Labi Siffre - Into The Light

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Great Britain fought WW2 in a Multi-Nation, Multi-Culture, Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Colour, Multi-Language force. No one did it alone. No one does it alone. As then we’re better together.

The Fantasy That Is Brexit Is An Ambush.

#StopBrexit 

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STROLLING IN THE PARK

"The insignificant
For example
Putin
Trump
Farage
Pol Pot
Widdecombe
Wilders
Xi Jinping
Boris Johnson
Le Pen
Victor Orban
Kim Jong-un
Are of no account;
But their followers
Are of interest.”

“Why so?”

“Because after thousands
Of years they have
Learned
Nothing. That
Isn’t easy to do.”

 

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AVOIDANCE COPING

In 1948, given the biggest share
Of Marshall Aid
GB wasted it
Clinging to Empire
While Germany invested
In Industrial Modernisation.

North Sea oil revenue?
GB wasted it
On tax cuts
While Norway invested it
With a North Sea Oil Sovereign wealth fund
(Now the world's largest)
For its people
Who because of that
Are now more secure
Than ours.

In answer to
The 2007/2008 US-made crash?
GB chose austerity
And more austerity
(Top down? You must be joking!)

And none of this
None of this
None of this
Had a jot to do
With the EU

So, the wilfully ignorant
GB lashing out response is Brexit
After all
We beat the Germans
All On Our Own
In two world wars
(really? All on our own?)
Then beat 'em again
In the '66 world cup

For twenty years, thanks to Rupert Murdoch and other robber barons, Brits have been taught to hate the EU (for things it hasn't done) by The Sun, The Mail, The Express (newspapers) and their ilk; but isn't it really Germany we hate, for doing what GB should have done after WW2 but didn't? And is it perhaps that, still with the hubris of Empire, we hate mirrors even more than we hate the Germans?
*
["Britain received more than a third more Marshall Aid than West Germany - $2.7 billion as against $1.7 billion. Britain pocketed the largest share of any European nation"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/hist…/british/modern/marshall_01.shtml]
*
["Had Thatcher been a truly visionary politician, she would have established a wealth fund for the oil windfall, not squandered it on tax cuts and current spending."
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/thatcher-and-north-sea-oil-–-failure-invest-britain?fbclid=IwAR0OF5zyvez7FtEXx3gMmlssK-PnHbxaoqTxfruYmGjwQyozVaaUHmTGH0A]
*
[In Britain, Austerity Is Changing Everything
After eight years of budget cutting, Britain is looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.
[https://www.nytimes.com/…/…/europe/uk-austerity-poverty.html]

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Brexit - Winners & Losers

For a start, it isn't a competition. We are not in the playground. We are supposed to be fighting to protect the vulnerable. We have a duty to do so. Those earning the average income circa £28,000 a year, or earning less or much less and those just getting by, according to the government's own estimation will be harmed by Brexit; any Brexit. No version of Brexit will leave us in a situation as beneficial as remaining in the EU. That, as far as I am concerned, is where the conversation starts.

 

As for "get over the referendum vote”, "be optimistic" and "see a glass that is half full”: in this age in which water wars, violent conflicts over water, are already raging: I see a glass that is half full for those who can afford to pay for it and a glass that is much less full for those who cannot. I also see a glass that is overflowing for Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Iain Duncan Smith, Nigel Farage, Viscount Rothermere, The Barclay Brothers and Rupert Murdoch. The robber barons inciting this one sided self-harming UK insanity will glide through Brexit their fortunes enhanced. Large numbers of those who voted for Brexit will be very very much less fortunate. The fight against Brexit is a fight for the wellbeing of Leavers and Remainers alike because the aforementioned “not wealthy” are, “all in it together” … and in the case of Brexit, the “it” stinks.

 

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BLAMELESS

Cos homo sapiens
Is a lazy
(intellectually)
Wilfully ignorant
Species
We look
For easy answers

And cos we want easy
Answers
We made, make and remake
God
(The easy answer to
and for
everything)

And cos we hate most
To be found
Guilty
Responsibility isn’t our bag
So what we make, we say we found
Cos what we find
Was left behind
By something or someone else:
God

So we
Can’t be
Responsible for it
Nor for what we say it says
Nor for what we say it does
Nor for what we say it demands
And thus we achieve our primary goal:
To be blameless

Best of all
On its behalf
As faithful servants
We can demand
Others behave
In the way we say
God demands

And on God’s behalf
We penalise those
Who disobey it/us
And still remain
Blameless

The perfect path to éminence grise
Political power
While we claim, as always,
To be merely
“Believers"

BREXIT - "TRADE IS IMPORTANT, BUT … "

(UK Foreign Sec J Hunt BBC Radio4 the “Today” program 15/4/19).

 

That "but" is appropriate if you are attempting to conceal "The Brexit Dividend” the effect of reduced national wealth that Brexit will bring to those British People already not wealthy, to the NHS, social care, policing, the price of affordable justice, schools, security and adequately paid jobs.

 

Don't be fooled by promises of how easy it will be, how optimism will overcome all problems. This is real life not an uplifting heart-warming movie. Brexit means 2008 financial crash austerity will be followed by Brexit austerity.

 

Except for our competitors and enemies (Putin’s Russia, China and the circling vultures of Donald Trump’s USA) nations pursuing global economic stability want the UK to “Remain". Our enemies and competitors realise that when no longer a member of the EU (the world's largest Trading Bloc) the UK will be weaker. We will certainly be at the mercy of and much easier prey for US demands to lower our standards and economic defences in any “Free” Trade Deal negotiation. On top of that we'll be more vulnerable to demands for access from China, Saudi-Arabia and India in exchange for what our government of the day will describe as … "favourable deals" ... (favourable to who?).

 

Brexit will also weaken the EU and Western Europe, again making Russia and China and the USA stronger, again making us weaker in influence and economically. Brexit is in the best interests of our competitors and enemies. Collectively, the UK made an EU referendum mistake. The fault will be our collective lack of courage to admit that mistake and collectively rectify that error.

 

Don't be fooled by promises of how we will win and survive as we won and survived the second world war. Our parents and grandparents won WW2 as part of a multi-nation, multi-culture, multi-ethnic, multi-colour, multi-language enterprise. We wisely subsumed our individual sovereignties into a force able to endure setbacks and achieve victory. No one did it alone. No one does it alone. Then as now it is vital to realise we're better together.

 

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Brexit Self-Harm Writ Large

Theresa May says, "No government could give a blank cheque to commit to an outcome without knowing what it is.”
That is exactly what she and her government did on the 29th of March 2017 when they invoked Article 50.

UK citizens must fight, democratically, to revoke Article 50.

It is Parliament's duty to protect citizens, especially the vulnerable, not to slavishly kowtow to their whimsical view that the EU is responsible for our problems of austerity and serious shortage of resources (cash) leading to the 5th or currently 6th richest nation having a health and social care system not fit for purpose, a seriously depleted police force and a council cashflow inability to fill potholes.

Our problems of austerity and our serious shortage of resources (cash) were caused by the relaxation of USA & UK banking rules by President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; yes, history has a very very very long reach. These relaxations led to roulette bank practices which in turn lead to the 2008 crash, from which we and other nations are still recovering and because of which, UK governments CHOSE austerity. None of this is due to the EU.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47689415

Incidentally: Under European Parliament and Council Directive 2004/38/EC, EU member states can repatriate EU nationals after three months if they have not found a job or do not have the means to support themselves.
Unlike other EU member states, the UK does not use this directive. Why not?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/31/britain-take-back-control-immigration-eu-directive-brexit?

 

 

"Terrorists Don't Have A Religion”?

On the contrary, evidence strongly suggests that there have been few, if any, terrorist attacks by atheists in the past forty years. Even so called “militant” atheists choose debate and computer keyboards, not guns.

In the past forty years, terrorism has been almost exclusively religious-terrorism inspired by and wielded in the cause, defence and name of religion.

Claims that "terrorists do not represent our religion" and all religions are "religions of peace" are the craven responses of hubris ridden, self-aggrandisers claiming, with no evidence, that there is a perfect, all powerful supernatural being which above all else loves and justifies them, personally; the subtext being that If everything is God's will, humans (especially believers) conveniently cannot be guilty of anything.

More craven still is the subtext which more than implies that theists, the religious, those who believe in God, by definition cannot BE terrorists. Convenient indeed.

"Terrorists Don't Have A Religion”? On the contrary, in our lifetime they are rarely, if ever, without one.

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THE BASIS OF BIGOTRY

How dare you be different from me

How dare you not look, talk, think,

Feel

As I do

How dare you constantly suggest

As you do by being other

That I

What I think

What I feel

What I am

Is wrong

 

How dare you suggest

As you do by being other

That I am not the standard

By which all should be judged

How dare you

As you do by being other

Make me feel uneasy

Insecure

“Uncomfortable”

 

I will hurt you for your insult

Of not being like me

I will punish you for this affront

I will righteously condemn you for your crime

Of existing

As “other”:

How dare you be different from me

How DARE you be DIFFERENT from me

 

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DEMOCRACY

The US Electoral College makes
The USA less
Democratic than the UK of GB's
Parliamentary Democracy

Though the UK's First Past The Post
System makes the UK less
Democratic than any nation employing
The Single Transferable Vote
The most democratic hope

***

How Democratic Are We?
Find out here: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/

 

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The Nature Of Things

Expect little applause
For facts or fact based
Evidence; superstition
Usually wins
The popular vote

Or it is perhaps that
An age of reason
Followed by ages of superstition
Intellectual laziness and lashing out
Is as inevitable as "Boom & Bust”:
"The Economic Cycle”

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VINDICATED: An assessement of President Trump & his Godly base

Taught that if you smile the fools
Think you honest he learns
They don’t care that he lies
That he's a crook
As long as he gets them
What they want:
Revenge for not having
Been born
Like him:
Privileged

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Of Men And Women As Mice

That God needed
To create
Proves
God doesn’t exist

No matter how clear this is
Human absurdity
(Theism)
Persists

 

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IN THIS KEY, SINGING “SO” “LA” “TI” “UM” AIN’T ENOUGH

A truck is fundamental to the success of your business
But you can’t afford one.
So your parents buy a second-hand truck and give it to you
So you can improve your business/earnings/status/wealth.

A year later, your business a success because of the truck,
There’s a knock on the door and it’s the police.
They tell you the truck you have was stolen
And has to be returned.
Your parents say, “But we bought that truck in good faith!”.
Still the police and the law and morality tell you and your parents
The truck has to be returned to its rightful owner.

And so it is with the wealth and resources of Colonialism.

"But that’s different!”, you say,
And I agree:
The difference is
The truck was stolen
But the rightful owners weren’t killed
(Or used as forced labour) by the thieves

And still the truck, legally and morally,
Has to be returned.

+
[“Solatium”? Look it up.]
+

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UNBELIEVABLE (sans exclamation mark)

Shakespeare would have rated Donald J. Trump (a known racist and sexual predator: voted, as such, to the Presidency of the United States of America), Brexit (the United Kingdom of Great Britain voting to cast aside its influence, respect, income and the wellbeing of it’s people) and Robert Mugabe (Caesar surprising the knife wielders by wearing a Kevlar vest under his toga [for the moment] his supposed assasins watching helpless as he carries on regardless) all this, Shakespeare would have rated as too far-fetched even for his pen.

It’s A Wonderful Life

 

When folk declare they're compassionate

Claim to believe

In openness and honesty

I distrust them, immediately

 

Am I compassionate? I don’t know

Open?

Honest?

I don’t trust myself either;

Neither do I know I'm sincere

Till twenty years on, under fire, I find

I’ve stuck to my guns

(Though history makes it clear

Being sincere

Doesn’t mean I’m right)

 

In a world where parents, with passion say

“If I found my son was gay I’d kill him”

And they do

And discovering their daughter

"Fallen"

In love with a man of another faith

They feel

Justified killing her, righteous

 

And we’re all, all of us, compassionate, decent,

Ordinary, hard working

Men and women

And we’re all, all of us, intelligent and do

The best we can, the best tin can

From ashes to ashes

From dust to dust

And I don’t trust any of us

 

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Brexit: No, They Don't Need Us As Much As We Need Them.

When leaving a club, don't expect club rules to be changed to benefit you at the expense of remaining members.

 

Expect your debts and commitments to be pursued, in full.

 

Statements that your creditors can "go whistle" won't encourage your creditors to trust you.

 

It should come as no surprise to adults that the more powerful in a negotiation use that power advantage, as we have a history of doing (e.g. in the slave trade and the Commonwealth, the proceeds of both of which we continue to benefit from through the infrastructure advantage resources from both gave us).

 

Without the UK, the EU will remain the second largest economy in the world.

 

As a nation, rather than "taking back control" we have chosen to be supplicants. Post Brexit, we will be weakened by no longer being part of the second largest economy in the world. America, China, India etc will take advantage of that weakness in any trade deal negotiations, including those with the World Trade Organisation.

 

Since the referendum, we have learned more about the complexities and dangers of Brexit. To ignore what we have learned, and continue to learn, would be to betray "the will of the people". Our sovereign legal system of government, Parliamentary Democracy, demands that our supreme legal authority, Parliament, not the government, has the final say.

 

"Zombie Ideas About Brexit That Refuse To Die"

Fighting The Ideology

If you believe God helps you win a sports match or race or competition, how DARE YOU blame those who believe God gifts them with paradise for murdering civilians.

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I'm Not "Brexit Weary"

I'm "Brexit Wary" and every piece of research I do makes me more so.

"We Only Kill Black People"

 

 

"We Only Kill Black People” the police officer said
"He was joking" some claimed
But here’s the thing
I don’t hear any black people laughing

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State of the Union

Americans are anguished
Societies divided, riven, in need
Of balm

To smooth troubled waters
Heal US communities and
Avoid mass employment
Of what so many Americans own:
Automatic weapons, bazookas, mortars,
I suggest

Beside each monument to the confederacy
Raise a monument to Malcolm X
or
Harriet Tubman
or
Martin Luther King

As democratically elected Potus Trump,
Limboing under the belly of a poisonous snake,
Would tweetingly sing, "Problem solved
… easy!’
Ring-a-ding-hoping for the emergence of
An alt-right, fourth Reich, blood soaked, Breitbart,
Final solution BLING!

Way to go! Way to go!
Way to go Trump!
Way to go Scotus hungry Republican party!
We got one black President
Just one
And in outraged, white manhood threatened response
You’ve made a killing

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Trump, Statues and The State of A Black and White Nation

Enemies are an important part of our history
Should we commemorate them
With statues?
Of Adolf Hitler, for example?
Would that be socially, culturally, educationally helpful
Or harmful?

Robert E. Lee
Hero of the Confederacy
Was a Black people’s enemy
Should Americans oppose
Only statues of the enemies of white folks?
An intriguing sequel to the (updated
For the sake of inclusivity) declaration
That all people
Are "created equal"

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Labi Siffre In Conversation with Tom Robinson

Available to listen to until August 27th 2017

"Amazing interview with Labi Siffre, worth listening to for countless reasons"

Alistair Little

"Very rewarding interview with @labisiffre by @freshnet. Unexpected and brilliant"

Tim Thornton

"tbh, didn't really know anything about this artist, apart from (Something Inside) So-Strong - but what a talent! Worth it for "The Vulture" alone!"

Mark Gradwell

"Absolutely brilliant interview of @labisiffre by @gladtobegay. Worth a listen. Great music too"
Anneke P

"I listened to this awesome programme on way back from my first week today. @labisiffre you are a beacon of inspiration to us all"

Beverley Bryant

I listened to your chat with Tom Robinson last week. It was absolutely fantastic and fascinating. Thanks for it.

olly page

LOVED the Tom Robinson interview. Could listen to you both all day. Thank you.
Ian Conningham 

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The Children Of Brex Get It

And so in this the children
Wiser than their parents see
Their future blocked
By their elders' fears

The children denied a voice
By gerrymanderers offering scapegoats and
A good old days that cannot come;
That river they promise ... has moved on

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Statement Of The Obvious re: Brexit

A Statement Of The Obvious that we British, in our collective arrogance and wilful ignorance, seem incapable of grasping:

The rules of a club I join then wish to leave are made by the club not by me.

re Brexit: "Just a polite reminder to British exceptionalists that our only decision will be whether to accept or reject whatever the EU27 offer us." ~ Seb Dance UK MEP

In our collective defence, the Single Market and Customs Union (and so much more required for an informed referendum vote) were rarely (never?) mentioned by the instigator, PM David Cameron, nor by "The Brexit 5", Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan-Smith, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and their Brexiteer fellows.
Quick, someone call a statistician. Sorry, we can't ... they're experts!

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