Oh for a Gannet's-eye View!

I love the sharpness of a gannet’s eyes, as they fly so gracefully over the waves. They don’t miss much, they are not deceived as they patrol with their wonderful air of detachment. They might or might not cast a disdainful eye down on my boateen as they soar past.

Winging their way past Cape St Vincent, for example, they of course know just when it is time to head east, but one will not detect the least glance at the land. The land! It is just and only that, whatever name we may choose to put on this or that chunk of it. Cast a cold eye on life, on death! - the poet Yeat’s epitaph seems to sum up their attitude as well.

It’s all very fine when you’re dead though! We all have our lives to lead. Would that we could suss out the truth of things that affect us with the gannet’s ease! There seems to be some sort of crescendo of confusion in the world, which pulls at our minds more and more. ‘Truth?’ said Dave here in Guadianaland; ‘I’ve given up on it!’ Indeed, if it’s peace of mind you want, this sometimes seems the only thing to do; it certainly is a proposition that appeals to most of us in times like these. There's a lot to be said for simply letting the horsemen pass by! Especially the ones like this Duckie!

In theory, I consider it an unacceptable and lazy cop out, but I realised with renewed force the other day that I am guilty of it myself. The occasion was a casual encounter with a fellow Irishman at Faro. Canice and I met him at the bus stop and we decided to take a taxi together to the station, then we had time for a coffee together. He had spent 30 years in the States and was a clued up, sane kind of a man. Somehow 9/11 came up and he professed his opinion that the official story was a white-wash. Now of course I’ve heard this before and even looked at some of the web-sites; but I’ve never actually bothered to screw myself up to seriously considering their truth. Well, says your man, take another look at them so!

How about this:-

Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven  Association Statement: "We have found solid scientific grounds on which to question the interpretation put upon the events of September 11, 2001 by the Office of the President of the United States of America and subsequently propagated by the major media of western nations."*

Or this:- Twenty-five U.S. Military Officers Challenge Official Account of 9/11 1/14/08:

• “September 11, 2001 seems destined to be the  watershed event of our lives and the greatest test for our democracy in our lifetimes.  The evidence of government complicity in the lead-up to the events, the failure to respond during the event, and the  astounding lack of any meaningful investigation afterwards, as well as the ignoring of evidence turned up by others that renders the official explanation impossible, may signal the end of the American experiment.  It has been used to justify all manners of measures to legalize repression at home and as a pretext for behaving as an aggressive empire abroad.  Until we demand an independent, honest, and thorough investigation and accountability for those whose action and inaction led to those events and the cover-up, our republic and our Constitution remain in the gravest danger.”**

Well ok, anyway havn't we all seen the video of the third building collapsing straight down on itself; and bought the story that it was just collateral damage? How could we have possibly done so? Then there is more, much more…. And then the next thing, President Kennedy’s assassination! Just a lone nutter?

I remember clearly the moment I heard about it, as a teenager waiting to buy some chocolate in the tuck shop at school. Well we’ve all heard long since how the CIA or some such seemed to be involved. Now take a look at the evidence that President Johnson himself was in it…. So that’s my active life gone by without facing what is at the very least a strong possibility. How would things have been different if this had come out at the time? Apparently there was a big story calling out LBJ on other bad stuff ready to roll on the Time/Life presses at the time, which was pulled when he suddenly became president.*** But why should we be surprised at it all, we who have read our Shakespeare and a bit of history? I suppose we just kidded ourselves that somehow things were different in our modern democratic age!

Which brings us to now, and Mr Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, calling in the Daily Telegraph:- ‘for governments to launch a public information campaign to fight the scourge of fake news, which is “killing people’s minds.”

‘In an impassioned plea, Mr Cook, boss of the world’s largest company, says that the epidemic of false reports “is a big problem in a lot of the world” and necessitates a crackdown by the authorities and technology firms.

‘He said that this crackdown would help providers of quality journalism and help drive out clickbait. “The outcome of that is that truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news outlets will win,” Mr Cook said.’       
-Daily Telegraph, 10/2/17.

Yea right! Mr Cook, you just don’t get it! I doubt if there is anything as sensational as unvarnished truth! (Why, a small outbreak of it is currently set to bring down the Irish Government. Thank God it can happen in our wee country!) A crackdown by the authorities and technology firms, in order that we may have truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news !!! I find this statement as alarming as any of the many alarming statements that have come out recently. I'm sure our Duckie would love it. If that is to come about, we have but a short window of opportunity to insist that the potential of the internet to facilitate freedom of thought is not stifled.

Meanwhile, we have the said Duckie confusing the issue even more, even as he calls the mainline news providers liars. No doubt there's truth in that, but is it the way he means it? It seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, if ever there was one. Yet he is capable of coming up with the odd little flash of truth, as in the well-known exchange on Fox News:-

O’Reilly: “He’s a killer, though…Putin’s a killer.”

Trump: “We got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

There is indeed need to drain the swamp, but it is very hard to believe that this Duckie is the man to do it. Meanwhile the USA appears to be about to sink further into it. The present situation actually makes Europe look like a bastion of sanity. How very sad, for anyone like me who is fond of England, that they should choose such a moment to go taking the wrong way! Looking at things strategically, who in their right mind would want their country to turn in the American direction, rather than the European, at this particular moment in history? Can anyone possibly get it into those thick Tory heads that it might be wise to put off invoking that famous article 50 at least for another while? Could they not cite 'circumstances of exceptional peril' or something like that? After all, things have moved on since the famous referendum!

And what can we do? Pace our Luke, who was making snotty noises about 'cyber-warriors' the other day, I think it is useful to engage on the internet. The Russians certainly seem to think so, because even this little blog suddenly had a score of hits out of the blue from them, when I said something about their president. Very likely only mechanical hits, but it still goes to show the extent of their engagement!

Meanwhile, perhaps the best we can do is to get rid of censorship in our own minds, as we keep quietly and courageously striving to get a handle on what's happening in the world around us. At least we won't be bored, as we try to build up our little communities of truth and solidarity!

Here is some food for thought, courtesy of Fergal whom we met at Faro and who suggested a few good 'alternative' news sites:-

Meanwhile some of the Gannet's distant relatives are
preparing for Spring in VRSA!

http://patriotsquestion911.com/
http://www.tomdispatch.com
https://consortiumnews.com/
http://truthdig.com/
http://theintercept.com/
http://spartacus-educational.com/

*http://www.physics911.net/
**http://www.opednews.com   

***http://spartacus-educational.com/USAjohnsonLB.htm

Eh Duckie, Hang On!

Stormy weather in Horseshoe Bay.

The Donald...Duck...Dux...Il Duce...Duckie (pronounced with a long u, the way I used to be addressed as a young lad on the buses in Nottingham!):- Fiona and I are still trying to decide what to call the new incumbent of the White House. After all it’s presidentially infradig to use the name blazoned on the baseball caps, carpet slippers and just about everything else in Trumpland! We seem to be settling for Duckie. 'America first, quack quack!'

He certainly is proving a Godsend to the newspapers that he purports to despise; never a dull moment so far! And he certainly has a knack of putting everyone on the spot! Here am I, a conservative liberal rebel just back from ‘metrosexual’ London, having I hope adequately spelled out my opposition to Brexit, nationalism, isolationism, chauvinism, narcissism etc, but who nonetheless has to admit that this Duckie fellow does have just a few points going for him that the liberals cannot get.

It’s undeniable that his cavalier attitude to facts and his vanity are appalling, and these are bound to result in incoherent and dangerous policies. However there he is with whatever it takes to throw political correctness to the winds, and with it some of what might be termed the foundational lies of the post-truth age. I refer to old chestnuts like calling the deliberate destruction of a human life a ‘right’, or a relationship of two persons of the same sex a ‘marriage’.

Likewise I realise better than most that the Brexiteers are challenging the European establishment to face up to many issues that they seem to have thought they could safely ignore. I have witnessed the systematic destruction of the hopes of Irish fishing communities, for instance, which occurred primarily on the watch of the Common Fisheries Policy, although the national government was not shaping to do any better before it. Looking through the American prism helps us to see that this is just one little piece in the failure of neo-liberal market capitalism, which has left too many people out of the technological wonderland that it promotes. The whole creaking system of bureaucracy meanwhile gobbles up public money more for its own survival, it sometimes seems, than for whatever good it may or may not do.

While I can sympathise with the Brexiteers and Trumpites thus far, I completely disagree that we will solve these problems by going back to nationalism, that has failed so catastrophically in the past. Anyway, I cannot get away from the suspicion that their so-called ideals are more of a cover for the shady corporate interests that tend to dominate the modern world than anything else, while the national governments tend to be more accessible to graft than the EU. I recall brown envelopes for politicians being even a help in securing fishing licences! Also, contrary to the impression generated in sections of the British press, it is obvious that there are all sorts of efficiencies to be gained by combining the work of 28 separate governments.

I may have spent my life trying to find an effective alternative to neo-liberal market capitalism, but I do not claim to have one. However, I have some firm convictions as to how to set about developing one, while I'm quite certain Trumpites and Brexiteers will not do so, with their dreadful divisive ‘cowboys and indians’ approach, their 'might is right' attitude and the everlasting glamorisation of wealth.

One good place to start along the path to a real alternative is with the recognition that we are all, I mean the entire human race, in this together, and the reckless pursuit of our own interests or supreme prioritising of our own security will be counter-productive. There is no real way forward but by listening to ‘the other’, in humility; by striving for consensus, being ‘slow to claim one’s rights’, endlessly patient. A reverence for truth and physical reality will go a long way to help as well, and steering clear of bogus notions like ‘the will of the people’.

Western democracy only became possible when mankind began to admit that the only will capable of uniting human beings in freedom and integrity is that of God.  While we Christians pray that this will of God be done on earth, we also know this to be a work in process beyond any secular set-up. But surely one does not need to be a Christian to realise that life is infinitely more grand, complex, interesting, mysterious and exciting than any human ideology or set-up can do justice to!  

Democracy allows people to have their own wills and respond in their own way, and when anyone who disagrees with the current dispensation are told that they are ‘traitors’, well then we should have learnt by now that we are being short-changed and on the road to tyranny. The institutions of democracy have indeed to do their best in the circumstances of the day, making messy compromises if necessary so that vital common action may be undertaken; but meanwhile Lady Truth herself is rather more likely to be found among the poor and in those whose minds are not distorted and clouded by the pursuit or enjoyment of power! Any real democracy must learn to hear their voices, though if the wheel turns and they do come to power, well she will probably swing around to the other side!

By the way, if such considerations as these don’t

Back to work.

convince you that nobody has any business trying to close down the Brexit debate on account of that referendum, nor Mr Kenneth Clarke's eloquent words in the House of Commons, how about this:-

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2016/10/24/brexit-is-not-the-will-of-the-british-people-it-never-has-been/ ?

Thank God we decided to rear our family here in Ireland, but it’s a pity that Irish opinion has not been taken into account although we are bound to be profoundly affected by the outcome. I can only hope we will find the strength to contribute to a European Union that will hopefully become much more proactive and dynamic without the constraints imposed by the everlasting imperial nostalgia of too many of our neighbours on the bigger island.

As for the Brexiteers palling up with Duckie, all I can say is Good Luck, and I sincerely hope they will be able to put some manners on him! But unless most of what we have been taught about economics for the last fifty years is rubbish, he will provoke an economic disaster. Then it will be time to find someone to blame, and I’m not sure the Arabs or even the Chinese will altogether do for that. One has to remember that these dudes in Washington got their education from Hollywood. It is extremely disquieting and ominous that they are already lining up a dodgy narrative about Germany.* But I even heard a perfectly intelligent person in England, who voted for Brexit, blaming Germany for it. Oh...My...God!

*https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/31/trump-trade-adviser-germany-euro-us-eu-peter-navarro

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-31/euro-surges-after-trump-trade-advisor-accuses-germany-using-grossly-undervalued-currency

As Clear As Mud!

'prepared to accept hard Brexit'

So now it’s official; Mrs May wants to have her cake and eat it! One wonders what she would say if Mr May announced he was leaving her, but wanted to go on living in the family home?

What is one to make of someone saying, on one side of her mouth, “we want to trade with you as freely as possible, and work with one another to make sure we are all safer, more secure and more prosperous through continued friendship,” while on the other, “We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave”?

What does she think the nations of Europe have been doing for the last half century, if not trying to achieve the former? But now everything has to stop, huge amounts of money and effort have to be wasted, so that we can all set about reinventing the wheel, all to suit the likes of Mr Nigel Farage, UKIP, the DUP etc! And on this basis she proposes to unite Her Majesty’s fractured kingdom?

Such two-faced hypocrisy will be called out by events. It is already happening in Northern Ireland, where the tension between those who feel empowered by the nationalistic and imperialistic undertones of Brexit (such as the present DUP leadership), and those who react against them, are inflaming all the pre-existing tensions that have bedeviled the recently collapsed power-sharing executive. It is the context of the EU that made it possible at all, and it is hard to see how it can be put together again  in the present circumstances.

The main hope there must be that a sufficient number of DUP members will take a lead from their Scottish cousins, while these will forge ahead with their project for a Scotland independent of Brexitland. Roll out the Celtic Alliance on the Gannetsway!

Meanwhile the institutions of Europe will have to get a whole more 'subsidiarized' and responsive, but also a lot tougher in some respects. They might start by firing Mr Farage out of the European Parliament; I for one really object to their continuing to pay his salary, while he has the nerve to lecture the likes of me about ‘treachery’!

Of course Mrs May is anticipating that things will get nasty; we all know how divorces tend to start with good intentions for a 'civilized' relationship, before they become really bitter. She is busy painting herself in the colours of sweetness and light now so that she can blame the Europeans when they do so.

Consider the ridiculous narrative that Mr Philip Hammond was trying to spin in Germany lately. According to the Guardian, 'In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Hammond commented that if Britain was left closed off from European markets after leaving the EU, it would consider leaving behind a European-style social model, with “European-style taxation systems, European-style regulation systems” and “become something different”.

Asked to clarify his remark, the chancellor told his German interviewers: “We could be forced to change our economic model and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness. And you can be sure we will do whatever we have to do. The British people are not going to lie down and say, too bad, we’ve been wounded. We will change our model, and we will come back, and we will be competitively engaged.”'

‘If Britain was left closed off ‘...’forced’...’we’ve been wounded’... what sort of language is this? Who is doing the leaving? Who is it that wants nothing further to do with the European Union? Is this arrogance or mere confusion? But as for the bright future they purport to be lining up for the British people, it just does not stack up. It is already the case that this ‘great trading nation’ needs to do something drastic to ‘regain competitiveness’; in fact the use of the word ‘regain’ is entirely inappropriate in this context. Here is a graph from the British Government of their balance of payments….

Something drastic needs to be done; the status quo is not sustainable. What is to be done? Well, for a start, the currency has to be devalued, but how does one get away with deliberately doing that? Blame the Europeans and invoke the Dunkirk spirit of course! Then one can set about berating a fractious populace with the need for ‘national unity’ and ‘discipline’ as inflation takes hold, prices and interest rates go up, and they get screwed into the ground!

The whole outbreak of right-wing populism is a neurotic response to national decline, like the bombastic mullarkies of the new President in Washington. Mr Hammond's proposed race to the bottom in corporate tax rates is the exact opposite of what needs to happen, and this is just one reason why international solidarity is a condition for making our societies more just....

When I started the blog I never imagined it would become so political. Someone suggested the other day that I should find a new name for it. Well, that’s a nuisance, and anyway my favourite images derive from sea-faring and fishing. Oh yes, I'll be getting back to the Common Fisheries Policy, its iniquitous failings and how they should be addressed. But for now, let's remember that to return to a regime of 'might is right' and 'the survival of the fittest', such as this new wave of nationalists imply, is not going to help!

Still travelling, by Paddington...

and the Galtee mountains in sunny Ireland!

Photos by Fiona.

Wanted - Slaves!

Sark from Herm.

Now I am on the train from Portsmouth to London, having arrived there from Guernsey on the overnight ferry. The weather has been very pleasant, especially so for the day we went to Herm on a RIB. From there we had a grand view across the Great Russell to Sark, France and Jersey, noting the odd fact that the strong tidal current was circulating anti-clockwise right around Herm at the time. (I am finishing this post overlooking the Thames at Battersea.)

With Cristiona in Battersea.

My friend who owned the RIB was very knowledgeable about Sark, so I was able to update myself on the intriguing saga** of how the  Barclay brothers, the so patriotic owners of the Daily Telegraph, have been trying to turn the island into a personal fiefdom cum tax haven, with direct access to London by turbo-charged helicopter (which do 200mph, so could reach London in about one hour). They built their own vast mansion on the even smaller neighbouring island of Brecqhou, then set about buying out or bullying the residents of Sark into submission, complete with involvement from the highly dodgy Abramovitch family. It seems however that their scheme has rather foundered on their inability to establish a viable customs set-up, so they could have direct access to London. It’s not good enough apparently to have to go via Guernsey. Such a yarn has the makings of a good novel, but being true we shall have to wait a while yet to see how it will end!

The off-shore finance industry in Guernsey seems to have been winding down, with some of the prominent banks pulling out altogether. The grossly inflated property market has stagnated, with very little being sold on the open market. I heard of one poor man who had to sell his house for 8million quid, though he had valued it at 14million. I also met a lady whose husband has absconded to Mexico.

There seems to be a backbone of resourceful islanders who are finding ways of taking up the slack, though they face a very serious problem in the shortage of labour. Madeirans and Latvians have particularly big contingents in the service industries, whose jobs the locals tend to disdain even when they themselves are not highly stoked with education and the internet. However ‘the States’, which is the local term for the Guernsey Government, have been making life more and more difficult for immigrant workers, besides which accommodation is indeed very scarce. In theory EU citizens are entitled to go there, but they have to get permission to occupy property on the local (affordable) market, which may well be limited to a period of 9 months.*

It puts one in mind of the state to which Britain is heading and the USA has maybe already arrived, with a huge underclass who have no security and precious few rights; probably to be chucked out pretty quickly before they acquire pension rights or access to the Health Service. No doubt that is the kind of society favoured by Mr Farage and his South African backer Mr Banks, for it is the clear implication of much of the substance of the Brexit movement, pace Mrs May’s ‘mission to make Britain a country that works for everyone’ etc.

I watch the Daily Telegraph’s propaganda on behalf of Brexit day by day with grim amusement. They may well be right that there are short-term economic advantages to Brexit, for all I know; and of course, in such an uncertain world, ‘short-termism’ is the order of the day. But those on both sides of the debate make the mistake of talking simply in economic terms. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto ye’ does not come into it. The question is, what kind of a society do we really want? Something along the lines the Barclay brothers might favour perhaps?

One thing is for sure, unless Britain succeeds in stopping the world and getting off, immigrants will be needed. I consider it a privilege to have people into one’s country to work, willing to come and give the best years of their lives, with all the cost of rearing and educating them expended by their native country - a particular advantage frankly when they are fellow Europeans.

Also, this country will be hugely dependent on all kinds of imports, and if a society is to be in any way holistic and just, trade will simply be the economic dimension of a much broader and deeper cultural interchange. To imagine that it can truly thrive on some mythical ‘global’ relationships, without firstly getting on with the neighbours, makes no sense.

Esme on an old German gun.

By all means, let’s go on for the global cooperation; if only as much effort was being put into addressing the big challenges out there as is being put into Brexit! But trying to steal a march on our neighbours, hoping to take advantage of certain dubious historical advantages, is not the way to do it; a much better approach involves burying the British Empire for good.

How do you react to that statement? I expect that your answer will tell which side of the Brexit debate you are on; there’s no call to go on arguing about dodgy economic projections!

*a friend of mine on Guernsey writes on this: 'the average service worker is not allowed to live in the local market unless they get a license; these are only granted to finance, medical, education and other deemed essential jobs. Retail or service industry jobs do not qualify as a general rule. Most foreign service workers have to find accommodation on the open market, usually a room (rent approx £1200 -£1400 per month) Housing dept has to approve where they live before a 'right to work' document is issued. Decent open market rooms at an affordable price are even more difficult to find since the complexity of the rules has changed, to the extent that some of the staff in Housing misinterpret them. It depends who you see on the day!'

**see http://gannetswaysailing.blogspot.co.uk/2015_12_01_archive.html)

Leaving St Peter Port.

That 'Bold New Role'.

Here I am on St Stephen’s (Boxing) Day in the county of Flintsire, Wales, just over the border from England, having at last detached Mother Claus from her responsibilities. We have spent Christmas at the home of one of her brothers, Anthony, and with two of our daughters.... It is interesting to be (nearly) back in England for Christmas.

Crossing the Irish Sea for Christmas.

I see that the Prime Minister of this United Kingdom issued a Christmas message in which she said ‘As we leave the European Union we must seize an historic opportunity to forge a bold new role for ourselves in the world and to unite our country as we move forward into the future.’ Unfortunately, as is her way, she gave no indication of what the ‘bold new role’ might actually be, or on what basis she proposes to ‘unite our country’.

One knows that ‘divide and conquer’ is the Devil’s maxim; divided loyalties are very painful and cause all sorts of difficulties. I wonder if Mrs May spares a thought for all those, such as myself, who though profoundly affected by the Brexit affair, were not accorded a vote in the famous referendum? Ireland has at last been settling into a modus vivendi that has enabled the reconciliation of both Irish and British identities and interests. The EU is an essential pillar of it.

For one thing, given the facts of history, and not merely remote history at that, it is impossible for Irish people, at least those of the culturally Catholic majority, to finally trust the British Government to put justice and truth ahead of what it perceives as their national interest. Alright, it is impossible to be confident that any state will do so. That there exists an ultimate legal authority above any one nation state is a source of comfort to many people like myself, and to many cultural minorities throughout Europe.

So here I am, while accepting that the referendum showed up severe problems that need to be addressed, in no way impressed with its result when it actually comes to charting the way ahead. Anyway, the notion that it should do so is alien to the British constitution and tradition, which allow for government by a Sovereign whose authority is vested in Parliament. The people exercise their democratic rights by electing representatives to that Parliament, on the basis that these will act on the basis of the principles which they professed when they stood for election, in accordance with their own consciences.

This Mrs May is not doing. Instead she is off on trip that neither she nor anyone else has actually laid out in the six months since the referendum. Will this ‘bold new role’ be a matter, perhaps, of being President Trump’s stooge, in the manner of Mr Nigel Farage? Will it be a matter of playing the court jester, in the manner of the Foreign Secretary who has been described by the Prime Minister as ‘not representing the views of the British Government’! Will it be a field day for racists and nationalists, who wish all those bloody foreigners would go to Hell? Or rather a field day for the billionaires who have financed the said racists, leaving them at liberty to make yet more billions free of all those financial, social and environmental constraints that the beastly Europeans have been frustrating them with?

Besides Mr Trump, this situation is no doubt a source of glee to that other president, Mr Putin. He has realised exceptionally good returns on the few millions which he has invested in far right parties, in terms of confusing, dividing and ultimately impoverishing Western Europe.

The only good that may come of it all, as far as I can see, is that when contemplating the real alternatives, Europe will realise how precious and important are her faltering steps to move beyond nationalism, and develop political institutions capable of addressing the profound and critical challenges of the 21st century. These challenges must be addressed by the nations working together, or they will not be addressed at all, to not just the most serious detriment, but very possibly the extinction also, of most life on Earth.

Clare coast by Luke.

Happy New Year to you all!

Gasping for Truth.

Fiona and I landed back to a beautiful spell of weather on Sherkin; sunshine worthy of Guadianaland, apart from the fact that the sun only achieves about half the height here, and half the heat! It really feels like being on the roof of the world! Unfortunately Fiona promptly came down with a chest infection, and is having to get by on my somewhat inadequate ministrations (they got worse as I went down, but fortunately Fiona was coming round and able to take up the slack).

Meanwhile I see that Pope Francis has been addressing the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, including Stephen Hawking, in some very strong terms, couched though they are in diplomatic language. Decrying the way countries are still “distracted” or delayed in applying international agreements on the environment, he said ‘“It has now become essential to create, with your cooperation, a normative system that includes inviolable limits and ensures the protection of ecosystems, before the new forms of power deriving from the techno-economic model cause irreversible harm not only to the environment, but also to our societies, to democracy, to justice and freedom.”

I wonder who he could have in mind? What could these ‘new forms of power’ possibly be? One might have thought that the Popes have seen it all, but I suppose that the internet and social media have added a whole new twist to populism. But that stuff we’re suddenly hearing again is all too familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of history, concerning ‘Traitors’, ‘Enemies of the People’, ‘The Will of the People’ and the Bright Future that is anything but apparent, but which nonetheless is there for them if only their will, as embodied by the speaker, prevails against the sinister army of liberals, experts, elites, and intellectuals!

I see that old hypocrite Mr Boris Johnson is busy trying to throw people off the scent, accusing the likes of me of “bad motives, with too many people too quick to draw comparisons (of Brexit) with populist movements across the world.” I have a single question for him: would he be where he is today but for Mr Farage and the years of scurrilous campaigning against the EU by the popular press? And who might be your aIly across the Channel? If the cap fits, Boris old boy, you may as well wear it. At least Mr Trump wears his!

Mr Johnson chunters on about how Britain will be a ‘global player and champion of free trade’.   As Will Blake pointed out, the General Good was ever the cry of the hypocrite; there can be no such thing as completely ‘free’ trade; and the only people who might profit by it anyway are the global elite of the super rich, no doubt to be ably championed by Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, do such people not realise that the only way through the world’s desperate and multi-layered, interconnected crises is much deeper and authentic collaboration? One must start with particulars, with one’s neighbours, and respecting what has gone before. The only thing in favour of such horrible distractions as Brexit is that in the end they raise consciousness; but time is not on our side.

I’ll be off to Blighty soon enough, and no doubt will soon find myself rebuked by some for failing to ‘respect the democratic will’.  I’ve been dismissed as both a liberal and a fascist in  my time, and best of all as an ‘idealist’. I like that epithet actually, and it’s quite hard to figure out how it becomes a term of abuse; presumably it is assumed that one is not prepared to be ‘realistic’. But how one sets about being ‘realistic’ when everything said by anyone who might remotely have some claim to know what they are talking about has been ipso facto dismissed as an ‘expert’.

If democracy is to work, it must obviously operate on the basis of informed and rational debate, with reference to those who do know something at least of what they are talking about. This involves listening with respect to them, as well as to all stake-holders, to everyone who will be affected by a decision. It is plain undemocratic to assume that a simple majority in a single vote can overturn decades of patient work by democrats, sitting down together as equals and  struggling away to achieve consensus.

Anyway I for one was not consulted about this Brexit lark, yet with the rest of Irish people I will be severely impacted by it, along with all those folk such as the Poles whom Mrs May likes to refer to as ‘our European partners’. There are any amount of rational reasons why Brexit is a bad idea, but what does one do when rational discourse and the give-and-take of compromise breaks down? One is touching on territory where democracy and indeed civilisation itself break down.

They cannot survive if there is no respect for truth. Sure, people will lie; but if a politician gets caught out telling a whopper, can we allow him to merely shrug it off? What does one do with someone who simply says whatever sounds good at the time, without any sense that he needs to be consistent, or indeed that there is such a thing as truth?

I blame the liberals just as much as the populists. How often have we heard them say that there is no such thing as ‘the truth’, only ‘your truth and my truth’? What do they expect to happen, if for instance they think they can suddenly decide to redefine the most fundamental of human institutions, in defiance of physical fact and the view of umpteen generations past?

It was my privilege to spend many many hours listening to the endless chat of Donegal fishermen, and I can tell you they could chat. Everything was discussed in minute detail, from how much fish Jimmy Padraig caught yesterday and where, and ditto this time last year, and how much he was paid for it, to what was going on between Biddie and Sean, to whether Donegal would be better off in ‘the North’ or whether there was life after death….  Running through it all was the leitmotiv, true or false? That was where the fun was, the drama, and they relished it!

Lies were ok, perhaps an inevitable part of life, but still lies. ‘Tell ‘em plenty of lies’ was my old neighbour’s advice when it came to dealing with officialdom. Testing a person’s credulity with lies was great sport. But what was generally not in doubt was the importance of truth and the necessity of struggling to distinguish it from lies.

The sea is a wonderful school of truth, which unfortunately is more than can be said of modern education. The sense of truth goes out the window when there is no viable principle of cohesion, and education with all knowledge is compartmentalised and over-specialised. ‘The falcon cannot hear the falconer’

This indeed is where ‘experts’ can let us down. One is educated to suck up one’s subject like a sponge, with no attempt to integrate it with one’s conscience, with one’s own personal consciousness, at its extreme of absurdity when one swots up literature in order to write four essays in a three-hour exam. Not alone does this sort of thing not foster the ‘sense of truth’, but it actively subverts it. That’s how an elite education produces the likes of Mr Boris Johnson.                            

It is not surprising that, after seeing so many ideals reduced to dust and ashes in the last century, people gave up on the very notion of ideals. Indeed these inevitably fall far short of ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’, as embodied by Jesus; but after all, he asks us to become ‘perfect’; a high ideal indeed, hardly to be achieved in this life; we are now witnessing however that there is quite simply no future at all for mankind if we give up on the attempt! Yet the notion of being 'a good pagan' has indeed fallen apart.

In the face of what had happened, it was hard for the post-war generation to go preaching the ideals of European Civilisation as they attempted to pick up the pieces. Now a full generation has passed with politicians mainly working on the basis of ‘enlightened self-interest’ and ‘realism’. The end of that road has now been reached.

We will have to revisit the ideals of European Civilisation, or forget it. But after all, the Roman Empire, lurking in the background, crucified Christ; yet it also enabled the spreading of the good news of his resurrection. The blood of the Apostles Peter and Paul, along with that of all the martyrs, soaking into the soil of Rome, made of it the seed-bed of the Church.

So also with the imperial phase of Europe. It became the seed-bed of the modern world, so help us God. For all its faults, this continued that work of Rome; it also developed the technology that all the world has adopted, and in the main produced the very terms with which they address life’s conundrums. Where else, we may ask, will the world find the leadership it so desperately requires?

So sorry Boris, we need team players, not people going off on solo runs. There can be little doubt that a stronger and better European Union is in the interests of the whole world, while a return to competing nationalisms is badly regressive and fraught with danger. Terrible as the cataclysm was that propelled Europe beyond nationalism, it might be even worse if we fall back into it today. Now the rest of Europe needs Great Britain in, apart from any other reason, frankly as a counterweight to Germany. I don’t think that even the Germans themselves relish the prospect of finding themselves in the role of hegemon.

I’m on my way to Blighty next month, I only wish I could tell ‘em! I’m hoping the New Year will see a real heave to put a stop to the madness; mind you, Mr Farage is right in one respect; it will involve a recasting of the political order  there…. If the heave is to succeed, it will call for a great deal of effort, and everyone should see what they can do!

In the noon-tide of our strength, the presence of the Lord is only a heap of cloud. It is important to try to stay with it; otherwise one might miss the flame that shines out at night-fall. A spot of sickness serves to remind one of this fact. Our sanity depends on it….