Page 30 w The Top
A View From
Welcome to my monthly column “A view from the top”. Hopefully you will find my rambling readable (maybe even enjoyable). You may agree or you may disagree with my views, I care not. These are my views long held and forged over a life time of work, travel and experience. Now that’s over let’s have a look at what is really winding me up.
A world at war with itself Someone famously used to say “It’s a funny old world” …well after what has happened over the past couple of months I think that I have to agree. The referendum started the process of a descent into complete chaos. The Prime Minister my much beloved (sic) Mr. Cameron was off faster than a Russian Athlete after being asked to pee into a bottle. The Leader of the Opposition had lost a vote of no confidence and still refused to step down throwing the Labour Party into more of a mess than they usually are and a Trotsky based group called Momentum have raised their heads above the political parapet in the hope of grabbing a piece of the political cake. The golden one Boris Johnson was stabbed in the front by his Brexit running mate and the whole Tory edifice has been revamped with the Coronation of Theresa May…she who famously said “Gordon Brown should go to the country” when he was passed the Prime Ministership…What’s good for the goose etc comes to mind. Donald Trump could become the most powerful man on Earth and the nutters of ISIS continue along the path of religious fascism. To top it all Britain has voted to renew its arsenal of nuclear weapons with the building of four new missile carrying submarines. In the midst of all this I have become a stateless person with the vote for Brexit… As an individual I have no intention or desire to live in Britain surrounded by people who, at an age when they should know better and will probably fall off the perch in the next ten years, vote in a manner that has an almost complete disregard for the following younger generations. If the vote was based on rational thought then I would give the outers some …just a little consideration… however as the vote was all about being a little Englander and based on the fear of the foreigner, then my consideration is not offered, although I would not expect it to be received in a polite or courteous manner anyway. No, my master plan will be to try and dig out an Irish relative…or have a pint or two of the black stuff to cement some Irish roots. If that fails I may apply to join my Scottish nuclear free and independent cousins in the European Union or I may even
QF Focus Magazine
seek the citizenship of my current homeland…Get that Armada ready we’re going to have another go at getting a Catholic back on the throne of Britain…or what’s left of it. Is it me or is the whole place in meltdown?
What a clever dodge
In the past I have often gone on and on and on about what I saw as the complete waste of public money in relation to the High Speed Rail Project…You know … the cost of 80 billion pounds to get to Birmingham 20 minutes earlier than today’s journey time.
My solution was one that I used several times when attending meetings in Birmingham. I simply got an earlier train. That said I was travelling in first and did not have to suffer the sweat and general boorish behavior of the Sun reading public. Anyway back to the point of this missive… it has come to my attention that rail operators in Britain have come up with a cunning plan to avoid paying compensation when trains run late. The plan is simplicity itself …they intend to change the definition of what is late in train terms. Under this plan anything either side of the scheduled arrival time within a ten minute window will be classified as being “On Time” Absolute genius, where do they get these people from? Hold on though… if a ten minute either side window means the train is on time …then the question now becomes one of …Would you spend 80 billion to get to Birmingham 10 minutes earlier? No nor would I.
Purgatory
Been having the occasional thought about how I have been living my life… you know the usual stuff… have I always tried to do the right thing? Have I, or do I try to see the good in others? …have I earned the right to go to Heaven rather than have to hang about for 2,000 years in Purgatory? Etc etc. You may have guessed that it is the hanging around in Purgatory for a couple of thousand years that has me perplexed… what actually happens with all that time… can you watch the football… is a pint or two out of the question or is it just a matter of being placed into a purgatorial whirlpool and getting your soul scrubbed clean for a millennium or two whilst being parked between Heaven or Hell. Once the time is served what happens next… is Purgatorial probation on the agenda or is the scenario one of “go straight to Heaven via the fast lane”. Research has shown me that whilst here on Terra Firma one can gain Purgatorial brownie points via the practice of good deeds. X good deeds equals X points …with this in mind I now resolve to be even better than I already am (is that a conceit point or two lost)… I have seen Dante’s descent into Hell at the Prado in Madrid and I do not want to take that route into the afterlife. My prayers are being said in a timely and thoughtful manner… I am trying to be even more courteous to my fellow man/woman and I have stopped going on about how bad Leyton Orient are at football. All in all I think I have got my afterlife package sorted… although one of my mates, during a discussion about my Purgatorial fears, did say “you are not such a bad bloke”. This got me thinking… after some thought I realized that I have lived quite a useful and productive life and maybe, just maybe, I could give Purgatory a miss and go straight to Heaven….. I couldn’t could I?
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