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I am a writer, blogger, political activist and infant reformer.

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The world is in a bit of a quandary over the American elections. I said earlier this year that Brexit and a Trump victory in the US will be better for the world if they happen, and I stand by this. Just a few thoughts however from an Englishman who has been through Brexit.

I in no way condone Trump’s past behaviour or attitude to women, his outrageous statements on various groups Iike Mexicans, or his intemperate remarks on a range of issues. There are all sorts of reasons why people would not want to vote for him, and these are just some of them, just as there are many reasons why people will not vote for Hilary Clinton. The highest level of character and integrity are what you look for in a national leader, yet here we have two candidates with serious flaws, they do not measure up to want you want to see in a national leader. Many people will not vote for them because they refuse to give their vote to people they see as morally or spiritually bankrupt. That is their right, although I believe the stakes are so high that those people should still vote, including the significant bloc of evangelical Christians some of whom particularly disapprove of both candidates. You could say that Trump and Clinton are a symptom of the state of the nation rather than a cause. American society has produced two such candidates and they are merely a reflection of what America now represents. Just as in the U.K. we say we get the government we deserve.

l still say that there is a bigger picture at work, things will be difficult for America with either Trump or Clinton, but Trump I believe is the lesser of two evils. Again I see Trump as a Cyrus figure, a wrecking ball or bulldozer meant to smash the establishment and expose corruption, including the powerful hold of political correctness on the American authorities and especially the Democratic party. At least he stands for some conservative values, control of borders, slashing tax rates to encourage business, protection of the American Constitution and a realistic attitude to militant Islam. On the other hand Hilary Clinton is a hard left candidate who represents open borders, a hemispheric common market, continuance of the entitlement mentality, destruction of the Constitution and a dangerous appeasement towards militant Islam, as well as social transformation with the further pushing of dangerous agendas like partial-birth abortion and the transgender movement. Then we have the email debacle, the evidence of corruption in the Clinton foundation which has taken money from regimes like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In essence Hilary represents a party that is totally on board with the agenda that is speeding the destruction of western civilisation and destroying anything left of our Judeo Christian heritage.

Supreme Court nominations is another issue. Presidents get to nominate new Supreme Court justices and once they are in they are in for life. Hilary Clinton will ensure hard left candidates for those roles. At least Trump is more likely to appoint conservative judges. Presidents only get eight years maximum, Supreme Court justices are there for life unless they choose to retire or resign. This means they have the ability to remake massively the social and political landscape of America over the long term that a president would never achieve. If Clinton wins, expect judicial activism and a liberal totalitarian social agenda on a grand scale.

Trump has already referred to this as a Brexit election and to some extent he is right. The same forces are at work to a degree. People are fed up with the downgrading of any cultural or historical sense of nationhood, they are tired of the mass migration that is fast changing the nature of our societies, and they are very wary of the policy of allowing so many Moslems to migrate to the west. If Trump gets in, just as with Brexit, it is a sign of the revival of the nation state which has been so inaccurately caricatured in recent decades. People want their own country with a sense of pride in its nature and traditions, and there is nothing wrong with that. They don’t want a globalist agenda imposed upon them. It was inevitable that a pushback would take place, a sign that there is still some backbone left in the west.

One characteristic that defines Trump whatever you say about him is that he has courage. Courage is perhaps the most essential and the most rare commodity in western society today, courage to speak the truth without fear or favour. Too many in the west have been intimidated by a spirit of fear, which stops them from saying what they think. We need leaders who will tell it like it is, before it is too late. Unfortunately too many leaders fit the mould of what is an ‘acceptable’ politician these days. Trump has broken that mould.

The other thing that could be in Trump’s favour is that if he gets a good team around him this will mitigate some of the potential disasters that people anticipate. It won’t be a one man band. Cool heads planted around him can provide a healthy siphon for any excess. The outlook is positive on this front as you see men like Mike Pence, his running mate, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, trusted generals, some decent conservative leaders around him. Trump can’t do it on his own, a strong team around him will bring stability. He would be wise to recruit those who can get the job done.

Also don’t believe the polls! We have learnt this in the UK both with last year’s General Election and this year’s Brexit vote. Both results were unexpected and leave some faith in democracy against those who argue that elections are rigged. I was up all night at the Brexit vote witnessing the vote count and it is heartening to see the order and level of professionalism displayed in running the count, although it was an area of the country not likely to see much voter fraud! Whether you hold your nose and vote for him or you are a die hard Trump supporter, I still predict that he will win. The alternative in my opinion is frightening, it could spell the end of America as we know it. Just look at this video to sum up Trump’s role as a wrecking ball:

 

 

Brexit!

Well it’s happened! The good ship HMS United Kingdom has loosed her moorings and is now departing the EU quay. Those thick heavy ropes that tied her to Europe are unraveling. There are some that say this will be reversed, that the EU will clutch the UK back into her bosom through the chicanery and Machiavellian tactics of both its own fanatical globalists and sympathetic remainers in the British government.

There are some worrying ‘delays’ and roadblocks being put in place. May is saying that article 50 will not be actioned this year. There have been reports from Europe that we could keep access to the Single Market but at the price of continued free movement of labour. A campaign in the Lords wants to make the country think again. But I just don’t think this will happen now. I really don’t believe the so called ‘New World Order’ has that much power. There will be 17.5 million people to answer to at the next election if Brexit is ‘fudged.’ The momentum is with the leavers, who have been disgracefully smeared as racists and xenophobes by some of the media and sadly by ordinary Brits who voted the other way. A workmate of mine was verbally abused by a fellow worker over their leave stance, although I am pleased to hear there was an emphatic apology. I must say it was a delight to hear people like Keith Vaz and David Lammy summing up this as a ‘disaster’ when in my view it’s the best thing to have happened to Blighty since the end of the Second World War.

The significance of this result should not be underestimated because those that voted out faced the full force of propaganda, bullying and manipulation the establishment could muster. Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of them. The whole government machine threw the kitchen sink at the voters, notably spending £9m on government leaflets posted to every house in the country extolling the arguments for remaining in the EU. Then we had Obama come over the pond to offer his advice that we would go to the back of the queue for a trade deal if we left the EU. I daresay a lot of Brits gave him a classic Anglo Saxon rebuttal when they heard this pontificating about how they should vote. Then we had the banking establishment led by venerable institutions such as the Bank of England and Goldman Sachs informing us of the dangers to the economy a Brexit would pose, followed by various world leaders such as Angela Merkel, and assorted businessmen like Richard Branson telling us what to do. Then there was the catwalk of celebrities that informed us of the ‘folly’ of exit, Jamie Oliver, Gary Lineker, and people like the comedian Eddie Izzard whose appearance on Question Time before the referendum might have convinced any waverer that staying in the EU might not be such a good idea. Even David Beckham was dragged into it, coming out as an enthusiastic remainer along the lines of its better being together. A lot of these people showed a woeful lack of knowledge or discernment on exactly what the EU represents, or at least that they serve the God of mammon. I have to salute the British public who after all the massive bullying fell back on good old fashioned common sense and voted for self government. I daresay that the vote to leave would have been bigger if that horrendous and wicked murder of Jo Cox, female Labour MP had not happened. Also, I suspect a significant number voted to stay through fear, and may be glad later that they lost the vote when and if Brexit proves to be the right move.

And there’s the rub. One report in the Sunday Times made it quite clear that the number one reason for voting out was sovereignty and recovery of democratic accountability to the British voter. Those who oppose the leavers must really extract from the narrative this poisonous idea that such people are racists and xenophobes. This is an insult to millions of decent and principled people who are deeply concerned about what is happening to their country, and it is their country, and they have the right to claim it as their own just as any other people anywhere in the world do. It does not belong to the world and his wife, and any country worth its salt should be able to reserve a high bar to entry, otherwise you devalue the very idea of nationhood. And that vision includes unequivocally those who have come here from overseas and made it their home, happy to accept its values and mores.

This was the main issue for me. Do you or do you not want to be ruled by an external authority? There is only one answer if you want a self governing Britain. And my conviction is not based on consuming endless Daily Express and Daily Mail articles for breakfast but by a long standing study and consideration of our relationship with the EU. I have even read ‘This Blessed Plot’ by Hugo Young, the very bible of the history of UK/EU integration, which traces in long and tortuous detail our developing ties with the continent, and exposes the deceit at the heart of this relationship played on the British people, the idea that there would be no essential loss of sovereignty and that it was no more than an economic deal. He says in the book that there was sufficient covering up of the full truth such that anyone who wanted to ‘make hay’ later would be able to and with full justification. And so it has happened with the rise of Nigel Farage and UKIP who have forced the government’s hand. In a nutshell it can be argued that Edward Heath and his acolytes and successors committed treason by subsuming UK law to EU or European law in the first place and he should not have been able to get away with it.

One might be forgiven for thinking that the hand of Providence intervened in this affair. David Cameron was surprised that he got a majority in the last Parliament. It was totally unexpected by the pollsters. He bought off the threat of UKIP who were holding his feet to the fire by offering a referendum on in or out. How many people voted for him with this in mind? I for one had had enough and went with UKIP. One or two commentators have linked all this to Cameron’s modernising campaign, notably same sex marriage, which drove goodness knows how many exasperated Tories into the bosom of UKIP. So we are where we are, and Nigel Farage is to be saluted by the nation, because his drive and energy and the rise of UKIP has had a lot to do with this incredible victory. They have put the pressure on and won the great prize, and what a prize, regained independence and sovereignty for the people of the U.K. This is a time for great rejoicing.

I argue that you have to see the big picture which extends way beyond our short term interests in the UK. At the beginning of this year the world been out of alignment, spinning on its axis but not in true fashion, wobbly and dangerously lopsided. There is a massive struggle between nationhood and patriotism on the one hand, and globalism on the other. This is the first great event that will help to steer the world back into some sort of alignment again, as perhaps people are seeing that the globalist agenda, like the Emperor, has no clothes. It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump can curry the same favour with voters in the US that Brexit has whipped up in the UK. And let me say now that I do not see Trump as that much better than Hilary. But Hilary will continue to push the globalist agenda whilst Trump is much less likely to do so. Meanwhile, already a number of European countries are demanding their own referendum, countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France and even Germany. America has seen all this. Will she go for the same result?

This whole episode demonstrates that you cannot thwart the will of the people indefinitely. Sooner or later something will snap. I predict a love of country and revival of patriotism across the globe as peoples react to the relentless push for impersonal globalisation with its worship of money and big business, emasculation of national parliaments, erosion of democracy and unfettered and uncontrolled mass migration that poses a major threat to national cultures and social cohesion. Brexit is a healthy reality check that is proving an encouragement to the world to rediscover the importance of national identity. Well done Britain for leading the way, a fitting source for global change given her historical role as a bulwark against tyranny. She has not quite lost her soul, and may yet surprise us in the future.

Trump and Brexit

There are two events this year that could have an enormous effect on the future of the world. One is the presidential election in the USA and the other is the Brexit vote in the UK. If Donald Trump is elected president of the USA and the U.K. votes to leave the European Union this will be an enormous setback for the elite money men, socialist political leaders, corporatist interests, global companies that know no borders, in fact everything that epitomises the internationalist, globalist agenda, the virtual Tower of Babel that finds its ultimate manifestation in the superstate under construction that is the EU. All those who represent the New World Order and world government will get a kick in the teeth and have to move back in the queue just as the Brits will have to do of course if they leave the EU and try and form a trade deal with the USA! As Lord Obama said of course.

This is why so many people are up in arms about the Donald, as he is stirring up a hornets nest, attacking the forces of political correctness like a bulldozer. Nothing epitomises this direct challenge to the evil power known as ‘political correctness’ than Trump’s proposal to ban all Moslems from entering the USA ‘until we know what’s going on.’ Moslems are at the top of the food chain of the far left’s ‘victim’ groups. Trump has faced Islam down head on.

Trump might be seen as like a ‘Cyrus’ in the Biblical sense, raised up by the Almighty to destroy the spirit of control that is now spreading all over the western world like a lethal virus, causing decent people to hesitate about speaking common sense. In the Old Testament Cyrus was a heathen King who was used by God to decree the return of the exiled Jews to Israel. Trump likewise is poised to give a poke in the eye to all those who think they have the world locked into a one way trajectory. Yes he may not be to every conservatives taste, he may flip flop on a number of issues, he may even be seen as an immoral man, but he is not afraid to confront issues that need to be dealt with, and he is the only politician of a major western country that is prepared to say things about Islam that need to be said.

Meanwhile nothing would give the enemies of the U.K. more joy than to lock her irreversibly into a superstate which would shackle her potential ingenuity and creativity for ever. The land of Magna Carta, the mother of parliaments and the greatest empire the world has ever known finally tamed and neutered. Believe you me the influential ‘remainers’ as they are called in the UK are desperate to keep the UK submitted to the European project. If Britain leaves however, I believe it could be a wonderful release which can enable Britain to enjoy much greater freedom of movement.

Sadly, the U.K. doesn’t have leaders with a clear eye at this time, only the First and Second Lords of the Treasury, who some would say are acting like snake oil salesmen, Cameron and Osborne, who come with an ever more ludicrous narrative to try and bully the British people to stay in the corrupt and totalitarian EU. The referendum campaign in Britain demonstrates the stranglehold the BBC, the media and the establishment have on controlling the agenda. One of the saddest things about the campaign is the emphasis by the remainers on the importance of the economy. They have managed to get a profound debate on an issue close to the hearts of many concerning liberty and democracy down to the level of pounds, shillings and pence, when pecuniary interest should be the last issue in the debate.

However a UK set free from the straightjacket of Europe and able to make more of her own decisions would be a potential force for good in the world. There is enormous scope for developing the relationship with the Commonwealth which would have more natural allegiance to the monarchy and British traditions than could ever be drummed up from our European partners. The U.K. would be able to break free from all the tentacles of the EU octopus that have inveigled themselves into the UK body politic and to set a course which suits herself. Trade would be established with new markets unburdened by EU regulation, and last but not least the UK could help to free other nations also shackled by Brussels. A Brexit could initiate a domino effect that could reverberate through the whole EU.

So these two events give a great chance to the two great old champions of the free world, now much diminished, to make a bid for freedom. If the American people, thoroughly fed up with the political class go for Trump, and the British people show a little courage to break free from the powerful manipulative spirit of the EU, there may be more for the world to rejoice about at the end of the year than there was at the beginning. We can only live in hope.

 

The Dragon needs to be slain!

“National sovereignty is the root cause of the most crying evils of our times… The only final remedy for this supreme and catastrophic evil of our time is a federal union of the peoples…”

Words on the wall in the EU Parliament’s Visitors Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

The upcoming Brexit referendum is of historic importance, not only for the UK in its relationship with the EU but of the impact of this referendum result on the whole world. I contend strongly that a free sovereign UK again will be a positive result for the world. Britain’s continuing membership will help to perpetuate and worsen the present sorry state of affairs.

To understand the nature of the beast we are dealing with just look at the quote at the beginning of this article. Unless you understand the DNA of the EU you will keep falling for the deception. For the EU is possibly the biggest deception or delusion this country has ever faced. The only thing that will stop us from being consumed by the EU is a casting aside of apathy and a little willingness to look at the bigger picture, and that includes taking a historical perspective.

The level of lies, deception and delusion surrounding the EU is enormous. There is always a spirit in Europe that rises up to try to take control of the continent. It has had various guises through the ages and can use any form of government or strategy to effect that control. You only have to look at the history of Europe to realise this. The Roman Empire was an early example when the legions of Rome got to Hadrian’s Wall but interestingly no further. Military power was the driving force. Then during the Middle Ages the controlling spirit worked through a political and religious hierarchy notably represented by the Roman Catholic Church. Later on we had Napoleon trying to conquer Europe through military power but taking a step too far by trying to take on Russia.

The most obvious recent manifestation were the Nazis. Again, a controlling spirit trying to take Europe by terror, Jew hatred and military power. The very same spirit just morphed into something different after the war, but this time it’s a little bit more subtle, using ‘peaceful’ methods to get its way, using words like ‘federalism,’ ‘pooling of sovereignty,’ ‘subsidiarity,’ ‘qualified majority voting,’ ‘progressive,’ ‘anti discrimination’ and ‘equality’ to get its way.

The EU is like a totalitarian monster trying to disguise itself in a velvet cloak, but it’s unceasing activity is to destroy the nation state. You can be absolutely sure that it aims to do this to what is left of the U.K. despite our history. Go to Brussels, to the very centre of the project, and read the words from the beginning of this article that quotes a British civil servant, Philip Kerr, later known as Lord Lothian, who loved federalism and internationalism and thought the nation state was the cause of all the world’s problems. This demonstrates the core DNA of the EU and needs to be exposed for all the world to see.

Also unless you can see you are dealing with a bully who will make ridiculous threats you will not get far. European Commission chief Jean Claude Juncke has actually just said there is no plan B, that ‘the UK will stay in the EU as a constructive and active member of the Union.’ Right now the UK needs a statesman of the highest calibre with great farsightedness, someone with the prophetic insight of Churchill, but we haven’t got that type of person in a Prime ministerial role. Every politician that enters Westminster is in danger of coming under the same spirit of control that emanates from Brussels, because this nation has opened a gateway to that spirit when we entered the Common Market. Thank God for UKIP who have provided a safety valve for dissent and indeed the chance of a referendum.

The EU has been trying to operate as one superstate for years. The single market is an example of that. We hear about being excluded from the single market if we leave the EU, but that shouldn’t surprise us. Any sovereign country has a single market with no trade barriers. In the UK there is a single market if you like, although we are compromised by Europe. So goods and services are freely traded across county and regional boundaries, between England, Wales and Scotland every day, without any tariff barriers. That’s what happens when you have one country. If we left the EU we would leave the single market and have to arrange a trade deal with the EU. That’s ok, it’s what any other country outside the EU does if they want to trade with Europe. Sure there may be tariffs or taxes involved at some point working both ways, but that’s what happens between sovereign nations. It certainly wouldn’t be in the interests of either side to set unnecessarily high trade barriers.

Another example is not being allowed to discriminate against workers from across the EU in terms of employment and benefits in favour of your own nationals. Of course that will happen because the EU is trying to build one country where you cannot discriminate in favour of your own people, for we are all EU citizens with EU passports.

Then we have child benefits for migrant families. We send child benefit payments ‘abroad’ for migrant families. The latest deal proposes that payments are indexed to individual countries’ costs off living so that a Polish family is not getting the same number of pounds as a Bulgarian family who are probably getting a ‘kings ransom’ at present rates given the low cost of living in Bulgaria. Again the EU is trying to act like a single state where payments are just sent home to wherever home is in ‘Europa.’

What have they offered us? Not very much at all. When dealing with a bully you have to go in hard and face them down head on, confronting them with a list of demands as long as your arm including taking back control of our fishing industry, industrial policy, energy policy and full control of our borders, and clipping the wings of the European Court of Justice to overrule Britain in any way. David has managed to secure a deal on migrants, to disallow in work benefits for in work migrants for up to four years, an emergency brake, but then this is subject to the agreement of the European Parliament and agreement of other governments to activate the brake. Exactly how many migrants is this going to stop from entering the UK, especially if they come from much poorer countries and are coming essentially to earn a living? A mere cosmetic exercise, especially as the Living Wage is coming on stream soon.

In view of all this David Cameron is a bit like a puppy sitting at the foot of the table of his master eagerly awaiting a few crumbs from the table. Quite insulting to him and the British people. Unfortunately Cameron is another gatekeeper for the European project, utterly under the thumb of the big bully of Brussels. You could also argue he is like a magician trying to perform a trick with smoke and mirrors. It has always been a dream of mine for a UK Prime Minister to stand up in Parliament and tell the EU to get lost. I will have to wait a little longer. But perhaps in the meantime the British people will make that unnecessary by rising up in courage and voting ‘out.’ Let us hope so!

The gutting and filleting of the UK

If you do not understand that the level of deception, delusion, lying, dissimulation and level of craftiness is probably at an all time high in the world today, you should not be in a position of national leadership if you want your nation and culture to survive. Otherwise you will be swept along with the tide like everyone else. But perhaps on the other hand we get the leaders we deserve.

The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public life has been in the headlines recently. This august body has just announced its recommendations for the place of Christianity in our nation, basically a serious downgrade since we are now a multicultural society that needs to go worship at the altar of ‘all religions and lifestyles are equal.’ Is this the last gasp of the politically correct ‘fun monster’ that has been consuming all in its path for the last few decades before a possible miraculous renaissance of our nation, or is it that same monster determined to crush under its steam roller any last vestiges of robust tradition left in these islands?

The document suffers from the normal typically English desire not to offend anyone and to be nice to everyone. It talks of ‘faith communities’ and everyone learning more about everyone else’s faith, more dialogue between the religious and non religious, more understanding between the media and the religious, and so on. There are some reasonable points made to be fair to the report. It does say that there should be more education about religion in the media, which is fair enough. There is a need for more understanding between different groups in society. In fact this applies for politicians as well who perhaps thought the age of religion was over and we were ushering in the age of ‘reason. How wrong could you be? Politicians are perhaps the most important group of people who should develop their education on religion. It is their lack of discernment on this issue that has helped to bring us to our present peril. Likewise the report pushes the line that interfaith dialogue should be developed especially between abrahamic and dharmic faiths, which of course has its place, bearing in mind however the potential for dangerous compromise of one’s own beliefs.

Don’t you ever wonder sometimes that all the wrong people are in positions of power and influence and all the right people are down in the valley of the shadow of the humdrum just getting on with their lives and bemoaning the delusions that afflict some of the ruling classes in the western world. Would that we could swop the roles of some of these people at the wave of a wand to begin to stop the rot.

And just who are these people on the Commission? Well we have the ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, a nice enough guy but more suited to the rarefied atmosphere of academia than a scrap with the fascist ‘liberals’ and politically correct apparatchiks that infest the west like rats in a sinking ship. One of his most enlightened moments as Archbishop was to ponder the possibility as I understand it of the prospect of aspects of sharia law being grafted into the UK legal system, a bit like taking a nest of cobras to your bosom but who am I to disagree with such an eminent intellect?

Then we have Baroness Butler-Sloss who was recently taken off an inquiry into sexual abuse of minors in Britain as she was deemed to be potentially compromised i.e. her brother was the Attorney General at the time of some of the abuse. She is a church going Anglican we are told. Followed by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Islamic apologist who was in charge of the MCB (Moslem Council of Britain) when they boycotted the Holocaust Memorial Day. Anyone with any sort of robust Christian faith could be forgiven for not having the greatest confidence in their findings.

What is on the Commission’s Christmas/New Year list 2015/16? What are some of the gifts they are giving us in this season of good cheer? We can’t pick up on all their findings but firstly they propose that the next coronation which will presumably be of Prince Charles bar a miracle, take account of the ‘plurality’ of our nation, yes it’ll be a multi-faith one of course (nothing new there), treating all religions as equal therefore having your token imams, Hindu priests, Sikh holy men and perhaps one or two non conformists. And how about a couple of Jedi knights, and a satanist or two present at the multi-faith jamboree to make it really ‘diverse?’

Clifford Longley wrote a book years ago about the English constitutional settlement, that we have a coronation, not a constitution, where the new monarch promises to rule his/her people according to the precepts of the Holy Bible, invoking the relationship between the Old Testament priest, Zadok, God’s representative, and the children of Israel. A mere anachronism some might say in these days of godlessness. However, it has a history, and is at the heart of our government. It also gives England a claim to a unique exceptionalism little understood by most of the Queen’s subjects. I mean how many other countries in the world have a governmental system where the monarch pledges allegiance to the God of the Bible?

You either scrap it completely, or do the whole show, for Christianity is totally incompatible with any other religion because they have such fundamental differences. Anything else will be based on deception and will be a willing partner of the drive to build a flaky one world religion not based on truth but an unholy mishmash of different religions, that will just about suit the globalist agenda. In that regard it might be worth watching the present Pope, who seems to be building his social justice credentials rather than just preaching the uncompromising Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Their eminences and associated commission members don’t appear to believe in anything in particular apart from a mishmash of different faiths and non faiths, so why not scrap the whole thing? If you believe that Christianity provides the bedrock for our society and has done for hundreds of years then you will know that it is utterly and completely incompatible with Islam for a start, and would have issues with any other religion that claims any competitive position. The right stance as the Daily Telegraph said in quite a good article some years ago is to affirm Christianity as the historic religion of this country under which all other religions have an umbrella of protection, very wise and timely advice. But don’t legitimise all other religions in the eyes of the law which directly contradict Christianity. Why do you think so many people have come here from abroad in the past? They presumably didn’t have a problem with Britain being a ‘Christian country.’

How about this one, let’s have some representatives of other religions and worldviews in the House of Lords? ‘Who the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.’ How about some eminent imams? Let’s see, I wonder how many of those imams believe in their heart of hearts, although they would not say it on BBC Newsnight being interviewed by Evan Davies, that they have an agenda to turn the UK into an Islamic state with fully fledged sharia law, that all male apostates from Islam should be killed, that the whole world is a mosque and it is the duty of said imams to make sure every last one of us submits? Hmm, don’t think that will go down too well with the audience.

Third on the list of presents is ‘Let’s water down the distinctiveness of faith schools’ as they are ‘socially divisive and exclusive.’ So most religious school don’t need to select on grounds of religion anymore in their admissions and employment practices. Also in general the requirement to have an act of collective worship or religious observance should be repealed, let’s go for those inclusive assemblies and times for reflection! Surely their eminences know that education was started by churches in this country, and then the state took up the mantle of education for all. Shock horror, I thought Christianity was a medieval cult, you mean they actually encouraged education of young people!

Again ideology trumps reality. Faith schools, particularly Christian schools of a Roman Catholic or Anglican bent as they are the vast majority, tend to get some of the best results and reputations, and parents are desperate to get their brood into them. I wonder why? They are by no means perfect, but what school is? Christian schools still have an ethos that parents like, whether or not they are committed Christians. But Butler-Sloss, Williams and Sacranie are prepared to sacrifice them on the altar of multiculturalism, making an offering to the God of deception and delusion who has waved his wicked magic wand over the whole of the western world. Whatever replaces those schools will still have another set of values based on an ‘ity’ or ‘ism,’ and I suspect it won’t be superior to the Christian ethos.

I’d say it’s time to sacrifice the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life on the altar of common sense and historical perspective. However that will need an astounding recovery of nerve. In effect there is a profound crisis of confidence in the UK in its historic role and identity, particularly an uncomfortable relationship with its ‘anachronistic’ Christian past. There is such a powerful deception at work now that states that all religions should have equal standing and should thus be be treated equally, therefore you can’t treat Christianity as the gold standard anymore because that would be ‘unfair.’ The buzzwords of this delusion are ‘faith communities,’ ‘equality,’ ‘anti discrimination,’ ‘human rights’ and ‘diversity.’ The only answer to this situation is a wholesale rediscovery of the Christian faith which could bring renewal and revival to society just as it has in the past, potentially bringing life and resurrection to every sphere.

Tax credits survive – for now!

Well George has now decided to scrap all the tax credit changes. because they’ve discovered some £27 billion leeway in the public finances! All those hard working families will be breathing a sigh of relief. But the death knell for tax credits is still on the horizon as Universal Credit will come in to replace the old benefit system as it takes the place of six different benefits.

What is it with tax credits? You take money away from people in the form of tax and give it back to them in the form of tax credits. Why not tax people less in the first place and then they have more money to spend as they wish. Wouldn’t that be more cost effective? Where exactly did tax credits come from?

As I understand it tax credits were awarded by Gordon Brown as a top up for people on low incomes who were working. The current system came into operation in 2003. In fact the Conservatives also paid Family Credit before that so the principle was already established. Family Credit was brought in through the Social Security Act of 1986 for low paid workers with children Call me simple but the way I understood it tax was taken out of your gross income to fund public services, pensions, unemployment benefit and suchlike, the rest you kept for yourself as disposable income to do with as you wanted. Never would it have been countenanced that in effect the government would dream up another benefit and call it tax credit.

On Question Time a few weeks ago this whole matter was highlighted by a very agitated single parent from the audience having a go at the government for reducing tax credits and lowering her standard of living. What a lesson for any government, it is very difficult to take benefits away from people once you have given something out, even to more prosperous older people who have been given bus passes, heating allowances and so on and so forth. Many will say they have paid into the system for their whole life so it is entirely fair to benefit from it. Tax credits were given by the government in the first place, now if another government takes them away it is seen as ‘taking money from the working poor.’

However what is the logic of the government subsidising the wages paid by employers? Gordon Brown himself admits that the biggest problem is not worklessness but low pay. This fosters dependency on the government not only on the part of employees but also on the part of companies who now know they can get away with paying lower wages as it will just be topped up by the government. Quite a useful helping hand if you are facing strong national or international competition.So you and me as the taxpayer are subsidising both workers and companies.

Presumably it will benefit some firms more than others who employ more low paid workers. What would happen to those firms if the government subsidy was withdrawn, which it will be? They would be forced to perhaps lay off workers or pay people more money to retain staff. If they can’t afford to operate without government subsidies they have to cut their costs, increase their revenue or go to the wall? If they did pay more money they could feel justified in upgrading the skills of those workers, increasing their productivity and helping to keep their costs down. On the other hand as we are talking about low paid workers perhaps they would carry on trying to get away with paying lower wages.

The direction of travel is right, I’ll give that to the Conservatives. Tax credits must be one of the worst ways to help poorer people. It shows the extreme difficulty of awarding a benefit with shaky foundations, then trying to remove it.

One can understand the House of Lords asking the government to think again, especially when it has more of a Labour/Liberal Democrat bias, but even a Conservative House of Lords should be compassionate towards the poor. Osborne faced a Tory backbench rebellion, so the ‘heartless tories’ tag was a mite unfair. To be fair to people those on tax credit could stay on the same amount as a new system is tapered in. All the government has to do is to stop paying any more tax credit to new recipients after a certain date. Universal Credit is taking its place as a replacement for six benefits.
An elderly Conservative that I used to campaign with used to talk about Brown’s Britain, a culture in general of state dependency was fostered in order to cement a client state where everyone would vote for the Labour party in perpetuity because they would always reward the hand that feeds them. In other words an utterly corrupt system where the government gives people other people’s money, and then borrows of course to make up any deficit. If one was cynical one would say that this was part of the aim of tax credits.

Tax credits seem to symptomise the general malaise that has afflicted the British welfare state. It is almost as if the deliberate aim of government has been to get as many people as possible on benefits of one sort or another, even if you are in work. A Guardian article of 2013, admittedly a little dated, said 64% of all families were receiving some sort of benefit. There was an article in the Guardian recently where it refers to Osborne announcing in his first budget that ‘working tax credits and child tax credits would be cut for middle class families.’

The whole idea of tax credits makes the UK tax system unnecessarily and fiendishly complicated. An article written in 2012 by Craig Kennedy for Inner Reid Investments Limited was entitled ‘Taxing Child Benefit – another layer to the world’s most complicated tax system.’ Trolleys tax guide, the Bible of tax, had reached 11,520 pages, twice as many as in the 1997 edition, due to Gordon Brown ‘on speed’ changing of the system. What happened to the good old fashioned idea of us all paying tax and contributing to a system that would support us when we’re genuinely in need?

Getting people at low earnings levels out of tax is a great idea to make work worthwhile, so tax allowances are a sensible idea which could be expanded, getting rid of tax credits is a further sensible direction to go to fit with that scenario. And of course there are increases to the national minimum wage with the national living wage being introduced from the 1st April 2016. George Osborne is even thinking of cutting housing benefit to save the necessary money. Hopefully Universal Credit will provide a fairer and more straightforward overall framework. Whatever he does it will be ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A long term strategy has to be to encourage equality of opportunity, a positive stance that gives poorer or disadvantaged people the chances to help themselves up by their own bootstraps, but it sure is a difficult task

Viktor Orban – a hero for our time

The political class in Europe and their acolytes are now an extreme danger to their own people. The papers are full of it. Under Angela Merkel Germany has agreed to take in 800,000 migrants this year. This is a country I have grown quite fond of having visited it over the last few years. Yet I feel that they are building their own funeral pyre.

In the present migrant crisis that is facing Europe you have to be hard headed and realistic, and ask some very pertinent questions. Yes there are genuine refugees who are entitled to help, such as Syrian Christians who are being wiped out by jihadists, but to treat all migrants making their way to Europe as such would be unbelievably naive. That is why it is wise to step back from some of the hype over this issue, especially when 400,000, plus people sign a UK petition to help migrants.

I find it highly disturbing the behaviour of some of the migrants pouring into Europe. One would expect genuine refugees to have a somewhat docile demeanour and to cooperate fully with the authorities in whose country they find themselves, rather unsure of the largesse they might enjoy from their hosts. However we have had stories of migrants refusing to disembark off a ferry from Germany to Denmark unless they are allowed to go on to Sweden, throwing away provision such as water given to them, and failing to cooperate with the lawful authority in the territory they find themselves in. A Head of a UNHCR camp called Syrian refugees ‘the most difficult refugees I’ve ever seen.’ Refugees in Italy were throwing rocks at police whilst demanding free wifi. It reminds me of the attitude of some of the migrants in Calais trying to illegally enter the UK. You say they are desperate. Hmm… Desperation is no excuse for lawlessness. If so called refugees are willing to behave like that in a supposedly desperate situation, what regard will they have for the law when they come to your country?

Viktor Orban, president of Hungary speaks the truth amongst European leaders and makes the rest of Europe’s leaders look like political pygmies. He has stated the foolishness of opening European borders to the mass migration that is now taking place across Europe from the Middle East and Africa, especially the Moslem immigration. He points out that Europe is historically at least a Christian continent, although now it is busy attacking its own Christian values, and that letting Moslems in who do not integrate and may have an agenda is deeply unwise. I suggest there is a connection between Europe losing its spiritual soul and the mass immigration of Moslems of recent years. Any leader worth his salt needs one quality amongst many, and that is discernment. You always and every time have to protect your own people, so what possesses European leaders to let in so many from a totally alien culture and civilisation within the European borders?

Victor is showing qualities which are sadly lacking in European politics. Not least the quality of courage. He is prepared to say what so many politicians in Europe are not prepared to say because they do not wish to offend. Political correctness is rooted in fear. But that is not showing leadership. Viktor is demonstrating leadership by telling the truth, that Islam is incompatible with western values and will only bring trouble and strife to western lands, just as it already has. In doing so he is putting himself in the firing line against the forces arrayed against him that have built an iron stronghold of multiculturalism and political correctness in Europe. They will no doubt try to bully him into backtracking but he must stick to his guns.

Also, Viktor probably has a pretty good sense of history. In the year 1000 King Stephen 1 founded the State of Hungary as a Catholic country. Hundreds of years later in 1526 the Turkish army defeated the Hungarian royal army at Mohacs, and the country split into three parts in about 1541. It was 150 years before the Hungarians reunited and drove out the Turks. The Turkish baths in Budapest are a legacy of this period. Countries have long memories. Eastern Europe faced the hordes of the Ottoman Empire in their history and know far more about the Islamic mentality than most armchair critics in the west who have never witnessed the iron grip of militant Islam when it gains control of your territory. They have had to fight for their survival and now see the Islamic enclaves that have been established in so many western cities where there is just a failure to integrate, and they have witnessed the growth of jihad in the west aided and abetted by clueless western politicians. They do not want the same problems.

No doubt Viktor is aware that amongst the migrant hordes trying to enter Western Europe are highly dangerous jihadists who have had specific instructions from ISIS to cause murder and mayhem in Europe. And they will lie according to the Islamic doctrine of takiyya and claim to be refugees of course, taking naive westerners who think everyone else in the world thinks like they do for fools. And so the western reporter believes them when they say they are refugees from Syria. Some may be, but all of them? A great cover to dupe trusting westerners, especially. when you can easily get a fake Syrian passport.

There is one big question here that has not been satisfactorily answered. Why on earth are the other Moslem nations neither helping nor expected to help to look after their own for the Islamic ummah? Rich Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Surely they should be looking after their own brethren rather than letting them flow to Europe. Won’t they be happier in an Islamic country rather than coming to traditionally Christian lands? Well maybe, just maybe they are committing Hijrah, Islamic migration to establish a bridgehead for the burgeoning caliphate. Surely not? Far too much of a conspiracy theory! And then you have western nations loath to take Christian refugees from nations where they are being wiped out by Islamic jihad. They now put anti discrimination legislation before doing what is right.

Of course there is another possible explanation for this, and that is that pompous and arrogant elites that are trying to build a new world order are engineering this migration as it is in their interests. This may even be beyond the dangers of islamisation that those such as Geert Wilders foresee. These so called elites are directing the politically correct left who rule in Europe. They know that it will destroy what is left of European Christian civilisation, and of course it is Christianity they must destroy to bring In their socialist/communist world utopia. The EU is just a building block. It will also help usher in their phoney counterfeit world religion that will be a syncretism of different world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and state Catholicism, as they know they need a religion to help rubber stamp their ghastly vision of heaven on earth. The fulfilment of a truly wicked plan, the replacement of Judeo-Christian culture with a massive counterfeit system that will be rooted in coercion and totalitarianism.

Time for the warrior spirit to arise! You never know!

The Flying Inn – A Prophetic Tale?

This old tale by GK Chesterton was on my list of things to read and finally I managed it. It’s a story about an England where alcohol has been banned and the pub culture has died, so the working man has nowhere to drink his essential beer, whilst the rich and privileged can still get hold of the stuff, even under cover of ‘medicinal sources.’ Running through the story is the strange influence of a caricatured ‘prophet’ of Islam, Misysra Ammon, who first appears propagating his worldview on an English beach amongst other assorted speakers, but who then from time to time appears again extolling the virtues of the great Islamic religion and eastern ideas above and beyond the native traditions of ‘Christian England.’ As well as this he has a go at old English pub names which he argues are corruptions of Turkish or Arab words! He seems to have a strange hold on the more privileged classes who traditionally and historically have been fascinated with eastern religions and alien cultures. There is even a ban on the sign of the cross on ballot papers, and a new game is introduced called ‘noughts and crescents.’ The sign of the cross is of course an offence in Islam.

Into this mix a motley crew upset the apple cart by realising that through a loophole in the law, that if they have a pub sign they can sell or imbibe alcohol wherever that sign is erected, and so become the ‘Flying Inn,’ outwitting the authorities wherever they try to stamp out this ‘errant’ behaviour. And so they move from place to place in a donkey cart carrying a keg of rum and a hoop of cheese, whipping out the pub sign at all the right moments and giving solace to lovers of alcohol everywhere. The core characters in this little charade are Captain Patrick Dalroy (radical), a larger than life Irishman with a shock of red hair and a preponderance to ‘cock a snoop’ at authority, and his sidekick Humphrey Pump, the former innkeeper (‘good old English Tory’ as Charles Moore describes him). As they travel they philosophise and write songs and poetry to entertain themselves. And we mustn’t forget the accompanying dog, Quoodle! They are joined later in the story by the poet, Dorian Wimpole.

Representing the ‘elite’ is Lord Ivywood, who represents a ‘we know better than you’ attitude and an over zealousness in implementing the temperance regime. At the same time he comes over as the ‘enlightened’ individual who has left behind any simple idea of what it means to be English and taken on a more progressive persona, perhaps linked with the influence of Islam or the Turks, as they are referred to in this tale. He is determined to stamp out the tomfoolery of Dalroy and Hump and goes to parliament to quietly implement an amendment to the temperance law stating that alcohol can only be sold, with the pub sign of course, when it has been on the premises for three days. That should deal with Dalroy’s nomadic inn!

In the end Dalroy and Hump form the beginnings of a mass movement, who having seen the hypocrisy of the upper classes in supplying their own alcohol, resolve to rebel against the authorities. They end up marching to Lord Ivywood’s estate. The twist in the tale is that adjoining Ivywood’s estate is another somewhat mysterious estate where it transpires a secret military machine has been assembled, centring on the Turks and Islam. Dalroy and his cohorts of course confront them and triumph over them. And so in the end the true spirit of the Englishman shines through.

I have read the reviews which variously and predictably mention shades of racism, anti-semitism and xenophobia in the book, so predictable in the present cultural climate. This highlights just how far the thinking of the average opinion former today differs from the status quo in early twentieth century England. Mention has also been made in reviews of the place of Islam in the book, that it portends an Islamic takeover of the nation. It is difficult to believe that Chesterton at that time was writing something prophetic about what he believed would happen to England in the future, given that England was a far more homogenous culture in his day, but had he seen something in the English ruling classes, their psyche, that predisposed them towards a denial of their culture and an assimilation with other cultures?

Certainly the analogy could be taken too far, but the story of the ‘Flying Inn’ is particularly prescient today given the rise of militant Islam and the pusillanimous response of the authorities in the UK to it. The book ends with a clash between the indigenous culture and a military force that has been secretly built up over a period of time.

Chillingly, we recently hear that Islamic jihadists have been smuggling arms into this country. With regard to the recent Tunisian outrage against, sadly, many British people, the authorities have raided mosques in Tunisia, and many of them have been storing arms. Perhaps there is more to Chesterton’s tale than we give him credit for. What will it take for the so called progressive (or deceived?) British ruling classes to wake up and divine what might be happening to their country over which they should have a cherished responsibility. Unless of course it is happening by design, the ultimate wickedness.

Bring back our borders!

Looks like an outbreak of common sense has struck Germany. Yes, because of the massive influx of refugees, the police have requested that passport controls be carried out at borders just like the good old days. So Germany would become a proper country again. Poor old Germany is being forced to face reality as a borderless EU Schengen area is absolutely hopeless at dealing with the unforeseen and massive influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. You have to feel sorry for Germany with its massive landlocked border as part of the Schengen area, that area of 26 European countries that have got rid of passport and any other sort of border control on their common borders. Yes, it’s a European Union policy. As anyone can see, the Schengen area operates as one country for travel purposes. Once you enter Europe  you can melt into a vast area of about 420 million people, and have some leeway over which country you would like to settle in. Germany right now is experiencing a vast influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East which will further change the population structure of the country. The article reports that a figure of 500,000, is expected to try and enter Germany this year. Staggeringly, statistics released In early August from the German Federal Statistical Office show that one in five people living in Germany have an immigrant background. No one is saying you have to lack compassion for genuine refugees from war and strife, but there has to be a better way of dealing with the situation.

One would hope that Germany being what it is, a very big boy on the European block, that it would have some influence now on the rest of Europe over this matter. If it gets back its own passport control it can then send refugees back immediately to the country from which they entered the Schengen area. It will be far harder for migrants or refugees to just move from one country to another if every EU country restores proper border controls. Then perhaps a more realistic and effective cooperative policy can be worked on to deal with the migrant crisis.

Here is the link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193887/Bring-borders-German-police-demand-reintroduction-passport-controls-Europe-cope-influx-refugees-make-easier-send-home.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fancy more Sunday shopping?

Well it’s come back to bite us in the bottom again after surfacing in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher and undermining a little more of our Christian heritage. There was a big battle in the 1980s between the government who wanted to deregulate Sunday and such as the traditionalists of the ‘Keep Sunday Special’ pressure group campaign. Sunday trading law is in the government’s sights again, further liberalisation of course. This is against a historical background of Sunday being a day of rest in the UK, and legislation which forbade ‘worldly labour’ has been around since at least the reign of Charles the 2nd.

John Bingham reports in the Daily Telegraph that ‘an alliance of faith groups, unions and small retailers is lining up to oppose government plans for the biggest shake-up of Sunday trading in a generation, condemning it as a threat to family and community life as much as religious observance.’

Now I am a free marketeer because as far as I am concerned that is the norm. I remember seeing film of the time when the Soviet empire In Eastern Europe was falling. Immediately people were out on the streets trying to make money from selling their wares to make a dime and try and clear a profit. That’s reality and thus will it ever be. However, I do not believe that free markets should be totally unregulated, government intervention should be kept to a minimum of course, but Sunday trading is an issue where unfettered capitalism may not necessarily be the best answer. I think this is an issue where a little bit of regulation adds to the common good.

I was in Freiburg, Germany last summer and found myself in town on Sunday. Having been there a few days previously when it was buzzing to the rafters, it was a bit of a shock to see the town centre almost empty, as if everyone had gone on holiday. It was just like being transported back in time to when I was a kid in England and Sunday was for God, church, family and rest, or the last two for the heathens amongst us. Things have changed a little for us in the UK since the eighties and it’s the norm to nip to Tescos on a Sunday for our groceries. It’s still more traditional in Germany where there is a clause in the German constitution that Sunday should be a day of rest and ‘spiritual elevation,’ although some Sunday shopping has been allowed and the general trend seems to be towards more liberalisation. Interestingly in Germany shop regulation of opening hours has passed from federal to state government. However, quiet Sundays don’t seem to have affected the strength of the German economy, the fourth biggest in the world.

I must admit I think it’s a bit of a shame what’s happened to Sunday in England. In terms of business it has become much more like other days. Admittedly you don’t have the morning and evening rush hour, but you certainly have equivalent levels of traffic on the road at certain times of day. I miss that feeling of Sunday being significantly different and quieter than any other day.

Sunday as a day of rest of course has its roots in our traditional Judeo-Christian culture. Ancient Israel venerated the sabbath, there was something special about the number seven and it all goes back to what some biblical scholars refer to as the ‘first mention’ principle. In other words, where an important word is first mentioned in the bible it expresses its fullest and most complete meaning. Where is seven first mentioned in the bible? Why of course when God created the heavens and the earth in six days he decided to rest on the seventh day. If God needed a rest then surely the men and women he created did. After all, the bible teaches that we are made in His image. The Ten Commandments thundered ‘Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy’. It was the rule for ancient Israel, and in the New Testament and through church history the principle of one day in seven embedded itself in Christendom.

The Soviets were your classic God haters and tried to eliminate God from society. One person described communism as a spirit from hell that overtook Russian society in 1917. Well the bloodstained history of the communist Soviet Union certainly bares testimony to that. What did they do? They brought in the Soviet Revolutionary Calendar from 1929 to 1940. 1929 to 1939 saw the most savage persecution of religion in the whole Soviet period. The seven day week was abolished in favour of a five day week, in part an anti-religious measure, to get rid of the Christian Sunday as a day of rest. All sorts of public and voluntary organisations including the ‘League of Militant Atheists’ were encouraged in anti-religious activity, including promoting the observance of the five day working week. In 1931 a six day work week was experimented with. It is reported that the Sunday tradition proved hard to get rid of, as workers would often take Sunday off as well as the new day of rest, and who could blame them! Eventually in 1940 the old seven day week was restored. So maybe God had the last laugh in the midst of godlessness.

One day in seven has persisted pretty well to date, and even in England where the forces of mammon encroached upon the traditional Sunday in the 1980s and left us with a somewhat watered down version, it’s still a day off for the majority of people. However most people don’t worship in their local Anglican Church but find their idols in the gilded shopping malls, in crowded cafes and restaurants, on the sports field or perhaps down at the beach.

So is it right for the government to be telling the church to back Sunday shopping? It is being proposed that supermarkets could be prevented from opening longer in order to help revive Britain’s ailing high streets, to ensure that high streets remain ‘the heartbeat of our communities.’ At the moment all shops bar the smallest cannot open for more than six hours on a Sunday, but it is proposed that local government regulate their own Sunday trading law. The government calculates that ‘relaxing Sunday trading laws will lead to £14 billion worth of benefits to the economy a year and increase the amount people spend by as much as 12.5%. Ah, ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.?’ Is the government putting pound notes before health and welfare. Might there be other ways of reviving High Streets? Methinks free town centre parking’s not a bad idea for a start!

My own view on this is that it is good to have one day in seven as a day of rest. I try to a degree to keep to this, no work to do with my normal occupation on a Sunday, avoid household chores and mowing the lawn if you can! This ingrained habit serves me well as the next day is Monday when the temptation might be to make sure you are well prepared by doing all your work planning on Sunday. But once you have learnt to put work aside and that you can do in six days what you imagine you need to do in seven, the battle is won.

A society builds up its social capital by having one day when everyone within reason has the option of a specific day off from work. We are not made to work every hour that God sends but to enjoy life and spend relaxation time with our families and friends. If anything the balance in the west is too performance orientated and not enough relationship orientated. Time with those we love or appreciate is extremely important for our health and welfare, adding to David Cameron’s concern about ‘wellness’ in society. It gives opportunity for us to build and cherish family which is under great pressure these days. Making Sunday a special day also provides protection to retail workers who may be put under huge pressure to work on Sundays. This is not a minor point as the UK has a massive retail sector.

Social capital is far more important than increasing the UK GDP at all costs . A healthy happy workforce that enjoys a day each week free from the pressures of having to provide for oneself or the family will probably be more productive in the long run. Human beings are made to work, but they are also made to rest and spend quality time with their loved ones. Former Bishop of Rochester, The Rt Rev Michael Nazir Ali recognises both that work and rest are important for individuals and society, the ‘humanitarian principle.’ He is right.