It's still going on

Another recent piece of ignored news - see here.

Killed by my debt

Alerted to it existence by an article in The Times we watched the BBC 3 drama Kielled by my debt the other night. It was a disturbing drama based on real events. A the story unfolded it had all the marks of a tragedy as it trudged on to the seemingly inevitable denouement. There are many problems in society today that this story highlights including zero hours contracts, easy credit, money hungry local councils, inhumane bailiffs, low views of the worth of hman life, th failure of Christians to connect, etc. If you ever wonder why aspects of socialism are always popular with some, you need only to watch this.

Spectator Article

I picked this up from Guy Davies on Twitter. Unsurprising, it is a matter of concern. The BBC is in a  powerful position to choose what they consider to be news. See here.

How things work in Britain

Three news items this week sent me in the same (leftward) direction. One item was the news that Radio 1 is fifty. It is well known that the first record on Radio 1 was Flowers in the Rain by The Move written by a then 18 year old Roy Wood. Did you also know that in a promotional stunt, for the record - typical of the band's manager Tony Secunda, apparently - postcard was released with a cartoon of a naked Harold Wilson, linking him to his secretary Marcia Williams. Wilson sued, and the High Court ordered that all royalties from the song were donated to a charity of Wilson's choice. This legal arrangement remains in force to this day and is thought to have cost the group millions of pounds in royalties over the years. During the single's chart success, most of the money went to the Spastics Society and Stoke Mandeville Hospital. In the 1990s, The Observer newspaper reported the royalties had exceeded £200,000 and found that The Harold Wilson Charitable Trust had extended the range of beneficiaries to include, among others, the Oxford Operatic Society, Bolton Lads Club and the Jewish National Fund for Israel. Wood has tried to get them to give the money to the Birmingham Children's Hospital but without success,

Then there was the death of Tony Booth, father-in-law to Tony Blair. Booth's father was, like Booth himself for a while, a merchant seaman and one day while working in the hold of a ship, a derrick swung and smashed his pelvis and back, along with a leg and an arm. For three weeks everyone assumed that he would die. During this period the shipping company stopped his wages. The only source of income that the family had was from the young Tony’s paper round and what his mother earned as a charwoman. It was apparently a defining moment for Booth. He became a believer in the trade union movement and joined the Labour Party at the age of 15.

The more obvious third one is the story of "Alexa Clarke" who when her daughter turned five in November, couldn’t afford to celebrate. Nor could she afford to heat her house, put healthy food on the table or buy her daughter new shoes for school. Why? Because her benefits had been halted and she was being transitioned to universal credit (UC), the government’s flagship welfare reform that rolls six benefit payments, currently paid weekly or fortnightly, into one monthly lump sum. It took seven weeks (!!!) for Clarke’s first UC to arrive, and she had only an advance of £447, which she had requested as an emergency interest-free loan to live on, as the bills piled up.

 “I was scared to even pick my daughter up from school sometimes because I felt like I was failing her,” says Clarke (not her real name).. “Everyone else was carrying Christmas shopping and I couldn’t even keep my house warm.” Tameside, in Greater Manchester, was the first local authority to initiate the welfare reform programme in 2013. Clarke, 24, had been living on weekly and fortnightly benefit payments since her daughter was born before being moved on to UC last year. She had never missed a rent payment, and had mastered the art of budgeting her benefits. But just as her daughter started school and she began applying for restaurant jobs, everything fell apart. In the wait for initial payment, the heating shut off, then the electricity failed, Clarke’s phone credit ran out, and she had no choice but to approach a nearby foodbank.

At the same time, an adviser at Tameside’s Jobcentre Plus insisted she spend 25 hours each week looking for work, or risk sanctions, a condition of the new UC. Clarke couldn’t even afford the bus fare she needed to hand out her CV to local restaurants.

HMDUK 2 Why do we shake hands on meeting?

Why do we shake hands on meeting? Students of folk-lore trace the origin of handshaking to primitive magic; the physical contact of the hands symbolised that each of the parties yielded himself up to the power of the other and united with him in peace and friendship; or signified the ratification of a compact or pledge. We still clinch an agreement or a business deal by “shaking hands on it.” This element of contact is clearly seen in the Roman marriage ceremony, in which – as also among the ancient Hindus – the clasping of hands by the bridge and bridegroom was a prominent feature.

More on Saving Mr Banks 2 Modern censorship

I came across this fascinating clip on Youtube.

This half-wore black arm

I have at least one Korean friend on Facebook. All her posts are in Korean and I can't so much as read a letter. No problem, though, as at the click of the mouse I get a translation from Bing. So now I understand .... ???? She posted recently (in translation)

 

In this weather, in this half-wore black arm, I don't know why. Cold.

 

Also

 

One of my favorites, the professor said. Study was so tired when I look in the mirror and get the front teeth shake and voilá. If you are going to grow a decent shake, which is further study. To Ah.

 

Where would be without Bing?

Christians in a PC World

Christians in a PC World by John Benton is not the story of a bunch of deacons going to a computer outlet but an appraisal of and warning about the politically correct world that western believers find themselves in today. An EP book it is 185 pages long and has 11 chapters.

The first chapter looks at atheism, the grandmother, and the second chapter, at post-modernism, the mother of political correctness. Chapter 3 looks at pc itself and helpfully talks about equality (existential, legal and political) and (I liked these distinctions)equality of outset, opportunity and outcome. As elsewhere in the book, this is correlated with biblical material.

Chapter 4 looks at the baleful effects of pc on justice, debate, tolerance and attitudes to the west and to the church and then says some helpful things by way of response to political correctness. Chapter 5 looks at Therapy culture, the engine of political correctness.

Chapters 6-9 look at specific areas where pc has had the biggest impact - the gay agenda, multi-culturalism, pluralism and feminism.  Chapter 10 reviews the books The Shack and Love Wins which Benton shows to be inadequate and heretical responses to the issues raised. The final chapter looks at tolerance as understood by secularists and Christians today.

This is a well researched, relevant and helpful book that is well thought out and biblical in approach. My one minor complaint is that the blocks of Scripture quoted, sometime at length, might have been better to be more integrated into the text. Several books secular and Christian are helpfully highlighted throughout for further reading. More here.

Ray Davies on The Sixties

I watched an old documentary on Ray Davies of the Kinks last night. On the sixties he said, quite astutely I think,

"The sixties to me were kind of not as fun politically, sometimes style and fashion and pop culture camouflages what's really happening ... the music culture was great, the fashion was great .... it was a liberating time, there's no doubt, but, but I think it was a facade, a cover up for a lot of nasty things that were happening in the world ..."

Geffrye Museum

We had a very nice family day out last Saturday at the Geffrye Museum of the home in East London. The free museum presents a series of home scenes from 1630 to the present day and at this time of the year has a Christmas theme although that hardly kicks in until the Vicorian period. It was a very interesting set up and would be worth a second visit I'm sure. There is a nice gallery here.

Spoilt Rotten

I recently came across a reference to Theodore Dalrymple (a pseudonym) and his 2010 book Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality at the Christian Institute so I got hold of it and read it.  Dalrymple writes well in a conversational style and holds interest. Dalrymple is British and is a retired doctor and psychiatrist and now author. The book argues that sentimentality has become culturally entrenched in British society, with harmful consequences. A number of examples are given from the worlds of education, politics and the media with references to UK policy on African development, the death of Diana, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the work and life of Sylvia Plath. Dalrymple is not a Christian although he appears to accept the doctrine of depravity. It was good to hear someone articulating several concerns that one has about society today. I'm now seeking out other volumes of his.

John Mortimer

This was in the Daily Mail yesterday and is from a new book by Graham Lord

When John [Mortimer] died in 2009, one starry-eyed obituary after another hailed him as a champion of free speech, whose defence in court of obscene and blasphemous books and magazines had allowed the British to throw off the repressive shackles of the past.

But, in reality, his campaign to sweep away our long-held standards, and his contempt for the law as it was then, infected British life with a disastrously selfish, anything-goes philosophy. Thanks to Mortimer, and others of the liberal intelligentsia, many of our old standards began to crumble.  Fathers increasingly abandoned their children and refused to discipline them or accept responsibility for them — as Mortimer did himself when the married actress Wendy Craig gave birth in 1961 to his secret love child, Ross Bentley, whom he proceeded to ignore for 42 years, lying disgracefully when the truth came out that he’d had no idea of Ross’s existence.

Of course he knew: it was common knowledge for decades in the theatre world. Three people told me about it in just one day, among them two of his ex-mistresses.

Mortimer’s part in this corruption of our values began in 1968, when he successfully defended in court a revoltingly sleazy American novel, Last Exit To Brooklyn. This book described in graphic detail the brutal, degraded lives of teenage prostitutes, homosexual rent boys, transvestites, rapists, drug addicts and the like in the slums of Fifties New York. ...

In his warped defence of the book, Mortimer argued brilliantly that it could not possibly be described as obscene, because no normal reader would be depraved by it but would, instead, be disgusted — thus strengthening their sense of moral repugnance. Weasel words, of course, logical only to a lawyer. ...

Sadly for those who were really close to him, Mortimer’s lifelong refusal to accept any standards of decency led him to behave astonishingly badly towards many of them. ...

Yes, Mortimer was a delightful man to know. But his immature refusal to understand that some behaviour is quite unacceptable led him to live a life of extreme selfishness that hurt many of those close to him.

Bang to Rights

Came across this today looking for a sermon illustration. Armstrong and Miller are not always safe but this is and very funny.

Ignorance

I came across this quotation from Barry Reay's 1985 Popular Culture in Seventeenth Century England in a book I am reading at present. It acts as a warning against idolising the past but is also a reminder of how we are probably in similar times once again. How much gained, how much lost.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the rector of a parish in Kent found that of four hundred communicants "scarcely 40" had any knowledge about Christ, sin, death and the after life. It was said of men in south Yorkshire and Northumberland that they were totally ignorant of the Bible and did not know the Lord's Prayer. A Yorkshire boy when quizzed by a minister could not say "how many gods there be, nor persons in the godhead, nor who made the world nor anything about Jesus Christ, nor heaven or hell, or eternity after this life, nor for what end he came into the world, nor what condition he was born in". Otherwise he was "a witty boy and could talk of any worldly things skilfully enough". A Lancashire woman when asked about the Jesus Christ mentioned in the Creed, replied "she could not tell, but by our dear Lady it is sure some good thing, or it should never have been put in the Creed, but what it is I cannot tell you". An old man from Cartmel, also in Lancashire, a regular church attender, did not know how many gods there were. When Christ was mentioned by his questioner he said: "I think I heard of that man you spoke of, once in a play at Kendall, called Corpus Christi play, where there was a man on a tree, and blood ran down."

Andrew Reed

This book about the 19th century preacher and philanthropist Andrew Reed The Greatest is Charity by Ian J Shaw came out about five years ago. It really is a great book. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, Calvinist Reed was not only a very successful pastor and preacher in London's east end but also the founder of several significant charities that were such a great help to orphans and others in great need. 

Nevertheless, his name has been rather forgotten. In this book Ian Shaw has out together a very well researched, judicious and interestingly written book that covers all aspects of Reed's life - his background and birth in 1748, ministry in Stepney including the building of Wycliffe Chapel, the beginnings of his charity work, his trip to the USA in 1833, his family life and friendships, his political involvement and various controversies including his partly unwise novel, the revival he saw in 1839, the restarting of his charity work when badly let down, his mixed involvement in the promotion of overseas mission, his old age and death in 1862 and something of what has happened since.

Much has changed since Reed's day and even then one wonders whether one would have taken the approach he did - very establishment oriented, with great respect for royalty and for Anglicans who sadly let him down in the end. What a man though. There were giants in the land in those days and Andrew Reed was one of them. A 430 page hardback this book was published by Evangelical Press. The foreword is by Brian Edwards.

Are we being persecuted?

There is still time to see the thought provoking BBC documentary "Are Christians being persecuted?" here.

Facebook

I'm not so well today so I've been over on Facebook having a longer look than usual. People are still in a quandary with it I think. I notice that John Piper has decided to disappear until January and Jan Akkerman is finding it difficult to manage over a thousand friends. I have 146 at present and try not to get too bothered about keeping up. Apparently you can subdivide your friends into groups but that looks rather invidious, I guess. My grandchildren (I have none as yet) will know just what to do perhaps.

Lotto Trouble

When we hear of a big national lottery win I often express my sympathy for the victims and the trouble they are in. There's probably a bit of schadenfreude in my attitude but this article from the Christian Institute confirms my worst fears.

A married couple from Wales have scooped a share of a £91 million EuroMillions jackpot but a national newspaper asks – is it the worst thing that could have happened to them?
“We may not be as rich” as those who win the lottery “but there’s every chance we may live longer, happier lives as a result”, Julia Hartley-Brewer, a Sunday Express reporter wrote.
She cites a survey of 30 of the biggest jackpot winners and said it branded the lottery “Britain’s biggest marriage wrecker” when it found that a third of respondents said their lives had been blighted by their new found fortune.
Families had fallen apart, marriages had ended and envy had destroyed friendships, the survey reportedly revealed.
The comments follow a spate of real life stories from lottery winners who have admitted misery because of their windfall.
Earlier this year Callie Rogers, 22, who won close to £1.9 million as a teenager in 2003, revealed that she is now facing bankruptcy and the money she won hasn’t made her happy.
She is currently holding down three jobs to support her two young children and she told a reporter that her life was now a “shambles”.
In 2005, after a suicide attempt, she said: “Until you win such a large amount of money at such a young age, you don’t realise the pressures that come with it.”
Michael Carroll, a former dustman, won £9.7million in 2002 but claimed it had made him miserable.
After he won the jackpot, his wife Sandra left him and took their baby daughter with her. Mr Carroll turned to cocaine, was jailed and was later served with two anti-social behaviour orders.
In 1999 Stephanie Powell won £7.2million, but her family life began to break down as a result.
Her partner Wayne Lawrence walked out on her, claiming the stress of her riches as his reason.
The article also cited research published this summer which warned that the lives of lottery winners could be cut short due to excessive alcohol-fuelled partying.
In 1999 Phil Kitchen, a jobless carpenter, won £1.8 million but two years later was found dead in his £500,000 home after drinking himself to death.
In July a report by the think-tank Theos argued that the National Lottery was penalising the poor.
Theos Director Paul Woolley said: “The Lottery might have created a new source of funding for projects that would otherwise have remained un-funded, but this has come with a high price tag for Britain’s poor.”
The report found that skilled manual workers are most likely to play in Lottery draws, with over 67 per cent taking part once a month compared with 47 per cent of professionals and managers.
According to the report, the average Lottery player spends £142.88 each year but among those with salaries of £15,000- £20,000 the figure increases to £174.53.

Modern Britain 03

I saw this in the Times today

How the middle class are shoplifting to keep up appearances

Middle-class shoppers who have been hit by the recession are stealing hundreds of millions of pounds of expensive food in an effort to maintain their high standard of living, according to a new survey.

Quality cuts of meat, fresh fish and high-priced cheeses are being taken by mostly middle-class women from speciality food and convenience shops, where thefts have risen sharply in the past year. Thousands of retailers have found that luxury foods are being stolen for individual use rather than to be sold on.

The information comes from more than 42,000 shops in Europe with combined sales of £262 billion, who were questioned by the Centre for Retail Research, an independent organisation, for Checkpoint Systems, the retail security specialists.

They found that shoplifting in Britain has increased in the past year by nearly 20 per cent to almost £5 billion, £750 million more than in 2008, keeping Britain at the top of Europe’s shoplifting table. Clothing and fashion accessory shops were hardest hit, with branded designer goods high on thieves’ shopping lists, closely followed by DIY stores.


Neil Matthews, vice-president of Checkpoint Systems, said that he was astonished at the rise of middle-class shoplifters. “We are not simply looking at your traditional shoplifters here. We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell on than before,” he said.

“This is epitomised in the recent uprising of the middle-class shoplifter, someone who has turned to theft to sustain their standard of living. I suppose people want to carry on with their lifestyle but cannot afford the expensive cheeses, fresh cuts of meat or nice fish that they used to be able to afford and now they just take it. This is the first year we have seen a huge rise in theft of these items and we are being told it is for their own consumption rather than to sell on.”

He added: “The UK’s retail industry has seen its largest ever increase in shoplifting over the last 12 months, and it comes at a time when the industry can least afford it.”

The report, which surveyed more than 1,000 retailers worldwide with sales of £514 billion, found that 43.5 per cent of all stock that went missing was stolen by opportunistic thieves and organised gangs, but employee theft was on the rise. Britain is behind only the Irish Republic in Western Europe for the most dishonest staff.

Modern Britain 02

This report from Christian Institute is very disturbing and makes clear the present climate in many places. Here the police are presuming to tell the woman how to deal with her children and clearly consider physical chastisement a crime, which it is not.

A mother who warned her naughty children they may be smacked was followed home by an off-duty police officer and later questioned.

The incident happened while the mother, 34, was out shopping at a Southampton supermarket.

She had warned her children, aged eleven and four, that if they continued to misbehave they would get a “hiding” when they got home.

An off-duty police officer, who witnessed the telling off, then secretly followed them to the family home and two uniformed officers visited six weeks later.

When the police came to the home, they advised the mother to use a ‘naughty step’ or to withdraw treats as discipline instead of smacking.

The family later received a letter from social services which said no further action would be taken “at this time”, but added: “We would like to advise you that we do keep the information on record.”

The mother, who remains anonymous in order to protect her children, said: “It was an amazing intrusion. I was doing what parents should do, and what thousands do every week – setting moral boundaries for how children should behave.”

She also said: “If no one stands up to this oppression, this political correctness, parents will lose responsibility for their kids and the state will take over.

“The local authority have told me they’re keeping my family on record until my kids leave school, and my daughter is only four.

“If she ever falls over and has to be taken to hospital I’m worried about what conclusions they might come to. I feel I’m being kept on record as an abuser, so I will always be looking over my shoulder.”

Care, a social welfare charity, said: “One fears that it was a wholly disproportionate response to a threatened smack informed by the destructive and censorious views of those opinion formers who refuse to make a distinction between smacking, which can actually be very helpful, and beating which is a serious crime.”

Hampshire Police said: “An off-duty officer reported to our child protection team an incident involving a woman in Southampton, who they saw chastising her children.

“It was not an ordinary telling off and because of what the woman said and the way her children reacted, it gave our officer reasonable grounds for concern for the children’s welfare and that they may be at risk of physical chastisement.”