A CHANGE OF CLIMATE.

The title of this piece is the title of the novel by Hilary Mantel; a very clever novelist who writes historical fiction; I write hysterical fiction but not on purpose.

Hilary Mantel gave The Reith Lectures this year which are currently being broadcast. The Reith Lectures are commissioned by the BBC and are broadcast on Radio 4 – the serious radio station which the BBC broadcast, as they are a broadcasting company even though the 'C' doesn't stand for company in this case but corporation. Originally it did stand for the former, when it was formed or created in the early twentieth century, but not so early in that century as you might imagine. In other words 'I ain't looking it up today.'

When I first became an actor, which happened to me one day as I was walking along a back street in Birmingham I saw a television star, aha I said to myself; an actor! I am an actor too. In those days I probably said acter; the 'or' came later when I'd been introduced to John Gielgud – not personally, you understand, as I'd never heard of him before that point. In fact I might have been one of those smart arsed herberts who would, on being told that man was an actor, go up to him just to tell him I'd never heard of him. A lot of people think that's very clever as people have said it to me and at the time I wished them no malice but would wonder why I was getting such a comment; but I jest: I would never have gone up to anybody and showed them my ignorance and neither would I now. When I was told that there was a great actOr called John Geilgud, I would pretend I knew who he was and then . . . . I would have to scurry off and find things about the great man – with no google in those days.

Anyway the point of all that was that when I joined Equity they gave me the rule book (they did in those days – doze daze) and when it came to the BBC they referred to it as the mighty corporation as even though they paid and obeyed all the union rules they would never recognise us.

Back to Hilary Mantel who wrote other books: apart from the title of this piece, namely Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies; I have to add too that she also wrote The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.

I haven't listened to every lecture, which are usually given each year by prominent people who know what they're talking about; Kwame Anthony Appiah gave them in 2016 and the year before it was Professor Stephen Hawking. 

So you see they are no slouches.

When asked a question from the audience about Brexit, Hilary Mantel said “There has been a gigantic failure on the part of the voting public in Britain to know their history, to examine the evidence that was put before them, and a giant failure of imagination. I think the whole thing is shameful, regrettable and I think time will prove how destructive it may be. All nations have a fantasy of a golden age, but I would say ours was to come. I'm not so sure, now.”

Now that says something about the subject doesn't it; precise and to the point.

People have different opinions about Brexit apart from discussing how it's pronounced – this is Britain what else would they talk about? Bregsit or Brexit – the fact is most people use the former but because it is Britain someone will get in touch and say it's the latter.

I don't fall out with people because they have a different opinion from me it is up to them what they think and the truth of the matter is we will not really know for a long time whether Brexit is a good or a bad thing for Britain.

Someone said to me on the bus today 'the whole country is going down the drain.'

I said 'going?'

The fact is most towns or villages had a post office. They were more or less the same kind of buildings; you could see the post office when you went to a strange town – a strange town to you, that is, not some strange place – so you could at least find it. In the last few years those post offices have been closed and moved to some other store like the rear of W.H. Smiths and . .. well W.H. Smiths. A newspaper shop/stand come stationers – now post office. 

There they are at the back of their stores with the post office staff agreeing with every customer who says it was better back in the day when the post office had proper post offices. If they ever tried to close the post office in Dublin – the GPO – there would be trouble!

But it doesn't matter where you look there is always some kind of change going on. At the moment there is a movement to close down pharmacies – they're called chemists here. Now why would they want to do that and how could they?

This country has a welfare state; all medical facilities are free at source and managed by the NHS; The National Health Service. All the people rescued from the fire two weeks ago will be cared for nursed and operated on free of charge in the hospitals. Any cost will be met by the government. Medicine including prescriptions are "nominally" charged for and lots of the times they are free. The pharmacies process the prescriptions and even deliver to the patients if needs be; there is a move to limit the number of pharmacies in each neighbourhood.

What does this mean?

The NHS rely on these pharmacies; without them the NHS wouldn't work. Without the NHS the pharmacies would go out of business. There are a few pharmacies in Pinner, were I live, and if they close all except one which one would it be which will remain open and make a lot of money? 

One chemist means there will be lines going around the block to pick up prescriptions; half the time the medication will not be in stock it will be at another branch so will be delivered the next day. The chemist will be Boots Chemist - doncha wish you have bought stocks in Boots and W.H. Smiths when you had the chance; still not too late.

There is no way the government will actually close the pharmacies, they will just cross them off the list of pharmacies licensed to fill NHS prescriptions – easy.

Just reminds me, somehow, of the Taliban bombing all those ancient statues of the Buddha about 25 years ago in Afghanistan.

Going down the drain – I should cocoa.

THIS SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN STONE

There has been a gigantic failure on the part of the voting public in Britain to know their history, to examine the evidence that was put before them, and a giant failure of imagination. I think the whole thing is shameful, regrettable and I think time will prove how destructive it may be. All nations have a fantasy of a golden age, but I would say ours was to come. I'm not so sure, now. (Hilary Mantel 2017).

A London Tragedy.

Today is June 16^th which is Bloomsday; the day James Joyce set his novel Ulysses in 1904 as that is the first day he set out with the love of his life; Nora Barnacle. I usually write something about it but this post will only be set on June 14^th and 15^th of this year.

London is one of the greatest cities in the world; you may have another opinion but I love it; I always have. I have grown to like Los Angeles better, with New York and Dublin in my top few too. But London has been hurting these last few months.

The other place that was hurting, in Britain, is Manchester. I am sure one of my relations might have been in that theatre of young kids when a piece of snot, that had been wiped on a wall of a human being, blew himself up and killed many people which included lots of kids. The pity about life is the relations I have in Manchester have gone their separate ways with most of them extending the Irish diaspora and strayed to other parts of the world. I know some are in New York but many still live in Manchester.

In London here were two terrorists murderers on the loose in March and a couple of months ago then this week a fire burnt down a Tower Block in west London.

There it is above Grenfell Tower; that photo was taken sometime during the first few hours of June 14^th – there have been many speculations by all the experts under the sun, telling all and sundry how it happened but you don't need to be an expert to know that if you wrap a building in a cladding that is not fire proof it will catch fire and spread to the rest of the building as opposed to remaining local on concrete.

Last night I buttered some toast, ready to put on some lemon curd and send it down the hatch with a hot drink and as I felt into the drawer for the fish knife, which I use as a butter knife, I thought of some individual who, 2 nights before, would be preparing a little snack for themselves, putting their utensil away and settling down to watch TV. 

That TV and everything else around them is no more. Gone up in an inferno and the person would be lucky to survive. They would be left with nothing – not even a change of underwear or maybe not even any footwear.

People look at them on their television sets and feel sympathy for them and their plight. See them desperately trying to tell the TV reporters what happened, trying to make a case and asking questions; questions questions questions and if they got any answers they would step back and realise there is nowhere to go. All their keepsakes and memorabilia gone; their books, magazines and treasures; all gone.

The big thing that was realised after 9/11 is that paper survived: pieces of paper blew over the streets of Manhattan for many months after the planes hit the World Trades Centre Building and sure enough, the other morning, pieces of paper with a child's page of homework was drifting around the streets of North Kensington. Of course it was on the news all day as the fire was not put out; even now the building is not considered safe.

I thought what it must be like so I threw some clothes in to my case and went down there – nothing much: a few pairs of jeans, shorts and some shirts.

The first thing I saw when I got off the tube train at Latimer Road is what you see at the foot of the page. One of the people being interviewed on TV said “people should not have to live like pigeons.”

Just look at it – at least pigeons can fly.

When I came out of Latimer Road tube station I was directed by a policewoman to the end of a street to donate what I had brought. On the way up the street I saw hundreds and hundreds of people, all volunteers; loading vans directing people with donations to various places.

Food was brought; really good food I heard. Not only the survivors but the volunteers needed to eat.

There were lots of toys, buggies and push chairs; cosmetics and sanitary stuffs, all were needed. Just think what you are doing now – whatever you are using, the survivors have lost. If they have a pen in their hand it will be something that was donated.

I went in to a club, which normally would be serving alcohol, and the floor was covered with donations. Then in to a yard at the back and loads of boxes were marked with shirts, men's hoodies, shirts etc. I found some boxes for what I had brought.

Going back outside I was reminded of 9/11; there was a plain wall where people had written messages in desperation in case someone had seen their loved ones. There were bunches of flowers at the bottom of the wall. 

I saw all this on TV when 9/11 happened and there it was in front of my eyes.

Grenfell Tower is in a very eclectic neighbourhood of London; maybe even Bohemiam rather like some areas of New York, San Francisco and LA, and consequently breeds a lot of great characters and is possibly a writer's delight and the people of the neighbourhood all came together that day; yesterday.

My visit there was emotional; people were crying and looking for lost relatives, others carried photographs and would ask if their sister or brother had been seen; maybe their parents and some were looking for their children; and all the time a buzz of activity could be heard.

It was also inspirational – but these people will want answers; will want to know why they were buttering toast one minute and the next not only homeless but helpless. Throwing their arms around their children who survived and not being able to say much without a tearful break in their voice.

You see it's okay to have sympathy but empathy is what was needed beforehand.

Here is a place where you can send some money; it will convert to your currency automatically so many thanks: https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/donation/to/5144/27122/

Bobby Smith

I am totally and utterly fascinated by something: you may have noticed that we had an election here in Britain last week; a general election. Well actually you might not have noticed. I know that there are people here who don't know that there is an election in France today and that is only 22 miles across the English channel. I always thought about that when I would go 22 miles out in the Pacific to Catalina, a little island, where we would eat sea food and go down deep in to the bowels of a boat with a glass bottom where we would see loads and loads of fish and plants and all the Jacques Coustaeu type of scenery.

But back to the election: each candidate, including the Prime Minister, have to get elected in their own constituency. They don't have to live in that constituency, like in America, but a lot of the MPs (members of Parliament) do own or rent property where they are standing and where they can hold regular surgeries – mainly on Saturday mornings.

The Prime Minister, Theresa May, stood in Maidenhead, which seems a very apt name under circumstances, which is a very rich place.

All MPs have to win in order to take their seats in The House of Commons where there are 650 seats. The winning party has to secure half of that, 625, plus 1 to have an overall majority. An overall majority is when all the parties, added together, cannot vote the government out of office if ever it came to a vote of 'No Confidence.'

You will wonder, if you looked, why this post is called Bobby Smith. I have to say that it is a famous name in sport in that he was a great centre forward and played for Tottenham Hotspur (the spurs) amongst other clubs.

But that is not the Bobby Smith in this piece; Theresa May had many people standing against her in Maidenhead, in fact there were 12, which brought the total up to 13 and Bobby Smith, a 35 year old heavy goods driver came last. He was an independent candidate standing for family court reform whatever that is and Give me back Elmo.

There he is at the top of the page – now what had astounded me is that he only received 3 votes. Out of an electorate of about 55,000 he got just 3 votes. Theresa May received 37,718 and had about 64% of the vote.

But what happened to Bobby Smith; how many friends and family did not vote for him? Let's look, he must have voted for himself – hang on he lives in Stevenage so he won't be able to vote in Maidenhead. Didn't he have any friends there?

When I have appeared in Edinburgh at various festivals I have often wondered, when I have asked at the box office, why there was nobody booked for a certain night – well I wonder no more; Bobby Smith, even though he was standing against the highest profile candidate in the land could not attract more than 3 votes.

Jacques Coustaeu type of scenery

Catalina underwater

I enjoy doing this.

Hey: I enjoy doing this. I don't get paid much, only the income from the ads, but that doesn't amount to a hill of beans (to quote from one of my favourite movies) so I do it because, as I say, I enjoy it. I would write more often but have other things to do.

There are lots of things going on and experts coming out of the wall, meeting you in a pub or talking to you at bus stops – for those that use the bus. 

In London that's not many as at least 60% use the tube with another 20% or so using the overground which doesn't leave that many for the bus especially when about 10% drive, cycle and walk – BTW all from Time Out!

Listen to the 'so called' expert to your peril.

I have repeatedly said on this blog that I am an expert on nothing and that has never worried me but . . I know this: most bad things go away. All those bad things that you thought would never go, have gone. If you haven't forgotten them I'm sorry but living in America I thought George W Bush would never go – some people liked him – but he is all but forgotten now. He wasn't an expert at anything and, like Trump, he discovered that, even though he was the so called leader of the free world, he didn't have that much power.

A religious born again Christian going to war? Gimme a break!

There is trouble in London at the moment – last night mass stabbings and another vehicle mowing people down on London Bridge, last week people being murdered by a bomb at a Manchester pop concert – but it will all go away.

People asked me how I managed with all the guns living in Los Angeles. Like road accidents, I didn't see any – well I saw one road accident - but mostly by the time you get there they're all over and as long as we believe that we should go about our lives as normal - but be observant.

I really feel for the people who have suffered but their friends and relatives will never forget.

You have as much chance of being involved in a terrorist act as winning the lottery – but I might win the lottery.