End The Hostile Environment.

Doing my best to reboot after Christmas, still adjusting , feeling rather exhausted at moment, please be patient, normal service hopefully will be resumed shortly, as forces of division reappear ,the atmosphere still unconfortable, on the steps of uncertainty.
Some thoughts  though  as right wing elements like Tommy Robinson acolyte James Goddard make a nuisance of themselves outside Westminster,  and  "UK Yellow Vests," who have started donning high-vis jackets at their standard anti-immigration protests around the country hoping to gain some form of  credibility by aligning themselves with a mass movement that has nothing to do with  them.
Let's remember they are they aren't the Gilet Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement of  France, who over the last 2 months has  grown from being an anti-tax protest to a generalised revolt against Macron and in some places, capitalism itself. They are though the same  bunch of yellow vest fascists. who  last Saturday saw  them attacking  striking transport workers  from the RMT union , who had been campaigning over cuts to safety-important train guard roles, attacked for being leftist and part of the organised working class. An Asian picket was abused and called a sex offender, paedophile and nonce.One fascist took a video in a vest with Tommy Robinson news written on it, there were people there wearing DFLA and EDL t-shirts, and ex-BNP Liverpool 2012 mayoral candidate Mike Whitby was there abusing pickets.
We have to continue to oppose the far right and fascists in Britain in their attempts to claim the mantle of the "yellow vest " movement here in Britain to stir up racism and Islamphobia, with their racist and divisive policies that combined  with bizarre conspiracy theories and language , that  is so far removed from what has so far been shown in France.
All this happening  at a time when  we have the Tories and the right wing  media  ratcheting up racist scapegoating of refugees and migrants, trying to whip a frenzy about scores of people crossing the Channel and coming to Britain. This hostility is part of the wider hostile environment  against migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and war.  Punitive immigration policies that  mean families are routinely torn apart for not having enough money, and people are criminalized simply for seeking safety, or a better life. In Britain alone, over 30,000 people are locked up in immigration detention centres each year.
We should reflect on the fact  that many of these people left their homes because of reasons outside their control, whether that was conflict, poverty, economic injustice or climate change. The UN’s Refugee Agency estimates that 20 people are forced to flee their homes every second. With global inequality at unprecedented levels,  modern borders have become a form of global apartheid: segregating who can and can’t access resources and opportunity, in Britain there is even an explicit policy aiming to create a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants – launched by the current prime minister, Theresa May, when she was Home Secretary.
Bank managers, NHS staff and landlords are routinely required to perform the role of immigration officers, monitoring people’s immigration status, as borders increasingly become part of everyday life and the government forces undocumented migrants further underground.
The related policy of mass deportation means even those who make it  are often sent back to the very violence and hardship they fled from in the first place. Deadly deportation schemes means people are returned to countries where they risk persecution, torture and even death.  No borders are necessary. Refugees and migrants welcome.  Time  now to untangle these forces  of division and unreason, keep saying no and not giving in  to racist rhetoric, end this hostile envronment now.

Theresa May admits she still hasn't seen 'I, Daniel Blake' after backlash

Theresa May has admitted she cares so much that she has not been bothered to watch the film ' I, Daniel Blake'.
This comes after Tory deputy chairman  James Cleverly was accused of lacking "any sort of humility" over online comments he made about the film.  He faced a barrage of criticism on social media after saying Ken Loach's Bafta  winning drama was  "not a documentary " and  " a work of fiction."
The MP for Braintree later posted a lengthy rebuttal, saying that the welfare system is "far from perfect" the film is a "political polemic" that is unfair on Job Centrre  workers.
The twitter row erupted as it emerged thre next pase of the Governments  flagship welfare  reform will be overhauled following widespread criticism of its planned roll out.
The BBC'S Andrew Marr mistakenly referred to the film as "I, Daniel Craig" but quickly corrected himsef, asking May if she had seen the film when it was broadcast.
She said " I didn't, no. "
He went on to ask her  why she was delaying Universal Credit roll out. May replied. "Throughout the introduction of Universal Credit, we've been very clear that we would roll it out as a steady process, learn as we were going along.
"We've done that. We've made changes to Universal Credit as we've been going along. We'll be saying more about the future in the coming weeks."
But she insisted it would be rolled out by 2020 as originally intended.
The film focused on the Kafkaesque ordeals of a 59-year old widowed carpenter who puts up with  health allowance benefits after suffering a heart attack, and  is an indictment of an entire social system in which Britain’s most vulnerable are being thrown overboard by a cold and cost-conscious bureaucracy that received its marching orders from the combined forces of New Labour and the Tories.
Daniel Blake  has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away.
Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man’s land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern-day Britain.
The movie's writer Paul Laverty has said the research team was stunned at how people with mental health issues and disabilities were targeted by the welfare cuts.He said people interviewed within the Department for Work and Pensions told them "they were humiliated at how they were forced to treat the public. There is nothing accidental about it."
The actress who played  the young single mother, Katie -- Hayley Squires,  who Daniel's character befriends, when the film originally came out  slammed anti-welfare "propaganda" that she said has turned working class people against each other. "Normal people are led to believe that this amount of people are on benefits and are therefore scroungers, and this amount of people are going to work to pay so that they can scrounge." "They've left us to argue among ourselves so they can keep doing what they are doing."
 I, Daniel Blake represents clearly our  Governments utter betrayal of people in need, who just want some  simple sustenance in order to survive, it exposes what is happening in job centres up and down the country. Sadly the Conservatives ideological destruction of our society continues, people on a daily basis  are being screwed by the Tories, in complete denial of peoples need for dignity and respect..I look forward to the day, when we say enough is enough. Sadly as Universal Credit is rolled out there will be many more Daniel Blakes among us, unless this cruel policy is stopped and scrapped and we get the bloody Tory's out.  Otherwise the human cost will be one of further misery and pain for many of the most vulnerable across the land, claimants pushed to the edge because of Theresa May and the Tory's conscious cruelty.

How We Can Win - Slovo (featuring John Rees)

Stirring stuff here from Dave Randall and Slovo, featuring John Rees,  proclaiming the importance of our movement, well worth a listen. A great way to set the intention for the new year.

John Rees is a writer, broadcaster and activist, and is one of the organisers of the People’s Assembly.

He is  also co-founder of the Stop the War Coalition.

"There wont be a rehearsal. We have one chance to bring down this corrupt Tory Government and that chance is now"!!

If you export armaments. Don't complain about importing refugees!

Following Home Secretary   publicly casting doubts on whether migrants were "genuine" asylum seekers, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned the government to treat refugees crossing the English channel in a "humanitarian" way, reminding us that the  refugees are "the product of wars, they are the product of human rights abuses,they are the product of environmental disasters.
Lets not forget the UK nearly doubled the value of arms sales to countries on the government’s list of human rights abusers in the past year, these arms sales don’t just provide dictatorships and human rights abusers with the means to kill, they also give them a huge degree of political support.
Migrants are escaping countries where our Government is complicit  in dropping bombs, selling arms, supporting dictators or otherwise contributing to instability and repression. If we're serious about supporting refugees, we need to be serious about ending the wars and policies that create them. We need to take responsibility for our part in causing the tremendous problems driving people from their homes, and the continuous flow of arms from the UK to the Middle East and North Africa that keeps on fuelling the chaos in this region.
The majority of people arriving in the UK come from the war-torn countries of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, where European and broader western interventions and policies, including the arms trade, have added to violence and chaos. Arms exports to the Middle East and North Africa in the last decade, are fuelling war (Yemen, Syria), armed conflicts (Iraq, Turkey, Libya) and human rights violations (Egypt, Saudi Arabia),maaassive increase in weapons to Israel to keep ethnic cleansing the Palestinian population and murder their protestors.The UK Government is quietly fuelling conflict and exacerbating  humanitarian crises potentially in breach of both domestic and international laws on the sales of arms.These laws prohibit arms deals where there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit war crimes or human rights abuses.So many rogue regimes snd militia armed to the teeth by UK arms companies. Then we have the cheek to complain when the victims of these horrors try and escae the hell thesse weapons hep bring about.
We need to change course and put the lives and fundamental rights of refugees first.Reducing conflict and its crushing human consequences would be a good step forward  and putting more energy into resolving conflicts than is currently being poured into fighting them with bombs that fuel and escalate the problems. We also need a new arms policy that curbs shipments to human rights abusers and war zones — not through lip service, but by stopping sales completely, including the establishment of an embargo on arms sales to the Middle East and North Africa. Heartless Sajid Javid the son of a refugee needs reminding  that his Governments policies are helping create instability across the globe, and simply put if you keep bombing refugees countries, they will keep arriving on our shores, he and his Tory chums  would do well  if they stopped pouring gas on the fires.

Carpe Diem

Flwyddyn newydd da/ Happy new year

How do you  measure time
Greenwich Meantime? Business World?
Or Solstices, equinoxes, nature drifting, space time continual?
If you travel far enough in space for long enough
You will come back younger than world population,
Time equals personal perception that is always on the run
Sit down watch a good movie, see how world  passes quickly.
Sit with nothing to do, see the arms on the clock move very slowly.
Has the last year been a dream? When does dreaming switch to reality?
Ah the kindness that delivers, after the off-licence has shut
Soon the present will once again become the past,
Heading towards meltdown, oh no it's not that bad
Remember that life ebbs away ever so fast,
In synthesis of reality, hear the ticking of clocks
Everyday is precious in the cacaphony of existence,
As time moves on, a new year arrives
All of us the same, brittle as sand,
Keep defying the walls that divide
Racism, bigotry, fascism and greed,
Bury yesterdays despair, no point holding on to
Move forwards into paths unknown,
Sketch a future where we all co-exist
Seize the day, carpe diem,
Embrace all life's pleasures
Love and resistance,
Smoke pipes of peace
Let kindness blossom.

The tradition of the Mari Llwyd / Y Fari Lwyd

The tradition of Y Fari Lwyd   which translates to Grey Mary or Grey Mare in English is one of the strangest and most ancient of a number of customs in which people in Wales have used to mark the passing of the darkest days of midwinter.  It certainly has pre-Christian origins and is said to bring luck.Though the tradition's exact origins are murky, the image of a white horse has been a powerful symbol in the United Kingdom for at least 3,000 years. In Celtic Britain, the horse was seen as a symbol of power and fertility and prowess on the battlefield. In Celtic mythology, animals who had the ability to cross between this world and the underworld (the Celtic Annwn) are traditionally white or grey coloured. Arawn, the King of Annwn’s dogs, is white with red ears and he rides on a large grey horse.

The first written record of Mari Lwyd dates back to 1800, in J. Evans’ book ‘A Tour through Part of North Wales’.Traditionally a New Year’s Eve luck bringing ritual Y Fari Lwyd consists of making a horse figure from a horse's skull,( though a genuine horse’s skull is gold dust these days ) with two black cloth ears sometimes sewn onto the cloth, making it look extra horrible, and the eye sockets are often filled with green bottle-ends, or other colored material decorative false ears and eyes attached.They adorn it with colorful reins, bells and ribbons and the equine image of death has an especially ghostly appearance thanks to the white sheet draped over the person carrying it.The lower jaw is sometimes spring-loaded, so that Mari's operator can snap it at passers by or householders. 

The Fari Lwyd and her group go from house to house and pub to pub and try to gain access by performing a series of verses, or ‘pwnco’ in Welsh. The inhabitants would reply with their own verses in a battle to outwit Mari and her gang and prevent her from entering.

Wel, dyma ni'n dwad

Gyfelillion diniwad

I' mofyn am gennad - i ganu 

(Translation: Behold here we come, simple friends, to ask for permission to sing.)

Rhowch glywed, wyr doethion 

Pa faint ycho ddynion, 

A pheth yn wych union - 

yw'ch enwau? 

(Translation: Let us hear, wise men, how many of you there are, and what exactly are your names?)

Eventually she will be let in, as this confers luck on the household for the coming year and scares out anything unwanted from the previous year. Once inside, more songs are sung and the group is given drinks and food.

The Mari party consists of commedia del’arte characters. The Merryman plays the fiddle; The Leader, plus top hat, holds the Mari’s reins; The Sergeant keeps the peace. Pwnsh a Siwan (Punch and Judy) are played by two male characters. 

When the house was entered, Y Fari paid special attention to the female occupants. This was done by neighing at the women as well as biting and nudging them. The Merryman played his fiddle while Punch and Judy began their show. 

Judy entered with her broom to clean the hearth. She was then knocked to the floor by Punch who ran around attempting to kiss the women of the household. Punch was then chased through the house by Judy and hit with her broom. 

Having sung and danced, the party would sit to eat food and drink ale. On their departure, the Mari Lwyd wished the household a Happy New Year.

Dymunwn ich lawenydd

I gynnal blwyddyn newydd 

Tra paro'r gwr i dincian cloch

Well, well y boch chwi beunydd 

(Translation: We wish you joy to live a new year; as long as the man tinkles his bell, may you improve daily.)

The practice of disguising the characters was to preserve anonymity and to distance them from everyday life. This tradition of blackening or colouring the face to take on another ‘character’ can be found in most indigenous cultures and in Britain in the older Morris sides.

The tradition has similarities to other hooded animal customs in Britain, such as the ‘Hoodening’ in Kent, the ‘Broad’ in the Cotswolds and ‘The Old Tup’ in Derbyshire, which involved a group of poor people trying to find food and money in the harsh depths of the winter. 

Although the custom was given various names, it was best known as the Mari Lwyd; however, the etymology of this term remains the subject of academic debate. 

The folklorist Iorwerth C. Peate believed that the term meant “Holy Mary” and thus was a reference to Mary, mother of Jesus, while fellow folklorist E. C. Cawte thought it more likely that the term had originally meant “Grey Mare”, thus referring to the heads’ equine appearance.

In other instances, the Mari Lwyd custom is given different names, with it being recorded as y Wasail “The Wassail” in parts of Carmarthenshire.  In the first half of the 19th century it was recorded in Pembrokeshire under the name of y March “The Horse” and y Gynfas-farch “The Canvas Horse”

The industrial revolution and the rise of fire-and-brimstone chapel preaching had a serious effect on the Mari Lwyd. The parties had gained a bad reputation for drunkenness and vandalism as they roamed the villages. Many a sermon was preached against the continuance of such a pagan and barbaric practice, and the participants were urged to do something useful instead, such as taking part in eisteddfodau. Enter Nefydd, the Rev. William Roberts (1813-1872), a Denbighshire man who became a Blaenau Gwent Baptist minister. He hated the Mari Lwyd. He wrote a book entitled The Religion Of The Dark Ages, gave a detailed account of the Mari and transcribed 20 verses, so his congregation could recognise it. He campaigned with great fervour: “We must try and get the young people of our time more to interest themselves more in intellectual and substantial things such as reading and composing poetry, essays, singing etc, as is encouraged and practised in our Eisteddfodau… I wish of this folly, and of all similar follies, that they find no place anywhere apart from the museum of the historian and the antiquary.”

Christmas carols began to be sung at the doors  instead and the battle of insults and verse dissapeared, and in some areas the Welsh language gave way to English. By the 1960's  the custom of the Mari had almost died out. Only a few Mari processions were left by this time  including in Pencoed near Bridgend and Pentyrch near Cardiff. 

But the Welsh population hungrily seized on the fragments of the Mari’s tradition, and – thanks to Nefydd – we can now study the Mari verses in all their true splendour, and thankfully there has been a growing interest in Y Fari Lwyd in recent years, which has seen a resurgence in groups performing this tradition across Wales, Maris can now be spotted from Holywell in Flintshire to Pembrokeshire  involving bardic battles, revelry and much drinking. I do like a good revival, especially of something as unique and unusual as this.The strength of the Mari tradition can be measured at the National Eisteddfod, which takes place in August. At one Eisteddfod, 30 Maris turned up. Wonderful stuff long may this tradition continue to grow.

https://hellohistoria.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-horse-skull-draped-with-ribbons-mari.html?m=1

The tradition of the Mari Llwyd  - BBC Cymru

A short history

Happy Birthday Warrior Poet Patti Smith

The legendary influential singer songwriter punk poet laureatte Patti Smith  turns 72 today. Smith was born in Chicago in om 30/12/1946, and was raised in New Jersey to former Jazz singer Beverly and mechanist Grand Smith. Even as a child, Smith felt that she was born to do great things despite her physical reality as an unpopular young girl who was not especially talented in school. Her vivid young imagination helped her through a difficult childhood. She was bullied by other kids due to her sickly appearance and poor background. The vague sense that she would grow up into something amazing was what kept her going, in spite of the odds.
After graduating high school in 1964, Smith immediately went to work in a factory, a short experience she hated so much that she titled the song about her time there as ‘Piss Factory’, which was her first single alongside the song ‘Hey Joe’. Putting meaningless drudgery behind her, Smith then decided to pursue art, and was set on becoming an art teacher until she was rejected for her refusal to abide by traditions.

Piss Factory - Patti Smith

Determined as ever, Smith then moved to New York in 1967 and worked in bookstores, where she began writing poetry.Patti Smith has been influenced by artists as diverse as Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud and William Blake, Jimi Hendrix,Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. As a high school student she was interested in jazz and poetry, and her early creative works were poems. Drawn to the act of performing her work, she read her poems with a guitarist, eventually adding an entire band. Spurred by her love for music dating back to her youth, Smith would eventually team up with her friends, playwright Sam Sheppard, Robert Mapplethorpe the photographer and writer/composer Lenny Kaye to read poetry, which soon would lead to her musical future.
Smith first published her poems in 1972, the same year she co-wrote a play, Cowboy Mouth, with Sam Shepard. Since then she has published a number of collections of verse, including Babel (1978), Early Work, 1970–1979 (1994), The Coral Sea (1996), and Patti Smith Complete: Lyrics, Reflections & Notes for the Future (1998).   Spurred by her love for music dating back to her youth, Smith would eventually team up with her friends, playwright Sam Sheppard, Robert Mapplethorpe the photographer and writer/composer Lenny Kaye to read poetry, which soon would lead to her musical future.
Smith’s 1975 debut album ‘Horses’ is still her most popular work of art to this day, and is one of the most acclaimed debut albums of all time. It was a wild commercial success at the start and loved by the critics too, who praised Smith’s amateur-yet-passionate vocals, combined  with an an explosive mix of androgyny , rebellion ,and relentless energy long have I thought of her as incendiary. At the time, Smith had feared that Rock and Roll was dying, and so she wished to help shake things up and inject some new life in a way that only she could.

Gloria - Patti Smith

Re-billing her act as the Patti Smith Group to give due credit to her band, ahe released her second album Radio Etthiopia in 1976. The Patti Smith Group then acieved a commercial breakthrough with Easter in 1978.All seminal pieces of art in my humble opinion, that I treasure.

Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot

In 1979 she fell off the punk rock scene radar completely, for her own choice. She married, she moved to Detroit and she had two children with the former MC5 guitarist Fred Smith. But such an artist as Patti Smith couldn’t live without it for long, so she came back with Dream of Life in 1988. The new album featured her husband and it included People Have the Power, another successful single.

Patti Smith - People have the power

Patti only started touring again after a series of tragedies in her life. Some friends of hers, her husband and her brother died over a short period of time and she decided to keep making music to honour them. She moved back to New York around 1994 and she started touring with Bob Dylan in 1995 and released a new album in 1996, Gone Again.
Her work a fusion of rock and poetry,  she writes in a stream-of-consciousness style, often meditating on questions of mortality and faith. Of her 2008 Auguries of Innocence, critic Donna Seaman wrote that Smith “presents lithe works unsettling in their spiritual inquiry, archetypal imagery, and dissonant juxtapositions.” Being a social activist most of her life, she’s always focused her poetic vision on topics that concern the world., believing  that poetry, music, and art should be used as a link to expose what’s going on with the world. But that’s not enough. It must work as inspiration to make people aware and push them to act.Patti Smith,  is not only the rock icon of a whole generation but also a committed artist visionary  in every possible manner, whose spirit has nurtured generations. Smith holds to a deeply romantic belief that the true artist is an outsider and a visionary, someone who is able ‘to see what others could not’, as she puts it in her memoir Just Kids (2010). She believes in the power of art and the mythology of rock and roll, believes in poetry and music as means of transcendence. She believes that poetry makes things happen. ‘i haven’t fucked much with the past,’ she declares in the prose poem ‘Babelogue’, ‘but i’ve fucked plenty with the future.’ She is, above all, a believer. all this has all earned her a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2005, and in 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids.

Feedback and Poetry - Patti Smith



She still remains a pivotal figure in the New York arts scene and probably her most prolific and deepest works were created in the last 20 years. Perhaps experience and the multiple tragedies she’s experienced throughout her life made her more acute to understand the human experience better. There are many forms of magic Smith just a particle.With her powerful voice she has left her mark in music history and culture forever. My love for Patti Smith’s music, has been one of  joyous liberation , intoxication and education.So happy birthday to this warrior poet,  still fighting for beauty truth and  and justice. Long may she continue to inspire.

Patti Smith - Because the night

Patti Smith: Poem about Arthur Rimbaud
clip from Stephen Sebring's 2008 film documentary
"Patti Smith- Dream of Life.

Patti Smith  Interview - Poems are like Prayers

Musical highlights of the year 2018

Another funny year has nearly flown, but has at least given me personally lots of musical respite. So in what has become an annual event, here are some musical highlights from 2018  that are listed in no particular order, they have all succeeded  in diferent ways to pick me up immensely.
Special mention goes  out  to the Cellar Bar, here in Cardigan, a musical venue of much magic and wonder. My deep commiserations  are offered to much loved independent venue the Parrot in Carmarthen, sadly closing its doors on New Year's eve.
Respect to the music makers, and those that have and will keep on supporting them, local or further afield,  let's continue to get lost in the power of music, with its mighty ability to lift  our hearts and stir our souls. Keep on listening, see you on the other side.

1. Le Trio Joubran - The Long March

2. The Good, the  Band and the Queen - Merrie Land

3. Spaceheads - New Worlds in our hearts

4. Gwenno - Le Kov

5. IDLES - Joy as an act of Resistance

6. Gruff Rhys - Babelsburg

7. Goat Girl - Goat Girl

8. Patrick Duff - Leaving My Fathers House

9. Red and the Hogweeds - Sweet Stuff  https://redandthehogweeds.bandcamp.com/

10.Barnstormer `1649 - Restoration  Tragedy 

https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/music/item/2881-barnstormer-1649-restoration-tragedy

11. Joe Strummer - Joe Strummer 001

12. Adwaith - Melyn

13. Boy Azagoo - 1,2, Kung Fu !

14. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is Reptile

15.Young Fathers  - Cocoa Sugar

16. Catrin Finch  and Seckou Keita - Soar

17. Afro Celt Sound System  - Flight

18. Shooglenifty and Duhn Dorra - Written in Water

19. Geraint Jarman - Cariad Cwantwn

20. 47 Soul  - Balfron Promise

21. Scene Red - Shining Through The Trees https://scenered.bandcamp.com/

22. Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics

23. Dead Can Dance - Dionysus

Queen's Speech out of touch as usual

The  92 year old privileged Queen of England, known for living in a palace and spending tax payers money like water , had had her yearly Christmas lecture being rightfully slammed on social  media for being " out of touch " and disrespectful to families " struggling to make ends meet"
Some commentators pointed out the vast disparity between the Queen's opulence and the real-life situations of 'her subjects' as she called for people to come together not driven by tribalism. Telling us to respect one another.
One posted on Twitter " Always warms an old republican's heart to see the billionaire head of an antiquated institution surrounding themelves with gold in their modest 885 roomed detached home, while others are f***ing struggling to make ends meet."
Others highlighted the plight of food bank users over Christmas, with one writing :" Queen says from her humble and modest surroundings, family kept her 'well occupied' over the year. I suspect the thousands of mum and dads thay use food banks and struggle on Universal Credit each week could say the same."
Oh the bloody  irony, there she was sitting on a gold chair, in a gold room, with her gold fire guard and gold clock in front of a gold mirror, beside her bloody gold piano, writing with her bloody gold pen, next to her ruddy gold picture frame, wearing her flipping gold bracelet talking about poverty. I guess we should be so  grateful and proud. Our wonderful Queen still thinks of us plebs and allows us to see her pretty things, flaunting her excess and crassness,  a decade into austerity with homelessness and food banks daily rising. So out of touch with reality .Down with  the crown.Make monarchy history.

Stuff tradition.

Tradition is no excuse for cruelty. Tradition is no excuse for deceit.
Tradition is no excuse for breaking the law.

Boxing Day is a day of tradition. Disappointingly, one of those is still the boxing day hunt. Across the country, 250 hunts hunts were scheduled to meet today, including two on National Trust land, out in force, in all their regalia, on their trusty steeds attempting to convince the great British public that they are a valued part of society.
These hunting groups have recently faced allegations that blood sport has continued under the guise of trail hunting,  and charities say there have been dozens of reports of foxes being pursued and killed since November 2018 when the hunting season began. Wild animals – including foxes, hare and deer, are still being chased to exhaustion across the British countryside before being torn to pieces by packs of trained hunting hounds.  
A growing concern that the ban is being brazenly flouted has led Labour to announce that it would strengthen the 2004 Hunting Act – much maligned by both hunters and animal rights activists – if elected and remove legal loopholes that make prosecutions hard to achieve. Labour also said that it would consult on the introduction of custodial sentences for offences under the Hunting Act, potentially bringing the penalties in line with those for other wildlife crimes, if in government.
The shadow Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary Sue Hayman also left open the possibility of a new “recklessness” clause to prevent trail hunting being used as cover for illegal hunting.
“Labour’s 2004 Hunting Act was a key milestone in banning this cruel blood sport, but since then new practices have developed to exploit loopholes in the legislation,” she said.
“While Theresa May proposed scrapping the Hunting Act all together, Labour is today calling time on those who defy the law by announcing several measures that would clampdown on illegal hunting.
“Labour is the true party of animal welfare. These new proposals form part of the next chapter in striving to ensure our laws and regulations on animal welfare are up to date and fit for purpose.”
Labour’s promise came as a poll commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/found only one in six (16%) rural residents believe hunting with dogs reflects countryside values.
The polling by Survation found that over nine out of 10 (91%) rural residents think that observing nature reflects countryside values.
The poll found only 4% said they ever participate in hunting, compared to 63% who observe wildlife at least once a month, 59% who take part in walking or hiking at least once a month, 39% who participate in running, cycling or horse riding at least once a month and 52% who visit pubs at least once a month.
Chris Luffingham, director of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Hunting is claimed by a minority to be a cornerstone of country life, yet it is revealing that people living in the countryside get far more enjoyment from watching wildlife rather than killing it.
“Modern day countryside values are based around respect for nature, not the abuse of nature for entertainment.
“This polling confirms that we are a nation of animal lovers and that hunting needs to be consigned to history.”
– The polling took place in early December 2018 with a sample size of 1,072 people aged over 18 living in rural areas in England and Wales.
There remains though a serious threat that under Theresa May the Hunting Act will be repealed. May’s manifesto for the 2018 General Election included a pledge to give MPs a vote on legalising fox hunting. Furthermore hunts have still found many ways to circumvent the law and get away with killing wildlife.Whether through so-called ‘trail’ hunting, abusing exemptions in the law or exploiting legal loopholes, thousands of animals are being killed across the UK every year with impunity.This is not helped by landowners giving hunts access to land in order to carry out activities which could be cover for illegal hunting, or by legislation that is not strong enough tying the hands of law enforcement agencies. All this combined means that hunts are carrying on with killing wildlife in the way they always have. Anti-hunting groups contend that reports of foxes and hares being killed by hounds are often not followed up despite being supported by evidence. A decline in funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit, as well as cuts to local police forces, means hunts can often act with impunity unless they are monitored by members of Hunt Saboteurs, a non-violent direct action group. https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/   
A spokesperson for the group said: “Boxing Day is the PR stunt of the hunting world. The reality is that many hunts are gangs of countryside lawbreakers who endlessly flout the hunting ban and, even on this day when the eyes of the world are on them, will still chase and kill wildlife.  “It’s a sign of how the tide of public opinion continues to turn that various hunts are being turned away from their traditional prestigious Boxing Day meets by locals who are sick of their hypocrisy and the chaos they cause.”
The 'traditional' Boxing Day meets of the hunts gloss over the otherwise murky world of animal cruelty in which packs of hounds still literally tear apart their quarry of British wildlife. But everything it stands for is opposed by the majority of people in this country. There has never been a better time to strengthen the Hunting Act and bring an end to the illegal persecution of wildlife still going on under the guise of 'trail' hunting. If you love the countryside, it's time to stuff this tradition, it's not a part of British culture that should be preserved in the modern age. Well done to all those that are still fighting to keep hunting illegal. 

Stop the killing of Animals by Hunts in the UK

https://takeaction.league.org.uk/page/19719/data/1?ea.url.id=1668592

  The Disappearing Fox - A Mystery for the Boxing Day Hunts