The Shambles, York

The Shambles, York, originally uploaded by GwilymGoch.

This is the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow, in York. Earlier this year when on holiday in York I visited the shrine several times. It is a wonderfully peaceful oasis in a seething ocean of tourists and shoppers.

The best bit was being able to go to Mass on the saturday morning, I thought that there might be half a dozen people there, but the place was packed solid. It was really great to see it so full and the simple Mass was very moving.

I'm sure St Margaret is delighted to see so many people at Mass in the same street where she kept the faith alive all those years ago.

Yet another stealth tax

So we are going to be stiffed with yet another unfair tax: Tax to pay for fast net access
And where will the money go? If you think it will go on better broadband you really are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. They are probably saving up for the next pointless war; or maybe to give themselves a nice big pay rise to make up for the lost expenses.

Another kick in the teeth for British Democracy

Just read this story on the BBC: Force disciplines police blogger
Typical - how is it the public interest that people with the courage to blow the whistle are not protected from retribution?

How can we complain about the Iranian government stifling criticism if we are doing the same thing?

How long before elections in this country are rigged by the ruling party? Let's face it, it's the only way gormless Gorden is ever going to win!

Speaking of Iran - viva la revolución!

History

I have just been reading one of C. J. Sansom's 'Shardlake' books, an excellent read. It set me thinking about British history.

Possibly the two most important events in our post-Roman history were the Norman Conquest and the Reformation. These two events made this country what it is today: a Godless, money obsessed, inequitable society where drunkenness and violence are ubiquitous.

Thank you to William the Bastard & fat syphilitic Henry, two of the most nasty gits in a long succession of evil English Kings. Great adverts for republicanism both.

Moron Alert

I just had a flyer through the door from the BNP (Brainless Nazi Party?)

In addition to the usual Union Flags and pictures of nice WASPs (that's the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants not the insects) I noticed a picture of a Spitfire.

Imagine my surprise when I looked more closely and noticed the red & white chequered emblem of one of the Polish Squadrons serving with the RAF during WWII (In fact this appears to be a Spitfire Vb of 303 Polish Squadron, which is credited with the highest number of enemy kills during the Battle of Britain)

Given all their complaints about immigrant Polish workers I was highly amused to see this and leaves me asking just one question:

JUST HOW STUPID ARE THESE IDIOTS???

If you do intend to vote during the European elections all I can say is please, please, please ignore the poisonous propaganda of these dangerous fools!

No european elections for me

As a codicil to my previous post, I notice that the European elections are going to be run on the basis of Party lists - so you don't get any choice as to which individual represents you it is all down to the Party.

As this is the case I won't be voting on June 4th as I would only be able to support a party.

As an aside; this system is a good way of allowing extremist political parties to gain power. The geographically based vote for an individual candidate mitigates against this.

Don't assent to this flawed system by voting next month, if we don't play along with the party system it will have to change.

Pigs at the trough

It's nice to see that people are finally waking up to the fact that our politician's are all corrupt. Why has this happened. Very simple: the party political oligarchy which runs this country. M.P.s are not answerable to their constituents they are answerable to the party to which they belong, their allegiance is not to the people and the area they claim to represent it is to the party hierarchy.

How can this be solved, how can we have a system of government where those who make our laws and run our country are truly our servants. Simple BAN ALL POLITICAL PARTIES.

M.P.s should all be independent with no ties to a larger organisation. If this happened candidates would have to persuade the electorate that they personally were worthy of our votes; they would have to prove that they would represent their constituency at all times and not follow any party line.

It would also force the electorate to engage with the process more, no longer would people say "I'll vote labour" or "I'll vote conservative" through some sort of tribal loyalty, they would actually have to listen to the candidates and decide which person was the one they liked best. It would create a much more democratic system, based on individual merit not a faceless party machine.

If one lesson should have been learned from Communism and Nazism it is that "the party" is the antithesis of democracy. It acts against the individual will and freedom of conscience.

Without political parties a new form of consensus politics would have to emerge, the Prime Minister would have to represent all of Parliament not a single grouping. Every issue & every law would have to be argued on its merits to the country as a whole; there would be no whips to ensure that M.P.s toed the line.

I have decided that I will never again support a political party of any hue, nor will I vote for any candidate who belongs to one. If I vote for anyone it will be for someone who has proven to me that he or she is honest, moral and fearless in standing up for what is right - I simply don't believe any party hack can meet these criteria.

Interesting article

Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity.

A friend passed this link on to me, it is an article by A.N. Wilson, about his return to faith and lambasting the godless elite destroying this country. It is well worth a read and very refreshing to see someone standing up to the anti-Christian mafia.

Some welcome news

Good news, we have a new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols: "A 'tough champion' for Catholics" & "Pastor with a political touch". This is the man that Cardinal Hume wanted to succeed him and I think the Holy See has probably made a good choice.

I'm glad to see he is making his presence felt already: "Archbishop condemns abortion ads".

Unwelcome but not unexpected

So Tony Blair has finally raised his ugly head again: "Blair questions papal gay policy". How dare he presume to know what ordinary Catholics think!

I am not at all surprised to find that many Catholic bloggers have criticised him. I am however, disappointed that the Church does not appear to have responded officially. It seems that not only is Blair allowed to join the Church despite espousing causes which would lead to the excommunication of anyone else, but now he's allowed to claim he represents the lay people of the Church with his noxious lies.

Of course the BBC has once again totally failed to understand the Catholic Church. This is not 'papal gay policy' as they put it, this is the doctrinal teaching of the Church!

Better late than never

Finally, three days late as usual, the Vatican has managed to cotton on to the fact that they've made a terrible blunder: 'Holocaust bishop' told to recant

Oh no not again!

Just been reading up on the furore surrounding the re-admission of four excommunicated 'bishops' to the Church: Pope move ignites Holocaust row.

Once more the Vatican is suffering from 'foot in mouth' syndrome. What were they thinking of, letting that bunch of fascists back in?

We are not only talking about a bunch of Holocaust deniers, but also a group that once sheltered a wanted war criminal.

If you can watch this and still believe that this person is fit to be a minister in the Catholic Church then I can only pity you.

Somebody really needs to remind these people that Jesus, Mary and all the apostles were Jewish and would all have ended up in the gas chambers if they'd been unfortunate enough to find themselves in Nazi's clutches.

Do's and Don'ts

Christianity is often portrayed in our society, sometimes justly, and a religion of Don'ts; Don't do this and don't do that. However, if you look at the Gospels, Jesus is much more interested in Do than Don't.

He spends much more time telling His followers to do things than not to do them, his commandments are usually positive: Love one another as I have loved you, Love your neighbour as yourself*, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, set prisoners free etc.

It is also interesting to look at some of the things he tells people not to do. Most importantly Don't be afraid, Don't judge and Don't be a hypocrite.

That doesn't mean that He isn't willing to point out to people where they have gone wrong, but He always stresses the positive future not the negative past. For example, the woman facing a stone throwing mob is told: neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more - in other words the past is passed now look to the future and do better.

This is such an important lesson; not to get mired down in our past failings, but determine here and now to do better in the future.

* As an aside it is interesting that most people concentrate on the love your neighbour side of that equation and forget about the as yourself bit. We all need to love ourselves, if we don't we will never be able to love others, our self-loathing will always get in the way.
Scripture teaches us that God loves us and created us in His image and in His eyes we have worth. Even in our broken and sullied state, even at our worst, even at our lowest ebb, God thinks we are worth loving, not as an abstract whole, as humanity, but as individuals, known fully, and loved fully

Quote of the week

"...we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals"

This is the moment Barack Obama really hit the spot for me in his speech this afternoon. It gives me hope that America will start to live up to the ideals that its founding fathers promised. President Obama's speech was inspirational and will have encouraged many people around the World. Now we have to see if the political establishment and big business will allow him to live up to the promise.

I realise that this is my first post for over five months, to be honest I haven't really felt like publishing my thoughts for the last few months, largely due to a lack of anything positive to say.
But, after a shaky start, the new year has given me a brighter outlook and hopefully I will manage to add to this blog a bit more often.