Jimmy McPhee

And God Created Woman

2012-01-30T00:40:00.008Z

Image of a Woman.

He has an image of a woman
walking the visible landscape of his mind
from - "And God Created Woman"
seen before he became blind

Picture this - Ave Maria
Brigitte Bardot framed in gold
never to tarnish or grow old

Indelibly printed by a kick
sealed for a lifetime
by half a brick.

Genesis.

2011-12-24T12:11:00.003Z

The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5.

Failed to Challenge.

2011-11-29T23:44:00.007Z

Personal comment on my previous post.

The people in the Church of Scotland
who brought to the attention of the Assembly the failings of the church toward Travelling families in Scotland, are to be commended, it is obvious that a lot of integrity and hard work went into their report.

There is two points I feel I need to comment on.

1. No Minister working alone can remove children from a family and send them abroad.
This is the work of a committee. To have a committee you must also have those who appoint the committee, structures need to be in place, not only in Scotland but also in Canada and in Australia. So this is the work of three committees and those who appointed them.

2. Report 9.2: The Churches’ attitudes to Travellers have often reflected the attitudes of society at large. However, although in the research for this report strenuous efforts were made to uncover specific instances of acts of institutional discrimination by Churches against Travellers, no evidence has been found. This is not to say that individual church members have not acted in discriminatory ways and that the Churches have failed to challenge them when they have done so.

I find it strange that the Church of Scotland has defended itself against institutional racism by giving a definitive definition of institutional racism.

Should the agents of an institution conduct the business of that institution
by applying racially motivated procedures and structures - yet remain unchallenged.
This is the definition of institutional racism.

MacPherson Report Precedent. 6.34:

The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.
It persists because of the failure of the organisation openly and adequately to recognise and address its existence and causes by policy, example and leadership. Without recognition and action to eliminate such racism it can prevail as part of the ethos or culture of the organisation. It is a corrosive disease.

The Second Reformation.

2011-11-25T16:53:00.007Z

Link to Church of Scotland Report.

The Scotsman.
Kirk admits it persecuted Travellers.
Published on Friday 13 May 2011.

THE Church of Scotland is to admit its complicity in the persecution of Travellers and forcibly removing children from Travelling families and sending them abroad.

A report to be presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland next week is damning about the discrimination suffered by the Travelling community and the role that clergymen played.
The Scottish Churches Racial Justice Group (SCRJG) says Travellers have been "vilified" since medieval times and that it "deplores the churches' historic failure to stand alongside a minority group facing discrimination and even persecution".
The study says the Kirk was involved in social engineering through the segregation of children from mainstream society by setting up special schools for 'Tinkers' in Perthshire.
Ministers were also present when some youngsters were forcibly taken from their families and sent to Australia and Canada during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
The report makes a raft of recommendations and urges the government and local authorities to improve provisions for modern-day Travellers, respect their culture and protect them from further discrimination.
The ecumenical group wrote the report in response to a campaign by Travellers seeking acknowledgement of past injustices and it backs their call for recognition in law as a distinct ethnic group.
The authors said there was no evidence of institutional discrimination within the Church of Scotland and that historically churches reflected societal attitudes. However, they added that some members were guilty of discrimination and that churches had failed to challenge them.
The report will be presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which begins on Saturday.

It concludes: "SCRJG would like to invite churches in Scotland to give consideration to how they can work to challenge the pernicious evils of discrimination, prejudice and harassment that Travelling people in Scotland continue to experience and to accord them the same level of respect that every member of society is entitled to receive."
The findings were welcomed by human rights group Amnesty International but a spokeswoman for the Travelling community said the report fell short of an official apology.

Jess Smith, a poet and author who describes herself as a "Tinker", said ministers were heavily involved in the removal of children from Tinker families.

She added: "My late father, Charlie Reilly, was about seven or eight years old when he witnessed a woman in Logierait, Perthshire, having her three bairns taken from her by two policeman, a woman and a church minister whom he always called 'The Black Collar'.
"He said the woman was pleading with them to allow her to feed the bairns and throwing herself in front of the police. The woman was so distraught that she later drowned herself in the River Tummel.
"My father wrote a book which he could never get published, and he told us some terrible stories.
"John Watson, Scottish programme director for Amnesty International, said: "The Church of Scotland is to be commended for adopting the mature and responsible approach of addressing its past failings, as the first step towards a more positive role in the future."
The SCRJG report says Travellers have endured centuries of human rights violations. In 1533, King James V issued a decree banning Gypsies from Scotland saying they should "depart forth of this realme with their wifis, bairns and companies."

In 1838, the Church of Scotland set up a committee for the "Reformation of Gypsies" and during the 1930s special schools were set up, including Aldour Tinker School near Pitlochry.

Link to this story here.
Story by Billy Briggs - Link to his website.

Father.

2011-11-24T21:04:00.002Z

Father

When our home
was Killearn lodge
in Auchterarder
I was five and Raymond was three
We would sit on the wall
and wave at the cars going by
Big black Vauxhalls covered in chrome
Wolsleys and Vanguards
an Austin A45 a Loadstar
Smiling people waved back
encouraging us
to wait for the next car
moving slowly down the back road
On my sixth birthday
my Father gave me
a little toy car
and I played
among the flowers he planted.

My Father died thirty years ago today.

Mini Van

2011-11-08T00:17:00.002Z

This is the first van or car I owned a mini van about this colour.
I was 17 and it's top speed was 70. I painted the wheels gold, black and silver to make them look like sports road wheels. I had some gold paint left so there was only one thing to do with that - paint my boots gold. It did become fashionable later.

Mother.

2011-11-06T00:05:00.028Z

Backtrack

and you were like a wounded doe tangled in barbed wire
and you were like a wounded doe tangled in barbed wire
and you were like a wounded doe tangled in barbed wire

and your big sad heartbreaking eyes knew I was a liar
and your big sad heartbreaking eyes knew I was a liar
and your big sad heartbreaking eyes knew I was a liar

and I would go for your medicine down to hell and back
and I would go for your medicine down to hell and back
and I would go for your medicine down to hell and back

and I would run like an athlete and the pavement was my track
and I would run like an athlete and the pavement was my track
and I would run like an athlete and the pavement was my track

and you would smile when you were troubled and you used to smile a lot
and you would smile when you were troubled and you used to smile a lot
and you would smile when you were troubled and you used to smile a lot

and you would wind your hair and you could put it in a knot
and you would wind your hair and you could put it in a knot
and you would wind your hair and you could put it in a knot

and you gathered all your worries and you placed them in my cot
and you gathered all your worries and you placed them in my cot
and you gathered all your worries and you placed them in my cot

and your trailer became filled with a cloud of white light
and your trailer became filled with a cloud of white light
and your trailer became filled with a cloud of white light

and you were called away in the middle of the night
and you were called away in the middle of the night
and you were called away in the middle of the night

and I have lived in your wake in it's depth and in it's height
and I have lived out each break from the morning of the night
and I have lived for the sake of the return of the light

My Mother died thirty years ago today.

Blind Man Driving

2011-11-05T20:43:00.001Z

Blind man driving

Blind man driving
directions are helpful
he knows where
you explain the way

Destinations are easy
the mountain or the ocean
the chosen route
can lead astray

From the mountain
you can see the ocean
from the ocean
you can see the mountain

And in between
the shimmer of a car
another blind man driving
another family outing

Man for all Seasons.

2011-10-27T12:04:00.005Z

Euro MP Richard Howitt.

Link to his interview in The Enquirer.

Link I find particularly harrowing.

Milk for the Road

2011-10-21T16:45:00.004Z

Milk for the road

Subtle sickly sweet hypocrisies
turn them sour overnight
xenophobic by morning
Police and men from the council
demand that we move on
from their picturesque village
and neighbourly people
We are breaking the law
of aesthetic ambiance
causing the people
to become transmogrified
by our vicinity
to their cocoon
of acceptable association

This is one of the first poems I wrote.
It's about my family being moved on by police and council men
which was a regular occurrence.

What is truth?

For many people
If the personal delusion of who they think they are
were removed from them
then their personality would collapse
in a blithering heap of disorientation.

The truth of who we are is in how we are seen by God.
The truth is not in our own judgement or opinion or criterion or fantasy
the truth of who we are is what God sees when He looks at us.

By nature we compare ourselves with other people,
and by nature we need to find someone or something to be less than we are.
But at the end of the day it's all a human folly that can and has become an evil.
We are already witnesses to what can happen when the flaws in human nature become a political dogma legislated into law.
The beginning of knowing the truth is to see ourselves as a sinner in the sight of God.
This is the first photo in the album of seeing ourselves as God sees us.

Thou God seest me. Genesis 16:13.

Herrenvolk.

From the corner of my eye
I can almost see
in a recess of my mind
something dark is watching me
Moving in shadows
but not caused by light
emanating darkness

Held at the gate
by the keeper of the keys
kept in quarantine like a disease
Endlessly pacing
the confines of it's cell
Glaring defiantly
with the venom of hell

Here is
The accuser of my soul
the robber of my peace

Here is
The hand of iron
fashioned in a cross
fashioned to deceive

Here is
The God of racial supremacy
the master of the master race
the destroyer of worlds

And from you where can I flee
to the highest mountain or the deep blue sea
I will take you there with me.

Jackboot

As you get older you tend to see or have more of a handle on things as they are.
When you're younger you're full of ideals, you want to change the world.
Then one day you catch a glimpse in the mirror you don't like and realize this is the you that's just as bad as all the people you had wanted to save the world from.
Then you know you're not just the victim of all the bad stuff that goes on in the world you're also the perpetrator.
I suppose that's got something to do with the young being full of ideals and people who are a bit older receding into resignation.
Jesus said to his disciples - "you have more to learn but you cannot bear it all just now." I think some of what they could not bear was the truth about themselves in the sight of God.

Does this mean we should do nothing - No, we should still try but to me - not to change the world but to change one heart at a time beginning with our own.
What we need to find within ourselves is not the "good" but the "Jackbooted Goose-stepping Nazi." Subdue this part of ourselves first then the good will come.

Dale Farm Eviction - Wed 19th Oct 2011.

2011-10-21T16:13:00.002Z

The Complicity of Silence.

2011-10-19T06:28:00.001Z

The Stand

Dark times are coming
but do not despair
God has numbered every hair
a time will come when you will say
"I am glad I was there"

This is the Day
to live your Testimony
to express the cry within your soul
"Liberty" "Autonomy"
Arrayed against imposed control

Live a lifetime of Freedom
in this one gallant leap
Free in the air or Free in the deep
Face the Tyranny
Break the unholy allience
The brutality of evil men
The complicity of silence

Grasp the straws of Life
while you can
take the chance be your own man
Make The Stand
if only for a day
Live how you want to live
Say what you want to say.

I wrote this some years ago
I would like to dedicate it this morning
to the community of families living on Dale Farm
and also to those gathered to try and help them.

Time to Wake Up.

2011-10-16T07:36:00.005Z

I believe that Britain is sleepwalking toward an evil act.

The forced eviction of a community of 86 families.
The destruction of their property.
100 children dragged out of school, just told to go with nowhere to go.
All pleas for an alternative site even at no expense to Basildon council refused,
and all other open spaces in their area blocked.

What are you doing about it?

Mr Justice Ouseley.

2011-10-12T22:28:00.001Z

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ruled that the Travellers delayed too long in challenging Basildon's decision to take direct action
against them, and said the council's actions were not disproportionate.

"The conclusion has been reached time and again that this is just the wrong site for Travellers," he said.

Lawyers for the Travellers argued that the council had failed to offer suitable alternative accommodation and to consider those vulnerable residents and children whose education would be disrupted by the eviction. But the judge said the planning system had always included a fair consideration of personal circumstances and that the residents must now leave voluntarily.

If distress and upset were caused by forcible eviction "it would be because of decisions made by the residents not to comply", he said.

The eviction would cause "considerable distress and disruption" but must go ahead "In my judgment the time has manifestly come for steps to enforce the law to be taken."
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 October 2011.

We have a Law.

2011-10-11T00:05:00.003Z

"We have a law,
and according to that law he must die,
because he claimed to be the Son of God."

John 19:7.

The picture is of John Smith.
Who would have been Prime Minister in 1997,
but tragically died of a heart attack at age 55.

Mockin's Catchin'

2011-10-09T11:32:00.002Z

Mockin's Catchin'

Is a saying I grew up with it was taught to me by my Parents
as a warning never to mock, make fun of or despise anyone.

Christ says the same thing in Matthew 7.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged,
and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Crosby Emergency.

2011-10-06T12:04:00.004Z

By Mark Johnson, Crosby Herald.

Dale Farm travellers ‘look to’ Crosby. Oct 6th 2011.

SCORES of gypsies set to be evicted from Dale Farm in Essex could bring their caravan homes to Crosby, councillors believe.

Travellers have allegedly pinpointed the coastal park and Burbo Bank as possible locations to move to when they are eventually moved on.

The claims have apparently been made on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

An emergency meeting of worried councillors went ahead last week to look at ways to deter travellers from entering green spaces on Sefton’s coastline.

It was agreed that around £2,000 would be spent on wooden bollards to block any attempts to access.

Blundellsands councillor Paula Parry said: “We have had to get the bollards in very quickly.

“It was advertised on Twitter and Facebook that the gypsies might come here.”

The deterrents were installed immediately at the field entrance in Burbo Bank.

Cllr Peter Papworth said: “We had to do something in a hurry and it seemed sensible to do something because they said Crosby is a good site to go to.

“We’ve had wooden posts put in and they are about 2ft high.

“They will stop them entering the land.

“In the long run, getting the bollards in will be cheaper than trying to get rid of the gypsies if they were here.

“The decision had to be made in a hurry.”

Cllr Papworth added: “We’ve had gypsies here twice this year in Burbo Bank.

“The people of Blundellsands don’t want this to happen to their area again.

“We don’t wish gypsies any ill will but we just don’t want them to come here.

“We don’t want them in Waterloo either.

“We are looking at ways to stop them coming near the Lakeside too because we don’t want them there.”

Joseph Jones, chair of the Gypsy Council, said he thought speculation of a move north was not credible because the gypsies had firm ties in the south of England.

He did confirm that the Dale Farm gypsies had relatives living in the North West of England.

I found this story amusing so I thought I would share.
You can do a little mental exercise here -
If you replace the words Gypsy and Traveller with any other nationality, ethnic group or orientation it will give you an idea of just how marginalized Travelling People are.

Jean-Luc

2011-10-04T20:42:00.003Z

What about a forced eviction with -no- relocation.

"Those people should move away" - Any suggestions as to where Mr Cameron?

PMQs - Something that bothers me about David Cameron's vocal support for the eviction
of the community of families living on Dale Farm, is that I found it to be small minded and unstatesmanlike for someone who holds the office of Prime Minister.

Evensong.

2011-10-04T20:30:00.001Z

Careless Words.

They talk about them
like they are not there
they talk about them
like they do not hear
they talk about them
with a wink and a nod
as though everyone agrees
and everyone knows what they mean
when they say "traveller"

They make grandiose statements
career ending statements
hounded out of public office statements
if they made them about any other group
any other group in the world
apart from "travellers"

They would gladly load the cattle trucks
all that's lacking is a law
all that's lacking is the paper work
the corporate abdication of personal responsibility
and the police would obey the law
and the army would obey the law
they could muster an Einsatzgruppen in a day

And if you stand perfectly still
in this slip of the lip
you can feel humanity slip
you can feel the earth slip
toward oblivion.

Evensong.

Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews

And your Gypsies too

Give up your Colleagues
Give up your Neighbours
Give up your Friends

Give up them All
Give up Control
Give up your Soul

We have a Law...To make you Obey
We have a Law...To take you Away
We have a Law...To kill you Today

Law is Might...Wrong is Right
Dark is Light...Blind is Sight

No turning back at the Mississippi Turnpike

Now for Evensong.

Mad Cat Woman.

2011-10-04T20:26:00.003Z

When a Government Minister makes a speech that includes the line
"The human rights act needs to go" and this is cheered by the crowd.
You don't know if you're listening to a Conservative party conference
or a Nuremberg Rally.

Definition of Racism

2011-10-03T10:23:00.002Z

" Your culture is inferior to our culture
you must abandon your culture
you must accept and adapt to our culture
or we will persecute you "

Ed Miliband.

2011-09-30T19:39:00.005Z

Link to Ed Miliband on Basildon Council.

The picture is of the McCarthy sisters
who represent the families in court.

In Pictures

2011-09-21T12:31:00.004Z

Action Man

2011-09-21T11:46:00.003Z

I've found this Link interesting.

Sorry Day.

2011-09-20T11:38:00.005Z

Kevin Rudd on Law.

Tony Ball on Law.

Backing Basildon Council.

2011-09-15T09:15:00.007Z

In the week leading up to the eviction on Dale Farm.

The British Broadcasting Corporation airs the most emotive and disparaging news story about Travelling People it is within it's ability to construct.

This story is based on personal testimony from events that allegedly happened in 2008 and in 2004. It is completely one sided with those being accused given no opportunity to answer the allegations.

The BBC present this story on it's main news instead of a United Nations press conference that was given the same day in which the Government and Basildon Council were accused of denying the people of Dale Farm the human rights that have previously been ratified by the Government.

Whether the story presented by the BBC is true or fully accurate or not, there is one thing it does prove - Endemic institutional racism against Travelling People.

It is my opinion that the people of Post-Blair Britain are not so easily taken in by cynically constructed emotive manipulative news as they might have been in the past.

There is a percentage of news stories and documentaries
which are specifically constructed
with the purpose of attempted social manipulation.

In The News.

2011-09-14T22:41:00.006Z

BBC News on Travellers 14th September 2011.

Press TV News on Travellers 14th September 2011.

I find I can't help wondering why a story about one Traveller family accused of keeping slaves should break on the week running up to the eviction on Dale Farm.
And also why this news should take precedence over a UN press conference,
which was not shown on BBC news.
Even if this family were guilty (which I believe a court would have to decide) does that mean all Travellers should be denied human rights.
If that criteria was applied to other groups would it not mean that all Politicians should be sacked because some fiddled their expenses.

After 9 / 11.

2011-09-12T14:58:00.005Z

Whenever we receive hurt from an individual from a group of people or from a situation it is also an opportunity to grow, to seek a personal growth in grace in forgiveness and in reconciliation.

There is also the easier option of succumbing to the darker side of human nature and growing in belligerent vengeful retribution.
A conservative estimate would be that America has killed 100 men women and children for every man woman and child killed at the world trade centre and there is also all the American, British and allied soldiers who have been killed.

It will end with all the protagonists around a table talking peace and patting each other on the back, while Mothers around the world will be patting down flowers on their loved ones graves.

Hobby Premium

2011-09-09T11:19:00.002Z

This is the new 2012 Hobby Premium...Just poppin' out for a lottery lucky dip.

David Cameron.

2011-09-08T14:00:00.004Z

The Government brought in laws that made it illegal for Travellers to stay anywhere in their caravans.

Then the Government told Travellers to buy their own land and make their own sites.

What the Government didn't tell Travellers was that it would be nigh impossible for them to be granted planning permission for their land and that in all fairness hundreds of Police and Bailiffs would swoop on them and forcibly evict them from their own land.

With it still being illegal for Travellers to stay anywhere in their caravans the people of Dale Farm have literally nowhere to go.

Travelling People pose as much danger to the fabric of British society as hill grazing sheep. All they want is somewhere to park a caravan.

BBC Sunday Morning Live 4 Sept 2011.

2011-09-07T18:21:00.002Z

Basildon Council have stated that the forced eviction
of 86 Traveller families from land owned by them on Dale Farm
will begin on Monday the 19th of September 2011.

On Speyside

I've heard the auld folk tell a story
and bring to life the scene before me
how folk were wonderful' content
in a wagon or a humble tent
when life was all uncomplicated
and simple things were appreciated
With an enthusiastic glow
they unfold a time long ago
and I listen with joy and pride
of youthful days along Speyside
Near a grove in a field of green
beside a flowing purling stream
the Travelling families are gathered
their tents secured their horses tethered.

No land no house to call their own
being together they are at home
for a household is not brick and mortar
but husband wife and son and daughter
And in some Scottish highland shire
assembled at the common fire
warmed against the evening air
and happy everyone is there
the tobacco and the stories go round
and children sing with an angelic sound
Until beneath the starlit sky
they recede into a time gone by
and will not walk these roads again
but I will gladly go to them.

Scenes from a Marriage

2011-07-19T13:23:00.004Z

I knew nothing of Ingmar Bergman's films until the last couple of weeks. A season of his films has been on Film 4. I recorded a few and watched this one last night. It was originally a TV series in Sweden. In the year it was shown the Scandinavian divorce rates almost doubled.
It's mostly about something I've thought and written about - The possibility of your life becoming a caricature of what is expected of you.

Candle in the Shadow.

2011-06-12T22:07:00.004Z

Rowan Williams. Archbishop of Canterbury.

The government needs to know how afraid people are.

We are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted.

I can imagine a New Statesman reader looking at the contents of this issue and mentally supplying: "That's enough coalition ministers (Ed)." After all, the NS has never exactly been a platform for the establishment to explain itself. But it seems worth encouraging the present government to clarify what it is aiming for in two or three key areas, in the hope of sparking a livelier debate about where we are going - and perhaps even to discover what the left's big idea currently is.

The political debate in the UK at the moment feels pretty stuck. An idea whose roots are firmly in a particular strand of associational socialism has been adopted enthusiastically by the Conservatives. The widespread suspicion that this has been done for opportunistic or money-saving reasons allows many to dismiss what there is of a programme for "big society" initiatives; even the term has fast become painfully stale. But we are still waiting for a full and robust account of what the left would do differently and what a left-inspired version of localism might look like.

Digging a bit deeper, there are a good many on the left and right who sense that the tectonic plates of British - European? - politics are shifting. Managerial politics, attempting with shrinking success to negotiate life in the shadow of big finance, is not an attractive rallying point, whether it labels itself (New) Labour or Conservative. There is, in the middle of a lot of confusion, an increasingly audible plea for some basic thinking about democracy itself - and the urgency of this is underlined by what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa.

Incidentally, this casts some light on the bafflement and indignation that the present government is facing over its proposals for reform in health and education. With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted. At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context. Not many people want government by plebiscite, certainly. But, for example, the comprehensive reworking of the Education Act 1944 that is now going forward might well be regarded as a proper matter for open probing in the context of election debates. The anxiety and anger have to do with the feeling that not enough has been exposed to proper public argument.

I don't think that the government's commitment to localism and devolved power is simply a cynical walking-away from the problem. But I do think that there is confusion about the means that have to be willed in order to achieve the end. If civil society organisations are going to have to pick up
responsibilities shed by government, the crucial questions are these. First, what services must have cast-iron guarantees of nationwide standards, parity and continuity? (Look at what is happening to youth services, surely a strategic priority.) Second, how, therefore, does national government underwrite these strategic "absolutes" so as to make sure that, even in a straitened financial climate, there is a continuing investment in the long term, a continuing response to what most would see as root issues: child poverty, poor literacy, the deficit in access to educational excellence, sustainable infrastructure in poorer communities (rural as well as urban), and so on? What is too important to be left to even the most resourceful localism?

Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is around such questions at present. It isn't enough to respond with what sounds like a mixture of, "This is the last government's legacy," and, "We'd like to do more, but just wait until the economy recovers a bit." To acknowledge the reality of fear is not necessarily to collude with it. But not to recognise how pervasive it is risks making it worse. Equally, the task of opposition is not to collude in it, either, but to define some achievable alternatives. And, for that to happen, we need sharp-edged statements of where the disagreements lie.

The uncomfortable truth is that, while grass-roots initiatives and local mutualism are to be found flourishing in a great many places, they have been weakened by several decades of cultural fragmentation. The old syndicalist and co-operative traditions cannot be reinvented overnight and, in some areas, they have to be invented for the first time.

This is not helped by a quiet resurgence of the seductive language of "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, nor by the steady pressure to increase what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system. If what is in view - as Iain Duncan Smith argues passionately on page 18 - is real empowerment for communities of marginal people, we need better communication about strategic imperatives, more positive messages about what cannot and will not be left to chance and - surely one of the most important things of all - a long-term education policy at every level that will deliver the critical tools for democratic involvement, not simply skills that serve the economy.

For someone like myself, there is an ironic satisfaction in the way several political thinkers today are quarrying theological traditions for ways forward. True, religious perspectives on these issues have often got bogged down in varieties of paternalism. But there is another theological strand to be retrieved that is not about "the poor" as objects of kindness but about the nature of sustainable community, seeing it as one in which what circulates - like the flow of blood - is the mutual creation of capacity, building the ability of the other person or group to become, in turn, a giver of life and responsibility. Perhaps surprisingly, this is what is at the heart of St Paul's ideas about community at its fullest; community, in his terms, as God wants to see it.

A democracy that would measure up to this sort of ideal - religious in its roots but not exclusive or confessional - would be one in which the central question about any policy would be: how far does it equip a person or group to engage generously and for the long term in building the resourcefulness and well-being of any other person or group, with the state seen as a "community of communities", to use a phrase popular among syndicalists of an earlier generation?

A democracy going beyond populism or majoritarianism but also beyond a Balkanised focus on the local that fixed in stone a variety of postcode lotteries; a democracy capable of real argument about shared needs and hopes and real generosity: any takers?

New Statesman 9th June 2011.

Julian Assange.

2011-03-14T23:39:00.000Z

Sweater Life.

2011-03-11T20:18:00.006Z

The past is History

The future is a Mystery

The present is a Gift

That's why it's not quite what we Wanted.

Tuesday 1st March 2011.

2011-03-09T19:56:00.003Z

"Woof Woof"

2011-03-05T15:06:00.004Z

Having reached an age now where I could get a dog and have it for life,
I've been trying to take stock of my life.
So far I haven't come up with much apart from an observation that none of us are fully aware or face up to our mortality. If we did it would make big changes in how we would live out our few remaining piddling years.

Ruby Tuesday.

2011-02-22T02:46:00.004Z

Just watched the Rolling Stones on TV but they didn't sing Ruby Tuesday
so here it is complete with Brian Jones.

Dear Reader.

2011-01-20T23:34:00.002Z

A family member has been ill
this has left me even more incapable
of getting my head around computers and blogging.

Thank you all for reading and for your generous and kind comments.

Hope.

2010-12-25T10:17:00.004Z

May you in whatever circumstance you find yourself
find also a sense of hope in the Christmas message.
Remember also that this baby grew up to be a man
who was accused, condemned and executed
by the religious establishment of his day.
So don't excuse or flatter yourself
for throwing this baby out with the bath water
because of the religious establishment of this day.

Thank You For America.

2010-11-25T07:45:00.001Z

Thank you.

Thank you for America not being the World
and the World not being America

Thank you for human leadership not being greater
than the mind of God or the conscience of man

Thank you for the Media not being the whole story

Thank you for the 99 per cent of people
who choose peace and community

Thank you for kindness everywhere and anywhere

Thank you for Family
for Grandfathers and Grandmothers for Fathers and Mothers
for Brothers and Sisters for Nephews and Nieces
for Uncles and Aunties and Cousins

Thank you that you are the Father of us all.

The Purpose of Torture.

2010-11-17T15:19:00.004Z

Birlinn: Ship of Burden.

2010-11-15T07:50:00.003Z

Govan GalGael Birlinn.

Don't wait for a Ship that will never come in
Build your own Ship and become it's Captain.

A carving of a Bìrlinn from a 16th century tombstone in MacDufie's Chapel, Oronsay.

Remembrance.

2010-11-14T21:31:00.005Z

The ruthless greed of the Bosses of big business

The despotic ambition of Politicians

The slaughter of the innocents for the control of the World's resources

Good family men conscripted to kill Good family men

Evil called Good Deception called Transparency Lies called Truth

The powerlessness of ordinary men and women

God will remember them.

The Millbank Mandate.

2010-11-13T00:05:00.003Z

There have been violent scenes as tens of thousands of people protested against plans to treble tuition fees and cut university funding in England.

Demonstrators stormed a building in Westminster housing the Conservative Party headquarters, smashed windows and got on to the roof.

Outside, a crowd of thousands surged as placards and banners were set on fire and missiles were thrown. (from the news)

Why was there so few police positioned outside the Tory HQ?

1. Those in command of the police operation were incompetent?

2. The powers that be have now established a mandate for heavy handed tactics
in dealing with expected future protests engendered by their policies?

11 O'clock.

2010-11-11T11:00:00.004Z

Maelstrom.

2010-11-06T22:30:00.008Z

Dada.

When I was 20 I thought that 50
was a thousand years away
and now I'm 50 I think that 60 and 70
are tomorrow and the next day
and now I'm 50 (no matter what you say)
I know that 20 is a thousand years away

If I was 20 again
I would Get out Get out Get out
and you should do the same
Relatives are a wonderful childhood accompaniment
and in adulthood they are also good
but on a different continent

Don't become the Hobby horse
from your Father's carpentry box
ridden into the ground for the rest of your life

Don't become the wedding dress
from your Mother's pattern box
another Wedding another Bride another Mother

Don't become the chattel
of a Priest or a Mullah
When all they are teaching is
Be me Be me Be me
Grasp your God given right to
Be you Be you Be you

Break the mould
shatter it beyond repair
leave no ambiguous pieces of doubt
and Get out Get out Get out.

New Group.

2010-10-31T21:22:00.004Z

I was listening to the Radio one day and the DJ said - "Here is a song by a new group called The Beatles" and he played this song.

Impassioned impatience.

2010-10-31T16:59:00.010Z

Moriarty.

You are a Bastard
and I've decided to kill you
I've thought of many different ways
and from these I've chosen - Time
I'm going to kill you with time
and then you will be dead
as dead as Marlene Dietrich.

Impassioned impatience
is not my style, I'm a patient man
patient enough to kill you with time
and get off scot-free.
I can wait, I can while away the hours
sit out the days endure the years
until the last day, last hour, last second.

Until your time and my time
until the Reichenbach Falls
and there will be an end
an end to this life lived in this world
an end to all this life's reasons
for you being a Bastard
and for me killing you.

Beloved.

2010-10-28T22:45:00.002Z

Beloved.

It's strange after all these years
to find myself thinking about you
It began about a month before I met you
in the Hotel lounge after the funeral

We stood in the middle of the room
making polite small talk
and the whole world receding around us

It was in your eyes
it was written all over your face
the spark the chemistry the attraction
whatever it is named
or indefinable without a name
that makes a man and a woman
want each other

It was you all along
it was you I've been drifting from
you were the one
My Dearly Beloved
and I never knew until this moment of clarity
thirty seconds watching thirty years
go down the Swanee

If I could go back
I would not walk across that bridge
I would not leave you standing there
so distraught and so alone
But I can't go back
and we can't go forward
there is nothing for us
there can be nothing between us
we met too soon and now too late
it's all perfectly fucked up

Only this mutual comprehension
of what could have been
can perhaps be counted as something
And all I'm left feeling
is that I'm walking
away from you again.

Appointment.

2010-10-25T22:24:00.004Z

At the Doctor's

I'm afraid you have
a very difficult to pronounce illness
complicated by the fact
it is also very difficult to spell.
Because of this all I can do
is prescribe a medication
which is equally
difficult to pronounce and spell.
This may or may not
alleviate your symptoms.
We'll see how it goes.
I appreciate your confidence in my ability
to pronounce and spell these unfamiliar words.
And for your convenience
Medical knowledge of your condition
has been abbreviated to N.I.L.
and the name of your medication
has been abbreviated to C.R.A.P.

Osbourne.

2010-10-22T21:37:00.004Z

Paranoid lyrics.

Finished with my woman
cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane
because I am frowning all the time

All day long I think of things
but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind
if I don't find something to pacify

Can you help me, occupy my brain?
I need someone to show me
the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness,
I must be blind

Make a joke and I will sigh
and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel
and love to me is so unreal

And so as you hear these words
telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late.

BBC News.

2010-10-22T20:00:00.005Z

Yesterday on the News.

A BBC reporter interviewed four students seated outside a bistro in Sheffield Hallam Nick Clegg's constituency. They were all asked the same question - What was their opinion of the Coalition austerity measures. The four of them in turn agreed that something had to be done to pay back the deficit and that they were in agreement with the public spending cutbacks.
I found this reassured me that these cutbacks are in fact a good thing.

Today on the News.

A BBC News story regarding Dr David Kelly has reported that someone found blood in the wood where he died. This is evidence that he did take his own life.
This report coupled with two short videos of Dr Kelly looking unhappy have convinced me that this must be the case.

So I commend the BBC for the integrity their impartial investigative journalism.

The Maze.

2010-10-20T21:38:00.007Z

The Maze.

Too many variables to be very sure
Too many Doctors to find a cure

Too many Politicians mouthin' sound bites
Too many human beings denied human rights

Too many Millionaires applauding austerity
cheering the deepening entrenchment of poverty

Too many sociologists narrowing the gap
trammel through the maze into the mouse trap

Too many Priests going through the motions
reciting liturgical unfelt devotions

Too many Poets who have never been read
lost like pearls from a broken thread

Too many blind to worth - wanting to be rich
Masters of Life in designer kitsch

Too many deaf standing on the shore
there's a hurricane coming and they can't hear the roar

Too many refugees to calculate the cost
country and home and dignity lost

Too many smug regarding their future
counting the cost of a food voucher

Too many young men eager to be brave
learning to fight while learning to shave

Too many being taught in segregation
denied an interactive rounded education

Too many claiming the authority of God
twisting youthful ideals into innocent blood

Too many children cut down while they play
Too many hearts broken everyday

Too many fragments of shattered dreams
caught in the vortex of a Mother's screams

Too many standing in numbed disbelief
surveying the altered landscape of grief

Too many stumbling attempting to regain
a foothold in unfamiliar terrain

Too many walking the desolation
of their social isolation

Too many waiting for things to get better
until it finally doesn't matter

Too many on the outside looking in
on Churches barbed by subtle sin.

W. H.

2010-10-12T22:35:00.003Z

I wrote this ages ago, this is what I remember of it.
I wrote it after reading a particularly flowery poem of Auden that had nothing to say, just an exercise in words that nobody speaks.

Bad poem on a Bad poem.

I'll never be aw dun wae Auden
I admit it's probably my fault
this image of walking through a desert
carrying a bottle of salt

I've accosted you in sobriety
I've even plied you with vino
at the last you have helped me with Shakespeare
because you make him read like the Beano

My dictionary is dog-eared
teasing out revised brocade
only to find the woven gold
serves to disguise the nothing said

Old Oxonian verbiage
with an empty page to fill
composed of so many darlings
you could not bring yourself to kill

I hold you in my work worn hands
and want to know you very much
but find I am a common man
and you don't have the common touch.

This poem by Auden has more to say.

NIGHT MAIL
by W H Auden

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

Thro' sparse counties she rampages,
Her driver's eye upon the gauges.
Panting up past lonely farms
Fed by the fireman's restless arms.
Striding forward along the rails
Thro' southern uplands with northern mails.

Winding up the valley to the watershed,
Thro' the heather and the weather and the dawn overhead.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
Sheepdogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from the girl and the boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers' declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Notes from overseas to Hebrides
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep
Dreaming of terrifying monsters,
Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston's or Crawford's:
Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
And shall wake soon and long for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

One Flew Over.

2010-10-08T14:27:00.004Z

Bad Egg.

I don't want to hate you
it would be too easy
and if it wasn't you
it would be someone else

There is always someone
a Cuckoo of hatred
laying it's egg
in someone else's heart

Hatching and thriving
demanding and greedy
evicting nobler emotions
from their birthplace

I don't want to hate you
it would be too easy
and that is why
it's so difficult not to.

Stevie Smith.

2010-10-02T20:25:00.004Z

Day Trip.

2010-09-28T18:45:00.003Z

Enjoying the view
from a falling Cable Car
is an indication
of not knowing where you are.

Love your enemies.

2010-09-20T00:12:00.001Z

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.'But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect"
Jesus - Matthew 5.

Leviticus 18:21
'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Lead kindly light.

2010-09-18T22:22:00.002Z

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,--
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene,--one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on:
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish days, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

John Henry Newman.

Viviane Reding.

2010-09-15T11:29:00.000Z

Edinburgh U S Consulate Protest.

2010-09-12T21:04:00.002Z

Something I thought of when watching this protest on the news was that the people protesting have no idea about how to get arrested. All they are doing is confusing the police. What you have to do is try your best to live a quiet life, attend to your own business, care for your family and be a Scottish Traveller - This has always worked for me.

"Precision Air Strike"

2010-09-03T13:51:00.008Z

2 September 2010.

Afghan election campaign workers 'killed in air strike'

Ten election campaign workers have been killed in an air strike by Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, officials say.

The governor of the northern province of Takhar, Abduljabar Taqwa, told the BBC that two people were also wounded in the attack in the Rostaq district.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident, saying that "pro-democracy people should be distinguished from those who fight against democracy".

A Nato spokesman said a "precision air strike" had hit a militant's vehicle.

I find this report distressing. It seems the allied occupying forces in Afghanistan
can choose to kill anyone with impunity.
I also find Hamid Karzai's statement (if he did say this) to be chillingly inane.

Link to this news story.

"Beep Beep"

2010-08-31T19:29:00.007Z

"Beep Beep"

I hope I don't die stupidly
for no apparent reason at all
by deciding to prune a tree
or crossing the road for a ball

I hope it's not like Luney Tunes
or a Laurel and Hardy flick
falling like Wile E Coyote
or met by a falling brick

I hope I'm not a victim
of some botched act of crime
or cut down by an illness
too ignorant to bide it's time

A man should die in age
with his family around his bed
and they should weep and hug each other
when the Doctor says - "He's dead"

They should bear him up like Joseph
solemnly to his resting place
and remember him joyfully
in a new born baby's face

This doesn't always happen
it isn't always allowed
some are dragged to execution
through the midst of a baying crowd.

Ten ways to die:

1. Illness
2. Accident
3. Medical Incompetence
4. Act of Violence
5. Victim of War
6. State Judicial Execution
7. Suicide
8. Old Age Health Decline
9. Natural Disaster
10. Giving Your Life to Save Someone

Harvest.

2010-08-30T19:32:00.006Z

Harvest.

Autumn is here
and there is no harvest
The trees have leaves but no fruit
The wheat has ears but no grain
and if you should return
I wouldn't know
how to begin to explain

I would offer you a gift
but of all the things I own
all I have is my sin
all I have that's mine alone

Spare me - I pray
another year or two
if you will extend your hand
I will fill a harvest basket for you

I have laboured in these fields
among this bracken, broom and whin
and a lifetime to understand
all you wanted was my sin.

Moonstruck.

2010-08-27T23:20:00.001Z

Debbie and Donna.

2010-08-25T18:52:00.001Z

Debbie and Donna

I saw you at the bus stop
on my way back from the chip shop
You were wearing your
'Don't you want to go out with me dress'

You were going to meet your boyfriend
the one who works in the off licence
the one who left his wife and kids
And she was screaming and kicking your door
at two o'clock in the morning waking up half the street

A chance to stop and chat
mostly about last night's episode of Corry
I actually watch it so that I can chat to you about it

A dog pisses on the bus stop
"Marking it's territory" - you said
A girl is throwing two balls against a wall
making it look like an Olympic sport
"She never misses" - you said

Sitting at my coffee table
I unconsciously begin placing my chips
in little rows and shapes
in a kind of cold chip mathematical equation
I'm trying to figure out
how long it will take the Adonis from the off licence
to go back to his wife and kids
That'll be some rebound
and I fully intend to be there to catch you
to comfort and console you

The phone rings
it's Donna - I bumped into at the chippy
(We used to call her 'Marry Donna' she talked about marriage so much)
She asks me if I have the tv on
Jimmy White has levelled and it's nine frames each
"Thanks Donna" - I tell her
finding the remote under the chip paper
"I didn't know you were all that interested in snooker'
...Okay...see you in about five minutes"

She's on her way round and this place is a mess
It could do with a woman's touch and then again...so could I.

Angel Song

2010-08-24T19:25:00.001Z

Angel Song

I hear the harmony
of their wings
resonating in the air
like the breeze on my face
I can feel they are there
They are rising in harmonics
turning like a flock of birds
in the choir of their wings
I can hear these words

'The poor man's wealth
is in his heart
collected treasures set aside
a lifetime of feeling and thought
of joys to share and grief to hide

The poor man's wealth
is in his soul
fashioned by a life of care
when there is nowhere to turn
calling out to God from his despair

The poor man's wealth
is in his hope
for heaven's pasture
and a camp to pitch
in the gift of God
who spares the poor
the poverty of dying rich

The poor man's wealth
is in his faith
upon this staff his burdens lean
and walking taps along the way
finding evidence of things not seen

The poor man's wealth
is in his need
though wealth and power
their virtues flaunt
the place where the God is found
is in the sigh of abject want'

Then gradually I became aware
of breathing again
there was less pressure in the air
and the sky just looked like rain
I called out and I listened
but I knew they were gone
so I sat beneath an oak tree
and wrote down their song.

I posted this in March, but you can always sing a song again.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

2010-08-23T22:38:00.001Z

This is a post I happened upon by Mario Vittone.
There is a 'share' icon I clicked and it appeared here - magic.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

Man is good by nature ?

2010-08-21T07:00:00.002Z

Third verse of - "Why should we idly waste our prime"

Robert Burns -
The Golden Age we'll then revive:
Each man will be a brother;
In harmony we all shall live,
And share the earth together;
In Virtue train'd, enlighten'd Youth
Will love each fellow-creature;
And future years shall prove the truth
That Man is good by nature:
Then let us toast with three times three
The reign of Peace and Libertie!

Solomon -
There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:20.

Jesus -
"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean."
Mark 7:20-23.

Paul the Apostle -
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Paul - Romans 7:18.

It is better for ideals to die than people.
"The golden age" is a yellow brick road that can lead to an Auschwitz.

Stefin Spelbug.

2010-08-20T17:40:00.005Z

Very Good.

I read your poem last night
it was very good.
Apart from the incongruous cocktail of metaphors,
the tortured crunching of words in the second stanza
and the indiscernible (or non existent) structure.
Apart from this it was very good.
Did you purposely write - 'Stefin Spelbug?'
Do you have any more or is this your first attempt?

Ps - Ammonium nitrate, which I assume you mean by - 'Aminaume netraite'
would not be generally considered the only cause of holes in latex.

The Express.

2010-08-19T18:19:00.004Z

The Avonbridge Express

From the Forest of indifference
walled within the briers of distress
rest turns to sleep and sleep to dream
of the Avonbridge Express

The Engineer is in his glory
amid the toil the heat the mess
his heart is in his service
for the Avonbridge Express

Families and their loved ones
emerge from an ephemeral egress
they are gathered for the boarding
of the Avonbridge Express

The Guard surveys the platform
opens his watch with finesse
then announces "All aboard"
the Avonbridge Express

A phone is ringing in the Station
an increasing urgent duress
but this is the departure
of the Avonbridge Express

The Debutante delicately poised
at an angle to impress
gazes from the window
of the Avonbridge Express

The young man on the platform
has three choices to address
aboard beneath or wave farewell
to the Avonbridge Express

Bless me Father for I have sinned
and ashamedly confess
my every thought has ever been
of the Avonbridge Express

To Avonbridge
via Findo Gask
then on to Port Na Fane
Speeds the Avonbridge Express

never to return again
never to return again
never to return again

Forgive.

2010-08-18T15:42:00.006Z

We see the light reflected
from the moon upon a pond
and reach to touch the circles
from an instinct to respond
and the grace to forgive
within the heart forgiven
reaches out beyond the stars
to touch the light of heaven.

Boy band.

2010-08-16T00:20:00.005Z

The willow trees

2010-08-15T00:05:00.001Z

Omagh

A day
can seem like a lifetime
a moment like a year
hopes and dreams
contained and lost
in one exploding tear

Caught
in the freeze frame
moving in slo-mo
another imagined
retrospective scenario

When those loved
more than life
do not survive
the deepest wound
is the hurt
of being alive
To stand beneath
the willow trees
and weep aloud
lost in grief
wander Market street
among the crowd

Caught
in the freeze frame
moving in slo-mo
another imagined
retrospective scenario.

Economy.

2010-08-13T19:21:00.002Z

Change:

"Hierarchy"

Should read:

"Economy"

Change:

"Safeguards in hierarchical structure"

Should read:

"Fears of continued economic gloom"

Away.

2010-08-11T19:33:00.007Z

When the seagulls sing.

I didn't know
where you came from
I didn't care
where you had been
no questions
no answers
imagined to be real
interpretations of the past
permitting us to feel

You accosted my life
You deconstructed my mind
You rearranged my heart

The first noticeable change of a spring day
an unheralded rush of light and warmth
throwing open windows and doors
expelling the chill from the air

Filling the emptiness with the joy of living
breaking the silence with the sound of laughter
sharing the magical gift of unconscious forgetfulness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

But now memories amount to one
The fact that you are gone

Your beautiful body
away from me
Your beautiful body
away from me
Your beautiful body
away from me

It was like when the seagulls sing
it didn't mean a thing
like when the seagulls sing
it didn't mean a thing
when the seagulls sing
it doesn't mean a thing.

When I wrote this poem I was living in a second floor flat in Paisley.
After the last line I was sitting looking at it and I heard this squawking sound.
I looked out of the living room window three seagulls were flying in a circle and squawking outside the window. They flew around like this for about five minutes
and then flew away one at a time like they were in formation.

The Beach.

2010-08-10T22:40:00.005Z

The Beach

We sat in the shade
and drank lemonade
and watched the sun going down
We talked until dawn
of hope and of fear
then walked to the beach
to watch the sunrise
We saw the Earth turn
on it's flight round the sun
and the glimmer of stars from space
We saw the sunrise
turn the sea into wine
and intoxicated
We played on the sand.

Andy

2010-08-10T22:30:00.003Z

Rudy.

2010-08-10T18:40:00.004Z

In a feeble attempt
to break the blues
I bought a new pair of shoes

Before walking out
I looked at the receipt

It said

The most beautiful dancers
have the ugliest feet

Larry Grayson.

2010-08-10T18:30:00.001Z

Camouflage.

2010-08-06T20:45:00.002Z

Camouflage is an important word and practice in the military.

Camouflage is also an important word and practice in politics.

To begin to understand War you must first begin to understand
who or what is ruling the world, who or what is in control.

The world is ruled and controlled by the faceless and unaccountable
Executives who sit on the boards of world corporations.

The Leaders who sit in these boardrooms have no concern for people,
they have no concern for justice, they have no concern for peace,
they have no concern for democracy and no concern for the environment.

What concerns them is the control of the world's resources
for the purpose of establishing and maintaining their power and wealth.

If killing people and destroying their property is peace then they bring peace
If imposing upon a people a puppet Dictator is democracy then they bring democracy.

When soldiers are in the theatre of conflict
it is no longer about why they are there. It is about their Regiment, their friends,
it is about watching each others back, about killing or being killed.
It is about surviving and coming home to their families.

When the bodies start to come home it becomes disrespectful to ask why.
Now it becomes about service and duty and honour.
People appear on the news saying - "That's what they wanted"
And families who do not say the right things don't get to appear on the news.
The reason for this is that the corporations also control the media.

Politicians are the mediators between the boardrooms and the public.

When they retire from politics they graduate to the boardrooms.

If any Leader in the Christian church in Scotland
would like to explain to me how our Wars of the past few years
is bringing freedom, peace and democracy to the Nations of conflict
then I would be willing to listen.

Dr Robert Ritter.

2010-08-05T20:21:00.005Z

Robert Ritter's explanation of how the Gypsies came to be of "inferior blood" is a startling example of science driven by ideology. The Gypsies who left India in the 10th century, Ritter argued, were pure Aryans. However, as they migrated westward and intermingled with inferior races -- e.g., in Persia, Armenia, the Slavic countries -- they lost their pure Aryan characteristics. The inferior blood gave them racial characteristics which predispose them to a set of asocial and criminal tendencies. He recommended the segregation of all gypsies and the sterilization of those who were of obviously impure strains. Ritter's research came to the attention of Himmler and, by mid-summer, 1937, he called for a careful evaluation of the research on the Rom.

In September 1939, Reinhard Heydrich organized an official conference of racial policy. The conference was held in Berlin on September 21. While the primary concern of the meeting was to plan the systematic deportation of Jews to Poland, it was also decided relocate 30,000 German Gypsies. In preparation for that deportation, the conference called for the segregation of Gypsies in special camps. While the deportation of Gypsies took a back seat to the deportation of Jews and the desired 30,000 was not immediately achieved, several thousand were deported.

At this point it is important to remember that on September 1, 1939, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland. Under Heydrich's command, the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units followed the regular Wehrmacht troops into Poland. Their assigned task was to eliminate political criminals, asocials, undesirables, communists -- anyone who posed a security threat to the Reich.

It is not known how many Gypsies were killed by the Einsatzgruppen charged with speedy extermination by shooting. For the sake of efficiency Gypsies were also shot naked, facing their pre-dug graves. According to the Nazi experts, shooting Jews was easier, they stood still, `while the Gypies cry out, howl, and move constantly, even when they are already standing on the shooting ground. Some of them even jumped into the ditch before the volley and pretended to be dead.'(Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961:439
According to Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide, 1979:

In 1939, resettlement of Gypsies was put under Eichmann's jurisdiction along with that of the Jews. Gypsies were forbidden to move freely and were concentrated in encampments with Germany in 1939, later (1941) transformed into fenced ghettos, from which they would be seized for transport by the criminal police (aided by dogs) and dispatched to Auschwitz in February 1943. During May 1940, about 3,100 were sent to Jewish ghettos in the Government-General: others may have been added to Jewish transports from Berlin, Vienna, and Prague to Nisko, Poland (the sight of an aborted reservation to which Jews were deported). These measures were taken against Gypsies who had no claim to exemption because of having an Aryan spouse or having been regularly employed for five years.

On December 16 1942, Himmler ordered the deportation of all Gypsies to Auschwitz. This is the official beginning of a "Final Solution" to the Gypsy Nuisance. At Auschwitz, the Gypsies were held in Camp B IIe. This is the designation for the larger Camp at Birkenau. Many were used in Joseph Mengele's medical experimentation, others were used in the German Air Force tests on reactions to extreme freezing temperatures, thousands were sent to the gas chambers. Similar fates for Gypsies are reported at Treblinka, Chelmo and other extermination centers.

Link here.

Eva Justin.

2010-08-02T21:37:00.006Z

Eva Justin's dissertation was approved by the German ethnologist Richard Thurnwald. After the completion of her studies the 41 children used in the study were deported to the "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz on May 9, 1944. Soon after their arrival Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz. Link here.

Dale Farm.

2010-07-31T21:43:00.002Z

Link to video and story about Dale Farm.

Careless Words.

2010-07-31T21:35:00.002Z

Careless Words.

They talk about them
like they are not there
they talk about them
like they do not hear
they talk about them
with a wink and a nod
as though everyone agrees
and everyone knows what they mean
when they say "traveller"

They make grandiose statements
career ending statements
hounded out of public office statements
if they made them about any other group
any other group in the world
apart from "travellers"

They would gladly load the cattle trucks
all that's lacking is a law
all that's lacking is the paper work
the corporate abdication of personal responsibility
and the police would obey the law
and the army would obey the law
they could muster an Einsatzgruppen in a day

And if you stand perfectly still
in this slip of the lip
you can feel humanity slip
you can feel the Earth slip
toward oblivion.

What is said about and the treatment of the marginalized
is the thin end of the wedge and people need to consider this.

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Matthew 12

Robert Burns.

2010-07-31T21:25:00.001Z

Man Was Made To Mourn

When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare,
One ev'ning, as I wander'd forth
Along the banks of Ayr,
I spied a man, whose aged step
Seem'd weary, worn with care;
His face was furrow'd o'er with years,
And hoary was his hair.

"Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?"
Began the rev'rend sage;
"Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,
Or youthful pleasure's rage?
Or haply, prest with cares and woes,
Too soon thou hast began
To wander forth, with me to mourn
The miseries of man.

"The sun that overhangs yon moors,
Out-spreading far and wide,
Where hundreds labour to support
A haughty lordling's pride; -
I've seen yon weary winter-sun
Twice forty times return;
And ev'ry time has added proofs,
That man was made to mourn.

"O man! while in thy early years,
How prodigal of time!
Mis-spending all thy precious hours-
Thy glorious, youthful prime!
Alternate follies take the sway;
Licentious passions burn;
Which tenfold force gives Nature's law.
That man was made to mourn.

"Look not alone on youthful prime,
Or manhood's active might;
Man then is useful to his kind,
Supported in his right:
But see him on the edge of life,
With cares and sorrows worn;
Then Age and Want - oh! ill-match'd pair -
Shew man was made to mourn.

"A few seem favourites of fate,
In pleasure's lap carest;
Yet, think not all the rich and great
Are likewise truly blest:
But oh! what crowds in ev'ry land,
All wretched and forlorn,
Thro' weary life this lesson learn,
That man was made to mourn.

"Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

"See yonder poor, o'erlabour'd wight,
So abject, mean, and vile,
Who begs a brother of the earth
To give him leave to toil;
And see his lordly fellow-worm
The poor petition spurn,
Unmindful, tho' a weeping wife
And helpless offspring mourn.

"If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave,
By Nature's law design'd,
Why was an independent wish
E'er planted in my mind?
If not, why am I subject to
His cruelty, or scorn?
Or why has man the will and pow'r
To make his fellow mourn?

"Yet, let not this too much, my son,
Disturb thy youthful breast:
This partial view of human-kind
Is surely not the last!
The poor, oppressed, honest man
Had never, sure, been born,
Had there not been some recompense
To comfort those that mourn!

"O Death! the poor man's dearest friend,
The kindest and the best!
Welcome the hour my aged limbs
Are laid with thee at rest!
The great, the wealthy fear thy blow
From pomp and pleasure torn;
But, oh! a blest relief for those
That weary-laden mourn!"

The Gift.

2010-07-30T22:15:00.009Z

The Gift.

Yesterday morning
I opened my blind
and looked out from a different window
I was standing in the window
of the empty flat across the street
looking back at myself
I was holding up the lid of a shoe box
with these words written on it
"New Shoes"
Someone else was in the room
they came to the window
and looking over smiled at me
he looked like Kurt Cobain

I decided to do four things
leave the blind open
put up a washing line
wash my clothes
and tidy my flat

This morning
I opened the blind
and looked out from my window
A woman was moving into the flat across the street
I went over and helped her with her things
it wasn't difficult

Sitting on the steps drinking coffee
she said to me
"I don't care what I have
as long as I have peace"

I replied

"You know you're asking a lot"

"I know" she said
"But at least I've made a beginning"

"Well you've come to right place
this is the street of new beginnings"

"Hurt" she said
"Is like an opening in the soul
it can be a matter of windows
from one window it looks like a pit
but from another window
it can look like the ground
has been dug out and prepared
prepared for the foundation
of a new beginning

To this I replied

"In my flat I have a sofa bed
I never use it in fact it's just in the way
I'd be grateful if you'd take it off my hands"

"I'll pay you for it" she replied

"Only if you pay me what I gave for it
I got it as a gift'
it's not much to look at
but it's comfortable and practical"

"Comfortable and practical'
sounds just what I need"
she said, slipping off her shoes
and then she said
"Look at my feet'
they look like two victims of trying to fit in
both carrying the marks of the past
I swear if I have to go barefoot
I'll never wear these shoes again"

"I doubt if you'll have to if you're willing to go barefoot"

She looks at me "I'm also willing to get new shoes"

"I know the very place"

"I believe you do and you can take that as a compliment
because right now that is one of the few things I do believe"

"Compliments, that is something I'm not used to"

"Well here is something for you to believe
you haven't missed much"

I looked into the face
of this world weary woman
and could see the eyes
of a hurt little girl welling up with tears
I struggled for something to say
and then realized I didn't have to say anything.

The Abyss.

2010-07-28T00:05:00.004Z

The Abyss.

This is my personal
Event Horizon
standing at the edge
looking down into the Abyss
A young Mother
holds up her child
her face an anguished plea for help
slipping back and disappearing
within a singular convergence
of myriad images

As much as I want to
I know that following her
will not help her
I stretch out my arms
and lean forward

It's a bracing Spring morning
and I'm walking a dog
the dog seems to know where it's going
we come to a house
I put my hand in my pocket
take out a key and open the door
the dog bounds along the hall
I follow it into the kitchen
A young woman is standing at the cooker
she is making breakfast
I put my hands around her waist
and kiss her on the neck

I'm sitting on a chair
in a large stark room
a man is sitting on a chair facing me
he is writing into a folder on his lap
He stares at me for an age
as though he is staring through me
then he says "Are you going to talk today?"
he then looks down and continues writing

I'm sitting propped up in bed
an old man is in a bed facing me
he is eating bread and soup
I have to look away
A woman walks up to my bed
with one hand she is carrying a chair
and in her other hand she has a book
She sits down and begins to read to me
her voice has a kindness about it
and I'm glad to listen to her
She gets to these lines
"Whose woods these are I think I know
his house is in the village though"
and I hear someone screaming
screaming and screaming
people are fussing around my bed
for a moment I think it is me.

I'm sitting on a bench in a large garden
it's much too tidy for me
everything is in order and in it's place
the grass is institutionally cropped
I like the tall grass
I like to see the tall grass in the Summer
untouched except by the earth and the sun
by the breeze and by the rain.
A man walks up to me he is leading a dog
the dog is all over me
jumping on me and licking me
I become agitated and push it away
A family spread out a blanket in front of me
and sit down to have a picnic
they ask me to join them
they give me food and a cup of tea
and then they want to play a game
they will all tell me their names
and then it will be my turn to tell them my name
As I watch them drive away
I wonder if I will ever see them again

I'm sitting on a chair looking down at my feet
I have my walking boots on they are covered in mud
I hear someone saying "Are you going to talk today"
I look up the room is full of people hundreds of people
every face is fixed on me many of them grotesque
I realize this is my one chance
jump up from the chair and leap over then
landing in a heap in an open circle in the midst of them
Sitting beside me on the floor
is the young woman and her child

I put my arms around them and say
"I have found you I have come to you"
The young woman says to me
"You have not come to me but I have come to you
to appeal to you to unburden your heart
you are not God to bear such a weight of grief
lay down your burden at His feet
and find comfort for your soul
God is not God of the dead but God of the living
God is life and all are alive to Him
Awaken to this truth
find trust in this assurance of hope"

I open my eyes
a nurse is standing at the foot of my bed
She is reading my chart
I sit up and say to her
"Could you tell the doctor I'm going to talk today"
She looks startled and hurries away

I get up and walk around the ward
some of the people look very ill
I go over to the window and look out
it's snowing.

The Greatcoat

2010-07-27T00:09:00.000Z

The Greatcoat

There is a big blue overcoat
lying on the lawn
Jonathan placed it there
for Jane to sit upon
before he was urgently called away

Jonathan did not forget his coat
but Jane has forgotten it
just as she has
forgotten Jonathan

Everyone knows he loves her
even the boy
I have sent to fetch his coat
I wanted to tell him
but how could I say
"Jane is a flirt"
to a parting friend

Johnathan tonight
You play Wars game of chance
Jane tonight
You will laugh and dance

And everyone will notice you
and every man will flirt with you
and everyone will love you
and every woman will hate you

I alone will not notice you
and you will not flirt with me
not even one unguarded glance
when I retire to wait for you.

Celia

2010-07-25T20:34:00.005Z

in our lives in this world
not everything that happens has an order or a purpose

within the lost gaps inexplicable tragedies befall us
and we cannot even begin to ask why because there is no why

we need order we need purpose we expect it we depend upon it
when the structures fail we seek answers but there is no answer

in our lives in this world
there is a palpable forfeiture of order and of purpose

within the lost gaps there is no will there is no why there is no reason

Our Lily.

2010-07-24T14:50:00.001Z

Fear of the inexplicable.

But fear of the inexplicable has not alone impoverished
the existence of the individual; the relationship between
one human being and another has also been cramped by it,
as though it had been lifted out of the riverbed of
endless possibilities and set down in a fallow spot on the
bank, to which nothing happens. For it is not inertia alone
that is responsible for human relationships repeating
themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and
unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new,unforeseeable
experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope.

But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes
nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation
to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively
from his own existence. For if we think of this existence of
the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident
that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a
place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and
down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous
insecurity is so much more human which drives the prisoners in
Poe's stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons
and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.

We, however, are not prisoners. No traps or snares are set about
us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us.
We are set down in life as in the element to which we best
correspond, and over and above this we have through thousands of
years of accommodation become so like this life, that when we
hold still we are, through a happy mimicry,scarcely to be
distinguished from all that surrounds us. We have no reason to
mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors,
they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abuses belong to us;
are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if only we
arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us
that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now
still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust
and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those
ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into
princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses
who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps
everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless
that wants help from us.

Rainer Maria Rilke.

After Glastonbury.

2010-07-24T14:45:00.002Z

Christian Convention Last Day.

2010-07-23T18:31:00.006Z

community leaders’ praise for religious convention
Travellers’ gathering seen as a success

By calum ross

Published: 23/07/2010 Press and Journal.

A religious convention for travelling people in Aberdeen has been hailed a success by community leaders and the event’s organisers.

About 150 travellers are expected to start leaving Calder Park today as a week-long Christian gathering comes to an end.

Grampian Police, which has had a mobile unit stationed at the site since the weekend, said no incidents had been reported by last night.

Nigg Community Council chairman Alan Strachan had been outraged when details of the event emerged last week, but said yesterday he was “delighted” with the way it had been managed.

The convention was organised by the evangelical Light and Life Missions church.

Asked if there had been any problems, senior pastor Jackie Boyd said: “A bit with the weather but that’s about it, and that is our boss’s fault.

“It has been a really, really good time.

“I didn’t know there had been a bad relationship up here but what can be better than people seeing that not everyone is going to steal your daughters and children.

“The locals have been very good. If you invite them down and people are open enough to come to our meetings then you will see you can’t judge everyone.”

Mr Boyd did not rule out a return to the city, but said they would not be back next year.

“We don’t have them in the same place every year. We try to move them around,” he said.

Aberdeen City Council heard that an unofficial gathering was being planned for Nigg Bay earlier this month and asked its organisers to move the event to Calder Park.

Local authority environmental health officers have visited the site this week and found no problems.

Mr Strachan praised the handling of the event.

“As far as I am led to believe there have been no problems whatsoever,” he said.

Incandescent.

2010-07-23T18:28:00.001Z

A DECISION to allow up to 1,000 travelling people and gypsies to gather on the outskirts of one of Scotland's major cities for a religious convention has sparked a furious outcry.

Travellers from all over Scotland are expected to arrive in Aberdeen this weekend for the start of a five-day "outreach mission" being organised by Light and Life, the "gypsy church".

The organisers have been granted permission to camp at the council-owned Calder Park on the southern outskirts of the city.

But the decision by Sue Bruce, the council's chief executive, to give the convention the go-ahead without consulting councillors and the local community was condemned yesterday.

Labour councillor Neil Cooney, one of three councillors for the Kincorth and Loirston ward, said: "To say I am angry is an understatement. I am incandescent. I was never consulted and nor were the local community. The first they knew this was happening was when they were told on Tuesday night by the local police liaison officer.

"They were told it was the only way to control the situation, otherwise there would be encampments all around the city."

The North-east of Scotland has already been at the centre of a series of disputes involving illegal traveller encampments in recent weeks which have affected local residents in Stonehaven and at Loirston Loch, Queen's Links and Dyce in Aberdeen.

"Something of this importance should have gone to a council committee," said councillor Cooney. "Even if you want to run a gala day you have to go through a massive paper trail to get the go-ahead."

Alan Strachan, the chairman of Nigg Community Council, said: "We are disgusted and appalled that this is taking place. I had no idea about this at all until the police liaison officer arrived on my doorstep to tell me. I was told there could be as many as 1,000 travellers."

A spokesman for the city council confirmed that the decision had been taken by the chief executive.

He said: "The decision was taken by her because this unfolded really quickly and we had to act.""

The spokesman added: "The figure of 1,000 people attending the convention is the very top-end estimate. It is more likely to be few hundred."

Shane Lee, a minister with the Light and Life church, told The Scotsman: "It is only a small mission. We have organised toilets and arranged for all the litter to be picked up daily and for the field to be left in the condition that we find it."

He added: "We are trying to preach the gospel to everybody. In our churches we have gypsy people and non-gypsy people. We are trying to preach the gospel and get the people saved.

"We are hoping for successful event and a successful event for us is if people get saved and get delivered from drink or drugs or whatever the case may be.
We want the people to understand that there is a better way."

The Light and Life Gypsy Church tours Britain preaching the Gospel to Gypsies and travellers.

The church was born out of a post-war Gospel revival in Europe and came to prominence in the UK in the 1980s.

There is a network of around 30 churches throughout Britain including three in Scotland located in Montrose, Edinburgh and Cauldercrux in Airdrie.

Worshippers claim the established churches in the UK have yet to attract the Traveller community partly because of the deprecation of their culture coupled with a lack of outreach concern.

Frank Urquart.
Scotsman.com.

Hope.

2010-07-18T21:11:00.004Z

I have more hope in my heart than there is water in Loch Ness.

Loch Ness contains more water than all of the lakes and rivers in England and Wales combined. It also has a greater volume of water than any other Scottish Loch.

Christian Convention Aberdeen.

2010-07-18T00:08:00.009Z

Published: 16/07/2010.

A senior Aberdeen councillor has defended the local authority’s handling of plans for a major gathering of travelling people which has provoked anger across the city.

Up to 1,000 travellers are expected to arrive at the city’s Calder Park for a five-day religious convention to be held next week.

It is believed to have been organised by the Montrose and Mastrick branches of a travellers’ church called the Life and Light Missions.

Former council leader Kate Dean, who represents the area and lives nearby, was one of the few elected members to be told about the event before the details emerged on Wednesday.

She said that the organisers of the Christian gathering did not ask for the council’s permission, but officials had decided to take control and manage the event after being informed late last week.

“From what I understand the organisers hadn’t contacted the council, the council has had to take the initiative,” she said.

“If you find something like this happening and have the chance to manage it, then that is better.”

An unauthorised event was originally planned for Nigg Bay but council officials asked for it to be moved to Calder Park.

Mrs Dean found out by chance last Friday after she phoned the council’s traveller liaison officer to alert her to an illegal encampment in Nigg.

She was told it was a “suggestion” that would be taken to the authority’s chief executive, Sue Bruce.

“I said that, given the circumstances, I would not raise an objection,” the Kincorth and Loirston councillor said.

“To me it seemed better to have them in one place where they could be policed"

“I understand the various groups of travellers in the city are going to gather there.

“I do understand the community’s concerns but we have had various undertakings from the council and police.”

Mrs Bruce has written to councillors to “apologise” for not informing them about the gathering before it was revealed exclusively in yesterday’s Press and Journal, and to clarify the chain of events.

Meanwhile, the Church of Scotland minister in Mastrick has distanced herself from the event, after an advertisement flyer said it was being held “on behalf of Mastrick Church”.

The Rev Lesley Risby said: “When you see ‘Mastrick Church’ on a flyer the assumption is that it’s Mastrick Parish Church of Scotland.

“Nobody from Life and Light Missions contacted the minister of Mastrick Parish Church about the event.

“It has never had, nor will it ever have, anything to do with Mastrick Parish Church. We do not support this event.”

Life and Light Missions is believed to have a base in Cairnwell Place, Mastrick, but the group could not be contacted yesterday.

Travellers have already started arriving at Calder Park in advance of next week’s event.

About 10 caravans were at the site last night, with dozens more expected to arrive over the next three days.

Published: 17/07/2010.

Pastor pledges travellers’ religious gathering will be trouble-free
church elder ‘shocked and surprised’ by furore plans have caused

GROWING CROWD: Travellers arrive at Calder Park for the Light and Life Missions convention.

A pastor organising a religious convention for hundreds of travelling people in Aberdeen pledged last night that it would be trouble-free.

Jackie Boyd, an elder from the Light and Life Missions church, said the group was only coming to the north-east to preach the gospel.

He said he had been “shocked and surprised” by the furore plans for the five-day event have caused – and he only expected about 150 people to arrive at the city’s Calder Park.

Police initially told community leaders in Nigg that up to 1,000 people were due to congregate at the park, prompting an angry response throughout the south of the city.

Aberdeen City Council said last night it now expected between 50-70 caravans to arrive over the weekend for the Christian gathering.

Mr Boyd said: “We haven’t come for trouble – we’ve come to preach the gospel.

“The marquee we have sits 150 people. Some come in caravans on their own, some come with two or three.

“We work in 47 countries around the world – we do not expect trouble. If there has been trouble with other groups then that’s nothing to do with us. I am shocked and surprised to see such furore about people coming to preach the gospel.”

He added that the church had its own security and that it had been hosting similar events for 50 years.

Local residents have also been invited to attend the daily gospel meetings, after Mr Boyd said the event was not just for travellers.

Nigg Community Council chairman Alan Strachan was outraged when he was told about the event earlier this week.

He said last night: “A thousand travellers were expected for the week, that’s what I was told.

“Even if it was 100 caravans that is less than half that amount.

“We will just have to play it by ear. It is very unclear how many people are coming.”

A mobile police unit is to be stationed at Calder Park next week, while officers from the local authority’s environmental health team will also attend, although Light and Life Missions has promised to clean up the site after the event.

It has been scheduled to run from Monday to Friday.

A council spokesman said: “The current situation is that there are eight caravans at Calder Park. We are expecting a further 17 by tomorrow morning. The latest estimate is that we are expecting between 50 and 70 caravans in total, however that could change.”

By Calum Ross.

One of the comments on this Press and Journal story:

Let us all good citizens dump our asbestos, PCB's and garden waste at Calder Park.
Then blame the travellers for the mess
Fiona Cooper.

This is one of many vitriolic comments.
If the word Traveller was replaced with the word Pakistani
then there would be no such comments alowed in the Press and Journal
and any information regarding those who made them would be
handed over to the Police.

A positive comment:

No Dorothy, I think the residents of Aberdeen are missing the point here!!! These are not travellers who are working in the area, or here to cause any harm or disruption to Aberdeen. This is an organised event to which they have been given permission to hold their religious convention. I have worked for Acc for may years and I can assure you that I know what I am speaking about. We are not speaking of unauthorised encampents, this is an organised event. I just wonder if the residents of Cove would be holding such a fuss if it was anything else than a Traveller event. On that note this event is open to all, it is not purely for travellers so please feel free to come along, and may I also stress that I am also a resident of Cove, in fact I live practicaly across the road and as a resident I have no problem with this event taking place. I have more of a problem with the youths that are walking the street of Cove at present causing trouble!!!!!
Amanda Farquhar.

Sylvia Plath.

2010-07-17T09:12:00.002Z

Fonda.

2010-07-16T20:42:00.003Z

When Jane Fonda wanted to change the World.

Now Jane Fonda wants to change the aging process.

She is consistent, with both campaigns being ineffective.

Happiness.

2010-07-15T22:43:00.007Z

Happiness Is The Good Management Of Our Unhappiness.