Time for a new National Anthem - My suggestion is.....

 I love this country. I especially love this city. I'd not live anywhere else in the world, in fact I'd hate to live anywhere other than Mill Hill. I support the England football team and the England Cricket team, despite my Dad being an Aussie and my mum being of Irish extraction. Like Ex PM John Major, I'm partial to a nice glass of warm beer. Had the need arisen, I'd have followed my Dad's footsteps and volunteered for the armed forces, if we were faced with a threat from a Fascist aggressor. My Dad was a member of RAF Bomber command and I was disgusted that the sacrifice of his comrades, 55,000 of them, who died took so long to be recognised and that he died without receiving a campaign medal. You may not readily associate Winston Churchill with politcal correctnessm, but he never granted Bomber Command members a campaign medal, despite the huge sacrifices. He wanted to disassociate himself from the policies of his own RAF chiefs. My Dad squadron was a Commonwealth squadron and his bomber crew included a Kiwi, another Aussie and Newfoundlander (it was independent of Canada at the time). 

Having said all of this, I've always hated the National Anthem. It's an awful tune and I'm far more concerned with God saving my family, friends and people I love than saving King Charles, who I don't wish ill on, but I don't give a stuff about. I quite liked his Mum, but I've no affection for him at all. I actually hate jingoistic songs full stop. I was in mass yesterday and I was thinking about how much I dislike most hymns. If, like me, you believe in God and believe God is omnipresent, does God really want us to spend our time singing about how marvellous he is? I'm sure he'd much rather we were decent and honest. I love some of the tunes, Amazing Grace, for example, is a wonderful piece of music and is about redemption, but spare me the overly sycophantic ones. They irritate me. 

So what would I like to see replace it? Well I thought long and hard. I quiite like the Spanish Anthem, which has no words. I love a good instrumental. But it needs to reflect the nature of our society. I was listening to Eastern Jam by Country Joe and The Fish. Country Joe MacDonald is an American artist of Irish extraction. Joe is famed for his anti war anthem "I feel like I'm fixing to die". The band had a cross section of the artists of Jewish and other extractions. The song is based on an Indian Raja. It struck me that the band and the song exemplify the influence of England and its history, of empire, of taking music from other places and adopting and appropriating it. As America was originally a province of the the UK, what better way to move forward than to nick an American tune, especially a banging one. 

Nothing would make me happier than watching the England team whistling along to this, as the Germans look on bemused. I'm sure we'd start winning penalty shoot outs then!

Who am I?

Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?



There were some things that I loved one time,
But the dreams are gone that I thought were mine,
And the hidden tears that once could fall
Now burn inside at the thought of all
The years of waste, the years of cryin'
The passions of a heart so blind;
To think that, but even still
As I stand exposed, the feelings are felt
And I cry into the echo of my loneliness.

Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?

What a nothing I've made of life
The empty words, the coward's plight
To be pushed and passed from hand to hand
Never daring to speak, never daring to stand
And the emptiness of my family's eyes
Reminds me over and over of lies
And promises and deeds undone
And now again I want to run
But now there is nowhere to run to.

Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ?

And now my friend we meet again and
We shall see which one will bend
Under the strain of death's golden eyes
Which one of us shall win the prize
To live and which one will die
'Tis I, my friend, yes 'tis I
Shall kill to live again and again
To clutch the throat of sweet revenge
For life is here only for the taking.

Who am I
To stand and wonder, to wait
While the wheels of fate
Slowly grind my life away.
Who am I ? Who am I ?
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Sort of sums up how I feel right now

One for the road - Some great clips for Saturday night

As regular readers will know, I like to post a few of my favourate clips for a Saturday night. I usually like to have a theme and tonight's theme is ........ Feel good West Coast American rock. I chose these clips because something in all of them made me snigger.


First up, the sublime Boz Scaggs. I love his music, but in this clip I rather think he looks like Tony Blair - Sorry Boz - still a great song though


Next up, the Beach Boys. This is from the USA Live Aid 1985. Awesome song, awesome band, but Al Jardine's shirt is just like one I bought for a bad taste party.


Next on the list, one of my fave songs - Not so Sweet Martha Lorraine by Country Joe and the Fish at Monterey Pop. A very strange and dark song. Only trouble is Joe looks rather like one of my nephews did after my sister got drunk and offered to paint his face when he was just a wee nipper


Next up, another fave. This is Quicksilver Messenger Service from the same gig. Check out the guy at the front in the Tank Top (stop it at 11 seconds).  He looks happy doesn't he. I know how he feels.


Anyway, whereever you are and whatever you're up to have a great evening.

Rock and Soul music

This clip always makes me smile. It's Country Joe & the Fish from Woodstock in 1969.



The guy with the spliff at the beginning is Barry "The Fish" Melton. He's now the public defender of Yolo County, California.

Just remember this before you criticise "Protestors"

Who would you say was the best Prime Minister of the last 50 years? I suspect that if you are a Tory, you'd say Margaret Thatcher. Just suppose Lady T had been born 100 years before, would she have done so well in her chosen career? The answer to that is NO. The reason? Women didn't have the vote. Why did this change? Because of the Suffragette movement. My sadly missed cousin & film director Midge MacKenzie made a documentary series about these inspirational women which was shown on the BBC in the 1970's called Shoulder to Shoulder. At the time, the suffragettes were dismissed rather harshly in the same tones as the G20 protestors. Who was right?

Let me ask you a different question. Do you think that Ireland (the south, not the north) should be under British rule? I don't think we'd find too many takers for yes these days. My cousin, Kevin Barry would be 107 if he was still alive today. The British Government executed him when he was 18 years old for his part in the struggle to free Ireland. He's fondly remembered by the family and by millions of Irish across the world.


Was Kevin right to oppose the British Occupation? I'd say that most people these days would agree that he was.

What about the US involvement in Vietnam? Were the anti war protestors right to campaign against the awful US policy. Here's a clip of Country Joe MacDonald singing his famous anti war song "The Fish Cheer" at Woodstock. I don't know how often a bloke on his own with a guitar had such a seminal effect, but every time I watch this clip it sends shivers down my spine. Joe MacDonald had served with the US army in Korea, so he knew. This song is, in my humble opinion, the greatest ever protest song.



Lets look a bit closer to home, in Barnet. Several leading members of Barnet Council are "out" Homosexuals. In this day and age that is fine, they are chosen on their merits and righly their sexuality is not an issue for the voters. Rather like Margaret Thatcher, had they been born 100 years earlier, they would have had a rather different life. They would have been faced with the choice of living a secret life or facing jail. Why has the situation changed? Because of protest groups such as Stonewall. It is worth remembering that it was only in the 1980's that Peter Tatchell lost a safe Labour seat, purely because he was gay. How many people in 2009 think that Homosexuality should be illegal? Why has it changed? Because of protestors.

I saw a comment from some Barnet politician, who's name escapes me right now, that the majority of right thinking people were repelled by the G20 protestors. Time will tell as to who is right about this one. I've no idea what a right thinking person is, but by I suspect that by the definition he uses, it is probably someone who events prove to be wrong. I'm rather happy to be a wrong thinking person !

Section 43 - FOI requests - vital information

Here's what you really need to know about section 43. If you are making an FOI request and you are getting effed about you really should check this out.

http://www.foi.gov.uk/guidance/exsumm/sec43.htm


Oddly enough Section 43 is also one of my favourite psychedelic tracks by Country Joe and the Fish. Click HERE to see them perform it at the Monteray Pop festival in 1967. How strange is that ????