Soldier Blue.

A soldier blue once walked past me
With flag and gun for all to see
Shouts i hurrah for you are brave
Our King and country you will save

But as he marched i noticed that
Beneath his hardened soldiers hat
An empty stare that held the thought
Of all the horrors battle brought

He marched a line so straight and true
With comrades also dressed in blue
A sense of pride we all could feel
As on they marched from toe to heel

But as they disappeared from view
Their colours flying proud and true
Thought i of soldier blue once more
His stare that told the truth of war.

A busy fool.

I find myself wondering more and more lately about the actual point of running around like a headless chicken chasing the so called perfect life that in reality is there all the time right under our noses.
We have a little grumble if our eBay parcel hasn't arrived or the postman is late or there is a power cut, dinner is late or someone you are meeting is late, i could go on but you get where i am coming from. The truth is it really doesn't matter about any of these things, we have just been programmed to react in a certain way if they happen to us, like being sarcastic or simply down right rude. If we actually stop and think about it, there is no need for us to react in this way, but it takes a very different way of looking at life to accept this different view,  as to so many people time is money, a saying i absolutely loathe with every bone in my body, time isn't money, time is precious, every single minute and second is precious, money has nothing at all to do with it.
So, just what use is it being the richest person in the cemetery?.  I am not saying that we should throw away all our possessions and build mud huts on the nearest hill and eat berries for breakfast, (although i have to say that in the present climate and weather that does appeal!) what i am saying is that far too many people are taking life way too seriously and think that possessions bring happiness and fulfilment, on the contrary, like a drug they just tempt you to want more and more, it's like a rush that drugs give you only this time it's a legal high but no less debilitating.
There are those amongst us who thrive on competition and rivalry and dismiss those who have found contentment within themselves for who they are and for what they are.
 I myself have always pushed so hard and worked such long hours as to have built a reputation as someone who is always working, something i really am not that proud of. I have a brother Chris, he has always been happy to work his work and then come home and enjoy life, he never aspired to travel the world or chair meetings or start businesses with staff and all the headaches that brings, he drove his tractor until it was time to go home and that was good enough for him and more importantly he loved every minute of what he was doing, while I was all over Europe promoting golf course machinery for a manufacturer taking meetings with dealerships that saw 20 to 30 people intently listening to what the company had to offer, setting up business on my own, writing, being a school governor, rally driving..you name it.
The truth is all the time i was globetrotting and busy setting up the next project, in the back of my mind every now and then i would just think about how ideal Chris's life really was compared to my madness, i would be in another plane, another hotel, meeting people i scarcely knew and having dinner with them and Chris....well Chris would be in his local chatting away to his friends content with what life had given him. I found myself thinking well it isn't for me i couldn't do that i need to be out there doing 100mph with my backside on fire or i am not happy!.
 Perhaps as we grow older we reflect more on what we have achieved and if it hasn't followed the master plan or vision you had set yourself then human nature tells you to view that as failure. The latter is precisely where i place myself, I know with that everyone will rally round and say no, no, no, you have done this and that etc but if you are being honest with yourself and looking back at your achievements i can honestly say i have made mistakes and achieved very little from the promise i had as a youngster, does it haunt me? well yes a little, will it change who i am in the next few years well yes absolutely, I intend to see life for what it is rather than what it can give me. In a way I am finding that contentment my brother Chris found with his job, i admit it scares me a little because i am a wild soul that doesn't like to be tied down, but i think i can find a balance with my bi-polar self whereas i can appreciate the simpler things while managing my wilder side, a move that I hope will bring me closer to some real happiness, the sort of happiness that comes from just being you in the place and surroundings that you enjoy the most, enjoying the sunshine the smell of fresh cut grass, the sounds of nature all around that continually play and if you are lucky enough you may one day sit down and have chance to actually listen to.. I hope for your sakes you all do..

A little bird's tale..

A little bird he tweeted so
From morning until night
I asked him nicely once to quit
He said 'one day i might'
He tweeted louder every day
Sometimes the noise was shrill,
Again I asked if he could stop,
He said, 'one day i will'.
His treetop hoots were louder now
As he grew so much older,
When asked to quit chirped "will i shit"
His tweets now that much bolder.
But hail the day I have to say
Came violence you have read of
The neighbours cat put paid to that
And chewed his bloody head off.


 

Now shall i write about class 4?
Egyptians?..dogs or sport?
Such choice I never had before
An interesting thought.

There's ladybirds and history
Learning, puppies, humour,
So many choices just for me
I should have started sooner !

PE, fashion,circuits, swimming
Oh my I'm really dizzy
So many subjects you're all brimming
You really have been busy!

So here's a thought a simple one
It really is quite hot
I took your subjects one by one
And simply used the lot!

A poem for class 4

Egypt, land of pyramids
A place to take the class 4 kids
Golden sand and bluest sea
As we all know from our Miss p

 Class 4 are busy doing a topic on Egypt and i have the task of addressing them this morning and introducing them to poetry a task i hope they enjoy as much as i ... here is a little something to make them smile (i hope! or i am gonna be one very uncool Dad!)

A river deep that's called the Nile
Just take a dip and you will smile
Mummies dressed from head to toe
With bandages how strange you know!

Now once I tried i must confess
To walk Egyptian ..what a mess!
I couldn't get it right you see
Egyptian? well I'm not you see.

I walked along the desert sand
To meet the Sphinx and shake his hand
But yet another shock I cry!
He's made of stone and awfully high!

So next time you get chance to go
To Egypt, you just need to know
It's full of interesting stuff
I guess it's really Pharoah'nuff 

Professional Dictators. Who would be a teacher?.

At a time when so many families are finding it hard to make ends meet, it would be comforting to say the least to know that although things have been bad recently there is actually light at the end of the tunnel, but alas that light is just some new government quango official with a torch bringing the good hard working people of this Country more completely irrelevant by-law to adhere to, or face imprisonment or a day in the stocks at the very least.
You see, far from taking such ridiculous burdens away from the great and the good in this Country as promised, Messrs (double entendre intended) Cameron and oh, now who is that other guy?... have trebled the amount of crazy rules and regulations we have to abide by, hence the cries from every corner of this poor land  'you are out of touch'. Now of course, that message will never reach the Governments ears because it is deemed to be just a press bite that doesn't warrant a reply, but hang on.. is it?.

Cameron and ...errr I will remember him in a moment (which is more than history will) would do well to listen to the gentle folk of this Country for a change instead of some other pompous twit brought up through the ranks and given a job to advise them on how to become more popular with the electorate.
I run a business that is always in direct contact with the general public, they seem to all be singing from the very same hymn sheet lately, yes they are fed up and yes they think this government has lost it's way but the difference is not only are the complaints becoming louder but also on the same subjects, namely immigration, health and teaching.
The worst mistake any party in power can make is not to listen to its own people. Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, Ted Heath are all proven and fallen testaments to this fact, the only exception is Tony Blair who didn't listen just long enough to hand the reigns over to the afore mentioned lamentable Mr Brown.. I tell you if you are ever in a big battle, stand directly behind Tony Blair.. you would never get hit, Teflon Tony knows a few moves !.
If you want an example of complete and utter meddling by this so-called government of the people take a quick look at the teaching profession. In my opinion the whole school industry is about to implode. You may think that I am being a little dramatic but allow me some latitude your Worship.
Teachers are being hunted down at the moment, they are public enemy No.1 to the government, they are the reason our society is broken and they must all be brought to book for the downward spiral of our spirituality and morals for the past 20 years. That is the story according to Westminster.  The facts unsurprisingly are all too glaringly different. The real problem in our classes is that consecutively weak governments have allowed the pupil to become king over a land that it has no jurisdiction or experience to rule. Teachers are on the run, if not from the very pupils they are trying to educate then the very bosses they serve through more and more ridiculous over-regulation. Time and again OFSTED (herein known as the 4th Reich as they cannot be argued with..AT ALL...EVER) change the goal posts for teachers who have but one aim when they come in to the profession and that is to teach...the silly naive so and so's aren't they?.
Nanny govt knows better. Nanny govt has lots of little troopers all around the Country that know better and they MUST be listened to or sacking and floggings at dawn are the expected norm. OFSTED have every teacher in the Country worried for their job even if they are performing outstandingly, due to the uneducated idealistic sanitised view of schools emanating from Westminster, while in reality Parliament cant even get it's OWN house in order. Pot, kettle, black, anyone?.
I am 47. I was raised with a healthy respect for my teacher's, I didn't always like them but I had respect and that came from a sense of right and wrong instilled in me at an early age. When I was at school we had winners and losers, we had play bars that hurt if you fell off them, we had rules that meant you got a smacked arse if you broke them, we never sat a single govt test until the 11 plus, if you studied and did well you went to the Grammar school if not you went to the Secondary. It was life and there my friends is the key to why school's are failing. It's not that our poor teachers are all second rate and need constant badgering and draconian legislation to help them do their jobs, it's not because kids are naughtier (although allowed to play the system even a politician should be bright enough to see they will do so) it's because successive government meddling and poor upper management followed by a transition of rights to the pupils (the very people we are actually trying to help to learn about life) ,have been allowed to call the shots. Mother Nature would never let the Lion be hunted by the Gazelle. That is not real life and neither is the current school's curriculum.. I am afraid our kid's are not being taught real life and it's all down to Mother Westminster.

I don't like to beat about the bush most of the time but I always think if you argue a case then it should have 2 things, number one is it should have a point and number two is it should come from someone who has at least had a glimpse of what they are dealing with so they can actually talk with some merit, well I have both as I am a Governor at our local Primary and I see first hand what the incompetent meddling and constant pressure of losing your job is doing to our poor bloody teachers who are trying in reality to knit fog with two tennis rackets. It's a damn scandal and it is reminiscent of a dictatorial society of Orwellian proportions.

OFSTED's little Hitlers sat in their bunkers and their masters the political parties need to realise something that all good Generals have recognised in every battle ever fought throughout the generations, you MUST keep morale. If you lose morale then you lose the battle and that my friends and countrymen and women is exactly where we are at the moment. Teachers have little or no morale, they are brow-beaten by legislation that is ill thought out and idealistic administered by an untouchable, unquestionable unapproachable force that is not fit for purpose and the whole rotten lot of it needs pulling apart to the bare bones and starting again.

But don't listen to me, after all I am just a single voice in a cast of millions, luckily for OFSTED and the government, unluckily for my beautiful Country and those wonderful people who dare to try and teach our much maligned and mostly misunderstood youth. 










 .

New England managers?

One would scarcely blame David Cameron and his coalition buddies from sitting back this long weekend and just wondering how or even why on earth they got themselves into this current pickle. The polls suggest they have become at least as unpopular as Labour before they were ejected, (much to Labour's arrogant glee, for wasn't a lot of this mess created by 12 years of indecision and money wasting?) but they are also being derided as jolly "Oxford" types completely out of touch with reality. The latter may have some truth about it but as always in politics it is not the complete answer. I fear we may have to look on our own doorsteps a little if we really want to dissect the current issues our poor country is lumbered with.

The truth is, being in government these days is a little like being handed the England football managers job, everyone is a critic and everyone sat in an armchair at home can do better. We expect to win every tournament and indeed every game, each of which should be played out to perfection with at least a 5-1 scoreline in our favour or the team is dissected limb from limb by the Nation and the press. The reality of course is somewhat different hence the reason we end up so thoroughly disappointed.

Just playing devil's advocate for a moment, why for instance, do we expect governments to be able to teach better than the teachers?, the Police to be accountable to an "Oxford academic" with no experience of walking the pavements and meeting the general public head on when blind drunk and swearing?. The Nurse that saves a life through simply knowing when and what to inject a patient with?. The facts are that we have turned to our politicians for help in all manner of unsuitable scenarios of which they have little or no experience, so what do they do? they ask advisers. But these so-called advisers have usually been out of the front line for so long they don't have any idea of how modern services in Britain work, they are far removed from the nitty gritty of front line teaching, nursing, policing etc and so they too add more confusion to an already out of hand situation.

We as a population need to realise that central government cannot cure all. It's simply not possible. This country is too diverse to expect a one pill cures all treatment to work. I agree that government has got itself far too involved in the services and the public sector for it's own good but at the same time they all do actually need to be regulated.

So, here's a thing. Why don't we let Council's earn their money and their corn by making such decisions that currently lay at governments door on a local level for themselves?.  It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that policy drafted by governments for schools in Brixton for instance, would be totally alien to schools in North Yorkshire and trying to make them work would be a fools task, though that is currently the case. The same for policing, nursing etc, we shouldn't expect legislation (and poor legislation at that) from our government to be an instant fix.
If we, the people are involved in the decision making on a local level then suddenly the jigsaw will start to fit. The government of the day can get on with simply governing and the people on the front line services can get at the people that matter when a query needs addressing.
Hospital wards need Matron, Police officers need a Sergeant and teachers need Head Masters. None of theses public service sectors are currently allowed to rule on a local level, hence the governments "one size fits all" quick fix is not working. While that is put into place we then all need to take a long hard look in our own backyard as to why we expect government to cure everything. They can't... and the sooner we as a Nation take responsibility for how things turn out the better. I fear it may all be a little too late for our current government however, perhaps giving the seemingly popular Boris a chance may alter things, but i fear i cannot see he and the Liberals seeing eye to eye on one single item. Perhaps a complete change may be needed. Anyone like to vote for me and the new revolution..?!

Thoughts of the City.

 Just wrote this while tucked up in bed with the rain hitting the windows..hope you like it.

The street lights seem to flicker in the rain
and the reflections from the dark wet road shimmer,
like stars that are lost to eternity.
The breeze takes the raindrops this way and that,
in a frenzied dance inspired by the neon filled horizon.
The hustle and bustle of the day has given way to night.
Where once stood hundreds now only a lone cat casts a shadow
seemingly oblivious to the flashing science of lights
lit up to pedal the wares of business people long gone for the night.
A sign swings in the breeze to and fro with an eerie squeal,
Discarded paper forms spirals in the air in defiance of gravity
casting shadows on wet brickwork and shop windows
The reality of our own mortality swamps my thoughts.
At once the silence is deafening and frightening at the same time. 
It's 4 a.m in the City. 

War dogs.

When all the bombs are silenced
When all the dust has died
When all the planes of violence
Are stored all safe inside

When all the crumbled buildings
Just teeter on the brink
When water lies in every street
Yet none is fit to drink

When politicians preaching
Of peace and healing sores
Just fail to see they're teaching
The young to fight in wars

When rhetoric and violence
Are met with with much the same
The guns will not be silenced
The killing still remains.

When families are slaughtered
And Generals hold the sway
Sure tell our sons and daughters
That no-one wins today

Easter Thought.

 Something for Easter Sunday morning.


At easter time its understood
That evil couldn't triumph good

For all the sins man had begun
were taken on by only one

For he was special that's agreed
He saved us in our hour of need,

No selfish thought to save his skin
A saviour true was ushered in

Though man behaved with such contempt
The saviours feelings weren't exempt

He knew that man was worth the fight
To change the dark back to the light

And yes still now the lessons learned
That even with your bridge's burnt

It needs just one with faith in you
To make things work and see it through

So even if your faith is shallow
You can walk the straight and narrow

There is always someone there
Just ask him with a simple prayer.