tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81608592144420418522012-01-25T12:03:02.602-08:00My interest in history brought me to recognise that mankind repeats the same errors of his forebears. Man's capacity for learning how not to repeat those mistakes is not very strong unless he makes a determined effort.<br>The problem seems to me to have been 'how'<br>(along what set of rules) to make that effort.<br>The answers are there - if only we would look with desire ... and have faith ...<p> <b>"Your political viewpoint IS your spirituality demonstrated."</b> (Jim Wallis)</p>John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-79237564207525344932011-12-18T02:18:00.000-08:002011-12-18T02:35:33.825-08:00

Well, our Prime Minister has decided to done his sackcloth and has taken the opportunity of the season to chide the Church on not doing enough to promote the idea that Britain is a Christian country, and that we should return to traditional Christian values. I can see where Cameron is coming from but he's clearly not done much to understand what has been going on in this country for the last 50

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-56110824641178501762011-09-28T08:43:00.000-07:002011-09-28T08:56:58.527-07:00

The respected author Harold Pinter said (in his 2005 Nobel Prize speech): I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.The time has now come when man has no option but to re-find his

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-1042947924791999542011-08-09T04:36:00.000-07:002011-08-09T04:40:53.691-07:00

Understandably, the Prime Minister calls for law and order and promises that control over the situation will be imposed. Good. But, does this mean that the cuts that are in the process of being imposed on the police will be eased to ensure no repeat of the conflagration? Let’s ask another question. If the cuts on the police budget are eased, will there be a corresponding ease on the cuts to those

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-45571399934064098662011-02-15T00:08:00.000-08:002011-02-15T00:26:52.382-08:00

David Cameron is right! The idea of the Big Society is a brilliant one. But it's already being going on for quite a few years since before he was born!! My Uncle Percy (an ordinary working man) was one of those who not only worked a 50-hour week as standard but also put in so many hours every week in giving free help to administer charity work for those who were without shelter or in other kinds

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-44033822213752397762011-01-05T03:52:00.000-08:002011-01-05T03:55:06.538-08:00

An Obituary printed in the London Times: Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-16046175863241897812010-10-19T11:48:00.000-07:002010-10-19T11:48:04.941-07:00

The heading of this article states the obvious ... we are tied together in this irrevocable existence by just being here. It does not matter whether we live here or in Timbuktu, we are linked together; we are one. So when the country's CONDEM leadership tell us that "we're all in it together", they seem to be telling us something we don't know. Is this they just talking down to us, or are they

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-69604427788050762462010-09-05T02:05:00.000-07:002010-09-05T02:05:37.629-07:00

The good thing about Tony Blair's autobiography is that it's proceeds will go to the British Legion. But, having see him being interviewed on the BBC, I have no desire to read it. The nature of the book (as TB himself revealed) should - I suggest - turn away reasonable people from its pages. Anyone who calls himself a friend should not be describing his friend as having "zero emotional

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-18683080902235080142010-07-04T01:41:00.000-07:002010-07-04T01:41:22.825-07:00

Today I'm a bit down with a chest infection, but at least (I thought) you cannot hear my barking coughs, so I decided to continue with a small piece for this week! The latest piece of 'wonder' news from the government is that they're appointing someone special to oversee cost-cutting in the NHS. Apparently a person so special that when he was head of BP he cut their services so massively that

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-33163383244122937582010-06-27T11:58:00.000-07:002010-06-29T07:36:12.526-07:00

Last week's budget brought out condemnation from The Independent and The Times. How, they said, can you apply such a swingeing budget and expect any stimulus for growth to take hold? It's absurd, they cried, there must be stimulus for growth ... Well, if the world were to be ever-capable of sustaining never-ending growth then I would be the first to agree with the logic of those newspapers. The

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-55088275521348420122010-06-20T23:09:00.000-07:002010-06-20T23:09:47.383-07:00

Last night, at half-time in the Brazil vs Ivory Coast match (yes, I watch some of the World Cup!), I flicked over to another channel where they just happened to be talking about ecological problems in the Philippines. They happened to show an island that was so small you could see the detail of the whole island in the camera shot, and the island was covered with the multi-coloured roofs of so

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-27126845093996356032010-05-26T06:52:00.000-07:002010-05-26T06:57:25.949-07:00

I would hope so. But I am seriously wondering whether the profit motive in business, combined with the culture of 'image', isn't losing sight of the fact that people are ... well ... people, and the best ways of people management are to do with recognising that employees are just like anyone else. Including the managers. People are people and feel a need for being recognised as having value.

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-55531977542569881942010-05-25T00:55:00.000-07:002010-05-25T00:55:22.919-07:00

It is not my wish to start throwing barbed arrows at governing politicians, and certainly not for the reason that their political persuasion may be different from mine. However, having been willing to give the new young men in power the chance to prove that they might be knights in shining armour, the cracks have started to show. Having supported Labour's point of view that the economy should

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-3845706882154636262010-05-18T23:38:00.000-07:002010-05-19T10:38:10.075-07:00

About 35 years ago, a man called Ernst Schumacher wrote a book entitled the same as the title of this post. Despite his name, he had become 'English' in every sense, and had been a very successful executive in the British Coal Board decades earlier. I was fortunate to hear a talk given by him in London, just prior to his death around 1976/77. In my view, the man should be recognised as a prophet

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-21289653887444522042010-05-18T00:26:00.000-07:002010-05-18T00:27:06.198-07:00

I have been writing a lot about the UK election, and as it's a fresh issue that helps to account for it; it would probably be not right for me to sound out-of-touch with current events! But, today, let's step back a little and think of the global situation and the UK's recent events in the light of that. What's recently happened in Greece and is possibly impending in Portugal and Spain, and

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-42512455388451097512010-05-17T00:44:00.000-07:002010-05-17T06:08:41.157-07:00

Cameron has said that £6bn. must be saved from the government's expenditure this year. He says "from wastage". Well, if that is the case, all well and good ... but who is going to judge what is wastage? If it's a case of too much being spent on office luxury in the civil service, well fine - but I feel that this is typical of an old Tory trick to cut expenditures on areas where it can see no

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-21317232646874673812010-05-16T00:56:00.000-07:002010-05-16T00:56:24.768-07:00

For the past week I have been harping on about UK politics and politicians and a sense of betrayal in a section of the electorate at least. But perhaps we should look at the way out from our dubious political convictions from a different perspective. To start with, it would be probably obvious to state that a voter's political opinion is guided by his own material condition. For example, the

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-1995108479035955132010-05-15T00:50:00.000-07:002010-05-15T01:00:23.474-07:00

I should have known. The words of a politician are never to be taken at face value, as exemplified in the latest talk on "strong government". It has transpired - not too surprsingly - that the right do not trust the existing tools of democracy and want more security for their government by changing the statute book. There's even objection within their own ranks.on this, so it must be a serious

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-25296755523823685762010-05-14T00:34:00.000-07:002010-05-14T00:37:05.644-07:00

Watching the Beeb's 'Question Time' last night brought it home to me how many voters think they have been sold down river into this coalition. 'We didn't vote for this!', they cried. But they did (vote for that) because that's how the voting came out. Because of history, and the fact that the Liberals have never been good bed-fellows with the Tories, the current situation does not look

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-68943737410672478582010-05-13T00:06:00.000-07:002010-05-13T12:34:28.487-07:00

The big question mark about the UK's new government is - surely - whether Cameron (and Clegg) can really reverse the trend in the Tories that was re-invented by Thatcher over 20 years ago - i.e. that (according to her) 'there is no such thing as society'. Her attitude was so reviled by those who live in the real world that it could only mean that when Labour could get enough momentum, they would

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-29552032484533381402010-05-12T02:16:00.000-07:002010-05-15T01:17:38.773-07:00

So ... a Cam-Clegg coalition. I have to admit I am resigned to this being probably the only practical solution to the organisation of a government, other than going back to the country again without guarantee of a satisfactory result. It became clear - as the days since the election wore on - that a Lab-Lib coalition would not work, particularly in that those two parties by themselves could not

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160859214442041852.post-75026183499682071402010-05-08T12:08:00.000-07:002010-05-08T13:17:28.908-07:00

The election ... I hope it should tell us something, and more than one 'thing' in fact. Firstly, what is patently clear is that the Tories who (through Mrs Thatcher) declared society does not exist, have tried to claw back a vote based on deception. I will not disagree with some of Mr. Cameron's aspirations, but to me they are a disengenuous party, always pandering to where they think they can

John Lerwillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508029564155592727noreply@blogger.com0