In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk




  • Parrot Peers at Democracy

    Michael Heseltine for Prime Minister – and Leader of the Opposition at the same time – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/08/britains-youth-will-never-forgive-us-for-brexit-says-lord-heseltine

    Posted:


  • Jez Hoeing

    This Tuesday, a significant vote will take place in the Commons. The work Theresa May and many another have spent the last two years (expensively) preparing, this dubious “deal” she has struck for dividing the UK from the EU, will either pass or fail to pass. The consequences of either decision will be momentous, and not just for us now, but for our children and perhaps their children.

    So this week-end we might be feeling a certain tension, while all sorts of questions are doing the rounds, at least in some circles. If the vote fails to go the government’s way, will May fall ? Will the government ? That sort of thing.

    If that’s the foreground, I think there are larger questions lurking and hovering in the background, just as pressingly.  What sort of democracy is this ? Is it really a parliamentary democracy, after all ? What is an accountable politician’s true role in face of a referendum decision that is  wrong and self-destructive, fueled by misgovernment, lies and misdoing ? To become creature of instructions you know to be wrong ? And what is an effective and healthy parliamentary democracy, anyway, one sufficient to the task of defending civilisation from its enemies, from humanity’s destruction of its God-given planet ?

    Serious questions on subjects large and even larger circle round us this week-end. And what has Jez got to contribute, the leader of the nation’s opposition, possible prime minister in waiting, an alternative voice for the people ? Is he back from his cosy conference yet ? He was there only on Friday. He’s such a busy chap, wandering off in this direction, then that.  

    https://www.theguardian.com/…/eu-support-for-austerity-open…
    It’s all happening, over there in Lisbon…

     

    Posted:


  • The Bird of Paradise Danced Last Night

    The poet John Skelton lived in the reign of Henry 8th. He apparently wrote his satirical poem “Speak, Parrot” in the precincts of Westminster, from the sanctuary still precariously available in the minster there. In the poem, Galathea is a lady in waiting who plies the parrot with almonds and dates, as she tries to persuade him to speak from his gilded cage, “true and plain”. For the parrot, this exotic bird of paradise hopping from bar to bar, is sharply observant and – according to Skelton –  is “my own dear heart and my dear darling”  and “speaks all languages aptly.” And Skelton pleads : “I pray you, let parrot have liberty to speak !”

    Posted: