Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, So, the UK Chancellor and his friend Liz Truss appear to have  decided   between them that the notion of One Nation politics is void. It almost looks as though London is to be regarded as a separate state and that the rest of the UK is there just to be enslaved and to pay taxes. Though the government is paying out large sums of money to help people through the Energy Crisis, the money to be borrowed to pay for that will be recouped from the taxes of the same public. Meanwhile, the major energy companies have made huge surplus profits and management and shareholders are left to enjoy it all. The Chancellor and the PM also seem to be deciding that the Environment and Climate Change are secondary issues having removed major restrictions on fracking and town and country planning. So, we face a future of inland wind farms and endless brown sites, already made worse by the proliferation of buildings alongside motorways over the last 25 years. And what of the future? What does ou

Dear Reader, The new King has arrived, but how will he influence the country over the next years of his reign? The nature of the King will remain intact, I am sure,  but what will carry over is the influence of both his parents, who both greatly encouraged his interest in the countryside and the arts in general. Prince Philip was deeply involved with various activities to do with conservation and wildlife, viz. his presentation on BBC in 1960 on that very subject, and taking up the presidency of the World Wildlife Fund. As I was more than 4 years old when Prince Charles was born, I rather feel as though I grew up with him, and followed his development in the press. One of the things that were revealed about him was his offbeat sense of humour, possessing a great liking for the Goon Show that used to be on the radio 70 years ago. The radio was marvellous in many respects, particularly when it came to the  kind of  humour found in the Goon Show, and music. I very much shared his love of

Dear Reader, In his book, The Republic , Plato argues that kings should become philosophers or that, alternatively, philosophers should become kings, or philosopher kings. This should be so as they would possess a special and necessary level of knowledge with which to rule successfully. Well, dear reader, the new King is a " philosopher king"! And he has declared himself to be a defender of the faiths - meaning all religions in the UK.  Those who have studied or lived amongst the world's religions know that there is a common purpose of peace that is central to them all. It is only highly non-peaceful extremists that make them seem to be otherwise. However, though this praiseworthy commitment is surely welcome, the sadness is that this King does not have any role except a constitutional function. His main influence on government is in his weekly meetings with the Prime Minister, or in the Privy Council. He can only suggest and make known his thoughts in those non-publicise