Month: February 2019

Bored of the Border

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At a critical time in UK politics, Teresa May is enjoying the sunshine in Sharm El Sheikh at the tax payer’s expense. There is an EU summit, but Brexit is not on the agenda. Brexit is due to happen in five weeks on the 29th March 2019. The scene is my house.

I put my steaming Irish Stew on the table just as the phone rang.

‘Yup’

‘Hello – the Right Honourable Teresa May here…’

‘Look, I’ve just put my dinner on the table, can I ring you back?’

‘Oh, yes – scratch my back a little higher darling…’

‘What did you say your name was?’

‘TM – the PM – ooh, lovely’

I suspected it was some sort of prank call.

When I had scooped up the last of my Danone Bifidus I eyed my phone, picked it up and speed dialled.

‘Bob! Thank you so much for ringing back.’

It wasn’t my name but I let it pass.

‘I’ve been told by Dave to call you when I get stuck up a gum tree.’

‘Do you mean Dave – captain-of-the-ship-talking-to-you-from-the-lifeboat-off-the-port-stern – Cameron?’

‘Yes, yes, him. Well he told me you were a bit of a clever Dick -a problem solver.’

She had my name wrong again. ‘Yes’

‘Well, I have a problem. It’s this Brexit thing. I keep trying but I can’t delay it any longer and I soooo want a hard Brexit. I’ve tried to string everyone along but I have run out of irrational reasons. You must have been following it, surely?’

Why was she calling me Shirley?

‘Go on Mrs. T.’

‘Well, it’s all over this Irish border back stop thing; between the North and South of the Ireland of Island.’

‘Island…it’s an island called Ireland.’

‘Yes, so, tell me what I should do? I mean, Dave knew about the Good Friday Agreement banning a hard border and yet like the silly ass he is, he still went ahead with the referendum. I mean – just because it was in the Tory party manifesto…which has never been a reason to carry out policy before. I mean, how stupid was that?’

‘On a scale of ten?’

‘Yes’

‘Ten.’

There was a long pause as if I was expected to produce a solution straight away. ‘So listen – was it Mother Teresa?’

‘No, the Right Honourable’

‘Okay Ron, here is what you do. First, that border with the farmers on their Massey Fergusons and lost tourists and local folks crossing all day and night.’

‘Yes’

‘Don’t move it. Don’t touch it. No barriers, no towers, no machine gun posts.’

‘Oh, thank you. Thank you!’

‘The border is totally fixed and that problem, is your solution. It’s a red line on the map and politically. So introduce all of your Trade and Customs checks away from the border.’

‘We thought of putting it in the Irish Sea but it was too wet.’

‘No, listen, you just move all your ‘border controls’ a few miles inland so that they are no longer literally, border controls. That leaves the real border frictionless and in full accordance with the Good Friday Agreement.’

‘Can I say robust?’

‘Sure.’

‘Robust.’

‘Even with two hundred or so border crossing points you can put in controls at suitable geographic locations.’

‘What locations?’

‘Well I thought loads of Payage’s. You know, Toll Booths, hundreds of them up and down, near to the border.’

‘Toll Booths?’

‘Yes, you see, all the traffic from Eire is not contributing it’s fair share to road tax in the UK. They are merrily wearing out UK roads and infrastructure without a care, so we stop them, and make them pay.’

‘Brilliant! Go on.’

‘…and they will need private health insurance, travel insurance, pet insurance and comprehensive vehicle insurance – which they can purchase by the day from the UK government.’

‘You mean we sting them for tax and insurance? I love it!’

‘Whilst this is going on, border control officers are doing their checks on vehicles. Number plate recognition cameras are hidden in the ‘Beware of High Tarrifs and Taxes – You Are Now Entering the United Kingdom’ warning road signs. They are alerted to any vehicles that they should be interested in. You know loaded with Somali terrorists and drug cartel bosses.

‘I love it! I’m so glad you called Alec. Dave was right. You are smart. But, I can see one other problem.  What about the other side? The EU insists on a hard border since it’s the edge of Europe.  I can see they are going to make it look like North Korea, however clever we are on our side.’

‘I know’

‘So’

‘When the wall goes up and the hostile vehicle mitigation barriers, anti-tank gun emplacements, mine fields…’

‘Oh no! Oh no!’

‘Don’t worry. That’s in my plan. When all that happens despite your robust objections as it being contravening the Good Friday Agreement and no one is listening to you…that is when you insist on a ‘border poll’…both north and south.

‘What pole? A north pole and a south pole? They are a long way away?’

‘No, a poll, you know, referendum? Both ends of the country vote on whether to unify the island of Ireland.’

‘I can’t see the IRA liking that’

‘It’s what they have been fighting for this last century’

‘Oh, yes, of course…1914…is that what it was about?’

‘…just make sure the referendum needs a majority that is as slim as possible. Do not require a super-majority of say 66% otherwise you won’t get the result you want. You know…just as in the Brexit referendum. Even a majority of one farmer who entered the polling booth by mistake looking for a lost lamb, just one casting vote will become the ‘will of the Irish people’. Your defence becomes a defence of democracy. Moral high ground and all that…’

‘I’m writing this down Dave…l a m b.’

‘Then Ireland is united, the Treasury are delighted with extra taxes for a while, and most importantly, Brexit can happen smoothly. You become Dame Margaret Teresa of Mumbai in the new year and everyone is happy!’

‘Oh Winston! You are so clever. Thank you. I hate strategy and you have really set the ship on a navigable course. So much smarter than Dave.’

‘Don’t mention it. We Irish Republican’s are always happy to work with the United Kingdom.’

Pleasure Palaces

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Pleasure and happiness are not the same thing in my view. Pleasures are sensory stimuli through the senses. Animals are motivated to seek compulsively a combination of pleasures.

Humans are naturally motivated by pleasure seeking as much as the animals. The animal nature of the body is something that should never be denied – as in aesthetic practices. Abstention from pleasure for controlled periods of time for a specific psycho / physiological purpose may be directed by a teacher, dietician or medical practitioner. For instance, seven days of a water fast puts the body into a state where stem cells are released into the damaged parts of the bodies, replacing cells that the body is beginning to consume as a source of protein. In this way organs can be rejuvenated and the life of the body enhanced and even extended.

In general though, most people living in a western culture or aspiring to western style culture, are orientated principally towards pleasure. The body craves satiation of it’s desires and a state of comfort and rest results. I can observe this simply in my cats. They crave their food. When it appears and they consume it – they will retreat to a favourite place to wash and then sleep.

At this level humans are no different. The technology of the western cultures has enabled food to available in supermarkets continually. Hunger is something to be avoided. The same process is mirrored in the other sensual pleasures.

Sexual gratification is deemed a right – even in a war zone where children are not going to have a good life. The pervasion of pornography and places for dignified and undignified sexual gratification are available – if not openely condoned. Humans are animals and the gratification of the desire to have sex is no different to the lusts felt by a stallion of a mare in a field. The indoctrination of philosophies such as Puritanism and social remnants from societies such as the Victorians in England – have left a hypocritical attitude to sex and other pleasures.

Swinging the other way in the ‘swinging sixties’ has left present societies with a liberalism moving ever towards citizens demanding unrelenting pleasure. Social media and it’s content reflect this starkly. Even the gratification of committing suicide is instructed and awarded a status of ‘do-able’.

All of these pleasures and desires put humans on a ‘one track’ direction that is hard to leave. Prince Sidhartha in Indian legend, became disenchanted with his life of luxury and left his family, his palace and social status to search for a reality that was not transient – as is desire for pleasure.

After practising extreme aestheticism he moved into what is now called ‘a middle way’ where ‘just enough’ is enough. For whilst the desire for pleasure and it’s satiation produces problems if totally ignored, too much pleasure also blinds the soul to an inner life with qualities that are not transient – a true ‘heaven’.

From pleasures come a state known as ‘contentment’. This state is also temporary and dependent on the outside world for it’s perpetuation – so contentment is not a destination for seekers of Heaven! Immortality has to be earned.

In my view pleasure palaces contain only the first steps on a long ladder reaching into the heavens. We can remain on the lower steps if we wish. Animals find it hard to climb ladders but humans do not. We have the potential to move vertically through our desire for pleasure and contentment, not negating them, but not seeking them either. They will always come along one way or another. As Jesus the Christ says in Matthew 6

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

To the modern western mind this sounds like a recipe for disaster – for planning and preparation, is a key to the pursuit of perpetual pleasure.

In the Taoist philosophy we find exactly the same aim as Christianity;

It is more important

to see the simplicity

To realise one’s true nature

To cast off selfishness

And temper desire

(chapter 19 of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu)

Note that desire is only tempered not destroyed. When desire becomes a small part of life, it can no longer dominate a person’s being and purpose. The void that is left will be filled by the Divine – in it’s own time.

In the words of the Sufi poet and seer – Sabistari

Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.

The tavern-haunter wanders alone in a desolate place,
seeing the whole world as a mirage.

The tavern-haunter is a seeker of Unity,
a soul freed from the shackles of himself.

 Through the chamber of the heart is small,
it’s large enough for the Lord of both worlds
to gladly make His home there.

Note the reference to ‘both worlds’ – for Sufism does not deny our presence as a soul in a material body. Both the physical world and it’s pleasures and the non-physical worlds are the abode of the Beloved. The task of the human is merely to become lost in the love of the Beloved and everything else, will follow – including happiness and pleasure.

Is Happiness Wrong?

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Blaise Pascal was not only a scientist and mathematician but philosopher. He is known for his book entitled Pensees in which he stated;

‘All human problems stem from the inability to sit in a room alone.’

With the benefit of hindsight since the 1600’s when this was written, I would suggest an amendment to;

‘Some human problems stem from the inability to sit in a room alone.’

It remains certain though, that inaction of body and mind is a problem for a lot of people in the West. There remains in Western thought an imperative to voyage and discover new things, places, people. The myth of seeding the planets and stars with human beings is a modern manifestation of this, but at a contemporary everyday level, it manifests as exploring social media compulsively.

Inactivity is seen as something to be avoided and children are instructed to keep themselves busy. There is a notional link here between being engaged in something and being happy. If happiness could be measured on a scale of one to ten, then we might expect to be somewhere around five most of the time. At times of misfortune this would go down to one or zero and at times of fortune nine or ten. Being ‘unhappy’ would then become an impossible state of mind, as there was only a surfeit or depletion of happiness. As emotional beings connected to the world through our senses we could become addicted to happiness through sensual pleasure. However the power or thought has given mankind the ability to disconnect into the abstract worlds of mathematics, language, pattern and imagination. Here also we find happiness. The absence of these activities does not reduce a state of contentment if we abandon contentment as our goal.

A later philosopher to Pascal was Jeremy Bentham from the 18th and 19th Centuries. His famous ‘hand me down’ thought to humanity was his ‘fundamental axiom’ for a fulfilled life;

‘It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.’

The ‘pursuit of happiness’ found it’s way into the the American Constitution in 1776 as a noble aim for our endeavours. As a piece of legalised diplomacy though, it let’s the snake into the garden, as happiness means different things to different people.

Persons engaged in any or all of the ‘deadly sins’ of the Old Testament for instance (if slavery is ‘theft of freedom’) might also be condoned under this right of the constitution. It had to be so, for many Americans from the south were not totally convinced slavery was a bad thing.

When Nazi Germany mobilised it’s military might – with it’s people in general support, they appear in the contemporary movies as being at least eight or nine on the happiness scale. Yet with hindsight we can see that the second world war was wrong and should never have happened, any more than should the first. We have to conclude that we have here an example that one can be very wrong and very happy.

Returning to Pascal’s point about being able to ‘live with oneself’; it is sobering to ponder if the Nazi’s would have been better to have learnt to do this. Instead of finding ‘wrong’ in their society and supposed causes of ‘wrong’ their first endeavours would have been better directed within. Outward exploration of one’s ideals and opinions inevitably mean trampling over someone else’s, in this case Belgium and Poland and most of Europe. This is a manifestation of the inability to sit quietly. Faults that we find intolerable in others are usually those holding most power over our selves. This truth is known from ancient times and is recorded as ‘known thyself’.

When a child is bored, it is because the child has an idea that a change of mental or physical environment is necessary. For whatever reason, this function is not available to the child inwardly.

My English teacher ‘Windy Gale’ was fond of aphorisms and he posted examples around the classroom. One was;

‘There are no dull subjects, only dull minds.’ He was no doubt tired or reading dull essays from dull minds.

While quiet can at first be regarded as in some way lacking, once accepted it can become a ploughed field upon which crops grow and from these comes nourishment.

There was a television series on the world religions several decades ago, presented and written by the theatre producer, Ronald Eyre who died in 1992. In his conclusion he said poignantly that if he were able to bring all the world’s religious leaders into one room, he would expect there would be a pervasive silence. He meant that far from being arguments about dogma and doctrine, origin and authenticity; because these beings had advanced sufficiently into themselves they would not be ‘throwing stones’ at others.

In the twentieth century, the connection between any human being on the planet with another through social media, has expanded this capacity to do ‘wrong’ in the pursuit of ‘happiness’. The forces of ‘radicalisation’ for instance are able to engage the minds of ‘bored’ souls anywhere on the planet. They will break their roots and leave their families to cross borders into broken states to support an aim they perceive as needing salvation from unhappiness. I am of course thinking of the so called ‘Islamic State’ as an example. At this time it’s influence is almost broken but like all political philosophies and doctrines it will always remain as the written word and thought.

Those emerging from the war will have learnt much about being alone and being near one and zero on the happiness scale. They may find that on return to their host countries after trial, they will be placed in a room alone. The question they must face is, can they live with themselves and in doing so become happy? Perhaps then, they will find the happiness they did not find through doing wrong.

The Universe and The Universe and The Universes

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Understanding the Universe has proved difficult for scientists. They have an idea that it started at a single point and expanded, but cannot explain what was there before. This is because their thinking is limited by their logic.

‘If a thing exists then there must have been a time it did not exist.’

This is logical but not true, because logic is limited and changed by the presence of an observer. Quantum physics proves this with such realities as an atom existing in two places at once.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

To describe the universe we need better words, ideas, concepts than we use to describe a four dimensional world.

Mathematicians describes up to eleven dimensions. Universes that exist apart and in the same space / time, something that is ‘not logical Captain’.

To view other dimensions it is necessary to move the position of the observer. We know this because we understand the difference between two and three and four dimensions. Two dimensions is a world on a single plane. It becomes three when we see the dinner plate as a circular object rather than a straight line. When the dinner plate is dropped and breaks into pieces, the plate has an existence in time – that is the space time we have grown to understand.

There are still people who believe in a flat earth. Even though sailors and pilots and astronauts tell of a spherical earth, the Flat Earth Society members prefer to interpret the facts in their own way.

Would it not be interesting to move to the next level of thought about the universe, just as the jump in thought between the Flat Earther’s and the rest of us? The universe is without a boundary according to our astronomical observations. In fact the galaxies are expanding ever outward at this moment in time. It is more likely, in my view, that there will never be a universal boundary discovered. This is because I believe the universe bends around and comes back on itself, as does a sphere. But in my model of the universe I see it as a Toroid shape, like a Polo mint – the ‘mint with a hole in it.’

Matter and energy appear from the Torus shaped centre of the hole as waves of galaxies, stars, gases and dust. It comes from the collapsed version of itself and is in the state of either expanding or contracting depending on in what stage of its life you view it. Time spins around the surface of the Torus as a snake around a tree coming eventually to its own tail, which it swallows. This is the serpent in the garden of Eden. Time introduces the dimension of ‘self awareness’ or ‘knowledge’ which the Creator thought man would be happier without.

There is not one Toroid though, neither is a there a place outside the Universe where the inhabitants of Heavenly Space live out separate lives. This model is Medieval in origin and was created to fit with the concept of Heaven and Hell as places of destination after death.

To my mind there is no heaven or hell other than that which is created by man, respectively through Divine inspiration or not. And before you ask, Divinity is everywhere, not just in Heaven.

There are an infinite number of Toroids. Each larger Toroid is a product of a smaller one, as we may all watch when we watch a programme producing fractal patterns.

Scale, like time, is after all relative to the observer, nothing else. It does not matter what size a Toroid is. There could be a million million in one finger nail, and a million million curving over the horizon. As observers limited to a human scale our logic and our instruments can only conceive and view up to a certain point. After that, our intuitions have to operate as they do in dreams, stories and our inspirational knowledge contained in native traditions and ancient myths.

Just because time appears to move in a straight line it does not mean it does. A car driven along the equator of the earth appears to move in a straight line when viewed from space. From another view it is describing the curvature of the earth and is travelling at over one thousand miles per hour through space as the earth spirals.

These relative ideas were described by Professor Albert Einstein in the twentieth century and it is telling that the ideas of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computing have not begun to be explored by the popular imagination. Many people still live in the tick tock universe conceived by Sir Isaac Newton.

Perhaps intuition and stories will burst our thoughts out of the chains of logic into new worlds. Worlds which expand and contract, which are made of energy and matter, which move through infinite spaces and return every split second to the place they started.

Perhaps.

Kicking the Mexi-can Down the Road

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Angel: Why have you decided that the wall between Mexico and the United States of America must be built?

Demon: Because it was an election promise that I made. Those who voted for me expect me to keep my promises. I keep my promises…don’t you Angels?

Angel: You did promise a wall but you also said that Mexico would pay for it. The question now is not over the wall, but who pays for it.

Demon: Yes, well I must have miscalculated how good kind and honest Mexicans are. I wanted them to pay for the wall and they are not doing what I want. But this proves what bad, very bad, people they are and why we need to keep them out. And all the other South American criminal gangs who want to come to live in our beautiful country. You know they sell drugs and murder? Is that okay for angels?

Angel: You have declared a state of National Emergency today. Is that to get around the Democrats who are blocking your demand for money to build the wall?

Demon: Demoncrats? Do you want to see American children murdered? We all love little human children don’t we? I know I do.

Angel: By most definitions, an emergency results from unseen circumstances. Undocumented migrants have been entering the USA – well since the Founding Fathers. How is it that undocumented immigration is suddenly ‘unexpected’?

Demon: Now you are just playing with words. I say what I mean and I mean to build a wall.

Angel: Even if you have to go against the checks and balances in the American Constitution?

Demon: Especially if the elite are stopping the will of the people. That’s in the Constitution too.

Angel: I’ve looked in Wikipedia and it says that undocumented immigrants increase the size of the U.S. Economy, contribute to economic growth, enhance the welfare of natives, contribute more to tax revenue than they collect, reduce American firms’ incentives to offshore jobs and import foreign-produced goods and benefit consumers by reducing the prices of goods and services.

Demon: Lies, all lies.

Angel: There is also evidence that immigrants commit less crime than natives and that enforcing illegal immigration has no effect on crime rates.

Demon: Are you making this up? Because if you are, I don’t think angels should be lying, do you?

Angel: Have you made a study on whether the wall will do what you expect it to? Will it be good value for money?

Demon: I’m never wrong. I don’t need a study to prove me right. The people voted for me. Are you saying they were wrong? That’s anti-democratic.

Angel: Let us imagine a wall. A wall that people cannot tunnel under, climb over, make holes in or go around at the ends…

Demon: Don’t need to imagine it. I can see it everyday in my mind. Gleaming and sturdy.

Angel: Let us imagine such a miraculous wall as you want…how will this change the status of those undocumented immigrants already inside the U.S.A.? How will it capture those who Visa overstay or violated their border crossing cards?

Demon: Let’s keep criminals out first, then we can P.U.R.G.E the aliens already here. I will make the holocaust look like a holoday camp. That’s good…get it?

Angel: And those seeking political asylum, who are now branded criminals. Those who handed themselves over to Border Control Agents were charged with criminal entry and if they had children with them, they were removed to detention centres.

Demon: Sounds like the reason the America people voted for to me. If you have a problem, then vote Democrat next time round.

Angel: We don’t vote.

Demon: Well there you are then. If you don’t buy a lottery ticket you won’t win the lottery. You know that’s true even if you don’t believe in democracy.

A Questionnaire for Brexiteers

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Some Brexiteers have been offended by the suggestion that they were not in full possession of the facts when they voted. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk recently said that he has been ‘wondering what a special place in hell looks like for those who proposed Brexit without a sketch of a plan’.

Below are twenty five questions which must be completed before 29th March 2019.

1. Explain using a diagram if necessary, what are the seven institutions of the European Union, their functions and their interrelationships.

1.a. Highlight in your answer those which contain directly elected representatives and which not with reasons.

2. Explain, in the context of the British Monarchy, the House of Lords, the Law Lords, the Church of England – why elected institutions are desirable.

3. The United Kingdom has become the fifth richest nation in the world, possibly partly due to it’s integration with Europe. Explain why it should not share it’s wealth with developing European countries. In other words, do you support the Sheriff of Nottingham or Robin Hood and why?

4. In no more than 20,000 words; what will be the principle effects on Europe from the UK leaving the EU? Give your answer in terms of; international security (such as the expansion of Russia into Europe), scientific and academic research projects, industrial production and world trade routes, inter European trade agreements, agriculture and fisheries, existing shared governmental and non governmental projects and charitable enterprises, education, health, sport, trade, tariffs, law enforcement, the custom union and the protection of borders from criminality, undocumented immigration, terrorism and espionage, cultural exchange and artistic excellence, tourism, environmental protection through existing laws and conservation projects and other aspects of European life that you understand may be affected by Brexit.

5. In no more that 20,000 words, describe the benefits to the United Kingdom in terms of the points in question 4 and which of the UK’s interests are shared with Europe’s.

6. Did you vote for your MEP?

7. The United Kingdom has voted for 95% of European Laws, vetoed 2% and voted against 3%. Which of these European Laws have contributed to the welfare of the UK citizens and which have harmed UK citizens – in your view?

8. The UK will not have access via forty trade agreements into the European market, after Brexit. Which countries within Europe will the UK continue to trade with and on what terms?

9. With which countries outside the EU will the UK seek to trade and on what terms? Prime MinisterTeresa May visited Africa in the summer of 2018 to promote trade with the UK, so include African scientific research, industrial innovation and products and design in your answer. You might also include China, India and Brazil in your answer, even though Teresa May did not visit those countries.

10. Describe, using the English language, why it is easier to trade with countries such as China (where there are eight different linguistic groups and hundreds of dialects) or India (where there are twenty two languages spoken) than in Europe where the most commonly spoken second language is, English.

11. What will be the effect of trade tariffs on UK exports and imports? Why is this beneficial for the average shopper in a UK high street?

12. The pound has weakened as a result of the Brexit referendum. This is good for exports and bad for imports and tourism. Does this beneficial the average person in the street or industry?

13. What effect on inflation will the weak pound have and describe using statistical projections, how this will affect young families with mortgages and their weekly shopping costs.

14. What will be the effect of World Trade Rules on inflation and describe using statistical projections such as graphs, how this will affect young families with mortgages and their weekly shopping costs.

15. Which Social Services in the United Kingdom will struggle with demand as a result of the ‘perfect storm’ they are currently experiencing following the 2008 recession (‘austerity’), Tory government policy to repay the national debt, immigration from Commonwealth Countries and around the world and Brexit?

16. Four out of five legal immigrants are welcomed from non-European countries into the United Kingdom. Describe how reducing migrants from Europe will impact on immigration into the UK.

16.a. Which European immigrants do you believe the United Kingdom does not need;

  • Health Workers
  • Care Assistants
  • Construction workers
  • Seasonal Agricultural workers
  • Tourism and Hospitality workers
  • Students

How would you fill these posts with United Kingdom citizens currently living on state benefits (as may have their parents and grand parents)? What is your strongest argument to persuade them to work similar hours to which Europeans work for less money than they currently get, particularly in Health and Hospitality?

All voters in the referendum to leave Europe, were aware of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and in particular the requirement to keep the border open. In a sentence; what is your solution to keeping an open border between North and South Ireland. Include in your answer why only you have an idea that will be acceptable to all parties and why after an irreversible referendum is the best time to seek a solution and not before.

17. The referendum was determined to be decided on a majority view – however small – that is on a 50/50 basis. Describe which elected representative made this decision and how they did not believe a narrow majority would leave the UK and it’s Government ‘dangerously divided’ (in the words of Teresa May describing a second referendum.)

17.a. If the referendum had required a 60/40 majority or a 66/33 majority as is more common, would the the country have been easier to motivate and govern, which ever way the people voted?

18. How is the United Kingdom more secure from world threats by being outside Europe?

18.a How is Europe more secure from world threats without the United Kingdom?

18.b. Does the role of the United Kingdom in the two world wars suggest that it’s influence in guiding Europe through peace, is one of the most important legacies it can give it’s children?

18.c Should the weakening of the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the United States of America suggest Europe is a more reliable world partner?

19. Describe how UK farmers will prosper without a subsidy – sometimes as much as fifty per cent of a farm’s income.

20. How will the UK fish stocks prosper without the present system of quotas and the new ‘throw away’ law? Describe the effect of these changes on the UK fishing fleet workers and how this will affect the price, availability and choice of fish in UK shops.

21. There are very successful shared academic research projects funded by Europe in which UK universities provide important leadership and support and gain benefit. Describe the effect of leaving the EU on these endeavours and how the UK will benefit from any changes after leaving the EU.

22. The vote to leave was described as a once in a lifetime opportunity. How will your children and grand children benefit in terms of family life, health, social benefits, work, pensions, travel, environmental improvement, national and international security and personal development?

23. Thomas Paine, George Washington, Sir James Goldsmith, Nigel Farage, David Cameron, all had a vision of independence for their countries. Compare and Contrast their ideas, motivation and methods and why the politics of multi-cultural cooperation and integration is inferior.

24. The United Kingdom Police do not need access to Europol or European Arrest Warrants to do their job. Comment on this statement in the light of post-Brexit policing.

25. When a multi level organisation is changed there are always unintended consequences. List three which you expect will be beneficial after Brexit and three that you think will not.

Word Pairs

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We think using words.

The choice and arrangement of words form our thoughts and ideas.

These are two well understood concepts that we learn in childhood become tools that we forget we use. Less well understood is that our words are constructed by thoughts and our thoughts and ideas are constructed by the arrangement of words.

When we study new languages it becomes clear that some cultures have words for an idea, feeling, nuance or even a noun that does not exist in our own. Such words tend to jump from the nest language into the world of other languages, such as email, weekend, zeitgeist, bon appetite.

My interest is going to focus in this essay, on how paired words influence our thoughts. I will use three well known paired words common in the United Kingdom.

The first is ‘drugs and alcohol’. Many public and voluntary organisations concerned with public health, law and social cohesion, mental health and education use this pairing of words. What is revealing is that alcohol is a drug. The question introduced by slicing alcohol away from the ‘drug’ label is, why? Alcohol is a known harmful drug. When Professor David Nutt published his research on the social harm of drugs in the medical publication The Lancet*, he classified alcohol as fifth down the list of the most harmful drugs to individuals and society. If it were to be classified under the 1971 Drugs Act it would have been given a Class A rating; that is the highest possible.

Instead, alcohol is legal in the United Kingdom and many Western style countries. There are certainly historical reasons for the tolerance of this drug as being easy to produce from almost any plant, and was consumed in times when clean drinking water was not available. Like so many discoveries, once found it is impossible to prohibit as the United States discovered in the early twentieth century.

In my view however, alcohol should not be seperated by the phrase ‘drugs and alcohol’, as if it were somehow a benign drug.

Less controversially is ‘Fire and Rescue’. In the United Kingdom, if you are involved in a collision on a road and need to be cut out of your car, this will be done by ‘Firemen’ and of course ‘Firewomen’. If I were hanging upside down by my seat belt with blood dripping from my forehead, I think this aberration of thought through incorrect use of a noun would be more disturbing to me than my prognosis of recovery. How can we send fire fighting specialists to collisions on the highways where there is no fire? At least half of all ‘call outs’ to the Fire Brigade in the United Kingdom are to these type of incidents. This was recognised at least in part by the innovation of adding the word ‘Rescue’ to the title of the Fire and Rescue Service. I would argue however that carrying victims from burning buildings is a ‘rescue’ by any definition. I have heard of fire service personnel donning their breathing apparatus designed for entering smoke filled buildings and walking into a lake to rescue persons in difficulties in the lake. Again, this is a rescue. To foreshorten the argument, all activities of the Fire and Rescue service are ‘rescues’ just like the Thunderbird puppets who operate International Rescue. Once the thought blockage is removed by removing the word ‘fire’ from their title, the Rescue Service will be trained and equipped to tackle any incident where humans are in immediate danger of injury or death.

Lastly, the third unnecessary pairing of words in a title I wish to highlight is ‘Accident and Emergency‘. These hospital departments are placed under increasing pressure in the United Kingdom, particularly at times of high demand such as the winter. So serious has this pressure become that patients lie on trolleys in hospital corridors with ambulance staff, waiting to be triaged and treated. If the staff in these departments were asked how these numbers could be reduced I expect many would say that non-urgent patients should not be attending their departments. They could go to their local doctor’s surgery or even a pharmacist for simple and fast treatment.

My point here is that the title Accident and Emergency is misleading to the public. Clearly the department is there only for emergency patients, not necessarily for those involved in accidents – what ever they might be. The cause of the need for emergency treatment is, I would argue, irrelevant. An emergency can be the result of something that was not an accident, like a heart or asthma attack or fit. The use of the word ‘accident’ is giving permission for patients to attend an emergency department when their injury is not life threatening. By redirecting these patients to other services and professionals and funding this extra demand on them, the Emergency Departments will run more efficiently with less unnecessary stress on staff and patients.

As thinkers, we tend to become lazy and adopt historical phrases as normal, long after the logic of their original inspiration.

Think then of all the other neural pathways we adopt through life and never challenge. Life started when we as humans became separate from animals as thinkers. We will progress the evolution of homo sapiens sapiens when our thoughts intiate pathways to new ways of thinking and being.

We might start by no longer tolerate hanging around in hospital corridors, expect to be saved by a rescuers and think ‘drug’ before we have ‘a drink’.

Mind Mapping

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Mind Mapping and Mind Napping

Perched on a library chair waiting to speak to the teacher at a parents evening, I looked up. There on the wall was an illustration of something I already used, but not given a name. It was a poster called ‘mind mapping’ and appeared as a collection of errant balloons attached to a central point by lines. Each balloon contained a sub-subject title related to the central concept which was written in bold capitols in the central balloon .

I was impressed that schools were teaching thinking. After all there is no qualification in thinking, no examination. It’s one of those things that is so ‘natural’ (like breathing) that it is often ignored. However, many past cultures, such as in the Middle East and Ancient Greece, have given great importance to the subject. Stories such as The Thousand and One Arabian Nights and The Iliad contain in hidden layers, instruction about the common failings and strengths of the emotional, instinctual, intellectual and intuitive drivers in the human psyche.

I use the word ‘drivers’ deliberately as they are very similar to the ‘drivers’ needed by computer programmes to enable programmes to link with individual computers. Without drivers the programmes – although present – do not work.

The most common thinking malfunction that I believe is prevalent in western societies is the dualism and syllogistic fallacies.

To examine dualism first; this is the division of an idea into two opposing parts – the ‘either / or ‘ question. This question structure is heard repeatedly in interviews on television and radio. To the credit of interviewees, they often reply – ‘it is both’ – thus up-ending the hidden intention on behalf of the questioner to illicit an answer that might be probed to destruction.

In Eastern philosophy dualistic thought is not prevalent. Things with a common thread are seen to co-exist and have a scalar quality; meaning they are similar and differ more in scale than quality. The Yin Yang symbol is a well known illustration of parts that describe a whole, without opposing each other.

A syllogism is like a crevasse in an ice field; everything looks easy to walk through, but is not. It consists of two preconceptions, which conflate into an untruth.

All journalists are wrong

There is a journalist interviewing me

Therefore this journalist is wrong.

There is a swallow

Swallows appear in the summer

Therefore it must be summer.

With such dangerous thinking patterns posing as logical, I believe that it is important that we think before we think.

This is because most of our reality consists of thoughts that we make real, through our thoughts. In life, we set up neural patterns which act as ‘safe routes’ across the ice fields. This is fine, but it also has the effect of restricting exploration.

londonundergroundmap

When I look at the map of the London Underground I see a perfect example of the ‘mind map’ of a human. There are places which are signified by a circle and the name of a station. Most importantly, these stations are linked in specific, but restricted, ways. When you examine the map there are more journeys you cannot make, than journeys you can.

This is exactly how the freedom of our thoughts becomes frozen and so makes the freedom, impossible.

Only at moments in our life that we later look back upon as highly significant, do we link up old stations in new ways. The creation of the new Thames Link railway illustrates this perfectly. Previously existing stations are joined in directions previously labelled as ‘too expensive’ or ‘too risky’ or ‘not necessary’.

As humans we become experts at finding reasons why new ideas should not be explored. With age we are prone to become content with what we see as ‘our lot’. Further explorations are not deemed necessary and we trot out the ‘proofs’ that we hold close to our hearts as ‘forever truths’.

In the real world there are no ‘forever truths’. Life is subject to constant change even if – like the slow moving glacier – it does not appear to be so.

Moments like going to the hairdresser or barber, are therefore stations in time for deep reflection.