is going on in modern Britain. I am profoundly angry that yet another crime is being perpetrated on the poor; it is an injustice -- the middle classes, those with private insurance can go to a clean BUPA hospital (I did) but if you are poor and you go to an NHS hospital, you may die of something that should not even be a vague worry and is completely disconnected from whatever took you there in the first place.
It happened on their watch and after they’d spend billions of pounds so, no matter what their story, it is Labour that is responsible for the fact that a lot of people are dying every year in Britain from various hospital super-bugs. And why is this? To be frank, I can’t figure it out. There is no excuse. You have to clean the floors, clean the commodes, change the bed linen, make sure that everyone washes their hands. How difficult is this?
One of those double-speak pundits on a Radio 4 chat show yesterday – a Talking Head sent over by the Labour Party – explained that you couldn’t make these changes immediately if the budget was too small and there wasn’t enough money in the kitty to pay for the extra cleaning.
I’m sorry? What is this about? A budget shortfall is not an excuse in this case: You simply give them the money from somewhere. If the hospital doesn’t have the money, you get it from the central office of the NHS and if they don’t have it, get it from Gordon Brown. Do not make lack of money the reason you kill people from something that is eminently and very cost-effectively prevented!
It is, after all, the by-God National HEALTH Service. It is supposed to take care of people, to make the sick well, isn’t it? It isn’t the National Infection Service! It isn’t the place you go to make people ill, it’s where you go to get better …
I saw a nonsense about a new ‘target’ to reduce C. Difficile by 30% in the next 3 years. What a load of complete and utter verbal fluff, in this case very dangerous fluff. You do not need to wait 3 years to reduce something so easily managed by 30%. Why not simply say you are going to reduce it by 100% in 3 months or, indeed, in a month? Put the institutions on a war footing. Let’s get serious. Put up a lot of signs, give matrons authority and responsibility, install those dispensers of anti-bacterial hand cleaners everywhere. Put in more soap! Encourage patients to help themselves by asking their doctors, nurses and attendants if they’ve washed their hands (with soap!). Follow the cleaners around and make sure they know what they have to do. Show them where the corners are. Explain to them that the underside of a cabinet or a wardrobe is not a black hole but a place to be cleaned! Make sure the commode’s are cleaned, the seats wiped with anti-bacterial cleaners, the floors gleaming and redolent of the smell of that green liquid that that you know shows no mercy towards any bacteria that is unfortunate enough to be in its path. Change the culture! Just do it, for God’s sake! This is a serious crisis people! I do not want to die from a wholly preventable bacterial disease that was contracted in a filthy, stinking ward, in a bed covered with shit-stained sheets, my last memory of a dirty bathroom, drinking from a water glass that hasn’t been cleaned properly, wondering why the ‘professionals’ – every one of them: the doctors, nurses, cleaners – hadn’t had the humanity to wash their hands and give me a chance to recover from whatever it was that put my in the hospital in the first instance but, instead, infected me with a disease that is going to unnecessarily kill me! I do not want this fate to happen to anyone.
But there is another layer of blame and this is even more serious. It’s not just about following the wrong orders which is the somewhat explainable fault of the hospitals (explainable, maybe, but still unjustifiable; there is a moral imperative not to follow wrong orders!) that have been charged with meeting ‘targets’. This is all about a failure of leadership. And this failure is right up there, at the top. Yes, my friends, it’s Gordon’s fault. Previously it was Tony’s fault but Gordon wanted the job and he’s going to have to take the responsibility. Lead on this, Gordon, for God’s sake! For the sake of people who can’t afford private health insurance, for the sake of their humanity and your own, Gordon, you’ve got to lead on this! Give the order today, call up Alan Johnson (or however you spell his name) and simply turn things around, now! I promise this will raise your polls because it often seems that is what matters to you more than anything. I see this morning you are 7 points behind the Tories. Well, if you clean up the NHS that 7 points will be erased and, what’s more, you will, in all likelihood, be saving more Labour than Tory voters’ lives.
If you don’t do this, Gordon, I am going to draw attention to the fact that you look like a mean version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy (you can google him if you don’t know what he looks like). You will not like this!
It happened on their watch and after they’d spend billions of pounds so, no matter what their story, it is Labour that is responsible for the fact that a lot of people are dying every year in Britain from various hospital super-bugs. And why is this? To be frank, I can’t figure it out. There is no excuse. You have to clean the floors, clean the commodes, change the bed linen, make sure that everyone washes their hands. How difficult is this?
One of those double-speak pundits on a Radio 4 chat show yesterday – a Talking Head sent over by the Labour Party – explained that you couldn’t make these changes immediately if the budget was too small and there wasn’t enough money in the kitty to pay for the extra cleaning.
I’m sorry? What is this about? A budget shortfall is not an excuse in this case: You simply give them the money from somewhere. If the hospital doesn’t have the money, you get it from the central office of the NHS and if they don’t have it, get it from Gordon Brown. Do not make lack of money the reason you kill people from something that is eminently and very cost-effectively prevented!
It is, after all, the by-God National HEALTH Service. It is supposed to take care of people, to make the sick well, isn’t it? It isn’t the National Infection Service! It isn’t the place you go to make people ill, it’s where you go to get better …
I saw a nonsense about a new ‘target’ to reduce C. Difficile by 30% in the next 3 years. What a load of complete and utter verbal fluff, in this case very dangerous fluff. You do not need to wait 3 years to reduce something so easily managed by 30%. Why not simply say you are going to reduce it by 100% in 3 months or, indeed, in a month? Put the institutions on a war footing. Let’s get serious. Put up a lot of signs, give matrons authority and responsibility, install those dispensers of anti-bacterial hand cleaners everywhere. Put in more soap! Encourage patients to help themselves by asking their doctors, nurses and attendants if they’ve washed their hands (with soap!). Follow the cleaners around and make sure they know what they have to do. Show them where the corners are. Explain to them that the underside of a cabinet or a wardrobe is not a black hole but a place to be cleaned! Make sure the commode’s are cleaned, the seats wiped with anti-bacterial cleaners, the floors gleaming and redolent of the smell of that green liquid that that you know shows no mercy towards any bacteria that is unfortunate enough to be in its path. Change the culture! Just do it, for God’s sake! This is a serious crisis people! I do not want to die from a wholly preventable bacterial disease that was contracted in a filthy, stinking ward, in a bed covered with shit-stained sheets, my last memory of a dirty bathroom, drinking from a water glass that hasn’t been cleaned properly, wondering why the ‘professionals’ – every one of them: the doctors, nurses, cleaners – hadn’t had the humanity to wash their hands and give me a chance to recover from whatever it was that put my in the hospital in the first instance but, instead, infected me with a disease that is going to unnecessarily kill me! I do not want this fate to happen to anyone.
But there is another layer of blame and this is even more serious. It’s not just about following the wrong orders which is the somewhat explainable fault of the hospitals (explainable, maybe, but still unjustifiable; there is a moral imperative not to follow wrong orders!) that have been charged with meeting ‘targets’. This is all about a failure of leadership. And this failure is right up there, at the top. Yes, my friends, it’s Gordon’s fault. Previously it was Tony’s fault but Gordon wanted the job and he’s going to have to take the responsibility. Lead on this, Gordon, for God’s sake! For the sake of people who can’t afford private health insurance, for the sake of their humanity and your own, Gordon, you’ve got to lead on this! Give the order today, call up Alan Johnson (or however you spell his name) and simply turn things around, now! I promise this will raise your polls because it often seems that is what matters to you more than anything. I see this morning you are 7 points behind the Tories. Well, if you clean up the NHS that 7 points will be erased and, what’s more, you will, in all likelihood, be saving more Labour than Tory voters’ lives.
If you don’t do this, Gordon, I am going to draw attention to the fact that you look like a mean version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy (you can google him if you don’t know what he looks like). You will not like this!
13 October 2007
Where are you Gordon?
Nicholas Sarkozy is there at the rugby match this evening. Where is Gordon? This is an important moment for English sentiment. Why isn’t he there? Tony Blair would have been. John Major would have been. Okay, Margaret wouldn’t have come but that’s because she always had more important things to do – she was excused. Gordon is no Margaret Thatcher.
Gordon Brown has dirty hands and he's no Eric Clapton
Recently I’ve been in the midst of a due diligence exercise that will, hopefully, lead to an important seed investment in a project. This process is something I’ve had involvement with numerous times before but the amount of detail that has gone into this particular exercise and the sheer picayune nature of the questions has been exhausting. At the beginning of this past week I thought we had just about gotten there but I was bushwhacked on Wednesday by a black swan question about the form of the investment. I thought we’d explained this thoroughly and identified the risks but clearly not as well as we might have – to be fair, the investment form is different than any other the investor has ever looked at. So, I spent several days scrambling around to get third party opinions that would help me calm this one down. At times I’ve honestly felt enough deal fatigue that I suspected we might never close this one; that makes for a generally bad week. Indeed, the week was bad enough that last night the team got together at about 5 PM and we all drank a glass of wine. The therapy worked and I’m much more tranquil today; we may never get that investment but I’m pretty satisfied we gave it the college try.
Reflecting on my week and comparing it with the last few for Gordon Brown – admittedly the scale may be wrong – helps to restore the yin-yang balance in my universal view. Gordon did indeed have a good run when he first got into office as Prime Minister. The honeymoon lasted the full 100 days and he had some very nicely manageable crises that boasted his public profile and the ratings. He went into the party conference on a high and gave a good workmanlike speech to wind it all up.
What I didn’t realise, very few of us has, is that Gordon is apparently a complete pragmatist: he’s in the game for the game, to become Prime Minister and stay Prime Minister. I think he’s in it for the rush of power, not for any higher purpose. His politics is the politics of expediency and contingency.
New Labour appears to be some sort of unwritten compromise with the establishment – a body I cannot actually define – whereby they become co-conspirators with the Tories in keeping the establishment in a manner that has nothing to do with the way that the vast majority live – including most of the middle and even a substantial portion of the upper middle class. You see, in this country you are paid a salary that is generally amongst the highest in the world but live a life-style that is amongst the least comfortable of the industrialised countries, you drive a car that costs as much or more than cars anywhere else, you fill it with fuel that is 50% more expensive in most EU countries, you eat at restaurants that are mediocre but more expensive, buy groceries that cost more, wear medium quality clothing that costs more, live in a smaller house that costs a lot more, ride a train that costs twice as much and goes half as fast (and is generally dirty to boot), pay huge fees to go to a mediocre ‘private’ school because the government schools are so shockingly bad, and pay expensive private health insurance so that if you do go to hospital, you have a better chance of leaving hospital on your feet (or in wa wheel chair) than in a bag because to go to the NHS is to expose yourself to one of the most miserably managed enterprises that has ever been created.
But, as is always the case, I digress but, frankly, I don’t care. I’m now onto the NHS and will get back to Brown in a moment – and if he’s the man in charge, he’s got to accept responsibility for the miserable state of the NHS. The NHS is killing people because they can’t get their staff to either wash their hands or clean the floors and toilets. This is not difficult to resolve. You simply pass the order and enforce it. Yesterday I heard an interview with some politician – I think it’s Alan Johnson (who’s got some role as Secretary or Health or something) – and he said that they had a new goal of reducing C. Dificile cases by 30% by 2010.
Why is this? Why can’t the goal be to reduce C. Dificile by 100% in 30 days? You have to clean the rooms, wash out the toilets and make sure that everyone frequently washes their hands with soap and water, certainly every time before and after they touch patients. What is so difficult about this? Why can’t this be done tomorrow? Why can’t they just send someone down to the shops to buy soap if they can’t find any in the supply closet? This makes no damn sense!
We lived in Spain for several years and my wife had to have surgery twice. Once she was operated on at a private hospital and the second time at a major teaching institution, a public hospital. Both times we were fine. The notion that the hospital wouldn’t be clear never entered our minds – it didn’t need to because there was a culture of cleanliness. What is going on over hear in dirty old Britain?
Someone I talked to yesterday remarked about how dangerous it was that nurses and other hospital personnel in this country go to work in uniform, riding on filthy underground trains or dirty buses in the same clothes that they are going to wear as they move around the wards. The two way opportunity here to carry a germ into or out of the hospital is truly fraught, isn’t it? Again, though, a pretty easy thing to straighten out – you come to work in street clothes and change into uniform at the hospital. This is pretty much how it’s done in the rest of the world – seems sometimes like half of the action in the series ‘Scrubs’ takes place in the locker room.
No locker room in the local NHS? No problem, use a room, even two rooms, for a while until a locker room gets fitted out. Don’t let the absence of a formal locker room prevent an action that would help to preserve lives.
The situation is so scandalous and the risk so dire that it baffles me completely why the public are not demanding the heads of those who are responsible for this unbelievable lack of compassion and who have not demonstrated even the elementary management skills to force everyone – visitors, nurses, cleaners, consultants, administration – who has anything to do with the hospitals to wash their damn hands! DO IT NOW!
So, Brown has a lot to answer for. Blair too, for that matter but I’m more forgiving of Tony because at least he had some principles and some objectives apart from wanting to be Prime Minister. In contrast to Brown, Tony did occasionally stand up for what he believed. He may have been wrong about going into Iraq but he was resolute in his conviction and he stuck to his guns. Brown is such a waffler that he looks Belgian.
I’m genuinely sick of politics. And, in my own country, we are looking at one of the most outstanding collections of the tired, the cynical, the ignorant and the appalling inept in my experience.
Fred Thompson is so tired that it’s a wonder he makes it from one appearance to another – perhaps he has a Winnebago fitted out with a big, comfortable bed so he can curl up for 40 between appearances that, from what I can tell, are completely without spark? He’s married to a young, vibrant, intelligent woman. Why doesn’t she run? Fred can stay home and watch the kids.
Mit Romney – trying hard to be sincere and maybe he is. I think it’s interesting that he’s a Mormon, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts and so darn good-looking. Something has got to be wrong with this picture – other than the Mormons don’t necessarily preach values that are shared by everyone else and certainly their history is drenched in blood (theirs and others – I’m not pointing a finger at anything here except the capacity of religion to avoid appealing to our minds and go directly to our passions).
Rudy Giuliani – smarmy and with a personal life that must have the Democrats salivating. He didn’t bottle it on 9/11 but, on the other hand, who had a chance to bottle it – this was not Iraq, you had no choice but to live through it or, if you were unfortunate enough to be right in the gunsights of those monsters, to die. Giuliani did help hold things together during that horrible period and I give him that but I’m not sure that’s enough to qualify him to be President.
John McCain – appears to have all the right qualities. He’s compassionate, he’s very honest, he’s intelligent, he has enormous character and great courage and he’s got a perspective on life that is unique. John McCain is a true American hero and a man who dedicated his life to real service for his country. Even worse, his policies appear to be balanced and rational. There must be something wrong but it doesn’t matter – he doesn’t stand a chance.
There are a couple of other Republicans but they haven’t even registered on my political richter scale.
Meantime, the country is led by a man who is so out of touch and so arrogant (thank you for confirming that in your recent autobiography, Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico) that we are in danger of blowing every iota of good will that anyone in the world has for us (including our last and best hope for allies in Europe, the Brits), letting the man-made contribution to global warming push us right over the tipping point and, in a related matter, continue to regard oil as more important than the lives of our Marines and Soldiers (not to mention the civilian men, women and children who are ‘collateral’ damage) and thereby make two additional big mistakes: inhibit the research and the innovation that will give us energy sources that will fuel a carbon neutral economy and support a medieval and corrupt theocracy in Saudi Arabia and a bunch of self-serving petty crooks in Iraq.
Is this a cock up or what?
Now, for the Democrats.
Hillary doesn’t stand a chance of being President. The American people are not going to elect her. She’s so blatantly hypocritical and so graspingly desperate for the power that she will say anything, sacrifice anyone and compromise every value to get there. She is the perfect soul-mate for Gordon Brown. I’m not even sure I understand why Bill hangs around. If we make the awful mistake of electing her, we aren’t going to have Bill as President, it’s Hillary everyone! Make sure you realise this!
Barak Obama: this isn’t going anywhere. This guy is so liberal and panders so much that his spine consists of the same stuff that my mother used to hold together the marshmallows and canned fruit in her famous fruit salad. Let me see, what was that called? Yes, I’ve got it, jello!
Bill Richardson: Well, this might have had some legs but I understand that Bill has a bit of a reputation. He’s got a wandering eye and the arrogance to assume he’s physically attractive to women. This sense of male entitlement is stupid. It’s not even sexy. Where’s the fun of the mutual tease, the frisson of getting to know someone, really know them, to fall in love and to grow together? If you’ve got a hankering to chase women and you want to be in politics, learn to please yourself! The two, politics and womanizing, do not match. Hell, they don’t match in the real world. If you are to be whole, you need to strive for integrity in your relationships with everyone, including spouses, partners and so on.
And, here I digress further but, again, I don’t give a damn, this leads me to those supposedly sophisticated French, Spanish, Portuguese (add anyone else here who is so immature that they think it’s okay that someone is an idiot and dis-respects women) who just look the other way at behaviour that is just wrong. This is not difficult people: it is wrong to go around cheating. This includes cheating banks, your neighbours, cheating in business or cheating on your partner. If you aren’t getting along and you need to do something else, leave your partner as honourably as you can so that you can pursue your other interests. Do not compromise her/him and your own integrity by cheating. It is simple. If you do not ultimately want to leave them, work it out. This is how you do it – you just get in there and you stick with it. This is how people with integrity behave. Society generally has this one completely wrong and most psychologists have a lot to answer for by authorising immature and selfish behaviour – you aren’t number 1 and you’d better realise it! If you’ve contracted to be in a relationship, commit to it or leave but do so as honourably as you can – you don’t cheat on a business contract and you don’t cheat in life! There is no middle ground here, it’s completely black and white and if you are looking for some sort of maudlin, soft-hearted permission to make yourself feel temporarily good, you aint gonna get it from me. If you did the crime – you do the time – feel bad and suffer! Learn that it’s a lot easier to sleep well if you do the right thing!
By the way, the moral rant above doesn’t mean that I haven’t had to feel bad and suffer. I have. It took me a lot of years to grow up. I’m not sure I’m completely there now; it’s a struggle but I recognise that this is what being an adult and a complete human being entails. It’s what I want to be. I’m not going to throw rocks at you but I’m certainly not going to feel bad for you or to be understanding – if you are in that type of mess, you are a damn fool!
You know, Eric Clapton is a hell of a person. I think he is what I’m talking about; he’s been on the other side but I think he’s come through. He’s got no excuses; he faces to up to what he was and what he did but he’s come out the other side. What he wrote about the death of his son, ‘would you know my name?’, is one of the most haunting, memorable songs I know. He falls in amongst the crowd for whom I’d consider voting because he’s honest and straight.
Gordon Brown is no Eric Clapton.
Reflecting on my week and comparing it with the last few for Gordon Brown – admittedly the scale may be wrong – helps to restore the yin-yang balance in my universal view. Gordon did indeed have a good run when he first got into office as Prime Minister. The honeymoon lasted the full 100 days and he had some very nicely manageable crises that boasted his public profile and the ratings. He went into the party conference on a high and gave a good workmanlike speech to wind it all up.
What I didn’t realise, very few of us has, is that Gordon is apparently a complete pragmatist: he’s in the game for the game, to become Prime Minister and stay Prime Minister. I think he’s in it for the rush of power, not for any higher purpose. His politics is the politics of expediency and contingency.
New Labour appears to be some sort of unwritten compromise with the establishment – a body I cannot actually define – whereby they become co-conspirators with the Tories in keeping the establishment in a manner that has nothing to do with the way that the vast majority live – including most of the middle and even a substantial portion of the upper middle class. You see, in this country you are paid a salary that is generally amongst the highest in the world but live a life-style that is amongst the least comfortable of the industrialised countries, you drive a car that costs as much or more than cars anywhere else, you fill it with fuel that is 50% more expensive in most EU countries, you eat at restaurants that are mediocre but more expensive, buy groceries that cost more, wear medium quality clothing that costs more, live in a smaller house that costs a lot more, ride a train that costs twice as much and goes half as fast (and is generally dirty to boot), pay huge fees to go to a mediocre ‘private’ school because the government schools are so shockingly bad, and pay expensive private health insurance so that if you do go to hospital, you have a better chance of leaving hospital on your feet (or in wa wheel chair) than in a bag because to go to the NHS is to expose yourself to one of the most miserably managed enterprises that has ever been created.
But, as is always the case, I digress but, frankly, I don’t care. I’m now onto the NHS and will get back to Brown in a moment – and if he’s the man in charge, he’s got to accept responsibility for the miserable state of the NHS. The NHS is killing people because they can’t get their staff to either wash their hands or clean the floors and toilets. This is not difficult to resolve. You simply pass the order and enforce it. Yesterday I heard an interview with some politician – I think it’s Alan Johnson (who’s got some role as Secretary or Health or something) – and he said that they had a new goal of reducing C. Dificile cases by 30% by 2010.
Why is this? Why can’t the goal be to reduce C. Dificile by 100% in 30 days? You have to clean the rooms, wash out the toilets and make sure that everyone frequently washes their hands with soap and water, certainly every time before and after they touch patients. What is so difficult about this? Why can’t this be done tomorrow? Why can’t they just send someone down to the shops to buy soap if they can’t find any in the supply closet? This makes no damn sense!
We lived in Spain for several years and my wife had to have surgery twice. Once she was operated on at a private hospital and the second time at a major teaching institution, a public hospital. Both times we were fine. The notion that the hospital wouldn’t be clear never entered our minds – it didn’t need to because there was a culture of cleanliness. What is going on over hear in dirty old Britain?
Someone I talked to yesterday remarked about how dangerous it was that nurses and other hospital personnel in this country go to work in uniform, riding on filthy underground trains or dirty buses in the same clothes that they are going to wear as they move around the wards. The two way opportunity here to carry a germ into or out of the hospital is truly fraught, isn’t it? Again, though, a pretty easy thing to straighten out – you come to work in street clothes and change into uniform at the hospital. This is pretty much how it’s done in the rest of the world – seems sometimes like half of the action in the series ‘Scrubs’ takes place in the locker room.
No locker room in the local NHS? No problem, use a room, even two rooms, for a while until a locker room gets fitted out. Don’t let the absence of a formal locker room prevent an action that would help to preserve lives.
The situation is so scandalous and the risk so dire that it baffles me completely why the public are not demanding the heads of those who are responsible for this unbelievable lack of compassion and who have not demonstrated even the elementary management skills to force everyone – visitors, nurses, cleaners, consultants, administration – who has anything to do with the hospitals to wash their damn hands! DO IT NOW!
So, Brown has a lot to answer for. Blair too, for that matter but I’m more forgiving of Tony because at least he had some principles and some objectives apart from wanting to be Prime Minister. In contrast to Brown, Tony did occasionally stand up for what he believed. He may have been wrong about going into Iraq but he was resolute in his conviction and he stuck to his guns. Brown is such a waffler that he looks Belgian.
I’m genuinely sick of politics. And, in my own country, we are looking at one of the most outstanding collections of the tired, the cynical, the ignorant and the appalling inept in my experience.
Fred Thompson is so tired that it’s a wonder he makes it from one appearance to another – perhaps he has a Winnebago fitted out with a big, comfortable bed so he can curl up for 40 between appearances that, from what I can tell, are completely without spark? He’s married to a young, vibrant, intelligent woman. Why doesn’t she run? Fred can stay home and watch the kids.
Mit Romney – trying hard to be sincere and maybe he is. I think it’s interesting that he’s a Mormon, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts and so darn good-looking. Something has got to be wrong with this picture – other than the Mormons don’t necessarily preach values that are shared by everyone else and certainly their history is drenched in blood (theirs and others – I’m not pointing a finger at anything here except the capacity of religion to avoid appealing to our minds and go directly to our passions).
Rudy Giuliani – smarmy and with a personal life that must have the Democrats salivating. He didn’t bottle it on 9/11 but, on the other hand, who had a chance to bottle it – this was not Iraq, you had no choice but to live through it or, if you were unfortunate enough to be right in the gunsights of those monsters, to die. Giuliani did help hold things together during that horrible period and I give him that but I’m not sure that’s enough to qualify him to be President.
John McCain – appears to have all the right qualities. He’s compassionate, he’s very honest, he’s intelligent, he has enormous character and great courage and he’s got a perspective on life that is unique. John McCain is a true American hero and a man who dedicated his life to real service for his country. Even worse, his policies appear to be balanced and rational. There must be something wrong but it doesn’t matter – he doesn’t stand a chance.
There are a couple of other Republicans but they haven’t even registered on my political richter scale.
Meantime, the country is led by a man who is so out of touch and so arrogant (thank you for confirming that in your recent autobiography, Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico) that we are in danger of blowing every iota of good will that anyone in the world has for us (including our last and best hope for allies in Europe, the Brits), letting the man-made contribution to global warming push us right over the tipping point and, in a related matter, continue to regard oil as more important than the lives of our Marines and Soldiers (not to mention the civilian men, women and children who are ‘collateral’ damage) and thereby make two additional big mistakes: inhibit the research and the innovation that will give us energy sources that will fuel a carbon neutral economy and support a medieval and corrupt theocracy in Saudi Arabia and a bunch of self-serving petty crooks in Iraq.
Is this a cock up or what?
Now, for the Democrats.
Hillary doesn’t stand a chance of being President. The American people are not going to elect her. She’s so blatantly hypocritical and so graspingly desperate for the power that she will say anything, sacrifice anyone and compromise every value to get there. She is the perfect soul-mate for Gordon Brown. I’m not even sure I understand why Bill hangs around. If we make the awful mistake of electing her, we aren’t going to have Bill as President, it’s Hillary everyone! Make sure you realise this!
Barak Obama: this isn’t going anywhere. This guy is so liberal and panders so much that his spine consists of the same stuff that my mother used to hold together the marshmallows and canned fruit in her famous fruit salad. Let me see, what was that called? Yes, I’ve got it, jello!
Bill Richardson: Well, this might have had some legs but I understand that Bill has a bit of a reputation. He’s got a wandering eye and the arrogance to assume he’s physically attractive to women. This sense of male entitlement is stupid. It’s not even sexy. Where’s the fun of the mutual tease, the frisson of getting to know someone, really know them, to fall in love and to grow together? If you’ve got a hankering to chase women and you want to be in politics, learn to please yourself! The two, politics and womanizing, do not match. Hell, they don’t match in the real world. If you are to be whole, you need to strive for integrity in your relationships with everyone, including spouses, partners and so on.
And, here I digress further but, again, I don’t give a damn, this leads me to those supposedly sophisticated French, Spanish, Portuguese (add anyone else here who is so immature that they think it’s okay that someone is an idiot and dis-respects women) who just look the other way at behaviour that is just wrong. This is not difficult people: it is wrong to go around cheating. This includes cheating banks, your neighbours, cheating in business or cheating on your partner. If you aren’t getting along and you need to do something else, leave your partner as honourably as you can so that you can pursue your other interests. Do not compromise her/him and your own integrity by cheating. It is simple. If you do not ultimately want to leave them, work it out. This is how you do it – you just get in there and you stick with it. This is how people with integrity behave. Society generally has this one completely wrong and most psychologists have a lot to answer for by authorising immature and selfish behaviour – you aren’t number 1 and you’d better realise it! If you’ve contracted to be in a relationship, commit to it or leave but do so as honourably as you can – you don’t cheat on a business contract and you don’t cheat in life! There is no middle ground here, it’s completely black and white and if you are looking for some sort of maudlin, soft-hearted permission to make yourself feel temporarily good, you aint gonna get it from me. If you did the crime – you do the time – feel bad and suffer! Learn that it’s a lot easier to sleep well if you do the right thing!
By the way, the moral rant above doesn’t mean that I haven’t had to feel bad and suffer. I have. It took me a lot of years to grow up. I’m not sure I’m completely there now; it’s a struggle but I recognise that this is what being an adult and a complete human being entails. It’s what I want to be. I’m not going to throw rocks at you but I’m certainly not going to feel bad for you or to be understanding – if you are in that type of mess, you are a damn fool!
You know, Eric Clapton is a hell of a person. I think he is what I’m talking about; he’s been on the other side but I think he’s come through. He’s got no excuses; he faces to up to what he was and what he did but he’s come out the other side. What he wrote about the death of his son, ‘would you know my name?’, is one of the most haunting, memorable songs I know. He falls in amongst the crowd for whom I’d consider voting because he’s honest and straight.
Gordon Brown is no Eric Clapton.
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