Tendring Topics………on Line
‘The year’s at the spring……
……..and the day’s at the morn’, just as Robert Browning declared in Pippa Passes. And, as I write that is exactly as it is. For the past few days we have been free of that arctic north wind. The sun has shone, temperatures have risen and the forecasters suggest that the situation won’t change too much for at least the remainder of the week*.
‘The year’s at the spring……
……..and the day’s at the morn’, just as Robert Browning declared in Pippa Passes. And, as I write that is exactly as it is. For the past few days we have been free of that arctic north wind. The sun has shone, temperatures have risen and the forecasters suggest that the situation won’t change too much for at least the remainder of the week*.
Spring really is here – and I am particularly full of its joys because I have just celebrated, very happily, my eighty-ninth birthday and I am now in my ninetieth year! This might not seem much of an occasion for celebration. I am very conscious of failing eyesight and hearing, and of short-term memory loss. Walking is difficult, and I have my share of aches and pains.
The rear view of my bungalow in May
with my eating-apple tree in full blossom.
However, my New Year resolution for 2009 was, as the children’s hymn says, ‘to count my blessings, count them one by one’, and – with one or two regrettable lapses – I have tried to do that ever since.
I really do have a great many blessings to count. I live in the comfortable bungalow that has been my home for the past fifty-four years. I have no debts and an adequate income. I have an electric mobility scooter that saves me from being housebound and enables me to get to the church services and Quaker Meeting that have become an increasingly important part of my life. I no longer enjoy reading as I once did, but I can enjoy tv, radio, DVDs and video tapes; and I have stored in my still-functioning long-term memory great tracts of poetry and prose some of it dating back to my infancy.
I am very fortunate in being still able, with the aid of my lap-top, to exercise and enjoy the one real skill that I have ever possessed, that of stringing words together into a readable narrative. I have recently self-published Zittau….and I, an account of my relationship with that small German town where I was once a POW but in which I now have good friends. I have just completed, for the interest of my sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (if any!), my autobiography and, of course, I write and publish this blog week after week.
Most important of all, I am upheld by the love of a great many friends and relations who have meant so much to me since the loss, after sixty years of marriage, of my dear wife Heather. For my birthday I received over thirty messages of love and friendship in birthday cards, letters, emails and text messages. During our marriage, possibly because of Heather’s always fragile health, I felt little need for friends, though Heather had a great many, with most of whom she kept in touch by correspondence. It is since her life came to an end that I have known the real value of friendship with the sort of friend who can always be depended upon. Such friendships, together with the love and support of every member of my extended family, have really been
my greatest blessing.
Heather and I, aged 65 and 67
St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians says that there are three things that endure for all eternity, Faith, Hope and Love. My faith is weak and full of doubt. I have never lacked love though, and I am sustained by the fervent hope that some time, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Heather and I will be reunited in another better world beyond time and space.
So far thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent till
The night has gone.
Then with the dawn, that angel face will smile
That I have loved long since, and lost the while.
I am sure that the late Cardinal Newman would forgive me my tiny alteration to the penultimate line of his hymn, ‘Lead Kindly Light’.
* That was last week!
The rear view of my bungalow in May
with my eating-apple tree in full blossom.
However, my New Year resolution for 2009 was, as the children’s hymn says, ‘to count my blessings, count them one by one’, and – with one or two regrettable lapses – I have tried to do that ever since.
I really do have a great many blessings to count. I live in the comfortable bungalow that has been my home for the past fifty-four years. I have no debts and an adequate income. I have an electric mobility scooter that saves me from being housebound and enables me to get to the church services and Quaker Meeting that have become an increasingly important part of my life. I no longer enjoy reading as I once did, but I can enjoy tv, radio, DVDs and video tapes; and I have stored in my still-functioning long-term memory great tracts of poetry and prose some of it dating back to my infancy.
I am very fortunate in being still able, with the aid of my lap-top, to exercise and enjoy the one real skill that I have ever possessed, that of stringing words together into a readable narrative. I have recently self-published Zittau….and I, an account of my relationship with that small German town where I was once a POW but in which I now have good friends. I have just completed, for the interest of my sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (if any!), my autobiography and, of course, I write and publish this blog week after week.
Most important of all, I am upheld by the love of a great many friends and relations who have meant so much to me since the loss, after sixty years of marriage, of my dear wife Heather. For my birthday I received over thirty messages of love and friendship in birthday cards, letters, emails and text messages. During our marriage, possibly because of Heather’s always fragile health, I felt little need for friends, though Heather had a great many, with most of whom she kept in touch by correspondence. It is since her life came to an end that I have known the real value of friendship with the sort of friend who can always be depended upon. Such friendships, together with the love and support of every member of my extended family, have really been
my greatest blessing.Heather and I, aged 65 and 67
St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians says that there are three things that endure for all eternity, Faith, Hope and Love. My faith is weak and full of doubt. I have never lacked love though, and I am sustained by the fervent hope that some time, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Heather and I will be reunited in another better world beyond time and space.
So far thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent till
The night has gone.
Then with the dawn, that angel face will smile
That I have loved long since, and lost the while.
I am sure that the late Cardinal Newman would forgive me my tiny alteration to the penultimate line of his hymn, ‘Lead Kindly Light’.
* That was last week!
Back to Politics!
Reading about our new Coalition Government’s immediate programme made me think about some of its predecessor’s acts and omissions.
Who would have thought that after 13 years’ rule of a Political Party that was formed for no other purpose than to further the interests of ordinary working people, it would be left to their Conservative-led opponents and successors to call time on the ever-spiralling salaries and bonuses of top civil servants and local government officers, and to realize that there must be a reasonable relationship between the incomes of the highest and the lowest paid of any organisation?
Who too, would have imagined that that same New-Labour Government would in 2008, almost simultaneously abolish the 10p income tax rate which had helped the low paid, and reduce the Capital Gains Tax from 40 percent to 18 percent, putting more cash into the pockets of the already wealthy?
The same government encouraged twenty-four hour drinking, planned further airport expansion, wanted to introduce identity cards and blindly followed the most reactionary American President in recent history into an illegal war in Iraq and an unwinnable conflict in Afghanistan.
That government made no attempt to redress two of the most obviously unfair and inept actions of their Conservative predecessors – the severing of the link between average earnings and state pensions, and the ‘right to buy’ legislation that compelled and still compels local authorities to sell at bargain basement prices, homes provided by their predecessors to facilitate slum clearance and prevent overcrowding. It was legislation that destroyed scores of rural communities, increased homelessness and contributed to the soaring house price inflation of the turn of the millennium, thus playing a part in the creation of the current financial crisis.
When, way back in the 16th Century Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote the words of the general confession for use in Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer, he might almost have had that future New-Labour Government in mind:
‘We have done those things that we ought not to have done and have left undone those things that we ought to have done, and there is no health in us
Coming home to roost?
Do you remember the excitement a year or so ago when Essex County Council announced that it was setting up its own bank? It was at the height of the world financial crisis. Struggling Essex businesses were finding it almost impossible to get loans. Some promising firms were facng failure. Mass unemployment threatened.
‘Knight-in-shining-armour’ Lord Hanningfield rode in to the rescue. The County Council, he told us, would under his far-sighted leadership set up its own bank. £50 million (of our money!) would be made available, offering quick loans to up-and-coming but still struggling Essex businesses. It was a new bright idea that earned universal press headlines and almost universal praise.
I was doubtful, and said so in this column. This was not because I knew anything at all about Banking. I didn't and don’t. However I did know that Essex County Council had been taken to task for failings in its child protection service and that its other statutory services had been judged by the Audit Commission to be no more than ‘adequate’. Was it likely, I thought, that an authority that had not made a striking success of duties with which it is charged by law, would succeed in a field in which it had no previous experience whatsoever? I also wondered whether eligibility for a loan might depend upon acquaintance with influential councillors rather than on need and suitability.
Lord Hanningfield gave his interviews and his photo opportunities, and made his statements. The press published their headlines and departed to pastures new. The Bank of Essex was left to its own devices……..and flopped.
Reading about our new Coalition Government’s immediate programme made me think about some of its predecessor’s acts and omissions.
Who would have thought that after 13 years’ rule of a Political Party that was formed for no other purpose than to further the interests of ordinary working people, it would be left to their Conservative-led opponents and successors to call time on the ever-spiralling salaries and bonuses of top civil servants and local government officers, and to realize that there must be a reasonable relationship between the incomes of the highest and the lowest paid of any organisation?
Who too, would have imagined that that same New-Labour Government would in 2008, almost simultaneously abolish the 10p income tax rate which had helped the low paid, and reduce the Capital Gains Tax from 40 percent to 18 percent, putting more cash into the pockets of the already wealthy?
The same government encouraged twenty-four hour drinking, planned further airport expansion, wanted to introduce identity cards and blindly followed the most reactionary American President in recent history into an illegal war in Iraq and an unwinnable conflict in Afghanistan.
That government made no attempt to redress two of the most obviously unfair and inept actions of their Conservative predecessors – the severing of the link between average earnings and state pensions, and the ‘right to buy’ legislation that compelled and still compels local authorities to sell at bargain basement prices, homes provided by their predecessors to facilitate slum clearance and prevent overcrowding. It was legislation that destroyed scores of rural communities, increased homelessness and contributed to the soaring house price inflation of the turn of the millennium, thus playing a part in the creation of the current financial crisis.
When, way back in the 16th Century Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote the words of the general confession for use in Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer, he might almost have had that future New-Labour Government in mind:
‘We have done those things that we ought not to have done and have left undone those things that we ought to have done, and there is no health in us
Coming home to roost?
Do you remember the excitement a year or so ago when Essex County Council announced that it was setting up its own bank? It was at the height of the world financial crisis. Struggling Essex businesses were finding it almost impossible to get loans. Some promising firms were facng failure. Mass unemployment threatened.
‘Knight-in-shining-armour’ Lord Hanningfield rode in to the rescue. The County Council, he told us, would under his far-sighted leadership set up its own bank. £50 million (of our money!) would be made available, offering quick loans to up-and-coming but still struggling Essex businesses. It was a new bright idea that earned universal press headlines and almost universal praise.
I was doubtful, and said so in this column. This was not because I knew anything at all about Banking. I didn't and don’t. However I did know that Essex County Council had been taken to task for failings in its child protection service and that its other statutory services had been judged by the Audit Commission to be no more than ‘adequate’. Was it likely, I thought, that an authority that had not made a striking success of duties with which it is charged by law, would succeed in a field in which it had no previous experience whatsoever? I also wondered whether eligibility for a loan might depend upon acquaintance with influential councillors rather than on need and suitability.
Lord Hanningfield gave his interviews and his photo opportunities, and made his statements. The press published their headlines and departed to pastures new. The Bank of Essex was left to its own devices……..and flopped.
During its operation it has made a mere ten loans, totalling £29,000. What’s more, those who have applied for loans have experienced just the same long delays that they did with commercial banks. I suppose that we may console ourselves with the thought that not much of that £50 million has been put at risk.
The ‘Daily Gazette’ comments, ‘The Essex County Council Bank was supposed to be a different animal from other banks. If it cannot fulfil that remit, then it is time to shut up shop, as it looks increasingly like a folly’.
I wonder how the County Council’s other ground-breaking schemes are fairing? There was the County Council branch office, deep within the People’s Republic of China, that was going to find export markets for Essex firms, and there was the idea of putting most of the County Council’s statutory services out to private tender. I hope that Walton’s Naze Protection Society has received and safely banked the money promised by the County Council for their ‘Crag Walk’.
Empire Day!
I shall hope to publish this blog on the web during the evening of Tuesday, 25th May. I wonder how many – if any – of its readers remember that 24th May used to be called Empire Day. It was one of the days, including the Christian Festivals of Easter, Whitsun and Christmas, of national celebration that punctuated each year in the decades prior to World War II.
At my primary school on Empire Day we would march round the playground and salute the flag (yes, we really did!) and the glories of the Empire would be extolled by the Headmaster at morning assembly. At my all-boys secondary school, celebration was a little more subdued. The Union Flag would, of course, be flown. There would be a special prayer for the Empire and its people at assembly and we would sing Kipling’s Recessional – ‘God of our fathers, known of old…..’ We certainly didn’t realize how prophetic the line ‘Our faded pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre’ would prove to be! At some time during the day we would be addressed by a visiting speaker from the Bahamas, Bechuanaland, Bombay or some other far-flung outpost. He or she (it was once a very sun-tanned lady!)who would show us all the red on the map distinguishing the Empire on which ‘the sun never sets’ and tell us about the splendid careers in the Colonies awaiting young fellows seeking adventure!
If anyone had told us that before the end of the century the Empire would have disappeared, and that most people would think that that was a good thing, we would have been sure that they were crazy.
Well, it has disappeared and I don’t suppose that many people are very sorry. On the other hand, I don’t think that we need to be too apologetic. There have been plenty of worse Empires and I reckon that in several former parts of ours many of the inhabitants lived happier, more peaceful lives under British rule than they do today. We relinquished our control without too much acrimony and without too much bloodshed – which is more than can be said for most other Empires.
I doubt if I’m the only octogenarian who feels just a little nostalgia for those self-confident and self-congratulatory Empire Days of the past!
The ‘Daily Gazette’ comments, ‘The Essex County Council Bank was supposed to be a different animal from other banks. If it cannot fulfil that remit, then it is time to shut up shop, as it looks increasingly like a folly’.
I wonder how the County Council’s other ground-breaking schemes are fairing? There was the County Council branch office, deep within the People’s Republic of China, that was going to find export markets for Essex firms, and there was the idea of putting most of the County Council’s statutory services out to private tender. I hope that Walton’s Naze Protection Society has received and safely banked the money promised by the County Council for their ‘Crag Walk’.
Empire Day!
I shall hope to publish this blog on the web during the evening of Tuesday, 25th May. I wonder how many – if any – of its readers remember that 24th May used to be called Empire Day. It was one of the days, including the Christian Festivals of Easter, Whitsun and Christmas, of national celebration that punctuated each year in the decades prior to World War II.
At my primary school on Empire Day we would march round the playground and salute the flag (yes, we really did!) and the glories of the Empire would be extolled by the Headmaster at morning assembly. At my all-boys secondary school, celebration was a little more subdued. The Union Flag would, of course, be flown. There would be a special prayer for the Empire and its people at assembly and we would sing Kipling’s Recessional – ‘God of our fathers, known of old…..’ We certainly didn’t realize how prophetic the line ‘Our faded pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre’ would prove to be! At some time during the day we would be addressed by a visiting speaker from the Bahamas, Bechuanaland, Bombay or some other far-flung outpost. He or she (it was once a very sun-tanned lady!)who would show us all the red on the map distinguishing the Empire on which ‘the sun never sets’ and tell us about the splendid careers in the Colonies awaiting young fellows seeking adventure!
If anyone had told us that before the end of the century the Empire would have disappeared, and that most people would think that that was a good thing, we would have been sure that they were crazy.
Well, it has disappeared and I don’t suppose that many people are very sorry. On the other hand, I don’t think that we need to be too apologetic. There have been plenty of worse Empires and I reckon that in several former parts of ours many of the inhabitants lived happier, more peaceful lives under British rule than they do today. We relinquished our control without too much acrimony and without too much bloodshed – which is more than can be said for most other Empires.
I doubt if I’m the only octogenarian who feels just a little nostalgia for those self-confident and self-congratulatory Empire Days of the past!
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