Paradise on Earth.

George Orwell famously said that ‘the first victim of war is truth’. I would go a good deal further and say that war is the final offspring of lies. A statesman is someone with a good grasp of reality who manages to get his followers to accept inconvenient truths, and to blow away the smoke screen of lies and even sink a few of the ships that they conceal. Not even the Boris could expect anyone to see the Duckie in such a light, indeed he has such a tenuous relationship with truth himself that he might not even grasp such a notion; so how does he describe the Duckie when he wants to put him in a positive light? ‘A great huge global brand’!!! (on Fox News, 9th November).

So the question is, what is it that is being sold, not to mention being hidden (generally the flip side of selling things), and by whom? What is being sold is a dream of paradise. As it happens, we were provided with yet another whacking mountain of information about this just lately in the form of the Paradise Papers. Behind the golden gates like the ones in Trump Tower is a paradise inhabited by the billionaires, the celebrities, the sport, film and rock stars, the royals etc. Even education is enthralled, the prize offered being access to the 'elite', its leading institutions already enmeshed. Fantasies of this wonderful world apparently keep an awful lot of people going. It is all so very much more interesting than addressing the intractable problems of day to day living. This is why we continue to prioritise keeping the paradise in existence over the potholes and the health service.

This is not what our leaders profess, but it is what they generally do. Of course, those billionaires have their little ways of keeping the politicians on side. Dear Mrs May seems a well-intentioned person, but she let herself be drawn into selling a big bundle of lies that she did not even believe in herself to begin with. The likes of me watches aghast as the country of my birth hurtles towards its coming encounter with reality. I am in no position to influence it, except in one little matter. It’s not actually ‘the economy, stupid!’ that really drives people; it’s more like their dreams. Personally, I derive some encouragement from seeing this fact laid bare.

It happens that yachts figure prominently in the Paradise fantasies. Well, Paradise does exist, there are intimations of it even in this poor abused planet, and we do need a relationship with it, and yes, sailing boats do promise some little participation in it. But there are two radically different alternatives on this road to Paradise; the high road of super yachts costing millions and registered 'offshore', and the low road of struggling to get to sea with a low budget, the work of one’s hands, and the support and participation of one’s fellows. Let us not try to destroy the dream of Paradise, but reclaim it from those dodgy ‘stars’ and bring down to Earth!