Security and Stability

This year has got off to a shaky start. The violence which has ripped through Kenyan society in the wake of the disputed election results has shocked and stunned a watching world. What has been most frightening has been the way that ordinary people have behaved — murdering, looting and driving out their own neighbours. A nation, which was regarded as a model of stability for her more unstable neighbours, is tearing itself apart. The unnerving aspect of this is the revelation of just how thin the veneer of civilization is that holds a society together.

As if those events were not enough we have the instability in the world financial markets, where confidence has plummeted and trust, even between banks in internal trading, has evaporated. As I write this, everyone is hoping desperately that the steps the US Federal Reserve Bank has taken will renew both trust and confidence.

Nearer to home, we see how ordinary people can be affected by financial uncertainty, as Northern Rock, in the wake of the problems which began in the USA, has needed to be underwritten by billions of pounds in an effort to restabilise it.

Even closer to home we saw the disturbing video footage of Aberdeen nightlife, where police are struggling to contain violence and lawlessness on the streets.
In the light of such threats to our physical and financial well-being it is sobering to see what we are prepared to give up by way of personal liberty to restabilise our shaky society. Surveillance cameras proliferate, identification systems are made more rigorous and intrusive — all to provide our government institutions with the means to provide a more secure and stable society. These measures are all very well, but of themselves they cannot deliver what we seek — security and stability.

The founders of the USA knew that both democracy and justice could not be sustained apart from a distinctly religious morality. As George Washington stated in his Farewell Address:
"Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us [not imagine] that morality can be maintained without religion. … reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Yet that is precisely what we sought to do in Britain in the second half of the 20th century. We have tried to maintain a national morality without any religious basis. Unsurprisingly, we have signally failed. We now have a society where many people do not feel safe. Burglar alarms, car alarms, personal alarms are eloquent proof of that. The disintegration of family life has led to a situation where many children are out with the control of parents. Teachers, social workers and police try with increasing difficulty to keep things under control. Initiatives from government have time and again tried and failed to turn things around; but we are wrong to expect that they alone can change things and achieve a secure and stable society.

The only way we can do that is to look to God to provide a framework for our society. For, He provided just such a framework for His people, when He established His covenant with them in the days of the Exodus — it's called the Ten Commandments. They need to be rewritten in our hearts and the hearts of our children — all of them. In fact, it is the first (in Exodus 20:2) which is the lynch-pin that holds them all together. You shall have no other gods before me. This provides the foundation for both security and stability in life and society. Or, as Jesus expressed it in Matthew 6:33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Let's do it!

Tread Lightly for You Tread on the Future

These days we hear a lot about Carbon Footprints and we are constantly being reminded that each one of us should be more aware of how our lifestyles may affect the planet.

As someone who has been aware of the environment for decades – I stopped using CFCs in 1968 – and who has been recycling and using energy-efficient bulbs for many years, it is important that we take account of how we use the resources of our planet. We cannot wait for governments to take action. We need to do it ourselves. There are some simple steps we can take which would help greatly.

1. Reduce our energy consumption by insulating our homes, lowering our thermostats, using energy-efficient lighting, switching off all chargers and stand-by buttons on equipment that is not being used.
2. Join your local Freecycle which enables you to offer unwanted items to others in the area.
3. Recycle as much waste as possible – and not just at the kerbside – use local collection points.
4. Reduce or eliminate leisure air travel – I have never flown to a holiday destination. If we undertook to have only one holiday abroad per year and took others in our own country, it would help our local economy and reduce our carbon footprint.
5. Use public transport where it is possible and/or reduce our car mileage – this year our total household mileage, including business mileage, has been curtailed to less than 10000 miles.

These personal steps, if undertaken by each one of us, would have a significant impact on our Carbon Footprint.

It's time to tread lightly on our fragile planet or it may crumble beneath our feet.

The Collapse of Trust in an Unfair Society

Nobody seems to trust anyone in our country anymore. At least that is what is implied in the heavy-handed regulation of our country. Increasingly we are called upon to prove who we are and where we live.

Recently I was asked to become a trustee for a youth organisation in our town which had just acquired its own premises. I had to provide not only photo identification (my passport) but something to prove that I lived where I do (a utility bill), so that the organisation could register me as a trustee.

I have just been told by my employers that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs now demand that every single journey I make in my vehicle for business purposes has to be logged separately. So, instead of totalling my short mileage trips by recording the start mileage at the beginning of the day and the finish mileage at the end of the day and submitting a daily total. I must record the start and finish mileage every trip – no matter how short and submit them all. If I go to one place and then on to another in the same trip, I must mention both places. Why? Because HMRC doesn't trust me. The irony is that they take my word that a particular trip was for a business purpose but not that the five short journeys I may make in a day are.

The unfair thing is that they haven't moved the mileage limit which is allowed for tax purposes for the last eight years. They reckon that it doesn't cost anymore to run a car now than it did eight years ago! So, I am allowed 25p per mile tax free (up to 10000 miles per year) but if my employer wants to pay me 30p per mile, because of increases in road tax, insurance and fuel, then HMRC tax me on the difference of 5p per mile. And they have the effrontery to ask me to log every journey separately!

Where can I resign my citizenship, Mr Darling?

Carbon Footprints

Oh the delicious irony of it all! On the BBC News at 6pm yesterday there was a feature on the miles our food travels to reach us, with much agonising over shipping chilled cherries from Chile. Just a few minutes later we saw houses ablaze with decorative lights – and we were invited to send in pictures of local examples. So much for carbon footprints.

Yes, carbon use is important but you cannot focus on just one aspect of our carbon emissions; it is a total lifestyle thing.

For the record I have flown twice in my life – once in 1974 (Wick to Shetland and back) and again in 2004 (Aberdeen to Heathrow and back). I doubt if I'll bother again. My total annual car mileage (including business use) is about 12000 miles. I have a caravan which I use to holiday within 50 miles of my home. No queues, no hassle, very restful. I recycle and compost as much of my waste as possible. My wife and I are vegetarians.

Pay As You Go

So, a parliamentary committee recommends that political parties should not be able to nominate for directly for peerages, in an attempt to rebuild trust with the electorate. But surely the question of trust must address the funding of political parties.

For trust to be rebuilt it must become impossible for anyone to buy influence. The only way to do this is to fund political parties from the public purse and ban all political fund-raising activities. The only additinal funding allowed would be membership subscriptions.

Then "he who pays the piper calls the tune" would be the order of the day. Perhaps that might bring us a bit nearer to democracy.

For the record, I belong to no political party, nor do I support any. No one represents me, though I do have an MP and MSP; I speak for myself.

The Lost Post

Suddenly it seems that everything our government departments and councils send out is liable to go missing. At least that is what it seems like from a media perspective – and it's all the fault of politicians!

It's this obsessively focused "investigative" reporting which creates inordinate focus on single issues, by blowing them up into meganews, that makes it so difficult for any politician – of any persuasion to do his or her job.

What about the responsibility of the carriers who were supposed to be undertaking safe delivery of the items? What about the responsibility of the mailing departments? No one seems to be blaming them!

But then we are all human beings – we all make mistakes, we all have "off" days; but in our society mistakes are things other people make (and shouldn't).

Perhaps in our so-called tolerant society we need to learn to be a bit less critical of each other and a bit more tolerant of other people's mistakes.

A New Beginning

This blog is born out of frustration.
Frustration at a media that tells me what to think and decides what is important. A media that rams its agenda down my throat ad nauseam and so has no room for anything else. A media that invites my comments but only on topics it considers important. A media that is urban-oriented.

I don't live in a city: I don't want to live in a city.
I don't do social life but I do believe in society.

So in this blog I aim to do two things.
I aim to interact with what is presented in the "news" with my own comments on items I want to comment on.
I also aim to reflect on society around me.

That means this blog may seem political but it is not party political.
I am not looking for responses and I won't respond to them.