The Blog of a Bridport Peace Protester

I have been protesting for an hour most Saturdays, against the war since it started.  But I do take holidays – lots of them – but when I am in Bridport, I do my thing!

Actually, I was part of a larger group made up of Quakers amongst many other people.  When the war started most of the protestors stopped protesting!  My thinking was that it was as wrong when it had started as it was before it started.  It has got much worse since.

I take a sign made from canvas with a message painted on it.  I amended an old sign which read:

BLAIR = TERRORIST
IMPEACH HIM
TRY HIM
JAIL HIM

To read

BLAIR = TERRORIST
IMPEACH HIM
TRY HIM
FORGIVE HIM

Many people approach and make comments.  Those who have something positive to say are mostly willing to stay and have a chat.  Those who think that I am an idiot, make some comment and rush off as if I am about to assault them!

This message is addressed to you, dear reader, to the universe, and to the “rushers off”:

To the “rushers off”, I would like to say, “Please don’t rush off. Engage with me.  Tell me what you think.  Allow yourself to listen to my point of view.”  And if you really think that you are un-persuadable, stick around anyway, as nothing discredits a peacemaker like a charge of assault in the magistrates’ court.

I will skip the positive comments today.  The first negative comment was, “Are you going to let Saddam carry on butchering his own people?”

The last report I have is that claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered (See observer guardian story) As a report in the Lancet believes that 655,000 “excess” deaths have occurred since the invasion, this does not seem like a very good deal.

Does one dead Iraqi feel good that 655,000 of his countrymen, or 655,000 men, women and children have died since his death.  Does he feel avenged?

The second negative comment I did not catch, but it began with the letter “F”.  I am almost certain that it was not “fundamentally correct”, but this might be my prejudice.

Actually, the lady censored herself having uttered “F” – this was followed by a sweeping hand gesture, as if she wished to sweep away opposing opinions to hers with a sweep of her hand.

A woman came up to me, she thought that she might like to point out a fact that had not escaped me, the fact that it was Christmas, and that I ought to be practising goodwill towards all men.

Christmas, in my opinion, is better than a visit to the dental hygienist, but only just, and I have just decided with newly mustered goodwill, that he should forgive rather than be jailed.

The man Blair has decided to volunteer me as a target for terrorism by supporting George Bush in invading Iraq, by allowing post invasion Iraq to go to hell in a handcart by searching for weapons of mass destruction, which everyone knew were not there, and by failing to stand up to the Neo-cons regarding Israel Palestine.

I believe that he should be forgiven on the basis that he must have been cronically misguided, or guided by his hubris, his belief that he is right, and that the 2 million people who shuffled through London in February 2003, were wrong.  But he must be impeached and tried, and probably admit his error.

So “Lady Rusher Off”, I am pushing the boat out as far as forgiveness is concerned, so far that I can hardly see the side of the river.

The people espousing contrary views all seemed to be very ugly.  This might be my prejudice.  It might be that I fail to see the beauty in people who espouse what are basically ugly views.  Or it might be that they have rushed off before I see their beauty.  Or alternatively, it might be that I am correct.  It might be that people who are physiognomically challenged, feel themselves to be so ugly; so physiognomically challenged, that they are happy for Mr Bush and Mr Blair to unleash death, injury and disfigurement on innocent people, in a far away country, upon people who they have never met, and are never likely to meet.

I had a telephone conversation with my very old friend, George, last night.  He said that he thought Al Quaida were more ruthless than their opponents.

I cannot see it myself.

Someone who is prepared to kill himself, along with his victims has to be “better” than someone who is prepared to kill people from a height of 30,000 feet, at very little risk to himself, whilst being rewarded with a salary, a pension and potentially the title of “War Hero,” but at the very least, a medal or two, and the title of War Veteran.

I do many things in the “faith” that they do me good; but to get up every morning, go and train to be an aircraft pilot, so that upon some distant day, I could kill myself and many others is faith that my “faith” could not get close to comprehending.

30/12/2006

One of the positive comments that I get is “Blair is an absolute charlatan; he destroyed the Labour Party of Attlee and Aneurin Bevan".  He comes and tells me his view most weeks when I am doing my thing.  Last time I saw him, he added that our prime minister was an absolute charlatan bastard.

He tells me that the Labour Party of Attlee and Aneurin Bevan gave us the National Health Service, and that he should know because he had a gold crown fitted in 1946.

Shortly afterwards I read that the tax take in this country was the highest that it had ever been.

The National Health Service was introduced after the Second World War, a war where we had had vast swathes of our wealth creating industries destroyed by bombing, where we had devoted much of our national wealth on supporting and equipping a huge war effort, and at a time when we were on the brink of losing a huge empire.

Now we are told that we have had ten years of uninterrupted growth, we are paying the highest proportion of  income in tax, and yet we cannot afford a National Health Service.

I used to do a number of what my partner calls, “Boost yourself up courses” and what my homoeopath calls “feely groups”.  One of the things taught by these things is that in order to develop your self confidence, you should not say that you can’t do something, you should say that you won’t do something.

It would be refreshing to hear Mr Blair stop saying that we cannot afford the National Health Service as envisaged by Attlee and Aneurin Bevan, but that he won’t afford it!  Come on Mr Blair, tell us what you mean and do it self confidently.

I would prefer that the money that I pay on tax here was used to treat the ill here, rather that to unleash death in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My father was in a prisoner of war camp.  I have just learnt that he wrote a recipe book whilst there.  I think that he was so malnourished that he got his recreation from handwritten food pornography.  One of his “jokes” from this period was that if Marilyn Monroe had walked into his hut with a bowl of rice behind her back, he and his fellow prisoners would have been looking at the bowl of rice.

As this recipe book had recently come to light, I asked his widow what she remembered about his recollections of the War.

She related her “inherited” hatred of the Japanese, and how they did not comply with the Geneva Conventions.

Has anyone recently accused the USA of failing to comply with the Geneva Conventions? She is an American citizen.

Abrogation of the Geneva Conventions is something your enemy does, committing war crimes is something that the other guy does, it never seems to be something that your government freely admits to.

For my money, all war is crime, end of story.  Good guys don’t kill people.

World War Two fought to save the Jews?  No, World Ward Two fought to save our economic bacon.

I have read some very old figures the US has spent about $90 million to “avenge” each person who died in the World Trade Centre.

I use the word “avenge” as parenthesis because most of this money was spent in killing innocent men, women and children, people who had not the slightest grasp on the levers of power, and people who were doubly innocent because even the Americans now admit that Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the destruction of the World Trade Centre.

I have heard from our local MP, that attacking other countries has gone out of fashion, and that it would be extraordinarily difficult for any future country to attack another country.

All the talk is of soft power, giving people money to do things that are more acceptable, rather than attacking them.

If you do the sums, think about the huge sums of money that have been spent on killing innocent people, just think how many weekend courses you could have sent Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, or George Bush on for that matter.  I am sure that they would all benefit from “Discovering your inner child”, or “Advanced Reiki”, or “Resolving conflicts by negotiation”.

Today on my way back from my “demo” I met someone who I thought that I knew.

He told me that it was very easy to criticise the Prime Minister, but his was a difficult job.

Well I guess that it is, but it is not as if he doesn’t have lots of competent advisers, many of these advisers gave him advice that he did not want to hear, so he went ahead and did what he wanted to do anyway.

Your average criminal does not have all this advice to hand, he had to navigate the legal minefield for himself.  Tony Blair is a very fortunate criminal having some of the best legal minds in the country to point out the laws, so that Tony can ignore them.

I had the weird idea that perhaps someone gave Tony Blair lines, as a punishment, like “I will not interfere in other peoples countries”, “I will not speak in the Middle East again until I have learnt about the Sykes-Picot Pact and about Mossadeq” or even “I will not be sycophantic to George in the playground even though he has the newest and shiniest toys”.

The trouble is that I think in his position he gets someone else to write his lines for him, as lessons he should have learnt are not sinking in.

You know when someone says “Haven’t you got anything better to do?” they are not really wanting you to tell them that you have managed to slot in an hours demonstrating between doing the shopping and cooking the lunch.

I have lots of other stuff to do.   I paint on acrylics, and I used to have singing lessons once a week but I think that my singing teacher has sacked me by making an excuse that she is too busy.  I trade certain types of used equipment, and I am a pretty good cook.

My New Year’s resolutions seem to try to come out of my fear that I may be becoming a workaholic.

So, the answer is a bit complex, perhaps too complex for the guy who likes to pretend that he is asking this question.  Yes I have many other things that I could be doing, not least loafing, day dreaming, or getting a little understanding of philosophy, but I think that demonstration for an hour a week a very good use of my time.

Sometime ago, I had a woman who came up to me doing my demonstrating and asked me if I had a job.  I was so surprised that I stammered out yes.

I imagine that this lady naturally conflates everyone who does not agree with her world view together, ergo all peace protesters are dole scroungers, and presumably vice versa.

I wonder if she reads a newspaper.

Perhaps we could break this connection and transpose dole scroungers with politicians and newspaper editors.

I do not believe I have met a dole scrounger, nor do I know if they actually exist; but presuming that they do, let me assume that they drink lots of tea and often go to the pub.

This would give me hope that some day when someone comes up with the idea of invading a foreign country that has no weapons of mass destruction, that this will be deferred indefinitely in favour of a nice cup of tea or a pint of red down the Hope & Anchor.

In answer to this lady’s question, yes I have a job, I am the sole director of two companies, together with holding the exalted position of chief cook and bottle washer for one of them.