In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk
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Parrot speaks to the 2-Bit mobsters
This latest parrot stanza refers to Theresa May’s encounter with the EU leaders in Salzburg yesterday and “The Sun’s” headline which appeared yesterday evening.
It said : “EU DIRTY RATS – The SUN SAYS we can’t wait to free ourselves of the two-bit mobsters who run the European Union.”
“The Sun” is owned by the far right billionaire Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, friend – apparently – of Mr Donald Trump, America’s Minotaur. Murdoch’s gutter press had much to do with the UK hacking scandals and other criminal press abuses both of individuals and of the law. “The humblest day of my life” and all that two-bit jazz.
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The Parrot Seeks a Cage
Here is that parrot again, bird of paradise, thundering from his cage in rhyme royal, claiming his liberty to speak his truth. He fears for his young and sees no true or worthy leaders anywhere, merely creatures of self-interest seeking their own gain from our flounderings in the valley of the shadow…
Or put it another way : where’s the sheriff ? The lynch mob is out and running riot and it’s the outlaws who’ve taken back control….
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I Send Greetings
The building pictured here is St Aldhelm’s Chapel. It is Norman, dark and damp and situated on the edge of a Dorset cliff, facing south. Sitting there, enclosed in those thick walls, you feel a bit like being in a deep cave, but placed up high and on an edge, stubborn yet precarious. Last Autumn, I gave a poetry reading in the chapel and wrote this poem in the days beforehand, so that I could include it as part of the programme.
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Lying to a Sovereign People is a crime of High Treason.
A few days ago, my partner pointed her rather basic smart phone in the direction of my aging mug and held the phone there, with amazing steadiness, while I talked at it for the next three minutes.
I argued that, if a holder of public office, or applicant for public office, or candidate for election to public office, is found to have lied, that person should be tried in a court of law.
As the theft, or forging, or defrauding, of money is seen and penalised as a crime, so equally should theft or forgery of the truth, through words, be seen and penalised. For language is no less central a currency for our society’s health and proper functioning than is money, and needs to be kept equally sound and trustworthy. Freedom of Speech is a right. But – and especially for those in positions of public responsibility – truth-telling is an obligation.
I argue finally that if, in our democratic society, we see the People as being sovereign, then to steal the truth from a Sovereign People, so that they cannot make a decision that is properly informed, is to strike at the heart of the state and its functioning and is therefore a crime of High Treason. I am not making that statement as a lawyer or in any precise legal sense, but in principle I believe the argument follows and holds.
I am supporting a campaign called Brexit Justice, being conducted by a young man called Marcus J. Ball. See : http://www.brexitjustice.com/ Ball is seeking crowd funding now to enable him to take Boris Johnson to court, for an offence in Common Law entitled “Misconduct in Public Office.” Specifically, what is being referred to is that notorious lie involving the NHS, writ large on the Brexit campaign bus painted red.
It has taken Marcus a while, first, to establish that there is indeed a case under this heading and, second, to form a legal team. But the case is now established and Lewis Power QC is ready to pursue it. If successful, it will set a precedent that will make all politicians pause before acting in a way that so grossly abuses their position and the people they are supposed to represent.
The video above can also now be found on the right of this blog’s home page and here on Facebook.
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A Larger Size of Time
(written for Sylvia, aged 90)
Does the moment ever shrink,
as if walls are closing in,
or skyline flattening
to some endless level of empty sea ?
As hour by hour the years accumulate
it might be thought that the high
moments of your life must lose
altitude, intensity, freshness. But I
question that conclusion.
Each moment I live
adds more of me to live with,
more collated time within
my living, more seeing
of what there is to see.
One day soon,
my moment
may not fit
me any more
and I’ll have to wear
a larger size of time
to hold this larger me.
Rogan Wolf, August 2018
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