Marriage?

What is this thing called ‘marriage’? Is it an LGBT thing (that’s Lesbian, Gay etc in case any of you are not up to modern parlance – I had to look this up!), is it a multifarious thing or is it a union between two people? I haven’t the faintest idea what it is anymore. There is confusion on the websites and unerring complexity wherever one looks. Two women and two men getting married and the other day a Court allowed a man and a women to have a civil partnership!

Where’s it all going I ask myself?

I’m on the sequel now (that’s the second marriage) and don’t know whether I should be looking for a third, but there we are. Let the Matron see this and my life would be hell! Not really, but you get my drift. And what about equality for men, we hear enough about equality for women, don’t we? How about equal standing in a marriage? I know I’m nagged regularly about the bins being left out, about not eating enough vegetables and so on. The nagging never stops and here’s the worse, I’m standing there looking bored to tears while the Matron carries on deliberating with another woman about the state of so and so’s marriage. Heaven help us!

And I’m on the second run as it were, you would have thought I’d have learnt enough on the first debacle! I’m like a lot of men – we never learn. I threaten divorce on a daily basis but the Matron takes no notice, all is well that ends well I suppose.

These days I don’t know about marriage. Years ago it all used to be so simple. Not anymore. Like life generally, it’s all become so complicated. Chat up lines have gone for a burton. Just click- click and you have all you need to know at the outset. Whatever happened to dating, one might well ask?

Why bother getting married? Well, the reason is simple enough. Love and that’s all there is to it.

All in all my marriage ticks along in a fair enough state (probably because we’re just too old to do anything about it!), albeit that we both fight like hell on a daily basis but that’s marriage for you – in all its glory!

Marriage!

The holiday season is here! No more shouting and yelling in the political ‘mess’ we all find ourselves in. What is this ‘mess’ the media keeps going on about is beyond me. Politics is always in a mess. There’s Theresa May trying to pull her party together and Corbyn going to Butlin’s to try to convince the owners that all visits should be allowed to enter free and to hell with profits! All in all the parties are just fighting things out – normal territory. John Woodcock MP has left the Labour Party citing its leaning toward anti-Semitism and going too far Left. He cites that he hopes Labour will find its sanity again.

The Labour Party is just in trouble again, like the Tories. I can’t help wondering why Corbyn divorced his second wife (he’s on three at the moment, he’s a bit of a boy isn’t he?), all be it she wouldn’t agree to their child being sent to a grammar school apparently. There are a multiple of reasons why people get divorced but this one? The subject lay in the fact that he wouldn’t have his ‘principles’ questioned, being he preferred the duff local Comprehensive. He doesn’t like confrontation so the story goes, he said yes to the Leadership contest but who knows. Could it be that he raises all the arguments and just stands back and watches? He’s a clever man, is our Corbyn.

So all in all, we have a rest from political shenanigans and childish misdemeanour of the political mind set.

Hallelujah!!

Let’s face it, we are all getting fed up with this political infighting. Why don’t we just do a deal or not? WTO rules or a negotiated settlement – fat chance of this but who knows. The EU might just come up with something that is at least palatable. The European Institution is beginning to really annoy me, but that’s by the way. No doubt there are a few of you who feel exactly the same way!

Anyway, its holiday time now! So forgive the political angst, it’s just the way I am. The next one will be something different. Can’t think right now what it will be, maybe something to make your seat fly off your backsides!!

 

Welsh language

Do you know, I’m getting really fed up with all this tirade of Welsh speaking nonsense. Speak it, sing it, enjoy it but please stop this ridiculous argument that you have.

It’s costing the tax payer millions for a language that is spoken by 18% odd of people in Wales. Do yourselves a favour – just give it up for God’s sake. You’re being tiresome.

Andrew Marr Show

God, I wish Marr would find another way to introduce himself. All the arm waving etc Makes a tit flounder in a stormy night! Anyway…….I was saying saying, Jeremy Corbyn. I wonder if he would do as well as May did on the programme this morning, being as they both detest media intrusion (can’t say I blame them).

But how would he answer his anti-Labour progression over his time in Parliament – over 30 years? Let’s say, how would he respond to questions about his affiliation with the IRA? To mention just one blunder. Not too well, unfortunately. And this is the problem, as we in the the electorate forget all these misdemeanours.

We shouldn’t.

Sold out?

The Prime Minister, Teresa May, has had a hard time of it. MP’s calling her this and that and an unholy state of unrequited political get up and go. As far as I’m concerned, this is just a political impasse. Nothing more, nothing less. I spent a long time reading various books on the European Union – long before the referendum – and came to a conclusion that it would be complicated triangle of negotiated point scoring if we had voted to get out. No surprises then.

And what did we do? Pass the ‘Finish’ line and keep our fingers crossed.

Any Prime Minister is faced with problems that cannot be foreseen. This is just politics for you. If anyone thought it would be easy to pass the EU by, then more fool you. The Commissioners would make a tough game of it, make no mistake. Since the Marshall Plan back in the 1940’s they have hung on the EU as a sovereign state and woe betide anyone who tries to leave it. The EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, shines on intransigence and all the rest are with him.

But how long for?

Italy and Bavaria are hanging in the balance and other states are not far behind, where immigration is concerned. It won’t be long before all hell breaks loose. And as for our White Paper, well let’s see. We have come up with a solution on our leaving (despite all the media getting their underwear in a twist, May must go etc etc) but will Barnier accept it? I think not but who knows.

The Prime Minister has done well. I doubt if Jeremy Corbyn would do better – he would give the UK away no problem and to hell with the money makers and so on. Theresa May has had the inglorious task of keeping her Cabinet together and this she has achieved despite a resignation or two (on policy, do note). Why don’t the wingers just shut up and let her get on with the job, it’s hard enough as it is. Not since the Second World War have we had to make such a trying decision.

So, all (and I mean everybody) of us had better be silent and wait for the final delivery of an exit from the European Union. We’ll just have to get a grip and hope. Hope that we don’t be cast into a financial wilderness!

Reading

About 9 years ago I was with Andrew Nurnberg, Literary Agents, London. After 4-5 years I said ‘Cheerio’ and here I am.

I have come to the conclusion that people are not reading ‘books’ anymore – at least the younger generation that is. Its all push buttons and social media – a tax on parental education it would seem.

Back in the early 2000’s, I was selling 50-100 copies per signing. Now, its 20 copies if I’m lucky. People are no longer ‘browsing’. Book shops are in decline.

Whats happening on ebooks (mine are all on ebook format), I wouldn’t like to say – the same thing I suppose.

No ones reading any books, and that’s that.

 

A chunk of love!

Stop spending!

A few weeks ago, I was the hapless victim of a radio programme exploring the fiery rows between couples over money. The programme naturally had a ‘relationship expert’ in tow (no doubt with a couple of divorces under her belt just to give her that edge of authority) to ‘help’ overcome disputes over who spends what in a relationship.

Well, a woman phoned in, beside herself with anxiety and about to suffer a nervous breakdown it seemed, because her old man apparently spent too much money on various techy gadgets. They were all over the house, this poor soul moaned. Her world was falling apart, what was she to do?

The ‘expert’, being under starters orders ‘an all, started umming amd ahhing with an empathy that would have shamed Mother Teresa on a good day, before delivering her expert verdict.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” she oozed with sickening niceness (a Guardian reader too, no doubt about it). “A tactful approach is needed here,

 I think. Why not try suggesting to your husband that maybe some decluttering of the house might be in order and that perhaps he doesn’t actually need all these things. You know, don’t upset him by being too blunt, you don’t want to be seen as being too controlling. Just try and be a bit subtle about it. Marriage is all about understanding and respecting one another, you see.”

Controlling? God help us. What planet are these people on? If I was blowing too much money the missus would barge into my study, bank statement in hand and exploding with the words, “Right chum, that’s it! Anymore spending and it’s the spare room for the next month!!

Subtlety? Understanding? Forget it.

That’s real marriage for you……with a bit of love thrown in along the way, of course. Hold on, a chunk of love ‘would be more appropriate!” 

‘Welsh writing sucks’ – not my quote!

Wales Book Of The Year authors sell as little as 20 copies a year – according to Nielsen, the top literary sales institution for book selling.

What have I been saying for the past six years?

Its a bloody disgrace and the whole lot (eg Literature Wales which receives 1.4 million of tax payers’ money to set up the Wales Book Of The Year) should be shoved into a skip along with their wannabee authors!

If you want write, don’t expect the taxpayer to pay for it.

Equality – as if we haven’t heard enough of it!

There’s all this fuss going on in the media (and social media!) about this equality of women. All I can say is that I’ve recruited more women than men. There we are, I’m a feminist now! What on earth this might be I just don’t know – maybe someone in the press can advise me.

So there you have it, Ruck is on the side of women. So what’s all this bleating about anyway?

Every time you pick up a newspaper, every time you watch the television, there it is: Equality of women. I really am getting fed up with it and no doubt you are too. In the days when I used to work for a living, I was often sitting in judgement on an interview panel. Men, women and all sorts. There were the bright and attractive types and so on. All I used to do was look at the CV (I used to ignore the academic achievements, everybody’s got a degree these days), look at the person and see how she/he would answer my particularly awkward questions – it was a right royal interrogation! And do you what the answer would invariably be? The women were sharper than the men. They were more conscientious and reliable……well, they didn’t go boozing on a Friday night. Yes, yes I know this last point could be subject ‘to negotiation’!

All in all, I preferred women to men. They made exceptional employees.

And have you seen all this ‘What to say at an interview’ on the recruitment adverts? If I was recruiting again and someone came up with this garbage, they would be out of the door sharpish. The internet playing havoc again – I know I’m an old soak but something has to be said.

As I’ve said many times before, the chains have rotted away on the railings. Equality is here to stay and quite right too – apart from the child bearing element! No-one can do anything about the biological process, so be it. I wouldn’t like to carry a child in my tummy, so praise to be to women I say!

Hang on here, the equality brigade might want men to have the babies. Fat chance!

Artificial Intelligence and the EU

Politics is all in a mess – some would have you believe. The newspapers, the media generally and all in sundry play this tune for all they are worth. Labour, the Tories and everybody else is all in a Tiswas about the EU. Never mind about the Health Service, Education etc etc  But as far as I’m concerned this is just ‘politics’ with knobs on. Withdrawing from the EU was never going to be easy. Did we all think that the EU was going to see its founding principles go up the river without a paddle? No, I don’t think so.

It’s all a ‘mess’ and that’s that – well, some mess. The political heartland hasn’t changed at all. With Labour shouting the odds against the Tories (they can talk!) and vice versa. It is all predictable. The EU has said ‘No’ to everything, so politics as usual then.

Does anyone really care what’s going on? I do but then I’m a political moron so who is going to lose any sleep over this?

Ireland, the Customs Union etc is all very well, but I can’t see anyone having a scrap over it in the local pub. They might sling the odd punch or two over a darts match but the EU? In your dreams.

So that’s the EU out of the way.

What else is there that has hit the Media headlines? Yes, that’s it: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Algorithms is the answer to all human endeavour-it led to the financial crash so we never learn. Change is on its way (I’ve said this before!) and you had better look out! Life is controlled by a mathematical algorithm. What we say, what we do is all determined by a lump of metal sitting in a Company office. You can’t beat change can you? The problem is, what about empathy or the input of humanity? If you do without this, then the human brain becomes a thing of the past. Not likely – so I say, but I’ll be dead and gone by the time that society manages to work this one out. What about the people who are not well educated or who suffer from mental health problems? What will happen to them?

It’s all for you to decide and what a decision it will be! Better get your calculator out is all I can say – hang on, does anybody use a calculator these days?!