The Crumbling Centre Dear friends, We are continuing to witness the era of the self-purging Government. Politics appears to be now just a race to be the “least unpopular”. Please, please, if anyone is listening, we just want the “least incompetent”. The combination of generational national problems, an inflated and overblown media, and a febrile public blown here and there by social…
On Test Dear friends, It is exam season. Students up and down the country are sitting papers of all kinds. Written papers, practical assessments, sometimes even the dreaded “viva voce”. GCSE’s, A levels, Degree finals, Dissertations, Master’s, Bar exams, Professional examinations. Qualification, accreditation, authorisation, refreshers, life is full of tests, as necessary rehearsals for the stresses that will come, and (one hopes)…
Angels in ordinary. Dear friends, I’ve not met an angel. Or, at least, not met one in such a way that I can look back and say “that was an angel.” I do however, know someone who believes that they did, with complete conviction. This is a very sensible person, a lawyer, even, not in the least prone to “wackiness”. I don’t…
The Green Dear friends, The English village has a number of features which form the traditional “glue” for its society. There are suppliers of food or drink, such as a shop, cafe, pub, bakery and so on, around which people congregate according to their means or their leisure, whether in time or money. There are the businesses, nurseries and schools, all of…
Shingle Bank Dear friends, At the northernmost tip of the Isle of Man, you can park your car at the edge of the vast stretches of shingle that comprise the Point of Ayre, and, if it is a clear day, look north across to Scotland, away over the water. The channel is deep, and the huge ferries from Belfast ply their cargo…
Have no anxiety Dear friends, Back in the late 1970’s, when a serious international oil crisis had sent inflation spiralling, and the resultant wage demands from many different sectors threw Britain into a carnage of industrial actions, pitting successive governments against one trade union after another, when the Soviet moles inside our security services had not all been exposed, and when the…
Paranoid Android Dear friends AI makes mistakes. Then again, so do doctors, lawyers, politicians, clergy, teachers, soldiers and policemen. So do journalists, commentators, news editors, influencers and advertisers. Who can you trust these days? Wherein lies the truth? Where do you turn? The world is changing faster than we can comprehend it. The AI revolution is set to be a “bigger thing”…
The Bishop’s Bicentenary Dear friends Bishop Shute Barrington died in London two hundred years ago last month, at the grand old age of ninety two. He had been the Lord Bishop of Durham for thirty five years, the Bishop of Salisbury before that, the Bishop of Llandaff (that’s Cardiff) before that, and a Canon of both St Paul’s and St George’s, Windsor.…
Dirty Church Dear friends, However you care to describe it (Scruffy Church, Grubby Church, Messy Church?) Checkendon Church needs some tender loving care right now in the sprucing-up department. Please join me this coming Saturday from 10am-12noon for a spot of hoovering, mopping, polishing, dusting, tidying, pruning, sweeping, weeding and edging. All ages and stages are very welcome! Please bring your choice…
The old sea mine Dear friends, As a child, my sister and I would sometimes be taken by our parents for a “Saturday outing”, which was invariably Gravesend. This was a twenty minute drive from our village, up the one in four Vigo Hill to the join the Wrotham Road at the top of the North Downs, and then follow this old…