Arthur Rackham : The Beloved Enchanter (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939)

                                                              Self Portrait, 1934

Arthur Rackham, nicknamed  ' the beloved enchanter’, who is best known for his for his lush, detailed illustrations depicting the mystical world of fantasy and fairy tales, was born in, Lambeth. London on September 19, 1867.as one of twelve siblings, the third surviving child of Annie and Alfred Rackham.

After a brief sojourn in Australia due to poor health, he spent his early education at the prestigious City of London School. Rackham won a couple of prizes for drawing during his school days, but showed little of the imaginative genius which marked his adult artwork.

From a solidly middle-class family, Rackham was not encouraged to go into art and he embarked on an artist’s career tentatively by working as a clerk during the day and devoting himself to artistic study in the evening at the Lambeth School of Art. However, by 1892 he was ready to leave his office job to become a reporter and illustrator for The Westminster Budget. Rackham recalled this has one of his most trying periods as an artist, ‘distasteful hack work’ as he described it. but the work served as additional training and he continued to hone his craft. 

During this period Rackham contributed occasional illustrations to magazines such as Scraps and Chums, efforts decidedly indicative of an artist in search of a style.  His first book illustrations were for To the Other Side, a travel guide and now particularly rare book, and the Dolly Dialogues; published in 1893 and 1894 respectively.

These publications marked the beginning of Arthur Rackham’s long and illustrious career as .one of the leading artists of the Golden Age of Illustration: a period of time spanning from about the 1880s to the 1920s,  and is widely acknowledged as one of the most iconic fantasy artists who ever lived. It was in this period that in 1898 over a garden wall  that  Rackham met the Irish  portrait painter and sculpter  Edith Starkie.  She was to be ‘his most stimulating, severest critic’ and future wife, Starkie helped Rackham expand his artistic range; moving away from simpler techniques of pure line drawing, towards intricate washes of colour.

This shift could not have come at a more fortuitous moment, as technological advances in the printing process meant that Rackham’s images could be photo-mechanically reproduced, thus removing the traditional middle-man of the engraver. This allowed Rackham to display his talent for line as well as his expert appreciation of the three-colour printing process; producing the luxurious colours and lavish details which made his reputation.  The images were then pasted (‘tipped in’) after the final book was printed, and whilst this was quite an expensive process, the results helped create the new ‘gift book’ market.

In 1903 after he marred Edyth Starkie she encouraged him to indulge his fancy for fantastical scenes of fairies and elves. The couple had a daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Rackham cemented his position  as one of the preeminent illustrators of his day for his illustrations for The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.This book featured ninety-nine black-and-white drawings with a color frontispiece. Two new editions were issued within ten years of the original, with new and edited illustrations by Rackham in each. 

Largely influenced by Aubrey Beardsley, George Cruikshank, Randolph Caldecott, and Richard Doyle during the beginning and height of his career, Rackham’s style remained unique and set him apart from contemporaries and competitors.

Rip van Winkle, published in 1905 contained fifty-one colour plates – all drawn by Arthur Rackham, firmly establishing him as the ‘leading decorative illustrator of the Edwardian period.’ Rackham created each plate by first painstakingly drawing his subject in a sinuous pencil line before applying an ink layer. He then used layer upon layer of delicate watercolours, reminiscent of the Art Nouveaux style, to build up the romantic yet calmly ethereal results on which his reputation was constructed. Most recognisable, in retrospect, is the good natured calmness of the drawings, conveying a non-threatening yet exciting thrill to their audience.

 Another practice established with Rip Van Winkle was for Rackham to promote each book with an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London. J,M Barrie attended this display, and was so impressed by Rackham’s work that he asked him to illustrate Peter Pan in Kensington  Gardens. 

This was to be Rackham’s next commercial success, becoming the ‘outstanding Christmas gift-book of 1906’ and of course, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time.  He followed it up with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1907.which proved to be much more controversial because of the already beloved version illustrated by John Tenniel. Nonetheless, Rackham’s watercolors for Lewis Carroll’s beloved story were largely a success, because by this point Rackham was at his artistic peak.

 Around this time he being  offered so many commissions that he frequently had to decline. The decision he most regretted was failing to illustrate the first edition of Kenneth Grahame's  classic story, the Wind in the Willows, turned down in order to complete A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Shakespearean drawings were a great accomplishment though, stunning pieces of work  and imagination. .

Published in 1908, the ‘Arthur Rackham Fairies’ are some of his best-known work, with his ‘gnarled trees and droves of fairies… representing the visual reality of the Dream for thousands of readers.’  Fairies were deeply popular during Rackham' time, despite the allure  for these mystical creatures waning over the years there has been a rsuranabe in popularity. 

This publication was followed in rapid succession by three other books for adults; Undine (1909) The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie (1910) and Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods (1911).  Many suggest that Rackham’s finest illustrations can be found in these dramas.

Despite his financial and professional success, Rackham never lost his quiet and unassuming  manner, his love for magic, or his appeal to children.He firmly believed that children would benefit from the imaginative, the fantastic, and the playful, and he shwed the greatest respect for his child audience in all his works. 

The demand for gift books and scenes of fantasy was much affected by the grim realities of the war. After WWI, Rackham’s fame, however, still garnered him lots of work unlike many other great illustrators of his day and Rackham started producing work for the American market, illustrating a variety of books including, Where the Blue Begins by Christopher Morley (1925), Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1928), and Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1935).

The 1930s were trying for the Rackhams as Edyth’s health declined and shortly after, Rackham himself began to have health problems. Despite these trials, Rackham continued to produce numerous illustrations, both for reissued deluxe editions of his books, and additional commissions. Deluxe editions of classics such as The Night Before Christmas (1931), Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen (1932), Goblin Market (1933), and The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book (1933) were released throughout the early 1930s. Rackham’s illustrations for Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen were especially successful, and the work was named the best picture book of the year by Hugh Walpole for The Observer in 1932. By 1936, exhibitions of Rackham’s work took place all over the world, though by now he was suffering from chronic illness and was unable to produce the magnitude of work he once had.

After Rackham had unfortunately declined to illustrate the Wind in the Willows, he was given a final chance in his twilight years. Taking up the offer with relish, Rackham experienced great difficulty in completing the work; exhausted and in failing health,  he insisted that every detail must be right, down to the last oars in Rattie’s boat. In  final triumph with great labour he worked and reworked the drawings to his eventual satisfaction.  The end result was a masterpiece of children’s illustration and a beautiful reminder of the innocence and sensibilities of the Victorian age.

.His illustration to when Mole and Rattie meet the horned God Pan  in my favorite  chapter of the book The Piper at the  Gates of Dawn is utterly  gorgeous.  

The Wind in the Willows was Rackham’s last completed illustrated work before he died on September 6, 1939. from cancer in in his home at Stilegate.Limpsfield, Surrey on September 6, 1939, just before his seventy-second birthday.  

His now iconic illustrations are chilling, bewitching and  continue to provide a colourful contrast to the dark winter months ahead.and his  pictures are evocative of an age when fairy tales seemed real and people believed in the magical past.Highlighting where the magical world overlaps – often subtly – with our own, Rackham’s art reveals dreamlike realms where all manner of strange and fantastical entities reside. Home to lovely maidens and delicate fairies as well as mythical monsters and surreal beasts, there’s no shortage of unusual characters in Rackham’s gritty fantasy worlds. This, however, only serves to make these worlds more enticing, after all, what’s a fairy tale without a little darkness and danger? 

What I like so much about Arthur Rackham’s illustrations is that, even when separated from the storybooks that inspired them, they still communicate something meaningful and emotional to the viewer.In imagination, draftsmanship and colour-blending, his work has never been surpassed. His deep understanding of the spirit of myth, fable, and folklore seems to have afforded him a transcendent range of deep expression  His richly detailed work remains extremely artistically impressive, and it’s easy to understand why his work continually enchants and delights both young and old in equal measure all these many years later. His palette, his fineness of line, and his exceptional translation of literature to art whose influence on fantasy art and book illustration is still very much apparent today.and he has since been propelled  to the top of the list of the world’s greatest illustrators of all time.His images have been widely used by the greeting card industry and many of his books are still in print or have been recently available in both paperback and hardback editions. His original drawings and paintings are to this day keenly sought at the major international art auction houses. His most lasting legacy, however, is the list of books that he has illustrated, which reads like a Who’s Who of fairy tales, fantasy and children’s stories.

 "For children in their most impressionable years, there is, in fantasy, the highest of stimulating and educational powers."-  Arthur Rackham.

Here are some of his autumn fairies, from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906.

Remembering the 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre

 

“Sabra and Shatila Massacre” (1982-83), by pioneering Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi

A date that I try not to forget,is the time that over three bloody days from September 16 through  to 18, 1982, up to 3,500 Palestinian unarmed defenceless refugees in Shatila camp and Sabra neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon who were horrifically slaughtered at the hands of Phalangist militiamen, encircled, trained and supported by Israeli occupation forces who had besieged West Beirut for 88 days before launching a full-scale occupation-day period, members of the Lebanese Christian militias, with the support of Israeli troops, killed mostly women, children and the elderly living in the camp complex. Exactly how many were actually killed  remains unknown as the real number is hard to determine because bodies were buried quickly in mass graves or never found and many men were marched out of the camp and “disappeared.” Israel actually supplied the bulldozers to bury the dead and later  tanks entered the camps and ran over the whole area, destroying houses and clearing any signs of crime.

Shortly before the massacres, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was evacuated from Lebanon as a result of an agreement reached after the Israeli invasion of the country. That meant the residents of Sabra and Shatila no longer had protection, despite promises made to them by Philip Habib, an envoy for then US President Ronald Reagan, that their security would be guaranteed.

The massacre was presented as retaliation for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Germavel, the leader of the Lebanese Kataeb Party. It was wrongly assumed that Palestinians militants had carried out the assassination.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF)  had  invaded Lebanon in June 1982 with the goal of pushing out the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). After newly-elected President Bashir Gemayel was assassinated on September 14th, the IDF invaded West Beirut, which included the Sabra neighborhood and the Shatila refugee camp, which predominately housed Muslim refugees. The IDF ordered their allies in Lebanon, the Kataeb Party (also called the Phalange), a right-wing Maronite Christian party, to clear the area of PLO militants to facilitate the IDF advance.

During the massacre, the Israeli army prevented civilians from escaping the camps and arranged for the camps to be illuminated throughout the night by flares launched into the sky from helicopters and mortars.On the 18th of September, after about forty hours of killing, the first images of the massacre showing civilian victims appeared on TV. They provoked worldwide indignation and compassion. Foreign journalists and diplomats entered the camps in the aftermath of the massacre after the IDF had withdrawn from the entrances. Their reports and photographs all expressed despair and brutality. Loren Jenkins, from the Washington Post, wrote on September the 23th: “The scene at the Shatila camp when foreign observers entered Saturday morning was like a nightmare. Women wailed over the deaths of loved ones, bodies began to swell under the hot sun, and the streets were littered with thousand of spent cartridges. Houses had been dynamited and bulldozed into rubble, many with the inhabitants still inside. Groups of bodies lay before bullet-pocked walls where they appeared to have been executed. Others were strewn in alleys and streets, apparently shot as they tried to escape”. Israel for a while denied it had conspired in the massacre, yet as a result of international condemnation it launched an inquiry in 1983, known as the Kahan Commission  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/kahan.html  set up in 1983 in response to widespread international pressure, concluded that that Israeli leaders were “indirectly responsible” for the killings and that Ariel Sharon, then the defense minister and later prime minister, bore “personal responsibility” for failing to prevent the massacre Ariel Sharon, bore personally responsible, among others, for the massacre. Elie Hobeika later became a long-serving Member of the Lebanese Parliament as well as serving in many minsterial roles. Despite the findings of the Kahan Commission, Ariel Sharon held many influential ministerial roles in the Israeli government, serving in fact as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. Thus were the engineers of one of the bloodiest and most appalling massacres in contemporary history rewarded.
It is quite simply one of the greatest human tragedies that we should never simply forget.Israel continues to abuse Palestinian rights without consequence. Settler attacks on Palestinian property, lands, and persons have terrorised thousands and killed almost entire families.Palestinian complaints filed against settlers go unindicted by Israel. In fact, the Israeli military serves the settlers by allowing the attackers to simply walk away". When they do take action, Israeli soldiers are more likely to support the settlers, often allowing them to continue attacking Palestinians rather than shielding innocent civilians.
The dehumanisation of Palestinians by Israel continues and the Israeli military itself continues to commit war crimes with impunity, as evidenced by Israel's repeated attacks on the tiny besieged Gaza Strip over the past decade, which have killed thousands of innocent Palestinians with disproportionate and indiscriminate force. Today there are more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, most barred from owning property and earing decent wages. They make up part of the nearly 5 million Palestinians refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and throughout the Middle East, descendants of the 750,000 displaced after the establishment of the Israeli State.
Israel's years of dispossession and half-century of military rule still ongoing and is supported by unconditional American military aid and diplomatic backing. International bodies like the UN Security Council have repeatedly made note of Israel's human rights violations. Injustices continue to this day  through land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, collective displacement, racist discrimination, assassination and killing.

One of the reasons why people still talk about Sabra and Shatila, is that despite evidence of what the UN Security Council described as a “criminal massacre,” and the ranking of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in humankind’s collective memory as among the most heinous crimes of the 20th century, the man found “personally responsible” for this crime, as well as his associates and the people who carried out the massacres, have never been pursued or punished. no one has ever stood trial or been  held account for this crime. A massacre so awful that the people of the world should not be allowed to forget it, as we should not forget any crime against humanity, all are of equal importance. It is unfortunately part of us all, a  history and legacy that is  both shameful and bitter.On all accounts this was not an isolated incident, and to this day Israels oppressive policies towards the Palestinians continue.

The United Nations Security Council condemned the massacre with Resolution 521 (19 September 1982). This condemnation was followed by a 16 December 1982 General Assembly resolution calling the massacre as an “act of genocide.”

 Every September since Palestinians and friends from around the world gather now in Shatila at the Martyr's Square  to remember  and mourn, and mark the events that had previously occurred. Even contemplating this dark anniversary, I never give up feeling that there is still much hope in the future for the Palestinian people. I recognise their ongoing plight and make sure that they are not forgotten.

The conscience of the world was terribly wounded on this  day and we cannot, should not and will not ever forget or forgive.With sorrow and with struggle,we must remember Sabra and Shatila  and pledge to continue to work for justice.But as we commemorate the thousands who died at Sabra and Shatila try also to think of all Palestinians who continue to suffer from human rights abuses. 

The international community is obliged to remedy its moral responsibility to the victims of the  massacre by working to end Israel's occupation and other abuses of Palestinian rights.This tragic anniversary is a reminder that the international community also continues to fail to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and to defend the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.

The dehumanisation of Palestinians by Israel continues.It was this very same dehumanisation that led Israel to allow vengeful militiamen to enter the Sabra and Shatila camps and that permits Israelis to occupy another people for fifty years and inflict humiliation and injury.

The situation in the West Bank and Gaza and for the Palestinians living in refugee camps in countries neighboring Israel could not be more dark and grim. The constant arrests, house demolitions and killing of unarmed Palestinians in the West Bank and the regular bombing of blockaded Gaza are rarely reported in the mainstream media anymore. Funding for Palestinian refugees is also in jeopardy. The Gulf’s normalization with Israel resulted in severe funding cuts to UNRWA.

The six million refugees living outside historic Palestine (now called Israel) are all but forgotten. Many of us have allowed them to fade in our consciousness. Yet every Palestinian killed—be they the recent 256 Palestinians, including 66 children, killed by Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2021; or the 2,022 killed, including 526 children, in Operation Protective Edge in 2014; the 1,400 deaths, including 300 children, in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9; or in the Great March of Return cannot be forgotten.

These deaths wrench out the hearts of their family and those who love them, leaving large gaping wounds which have not healed. There is no healing as the violence against the Palestinians is ongoing. There is no post-traumatic stress syndrome; there is only ongoing traumatic onslaughts and wounding of their bodies and souls. Every child born in Gaza after 2008 has experienced four major military assaults with intensive bombardment, deaths and injuries. Two million Palestinians are held under blockade in Gaza since 2007 converting Gaza into a large prison whose “inmates” are bombed and not allowed to escape.

This year also marks the 74th anniversary of the Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), where at least 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from and fled their homes at the hands of militias during the creation of the state of Israel,and the 105th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, when  Britain was on its ascent in colonial power, thus paving the way for the giving away of the homes of the Palestinians and wiping Palestine off the world map.

Remember too that remember Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continue to live in a state of permanent exile and humanitarian crisis.Discrimination and marginalisation frustrate Palestinians’ access to health, education, employment and social protection, leaving them perpetually dependent on assistance from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). But UNRWA’s chronic funding deficit and Lebanon’s ongoing economic crisis are increasing health and humanitarian needs, particularly for women and children.

“On this important commemoration of those who were brutally murdered in Shatila refugee camp, we take inspiration from the strength of the victims and survivors,” said Dr Ali Dakwar,Medical Aid for Palestinians Lebanon Director.

“Decades on, Palestinian refugees still remain unjustly displaced from their homes, and are among those worse affected by Lebanon’s economic collapse. We therefore commit to continue our joint efforts towards a better future where all Palestinians can realise their full rights to health and dignity.”

I happen to believe its a  moral responsibility to the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre to keep on working to end Israel's occupation and other abuses of Palestinian rights,so that  the lives of many families and the others we  remember will not have been lost in vain. If you agree that every Palestinian has the right to live free from occupation, blockade and forced exile,please consider signing this pledge, https://www.map.org.uk/campaigns/stand-with-map-to-say-everypalestinian-has-an-equal-right-to-health-and-dignity
I conclude this post with the following powerful, moving poem from the pen of the late great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Sabra and Shatila  by Mahmoud Darwish

Sabra — a sleeping girl
The men left
War slept for two short nights,
Beirut obeyed and became the capital…
A long night
Observing the dreams in Sabra,
Sabra is sleeping.
Sabra — the remains of a dead body
She bid farewell to her horsemen and time
And surrendered to sleep out of tiredness.. and the Arabs who threw her behind them.
Sabra — and what the soldiers Departing from Galilee forgot
She doesn’t buy and sell anything but her silence
To buy flowers to put on her braided hair.
Sabra — sings her lost half, between the sea and the last war:
Why do you go?
And leave your wives in the middle of a hard night?
Why do you go?
And hang your night
Over the camp and the national anthem?
Sabra — covering her naked breasts with a farewell song
Counts her palms and gets it wrong
While she can’t find the arm:
How many times will you travel?
And for how long?
And for what dream?
If you return one day
for which exile shall you return,
which exile brought you back?
Sabra — tearing open her chest:
How many times
does the flower bloom?
How many times
will the revolution travel?
Sabra — afraid of the night. Puts it on her knees
covers it with her eyes’ mascara. Cries to distract it:
They left without saying
anything about their return
Withered and tended
from the rose’s flame!
Returned without returning
to the beginning of their journey
Age is like children
running away from a kiss.
No, I do not have an exile
To say: I have a home
God, oh time ..!
Sabra — sleeps. And the fascist’s knife wakes up
Sabra calls who she calls
All of this night is for me, and night is salt
the fascist cuts her breasts — the night reduced — 
he then dances around his knife and licks it. Singing an ode to a victory of the cedars,
And erases
Quietly .. Her flesh from her bones
and spreads her organs over the table
and the fascist continues dancing and laughs for the tilted eyes
and goes crazy for joy, Sabra is no longer a body:
He rides her as his instincts suggest, and his will manifests.
And steals a ring from her flesh and blood and goes back to his mirror
And be — Sea
And be — Land
And be — Clouds
And be — Blood
And be — Night
And be — Killing
And be — Saturday
and she be — Sabra.
Sabra — the intersection of two streets on a body
Sabra, the descent of a Spirit down a Stone
And Sabra — is no one
Sabra — is the identity of our time, forever.

(translation by Saad El Kurdi)

After Sir Keir Starmer calls on protesters to “respect” those mourning the Queen, and not “ruin” their opportunity, lets also respect others that do not offer their deference.

 

 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer signs the Proclamation of Accession of King Charles III.

Labour  leader Sir Keir Starmer formerly a human rights lawyer has urged protesters to “respect” those mourning the Queen, and not “ruin” their opportunity to say a private “thank you” to the late monarch.

He added that he  will return to Westminster Hall with his family to personally pay his respects at the lying in state after he joins the committee receiving the coffin in a professional capacity.

He said the country’s response to the Queen’s death has been “very moving”, and encouraged those who might want to protest to be considerate of people’s grief.

This announcement  came after activist on Tuesdays gathered outside St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh carrying “blank canvases” to protest in solidarity against several arrests that have been made in relation to incidents during royal ceremonies.

Police Scotland have a few people in connection with allegedly breaching the peace following separate incidents earlier in the week. 

A woman was arrested and charged after an incident at the Accession Proclamation of King Charles III in Edinburgh on Sunday.after appeared in the crowd opposite the Mercat Cross, holding a placard denouncing imperialism and stating ‘abolish monarchy’.

One person shouted: ‘Let her go, it’s free speech,’ while others yelled: ‘Have some respect.’

Hecklers were also heard booing during the event.

Police Scotland said a 22-year-old is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.

Another man has also been arrested and charged in connection to breach of the peace during the Queen's procession.

A 22-year-old was also detained after the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, was abused as he walked behind his mother’s coffin.

Social media videos showed a man shouting at Andrew before bystanders pulled him to the ground.

The man was released by police on an undertaking to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.

A third man Symon Hill, 45, got accosted by police after shouting ‘who elected him?’ during the events proclaiming the accession to the throne of King Charles III.

A protester bearing a handmade sign saying “not my King” was also spoken to by police and escorted away from the Palace of Westminster in London. 

The history tutor told The Guardian: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone arrested on such threadbare grounds, let alone experienced it myself.

‘I didn’t in any meaningful sense disrupt the ceremony.’

Thames Valley police said a 45-year-old man was arrested ‘in connection with a disturbance that was caused during the county proclamation ceremony of King Charles III in Oxford’, and was later ‘de-arrested’.

The man was arrested under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 – referring to behaviour deemed likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Paul Powlesland, 36, a barrister and nature rights activist from Barking in east London, said he was warned by police he would be arrested if he wrote ‘not my king’ on a placard. 

He travelled to London yesterday afternoon with ‘a blank piece of paper’, and recorded part of a conversation where an officer suggested he would be detained if he wrote down the phrase.

The video went viral on social media, and was viewed 700,000 times in four hours.

He said: ‘I went down there because I’ve been increasingly concerned by people who are just, you know, exercising rights to freedom of speech, being either arrested or threatened with arrest by the police.

‘An officer came up to me and began that conversation effectively asking for my details and then saying, if you write ‘not my King’ on it, then we may well arrest you for public order offences, being offensive.’

Asked about the police response to those wishing to protest, Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Breakfast: “The word I’d use around that issue is ‘respect’.

“I think if people have spent a long time waiting to come forward to have that moment as the coffin goes past, or whatever it may be, I think: respect that, because people have made a huge effort to come and have that private moment to say thank you to Queen Elizabeth II.

“Obviously we have to respect the fact that some people disagree. One of the great British traditions is the ability to protest and to disagree, but I think if it can be done in the spirit of respect

“Respect the fact that hundreds of thousands of people do want to come forward and have that moment, don’t ruin it for them.” 

Surely even members of society who are currently  deeply mourning the loss of the Queen can surely see the hypocrisy and irony of the situation,even when public sensitivities are at an all time high but on   Monday we will see food banks closed, funerals postponed, cancer scans cancelled, for some of us for these reasons,  alone the enforced  national mourning of the Queen is getting out of hand and over the top with a breathless non-stop coverage over the most minute events that has carried on unabated since the announcement of the 96 year old  Queens sad but peaceful demise.

And the proclamation that a man who is now sovereign over us subjects purely because he happened to be born, is deeply political and more than anything underlines peoples inherent right to protest both legally and morally. Indeed, should  be encouraged in any  rational society.The right to protest is all about disruption and making a big noise and we should respect the many who are sick to the back teeth of all the fawning coverage and embarrassing deference to the whole privileged lot of them. Republic, a group campaigning for Britain to have an elected head of state, condemned the "automatic accession"  and called for a "national debate on the future of the monarchy".

In a statement, Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, commented: "While we recognize that many people are reflecting on the loss of the Queen, Britain does need a debate on the future of the monarchy in light of King Charles' accession to the throne.

"A proclamation of a new king is an affront to democracy, a moment that stands firmly against the values most of us believe in, values such as equality, accountability and the rule of law.

"Britain has changed almost beyond recognition since 1952 and the last royal succession. In this modern and democratic society our head of state cannot simply step into the role without debate or without challenge to his legitimacy."

Smith said support for the monarchy had "to a large extent been buoyed" by Elizabeth II's personal appeal during her reign.

"We believe Britain needs to move to a democratic alternative to the hereditary monarchy. We believe that debate must start now," he concluded.

I believe it is seriously worrying that holding a sign saying not my king can get you removed by police. What ever your views on the monarchy, this should  seriously concern you.Where  for instance is the respect for groups such as Indigenous peoples and others who were subject to dispossession and oppression by the British monarchy who  may wish to express important political views about there significant and continuing injustices who do not respect the  life of unfettered privilege that the Queen enjoyed from the cradle to the grave, known for living in palaces and spending  money like water, and  disrespectful  to families struggling to make ends meet, Some commentators  have also pointed out  the vast disparity between the Queen's opulence  and the real life situations of her subjects.Though she remained popular,there seems little space for nuance or critique for this symbol of coloniality and imperialism whose wealth was accrued and built on the backs an blood of  African and Indigenous people. Not only is it seen as impolite to criticize the revisionist propaganda, it is now apparently dangerous to question the automatic ascension  of Charle as king.

It may be uncomfortable or even distressing for those wishing to publicly grieve the queen’s passing to see anti-monarchy placards displayed. But that doesn’t make it a criminal offence that allows protestors to be arrested.

The ability to voice dissent is vital for a functioning democracy. It’s therefore arguable that people should be able to voice their concerns with the monarchy even in this period of heightened sensitivity. The only way in which anti-monarchy sentiment can lawfully be suppressed is in a state of emergency. A public period of mourning does not meet that standard. Whatever your  views on the monarchy you should be able to express them in public without risking arrest oe intimidation by police officers. Thi is freedom of speech at its most basic. 

Protest is not a gift from the state , it is a fundamental right. and part of a healthy and functioning democracy. Please sign the following petition to oppose the Public Order Bill ad stand up for free Expression.https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/106448/petition/1?ea.url.id=6062323  

Meanwhile, Charles  appears to be defying efforts to redeem his image  Deliciously insightful videos have been circulating online displaying  his pompous and arrogant ways, in one he displays his foul temper with an outburst at a leaky pen, and in another he dismissively waves at stationary to be taken of his desk, rather than move it himself, and for a long rime has been shamed for his contemptuous disregard for animal rights, as is the  case  for many other  members of his family. If you want to protest against the monarchy.These are your rights.https://netpol.org/2022/09/15/want-to-protest-against-the-monarchy-these-are-your-rights/

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Why the title of ' Prince of Wales' remains so deeply offensive to many of the people of Wales.

King Charles III announced just one day after the Queen's sad death, the UK's longest-reigning monarch, that he was making William and Kate the new Prince and Princess of Wales during his first speech on Friday.

The King said he was creating his son and heir, William, Prince of Wales adding: “With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given.”

Charles was given the title in 1958 by his mother. The king was only nine years old when he was bestowed with the title with many resenting the decision when  he was made Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, in 1969.

The title has always been controversial,  and for many republicans in Wales, beyond the jewels, stately homes  and questionable views of some its members ,the Royal family and  the title of Prince of Wales is seen as the living embodiment of Wales subservience to it's neighbour.
Les not forget  that the investiture of Charles as "Prince of Wales himself led to widespread protests in Wales with many resenting the decision. The group "Cofia 1282" ("Remember 1282", the death year of Llywellyn the Last ) leading protests against the investiture.

Welsh singer Dafydd Iwan  voiced his opposition and protest against investing Charles as Prince of Wales and also wrote a song "Carlo" mocking Charles. Iwan stated "[It is a] song to be taken lightly,  like the Investiture itself, and every other vanity. The shame is that there was meaning and a serious purpose to [the role of] Prince of Wales once."

The Welsh Language  society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith)  also held a rally against the investiture on the 29th of August, 1969 at Cilmeri , the site of the death of Llywelyn the last . On the day of the investiture, a few nonviolent protesters were arrested. Some were escorted away carrying signs saying “Cymru nid Prydain” (Wales not Britain). Others booed and made obscene gestures at the royal carriages. One protestor threw an egg at the Queen’s carriage as it passed by. Another threw a banana skin under the feet of the military escort as it processed by.

A few were so strongly opposed to  the ceremony that they decided to take more  drastic measures to disrupt the event. On the day of the investiture, 22 year-old Alwyn Jones and 37 year-old George Taylor set out to plant a bomb near a railway track in  Abergele,  the same same stretch of line that was set to carry Prince Charles to the  ceremony, Their intention was simply intended to disrupt , but both men lost their lives when the bomb went off prematurely - cementing their names in history as the 'Abergele Martyrs '' as some would call them, but managed at same time to alienate others to their cause.

They were both suspected of being members of the Mudiadd Amddifyn Cymru (MAC), or Movement for the Defence of Wales - a militant group that campaigned for a Wales free from British rule.

Now the  naming of Prince Williams as the new Prince of Wales has again stoked a debate on the issue, and much division with  many since becoming  enraged and angry after  the new king decided to ‘bestow’ the title on Prince William, an English Prince without asking the Welsh if they wanted another English Prince of Wales.and  a petition created after the Queen’s death calling for the Royals to “end Prince of Wales title out of respect for Wales” has since surged to over 19,000 signatures..

The petition says that since the days of the Welsh Princes the title has been “held exclusively by Englishmen as a symbol of dominance over Wales”.

The Royal title was originally given to Edward II of Caernarfon, son of Edward I who conquered Wales, as a means of confirming that the ‘Tywysog Cymru’ title previously held by native princes of Wales was subservient to that of the King of England.

Since then it has been held by 21 different heirs to the throne, although seven of them never became king.

There have previously been long periods of history, such as between 1553 with the accession of Edward Tudor and the passing of the title to Henry Frederick Stuart 63 years later, when the title did not exist at all.

The "Prince of Wales" title (Welsh: Tywysog Cymru) is a title historically used by native, Welsh princes since the 14th century. The last native Prince of Wales was Llywelyn the Last, killed by English soldiers in 1282 and his head was then paraded through the streets of London and placed on a Tower of London spike. Llywelyn's brother Dafydd was the first person of note to be hung, drawn and quartered and his head was placed next to Llywelyn's. Both their daughters were taken as infants and children and imprisoned.
But this happened centuries ago you might say. The truth is, that since the days of Llywelyn the Last and the "rebel" Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr, who led a 15 year fight against thee English , who eben  beat four royal armies, who was the last native born Welshman to hold the title , who even set up a Welsh parliament himself and was the last native born Welshman to hold  the title himself. The title has since been held exclusively by Englishmen as a symbol of dominance over Wales. To this day, the English "Princes of Wales" have no genuine connection to our country.

The title remains an insult to Wales and is a symbol of historical oppression. The title also implies that Wales is still a principality, undermining Wales' status as a nation and a country. In addition, the title has absolutely no constitutional role for Wales, which is now a devolved country with a national Parliament.
As Welsh actor, Michael Sheen put it;
"Make a break there. Put some things that have been the wrongs of the past right. There's an opportunity to do that at that point. Don't necessarily just because of habit and without thinking just carry on that tradition that was started as a humiliation to our country. Why not change that as we come to this moment where things will inevitably change."
I don’t think many people have any concept of Welsh history. I find it offensive and think now would have been a good moment to right a historical wrong.

Now that the Queen has  gone and her reign, a prominent part of Britain’s present for the entire lives of most of its current population, has passed on to the history books. A last living link with the country’s late and immediately post-imperial past.

The role of a reigning monarch is not one to be taken lightly by any means, and people fear that Prince Charles just doesn’t have what it takes to rise to the occasion. Whether because of his personality traits or capabilities or  something else entirely, if people don’t have confidence that he will do a good job, it will be hard for them to get behind him.

In 2021, the group https://www.republic.org.uk/ crowdfunded billboards across Wales calling for the abolition of the monarchy, with billboards appearing in Wales in Aberdare, Swansea and Cardiff declaring in both Welsh and English that "Wales doesn't need a prince", referring to Charles.

It seems almost too obvious to mention that  the Queen's  death, is undoubtedly  a sad occasion for many, but  currently creating much hysterias at a period of particularly intense uncertainty and angst about the country’s place in the world, its economic model, its identity and future constitution, and indeed about the future of the monarchy itself (already wobbling in some of its last remaining realms) and the Commonwealth, 

Nevertheless many currently  believe there is no sense for a devolved, democratic country like Wales to have a prince of Wales, these days,  with no constitutional function. Let England keep their royalty if they wish but it should not be forced on the people of Wales and other countries.

Poem for a Queen

The Queen is dead, many are now in mourning

For what she represented, a time of deep reflection,

Dedicated to her people, majestic and regal

With Golden crown on head, forever dutiful,

A strong figurehead as our head of state

In her gilded palaces, respected full of grace

Distinguished, dependable and loving

For this reason tears are overflowing,

Others as cost of living bites very hard

Already feeling too much sorrow,

meding to beg, steal and borrow

So the vestiges of power and privilege

Could simply not follow or show allegiance,

Can not join in the choruses of salutation

Life too full of emptiness and bitter frustration,

Remembering how Elizabeth through her long reign

Served and rewarded the rich and the powerful,

Binded the poor to their fate, they could not escape

Expected those she ruled over to remain patriotic,

As she lived in luxury from the cradle to the grave 

Forgot at times to feel our collective hurt and pain

Today though I will avoid causing unnecessary offence

Acknowledge those currently struck by grief,

As her beloved son Charles takes over the throne

Will prepare myself for the debates that come. 

(Dedicated to Elizabeth Alexandra Mary or HRH  Elizabeth the Second, 21 April 1926 -8 September 2022 R.I,P.)

Remembering the life of Revolutionary Welsh Socialist Republican Poet Harri Webb (7 September 1920 – 31 December 1994)

Revolutionary Welsh Socialist Republican Harri Webb was a prolific writer of poems, prose and plangent political commentary, who became  one of Wales's most popular poets, known for his wit and erudition, for his historical perspective and strong awareness of contemporary realities.

Harry (as his name was originally spelt) was born  on 7 September 1920 at Sketty, Swansea on the outskirts of the city into a working class family. When he was nearly two years old the family moved to 58 Catherine Street in the Sandfields, nearer the city centre, which remained the family home for over 70 years.  His father worked at the Strand electricity works, and later at Tir John Power Station.  Harry went to Oxford Street School and Glanmôr Secondary School He left Swansea in 1938 at the age of 18 after being awarded a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford to study medieval and modern languages, a period of his life to which he made virtually no reference in his writings. He graduated with a third class degree in 1941, the death of his mother having severely affected his studies. 

He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, where he served as an interpreter for the Free French in the Mediterranean, with periods in Algeria and Palestine, and action in the north Atlantic. He was demobilised in Scotland in 1946. 

After the war, he became politically active and joined  the Welsh Republican Movement (which was wound up in 1957), and edited its newspaper The Welsh Republican - Y Gweriniaethwr.  Some members of the party were arrested for burning  the Union Jack, and it faced accusations of initiating violence. They also conceived a Welsh republican flag, a tricolor with green, red and white bands. 

 After the movement's demise Webb was for a while an active member of the local Labour Party, but then,appalled by its attitude on the question of self-government for Wales, he joined Plaid Cymru. He edited the party's newspaper and stood as its candidate at Pontypool in the general election of 1970.

He took various jobs including working for Keidrych Rhys at the Druid Press in Carmarthen,  until in 1952 he began working at Cheltenham Public Library, and like poet Philip Larkin he became a librarian. Harri Webb was appointed Librarian at the Dowlais Branch Library in Merthyr Tydfil in 1954, which started his close association with this once radical town in Welsh history. The town, it's people and history feature in many of the poems written by Webb. 

In 1956 he published Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Rising of 1831, a pamphlet in which he somewhat imaginatively retells the story of the rebellion. As a Welsh republican he became a well-known, popular, colourful character, who took an interest in the local history of the town. He learnt Welsh in his early adulthood and adopted the Dowlais dialect of the language, and was one of the founder members and chairman of the eisteddfod in Merthyr Tydfil. 

While in Merthyr Tydfil, Webb lived in Garth Newydd, an old house that had been given to the town during the Depression, and subsequently seemingly belonged to nobody.When Webb first moved in it was occupied by a group of pacifists. It became almost a nationalist commune and it was his home for 12 years where he was joined by other patriots, including his friend Meic Stephens. The house became a centre for Nationalist activities and the 'Free Wales' pirate radio was broadcast from an attic in the house in response to the ban on political broadcasts by Plaid Cymru. In the 1970's he took part in the BBC Wales programme, Poems and Pints. While living in Merthyr Tydfil he was also associated with Meic Stephens in the launching of Poetry Wales and they shared an interest in the writing of topical songs and patriotic ballads.

After working in Dowlais for ten years, in 1964 Webb began work at Mountain Ash Library in the Cynon Valley which was previously having been the largest borough in Wales without a public library service. He made innovations such as lending LPs, and buying books and periodicals to appeal to a female readership who were gaining more independence in this era, to some criticism from those wary of modernisation. He continued to work for Mountain Ash Library until 1974. The library has a memorial plaque dedicated to Webb installed in 1997 reading 'poet and librarian, bardd a llyfrgellydd, 1920-1994' unveiled by Meic Stephens and Gwilym Prys Davies.

Though he was an individualist, his political slant was one of uncompromising Welsh Republican Socialism. Harri Webb was a vivid platform speaker, reserving his most scathing invective for his erstwhile comrades in the Welsh Labour Party with its abysmal attitude towards self-government for Wales , though capable of being equally trenchant about Plaid Cymru when he thought it was failing to give a lead as a movement of national liberation, as at the time of the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley after the building of a reservoir by Liverpool Corporation. Webb was impatient with the Welsh Establishment and the London Welsh and detested the Tories with a fiery passion. 

Strongly influenced by the Scottish poet Hugh Mac Diarmid, writer and nationalist politician,Webb's poetry came to prominence during the 1960s, when political nationalism was beginning to make headway in the industrial valleys of South Wales, with the themes of the prevailing social conditions of the time.

Having changed his name to Harri, his  first collection of poetry, The Green Desert, was published in 1969 and won a Welsh Arts Council prize.Webb carried on living in Garth Newydd and commuting to the next valley until 1972, when he moved to Cwmbach near Aberdare, before finally retiring in 1974, the year that A Crown For Branwen appeared. This was followed by Rampage and Revel in 1977, and finally Poems and Points in 1983. During the 1970s Webb began writing scripts for television and published two collections of songs and ballads dealing with the more light-hearted sides of Welsh history. 

Webb's poetry which I am a huge admirer of is marked by his radical Welsh nationalist politics and a quasi-Christian sensibility, and most were written out of a deep and passionate commitment to the cause of Welsh independence. In form it was often simple and comic, in order that it might influence a wide audience. Few have written about Wales more intensively, steadily and passionately, or with a greater variety of approach, of genre, of style, than Harri Webb. He described himself as a 'poet with only one theme, one preoccupation', whose work is 'unrepentantly nationalistic'. The late Raymond Garlick said once "Webb is "the only poet of any real authority" in recent Anglo-Welsh poetry. 

Few poets in recent times have achieved the popularity of Harri Webb. Shortly after the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, Webb's "ode" to the new edifice was to be heard quoted widely throughout South Wales: Two lands at last connected Across the waters wide, And all the tolls collected On the English side. The squib was stamped on a thousand T-shirts and, for a while, lorry drivers coming out of Wales, with the rhyme emblazoned on their chests, would shout it at the imperious attendants who took their money.

Webb earned and enjoyed the status of People's Poet, thinking of himself as belonging to the ancient tradition of the Welsh Bard, whose function it was to rally his people against the foe, whether the English invader or the servile, collaborating Welsh. Take this short one for instance.

Advice to a Young Poet - Harri Webb

 

Sing for Wales or shut your trap-

All the rest's a load of crap.

 

He could be bitingly satirical in style, his Synopsis of The Great Welsh Novel has bought me much joy over the years and in humorous verse describes the state of Welsh society and culture:

 

 Dai K lives at the end of a valley. One is not quite sure
whether it has been drowned or not. His Mam
Loves him too much and his Dada drinks.
As for his girlfriend Blodwen, she’s pregnant. So
Are all the other girls in the village – there’s been a Revival.
After a performance of Elijah, the mad preacher
Davies the Doom has burnt the chapel down.
One Saturday night after the dance at the Con Club,
With the Free Wales Army up to no good in the back lanes,
A stranger comes to the village; he is, of course,
God, the well known television personality. He succeeds
In confusing the issue, whatever it is, and departs
On the last train before the line is closed.
The colliery blows up, there is a financial scandal
Involving all the most respected citizens; the Choir
Wins at the National. It is all seen, naturally,
Through the eyes of a sensitive boy who never grows up.
The men emigrate to America, Cardiff and the moon. The girls
Find rich and foolish English husbands. Only daft Ianto
Is left to recite the Complete Works of Sir Lewis Morris
To puzzled sheep, before throwing himself over
The edge of the abandoned quarry. One is not quite sure
Whether it is fiction or not.

 

The following was written  by Harri Webb in 1966 as his response to the by-election won by Gwynfor Evans in Carmarthen. It was the first parliamentary election won by Plaid Cymru by its president Gwynfor Evans. The tune for the song was composed by Meredydd  Evans, although it is usually sung unaccompanied and has been made popular by the well  known singer Heather Jones. It reflects the losses suffered by Wales under English rule, but ends with a defiant challenge to redeem the ancient language. The fourth verse of the song refers to the reservoirs  Elan and Tryweryn, valleys drowned  to supply water to Birmingham and Liverpool. Claerwen was the last dam built in Cwm Elan and the village of Llanwddyn was drowned  under Llyn Efyrnwy to supply water to Liverpool City. 

The song featured in the Green Desert, a performance and album of the poet’s work in 1972.

Colli Iaith - Harri Webb

Colli iaith a cholli urddas
Colli awen, colli barddas
Colli coron aur cymdeithas
Ac yn eu lle cael bratiaith fas.

Colli’r hen alawon persain
Colli tannau’r delyn gywrain
Colli’r corau’n diaspedain
Ac yn eu lle cael cleber brain.

Colli crefydd, colli enaid
Colli ffydd yr hen wroniaid
Colli popeth glan a thelaid
Ac yn eu lle cael baw a llaid.

Colli tir a cholli tyddyn
Colli Elan a Thryweryn
Colli Claerwen a Llanwddyn
A’n gwlad i gyd dan ddŵr llyn.

Cael yn ôl o borth marwolaeth
Cân a ffydd a bri yr heniaith
Cael yn ôl yr hen dreftadaeth
A Chymru’n dechrau ar ei hymdaith.

Colli Iaith

Losing language and losing dignity
Losing muse and losing bardism
Losing the golden crown of society
And in its place a shallow debased language.

Losing the old sweet-sounding strains
Losing the resounding choirs
Losing the harp’s skilful strings
And in its place the clamour of crows.

Losing creed, losing soul
Losing the faith of the old brave people
Losing everything pure and beautiful
And in its place dirt and mud.

Losing land and losing small-holdings
Losing Elan and Tryweryn
Losing Claerwen and Llanwddyn
And the whole country beneath a lake’s water.

Getting back from the door of death
A song and faith and respect for the old language
Getting back the old heritage
And Wales begins her own journey.

 

In his politically charged poem “Nightingales” Harri Webb invokes the names of many Welsh rivers, some of which have become polluted, such as the ‘sewered drabs’ of some of the south Wales rivers, while three dammed, or possibly damned rivers are confluenced together as a little triad; ‘Elan, Claerwen/Tryweryn of our shame.’ The fate of Tryweryn, and the inundation of the Welsh speaking community at Capel Celyn to slake the city of Liverpool’s thirst for water is well known and the name reverberates even today.  But the dispossessions in the catchments of the rivers Elan and Claerwen in mid Wales are much less known, or remarked upon, or mourned.

 

 Nightingales - Harri Webb

 

Once there was none and the dark air was dumb

Over the tree-stumps, the bare deforested  hills.

They were a legend that the old bards had sung

Gone now, like, so much, so much.

But once I heard them drilling away the dark,

Llandaf was loud with them all of a summer's night

And the Great Garth rose like a rock from their storm.

This most of all I desire: to hear the nightingales

Not by Taff only but by all our streams,

Black  Rhymney , sullen Ogwr, dirty Ebbw,

Dishonoured Tawe and all our severed drabs.

And others whose names are an uninvited music

(Wales, Wales, who can know all your rivers?),

The nightingales singing beyond the Teifi,

By Aeron, Ystwyth , Rheidol, and those secret waters

The Beacons hold: Rhiiangoll, Tawell, Crawnon,

By Hepte and Mellte outstanding Sewd Einion Gam

(But let them not sing by Elan, Cherwyn, Fytnwy

Or Tryweryn of the Shame.)

You who have outsung all our dead poets,

Sing for them again in Cwm Prysor and Dyffryn Ceiriog,

And humble Gwydderig and Creidiol, do not forget them.

And that good man, no poet, who gave us a song

Even sweeter than yours, sing for him at Llanrhaeadr,

And in Glyndyfrdwy, what needs to tell you to sing? 

Sing in the faded lands, Maelienydd and Elfael,

And in the plundered cantrefs that have no name.

Come back and sing to us, we have waited too long,

Fr too long have not been worth singing for.

The magic birds that sang for heroes in Harlech

And hushed to wander the wild Ardudwy sea

And they of Safaddan that sing only for princes,

We cannot call them again, but come you

And fill our hearts like the hearts of other men.

Shall we hear you again, soon, soon?

 

The hallmark of his many essays and reviews over three decades was a pungent style designed to provoke, scathing yet erudite. Deflated by the 1979 Devolution vote, he despaired that the changes he sought would ever be made and endured a period of silence.

After suffering a serious stroke in 1985 which left him virtually housebound, sad and lonely,seeing few of his old friends and virtually ceased to write poetry.He found some solace, however, in the Anglican faith of his boyhood, indulged his passion for the American cinema of the 1940s, and continued to read extensively in the languages at his command. Although his head was turned more than once, he never married.

His last public act was to announce, in 1985, that he would write no more in English, adding with characteristic hyperbole that English was "a dying language" and that the only language for a true Welshman was Welsh.

His close affinity to Swansea stayed with him until his final days , and after a long period of illness he moved to St. David's Nursing Home in St.Helen's Road, Swansea.It was here that he died in his sleep on the morning of 31 December 1994, a 'Swansea Jack' from birth to death. 

His mother had died in 1939 while he was at University, and his father in 1956, and both had been buried in St Mary’s churchyard, Pennard. Harri Webb was buried in that same grave beyond the east wall of the cemetery on January 6, 1995.

His Collected Poems were published in December 1995, edited by his friend Meic Stephens, owner of the copyright of his work, stands as testimony to his genius as a poet. In his memory the Harri Webb Prize for poetry was established. Long may he be remembered for his devotion to Welsh culture and for his radical contribution that.focused his articulate attention on the glories, the particularities and the plight of his nation.

As Liz Truss becomes new Prime Minister now more than ever we should loudly and clearly say no to her odious plans

Shit so Liz Truss is our new Prime minister,after Tory party members, in their  infinite wisdom, have finally  foisted one of the most right wing PMs ever on us, after winning most votes in the 3 month  Conservative Party leadership contest, succeeding the clown Boris Johnson who resigned in July after a series of scandals. Truss defeated rival Rishi Sunak with 81,326 votes to 60,399 among party members and will take over as leader on Tuesday, as Britons face mounting economic and social crisis.

This is really not good news at all. It's  hard to imagine anything worse for the UK with this announcement, God help us all. Truss 47,will take over a Conservative government that is deeply unpopular, that is facing multiple crisis in the country, with steep rises  in energy and food prices, long waiting lists for hospital treatment, and and public sector workers, dock workers and even lawyers going on strike. 

She has already declared war on the poor. Slashing taxes for the super rich  while binning workers  rights; Under her we will see more low/middle income families heading to food banks and joining NHS queues. She is also pressing ahead with the Government’s most toxic plans, like their Rights Removal Bill. This bill would rip up our Human Rights Act, stop people from challenging injustice and even allow the Government to decide who does and who doesn’t have rights. She’s said she’ll re-start the Rwanda plan as soon as she can. She even said she’ll "extend it" by signing more of the same deals with new countries.

This plan is already causing immense human suffering. Treating vulnerable people in search of safety like human cargo is cruel. The plan is wrong in principle and unworkable in practice.  At a time when the nation is gripped by a spiralling cost of living crisis, as Prime Minister, Liz Truss should reassess spending any more money on outsourcing our international obligations to provide safe haven. Instead the focus should be on improving the fairness and efficiency of the asylum system. Decreasing the extensive backlogs in the system and housing people in communities instead of hotels, will not only save the Government money, but crucially be more humane.

It’s hard to see someone represent our country with plans like these. She  has no ideas or solutions for the massive problems facing the UK right now.Truss hasn’t offered any answers to the cost of living crisis, and her refusal to commit to action on energy bills has made permanent damage to the credibility of the UK government ahead of a catastrophic crisis. Energy bills should be at the top of Liz Truss' to do list. Households up and down the country have had no answers to the financial catastrophe, debt and hardship caused by astronomical energy bills.  This is the time to push for urgent action to freeze energy prices and write off the £2 billion energy debt that UK households have already taken on and  return the energy price cap to pre-April levels and extend it to small businesses and charities.

 Under Truss, we're set to see more of the same crisis and chaos as under Boris Johnson . Anti-democratic changes, deportation of refugees, continued weakening of our human rights. Days of darkness loom ahead .Looming over Truss’s new government will be the long shadow of Boris  Johnson, whose time in  office saw  approval ratings and voter intentions plummet for the Conservative Party. 

Throughout the leadership campaign, Truss has been seen by most as the Johnson continuity candidate and enjoyed the backing of many of his loyalists.Truss was among the high-level ministers that remained loyal to Johnson in the final death throes of his leadership, which by the end had been engulfed by several political controversies and scandals, while other top officials jumped ship.Truss didn't resign, saying she was a “loyal person” All this means though  is she will be forever tied to the Johnson legacy.  This could ultimately become a weight around her neck, as the specter of Johnson risks overshadowing anything Truss might do to tackle the misery that many Britons are set to face this winter. Times are tough and getting tougher as inflation soars and Britain’s cost-of-living crisis worsens. Truss’ focus on stimulating the economy through tax cuts is unlikely to provide much short-term relief. Truss will face a challenge to reunite her toxic  party and face the challenges of what could the worst winter in decades,

Truss is a political chameleon and shapeshifter who has gone from a radical Liberal democrat who called for the abolition of the monarchy and the legislation of soft drugs to a flag-bearer of the Euroskeptic right wing of the Conservative Party.  Truss, who was only elected to parliament in 2010, has in a relatively short period of time, established herself as a political force of nature who pursues her agenda with relentless vigor and unequivocal enthusiasm.  But after a decades-long transformation that has seen her personal views change enormously, many will be asking what exactly Britain’s new leader stands for.  Many who have observed her over the years question whether she has any sincere beliefs at all, or if she simply endorses whatever is the most convenient at the time.The only constants in her political views  have been  her views on individual  liberty and the pursuit of career advancement.

Fittingly, her campaign to become leader was characterised by screeching U-turns. At times this has bordered on the comic. Cringingly over-rehearsed and clunky performances in TV debates have been married together with embarrassingly short-lived policies, announced and unannounced within hours. These U-turns are, at least in part, a symptom of the complete lack of clarity among the ruling class as to which policy they should adopt in the face of such a storm of crises for their system. They are united on just one thing: that working-class people must be the ones who pay.

If we look across Britain, we can see just how much damage 12 years of Tory chaos have inflicted on us. Services stripped to the bone. A British economy left to rack and ruin. And families forced to struggle as prices  skyrocket.  12 years , four prime ministers, and nothing to show for it. Lets be in no doubt 13 years of Tory class war is set to get even  worse.

Let's  not forget the fact Truss has no popular mandate, but nor does she have the next best thing: a mandate from the Conservative Party’s 357 elected MPs. Just 50 of them ,less than a seventh of the parliamentary party, voted for her in the first round. Only 113,less than than a third  voted for her in the fifth and final round when she beat Mordaunt by a mere eight votes and trailed Sunak by 24 votes. More than 200 have failed to back her. She is the first Conservative to become prime minister without the support of a majority of her parliamentary party and is the third Tory in a row who has risen to this post without facing a General Election. 

I offer her no congratulations at all,was useless as foreign secretary will be even worse as PM, just wish  the Queen could just tell her to fuck off. Now more than ever we should loudly and clearly say no to Liz Truss's odious plans and hopefully when a General Election is eventually called, she and the rest of the Tories are  booted  out of  office for good. Some earlier thoughts can be found here https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2022/08/your-next-prime-minister-everyone.html

September Song

 

As summer fades ,the cost of living crisis  spiralling

Seek shadows of comfort away from life's trials,

May portals of hope deliver bright blessings

As golden leaves fall gracefully from above,

And brilliant photons burst from distant stars

Flooding the contours of time and space

To allow light to illuminate the human race 

Cancel out the darkness, allow poets to sing

Cast their inner vision, while sap still strong

No bardic school just a pithy pulse of truth

Continuing to  release the chains that shackle

Remember love is music that forever resonates

Carried on the streets, opening up our hearts

Tearing through obstacles and barriers

A lifeboat that can seriously heal the world

Get ready to ride the storms ahead

Beyond the swill keep on navigitating.

Boris Johnson ridiculed after suggesting people should buy a new kettle to save £10 on power

Outgoing prime minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who in 2019 was gifted an 80 seat majority on just 43.6% of votes cast.has been ridiculed for suggesting poor people should buy new kettles (which will cost £20) so that they can save £10 a year on their energy bill. 

Johnson made the bizarre suggestion, then became tongue-tied, in his last major policy speech in Suffolk where he pledged £700 million to Sizewell C nuclear power station to help Britain generate its own energy. 

After warning us  it would be 'absolute madness' not to push ahead with the nuclear project as Russian President Vladimir Putin wreaks havoc with global oil and gas markets. He said :"If  Hinkley Point C were  running now, it would be fuelling fuel bills by £3bn. 

So you have to look ahead  and you have to beware the false economy,

 “If you have an old kettle that takes ages to boil, it may cost you £20 to replace it. But if you get a new one, you’ll save £10 a year for every year.....£10 a year, every year, on your electricity bill,”

The UK is currently experiencing a cost of living crisis  which is set to worsen  as energy prices caps surpass £3,500 in October. 

Twitter users were quick to pick up on the suggestion, after the clip went  viral  with one person writing: “He’s now outright taking the mickey of those drowning in costs, as he comes back home from his luxury traveling around Europe.”

Another user said: “Boris Johnson says we should spend £20 on a new kettle which will shave a tenner off our energy bills, even now as the UK crumbles, as people beg, steal, borrow to survive (because of his party) it’s one big joke.”

Aren't Tories brilliant at economics? It;s like suggesting using a thimble to bail out the Titanic after it struck the iceberg.  Johnson’s “kettle” moment is like Trump’s “bleach” moment or Tony Abbott’s “suppository” moment. It’s on that level. This seems ridiculous, but it's absolutely intentional. Boris Johnson and the Tories have nothing but utter contempt for people. Don’t forget: every Tory MP voted confidence in keeping  Johnson  as PM for the summer.  They actually voted for this 

What a way to go though in a truly insulting, idiotic, out of touch, contemptuous and glib manner to the very end. A disgrace to his office and country. An  absolute embarrassment of a human being with a huge legacy of failure on every front. History will record this -  Johnson is undoubtedly the worst PM we’ve ever had. By some distance. Not just bad, staggeringly so, a dishonest, venal,  arrogant, mendacious, unprincipled, divisive failure who in three years almost destroyed the country.

Let us not forget that Boris Johnson was known to be a liar long before he became PM. He was fired twice for lying, once by the leader of the Conservative Party. But each time he was allowed to return to work, to win promotion and to get away with it. It worked for him and so he kept doing it. The damage  that he has been allowed to inflict the country as a result  is immense.

He presided over the largest number of covid deaths in Europe He raised taxes by the most in 70 years Biggest drop in living standards since 1815 Squandered Billions on track and trace, the cost of living crisis .alongside the parties, the corruption scandals, the cover-ups, the Afghan disaster, the twisted wreck of lies and broken promises, .who right to the end  the great tub of lard could not resist taking the piss with his ‘Buy a new kettle’ speech. Churchill would have been proud.

The following is well worth a read on  his toxic legacy as prime minister and increased authoritarianism and how he rigged uk politics for the tories:

.ttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/boris-johnson-legacy-damage-attacking-freedom-authoritarianism/?utm_source=oD%20Daily%20SEGMENT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=This%20is%20how%20Boris%20Johnson%20rigged%20British%20Politics&_kx=bf_BKf9tnpPzenuCV8UjwtAhl_tNhWp1fKHJP7fYUlsltCkKqCY0pZm1jLnP4TV2.YjCYwm

Why is Johnson who  is leaving office in disgrace  booted out of office by his own party even  having a farewell tour, and still wasting public money? He has been widely accused  of shirking his Downing Street  duties and  jaunting of on luxury holidays ever since he reluctantly  agreed to resign at the start of July, Despite calls for  him to leave office early and let a caretaker prime minister take over. All this happening while millions of is on the UL are being plunged into crisis  over crippling energy bill costs.

I'd rather spend £20 for a ringside seat in a courtroom should  Johnson  quite rightfully face criminal proceedings.who has brought more misery, poverty and lack of trust than anyone could’ve imagined  Send him down now and good riddance! 

Johnson is expected to step down as prime minister on Monday 5 September, when either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will take the role after being voted leader of the Conservative Party.They all said we had the best with Johnson, but either pair, could still be worse carrying on the legacy of cronyism and corruption and not taking action immediately on the cost of living/ energy crisis  currently spiralling out of control  leaving so many pushed  to the edge, worried about paying for food energy and fuel over the next year  .God help us all. 

How I'd like to ask  are dangerous clowns like this still  running the country and why are we putting  up with it ? This country and its people, have been treated like a plaything by Boris Johnson and the Tory Party for far to long..Time to get rid  of them all at the earliest opportunity.

Don't forget to support the Don't Pay campaign for October 1st, the day that the energy  price rise comes into effect, we need to show that we will not be helping energy companies make record breaking profits while people freeze and starve to death. Enough is enough!  https://dontpay.uk/