The fall and decline of Holdenforth aka John Holden
Holdenforth has been hors de combat in recent weeks. Sadly, old timers are prone to going arse over tip and Holdenforth is no exception.
I fell and on my way down my head collided with the door frame -and I came a poor second in what followed.
I was whisked off to the local hospital, was checked and tested and measured and then came home resolved to be more careful in future.
Right now Holdenforth resembles Winston Smith, the hero of Orwell’s novel,1984, after his harsh treatment by the State enforcer, O’Brien.
Meanwhile there has been a flurry of activity on the national political front as the big boys and girls – not to mention those in no man’s land in the middle – develop and present their election strategies and tactics.
Holdenforth cannot afford to be left at the starting line.
What follows is a recycling of extracts from previous blogs to give Holdenforth readers a recap on where we stand on what we see as key issues.
A word of warning to old timers.
Holdenforth has considerable experience about the stresses that are imposed on octogenarians who rashly allow themselves to be burdened with responsibility for caring for themselves and for their spouses on a 24/7 basis.
My advice – do NOT agree to this formidable burden.
A modest proposal
Holdenforth gathers that there are in our midst many thousands of octogenarians who – for a variety of reasons – are unable to access the required level of support from the caring sector.
We also gather that there are in our midst many thousands from the portly sector who struggle to lose weight by time honoured means and resort to surgery to achieve trimmer figures.
Holdenforth can confirm from personal experience that if those from the portly sector were to provide for the needs of old timers in need of care on a 24/7 basis the pounds surplus to requirements would be shed in a few weeks – a win win outcome -and no pun intended for our editor.
On the privatisation of monopolies
A word from the late and very great Roy Jenkins:
“I think that the privatisation of near monopolies is about as irrelevant as (and sometimes worse than) were the Labour Party’s proposals for further nationalisation in in the 1970s and early 1980s.”
Let us fast forward those suggestions to today.
Take the privatised utilities back into public ownership starting with the water sector.
Minimal compensation to the affronted shareholders.
PO scandal update
“Scotland Yard is under pressure to speed up its enquiry into the Post Office scandal after it emerged that the company continued to fight sub-postmasters in court knowing its defence was untrue.”
Report in the Daily Mail by Josh White, March 30
For Holdenforth this is the most significant fact to emerge thus far – it appears that The Post Office Management knew that the accounts held by Sub Post Masters COULD be accessed by agents of the senior management.
Holdenforth urges all those in a position to speed things up to do just that.
On Gambling
“The whore and gambler, by the State
Licenc’d , build that nations Fate….
The Winner’s Shout, the Loser’s curse,
Dance before dead England’s Hearse”
Auguries of Innocence — William Blake —
Written around 1800
For obvious reasons there are many more curses from the losers than joyful shouts from the few lucky winners.
The plague of betting shops across the nation is worrying. The desire to gamble is all pervasive.
Can anything be done to curb this passion?
Holdenforth urges the tightest possible controls on those that currently exploit this anti-social activity.
“BET365 fined over money laundering policy”
Daily Mail April 5
In the report below the above headline we noted that “Denise Coates has earned £1.2 bn in the past 4 four years”
Some juicy low hanging fruit for our new regulator.
Monarchical matters
Holdenforth has been dismayed as the PR machine at the disposal of the Monarchy has worked tirelessly and, it has to be conceded, highly effectively to restore the respectability of the institution. We had assumed in our naivety that the squalid conduct of Prince Charles and of his former mistress would present too formidable a series of obstacles to a restoration of the respectability that was such an enduring feature of the reign of his mother.
How wrong we were!
We were and we remain uneasy that the unorthodox route to the throne by Camilla was one of the more audacious usurping of the crown in our 1,000-year turbulent history.
Yet again Holdenforth has to acknowledge the truism that the people have short memories.
In an earlier blog we asked about what, if anything, Princess Diana and Leon Trotsky had in common.
We thought that both of them had been air brushed out of history by very effective manipulation of PR machines by their respective detractors.
We still believe that this is the case.
On The Lords
The speedy elevation of the discredited David Cameron to the House of Lords was seen by some as evidence of the flexibility of this aged feature of our constitution.
Holdenforth was not persuaded that this was / is the case.
For us – it was yet another nail in the decaying coffin of our democracy.
The sooner the House of Lords is abolished the better.
On the Trans Issue
Is there no prospect of an outbreak of common-sense north of Hadrian’s Wall?
“They hate Capitalism, they hate Imperialism, but most of all they hate each other”
Alexie Sayle on the aggressive propensities of his fellow Trotskyists in Liverpool
The recently passed Hate crime bill passed by the Edinburgh government is providing a mixture of hard work for the police and lawyers in Scotland plus, of course, first class entertainment for the voters. Much of the debate about the bill has centred around the decision to make what are deemed to be transphobic comments a hate crime.
“If my aunt had bollocks, she would be my uncle but she didn’t and she wasn’t.”
Holdenforth thought that this time-honoured aphorism had edged this contentious issue onto the back burner but the issue continued to provoke angry responses.
For now – we will respond with a muted call of “Bollocks”
That should do the trick.
The new young super rich
Holdenforth has noted the startlingly high incomes being gathered in by successful youthful raucous vocalists.
We diffidently suggest that the tax authorities examine these eye watering incomes – always assuming that the employees of HMRC can be persuaded / coerced into going to work – with a view to transferring much/most of these earnings into revenue for the many.
Is that it?
We had intended to touch on a few broader issues:
- Putin and democracy
- The West v Putin
- Prospects for ww3
- The need to push up spending on defence
- Brexit
- Immigration – both legal and illegal
Sadly, our energy levels are down – enough for now
We would note that as the issues covered in this blog – and many others – are vigorously discussed as one would expect in a lively democracy committed to free speech – the ongoing daily death rate in Gaza is steady at around 200.
“This is that way the world ends….
Not with a bang but with a whimper”
TS Eliot
The Hollow Men
Holdenforth is perplexed as to which of Eliot’s outcomes will come to pass.
Holden Forth 