A Collection of Writings
"Whom God would destroy he first sends mad" James Dupont 1606-1679.
If Mr. Dupont was around now and reading the newspapers he would have to assume that God was about to do the dirty on the lot of us. You can't read a newspaper or see a newsreel that doesn't give the impression that insanity rules and is spreading its domain by the day. It doesn't just apply to the public at large. It can more easily be directed at the people who are running the country. The politicians, the judges, the police, local councils and the 'welfare' services. But is that a fair assessment of those who rule our lives? One contemporary case goes a long way to proving my point, I think. The case of the little girl allowed to starve to death in an upstairs room while her mother discussed, on the telephone with a friend, how fat her dog was getting. The mother, Sabina Hirst, was handed down a sentence of twelve years. Which means she will be back on the streets, with remission, by 2014. Is that all a child's life if worth? If ever there was justification for the death penalty, this is it. Or at least making 'life' mean life. And how about 'hard-labour' being applied to sentences handed out for the more horrendous crimes?
On the same day a man, allegedly a member of the IRA, had the case against him thrown out of court because when the victim died the 71 customers in the pub were either talking on their mobile or in the largest communal toilet in the world, so professed to have seen nothing. The victim, Robert McCarthy, has five sisters who intend to fight on to get justice for their murdered sibling. Meanwhile the police, in spite of an apparent wealth of evidence, appear to have given up the fight. Then there is the case of the psychiatrist responsible for letting a schizophrenic patient with a history of violence, out of a mental home. She is suing her employer for £300,000 because she feels humiliated and claims that her career prospects have suffered. The reason Dr. Gillian Mezey is feeling so hard done by? The man she released without actually interviewing, John Barrett, immediately collected some kitchen knives and waited in Richmond Park until a lone cyclist came along and then stabbed him to death. And she feels put upon? What about the family of the victim which is really suffering the effects of her lack of professionalism? Has she spared them a thought?
Then there is the dope addict who stabbed a young mother to death in front of her baby. Serial rapist Christopher Braithwaite, was arrested for yet another rape and let out the following day. A week later he murdered Stacey Westbury. Why? What was he doing back on the streets with a rape accusation hanging over him? It seems that Government lawyers claimed that keeping him in custody without bail would infringe his 'Human Rights'. Perhaps the time has come to redefine Human. What about the two Community Support Offices who stood and watched a little boy drown in the village pond because they hadn't been trained to deal with this sort of emergency? How did we ever get to the state where two adults can stand by and watch a child drown because they haven't been told what to do? Why is it that everyone waits to be told what to do? Because initiative and self reliance has been sucked out of the kids by the fear that if they do something without supervision they will get into trouble. That's why! So, cosseted as infants, they are not prepared for the hostile and competitive world they meet as teenagers and young adults and huddle together in packs to protect themselves. Teachers are not allowed to come into contact with their pupils, physically or mentally, without the fear that their interest will be construed as perverted. Undisciplined at home and in the classroom they learn nothing except what they pick up from their peers - who also know little and make up for their sense of estrangement by resorting to violence. The old chestnut that we should bring back National Service is trotted out. But we know that would never work. The feral packs of children who roam the streets are too mentally infantile to take the savage discipline of the parade ground or produce the resourcefulness and stoicism which the training demands. Then there are the Health and Safety squads to be satisfied. And, of course, the Human Rights lawyers.
But it isn't all murder and mayhem which points to the possibility that we are losing the plot - big time. What about the Police Constable banned from using his bike because he hasn't passed his Cycling Efficiency Test? His what? There is now total meltdown, whatever the politicians pretend. In the twin catastrophes of Afghanistan and Iraq our troops are slaughtered daily as the fiasco to save the 'legacy' of War President Bush and ex- Poodle, Tony Blair, lumbers from disaster to apocalypse. The War President is still chirpy about the civilising influence the troops are bringing to the Afghans. He thinks the war is being won against the Taliban in spite of recent history and evidence to the contrary. Ex-Poodle Blair is still convinced that there is a huge stockpile of weapons of mass destruction hidden under the sands of the desert. This in spite of the fact that the information on which he made the decision to go to war was doctored by his own administration.
For ten years Gordon Brown stood amongst us and took the plaudits for running a strong and efficient economy. There was not a grain of good monetary news which was not claimed as being the result of his own superb fiscal genius. Then one day things started to go against him. He had sold off the gold reserves for a quarter of its value, had rifled the pension funds to such an extent that many hard working and thrifty people are facing poverty stricken old age, poured billions into unpopular and possibly illegal wars and borrowed money indiscriminately to back up his claims of monetary omnipotence. Now the consequences have returned to splurge all over him, he blames the International situation. So it seem that when the International situation is on the up, Brown's your man. When it plunges it's the fault of the international economy. Wouldn't it be better if we had a Chancellor who was a bit laid back in the good times but a financial genius when things go wrong?
Sticking with the politicians for the moment. It now seems that not a day passes without some high flying or low ducking politico isn't outed as a quicksand for any cash which might wander his or her way. They get huge salaries and seemingly endless expenses but it is still not enough. Why do people go into politics? Probably there is a small number who actually want to do something for the country. Unfortunately they are drowned in the effluent of those who can't get a job in the real world outside Westminster and take up politics as a means of stuffing the mattress. The answer to all this is that Gordon Brown wants to rip up the main tenets of the Magna Carta which have been the guiding light for budding democracies for 800 years. He wants to have the power to bang up citizens seen wandering passed Harrods with their hands in their pockets until they have learned some respect. I can't see the connection.
Probably the bar indicating just how far we are submerged in the moral sludge is when two of our most respected ladies in entertainment are willing to confess to anything to grab a sordid headline. Did we really want to know about Valerie Singleton's abortion or the sleazy details of what went on behind her Blue Peter badge? And does the fact that Judith Chalmers wore no knickers when she was presenting Wish You Were Here put men in a sexual whirl or get admiration from the girls as a rampant feminist?
And all this from just a one day's scan of the newspaper!
As Private Fraser of the Walmington On Sea Home Guard warns, "Doomed, doomed, we're all doomed. Aye!"