A Real Christmas Message

 After the less-than-charitable Christmas message from the prime minister, I am happy to follow it with a more positive Christmas message from an old friend, the Rev. John Faraday, seen on the left in the photo below.

I am very grateful to Geoff for asking me to do a Christmas Message. Sadly when he didn’t receive my message he replaced me. Even worse, he replaced me by Boris Johnson! Actually, the mix-up is all my fault because Geoff asked me for my message a month or two back and it completely slipped my almost geriatric memory until I saw the replacement! I hope that Geoff will accept my late, late message.

Before I say more, perhaps I ought to give you some idea about who I am. I have known Geoff since about 1966. Our paths crossed at various times after that, like when I was 27 years old and newly married. Geoff was selling what (at the time) I regarded as extreme literature on Southport’s Chapel Street Station. When police appeared to shift Geoff & co I stayed with them for a few minutes, appalled that this could happen in our ‘free’ country. My political views were then right of centre, so I didn’t support Geoff through political persuasion!

I was then and still am an Evangelical Christian and since 1983 have been an Anglican clergyperson. Some will be surprised to hear that I also joined the Labour Party in appreciation of Jeremy Corbin’s direction. It seemed to me that his aim was simply to make the country work better for everyone, especially those who are worst off. (Though I do not agree with some of his ideas).

My time in the ministry in the Church, almost forty years, have convinced me that many people at the ‘bottom of the heap’ have no way of getting out. The holes they end up in seem to get bigger as they try to claw their way out. For me it was a privilege to spend a lot of my time in the poorer areas where I served with the people with the worst problems. Often the ‘professionals’ who worked with them from local or national government treated them as just ‘cases’, and forgot about them at 5pm.

The clergy lived amongst them! Our doors were opened at any time of the day or night. I met drunkards, swindlers and murderers. In those areas I also met many of the most genuine, honest people I have ever met.

Over the years many people have asked me questions such as ‘Why do it?’ ‘Wouldn’t you be better off using your abilities elsewhere?’ People have made statements like ‘We make our own destiny. The people in a mess get what they deserve!’

This is where the ‘Christmas’ side of the message starts!

God has an amazing love for people. Proud people, liars, cruel people, robbers, psychopaths, rapists, murders and Conservatives! He even loves you and me! Nobody gets everything right however hard we try, so when I meet a person, whatever their background I am never able to say ‘You are too bad for me to deal with!’ I am just one sinner talking to another!

When the Son of God came to Earth He didn’t wait for people to be good enough for Him. (Just as well! He would still be waiting). He came to experience our world, and He didn’t take the easy way. The ultra-conservative majority scorned His family situation. When he was about two years old His family had to flee from the bitterness of Herod the Great and went as refugees to Egypt. (They say that early experiences have a telling effect throughout life).

He was God’s Son on Earth, yet He was prepared to accept the worst that the world could throw at Him, as far as being crucified. Even on the cross He prayed that God would forgive His torturers.

Jesus rose again! He showed that human death does not have the last word! If someone trusts Him it should never be as if we say ‘I am good enough!’. On the contrary, we say ‘I am a sinner, & I’m sorry’. That is when God begins to change us. I never claim to be better than another person. (It is only a matter of degree- nobody is ‘good enough’.) It is us saying ‘I want to be more like Jesus.’ He is the only one who never failed!

So why is Christmas special to Christians? There are several reasons but I will just concentrate on one. At Jesus’ birth and in the months after we are told of two main groups of visitors, shepherds and wise men.

Shepherds were tough men who would fight a wild animal rather than risk the life of a sheep. They would have to do their share of night shifts and battling against fierce storms, and probably were not too well paid for their pains.

The wise men were unlikely to be kings(!) but they would have been rich worldly-wise travellers and traders.

When Jesus was born both were invited to meet Him. Both went out of their way to see Jesus and both benefitted from the experience.

I am convinced that God’s love for people today is as great as it has ever been. He doesn’t promise to make life easy (as so many sufferers from Coronavirus will tell you) but He gives life and the best direction for that life.

He came to the world in a first-century stable. He wants to work in you and me today. Who will let Him?

My best wishes for a joyful and meaningful Christmas (even though it will be very different to the usual).

John Faraday.

The Blogmeister writes: Thank you very much, John, for an uplifting message for Christmas, so unlike that of our dear old PM. Retrospective thanks for standing with us in my SWP days. I think it must have marked the beginning of a change in your own views. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

The Rhymes and Routes Christmas Message, 2020

 

The Rhymes and Routes Christmas Message for 2020 comes from The Rt Hon Boris Johnson, M.P. for Uxbridge and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Cripes! The things I get asked to do as Prime Minister! Don’t get me wrong, I love this job, as I am eminently suited for it. An Eton education is never wasted. But I am gagging with anger at writing Christmas platitudes on this stupid blog which is staffed by two geriatric Bolshies. Still, my old mate, Dom, with whom I still speak when my present other half isn’t around, says it’s always a good idea to brass it out with the Left, so here I am.

Well, I don’t have an oven ready Christmas spiel, but I think I can safely say that this has been a trying year, especially for me. No sooner did this bally silly Covid disease arrive in the UK that I caught the damn thing. I received excellent care and am especially grateful to two nurses, one of whom is Portuguese. I like him so much that I hope he stays in Britain. If he ever gets deported, or forced out, I’ll come and wave him goodbye. I must try to remember his name.

Christmas, as we know, is a time for families to get together and celebrate. I am a true family man, and, as everyone knows, I have at least three families to take care of. I consider myself very lucky to have a young fiancé and new sprog here with me in Downing Street and don’t intend to start any more families. But - you never know! As the song says: “I was born under a wandering star…” and, at Christmas time, it’s always a pleasure to pull a cracker! Ha! Ha! Still, as long as my better half keeps off my f(word deleted by Blogmeister)g laptop, all will be well.

One of my sternest critics, and occasional contributor to this blog, is a belligerent bolshie called RedNev, who persists in dragging up rumours and half-truths about me and my past. In the spirit of Christmas, I wish him well and enjoin him to get his facts right. The Garden Bridge project cost £52 million, not 53.

As for the cantankerous Blogmeister, he seems to have nothing good to say when it comes to Brexit, which I got done! I say to him: just look at the present situation regarding Europe. Could anyone else have created such a state of affairs? Christmas is a time for peace and forgiveness, and the IOG* of a Blogmeister should seek to be reconciled with Nigel Farage, Anne Widdecombe, Claire Fox, me, and all the other Brexiteers that he has attacked on this blog. Has he never read The Bible?

To conclude: I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a very Happy Christmas and a Joyful New Year. 2020 has been a trying year for me, and I intend to keep trying in 2021.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Boris the P.M. – as some people call me.

*IOG – Irritable Old Git

Blogmeister replies: Thank you for your message, Prime Minister. I am sure that I speak for millions when I say that no-one but you could have created the present mess resulting from Brexit. You are correct in that. As for peace and forgiveness towards the individuals mentioned – how do your previous wives, mistresses and colleagues feel about being reconciled to you? No reconciliation from them and none from me towards any Brexiteer, especially the ones you’ve mentioned. And as for reading The Bible – what’s your take on the Seventh Commandment?

Another Note of the Same Refrain

 

I am sad to return to this topic so close to Christmas. I have written about it many times before, knowing that it would be a recurring theme, and indeed it has been. Twice this year, I have written on the topic of murderous attacks on innocent members of the public by mental health patients. In February, I wrote of the attempted murder of a French child by Jonty Bravery at the Tate Modern, followed in March by the horrific murder of 7-year old Emily Jones in Bolton by the paranoid schizophrenic, Eltiona Skana. In both cases, the perpetrators were known to be dangerous, yet, for one reason or another, they were out on the streets. 

The same applies to the case featured today. On August 24, 2019, 69-year-old Allan Isichei, a Jazz musician and former Rugby Union player for the Wasps, was on his way home from his local pub in Southall, West London. 30 metres from home, he had the misfortune to encounter 36-year-old Gurjeet Lall, who, like so many similar killers was (and is!) a paranoid schizophrenic. CCTV shows some kind of verbal exchange after which Lall stabbed Allan Isichei several times. Mr Isichei died in the ambulance taking him to hospital.

Five days ago, Gurjeet Lall was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Like so many killers of this type that I have written about, the verdict remains the same. Etiona Skana, Jonty Bravery, Robert Ashman, etc, all received similar verdicts. What such reports do not include is the unspoken caveat to the verdict: subject to response to treatment. All such offenders become eligible for release if they are judged to no longer be a danger to the public. Robert Ashman, for instance, was released eight years after attacking the then LibDem MP, Nigel Jones (now Lord Jones) and killing Jones' assistant in 2000. There is nothing to stop Gurjeet Lall being released after a period of treatment. He will be sentenced next Monday, but, whatever the length of the sentence, it will be subject to future revision.

The BBC says:

"At the trial at Inner Crown Court in October, jurors heard the killer had been arrested for possession of a knife in 2014 and 2019.Lall told the court he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but could not remember the last time he took his medication."

This is yet another familiar refrain. Nicola Edgington , the first such killer (i.e. another schizophrenic) I wrote about, murdered her mother in 2005 and was released "conditionally" in 2009. In 2011, having failed to admit herself to a secure unit, she murdered  Sally Hodkin on he street in Bexleyheath. In her defence, non-taking of drugs was one of her explanations/excuses.

Allan Isichei's family have asked, rightly:

"Why was a person with a history of carrying knives who was only arrested while carrying one in January 2019 allowed to be back out on the streets unsupervised to carry out this senseless killing?"

Daniel Isichei expressed the view of many relatives who have fallen victim to murderous mental health patients:

"The absolute lack of remorse and denial by the killer, combined with obvious mistakes made by authorities in not having him under some form of supervision licence has all added to our grief."

The Isichei family are calling for a public inquiry into this case. I wish them luck with that, as does, hopefully, every reader of this blog. But, judging by the reactions of the authorities to previous such murders, we will be told that "lessons have been learned", staff "have been spoken to" and there is nothing to stop similar murders from happening in the future.

Boris, Blunders and Battles Over Fish

 It's becoming difficult to say anything new about Boris Johnson. He is such a shambles of a prime minister, with such a lurid past, that his constant blunders attract adverse comment on a daily basis. The Daily Mirror has published a list of 25 such misdemeanours that  he has committed in the past year. As we hurtle towards a no-deal Brexit, we face the appalling prospect of the Royal Navy being deployed to defend our fishing grounds from French ships. Only a lunatic or a blimp could welcome that prospect. As Tobias Ellwood, Tory chair of the defence select committee, has said in The Guardian:

"...he (Ellwood) was concerned that the navy would be overstretched at a time when Russian submarines were increasingly operating around the UK. “Our adversaries will be smiling as the biggest European militaries spar against each other over fish.”

Mention of Russian submarines is very apt here, but we will come to that. For now, though, readers might like to know what Boris has put out on his Facebook page. It came as a surprise to learn that he had such a page; even more of a surprise that it accepted public comment. If you wish to read it, or pass comment, click on the link. Reading his latest post, you are left wondering if Boris knows what planet he inhabits. He says:

"We said we'd get Brexit done. We did, leaving the EU on 31st January this year. Whatever happens in trade talks with the EU, our new trading relationship will be in place from January 1st ... to build back better and stronger ... this Conservative government will double-down on the pledges we made to the people, the pledges we were elected on, to build a better country for everyone."

The Mirror comments here:

"The Prime Minister might yet get a Brexit trade deal with the EU at the last moment... the 11th-hour wrangling is hardly the image he projected when he pledged an “oven-ready” Brexit deal last year".

No surprise there, but there might be something else happening that is not drawing much attention. The "something else" relates to the owners of the submarines that Tobias Ellwood is so concerned about - the Russian government. By happy coincidence, the anti-Fascist magazine, "Searchlight", has just put out its latest edition, in which we find a section called "Russia Traffic" which exposes links between the present government and Russia. I already had some idea of these links, but this report reveals more. The author, Searchlight editor, Gerry Gable, says:

"Johnson will find it difficult to set aside the overwhelming evidence of Russian influence that presents a dangerous challenge to our democracy"

We learn that Boris himself is named after a Russian émigré that his parents knew. He has received support from several  Russian oligarchs friendly with Putin. These include Alexander Temerko, Alexander Lebedev and his son, Evgeny, who owns The Independent and Evening Standard. When Johnson was Mayor of London, he was planning to hold secret talks with some unsavoury Russian figures in Moscow and Switzerland.

Among other individuals with Russian links named in the article is none other than Carrie Symonds, Johnson's fiancé. Two of her former boyfriends, Oliver Haiste (a man with far-Right connections)and Harry Cole have well-documented links with Moscow. All very cosy, of course. Johnson is on record as telling the Mayor of Moscow in 2008 that he has "many happy memories of Moscow". It looks like he is not alone in this. There are others named in the article, which makes it worth reading.

The article goes on to say that the official government response to the "Russia Report", published in July, is very evasive about Russian influence on the government itself. It is also noteworthy that Boris made strenuous efforts to appoint Chris (Failing) Grayling as head of the Intelligence and Security Committee, but failed. One wonders if Johnson was expecting Grayling to keep the report secret - "in the public interest", of course.

If President Putin is happy to see two NATO countries at odds, he could not have better placed agents to help him achieve it.

Spot the turkey...