In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk
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Cage Alight
We in Britain are groping about in a strange country, which just happens to be our own. What next ? Where next ? And what has just occured ? Two days ago, May’s deal was voted down by an enormous margin. Yesterday, she survived (not by that much) a vote of no confidence. Has anything changed ? Has anything really taken place ? Perhaps not. She’s still mouthing the same failed formulae. Corbyn keeps mouthing the same hollow fantasies…
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The Gods at War, Following a Murder
May’s “deal” was voted down last night after the heaviest governmental defeat in history. Released from the ghastly, grinding and disgraceful progress of her inadequate deal, are we freer now to resolve things a reparative way, or will the hopeless nonsense of this poisonous issue merely change its shape, and muliply its warring elements ?
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Maybot’s Standing
This stanza was written on a Monday morning, after “The Guardian” quoted a speech Theresa May is due to make today. It includes this sentence : “I ask MPs to consider the consequences of their actions on the faith of the British people in our democracy.” Tomorrow her “deal” is expected to be voted down in the Commons.
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Westminster is empty
It is thought that the poet John Skelton wrote his satirical poem “Speak, Parrot” while living in the sanctuary of Westminster. For the medieval laws of sanctuary still operated in England at that time, leaving certain delegated areas under church jurisdiction. It meant that a significant number of people were able to live beyond the reach of state powers, and therefore, by extension, “safe” from state, or secular, law enforcement. It has been suggested that while Skelton, safe in the sanctuary of Westminster, was writing his poem attacking Cardinal Wolsey, the cardinal was continuing in his efforts to modernise the state, efforts which included doing away with the laws of sanctuary…
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Jez and the Worship of Self
Jez is a fundamentalist. He abides by the iron rules that keep his head together, and have done all his life. He dare not break free. The nation pays for his incapacity, amongst so much we are paying for just now – including humankind’s inability to bear very much reality.
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