Mrs Thatcher's funeral

Yesterday the nation said goodbye to Mrs Thatcher and her fan club spent the day glorying in her life's work and 'achievements' as they occupied the news airwaves pretty much wall-to-wall. It had been my intention to ignore the TV and listen to the Radio 4 coverage whilst keeping my nose to the grindstone and working normally but in the event, I did give in and put on the TV up to the point at which the hearse drove away from St Paul's. I'm glad the service went off ok and without incident. Today the sun is out, and after many a good and telling conversation both in person and across social media since her passing was announced, I've a very positive feeling about what lays ahead as it seems many amongst us are not willing to settle for 'more of the same' but are prepared to put in the effort to identify a sensible way forward. The architect of Britain's disastrous monetarism has left the stage, her followers have lost their icon, the philosophy they've followed like sheep is bankrupt, and it's time to bury it alongside its champion and move constructively on.  

Passing of Margaret Thatcher

On Monday 8th April around midday, news of Mrs Thacher's passing was made public and resulted in saturation media coverage. Tributes from the 'great' and the 'good' poured over the airwaves and proved, as if we needed it; our political masters live in a different universe to the rest of us. The 'greatest' peacetime Prime Minister ever, and 'saviour' of Britain was claimed by politicians past and present and made me for one wonder, if those uttering the words are incapable of viewing reality? I don't doubt that she was a patriot and believed she was doing the right thing for the country; but it is the legacy that speaks volumes about the monetarism she unleashed and put her name to, and which has shaped the country we live in now. Her philosophy made the rich richer whilst the rest of us would be expected to lump it whilst the heart and soul of our nation was ripped out and trampled all over. It's my perception that 'Broken Britain' has been the result of a third of a century of continuous monetarism, which sorry to say, is the actual legacy the lady leaves behind. As for all the gushing tributes from the likes of Cameron and the previous generation of grandees; to my mind the strangely fascinating display serves perfectly to illustrate how insulated from the reality of their own creation such socially destructive people are, and therefore how vast is the gulf between the people and their political masters. RIP Mrs T, I've no doubt you actually did believe you were right.

A long and slow burner

The story so far...
The title Sheep No More came to mind more than a decade ago and before a word of the story itself had actually been written. The first attempt was crude and amateurish and was followed by 5 or 6 rewrites, none of which were good enough although each was thankfully better than its predecessor. In 2010, I stood as an independent candidate at the General Election of that year and was beaten by the Tory by some 30,000 votes! What those people thought they were voting for I really don't know, but what they got was more of the same. The very next day after the vote, I set to work on Sheep No More and spent the next 18 months getting it right at last. It was self published on Amazon and Feed-A-Read in 2012, which marks the first significant milestone of this project passed.
Several attempts were made at a website but the material was never right; until now. A new version of the website is now live, I'm very pleased with it, and its activation marks the second important milestone passed safely by. My next task is to promote the project and get the message that we ought to be capable of putting Britain back to rights out there. There's lots to do, and now that I feel the book and website are both sorted, there's no reason to hang back.

The picture by the way depicts what Britons need to do. Stop tolerating bad leadership, failure, abuses and affronts, get our heads up and fight our corner for the sake of future generations. A positive and cooperative attitude is required and can only do the country and us all a power of good.

No longer messing about, the time has come to get serious about promoting Sheep No More. It was uploaded to Amazon as an eBook in 2012 and can be obtained from Feed-A-Read in conventional paper and ink format, I have though not been in a position to promote it due to the pressures of everyday life, attempting to make a living etc. Time meanwhile, has been marching on.

Now a plan has been formulated that I will work my way through as necessary. Yesterday (Tuesday 19th) I visited web designer Netguides of Cowes and took with me a whole host of material to revamp the website. The emphasis will change from my banging on about 'the problem' to instead concentrate on practical solutions, which is what the final chapter of my book seeks to do. A constructive criticism of the present website made by a number of well-wishers, is that it is too wordy with nothing to break up the monotony of endless text. So now there will be pictures and artwork included to make it more attractive and all the wording will change, so I'm grateful for the practical advice readers put forward. As soon as the new site goes live, I shall start placing small adds in newspapers and in-house magazines for various trades and industries. In addition, a few hard copies of the book will be sent to people of influence with the aim of gaining their interest. There is a business plan to go with the book and project, the ultimate aim of which is to generate some decent quality, creative jobs for our young people, and it won't take that much momentum to earn the credibility needed in order to go looking for funding.

The picture is of yours truly presenting famous journalist and war correspondent Martin Bell with a copy of Sheep No More. He was on the Isle of Wight at the invitation of Independent Councillors to give a talk and see the beauties of the place and I was fortunate enough to be introduced.    

Captain Cameron has performed his version of 'shuffling the deckchairs aboard the Titanic' and put of all people, Jeremy Hunt in charge of the NHS. It's common knowledge that Cameron, Hunt, and all the rest of them, hate the NHS and are determined to bring this great institution down. (50,000 medics getting their P45's as part of the cuts, rationing of services, and private, in the main American health corporations muscling in to cherry pick profitable services, and by so doing, gain access to British taxpayers money etc). If ever a signal could go out the NHS is not safe in politicians hands, the appointment of the smug Mr Hunt is it. The very same minister objected to the NHS tribute that featured so spectacularly at the Olympics opening ceremony, and that says everything we need to know about the intentions of Cameron's government.

The 'other' Team GB

Nothing irritates and frustrates me more, than being unable to write due to pressure of work. On the positive side though, endless fermentation of ideas keeps on bubbling away, whilst I carry out my conventional workload. Team GB and their stunning performance at the Olympics, has set a whole new train of thoughts in motion as regards how to present SNM in the best possible light. Our sportspeople have shown what can be achieved when sufficient hard work and a positive mindset get applied to a job in hand, and theirs is a mentality that needs to be applied to all walks of national life.

Taking in the bigger picture, our sportspeople represent just one constituent element of the real and full scale 'Team GB'. Other elements include Politics, Law, Commerce, Public Services, Bureaucracy and Community Cohesion amongst the other 'players' and those elements all represent failure.

Picture Team GB as it ought to be viewed. One element has proved itself to be worthy whilst all of the other elements around it represent the worst of Britain. That is the starting point and the new direction of attack Sheep No More will come from. The current website is too 'wordy' and concentrates on 'the problem' whilst only touching on solutions and what ought to be achievable. Chapter 12 of SNM is packed full of material designed to begin righting so much that has been left to go wrong, and that is where the emphasis of the project must go. So expect new content to the website just as soon as I can knock it into shape, that will take its lead from our Olympians and will concentrate on solutions and the performance 'we the people' are entitled to expect from 'The Team'.

The weekend just gone, witnessed the first outing of SNM at the Garlic Festival on the Isle of Wight. A handful of copies of the paper and ink book went home with new owners and an encouraging amount of interest in the eBook version was generated. It was very rewarding to meet new people and have some pretty intense conversations, some of which were quite challenging. All-in-all, a very good experience and one to build on.

Two widely shared opinions came across forcefully. The first is that Brits are sickened at the trashing of their country and have no faith whatsoever in any of our politicians, an opinion I share and that is common to people like me who are not defeatist by nature. The other opinion 'that it's all too late and nothing can be done' comes from people who've all but given up, and who I cannot agree with despite understanding the pessimism.

Summer 2012 has been quite a time for me and lots of lessons have been learnt. The Queens Diamond Jubilee and accompanying appearance of the Union Flag, almost to saturation point, tells me that the British have a powerful desire to be united and be able to feel pride in their nation once more. Then followed the success of Team GB at the Olympics and we witnessed what hard work and a positive mindset can achieve. At the Garlic Festival this weekend and as a result of all those conversations partaken of, it struck me that the 'Team GB' concept needs to be expanded and the much talked of matter of 'legacy' be tackled from an 'every walk of life' perspective, so taking in politics, the law, commerce, the whole kit and caboodle. Doing so will be the subject of my next posting.