A View from Middle England by Arden Forester

Snow surprise then?

2010-01-06T09:45:00.005Z

We need a big umbrella over Britain it seems. We can't cope with snow, we can't cope with rain, and we don't appear to be able to cope with hot days. In fact, whilst there is a minimum temperature for working conditions, there is no such equivalent for high temperatures.

David Cameron is now beaming down from posters proclaiming that he'll get us out of the mess we're in. Perhaps the best policy he could construct would be one containing lots of joined up thinking. Britain suffers from short-termism. Just getting by is no longer any good. We need to learn from our mistakes and try our very best to get it right. So let's have some policies that actually mean something and let's have them without spin.

It was refreshing to hear President Obama tell the intelligence community they had failed to "connect the dots", adding "That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." I hope the British voters will not tolerate any politician who is incapable of connecting dots.

Snow in Solihull

2010-01-05T18:02:00.005Z

I see the council is predicting "snow disruption" as if this is a given. Another thing is that the chief executive is saying that school closures are up to the head teachers and the head teachers are saying it's up to the council. That's what I call responsibility (as we've come to expect it this country!). A decision will be made at 21.30. Don't hold your breath! I'm quite prepared for them to shut up shop and let the kids have a day off.

What if it freezes over until March? Have they thought of that?

UPDATE!!!

All schools will be closed in Solihull tomorrow, so no lessons learnt from last year then. I walked to Sainsbury's tonight and witnessed the traffic moving slowly. No gritting but perhaps it will happen overnight. Now we know that teachers can't drive in the snow. My suspicious mind tells me it has rather less to do with snowflakes but everything to do with ticking the boxes and keeping the rules in place. I also think, having witnessed the children getting extremely excited in the playground that a certain level of juvenile excitement is OK but too much is far too much.

I think they ran the white flag up the pole - couldn't see it - and decided it was all getting beyond their ken!

Snowed in and snowed out

2010-01-05T09:51:00.004Z

Britain is in the grip of a snowstorm. Grip is a word much favoured by the media. It helps to send a feeling of helplessness over the poor British pysche. Rather like Private Fraser in Dad's Army "We're all doomed I tell you!", the council executives up and down the land are preparing for a period of battening down the hatches rather than attempting to deal with the situation.

On the Today Programme it was trumpeted as being the "worst weather in 100 years", "nothing like it before" and such nonsense. I wonder where they were in the sixties or late forties. Of course all this paranoia is just so they can excuse the fact that they don't have the necessary preparations in hand. Chief executives are paid a king's ransom but deliver paupers' promises when it comes to wintry weather conditions.

I'm quite prepared to walk to school tomorrow with my children only to find the schools closed because the teachers got stuck somewhere or they were told to stay home in the warm. What a world! David Cameron says that if elected he will get us out of this mess. Well, first off he could get rid of all the backsliders and excuse merchants and get a load of people in who do know what to do when it snows!

Blair seen as a liability

2010-01-04T21:57:00.004Z

When was it ever different, I said to myself on seeing this piece in The Times. Apparently senior Labour figures have voiced concerns that Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry in the coming weeks will wreck any prospect of him helping the party at the general election. Helping them out? They'd be far better advised giving him a wide berth. The man is generally seen as being trouble on two legs. Blair's entourage are none too pleased with their hero being asked to explain his fibs and foibles. There is growing criticism being voiced within the former Prime Minister’s inner circle about Gordon Brown’s decision to hold the inquiry with public hearings in the run-up to the election. It was nicely put by a stooge as “The whole f***ing thing is Downing Street’s fault.” And these people used to run the country?

These Blairite types want him to "nuance" his testimony at the inquiry. What's new. He's nuanced everything since he knocked on his housemaster's door seeking attention. He nuanced his politics, he nuanced his religion, and he's currently nuancing his lucrative business career. He nuanced the Labour Party and no doubt nuanced all the mirrors in his house "Well, yeah, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is, yeah, the greatest nuancer of all?" "Oh, you are, Great Nuancer!"

Gordon Brown has had his Granita days. Tony Blair is not much use to the election or the future. New Labour dies a death in May!

Christmas Shopping Tales

2010-01-02T11:58:00.004Z

The run up to Christmas was rather different this year. For once we got some snow, at least in Solihull we did. Then there was the rather depressed feel about it all. Everyone seemed to be on the look out for bargains. I overheard a young woman say to her partner, "I don't find it very Christmassy, what with all the sales on!" I thought for a second, looked around and the very first shop I spotted declared that they offered "0% Finance" with the poster virtually covering the window. Then I saw it's next door neighbour with a vast SALE poster in brilliant red letters. That was one of many "overheards" that day.

Christmas shopping has always been relatively stressful. Not because it's unpleasant to do or anything, just that "the world and his wife" are out, as my father often used to say. What sort of world and and what sort of wife I cannot really say, except that one particular person caused an outrage in the pound shop. Breaking wind whilst trying to grab a bargain is not on my list. Someone had dealt a low one indeed. It hung around the back of the shop. Customers were eager to give a look as if to say "that's not mine, you know!". I felt a dash for the door was called for but thought a measured exit more preferable. With all the shelves having been ransacked, merchandise was on the floor. I had visions of the paramedics bending over me. "Broke 'is neck rushin' out of the shop, apparently". "I was trying to avoid the fart!", I opine gently. With my daydreams intact, I wandered off into Mel Square.

The German Market was on. Looked very festive and it was indeed a very joyful sight. There was a beer garden and lots of little stalls decked out like German alpine cabins. Trouble was, I thought at least, there were no Germans there. You can't have a German market without Germans. Brummies don't quite make up for that much of a difference. I had visions of Basil Fawlty. "Don't mention Aston Villa. I did, but I think I got away with it!"

As usual each shop visit was greeted with an enterprisingly eager young assistant. "Need any help, mate?" Mate is now officially in every retailer's training programme. "Now, Colin - when a customer enters the store what do we say?" "Need any help, mate?". "Splendid!" I ventured into one store and got two young men saying almost the same thing followed a few minutes later by a young woman using the "mate" terminology. Does anybody today stand their ground like my uncle used to do. I imagine he'd be arrested today for gross political incorrectness.

The Wednesday evening, 23rd December, found me in Tesco. It was 9.30 at night but it could have been anytime during the day. It was packed solid. People had picked the largest shopping trollies possible to push around and into each other. I only went in for a few things. I must get the hang of this better next year. As I pondered the selection in the confectionery displays I heard a male voice speaking loudly. "She said I had a big nose?", he enquired in a rather tetchy manner. It was another mobile phone user on autopilot. "She's no right to say that. She's just stirring it". I tried turning round, my curiosity needed assuaging. But there was a trolley pinning me to the shelving. By the time I did turn round he was gone. Big nose or not, I will never know. I eventually got out of Tesco, having queued up for the self-service scanner (warning those in front of queue-jumpers).

Christmas was good for us this year and still is. After all there are twelve days of Christmas, although in this secular age it's more important to bother about the 120 days before Christmas. I hope the New Year brings us all some prosperity and happiness. My goodness, the world needs more of that!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010-01-01T00:41:00.003Z

HAPPY 2010 to one and all. I'm looking positively into the new year determined to make it a good one. I've been off the air, so to speak, with festivities and family fun. Will attend to the matter of pontificating later.

TWENTY TEN - Well I never!

Tony Blair and his Iraq notions!

2009-12-12T16:45:00.004Z

So Tony Blair only had a "notion" that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the Middle East region and to the rest of the world. Well I have a "notion" that Blair is a dissembler, a deceiving spinner and a man whose politics were mainly built on the "notion" that all the people he met whilst gallivanting around the world would help him become a multi-millionaire. The bonused bankers achieve wealth through making money out of thin air. He has made money out of hot air.

These are "notions" but what the hell. We all have them these days. Nobody has much to say for politicians mainly because they have too many "notions". I'm glad Blair's gone. He was always on the make with his "well, yeah, so" type of approach to it all.

The fact that he sleeps at night is because he believes his own bullshit. I doubt if he ever will get round to thinking in any other way. What a life, eh?

Bats in Quentin Davies' belfry!

2009-12-10T13:44:00.006Z

Quentin Davies is an MP who left the Tories in a huff so he could dance to the New Labour tune. Having rubbished Gordon Brown's stewardship of the economy as Chancellor, he praises him as Prime Minister. I once canvassed for the man when he was describing himself as John Davies to the more humble voters of Birmingham. I introduced him to a particularly bewildered high-rise council flat dweller as John Quentin Davies (which was the name the agent was touting!) whereupon Davies had a go at me saying that he didn't want the man to think he was some kind of double-barrelled toff.

So it comes as no surprise that his bell tower needs attention. Too many political bats crapping in the thing. He has denied trying to claim on expenses the £20,700 cost of rebuilding the tower at his constituency home. As usual, it's all a misunderstanding. A bit like the whole of the New Labour regime's time in office. Blair was good at misunderstandings! "Well, yeah, look!" kind of stuff.

I haven't been proved wrong. This nonsense will rumble on and on until someone gives Brown a kick up the backside.

Is CPS wanting to be judge and jury?

2009-12-10T10:24:00.003Z

It seems to me that the Crown Prosecution Service is never satisfied by the outcome of court cases which involve them taking people to court over politically correct offences. The case over the Christian hotelier and the Muslim convert woman has ended with the judge dismissing the case. Now that more facts have emerged pehaps I was hasty in putting forward a judgement. However, it does appear that the two sides were acting like two dormant volcanoes suddenly erupting on the same day!

My attention was drawn to a comment by CPS senior lawyer Nicola Inskip. She said of the case, "We were satisfied that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction that a religiously aggravated offence should be charged." Implying that she felt the Christian couple was at fault not the woman who was a Muslim convert. They basically took sides and came down in favour of the Muslim.

Each time that a case like this is thrown out the CPS offers up a whining comment that they were right and that, by implication, the judge, and jury if involved, were wrong. It is a sign that the infection of political correctness or more actually political incorrectness has invaded almost every part of our civil structure. It is insiduous and somehow we must put a stop to it.

Christian hotelier 'abused' Muslim guest

2009-12-08T16:39:00.004Z

The BBC reports that at a court hearing it was revealed that a Muslim woman was asked by a Christian hotelier if she was a terrorist and a murderer because she was wearing Islamic dress. The hotelier is alleged to have been abusive using threatening or insulting words which were religiously aggravated. And there's more!

The man may be from a Christian background but he appears to have left all traces of Christian charity at the back of his brain. An organisation called The Christian Institute demonstrated in support of the couple outside the court. Did they indeed? "By their fruits ye shall know them comes" to mind.

Bugger the bankers!

2009-12-08T15:05:00.003Z

In a time of deep recession, brought about in part by the headlong scramble by some bankers to make money out of loans that were past their subprime value, it would be nice to think that a kind of patriotic move might not go amiss. The bonus greed currently sweeping the City of London is very unsavoury to say the least. Angela Knight, she of the British Bankers' Association, whines on amount bankers leaving the country if they don't get more money. Even Croesus would have thought better! Well, if they are so hellbent on going, let them go. As George V might have said on his deathbed if confronted by these blackmailing types "Bugger the bankers!". Quite so.

No wedded bliss under New Labour regime

2009-12-07T16:55:00.005Z

In some ways the New Labour regime mirrors the US Episcopal Church as some kind of secular PC alternative. They are all for a bizarre idea of equality, thrusting alternative lifestyles at us in place of married bliss and generally failing to help the disadvantaged and the wronged because they have a blanket approach to it all.

New Labour heard that some sub-continental brides had been sold into marital slavery and abuse in order to obtain cash dowries for the grasping grooms. At first this was dismissed because no self-respecting New Labour apparatchik could bring himself/herself to accept anything untoward from the Asian community. Then they were forced to admit that forced marriages needed acting upon. Of course, being New Labour, they couldn't construct an act that dealt with the problem. No, they had to include every race, creed and human being possible into their law. So it is that totally innocent people get caught up in this legal minefield.

The Home Office is diligently applying the rules and regulations with vigour. British bride Amber Aguilar, from Friern Barnet, north London, faced the dilemma of having to choose between her career ambitions in the UK or living abroad with her Chilean husband because of the policy. The ‘heartbroken’ 18-year-old chose to live with 19-year-old Diego Andres Aguilar Quila, who had to leave the country recently after his student visa expired. The Home Office has been labelled heartless. I'd say they were just a bunch of jobsworths with a penchant for momentary lapses into jobsworthlessnesses (like losing computer data!).

It is not what Britain should be about. The sooner this lot go the better for all of us!

Pompous little Miliband

2009-12-07T10:20:00.004Z

All environmental eyes are on Copenhagen. Some scientists do not think the global warming phenomenon is as bad as the majority of climate scientists do. They have studied the matter and concluded certain points and opinions. That is OK. They may be right, they may be wrong. I am no scientist so don't know if all the perceived dangers are rock solid true.

What I do know is that in an adult debate people's sincerely held views should be respected. The Milliband brothers appear to be some kind of reborn Zealots, keenly rubbishing opponents' opinions with a mixture of highbrow disdain and vulgar put-downs.

So it was that Ed Miliband pompously dismissed Lord Lawson yesterday with "I think you are being profoundly irresponsible by saying we can stick our heads in the sand and just hope this thing goes away. It's not going to." Nobody is taking the ostrich approach. Lord Lawson responded by saying it was also profoundly irresponsible not to allow an "honest, rational, reasoned debate".

And that is the nub. Miliband is like some preacher on speed. All he spouts is gospel truth to be believed hook like and sinker. Anyone else who has a contrary view must be made to look foolish and ridiculed. I don't know if Lord Lawson's views hold credence but he has a right to express them without pompous little prats sounding all prophetic!

People in glass pools shouldn't sink any lower!

2009-12-06T17:13:00.004Z

The Episcopal Church seems hellbent on being the modern day version of the Synagogue of the Libertines. All things to all men, women, and 101 genders in between. The episcopacy is modelled in their image and for their designs and fancies. Out goes anything much that St.Paul spoke about. Sin is now an optional extra in the polity of the church. In fact, the only sin that can be committed in the Episcopal Church is gainsaying the liberal agenda.

It's a farflung experience from the days when the church had some moral backbone. Now the essence of faith is that there are virtually no wrongs that can be done other than be a follower of traditional doctrine.

Mary Glasspool has been elected as a female prelate in the diocese of Los Angeles. Exactly what the angels think is not credited to the shinanigans. Ms Glasspool is the very model of a modern Episcopalian. She is also a lesbian in a 21 year-old relationship. Her lifestyle is at odds with traditional teaching. She has turned the received wisdom of understanding what sin is into a rejection of the faith in favour of her own views on moral conduct. It is far more than the Pick 'N Mix at Woolworths. This is like walking into the old Woolies and demanding that the selection of chocolates and candies on offer be removed so that a whole new range can be brought in just for personal satisfaction.

When Jesus met with the woman caught in adultery he forgave her. Her accusers had fled not willing to condemn her because of their own sins. He said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more". The whole thing about that was not sinning anymore. It is a state of being seemingly lost on the hierachy of the diocese of Los Angeles.

This has caused a stir in the press. They love a good contretemps in the church. But the one comment that is a bit rich is from Canon Giles Fraser, Chancellor of St Paul's and one of the founders of the liberal Inclusive Church network. He says it "is another nail in the coffin of Christian homophobia". Utter tripe, but there you go. Those opposed to rewriting the Faith are not phobic of anyone, but want sinfulness rightly explained and explored.

I do not come to the blogosphere as some paragon of virtue. We all do things we should not. But I would be very much against getting my personal baggage encoded as some sort of new sacramental doctrine for others to follow.

I see that the Archbishop of Canterbury is somewhat uneasy about the whole thing. Difficulty for him is that he has helped to get the door open a bit. He's now trying to put a brand new self-closing mechanism on it. Best really to let the Episcopal Church leave the Anglican Communion so they can follow their hearts and desires in a new direction. I don't have anything against Ms Glasspool and her beliefs. Everyone is entitled to freedom of expression and belief. I just don't want her trying to force me to follow in her footsteps.

Tony Blair lied about Iraq says Bob Ainsworth

2009-12-05T12:14:00.008Z

Bob Ainsworth knows what's what. Stick a pin in him and he warbles about almost anything. He's got two chips on his shoulder (a bit like John Prescott) which are that he came from humble beginnings and that he thinks people take him for a fool. Well, I for one don't knock him for either. Good on him getting to be Defence Secretary. Just as the Earl of Onslow suggested to Prescott that he should feel proud of his achievements rather than to feel irked, the same goes for Bob.

My beef with Mr. Ainsworth is this. He knows more than he is letting on. Or at least letting on to those that should be knowing about his thoughts and his views. Bob was at a public meeting in Coventry at the Aldermoor Farm Primary School. At the meeting he was apparently asked about Iraq. To astonishment he said that "Tony Blair had fed lies" to the Labour Party about the war. He then went on to say that he "was an ordinary man from a council estate in Coventry. I don't sit in ivory towers".

So the audience got to hear that he thinks Tony Blair is a liar but that he didn't do anything about this because he is basically too naively simple to take it further. Wow! And how did I hear of this? Via the BNP website, because the BNP candidate for Coventry North-East, Tom Gower, was at the meeting and reported it all on the BNP site.

Do I believe Gower's reporting? I don't know, but why should I not? Interestingly, this has not been reported anywhere else as far as I can see. The only piece I can find is on the Coventry Telegraph's site, where Bob Ainsworth talked blandly about Afghanistan not Iraq. That's nearly three weeks ago and is all a very different take on Mr.Gower's.

So is the BNP making it all up and Ainsworth never said anything about Blair being a liar? Or is the mainstream media suppressing it because this was "leaked" by the BNP? Or what?

The truth is not quite as it seems. My point in revealing this is that it will only aid the BNP's election chances if the mainstream gives them cause to reveal unpalatable facts and allows them the chance to dress up the information revealed. I think we need to know if Bob Ainsworth actually called Tony Blair a liar ("fed lies") because it drives a coach and horses through the Labour party's defence of the war.

The next election will be fought over transparency. The truth getters against the obfuscators, liars, spinners and cheats. I just hope someone other than a BNP candidate can unearth the prattling lies.

Coughs and sneezes!

2009-12-01T14:11:00.003Z

I just popped up to say that I'm trying to rid myself of a sudden bout of a cold type thing. It's not swine flu, or any other flu, but it's just not letting me think straight, so I've not got a lot to say at the moment. Thinking, yes, but that's another matter!

UKIP and the new leader

2009-11-27T15:48:00.003Z

Lord Pearson of Rannoch has been elected the new leader of UK Independence Party. This is interesting for two points. First, he is the first leader of a political party to sit in the Lords since the Earl of Home become leader of the Conservative Party in 1963 (although that was for a very short period). Second, he is the first leader of a political party with elected politicians not to have been elected to any office himself.

So his election paves the way for Nigel Farage to try to oust Speaker Bercow at Buckingham. If Farage succeeds, will he want his job back?

Iraq War nonsense - today's ramblings!

2009-11-27T13:47:00.003Z

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK's ambassador to the UN in 2003, said the invasion of Iraq did not have the backing of most UN members or even the UK public. It was of "questionable legitimacy" even though it is unlikely to be ever proved illegal. He said he believed the US and UK had "established" its legality in that it had never been challenged in court.

So that's alright, then?

It's a bit like saying an inveterate thief, one who habitually steals things willy-nilly, is doing nothing illegal because his activities have never been challenged in court. Lots of people do some very bad things. Some MPs have been up to no good. What about the banks selling each other dodgy "financial instruments"? It's OK folks, none of it is illegal because it has never been challenged in court.

It's all very legally-challenged, of that there's no doubt!

Peter Cook, or should I say E.L.Wisty, had something to say about judges in this sketch about whether to be a miner or a judge.

Recession? The penny hasn't dropped yet!

2009-11-27T12:14:00.005Z

Yesterday most financial commentators were beside themselves because Britain is still in recession. I don't give much credence to all their computer calculating and number crunching excercises. I prefer a more simple method of comprehending whether we are out of recession.

When Gordon Brown was over-gulping on the air and telling us that he had abolished boom and bust I regularly spotted coins dropped on paths and pavements as I walked about. Outside the post office, in car parks, by the telephone kiosk, outside the boozer and so on. I once picked up a pound! Then we had the start of the credit crunch and the pennies stopped dropping from heaven or wherever. I still peer at the ground. Once in a blue moon I spot a coin. But it's a rare occurrence.

When those coins start being dropped again with gay abandon and caution being thrown to some economic growth wind I will believe that we are out of recession. Until then, it's just a hard slog and a determination not to say too many rude things about bankers and Brown!

Gatecrashers at White House

2009-11-26T12:26:00.004Z

Well, well! what was that about getting on the A-list? It seems a couple gatecrashed their way in to the dinner that President Obama was laying on for the Indian Prime Minister. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were reportedly not invited but later posted photos of themselves on Facebook. Much to the chagrin of the Secret Service. Now they should be a service for uncovering other people's secrets, but all the gismos and gadgets failed to uncover this dining duo.

Apparently it was all about getting on reality TV. Really? What people will do to get noticed, eh?

Obama gathers his A list for first state dinner

2009-11-23T11:05:00.005Z

Heard the expression "jockeying for position"? That's a mild expression for what's going on in Washington right now. It seems the race to be invited to President Obama's first state dinner is becoming something akin to the Gaderene Swine rushing for the clifftops. India's prime minister is being honoured. Possibly feted and fauned over in equal measure too. The Americans are very keen to make sure that the Indian government is made to feel very welcome and secure in its worldwide ascendency. It will be all posh poppadoms and rose-scented finger bowls!

In a departure from the traditional venue, the elegant State Dining Room, the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. I doubt though that Manmohan Singh is the man the tented diners will be there to see, though. No, they want to be seen there at the dinner by the TV and the loser B-Listers. To show that they are the pukka lot. It's the hottest ticket item in town. Dee Dee Myers, who served as President Clinton's press secretary, said the lobbying by people seeking an invite had probably been relentless. "The first [state dinner] is always the most dramatic," she said. "First impressions are important. That's your A list, that's your top game right there. By the time you get to the eighth state dinner, it'll be a lot less important." Those left off the shindig's list will be venting on the airwaves the very next day!

So, there we have it. Whoever gets to be at the eighth state dinner, either as guest or C-list attendee, it will be a very lowkey affair. The Indians must be wondering if being first has all the advantages. Hope the tent doesn't overheat. Might as well be back in Bombay!

The Baroness and The Clown

2009-11-21T16:05:00.005Z

Much has been said in today's papers about Baroness Ashton of Upholland and the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy. I tend to agree with lots about the undemocratic nature of the EU decision-making process. In 48 hours as much has been written about them as in the last 48 years!

Baroness Ashton is keen on the Daleks of Doctor Who fame. So much so that she has a full-sized one at home. Mr Van Rompuy has been likened by his sister, a rival politician, to a clown. Perhaps the Dalek may have ways of exterminating the EU or maybe loads of clowns can descend on the Commission to out gag the new clown!

Either way, Daleks or Clowns - it's still an organisation that likes to exterminate democratic choice and make clowns out of us all. For example, what organisation in the world that purports to be for the people can hide their financial activity behind years of unaudited accounts?

Archbishop of Canterbury in goalpost moving exercise

2009-11-21T15:18:00.003Z

The Archbishop of Canterbury has gone to Rome. Not over to Rome. Just a short visit to speak his mind. However, it seems to me his mind is tortuously flexible these days. He spoke at length when giving an address in Rome, as the guest of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The address was part of a symposium being held at the Gregorian University, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cardinal Willebrands, the first president of the Council. Much of the address contained reference to women's ordination in relation to traditional catholic understanding.

The Archbishop's prose is sometimes heaving going on the reader, but the gist of his argument is that local churches without the whole catholic church can makes "local decisions" without deviating in any mammoth way from core beliefs. This is a bit like stretching rubber to see when it will break. He also suggests now that female ministry is based on baptism and on vocation, as a measure of equality. It all smacks a bit of changing the ingredients in a well-established recipe because some people think the recipe makes a bad cake.

He says this, "All ordained ministers are ordained into the shared richness of the apostolic ministerial order – or perhaps we could say ministerial 'communion' yet again. None ministers as a solitary individual. Thus if the ministerial collective is understood strictly in terms of the ecclesiology we have been considering, as serving the goal of filial and communal holiness as the character of restored humanity, how much is that undermined if individuals within the ministerial communion are of different genders? Even if there remains uncertainty in the minds of some about the rightness of ordaining women, is there a way of recognising that somehow the corporate exercise of a Catholic and evangelical ministry remains intact even when there is dispute about the standing of female individuals?" (Use of the word gender instead of sex is telling). The implication is that only a few have uncertainty over ordaining women whereas the opposite is crystal clear. He also seeks to find a way of incorporating female ministers into some kind of nebulous collegiality without really addressing what he calls a "dispute about the standing of female individuals".

The goalposts are being moved and the players are being given to think that the new rules will have no affect on the play in the field. The Archbishop also asked that the Roman Catholic Church give an answer as to what exactly is wrong with what some "local churches" are doing. I'd say if he doesn't know now he never will.

In a nutshell, this address was a convoluted way of asking whether there was a possibility of putting the current impaired communion of Christians together in a quick-fix solution ignoring disputes and disagreements. We all know we have to heed the Dominical request that we "all be one". Rowan Williams' suggestions sound laudable but it would surely be at the expense of conscience and catholic (universal) tradition.

Obama's poll rating falls below 50%

2009-11-20T21:27:00.004Z

It's shock news to one and all apparently. President Obama is only reckoned to be turning in a good performance by 49% of the American people. He should worry. This news follows hard on the heels of Rush Limbaugh's ridiculous assertion that Gallup were oversampling blacks in order to boost the ratings. Gallup called this tosh "a complete and inexplicable fabrication". Limbaugh must be coming to the end of the road, surely? I used to listen to his rants on the radio whilst I drove around metro Atlanta. He always appeared harmless but with a limited ratio of intellect. It always bothered me that the Republican Party attracted people with only two beans for brains. The intelligent ones were in the background goading the likes of Limbaugh on. All very peculiar.

So inexplicable fabrications are par for the course. I do hope people realise that most of these radio jocks are just on-air businesses trying to crank up the dollar revenues at the expense of truth and decency. And what of this oversampling of blacks? Is Gallup being accused of stuffing focus groups with only African Americans or is it some kind of graveyard voting experience (like the good old days in Northern Ireland!)? It's a preposterous allegation. But being preposterous is what the American neocons are all about.

I sincerely hope all right-minded American conservatives will see the light and come to the aid of the party.

Secular world wants control of the Church

2009-11-20T21:01:00.004Z

It isn't enough for the secular world to distance itself from the Church. It wants to control it through a mixture of legalisms and diatribes. St Mary The Virgin Parish Church in St Mary’s Road, Swanley, Kent is a well-known Anglo-Catholic church. It professes the unchanged Faith in a changing and changeable world. A rumpus has erupted in the town because the local branch of the Royal British Legion, having appointed a female cleric as their chaplain, were miffed that they could not hold a service within the church. St.Mary's does not recognise the validity of women in priest's orders. This, as the diocese confirms, is "the legal position and is well-documented".

Looking for an alternative venue, the local town council stepped in to allow the Legion to hold their service in a banqueting suite. Mutterings were heard. The council leader Councillor Robert Woodbridge said, “My view is we now live in the 21st century and things have changed. But they will point out there are things in the bible which says women should not be priests, but it’s a matter for the church.” It is this detached view of Christendom that allows such people as Harriet Harman to pursue her so-called Equalities Bill. Councillor Woodbridge may feel times change, and they do. But the Christian Faith does not change. What was heard and understood by the Disciples is heard and understood today and will be in centuries to come.

People may want to use the church as some kind of social club and take precious little interest in the doctrines. Fair do's. But they must surely see that they do themselves no good by being rude, condescending or simply dismissive in an ignorant fashion.