Conservatives are an endangered species

What is a Conservative? An endangered species, I would suggest; and the reason is corporatism.

British Conservatives tend to be coy about their beliefs. If you wish to be the ‘natural party of government’ it is not a good idea to be too definite and dogmatic about principles, which can only lead to damaging splits as per the factions in Python’s ‘Life Of Brian’ . Quintin Hogg said it was ‘not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society.’

Okay, something to do with freedom; but specifically, individual freedom – not some collective freedom that is equivalent to a coach trip going where many of the passengers don’t wish to go.

And that implies a degree of economic independence.

Over the centuries, between the peasant in his field and the King in his court there sprang up the burgess in his town, where ideas, information and capital could circulate creatively. The special skills of goldsmiths and haberdashers, protected from ruinous competition by guilds, allowed their accumulation of wealth through trade; and fostered the attitude that the rulers should serve the people, or at least, people like themselves. There might be challenges to the throne from time to time, yet as my farmer grandfather observed, the oxen change but the trough remains the same.

Now, the social order is threatened not by an ‘overmighty subject’ looking to unseat the King, but by multinational businesses that undermine the burgess class with impunity. There is no need to be over-careful about a nation’s welfare and social cohesion so long as one can extract the cash and carry it far away.

And then, political attitudes will change.

What goes around, comes around. Tesco’s Dave Lewis is calling for a cut in business rates funded by a tax on online sales. It’s not as though Tesco hasn’t itself taken advantage of Internet trading and tax offshoring, in the past, but now they are getting pinched between the likes of Amazon in the virtual world and the discount supermarkets in the real one.

Still, what’s happening now to the big brick shops is only what they themselves have done to small High Street traders. When I first came here in suburban Birmingham, the local shopping parade boasted a mom-and-pop hardware store, a second-hand bookshop, a post office, two greengrocers and three butchers.

All gone.

What have we got now? Knock-off shops, nail and tattoo parlours, fast-food takeaways and an opaque-fronted store selling hydroponics to grow cannabis. The people are getting fatter, tatter and mad as a hatter. Greyfaced hoodies slip unshaven from the barber’s and into their mates’ nippy cars - don’t look at them, and don’t walk around at night.

The bookshop owner told me the neighbourhood was ‘artisan’; that was over thirty years ago.

The self-serving narrative of big capital is that it ‘creates jobs’, but as the sharply pessimistic US writer James Kunstler observes, ‘one of the founders of the Home Depot company, billionaire Ken Langone… made his fortune by putting every local hardware store in America out of business, which enabled him to capture the annual incomes of ten thousand small business owners and their employees.’

And more is lost than even this wide-angle perspective might show. One of my greengrocers was employing his son, training him up to take over. The boy learned how to talk to customers, handle goods and money, and build the relationships that would sustain what would one day be his business. He would not be hanging around the off-license at night or setting fire to street waste bins. Round the corner, one of the butchers had three generations in the shop, the latest a primary age child who on Saturdays donned his little striped apron and watched how meat was cut. He, too, was going to grow up law-abiding and self-supporting.

Don’t expect a shelf-stacker on income supplements to vote the same way as them.

One of the reasons more people don’t support Brexit is, I think, the Marie Antoinette effect: they tend their washed sheep in blithe ignorance. Some of the comfortably-off, based perhaps in London or university cities or market towns, will still have butchers and greengrocers, will buy at the deli, the wine merchant and the artisan baker, will patronise the farmer’s market and fuss over having their strawberries in paper bags instead of plastic punnets. Despite what their eyes may skim over in the papers, they will look around their immediate environment and see that nothing much has altered. What on Earth, they will feel, is this ridiculous fuss all about?

They are heartened by the LibDems’ success in the recent council elections, not seeing that while Con and Lab each lost 7% of their voters, most of those didn’t migrate to the LibDems, who only added 3% to their own, much smaller share. It was an electoral collapse for the major players, and a shop-soiled victory for the least hated.

But it’s not business as usual. A great change is coming.

Mysteries of Sacred Architecture (2), by JD

Chartres, the western rose window

It is time for a short history lesson:

In Louis Charpentier's book about Chartres Cathedral [9] he writes the Gothic style appeared suddenly around 1130AD and "In a few years it reaches its apogee, born whole and entire without experiment or miscarriage. And the extraordinary thing is that it had at its disposal master-craftsmen, artisans, builders, enough of them to undertake the construction of eighty huge monuments in less than 100 years."

Jean Gimpel in his book [10] tells a similar tale "In three centuries, 1050 - 1350, several million tons of stone were quarried in France for the building of 80 cathedrals, 500 large churches...... More stone was excavated in France during those three centuries than at any time in Ancient Egypt." And that was just in France. During the same period cathedrals were being built in England, Italy and Germany.

Where did this knowledge and understanding of design and construction come from? It is generally assumed it was brought to Europe by the nine (later ten) Knights Templar in the 11th or 12th century. But before any of the great European Cathedrals were built the Moors in Al Andalus (i.e. Spain) had built the Great Mosque of Cordoba, work starting in 784AD; the Alhambra Palace in Granada (originally Al Hamra - the 'red fort') in 889AD (and exensively renovated in the thirteenth century); and many more.

All of those buildings, and the Cordoba Mosque in particular, were built in accordance with the design principles as described at the beginning of this short essay. [3,4]

So the influences on the Cathedral builders of Europe were not necessarily confined to the returning Crusaders as our historians tell us.

Historians are mere chroniclers of conflict between various tyrants and, as such, tell only a part of the story. They appear to have little or no interest in the 'common people' nor the co-operation between peoples that is necessary for civilisation to flourish. They never tell us about the trade between nations or the exchange of ideas. The Roman Empire stretched from the north of England across the Mediterranean and into the Holy Land. We know that tin was transported from Cornwall to Rome as an essential ingredient for making bronze. We also know that spikenard oil came from the Himalayas and was used by Mary Magdalene to anoint the feet of Jesus. So 2000 years ago it seems that there were extensive trade routes stretching across the known world, from 'Britannia' in the west to India (and possibly even into China) in the east. What else travelled along those trade routes? Think of all the different languages along this ancient 'silk road' and all the interpreters and translators who were obviously essential to conduct this trade. What else did they exchange besides goods? They would be exposed to new cultures, new ideas, different philosophies. As an example, one such traveller was Bernard the Pilgrim (Bernardus Sapiens, Bernard the wise) who was a Frankish Monk who left a chronicle of his journeys around the Mediterranean and into the Holy Land. The date of his travels is unclear but it is said to be 875 - 871 AD i.e. long before the first Crusade. [11]

There must have been other Christian travellers during the first millenium but without feeling the need to record their travels and as monks or abbots or bishops they would look at things from a different perspective than traders and merchants and so bring back more esoteric knowledge.

It is clear from the two books cited [9,10] that the driving force behind all of this building work came from the Monasteries, pricipally the Benedictines and the Cistercians. [12] And the main figure in all this seems to have been Bernard of Clairvaux who had links with the Templars and the building of Notre Dame de Chartres. "when the first Christians arrived in Chartres, during the declining years of the Roman Empire, they found in the 'Druid grotto' within the Chartres butte a statuette of the 'Black Virgin'. It was believed to represent Isis. Chartres, according to Charpentier, was a center for religious worship older than Christianity itself." [9]

That is an intriguing statement because -"St Bernard of Clairvaux was a great devotee of the Mother of Jesus, and he wrote numerous hymns and sermons which he dedicated to her. He also wrote several sermons on the theme of the Song of Songs in which the Bride sings “I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." [13]

Bernard of Clairvaux was a Cistercian [14] and he introduced the cult of Isis into Christianity under the veil of the Virgin Mary. [15] Chartres was the first to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary (the first to be called Notre Dame.)

And so we come to the most mysterious of all the great Cathedrals; Chartres. Better minds than mine remain baffled by the cathedral and its many mysteries so all I can do is give my own reaction after visiting and to comment on some strange anomalies therein.

- The first and most striking inpression is of the light inside. I know that these are stained glass windows and they really are unique. They are not coloured glass which merely filter and colour the sunlight. The building seems to glow inside, an 'inner light' almost. Bathed in that glow, that light brings to mind Wordsworth's poem 'Intimations of Immortality' which includes the lines that everything seemed 'apparelled in celestial light'.

Charpentier explains that stained glass first appeared in Persia and was used in the European cathedrals for no more than 150 years or so and then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. To this day nobody has been able to replicate the glass nor to work out how it was created. It was produced by Alchemy, that much derided ancient science, the forerunner of chenistry. Charpentier explains that there is something in sunlight which is damaging to organic material, for example in how fabrics fade in colour or how photos fade and of course how our skins are pigmented by prolonged exposure to sunlight. And yet there is something else in sunlight which triggers photosynthesis in plants. He speculates that the composition of stained glass somehow excludes the damaging rays while allowing the beneficial rays to pass. It was only recently that modern science has begun to understand the effect of light on matter in what is called quantum electrodynamics. [16] How did the glass makers know that? How did the cathedral builders know to include such glass? Could that knowledge be part of the 'secret' that was allegedly brought back from the Holy Land? Would they have known or witnessed or even been part of 'The Miracle of the Holy Fire' in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? [17] It might help to explain those questions about light.

- In one of those windows is a tiny gap in one of the panes of glass which allows unfiltered sunlight to pass. On the floor of the nave there is a small paving slab set at an angle to all others and in it is a small gilded metal tenon. At noon on the summer solstice a shaft of sunlight strikes that small piece of metal causing it to shine. The precision of the builders in calculating and locating that single moment in time is astonishing. How did they do that?

I should add that there is a similar but much less spectacular demonstration of the same thing in the Cloisters of Durham cathedral. On the south facing arcade there is a small gap in the tracery of the stone work and on the wall and floor of the arcade is a line with an arrow head etched into the wall and an arrow head etched into the floor. A shaft of sunlight will strike the arrow head on the wall at noon on the winter solstice and the arrow head on the floor at noon on the summer solstice. I don't know when that was incorporated into the stone work, whether it was there from the start or a later addition. And of the thousands of visitors, I wonder how many have noticed it?

- On the floor of the nave is a very large labyrinth (47 feet in diameter, the same diameter as the rose window) The labyrinth predates Christianity and it first appeared on the Greek coins of Crete in the 5th or 6th century BC. and has appeared at other times and places in pre-history. [18] So why is there a labyrinth in a Christian cathedral? Not that it is the only one, there are others in cathedrals in France and Italy.

But follow the pathway of the labyrinth in Chartres from its entrance to the centre and you will have journeyed more or less 666feet. Surely not, that is the famous or infamous number of the beast in Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. But all is not what it seems because we are back to the subject of the sun and light: 666 is, or was in ancient time, the number associated with the sun. [19] This cathedral does not easily reveal its secrets or mysteries.

- The outside of the cathedral is equally unorthodox in its many statues adorning virtually the whole building. I cannot begin to unravel the iconography; among the identifiable Christian statuary there is, for example, a statue of a donkey on its hind legs and playing a hurdy gurdy. I haven't the faintest idea what that is supposed to represent! The best guide I think would be a book called 'The Mystery of the Cathedrals' by Fulcanelli. [20] I have not read that book but I have read his other book "Les Demeures Philosphales" and I understood about half of it and there were some thing which I found difficult to accept: he seems to have undue reverence for an x shaped metal bar securely stored in a climate controlled room somewhere in Paris, this bar being the standard measure for the French metre. That struck me as odd because the length of the metre has been changed four times, to my knowledge, since it was invented in 1790. Furthermore it is irrelevant as a standard of measure because it does not conform to either a human scale or a geodetic scale or even a cosmic scale unlike every other standard of measure in history.

I am on safer ground with the actual dimensions of the building. The north tower is 365 feet in height and is topped by a cast iron 'flag' in the shape of the sun thus indicating the solar calendar. The south tower is 28 feet shorter than the north tower and is topped by a cast iron 'flag' in the shape of a crscent moon thus indicating a lunar calendar. [21] So the towers represent the solar, masculine aspect of humanity and the lunar, feminine aspect. (I have seen a lot of older paintings of the Virgin Mary showing her standing on a crescent moon with her head haloed with gold stars.)

This is esoteric rather than Christian symbolism and, overall, the cathedral seems to be dedicated to the sun. This is usually explained by the spread of Christianity which would take existing sacred places of worship and adapt Christianity and Christian symbolism to the extant spiritual system in order to convert the people to follow Jesus. (See above how Chartres was built on a site originally used by Druids) This was how Christianity spread in South and Central America but, oddly enough, in North America there was no attempt to use existing sacred places.

- So what does it all mean, why is it built they way it is? The short answer is, I don't know. I have a lot of other information which I could have included here but how to tie it all together into a coherent answer is beyond me at the moment and a lot of it would just confuse things further. One thing I do know is the effect on me of these buildings, not all of them but most of them. They all generate a strange air of tranquility, calmness and the awareness that there is a connection between here and the not-here which all religions are attempting to describe, a connection between here and that strange place colloquially known as heaven. A feeling that we are not alone and that we are all connected to all that was, is and will be. I am not sufficiently eloquent to articulate this and I know that I am not the only one.

It is not just the sacred buildings which do that. I have felt the same 'harmony' in other places: in the Alhambra Palace of Granada or in the Cañón del Río Lobos in the middle of Spain http://www.nourishingobscurity.com/2010/11/canon-del-rio-lobos/ but also just sitting and watching the sun set into the Pacific ocean or visiting the amazingly peaceful setting of the Holystone/Lady's Well in the far north of Northumberland.
https://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/places-to-visit/coquetdale/holystone-ladys-well/

Charpentier, in his book, writes "... its [Chartres] architectural harmony remains intact, or little short of it and no man can boast, not even in a practical sense, that he leaves the cathedral at Chartres the same as he was when he went in."

"From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began
 From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man."

- John Dryden, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44185/a-song-for-st-cecilias-day-168
_________________________________________________________________________________
References:

[1] Notre Dame de Paris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris
[2] Viollet le Duc.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-Emmanuel-Viollet-le-Duc
[3] fractals in architecture
https://spatialexperiments.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/fractal-geometry-in-nature-and-architecture/
[4] fractal architecture could be good for you
http://community.archimatix.com/random-random/fractal-architecture-could-be-good-for-you/
[5] A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael S. 
Schneider.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginners-Guide-Constructing-Universe/dp/0060926716
[6] Hexham Abbey, the Night Stair.
https://www.hexhamabbey.org.uk/heritage/Articles/NightStair.html
[7] The Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle
http://www.icysedgwick.com/vampire-rabbit-newcastle/
[8] Coventry Cathedral
https://oxfamwilmslow.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/cathedral-reborn-coventry-1962/
[9] "The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral" - Louis Charpentier.
http://www.newinvisiblecollege.com/chartres-louis-charpentier/
also - http://www.newinvisiblecollege.com/chartres-louis-charpentier/
[10] "The Cathedral Builders" - Jean Gimpel.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1527944.The_Cathedral_Builders
[11] Bernard the Wise
https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/wiki/Bernard_the_Pilgrim
[12] Monasticism - 
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab88
[13] Bernard of Clairvaux and the black Madonnas
http://goddess-pages.info/black-madonnas-2/
[14] Cistercian Order -
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cistercians
[15] This page has been translated from Portuguese but the meaning is 
clear.
https://www.fnespc.com/clairvaux-magdalena/
[16] QED
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics
[17] The Miracle of the Holy Fire
https://ocoy.org/miracle-holy-fire/
[18] 'Architecture, Mysticism and Myth' by William Lethaby ( see chapter 
7)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Architecture-Mysticism-Myth-W-Lethaby/dp/1596053801
[19] The magic square of the sun.
http://www.jesus8880.com/gematria/topic_essays/magic_square_sun.htm
[20] "The Mystery of the Cathedrals" by Fulcanelli -
  "Fulcanelli suggests that, just like there is a series of mysteries 
dwelling inside the Egyptian pyramids, there is occult knowledge inside 
the architecture and engineering of Medieval Gothic cathedrals. He 
believed these buildings were not only dedicated to the glory of 
Christianity, but also to books that contained the philosophical, 
religious, and social thoughts of our ancestors. Like any sanctuary, 
cathedrals posses a hospitable origin and were meant to shelter to 
anyone in disgrace."
https://culturacolectiva.com/history/fulcanelli-alchemy-cathedrals
  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fulcanelli-Alchemist-Cathedrales-Esoteric-
[21] It should be noted that St Paul's in London measure 365 feet from 
the floor of the nave to the tip of the cross on the dome.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer, by JD

"Shelby Lynne was born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in Mobile, Alabama where she attended Theodore High School. Music was an important part of the Moorer family. Lynne's father was a heavy drinker who abused his wife. In 1985, her mother fled with the two girls to nearby Mobile, but her father soon discovered their whereabouts. In 1986, in front of 17-year-old Lynne and her younger sister, Allison, he shot his wife to death before taking his own life."

That might sound like the theme of one of those old Country & Western songs but in fact it was the reality of Shelby Lynne's and Allison Moorer's teenage years. Somehow they managed to overcome the trauma of that event and, in Nashville, became very good and highly regarded singers and songwriters. In 2017 they finally made a record together and, like all siblings, the musical harmonies were exceptional. Comparisons were made with the Everly Brothers which is high praise indeed.

Here is a selection from their joint album and a couple of solo pieces and, from Allison Moorer I don't think I have heard a better version of Carrickfergus. And of course, there is an Everly Brothers song included also.

An Open Letter to the Labour Party

Sackerson's latest post on The Conservative Woman:

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/an-open-letter-to-the-labour-party/

Mysteries of Sacred Architecture (1), by JD

This is a post (in two parts) prompted by the recent fire at the Cathedral of Notre dame in Paris but it is not a speculation on the causes of the fire. I leave that to others.

And it is not about the costs of any restoration; those who object to money being spent on the building are very much in tune with Judas who objected to money being spent on expensive ointments for Jesus instead of giving the money to the poor - John 12:1–8

This is a post about the mystery that is Sacred Architecture and how and why such great ecclesiastical buildings are a permanent source of wonder. There are many books on the subject and thousands of words have been written already so all I can do is merely 'scratch the surface' and try to convey my own understanding from what I have read and what I have seen so far.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The recent fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris is not the first time the building has been damaged. Considerably more damage was done to the fabric of the building during the French Revolution of 1789 and subsequently. [1]

The spire which was detroyed in the fire was not the original so all of the pious humbug about a legacy 'lost forever' is misplaced. The original was removed in 1786 because it was unstable in the wind. 

After the Revolution Napoleon was crowned Emperor in the Cathedral in 1804 and French life returned to normal, relatively speaking.

Restoration work on the cathedral was done by Viollet le Duc, starting in 1844. He recreated the original spire but made it "... taller and more strongly built to withstand the weather; it was decorated with statues of the apostles, and the face of Saint Thomas bore a noticeable resemblance to Viollet-le-Duc." [2]

I have been to the Cathedral during my time working in Paris but I have not been inside. I have visited and been fascinated by Cathedrals and other sacred buildings for most of my life and I don't know why but for some reason this one did not 'invite' me to step through the door.

My introduction to sacred architecture came during family holidays in Northumberland and the Borders and a visit to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. There was a wooden Priory building on the site from the 7th century. The current ruins are of the stone Priory built in the 12th century. Although I was very young when I first visited, those ruins looked 'right' somehow and looked as though they belonged in their setting, in that landscape. It was many years later that I heard about the design concept of Self Similarity. It is a concept whereby a glimpse of just a small portion of a design (as in Lindisfarne's ruins) will allow you to know exactly how the entire thing looks or in this case used to look. In other words it is an example of fractal geometry. [3]

" In the article Fractal Architecture Could Be Good For You (Joye, 2007) the author presents numerous architectural examples where fractal geometry plays an important role, from Hindu temples, where the self repeating and self-similar components are supposed to reflect the idea that every part of cosmos contain all information about the whole cosmos, to gothic architecture, with a high degree of self similarity and complex detailing." [4]

"A surprising amount of the world's religious art and architecture has been designed using the timeless symbolic patterns of nature and number, but these patterns symbolic of our own sacred inner realm, symbolic of the subtle structure of awareness whose source is the same as archetypal number. All this was understood in ancient times and deemed so important that it was built into the culture on every level." - Michael S. Schneider. [5]

If all of that sounds too complex, don't worry because you understand it at a subconscious intuitive level whether you realise it or not. It is why you hate the glass and steel of the modern architect's vanity projects found in every city and why you prefer vernacular or traditional building design. It is why modern architecture generates dis-ease.

Here in the 'far north' we also have Durham Cathedral which is more than 900 years old and, for me, the massive stone pillars within the main body of the building and the Cloisters are the most impressive features. But I much prefer Hexham Abbey. It is a lot smaller obviously and very different in character. Where the Cathedral is airy and light inside, the Abbey is dark within. The rood screen forms a very clear division between the choir and the congregation which division is emphasised by the width of the transept. By far the most impressive and mysterious feature is the Night Stair which is part of the original 13th century Priory on the site. My favourite detail however are the small carved stone figures behind the choir stalls including a figure of a bagpiper. I like that one! [6]

The Cathedral Church of Saint Nicholas in the centre of Newcastle dates from the same period as Hexham Abbey, work being completed in 1350. Its most notable feature is the lantern spire built in the 15th century. The most interesting tale is not about the Cathedral itself but about the strange gargoyle known as the Vampire Rabbit which sits on a very ornate doorway of Cathedral Buildings (built 1901) and this little creature is looking directly at the east window of the Cathedral. Why? Well, nobody seems to know. I have asked in the Cathedral as well as the local library but it is a mystery. I suspect the answer may be hidden somewhere in the dusty archives of the architects; or maybe not. [7]

Venturing further south I have visited many, but nowhere near all, of the Cathedrals of England and each has provided something worth remembering. It would be repetitive to try to describe all of them but I will mention the one which was the exception. That was the new Coventry Cathedral which was consecrated in 1962. When I saw it in that year, to say it was a shock is something of an understatement. It doesn't look like a cathedral, it doesn't 'feel' like a cathedral and I cannot think of anything good to say about it - modern architecture at its contemptuous worst: show any modern architect an urban space to be filled and he will treat it the way a dog treats a lamppost!

My first reaction on seeing it was to wonder why it had a statue of the devil at the entrance. On closer inspection it turned out to be St Michael triumphant over the devil but there was very little that was 'saintly' about the sculpted figure. Inside the building were row upon row of wooden chairs, it resembled a school assembly hall.

The only thing which impressed me was the large tapestry by Graham Sutherland. I still have the commemorative souvenir publication called Cathedral Reborn [8] I note that it cost 5/-, a reminder of the days when we had real money! (See the quote above about number being so important it was built into the culture at every level.[5])

When the new design was chosen the public reaction was universally hostile. I quote from the booklet 'Cathedral Reborn' - " The architect, Basil Spence (later Sir Basil), insisted... that he was the traditionalist in doing what the builders of cathedrals throughout history had done, designing in a style relevant and meaningful for their day." The Bishop of Coventry said "If we cannot express our Christian faith in terms of our time, we might as well pack up." The Provost added "We see the cathedral as a great laboratory of experiment. We feel we have been given a licence to do experimental and probably controversial work."

Clearly none of the three had any understanding of the reasons for having cathedrals at all. They all sound like the Dadaist or Marcel Duchamp; doing their 'art' in a different way because it is all meaningless anyway.

If you want to know why religious belief has withered away in this country, there it is. Those who are charged with keeping the faith no longer believe in it. This was the sixties and 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater' was the 'revolutionary' trend in virtually every established tradition to be replaced by...? Nothing of any substance or meaning.

- To be continued in Part 2.

===================================================

References:

[1] Notre Dame de Paris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris

[2] Viollet le Duc.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-Emmanuel-Viollet-le-Duc

[3] fractals in architecture

https://spatialexperiments.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/fractal-geometry-in-nature-and-architecture/

[4] fractal architecture could be good for you

http://community.archimatix.com/random-random/fractal-architecture-could-be-good-for-you/

[5] A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael S. Schneider.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginners-Guide-Constructing-Universe/dp/0060926716

[6] Hexham Abbey, the Night Stair.

https://www.hexhamabbey.org.uk/heritage/Articles/NightStair.html

[7] The Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle

http://www.icysedgwick.com/vampire-rabbit-newcastle/

[8] Coventry Cathedral

https://oxfamwilmslow.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/cathedral-reborn-coventry-1962/

FRIDAY MUSIC: More Mediaeval, by JD

I am developing a liking for the old stuff - some of it sounds quite modern!

Which Brexit?

Assuming that we ever escape the Shelob’s web that Mrs May, her bullnecked exquisite “Olly” Robbins and others have woven in our path out of the EU, the big question is, what next? Is it to be untrammelled “free trade”, or something else? For there are other options.

Hilariously, Left agitators like Owen Jones and unthinking right-on Facebook snarlers represent Leave as purely a Tory initiative, quite forgetting that it was Conservatives like Macmillan and Heath who shoehorned us into this mess in the first place.

Why?

Some say it was because we needed supranational government to prevent a third and even more terrible, nuclear-armed world war. Others say Supermac felt it was a way to block the takeover of socialism in Britain.

Both could be right, for these issues were addressed over sixty years ago, by none other than Lord Beveridge:

‘I believe that there are two desires which are common to all the peoples of all the nations of the world. One is the desire for peace, and the second is the desire to have their own way of life, not something forced on them from outside; to govern or, if they prefer, misgovern, themselves. How can they get both those things—peace and self-government, or self-misgovernment, as they prefer?’

I used to think that World Government sounded like a Good Idea, failing to factor-in human nature: build a Throne for the Ruler of All and “they will come”, the violent contenders for it.

But as Betrand Russell said, power takes more than one form. Such is the terror of Mutually Assured Destruction that the battling has diverted into economics and the Game Of CEOs’ Desks. Our time in the EU has seen big money and little people moving around, which has led to economic and social disequilibrium. There has only been one year since our entry in 1973 when we had evenly balanced trade with the EEC-EC-EU: not coincidentally I think, that was the year of the 1975 Referendum. Otherwise, losses for the UK, and the withering of our industries.

Yet the vision Mr Farage and others conjure up for us, of a Britain trading completely freely with the world, has its own potential pitfalls. For example, when Michael Gove attended January’s Oxford Farming Conference NFU President Minette Batters asked him for reassurances that domestic food producers would not be undercut by imports from countries with lower standards of production and environmental protection.

These are knotty problems, and not just for the developed countries. A 2012 study said that the Great Green Wheeze of making fuel from grain, plus the disruptive activity of international speculators, had the effect of tripling the price of Mexico’s corn and inflicting hunger on its poor.

Similarly, when rich countries draw in skilled health workers from abroad it may be a cheap way to fulfil our needs with ready-trained professionals, but it also means a ‘brain drain’ that is ‘adversely affecting the healthcare system in developing countries and, hence, the health of the population.’ Even the Guardian has noted this effect on Romania, whose health workers are emigrating.

Free trade needs some form of control of pace and direction, just as a car needs brakes and steering. It can’t all be left to the multinationals to decide, because in the interests of maximising shareholder returns they will seek to externalise costs and may ultimately destroy the system.

I have previously likened globalised finance to opening all the locks on a canal at the same time and perhaps this crude graphic will sketch some concerns:

The current situation bears out what Sir James Goldsmith predicted in 1994, that unrestricted international trade would swing the seesaw towards capital and against labour forces and would lead to social tensions.

We are seeing growing inequality, even – especially - in Communist China. Over here, rich individuals can squirrel their wealth offshore while still living in London; multinational companies can incorporate wherever in Europe charges them the least; growing numbers of the poor feed and breed; the middle class, who don’t have enough to run away, get squeezed for tax even as Artificial Intelligence is a looming threat to their ability to earn in future.

But if we could level the seesaw so that we had more real jobs (employment statistics are a lie, even Big Issue sellers count as self-employed and qualify for income supplements) and better pay rates, then the working population would spend more, so increasing demand for each other’s goods and services. The increased turnover of money would also mean more tax revenue – a bite at every turn- so we might at last balance the national budget, instead of self-defeating, demand-shrivelling ‘austerity’. And, perhaps, much of the underclass would be raised from liability status to economic asset.

We must of course trade with the world, but on terms that are more equitable, at a more measured pace, so that all will benefit gradually, rather than this crazy Wild West gold rush.

Everything is a political decision. We have the capacity to bomb the human race to extinction several times over, but so far we have decided not to. We instituted the Welfare State at a time when the country was on its uppers and we couldn’t afford it – but we hadn’t done it in the midst of pre-WWI prosperity, so when was it ever going to come?

Now, we need more freedom to make deep, long-term political decisions.

My argument for Brexit is not that we will all suddenly become much richer, but that we need more flexibility in a changing world; to be able to govern or, if we prefer, misgovern, ourselves, as Beveridge so wisely said.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dylan, by JD

"The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe."

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

This week's music is from Bob Dylan. There is not much to say that has not already been said but I would like to comment on two popular 'myths' about the man.

The first is that he is a 'born again' evangelical Christian, based on three biblically inspired albums in the late seventies and early eighties. Not quite; it is true that he spent three months at the Vineyard Church in California studying the New Testament-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Vineyard_Churches

But he remained and still is Jewish and is one of a growing number who recognise that Jesus was indeed the Jewish Messiah fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. This link will help to explain-
https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/issues-v21-n03/thinking-twice-about-bob-dylan/

The second 'myth' is that Dylan sold his soul to the Devil which stems from an interview he did with the journalist Ed Bradley in 2005. The relevent passage is transcribed in the above link.

But watch the clip on YouTube and Dylan is trying hard not to be misunderstood or misrepresented knowing, from experience, that journalists are not the most intelligent creatures on this earth.

"Making a bargain with the Chief Commander..." is not the same as selling your soul to the Devil. After all, if you sell your soul what do you get in return? Nothing is the answer. The devil or satan or evil is not a creative entity and so a creative talent has nothing to gain from doing deals with the devil. As pointed out in the link it is a story which probably began when Robert Johnson "went down to the crossroads" as one of his songs puts it.

In a 1984 interview, Dylan remarked, “I think politics is an instrument of the Devil. Just that clear. I think politics is what kills; it doesn’t bring anything alive.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/25/bob-dylan-and-christian-zionism/

Aside from all that, it is the music which is important and his perpetual re-interpretation of his own songs which mark him out as one of America's finest poet/musician. His back catalogue is huge so this below is but a snall selection. And just a note about the last video here which is an impromptu duet with one of his best, if not the best backing singers Clydie King who died earlier this year. A fitting epitaph to her memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clydie_King

Selling their souls. For money. - By JD

This is a story that you will not find in the mainstream UK news media. I have made reference to the weekly public executions in Saudi in a previous post. https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2016/03/jd-human-rights-or-human-rites.html

The UK Government says arms sales to Saudi Arabia are vital for the British economy. The USA sells arms to their 'vital' ally in the region, Saudi Arabia. But they are silent when the Saudis executed 37 people on tuesday this week. (Their weekly executions are usually held on a friday, their holy day.)

The only place you will find the story is here - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/04/saudi-arabia-37-put-to-death-in-shocking-execution-spree/

You will notice that all of those executed were Shias. Saudi is governed by Sunnis who are 'at war' with that particular sect. The number of sects is 73 only one of which is destined for paradise. The others are detined for hell. There seems to be a great seal of misunderstanding and confusion on the subject. -

    “The Grape that can with Logic absolute 
     The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute: 
     The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice 
     Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.”

     ― Omar Khayyam

The only reason I knew about the Amnesty report is because it was mentioned in the Spanish sports daily Marca. The English version of the story does not mention Amnesty International.
https://www.marca.com/futbol/supercopa-espana/2019/04/25/5cc049d1ca4741c26b8b45a8.html

Juventus and AC Milan contested the Italian Supercopa recently in Saudi Arabia and the Spanish FA wish to stage their own Supercopa in saudi Arabia in Janury of 2020.

The corrupting power of money!

FRIDAY MUSIC: Easter 2019, by JD

Music for Easter week-

How the elite are preparing us for social breakdown

"Over the last thirty years, the UK has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the British dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Government policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries. [...]

"These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of the UK’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.

"If allowed to continue, this process will turn Britain into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Oops! In copying this quote of Charles Ferguson across from Jesse there have been a few slips (i.e. I have substituted UK for US), but I think the gist still stands.

Automobiles That Changed The World, by Wiggiaatlarge

Normally when presented with a heading like that we are taken on a journey of delight in Delahayes, Bugattis, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Duesenberg and many more of that ilk, yet however desirable they may be they represent a very small percentage of the automobile industry output. It is difficult outside of lusting after these creations to put them in any semblance of order as to their importance in car evolution.

It is in the lower echelons in the pecking order that the really great cars come from, the cars that made the man in the street mobile, the cars that jumped a generation in the design and engineering stakes, and the cars whose longevity proved their worth as transport for the masses.

It is not as easy as it appears to single out automobiles that had a profound effect on the industry and the people who purchased them as those mentioned often had aims that were fulfilled in quite a different way from that intended .

Some vehicles select themselves. The Model T Ford could not be left out of any selection: not only did it provide the first mass produced car of any substance for the man in the street, but it also heralded the use of production lines that would survive to this day, a method of construction that made the price of cars within reach for so many, no longer the preserve of the wealthy.

Henry Ford himself said of the car….

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces. “

Little did he realise how prophetic those words would turn out to be, or maybe he knew all along.

The Model T Ford was always going to be a hard act to follow in the great cars stakes and it could be argued that there were no revolutionary cars in the years after the Model Ts demise in 1920, only a natural evolution of the automobile. Certainly in the upper strata of society the automobile took on a very different mantle with increasing wealth, that of the status symbol.

"People's cars" dominate this this argument on greatness. The Model T gave birth to a whole string of vehicles that through their longevity alone proved they had something more to offer than performance and soft leather. All of the below offered a chance for the man in the street to be mobile; some like the 2CV and the Fiat Topolino became almost fashion items, the Fiat more than any, a much coveted little car to this day.

Morris Bullnose (1913) - The Bullnose's official name was Oxford, after its manufacturing home...

• Austin Seven (1922) ...
• Ford Model Y (1932) ...
• Fiat Topolino (1936) ...
• Volkswagen Beetle (1945) ...
• Renault 4CV (1946) ...
• Citroen 2CV (1948)

All had shortcomings, built to a spec and a price they were never going to be all things to all men, but by the Thirties vehicles in more expensive sectors were beginning to be sold in numbers and several there had the credentials to claim greatness of sorts.

Citroen, never a marque to blanch at something different and inventive, produced the  Citroen Traction Avant. First produced in 1934 it was in production until 1957. It had a number of firsts for a car of its type: apart from the front wheel drive the body was of unitary construction, a monocoque; it also had four wheel independent suspension, rack and pinion steering plus hydraulic brakes - new to Europe. It came in various forms from 2 door saloon to a hatchback and a convertible and engines ranged from 1.3 four cylinders up to 2.9 six cylinders. Affectionately remembered here as a “Maigret” car versions of it became the presidential vehicles of the period, this was a game changer for the European car industry.

The photo shows a six cylinder car from 1951, ahead of its time even that late into its production.

Not long after that the ‘peoples car’ the Volkswagen started to evolve. Like the Model T Ford it was designed to be a car for the masses, robust simple to run and at a price most could afford. Undoubtedly this car had a profound effect on the auto industry and is still revered by some and a version has only just stopped production all these years later.

I was never convinced by the VW. I did briefly own one which sadly was a dog, but despite its quality build and interior finish, especially for that period I hated the road holding and the awful driving position that meant you could not use the pedals with your heels on the ground, and despite being simple it was difficult to work on engine-wise unless you took it out, so I never quite got the awe with which is held in by many; nonetheless a very important car.

Citroen did it again in 1955 with the launch of the DS: it ushered in a new world in looks and comfort and engineering ingenuity. Quite simply, there  had not been anything this advanced offered to the public as an everyday vehicle, it was and is in a class of its own. I am not going to go over all the attributes of this car, and a few downsides, instead just a link to a piece I did on it seven years ago.
I never owned one but did travel in a friend's Safari estate version quite a bit when we shared going to dog shows around the country, there has never been a better mile-eater. I did though own two other Citroens with the hydropneumatic suspension so I have been a beneficiary of that.
http://www.nourishingobscurity.com/2012/03/citroen-ds/

Another car always destined for the greatest badge is the original Mini. This was really a design coup by Alec Issigonis on packaging as much as anything else, a small footprint with maximum space and simple engineering that worked, giving it outstanding roadholding. As much as anything else it became one of the symbols of the Sixties, a time when this country shone in so many spheres.

I never owned one but I drove several variants. I am six foot one and had no trouble fitting in the Mini. The down side was a sitting position with no real variation available; that was not exactly fun on a longer drive, but the reality it was a city car and as such attracted all the glitterati of the period here and abroad to purchase the car,  often special coach-finished versions.

It also had an awesome rally and race record, despite being handicapped with an ageing design in the engine department, it was remarkable what power they managed to screw out of it in the race versions of the Cooper S race and rally models, but eventually it was that department that saw them overhauled in both race and rallying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini

The original Range Rover was a game changer for off-roading and gentleman farmers: at last you had a comfortable vehicle with all modern accessories in a go anywhere car, though the very early models were sparse and practical in the cabin area, and its off-road capabilities were only matched or surpassed by the Land Rover and a few other utilitarian vehicles such as Jeep. The original used a petrol V8 that was not economical even in its class so it was hit badly by the fuel crisis and it was not until ‘88 that a turbo diesel engine was fitted to the Range Rover as an economical choice.

If Range Rover has had a problem it has been reliability and in many markets for 4 wheel drive vehicles it has lost sales to Toyota.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_Rover

There is a whole raft of vehicles that have given something to the motor car in engineering, as the Volvo 140 did with the first proper crumple zones in a car body, beginning the drive to safer cars. The Toyota Prius heralded modern day electric vehicles in the form of the hybrid Prius from ‘97, long before anyone else, and it is still going. And there are many others.

I have not included sports or luxury cars: they may well have provided individual items that later trickled down to mass produced vehicles and many have become icons in their own right - Ford Mustang, Porche 911, E type and so on and in the luxury market RR Packhard Bugatti - and many more have provided style unsurpassed and quality that only money can buy, yet it is the cars above that remain the great innovators of the automobile.

Are there any more coming on stream? Not so easy today, as almost every car has the discoveries of the 100 years or so of progress incorporated into their build. Electronics move so fast these days that any innovation that is new is almost immediately superseded by something better. It is not so easy to make giant strides in engineering and design as in the past.

For me there is one little car that deserves a mention. Whether it will become a classic like the mini, I have no idea, yet the number of the original Nissan Micras that are still doing sterling service is amazing. They don't seem to rot and they have a fantastic if not overly powerful bomb-proof engine. Those seen on drives and in garages for sale are snapped up even at twenty years old - a modern Mini?

Others made their mark in different ways. The first Ford Cortina was simple, had a great engine line-up, the E series proved to be the bed rock for the majority of race engines of the period culminating in the Twin Cam version and had a gearbox along with the Corsair that was as good as anything in production, not a great car but a significant one.

Naturally everyone would want to include the likes of Porsche 911, E type, Ford Mustang, Ferrari, RR, Packard and many others, but the reality it is those that made a long term contribution and advancement in everyday motoring that deserve the accolades.

The future, who knows? In fifty years' time, with the internal combustion engine consigned to a footnote in history if they have their way, amps and voltages will be the discussion of the day among the self-drives of the period. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it though, does it?

Heroic rescue at Notre Dame de Westminster

FRIDAY MUSIC: Mediaeval Hit Parade, by JD

It's time for 'Pick of the (Mediaeval) Pops!' Some of these sound surprisingly modern and you will notice a certain amount of singing and dancing in taverns: there are some traditions which will never die!

State Power, Home Education and Mission Creep

I suppose two April Fool jokes was felt to be over-egging the pudding. On the first working day after March 29^th we found ourselves still in the EU and Ministers are still laughing about that one; the announcement of a home-schooled children register was held over till April 2nd.

‘Please, I've only got so many ribs, Noel Coward,’ as RikMayall’s Richie said. (Not that your ribs belong to you, either, from April (1st?) nextyear; not unless you have found that opt-out page buried in the NHS Organ Donation Register – and provided the doctors remember to check it.)

This is the big theme of our age: the Power versus the People.

At present, the Education Act 1996 says the same as its 1944 predecessor, except for the addition of the special needs aspect:

The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable —

(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and

(b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

There are various reasons why the State may feel the need to intervene, but please note the order in which they appear in the announcement:

A register of children not in school will transform a local council’s capacity to identify and intervene where the standard of a child’s education isn’t good enough or, in the rare instances, where they are at risk of harm. It will also help the authorities spot young people who may be receiving a solely religious education, attending an unregistered school or not receiving an education at all.

The word ‘efficient’ has remained undefined for the last 75 years, but it is a hinge on which the great door of officialdom can – and will - turn open.

Yet what if you turn the question round: why would you send your child to school?

One answer is socialisation. But this is exactly why some people have withdrawn their offspring: bullying. Anybody here watch Noel Fitzpatrick, aka TV’s The Supervet ? A rural farmboy with a gift of empathy with animals, here is his treatment at secondary school (p.75):

I remember one time going back into class after a particularly bad and mucky bruising when five boys set on me again, one on each arm, one on each leg, giving me the bumps, throwing me up in the air, while the fifth came down hard with his fists on my stomach as I bounced.

It's left its mental marks, even though he struggled on heroically to become a world-class animal surgeon who has much to teach human medicine too. Would we have heard of Isaac Newton or Michael Faraday if they’d been regularly beaten as swots?

My friends educated their three children at home. Two went on to do second degrees and the third has such personality that he has gone to the other side of the world and found jobs for which he wasn’t technically qualified – but which he soon learned to do, well.

Early on, a man from the LEA came round, but soon withdrew when father adopted the strategy of asking eagerly for materials and financial contributions. It’s funny how Ofsted and Education Ministers issue librariesful of advice and instruction to teachers, yet they never fund for a range of approved coursebooks that deliver the curriculum they are so sure is right for children. Why don’t they put ‘their’ money where their mouth is?

And I must have missed it: which Ministry philosopher has managed to answer the millennia-long question, ‘what exactly is education for?’

FRIDAY MUSIC: Pentangle, by JD

Serendipity brought together five exceptional talents for an all too brief period between 1967 and 1973. After six albums they went their separate ways. Pentangle were a 'supergroup' before that term became fashionable; two of this country's finest guitarists plus, from the world of jazz, a first class drummer with a maestro on double bass and all backing the purest female voice in folk music.

And yet, they are largely and unjustifiably forgotten. They are rarely if ever heard on the radio so you can hear them now and relax into a reverie of musical magic with Jacqui McShee, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentangle_(band)

The band have continued in various incarnations and currently perform as Jacqui McShee's Pentangle - http://www.pentangle.info/JMPentangle/HOME.html

FINAL EXAMINATION PAPER

In order to exclude the ignorant and stupid people who vote the wrong way, your eligibility to take part in the next local elections and the possible snap General Election depends on your answer to the following question:

"Is Jeremy Corbyn worse than Tony Blair?"

Answer with reference to (a) terrorists and (b) making war on a Middle Eastern country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

You may write on both sides of the paper and, in deference to New Labour "triangulation", on the edges as well.

Length: 500 - 1,500 words. NO CARTOONS.