POETIC DICTION

 

One of the many joys of reading English literature is to revel in “poetic diction”, that high-flown style of writing or speaking, which arrests by its rhythms, its aptness and its imaginative range. In our rich literature, there are many exponents of this style, mainly recognised poets, and I share with you some of my favourites, to supplement those of my readers. My selection is conventional - many are ”golden oldies” which have delighted us for centuries.

1.       Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licóur

Of which vertú engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open ye,

So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

 

(from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales 1387)

 

Unfamiliar vocabulary, eccentric spelling, obscure meanings were enough to send a schoolboy a-quiver with apprehension, but after some robust teaching, and with access to a glossary, he quickly gave the passage a grin of recognition and set out on the road of moving through middle English to the modern language.

 

2. Thomas Cranmer (1469-1556)

 

We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us

And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

(From The Book of Common Prayer, revised 1662)

Prose, of course, and devotional, but I call it Poetic Prose.

3.    William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 

From Macbeth

 

Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.

 

From Hamlet

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

 

From The Tempest

 

Poetic Diction in all its glory!

 

 

 

4.      John Donne (1572-1631)

 

If some king of the earth have so large an extent of dominion, in North, and South, as that he hath Winter and Summer together in his dominions, so large an extent East and West, as that he hath day and night together in his dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgment together: He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; he can bring thy Summer out of Winter, though thou hast no Spring? though in the ways of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied till now - now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the Sun at noon to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries. All occasions invite his mercies.

 

(From sermon preached at St Paul’s Christmas Day 1624)

 

Donne’s peroration is one of the glories of our language.

5.      Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1771-1834)

But oh that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and inchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted Burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

     The shadow of the dome of pleasure
     Floated midway on the waves;
     Where was heard the mingled measure
     From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

(From Kubla Khan 1816)

Coleridge’s visions may have been opiate-assisted – they possess great power nonetheless.

6.      William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!

                      And let the young Lambs bound

                      As to the tabor's sound!

We in thought will join your throng,

                      Ye that pipe and ye that play,

                      Ye that through your hearts to-day

                      Feel the gladness of the May!

What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

                Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

                      We will grieve not, rather find

                      Strength in what remains behind;

                      In the primal sympathy

                      Which having been must ever be;

                      In the soothing thoughts that spring

                      Out of human suffering;

                      In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind.

And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,

Forebode not any severing of our loves!

Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;

I only have relinquished one delight

To live beneath your more habitual sway.

I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,

Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;

The innocent brightness of a new-born Day

                      Is lovely yet.

 

(From Intimations of Immortality 1807)

 

To my mind, Wordsworth’s Poetic Diction surpasses all others.

 

 

7.      John Keats (1795-1821)

 

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

 

(From On First looking into Chapman’s Homer 1816)

 

Keats’ Odes are unsurpassed but the above is very striking.

 

 

8.      Lord George Byron (1780-1824)

 

THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece
    Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
    Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.

The Scian and the Teian muse,
    The hero’s harp, the lover’s lute,
Have found the fame your shores refuse:
    Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds which echo further west
Than your sires’ ‘Islands of the Blest’.

The mountains look on Marathon—
    And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
    I dream’d that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.

My chosen quote is an 1819 patriotic call for Greek independence and Byron, like me, was brought up in Aberdeen and even went to my same primary school. Some alumnus!

9.      Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, not falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory

 

(From Prometheus Unbound 1820)

 

Shelley was a committed radical and this inspiring passage proclaims his hopes.

 

 

10.  W. B. Yeats (1868-1939)

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

(The Lake Isle of Innisfree 1890)

Yeats survived into my century and his lovely poem is still widely admired. Some of his native Irish disparage it, as hackneyed and over-familiar, but I remain moved by its language and its emotive images.

I hope my selection appeals to my readers. I already hear some critics who may complain it is “male, stale and pale, “but no lady, person of colour or youngster has yet produced diction of comparable quality, although there must be an abundance of talent.

Meanwhile, take immense pride in our profound literary and cultural heritage – as a final bonne bouche I attach a video of “Jerusalem” – a great poem by William Blake and a great 1916 anthem by Sir Hubert Parry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1x8wouy3mE&ab_channel=RoyalChoralSoc

 

SMD

6.6.23

Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2023

OUT OF STEP

  

My generation, the wartime and early post-war generation, is of course largely retired, economically inactive and slowly but surely diminishing in number. We are not a key constituency but take pride in our traditions, our achievements, our human contributions and our wider families. We try to take a mellow view of the behaviour of our younger successors, although we are not always in sympathy with, or in understanding of, the modern world. We prefer not to talk of alienation nor isolation but the fact is we find ourselves living in a hectic, noisy, mad-house cosmos beyond parody, stretching our tolerance and critical faculties to the utmost limit.

                The Finnish Eurovision entry – Cha-cha-cha

To set the scene, this year’s Eurovision in grim Liverpool, upon which vast treasure is expended, was won by a Swedish (actually a Berber Moroccan) chanteuse called Loreen caged in a box whose tortured “song” was supplemented by gestures from her hideously elongated finger-nails. Worse, in second place was the Finnish effort, fronted by a kinky-looking gentleman with lurid green sleeves who ululated his tongue in a disgusting fashion. The UK entry, screamed by Britain-hating activist Mae Muller, was deservedly second last, only just surpassing the truly dismal German entry. All the songs were of the thumping Euro-technopop genus, their connection with real music totally inaudible. What rubbish and yet how many column inches and TV hours were devoted to this dystopian, freak-show spectacle!

The second-rate-farce theatre of Westminster politics is in equal turmoil. I am a Brexit-supporting Conservative, much influenced by the transformational Margaret Thatcher governments of the 1980s. We are supposedly enjoying a Tory regime, but where are the Tories? Our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has piled tax upon tax, regulation upon regulation as if he wanted to outdo unlamented Brussels. The economy creaks forward by a tiny fraction a month, robotically controlled by Jeremy Hunt and less internationally competitive by the day. There are occasional flashes of common sense from Michael Gove, Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg but we see no consistent vision for the future and nothing remotely inspirational. Some blame inflation, the Ukraine war and Covid for the malaise, but actually the basic problem is a Tory lack of grip and political cunning – a government needs to be 5 steps ahead of its political adversaries, not 3 steps behind. But who on earth will follow these inept, burnt-out has-beens?

 

Most people believe Sir Keir Starmer and Labour are in pole position to sweep into power at the next election. That is not a mouth-watering prospect, to say the least. Starmer is an unreconstructed Woke Leftie, who swallowed every idiocy pronounced by the appalling erstwhile Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, without demur. The image most associated with Starmer is he (accompanied by his crass deputy Angela Rayner) piously “taking the knee” in respect towards the dubious and violent Black Lives Matter cause. His principles blow with the wind – Brexiteer one day, Remainer the next – today he promises to ‘renegotiate” Brexit. He denounces crime, while failing to mention he was Director of Public Prosecutions 2008-13, and took no relevant initiatives. He says he would give the vote to working- resident EU citizens, but flip-flops today when the obviousness of this gerrymandering became plain. He is a man of straw. There are no principles he would not bend in the search for power and none he would defend if seriously challenged. He has no spine and Churchill’s 1931 description of Ramsay Macdonald would resonate, –“The boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury bench”

             Keir Starmer and friends

Starmer’s party, his members and activists, are a talentless rabble, mad, bad and dangerous to know. They are bad because they have turned their backs on key principles of liberal democracy, like free speech (supporting the cancellation of dissenting voices in universities). Their attitude towards Russia and China is at best ambivalent, so we certainly cannot sleep easily in our beds, as the Left has no respect for our hard-won freedoms or the principle of national defence. Their traditional pay-masters, the trades unions, are re-asserting themselves and openly preach communist claptrap, such as the imminent destruction of capitalism. They may well fool many in the moronic reaches of the electorate, but we can only pray that enough sensible voters have survived to stem their toxic flow.

Currently, there is not much to encourage us. The Civil Service is infiltrated by the Woke, doctors and nurses strike for absurd pay rises, the NHS is near collapse, school staff strike at the drop of a hat. It is not just the public sector either. Bank workers “work from home”, businesses suffer huge absenteeism, the entire work-force is often idle and work-shy. Can it ever be turned round?

My generation needs some good news. In the existing atmosphere, we are returning to our shell and not surrendering anything. We are not sending the Elgin Marbles back to Greece, we are not apologising for the sins of the past like Slavery (Arabs and black African rulers were much worse than we were) or Colonialism (that impertinent US Declaration in 1776 was a robbery for which we should be richly compensated! Maybe that is a long shot!?). Just say No! to adversaries and not be an easy touch for anyone.

SMD

17.5.23

LIFE'S MYSTERY

 

Nobody has ever accused me of profundity but now and then I am bemused by the inane superficiality of our modern lives and inevitably this train of thought raises difficult questions, viz:

-          How did humanity evolve, and what sort of creatures are we?

-          Can we improve on the current model?

-          What is the purpose of our existence anyway?

Let us shakily and inexpertly address these unanswerable riddles.

Our cousin the Chimpanzee

    

                                                                 Our Neanderthal brother

Darwin tells us that our ancestor was: A hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habits. Our affinity to the chimpanzee is close as our DNA is a 98.4% match to that of the chimp. Over the aeons of archaeological time our species of homo sapiens evolved, with many diversions, from the great ape hominids to the anatomically modern hominims, eliminating the Neanderthals some 100,000 years ago after some intermingling. The human brain was now 3 times the size of a chimp’s. Originally in Africa, our human ancestors spread themselves widely to Asia, Europe and Australia. Sociably, they lived in settlements with their extended family (tribe), hunting and gathering together over many centuries. Eventually something akin to a civilisation developed in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and later in Egypt. Homo Sapiens had at last arrived - though he could easily disappoint!   

                                          

                                                Modern Man, with all his failings

Yes, I chose a picture of a scruffy booze-befuddled American, when I could have selected an image of Goethe, Leonardo, Newton, Balzac or some other worthy. But ask yourself who is more typical? The great majority of Earth’s population live very limited lives, exploited peasants in Asia, helpless cannon-fodder in Russia, toiling wage-slaves in Europe, compulsive consumers in America, prey to all the temptations and abuses of a money-obsessed society. Only a minority on any continent receive the benefits of a decent education, adequate income, a healthy environment and a satisfying lifestyle. Women and children globally still fare much worse than men, to our shame.

Of course, there has been huge progress since our Troglodyte phase. Progress in terms of infrastructure, city life, technology, control of disease, respect for community, self-awareness has been immense, but inequalities are stubbornly persistent and the “toiling masses” live poorly. Man has many animalistic traits – the search for dominance, ruthlessness in many situations, hatred of rivals, all of which create conflict. There are gentler animalistic instincts we retain – like the Atlantic salmon, we are drawn to our birth-place in our later years, or like that dog in Ulster who trekked home, after escaping from a kind rescuer, we have a longing for adventurous travel but often end up not far from home.

Can science and technology improve our lot? No doubt we could live a little longer, but to what purpose? Our youth and maturity are already too short and creating more twilight years is self-defeating (not to say bankrupting!). I imagine we have the technology politely to make sterile large sections of the population, which would quickly give us more room and less mouths to feed, but raises a multitude of ethical and economic dilemmas. Applying straight-forward logic to these loaded questions is perilous. Already the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, has advocated a pause in the development of high-capability Artificial Intelligence (AI).

                        AI guru Steve Wozniak

There is a dystopian fear that sophisticated AI robots could outwit their human creators and execute their own programmes of action. Science fiction drama could become alarming fact. These fears may be exaggerated, but humanity needs carefully to control any huge leap in technological capabilities.

More fundamentally, what’s the name of the game anyway? Stripped of illusion, Western man is born of his mother, grows up in a family of varying closeness, often starts earning his living in his teens, gets married, procreates, reaches maturity at 50, ages quite quickly and dies of various ailments when he is about 80. He decays and turns into dust, the plaything of the winds. Only a few live a remarkable life, and even fewer a heroic one. In my undergraduate days in the early 1960s, I embraced Humanism, morality without religion, influenced by Margaret Knight, Bertrand Russell, Jacob Bronowski and other savants. It seemed sensible but was admittedly a trifle bleak, as our existence seemed to serve no obvious purpose nor solve any mystery.

I deplored “revealed religion” as its pretensions and claims were contradicted by historical method, comparative religion, psychology and even by archaeology and it had produced some very rum characters like Torquemada, St Thomas More, Bloody Mary, John Knox, Ignatius Loyola and Pius IX. And yet…

A few days ago, we British witnessed the Coronation of King Charles III. Carrying his sceptres and wearing his crown, richly cloaked, his image is medieval, wholly at odds with the modern world. There was much hocus-pocus with anointing oils, ancient regalia and pledging homage. But most would agree that the ceremony, with its music, was something beautiful, uplifting and comforting, speaking to some primeval instincts within us.

   King Charles III                      

When I turn up my toes (or, more euphemistically, am “gathered in”) and if I hear a celestial choir of angels; I will be well pleased, and not totally surprised!

 

SMD

9.5.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

EXPECTING THE WORST

 

With the Coronation a matter of days away, we should now be in a cheerfully relaxed frame of mind, stocking up on bubbly, canapés and tasty picnic fare, rehearsing patriotic songs, preparing rousing orations for every generation and keenly anticipating this rare and convivial event, perhaps even composing an ode or a celebratory sonnet. Instead, I have dire forebodings that May will bring us violence and civil conflict at worst and at best a torrent of cynicism and disparagement from deluded politicians, media and overseas enemies of our great country. Prepare for an ugly onslaught!

                       King Charles and the errant Prince Harry

The most immediate threat to the peace of the Coronation comes from Prince Harry (aka The Ginger Whinger), who has kept up a chorus of moans about his family victimhood since disappearing in 2020 to California and deluxe exile. King Charles, typically benignly (but perhaps unwisely) has half-forgiven the prodigal and invited him to come. Harry is bubbling over with malevolence and could easily stage a stunt, say, a noisy walk-out when Camilla is crowned, just to spoil the occasion. I hope the London crowds give him a resounding raspberry and he takes a one-way ticket back to America pronto. What a plonker!

But there will be plenty other crackpots in London on the great day. Anti-monarchical sentiment is strong on the disaffected Left although many mainstream Labour voters are happily loyal. London is ethnically very diverse and support for royalty is a minority stance in several communities. Bomb-making, terrorism and suicide attacks can easily emanate from these elements. In the past, we could depend on the Metropolitan Police and MI5 to keep tabs on resident and arriving troublemakers, but confidence in the abilities of the Met is at a low level at present. Naturally we feel uneasy.

We can be sure that street-agitation will be prominent. Starry-eyed groups like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop oil and the Liberal Democrats will tie themselves to, glue themselves against or drape themselves over some public monument in their desperate search for relevance and publicity. The sweet sound of rejoicing choral music will be drowned out by the ravings of Diane Abbott and the burbling grand-standing of Ed Davey.

Diane Abbott 

 

                                                                Sir Ed Davey

Others will ignore the Coronation. The SNP is fundamentally republican and is in the midst of an internal civil war, with nose-diving support. Nicola Sturgeon’s bequest to her nation is a party of failure as far as independence is concerned, chaotic finances exuding a stink of corruption, secrecy over its processes and governance and an ugly leading group comprising Humza Yousaf, Stephen Flynn and Ian Blackford bickering among themselves. They shame my native Scotland, eheu.

No doubt the Coronation will elicit patronising comment from the US. It is true that Charles and Camilla are crowned carrying heavy baggage from their pasts, as you might expect with a couple in their mid-70s. But remember that the UK monarchy is mainly ceremonial and has minimal political clout. Contrast that with the Head of State in the USA, the President, who combines the heaviest political duties with substantial ceremonial ones. The US presidential election in 2024 promises to be a dreary re-run of 2020 with an 81-year-old Joe Biden challenged by 77-year-old Donald Trump. Biden is manifestly unfit for office thanks to age and his distracted brain while Donald Trump had a disastrous term and disgraced himself with idiotic conspiracy theories on losing office. Where is the vaunted hidden talent in political America and why have the Republican and Democratic parties allowed themselves to be manoeuvred into this odious corner?  

6 May 2023 will be an auspicious day for the UK. Close our eyes to the tendentious coverage from the BBC and The Guardian, ignore the cat-calls from the disaffected, suffuse ourselves with goodwill towards friends and neighbours and stay faithful to the values of our beloved Britain.

SMD

26.4 23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

SPRING MADNESS

  

It must be something in the air. There is much learned talk of dopamine bubbling about in the blood-stream and the normally dead-pan Serbs have a word for it - Vrbopuc (typically unpronounceable), to describe the changes in nature seen in early April. Anyway, Britain is greatly afflicted and most of the rest of the world too – many people have simply gone potty and we sane ones gaze on bewitched, bothered and bewildered. Let me give you belt and braces examples:

1.       J K Rowling, the highly accomplished creator of Harry Potter, was earlier “cancelled”- i.e. denied any academic or media platform even to speak and defend herself, when she denied trans activist claims for special treatment. She concentrated on the birth sex of trans people and stuck to 2 sexes only. Her ungrateful critics included the film actors her works had made famous, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who could not resist jumping on the “woke” green room bandwagon. Happily, the tide seems to be turning against trans-mania and JKR, who has staunch defenders, is becoming more acceptable in trendy media company (Warner Bros are doing a new series and HBO have relented).  But what an unjust episode!

Radcliffe, JKR, Watson et al

2.       Very little of value comes out of devolved governments and a case in point is Wales, which has just announced that forthwith The Brecon Beacons National Park shall be known as Bannau Brycheiniog – don’t even try to pronounce it. A whole smoke-screen of justification has been erected but fundamentally this is an exercise in Welsh-language fanaticism, imposed without consultation by the Cardiff regime. We know The Brecon Beacons to be a lovely part of rural Wales, much farmed and a training ground for the SAS. I hope the general public give the new name and pompous Mark Drakeford (Lab) the proverbial two fingers.

 

3.       Talk of devolved governments inevitably brings us to Scotland, where the SNP regime has fallen into a rank haggis-stew. The sudden departure of ghastly Nicola Sturgeon seems to have uncovered a trail of financial mismanagement. CEO Peter Murrell, husband of Nicola, was briefly arrested and now Treasurer Colin Beattie has been too. The auditors, Johnston Carmichael, resigned in September 2022, but this was never disclosed. Police are investigating what happened to a fundraising of £600k, meant for an independence campaign. There are questions about the ownership of a £110,000 motor-home, said to be an SNP battle-bus, parked at Murrell’s mother’s house. Nothing is clear and Stalinist opacity reigns supreme. Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor looks out of his depth, the party is in disarray, which suits the Labour and Conservative opposition in Scotland. The reputation of Scotland, alas, is in the mud thanks to this folly.

 

                             

                                                    Some legacy, Nicola!

 

4.        As usual, Ireland is a forum of madness. In the North, Sunak negotiated some improvements on the Irish Protocol (the botched work of Boris) between the UK and EU. Inevitably, this was not accepted by the idiotic hard-line Unionists of the DUP. So, Stormont does not function and inter-communal tensions are high. Into this mess blunders half-awake Joe Biden, wanting to celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, but really to flatter the nationalist Irish vote in the US. He utters his usual gaffes and then cavorts around the Irish Republic in a green orgy of sectarian anti-British prejudice. He is not our friend, but his country often is. There is the grim prospect of Biden running again in 2024 against Trump (OMG!). These geriatric gladiators diminish us all – please America, embrace a younger generation!

 

5.       Then our home-country is not in great shape. Strikes besiege us. We want to relax and enjoy The Grand National at Aintree, but some outfit called Animal Rising pretends to care about the welfare of horses and disrupts the race. The racing community is outraged and the luckless highly-strung horses are greatly upset by these exhibitionists (but we selected 3 places!)

 

                          

                                                Grand National saboteurs

 

Even more bizarre, our home-grown terrorists, under the banner Just Stop Oil, attacked the Crucible in Sheffield, dedicated to unpolitical snooker, in a haze of yellow powder.

 

A noisy, moronic intervention

 

Yet, repellent and sad as these scenes are, I do not believe they are remotely representative of the real United Kingdom. At Easter, with my eldest son joining as my gentle minder, I took the train to my home town of Aberdeen, Scotland and later flew back. Everywhere I encountered civility, efficiency and warmth which revived my faith in our people and our future. Our day will dawn!

 

SMD

18.4.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

APRIL HORIZONS

 

       APRIL HORIZONS

We emerge this year into what is supposed to be Spring with some bright spots amid the fog of gloom which often seems to envelop our beloved Britain. The first bright spot is the highly successful State Visit of Charles and Camilla to Germany.

King Charles addresses the Bundestag

The King conducted himself with charm and friendly good-humour, Queen Camilla did not put a foot wrong, while the German public was delighted to welcome a British head of state who spoke German with admirable fluency and who could even crack jokes in the language. Okay, we have a heavy weight of brutal history in respect of Germany but the country has been transformed since 1945 and good relations between our two nations is crucial. The “soft diplomacy” exercised by Charles and Camilla is valuable. The noisy detractors of the serious members of the monarchy have been put to flight.

…………………

Another bright spot has been the accession of Britain to the Pacific Treaty (The CPTPP). It is our first major move post-Brexit and it combines the key factors of joining a bloc dedicated to trade liberalisation, with a respect for sovereignty and economic national interest. Rishi Sunak will take much credit but most of the early political work was done by much maligned former Trade Secretary Liz Truss, whose mantra of “more growth” must still resound, and the recent negotiations were headed up by her successor Kemi Badenoch, whose common sense made such a good impression during the Tory leadership elections. The CPTPP is now probably larger economically than the EU and is certainly growing faster. Remainers pooh-pooh its significance but as usual they are quite wrong.

Liz Truss

Kemi Badenoch 

It has been a long time coming, but at last some of the benefits of Brexit are seeping through. Britain has good global connections, which it must exploit. It has to compete against the EU, the US and China economically and, with NATO, is in a proxy war with Russia, unlikely to end soon. Joining the Pacific Treaty is a very positive step.

……………………………

A third bright spot is the chaos within the SNP, which benefits the people of my native Scotland and both the Conservative and Labour causes. The surprise resignation of fanatical Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister, is a huge relief – I suspect her real reasons for going have yet to be revealed. Her administration was incompetent, undemocratic and Stalinist in its secrecy. The leadership election revealed deep divisions, not least issues surrounding Sturgeon’s bizarrely woke Gender Recognition Bill, which Sunak promptly vetoed, thank goodness.

Out - Sturgeon, good riddance

 

                                                         In - “Useless” Humza Yousaf 

The new First Minister is Humza Yousaf, Glaswegian-born of Pakistani parents, who has promised to destroy the Union “by any means possible” and proclaim an independent Scottish Republic – in other words he is another fanatic grand-standing as the continuity torch-bearer of Sturgeonism. He has already shown his political ineptitude by insulting his marginally more intelligent main rival Kate Forbes with an offer of a lowly portfolio. The SNP holds 45 of the 59 Scottish seats in Westminster, opinion polls point to a sharp decline in support, and at an election Labour may recapture about 20 and the Conservatives another 8. They are licking their lips but victories do not come easily and a full-blown bi-partisan Unionist offensive is required, led with convincing panache. The SNP bubble can and must be comprehensively pricked.

……………………….

 

Mind you, Wokery still spreads its dismal tentacles unchallenged. The discredited BBC has caved in to arrogant Gary Lineker and allowed him back after his political burbling, although he may walk anyhow. The BBC will probably tighten its control of freelancers, not before time. It continues to downgrade or suppress news-stories favourable to the Tories and give prominence to every contentious pronouncement from its pet coterie of Lefties. Both the BBC and ITV advertisers try to portray happily inclusive Britain as having a white minority – a total distortion of the truth. We will soon be treated to the Eurovision Song Contest, joy of the BBC, coming from insurrectionary Liverpool this year (the Ukrainian winners last year having more pressing priorities). The British entry is “I wrote a Song” performed by a certain Mae Muller, who is described as a “Left-wing activist”. She announced, when Boris was stricken with Covid in 2020, that Boris does not deserve an NHS bed nor intensive care. This kind of toxic slogan-shouting is music to the ears of many in the BBC and the Liberal Establishment. I frankly award Mae and all her gang Nul Points.

Not for me, Mae

SMD

3.04.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

IT'S A MAD, MAD WORLD

As I shuffle gingerly down the primrose path of old age, I become easily aerated by the folly of mankind. Of course, all old codgers like me believe the world is rapidly sliding down-hill, but the truth may simply be that our world is sliding away, as inevitably too did the world of our forefathers. While I am a Tory, I believe myself to be an enlightened one, liberal in my social attitudes but firmly conservative in my economic and constitutional principles. I crave for a bright future yet hope against hope that the clock can sometimes be put back on some issues. Like King Canute I try to stem the tides!

                

            King Canute tries in vain to stem the tides

I would like to share with you a few of those matters which sharply collide with my own world-view:

(1)    Attacks on academic freedom. I utterly deplore a university and teaching establishment which defies 3 centuries of liberal tradition and seeks to silence lectures by, say, Jordan Peterson, condemn (i.e. “cancel”) works by J D Rowland and rewrite works by Roald Dahl and even Dr Seuss. These attacks are usually made in the guise of complaints of racism, homophobia or fascism – wholly bogus, twisted and absurd accusations, driven by an extreme political agenda.

 

(2)    Sub-standard UK politicians. We have had a dire run of British politicians recently. I was a devotee of Boris Johnson, who was charismatic, but he lost the plot in his later period, failed to deliver, behaved arrogantly and is now not missed. Revelations from the What’s App messages of Matt Hancock are truly alarming, showing how a power-mad minister can treat the electorate (and scientific fact) with breath-taking contempt. Sunak, Gove, Wallace and Rees-Mogg are more to my taste. Very few Labour members give confidence, while the SNP are beyond parody. Nature abhors a vacuum and all manner of manic oddballs now haunt Westminster, supported by a tainted, unfit for purpose, Civil Service.

 

(3)    The decline of civilisation in the West. The media talk of “culture wars” and while I have long believed Western culture to be infinitely superior to all others, I fear that our defences are being subverted and we have a fight on our hands to repel Russian, Chinese and Asiatic models. Just walk into any UK city centre and you will see feral knife-wielding mobs, drunk and tattooed, revelling in their proletarian ignorance. Their savage music blares out, their TV programmes celebrate gutter ideas and extreme violence. Rampant anarchy can undermine civilisation.

 

Still, a majority of us in the West know better. We know that truth is an absolute and that there is no such thing as “socialist truth”, “Gary Lineker truth” or even “traditional Tory truth”. We know we have intellectual power, that gives us our potency. We can spot many of the media-sponsored lies. We know that democracy works better than authoritarianism, that the Acropolis sculptures are more beautiful than the Benin bronzes and that Mozart out-classes Ravi Shankar. We cherish our values, so build on them, teach them to the world – may we always have the courage to promote and defend them forever!

 

SMD

09.03.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023