I’ve talked about walks quite a bit recently. Hopefully I won’t stray too much onto old ground on this rant. Apologies it is a rant.

One of the benefits of a walk in nature is that it helps you forget about our world, my country.

Deep breathing and it begins…..

We are so lucky to be sitting on this magical rock, in this special little place in the Universe. We live on a planet which is beautiful and can provide for all of us (if we let it).

I live in a stunning county in a once lovely and diverse country.

I used to love my country but I deeply hate what it has become.

A place where someone thinks it’s ok to string dead Jackdaws on the gates to a TV presenters house because he makes a stand for animals in our country.

A place where one of our finest and nicest politicians is stabbed to death while trying to help someone.

A place where our so called PM is not prepared to meet a 16 year old who wants to talk about the climate but falls over herself to find the time to meet leaders of regimes who regularly execute hundreds of innocent people.

A place which like many lands is slowly drowning in a sea of plastic.

A place where too many people are happy to take a risk on the world burning and happy to use up its resources today just because it’s not their problem and someone else can sort out the mess when they have gone.

A place where some people think it’s ok to poke fun and demonise kids dealing with things like Autism and Aspergers.

A place where extremist on both sides of the Brexit argument have taken control of our national agenda.

A place where you are labelled a traitor if you dare to go against a particular thought pattern. Demonised for rocking the boat.

A place where the establishment happily allow extremists promoting religious and racial intolerance to be seen as acceptable political parties.

A place where the national broadcaster happily gives air time to the views of a minority group and its leader who openly promotes violence.

A place where we continue to ignore the plight of the survivors from the Grenfell Tower disasters two years after that dreadful night.

A place where loathsome, self interested and self deluded buffoons run our country for no other reason than because of their privileged and elitist upbringing.

A place where the government thinks it ok to dismantle our health and education services because money doesn’t grow on trees. Yet is happy to spend billions on giving bungs to minority parties to safeguard their own jobs. A government happy to waste billions on administrating it’s own cock ups.

A place where food banks are our fasting growing institutions.

A place where we value the contribution of millionaire bankers above the contribution of our wonderful nurses, teachers and emergency services.

A place which worships at the alter of celebrity.

A place where growing numbers of our population cannot afford to access decent transport links.

A place where our Mental Health services are straining at the seems trying to deal with the rising numbers of people suffering in our communities. A fact ignored by the Government.

A place where a public library is now becoming a rarity.

A place where the Government tries to force the disastrous Fracking Industry on communities. Communities carefully selected to be far away from the rich and privileged.

A place where too many of our care homes are delivering shameful levels of care.

A place where we think it’s acceptable to net off potential nesting sites for birds and animals so as not to hinder building expansion plans.

A place where we continue to eat into our unspoiled wild lands yet ignore the huge disused and derelict areas in our urban sprawls.

A place where every night someone else dies from knife crime.

A place where every night homeless people die on our streets.

And on and on …..

It’s time to breathe again. It’s time to make my way to that overgrown tree trunk and focus on the beauty which still exists close by. It’s time to forget that I live in this country.

174 thoughts on “It’s rant time….”

  1. You sound like I do when I panic about what could all happen to the kids whenever they step out the door. I get myself so panicked some nights it’s hard to breathe.
    We have to help our kids focus on the flowers and the sunshine, the smiles and the happy moments. Then we pray that these are the things they care about when they’re older, and God-willing, that can bring about a difference.
    Hugs to you from Wisconsin. Hope you’re okay. xxxxxxx

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      7. Well, yes and no. Yes, Clinton assumed it was hers, so she never bothered coming here. WI does have a couple dense democratic hotspots, but the rest of it’s pretty much Republican.

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      13. Well it is pretty darn tiny. 😉

        And we survived a trip to the theater! Boys were fine the first hour, but after that started getting really skittish. Will probably hold off on taking them to the theater for a while. But Blondie had fun, so yay for that!

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      15. Ha! We were great that first hour, but the movie had this “fake” ending moment before the last twenty or so minutes, and then the movie became a stress-fest trying to silence Biff and keep Bash still. I hope to take Blondie to the How to Train Your Dragon movie when it hits budget withOUT the boys. 🙂

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  2. Sometimes when I walk in forests and national parks, thoughts, reflections and questions also come to mind. And then I go back to the beautiful unspoilt surroundings and I am grateful pieces of quiet oases still exist.

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  4. This “A place where loathsome, self interested and self deluded buffoons run our country for no other reason than because of their privileged and elitist upbringing.” Too many places, my country included, fit this and it explains much of the rest.

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  5. We live in a fallen world…beautiful but fallen. The only way I can cope with it all is to keep my eyes on Jesus and know that He will return and make everything right. Sometimes I have to turn off the news and try not to get caught up in all of the baloney. There is a lot of baloney in our political system. Moderation and respect for other people and their opinions is lacking. We can just be the change we want to see. That is how we change the world..one day at a time, one person at a time, one life at a time. We can also love others. I still believe that love is more powerful than hate. We can choose love and forgiveness in the midst of this fallen world with it’s whacked out political system and values. Love and respect will make a difference. I believe that!

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      1. We have a prime minister who signed the Paris climate change accord shortly after being elected after campaigning that he would reduce subsidies to the fossil fuel industry then turns around and buys a pipeline for $4 billion from Kinder Morgan, run by the former Enron executives that ened up serving jail time when Enron failed, continued the fossil fuel subsidies and then started paying $1 million a day to Alberta our oil province because their oil prices dropped to $13 a barrel because they couldn’t ship it out of the province fast enough. Why can’t we elect politicians with a higher IQ?

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    2. Replying to your later comment, you can’t elect people with higher IQs because such people want no part of politics. This is a sorry state of affairs, but the Old Boys’ Networks are too strong to break. And then, not all people with high IQs are social justice warriors. Trump, May, and other conservative/republican leaders have people with higher IQs but they want the same things. What you really want to elect are people with higher senses of social justice, no matter their IQ. Do they care about themselves first, or others first? Then you need to find the people you feel you can trust to deliver what you are asking of them. Changing the ways of government is not easy. Everything has to come together at the same time. You are going to need real fighters, but fighters with hearts, not with egos.

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  10. but Newcastle are staying up, so there’s an unexpected plus… ditto the Eagles, an even more surprising feat… though, given the ownership of both clubs it’s probably the hot air rising from some mindless mouths that.. oops, and there’s was me trying to defuse the rants…

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      3. Palace enjoyed three administrations courtesy of incompetent owners from Ron Noades onwards. These recent couple of years of stability are really weird. Reality will bite soon.

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  11. I cried when I read this Gary, because you said EXACTLY what I want to say. I feel like a rant of my own now. I agree with you SO strongly, and it hurts my heart to see all this going on, and to feel the hurt of others. All those who struggle just to exist. I am still crying. You have set me off now, and I might just have a rant of my own. I trued to Reblog this Gary but the button wouldn’t work so I will try again later. Problem is, when I Reblog people, the “Likes” tend to be put on my site,vwhich I don’t want. Even if I tell people please to put the “Likes” on the other person’s site it doesn’t work. But the nessage is SO impirtant Gary. SO important. Bless you for writing this xxxxxx

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    1. Lorraine I honestly don’t count likes as my WordPress app is so crap it only records stats as either 0, 1 or blank. I’m just thrilled when someone takes the time to read my rubbish, especially when someone is so kind enough to reblog it. I suspect it won’t be the last of our rants … Son is going to do one. Maybe we need all the good people to start making more noise to drown out the idiots who get all the air time these days. The reblogging issue might be my end as I keep saying my iPad version of WP is to put it politely …. shite…. sorry I swore. xxxxxxx

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      1. Lol Gary. I LOVE using the word “Shite”. I got the Reblog button to work finally. I am sad that your stats don’t work properly, but be assured that MANY people read and appreciate you, ABD feel for you too. Yes,cwe ALL need to get together and SHOUT! Make oyr vouces heard. They claim they are working for us and for the good of our country. Btheycare NOT. They are working for themSELVES and to claim power for themselves. It makes me want to vomit and shite lol. Xxxx

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  12. You know Gary, what I find odd is that I sometimes speak to people who seem oblivious to what is going on. There is a kind of “I’m alright Jack” attitude and I hear people actually saying that everything is great and things have never been better.

    I think that things will become more divisive in the future…before things get better.

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    1. Mel that’s the scary thing. I was listening to a billionaire slag off some people protesting at living standards saying ‘they have never had it so good’. That’s another tossed who should get on his luxury speedboat and sod off. Talking to someone in the village who said “the only big challenge facing this country was how to bring back fox hunting”. Unless something changes quickly this country is heading for a meltdown. I’m going to knit a giant brown cardigan and hide in it….

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    1. Thankyou. The reblog thing might be my psychotic WP app on the iPad. I’ve just switched the radio off as some numpty was saying that May was doing a wonderful job and the country was in great shape and right behind her. Sorry if I’m right behind her I will be the first one to push her off her lofty pedestal.

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  14. Pingback: Blog post re-share: “It’s rant time…” by A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his partner and becoming a single parent. – My Wellbeing and Learning Journey

  15. If the rolling log gathers no moss that log ain’t going nowhere!! 🙂

    This is your blog – there is no need to apologise if you feel the need to express a rant here. 🙂 Your readers truly understand that need and i personally would hope to see one or two a month? rather than think you were stuffing it all deep down ‘inside’. 🙂

    I would point out though that we humans (and some Shih Tzu’s) can at times become drawn into a vortex where seeing so many ‘violations’ heightens (tunes) our perception of even more of them and we can get sucked in to a spiralling depression as each one adds to the previous one.

    There ARE actually many people doing wonderful things on this wonderful planet, it’s just ‘The News’ doesn’t really focus or give first priority to them, instead preferring to show us all the doom and gloom and knife crimes first so as to ‘get us in the right mood’… and sell advertising space to the profit-driven corporates.

    Disaster/depression sells! NOTHING shows this more clearly than our current election campaigns for the Australian government. Neither Party’s advertising mentions their own candidates or policies anymore, they just pile on the fear campaign of how bad the other side’s are. They do this because it has been shown that Fear/Negativity beats Good News/Positivity when it comes to implanting ideas in our minds and winning your vote.

    And that is down to every single one of us for falling for it.

    Look for and work towards the Good – don’t put your energy and focus on the Bad in this world.

    That goes for people as well as Nature.

    Peace and love.

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      1. I will be when some stupid people in our country start listening and caring more Gary. Yoyr rant was marvellous. You said it ALL. Good on you. Xxxx

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  21. Well done for saying exactly what I’ve been thinking. This isn’t a country to be proud of right now! I’m hoping to help shape J and F into humans who give a crap and fix the issues current generation are leaving behind for them x

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  23. I could write an equally long list about what my country – America – has become. It’s still a great place to live, but in so many ways it is not the same country that I grew up in. I fear for her future. I think the state of the world in general is in a steady decline. The human race as a whole seems to have lost its way. Makes me sad.

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  24. Put the way you have, it is very frustrating to see the mountain of problems piling up – good people are trying to rectify them but we need politicians who care about the issues are aren’t power-crazy or greedy for some other personal gain.

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  25. It’s a relentless encroachment on all that is good. I’m so very sad to hear you say they are pushing fracking where you’re at. Nothing like fouling the water supply to exploit a finite energy source. You can’t ignore what’s happening, fight it when you can, and enjoy the beauty that still exists to keep your internal resources strong. I appreciate your rant as we are feeling it here in the US also.

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  26. I walk in the same mess, see the same things, and thinking the same about the wasters in power.

    So if all those who think the same were to protest would anything change? Na, no chance, this is the Untied (not a typo) Kingdom.

    A country that doesn’t have an identity anymore, no system of government, and a mongrel, multinational nation that in the main doesn’t care anymore.

    Could things get any worse?
    Probably as the year is still young.

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  28. This, my friend, is perhaps the most eloquent, heartfelt rant I have heard. Though I don’t live in your country, as you know I feel much the same about my own country these days. It is not a place I recognize any longer and I am certainly not proud of it. With your permission, I would like to re-blog this post later tonight or tomorrow?

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  29. Gary you write eloquently with true emotion what we all feel.In our position,(those recently bereaved) every sensation is felt as keenly as a shard of cut glass… We see beauty in nature and are cut by those who desensitise existence by artifice or dissembling, I say forgive them, not because they know not what they do… but because they do know what they do… but do it anyway! These people are to be pitied not feared, because they are destroying their own journey on this beautiful planet more than they destroying it for us. in the end all we can do is raise our voices above the cacophony and say No, this is not the way. The more of us that do rant against these monstrous acts, the more they will appear monstrous to the blinkered masses. peace be with you. dale

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  30. Sadly, I agree with your rant. Truer words were never spoken on the issues that push us into a bleak looking future… But we have to hope… Sorry this is so long, but hope it inspires a bit…

    I found three more youngsters in addition to the ones that I follow on Twitter. Two are young naturalists that have also met Chris Packham. The third is an 11-yr old environmentalist from the Netherlands who is one of the few youngsters that Greta Thunberg follows.
    She is a little girl with a big conscience about the evils of plastic.

    I thought that they might inspire your son, despite his anxieties, to find an avenue to express himself too – saving our world and the lovely creatures that live in its biosphere….

    Rebecca’s Butterfly Farm
    @BeccasButterfli (Twitter)

    https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC2NC644oeM8PwKZXtFMLnuA

    (not sure of Rebecca’s age, but she is young and like Zach Haynes, below, has met Chris Packham)

    Lillys Plastic Pickup
    @lillyspickup (Twitter)

    Lilly (age 11) is an international environmental champion. Youth Ambassador @plasticpollutes
    HOWGlobal @shipoftolerance
    #changemaker #climateactivist #oceanheroes

    Lilly lives in the Netherlands and has been active in the #SchoolStrikeClimate.
    She recently tweeted that children her age, two young to vote, but concerned about environment and their future, to ask their aging Grandparents to consider voting for them, effectively casting their own opinion aside, in favour of their Grandkids who will reap the effects of a political system that does something to combat climate breakdown. At this time, Lilly has garnered 194 retweet, and 534 likes for this suggestion.

    Zach Haynes (age 14 and been an advocate for nature for 4 years)
    @NaturallyZach
    Nature addict. #IWill ambassador  @TheWildWatch
    youth patron, @northyorkmoors
    Young Ranger 2017, @wildlifemag
    Junior Blogger 2015. @BBCSpringwatch
    Unsprung Hero

    yearofnature.blogspot.com

    If you load  (link: https://bit.ly/2TV7tk6) into your URL line, it will download a PDF
    of ‘New Nature Magazine,’ Zach Haynes has written an article in it, called ‘Young Forces of Nature’ It is an inspiring piece for other youngsters to get started.

    These three along with Dara and Bella (sent previously) and Greta Thunberg, are just a smattering of the voice of today’s youth. There is hope, but it needs lots of nurturing. ❤️

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  32. You are not alone in feeling these things, I regularly rant about most of the above. There is hope though. Although we live in a deeply divided country, divided by an array of issues, I genuinely feel that the political party system is on its last legs and we are slowly drifting towards consensus politics. XR has generated momentum and is waking the sleeping giant of environmentalists (with a small ‘e’), it is just the beginning of the movement that cannot be ignored. I feel invigorated and refreshed and energised and mobilised. There is hope.

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  33. Wow. Move a few words around and that could be a rant about the US. And, it ain’t just Trump. Obama, W, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, (I leave Ford out because he wasn’t around long enough), Nixon, Johnson…I’m stopping there because, past them, it’s not in my lifetime…are all culpable. Those in power care nothing for the ones that actually make the world function.

    I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing but, it won’t last much longer. Everything will either collapse or…the fighting will start. We are, purposefully, being pushed in that direction.

    I often read comments, and other blogs, where folks are demanding that you need to fight back or join this group or that group and make a difference. People, in general, are too distracted to be very effective and trying to “work inside the machine”, as it were, is a-kin to beating your head against a wall (or disappearing if you learn too much). In Jesus’ time, “knowing too much” got you nailed to a cross. Today, knowing too much will get you suicided. Our overlords WILL kill with impunity.

    Regarding climate change, that is one thing that does NOT bother me. If people only understood just how powerful Mother Earth is. Most of the climate changing is Earth, herself (HAARP & chemtrailing are interfering with her work). Folks keep foaming at the mouth over melting icecaps when archeologists already know that there was a time when the frozen North Pole…wasn’t frozen. There was a time when the Egyptian desert was a lush, green paradise. Yes. We have made a damn mess of things, here. No doubt. But, don’t discount Earth, herself. We don’t live on a rock that just spontaneously sprouted life. She is sentient and, if she desired, she could disconnect EVERYONE’s root chakras and we would ALL BE GONE from the surface in the blink of an eye. We are here because she “allows” it. You’ve already seen much of the Chris Thomas material I post.

    I fear that things will get worse before they get better. In the meantime, I’m working towards all the CT material I post.

    *hugs*

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  35. I don’t know what to say in regards to politics and celebrities. It seems this is a problem throughout. I don’t watch the news or follow any type of politics because I don’t feel like being angry all the time, but I also feel like I’m a horrible citizen for not knowing what’s going on. I just feel so helpless with it all.
    I can’t hide from what I see when I do go outside, people throwing trash out their windows, being mean to others on the road, selfish and disrespect all over.
    I pray for a day when we can live outside of fame and fortune and respect the earth and it’s people for what they are. Instinctively beautiful.
    We can hope, that’s what gets us through it all.

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  36. Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
    Probably close to half of my most frequent readers are citizens of the United Kingdom and many have truly become good friends. Therefore, I have learned much from them about things transpiring on their side of the pond, Brexit of course being the biggest and most divisive, but other issues are worrying to them as well.

    One of those friends, Gary, has written a post that I felt worth sharing, in part because it is an eloquent and heartfelt piece, in part because it helps us understand some of what our friends across the pond are dealing with, and in part because much of what he writes about is happening here in the U.S. as well.

    I don’t live in the UK, so I make no attempt to judge from afar the Brexit issue or any other, but I think it’s important for us to understand that they have their troubles, and many of them aren’t much different than our own. I hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to read Gary’s post.

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  37. My wife passed away 6 years ago now and I know the world wasn’t in the mess it is now. But she’d be telling me to have more faith in the young, the young because they’d be the ones wanting to make the world into something they could be proud of. At one time I wouldn’t have agreed but now I’m sure I was wrong, when I see kids like Greta Thunberg now I know they’re meant to save this block of granite n the North Sea. ( not her obviously given her Nationality). We must round them up and save them till they’re 21 not letting anything/anyone corrupt them and they can start off by abolishing Fracking and perhaps make us pally with the EU again but without rejoining, if there still is an EU by then and if they haven’t become neo-fascist states. Maybe we can replant the UK and start it breathing again.
    Hugs

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    1. I’m so sorry for your loss. That’s must have been so tough for you. When my partner passed away I started to see the world differently. Much more cynically. We are the wrong people to lead the fight back. It’s great kids like Greta who are best placed to do this. Our role is probably threefold. Do what we can to put out the fires today, try to shield the kids from the evil and corrupt people and stand tall with them when the fight starts.

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      1. Thank you. Yes it was very tough for she was my best pal too. We’d just reached 25 years together. I saw the world differently too but from a more afraid kind of way. Unable or unwilling to speak to people.My daughter produced grandchildren and things got easier. I even laughed off a burglary about 3 years ago. But last week I found my cynicism when I finally had to stop leaving my front door unlocked when I’m in after a sneak thief took a chance and disappeared with some watches.
        Yes, a shield for the young is probably a good job for me though we must remember they’ll come with strong and differing views of their own. They’re as divided on Brexit as we are.But the planet comes first.
        Hugs

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      2. Cynicism is so understandable when you have been through what you have. Sad that you have to lock the door. It’s so important that they are allowed to make their own mind up and not just be forced into what the system wants.

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