Made in England!

'Made In England' had a magic about it, once upon a time, when I was a boy. Besides the rugged simplicity and efficiency of the Gardner engines that I used to have in my fishing boats, they even had a certain elegance about them. There was a thrill to the sound of those big cylinders firing up early in the morning. That's what comes of a cultural moment when people's minds have a decent degree of harmony with physical reality, when you may even find an intellectual and a worker in one and the same person; when an artefact is a genuine statement, people being aware of the play of spirit within matter.

     

Photo by Fiona.

The daffodils are bravely blooming here in Sherkin, while in Nazaré work has started again on the Anna M. Alec and I are inching our way towards actually getting our hands on some of these Lynch electric motors. They too are actually made in England, so let’s hope they don’t find themselves up against a tariff barrier soon! The risks that are being taken with what is left of manufacturing there boggles the mind. 

     One might not be surprised at the Tories - they are long gone down the road of being far more interested in money from one or another kind of manipulation than from making things - but it is sad that the leader of the Labour Party doesn’t seem to have much of a clue about it either. I fear he is too much of an ideologue, who has never produced much besides cabbages.  How on earth can he end up on the same page as Messrs Farage, Rees-Mogg and Johnson? If Brexit goes through, it is sad that he will bear a large share of the responsibility. 

     Surely he realises that Brexit has provided ideal cover and distraction from the multiple disaster that has been brewing for many long years in Britain, but he has singularly failed to make the connection and blow that cover away. Deflecting the blame on Johnny Foreigner, the oldest trick in the book, seems to be prevailing again.

      There is a confusion at the heart of our culture that contributes to the smoke. We are urged to believe in ‘liberal values’ without them ever being defined, other than by a vague canon of political correctness. This is supposed to be very different from the ‘neo-liberalism’ that we also hear a lot about; however they both stem from the Enlightenment and the great project of making ‘setting the individual free to do his thing’ the supreme value, a project that is rapidly running out of road. Unfortunately they thought they could fly straight to freedom, leaving the physical ground of life behind. I know no more gentle, tender and effective reminder that we can do no such thing than that simple little wooden Madonna, said to be carved by St Joseph himself, under our noses in the Sanctuario at Nazaré. It tells us how God came to us through the messy physical business of being born a human infant, and then grew up in the very down-to-earth environment of a simple carpenter's workshop.

     Yet we will have to become a lot more tough minded if we are not to be overwhelmed by the problems ahead, and the sooner we set about it, the better chance there is of doing so without violence - though any organism, in order to survive, has to be prepared to defend itself. I would not recommend the approach of the British Minister of Defence, playing with his new toys, aircraft carriers, drones, perhaps some of those nice new tactical nuclear weapons that the Ducky is happily deploying - ‘Brexit has brought us to a great moment in our history. A moment when we must strengthen our global presence, enhance our lethality and increase our mass.’ says Mr Williamson. Blimey, to think of an overgrown schoolboy like that in charge of such things! But how is the EU to strongly find that different voice?

     For a start, with the elections coming up in May, the European Parliament should find a way of making sure it only will accept members who come in good faith - not those who come with the specific intention of disrupting and destroying. The time has come to face down the likes of Mr Farage. It should be quite possible to require some statement of good faith to which the likes of him could be held, on pain of being thrown out.

     If the Pope and the Grand Imam can produce one, surely the European Parliament should be able to do so as well! Indeed not a few of their words might provide a starting point, such as the declaration of their 'adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard…. ’ Amen!

Pope Francis embraces the Grand Imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque -AFP