Today I am going Political.

In the UK, Ok in England. Under the Feudal system, a lord or member of the aristocracy owned the land, and all on it, including the peasants. He had right of life and death over his subjects and could call on them to become cannon fodder in his disagreements with other lords. Among his tenants were Freemen. these were Men who had Earned their freedom, they could move to another lord’s land or anywhere without having to seek their lord’s permission.
Fortunately, most of this is gone now. But how fortunate are we.
Tenants or peasants had to give their lord 3-6 days’ work a year. That’s right 3-6 days a YEAR.
Let’s move forward a few centuries.
In the late 1900s there was a social movement rising in Britain. One of its most famous advocates as Dickens, his graphic descriptions of the conditions that the poor and destitute lived under, his bringing to the forefront the Tenements, the open sewers, the child labour, gin palaces, Workhouse and homelessness, helped to shape the Labour movement and social conscience.
After the first world war when so many of the best and fittest young men were killed due to incompetence and arrogance of the aristocratic generals. Followed by the depression, then the Second world war. Ordinary men and women had had enough of the bankrupt assumption of high birth being always right. Great social engineers like Bevin produced a National Health service, built on the premise of Free healthcare from cradle to grave, paid for with National Contributions. Free dental care for the young, the poor. Free eye tests and subsidised care for those that could not afford full price. Councils were given the order to provide affordable, well built, social housing. Council houses, as they came to be known replaced Many of the tenement houses that were such a blight on the cities.
This social contract produced a benefit of workers fit to work, who went home to decent shelter. Trade unions fought for and got decent living wages, so the men and women could afford to spend on other produce which increased the turn over for the whole country.
Then along came the swing to the other way.
The right to buy, decimated the housing supply for poor and less well of people, 70% of ex council houses are now owned by Buy to let private Landlords.
The systematic reduction in funding to the NHS, the introduction of a Whole level and more of burocracy and management, to the detriment of front line services, the undercutting of NHS trusts to allow private businesses to pick and choose parts to buy, like vultures at a dying body. all this has brought the NHS to the brink of collapse.
And the NHS is not the only part of the Social contract that those in power have whittled away.
The police are underfunded and overworked, forced to target the motorist to find funding for the tasks they are charged with doing.
The fire Brigade has been pared down, and pared down.
Councils have had their funding from government reduced to the point where basic services are cut and even stopped. Garbage collection at two week intervals, Social services reduced, Council buildings and property sold to reduce costs. Parks and recreation areas cut back.
Yet whilst this has been happening, it’s time to look to the other end of the spectrum.
Wages in the Big banks have risen to astronomical amounts, Utility company bosses are on 6 figure sum wages, NHS managers earn more in a year than most departments get for their running costs. Whole wards could be financed for a year, inclusive of operations and drugs, nurses and junior doctors, with what a manager takes home in wages and bonus.
Our Politicians have floated the gravy train to such an extent that some claim expenses in excess of 3 times their actual yearly wage, before tax!
The disabled and sick get more and more money taken from them to Incentivise them to work, yet the same people who voted for this took and voted themselves a pay rise of 10% plus. excuses for this took the form of " It is to discourage fiddling expenses", " people need to be given an incentive to work harder, a pay increase does this " one rule for the haves, another for the have nots.
If all this has not made you angry, then there is no hope for you.

Good Day
A little wake up call, or a rant of Paranoia?

Most of us go through the world in a fog, keeping our heads down, trying our best to get along. The daily Struggle to make ends meet, we look forward to the rare times of freedom and entertainment we can get.

But are we that free?

I want you to try something. Ask yourself, when was the last time I looked out? Out of what? Out of your life. A bit existential? Ok try this, next time you are walking in the street, find a place away from the movement of people, and Look up, Up at the facade of the buildings around you, At the Upper stories of the shops or houses, then keep looking up, how much of the sky can you see, have you noticed the clouds? When was the last time you sat in a park, or on a beach, or just Looked at the world around you?

If we are not carefull, our world shrinks down to the immediate. Family, friends, house, computer screen, car. And there is another thing, in the car, I bet you have a favourite radio station, or your MP3 player on, or some other noise in the background. People talk to you when you are driving, yes? How much of the drive to work this morning can you actually remember? Were there Dogs on the pavement?(or sidewalk). Are the trees in bloom, or not?

People who ride bikes see more, Motor or peddle. But even then it is survival orientated to a degree.

Try this some time.

Find a park bench. Or a seat on a tree stump, or anywhere in a clear space with trees. Even on a beach or harbour wall. Try to put the daily worries to one side. Then push out with your thoughts, by this i mean open them. Think, You are sat in a place that will be there when all your worries, your striving, your rushing around, is done. You are on a small world, one that was here well before you and will be well after. What you can see is not even 1/10,000th of the total to be seen on this small world. Those clouds, here today, gone tommorrow. That smell, that odour of outside, gone in a moment. The sound of the waves on the shore. This world circles a small star, the star circles a Galaxy with millions of stars, the galaxy is one of millions. out there is infinity. You can get lost in it.

Once you have done this a few times, you will find you are looking at the world in a different way. They say , and they are right, that photographers and painters see a different world. Painters do, because they have to think about colour, How the light impacts the world, the arrangement of shapes and shadows. Photographers have to see the way in which each element of the view interacts with everything else.

The word is a wonderfull, scary, funny, sad, wonderfull place that we walk through in a daze. WAKE UP.