Hilarious Benn's Truly Awful Speech

Hilary Benn's Tory speech has been widely praised, even called the best speech in The House for decades.

Have our standards dropped THAT much?

The speech was in parts illogical, bluster, platitudes, mis-representations and a few LIES.

Sue me Benny

I decided to respond paragraph by paragraph

Benny's Speech is in italics, occasionally bolded and or underlined

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Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Before I respond to the debate, I would like to say this directly to the Prime Minister: Although my right honourable friend the Leader of the Opposition and I will walk into different division lobbies tonight, I am proud to speak from the same Despatch Box as him. My right honourable friend is not a terrorist sympathiser, he is an honest, a principled, a decent and a good man and I think the Prime Minister must now regret what he said yesterday and his failure to do what he should have done today, which is simply to say ‘I am sorry’.

Nothing more than pretence, hypocrisy. He did not vote for Corbyn, is anti-Corbyn, and, no matter how he doth protest, has his eyes on the prize, ie. leadership of the Labour Party.

Now Mr Speaker, we have had an intense and impassioned debate and rightly so, given the clear and present threat from Daesh, the gravity of the decision that rests upon the shoulders and the conscience of every single one of us and the lives we hold in our hands tonight. 

This is a bog-standard, off-the peg statement. No great rhetoric, no information, no actual argument.

And whatever we decision we reach, I hope we will treat one another with respect.

There has been little respect shown towards The Labour Leader’s stance, and to my knowledge not once has Benn spoken out against the barrage of false reporting.

Now we have heard a number of outstanding speeches and sadly time will prevent me from acknowledging them all. But I would just like to single out the contributions both for and against the motion from my honourable and right honourable friends the members for Derby South, Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, Barnsley Central, Wakefield, Wolverhampton South East, Brent North, Liverpool, West Derby, Wirral West, Stoke-on-Trent North, Birmingham Ladywood and the honourable members for Reigate, South West Wiltshire, Tonbridge and Malling, Chichester and Wells.

Ignore this paragraph. 

1. It’s platitudinous 
2. It is merely giving a nod to people that may support him in the future
3. It has ZERO to do with the ISSUE.

The question which confronts us in a very, very complex conflict is at its heart very simple.

This is inverted, perverse logic. How, in a very, VERY (he uses the double very) complex conflict can any question be simple?

What should we do with others to confront this threat to our citizens, our nation, other nations and the people who suffer under the yoke, the cruel yoke, of Daesh?

Again, this is a strange argument. Benn is not discussing “What should we do”, he is arguing the case for a single, specific thing, bombing. Had he followed this with the alternatives, ( block finance, block oil sales, block arms, create safe havens, shut down web-sites) he might have been impressive

The carnage in Paris brought home to us the clear and present danger we face from them. It could have just as easily been London, or Glasgow, or Leeds or Birmingham and it could still be. And I believe that we have a moral and a practical duty to extend the action we are already taking in Iraq to Syria. And I am also clear, and I say this to my colleagues, that the conditions set out in the emergency resolution passed at the Labour party conference in September have been met.

Nobody doubts the reach of “Islamic” terrorism, but this clichéd “clear and present danger” is there whether we bomb or not, and is highly like to INCREASE if we bomb, especially in the short and medium term.

The “moral” duty is open to debate (especially as bombing Syria uninvited is an act that is illegal). The “practical” duty? What the hell is that? It’s just a phrase, meaningless if not expended upon.

If Benn is clear that the Labour Conference resolution is met (but Jeremy Corbyn says it is NOT clear) mere assertion is meaningless. The statement needs argument. Otherwise this is pantomime discussion. “Met! Not Met!)

We now have a clear and unambiguous UN Security Council Resolution 2249, paragraph 5 of which specifically calls on member states to take all necessary measures to redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by Isil, and to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Iraq and Syria.

This is a total lie. 

It is NOT “unambiguous”. The United Nations COULD HAVE passed a resolution explicitly allowing air strikes over Syrian territory (even if uninvited). (I forget the specific number but the right one ends 7). 

One CRUCIAL line in the actual resolution says, “within international law”, and that means, essentially to enter Syria, a sovereign country WITH PERMISSION (as the Russians have but the US, France, Canada and UK have NOT.)

For example, in Iraq we are working with the Iraqi Army and “government”. In Syria we are not, and we are clearly hostile to the legal government (however despicable) of that country. 

Various officials, experts and journalists have explained that the so-called “clear and unambiguous mandate” is no such thing and is a deliberate fudge by the UN.

Had the US-UK-France attempted to get clear mandates (to bomb Syria) from the UN, Russia and China would have vetoed such a mandate.

At a big stretch, the UK might argue the clear and present danger hoo-hah. Does that or did that also apply to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Canada, Australia and the US? It’s a cheap excuse.

So the United Nations is asking us to do something. It is asking us to do something now. It is asking us to act in Syria as well as in Iraq.

Something.

Cut of the sales of Daesh oil.

Cut off the money supply.

Cut off arms sales to Daesh.

Close down the Daesh internet sites.

Create a safe-haven for Syrian refugees and cover it with a no-fly zone.

Increase international border-security and catch more terrorists.

Use extra intelligence resources, signal-jamming, etc to help the invited-in Russians.

At no point does the resolution say “Go into Syria uninvited”. The UK is/was legally able to attack Daesh in Iraq (working with the Iraqis) and that is by no means trivial

As for something NOW where is the date-imperative in the resolution?

And it was a Labour government that helped to found the United Nations at the end of the Second World War. And why did we do so? Because we wanted the nations of the world, working together, to deal with threats to international peace and security – and Daesh is unquestionably that.

This is just pomp. The paragraph ought to imply: “Let us, under the blue flag of the United Nations, create a land-army and an Air Force, and support from navies based in the Eastern Mediterranean, and eradicate Daesh in Syria. 

This is not “the nations of the world working together”. That is total bullshit. Russia is at odds with Turkey. Turkey has been assisting Daesh and almost certainly buying oil cheap and allowing guns to get to Daesh.

Saudi Arabians and Quatarains seed-funded Daesh and may still be helping them. Canada has announced it’s getting out, Australia already has. There is no solid alliance of Nato Countries here. Some actually shoot at each other.

So given that the United Nations has passed this resolution, given that such action would be lawful under Article 51 of the UN Charter – because every state has the right to defend itself – why would we not uphold the settled will of the United Nations, particularly when there is such support from within the region including from Iraq. We are part of a coalition of over 60 countries, standing together shoulder-to-shoulder to oppose their ideology and their brutality.

Oh, see, Benn has slipped in the very weak self-defence nugget. So is this “self-defence” get-out how the US, Canada and Australia justified their aggression? Effectively if Article 51 really does apply that the reason for going into Syria is self-defence (really, it’s crock of shit) then presumably we can bomb any country anywhere that we believe harbours a terrorist?

No, this was a fudged resolution and “self-defence” is elastic and political. How can MPs argue we were going in out of solidarity to the French? That isn’t self-defence.

Now Mr Speaker, all of us understand the importance of bringing an end to the Syrian civil war and there is now some progress on a peace plan because of the Vienna talks. They are the best hope we have of achieving a cease-fire. That would bring an end to Assad’s bombing, leading to a transitional government and elections.

This is APPALLING logic. The cease-fire being referred to (if it ever happens) is between over one hundred anti-Assad factions (and a few anti-Turkey) and the brutal Assad dictatorship.

But are we seriously saying, “Hey, we’ll stop THAT war in Syria while continuing a DIFFERENT war?” Please! As an eminent expert said Monday, it is complex and complicated and anything you do will have ramifications you cannot even imagine.

Let us remember that just over two years ago the call was to bomb ASSAD and we know now that such bombing would have greatly assisted Daesh. 

Why could we not have said, “Beginning today we intend to stop the civil war, and once that has happened all the parties will turn on Daesh to eradicate it (invited, legal, unequivocal).

Whether we like the Assad regime or not, they are attacking Daesh and helping to keep it in check. So are the Russians (in part). If it is true that these two powers are also attacking non-Daesh fighters and innocent civilians, please note that NOTHING that the US, France or the UK is doing (against Daesh) has anything whatsoever to do with protecting non-Daesh combatants of Syrian civilians in areas not controlled by Daesh.

And why is that vital? Both because it will help in the defeat of Daesh, and because it would enable millions of Syrians, who have been forced to flee, to do what every refugee dreams of: they just want to be able to go home.

If the above was the genuine intention of US-UK-France then all their efforts should be to bring about the ceasefire. Meanwhile they could fly DEFENSIVE missions, protecting civilian areas and any factions not actually fighting. Daesh can be left a few months. But remember, that VITAL thing, is not bombing, but stopping the civil war. A million bombs dropped on Daesh will have no affect whatsoever on the civil war.

Now Mr Speaker, no-one in this debate doubts the deadly serious threat we face from Daesh and what they do, although sometimes we find it hard to live with the reality. 

Firstly, how many of us really, truly know WHAT is being done and by whom? When the Russian plane went down, Daesh said they had shot it down with a missile. Second, the Russians said their Special Forces had captured the men who shot the missile and flown them to Russia. Remember? But now it’s a bomb, so who did the Russians capture?

Daesh are notorious for claiming any and every terrorist act. I believe them to be evil, but please, please remember, you are being fed stuff, stuff you are not able to verify. Benn is just regurgitating gossip, not stating facts and supporting them with evidence.

We know that in June four gay men were thrown off the fifth storey of a building in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor. We know that in August the 82-year-old guardian of the antiquities of Palmyra, Professor Khaled al-Assad, was beheaded, and his headless body was hung from a traffic light. And we know that in recent weeks there has been the discovery of mass graves in Sinjar, one said to contain the bodies of older Yazidi women murdered by Daesh because they were judged too old to be sold for sex.

We don’t KNOW these things. All these things may be true but note nowhere in this paragraph is Daesh mentioned. Time will work out who did what and to whom. In the context of a so-called “learned debate” this is salacious gossip. 

A great speech would not have randomly picked emotive incidents and allowed all those listening to presume they were truly and clearly  “by Daesh”. A great speech would have cited authorities that confirmed that the incidents occurred and confirmed they were categorically the responsibility of Daesh.

Please note, I do not for a second think that Daesh is not an evil cult and deep in my heart I hope not one survives past the end of 2016, but here I am querying this so-called “Great Speech.” It’s not great, it’s cheap rabble-rousing.

We know they have killed 30 British tourists in Tunisia, 

Not True. A Conscious, Deliberate LIE

The Tunisian gunman acted alone and was trained in LIBYA, and NOT by Daesh. Libya is a lawless country full of warring factions, jihadis and training camps PRECISELY BECAUSE WE BOMBED THE SHIT OUT OF IT and removed Gadaffi who was beaten to death in the street.

When the museum attack occurred in Tunisia, Daesh did claim it (as they typically do) but the Tunisian government blamed a local splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, for the attack.

Here is some info on the Sousse (Tunisia) beach massacre.

Note the absence of Daesh:

“The killer, Seifiddine Rezgui Yacoubi, also known as Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani, (born 1992 in Gaafour) was a 23-year-old electrical engineering student at University of Kairouan from Gaafour, in northwest Tunisia.

He did not have the typical traits of an Islamic extremist: he had a girlfriend, drank alcohol and was a local break-dancing star. He was also believed to be high on cocaine during his rampage.

He is believed to have been radicalised over such issues as the Libyan Civil War and Western inaction against the savagery of the Assad government during the Syrian Civil War.

Rezgui is thought to have been recruited by Ajnad al-Khilafah,^[44] an outgrowth of the Tunisian branch of Ansar al-Sharia, which was founded by Saifallah Ben Hassine, who had lived in the UK in the 1990s and whose mentor during that time was Abu Qatada.

High Court papers relating to a control order placed on a British-based suspect state that Ben Hassine “aimed to recruit new members and send them to Afghanistan for training”. The control order documents add that: “Abu Qatada appears as a watermark running through the whole of this case as being the mastermind.”

Benn: 224 Russian holidaymakers on a plane

While all my instincts tell me this atrocity was indeed perpetrated by Daesh, I will remember the initial farce of the missile attack (shown in a You-Tube video) , then Russia “capturing the men who had fired the (British) missile and taking them to Russia”. 

Note: the downed plane became a perfect reason for Russia to join with Assad.

178 people in suicide bombings in Beirut, Ankara and Suruc. 

Daesh has NOT, repeat NOT claimed responsibility for the Ankara bomb. It is well-known that Daesh are quick to claim their atrocities and often claim atrocities committed by others so it is unlikely they are responsible.

A large number of possible perpetrators have been suggested including the Turkish government itself, Kurds etc. Remember Daesh has not claimed this attack. WHY?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ankara_bombings

130 people in Paris including those young people in the Bataclan whom Daesh – in trying to justify their bloody slaughter – called ‘apostates engaged in prostitution and vice’. If it had happened here, they could have been our children. And we know that they are plotting more attacks.

The attacks in France were a terrible tragedy and must be utterly condemned without any kind of reservation, but the language used here tries to appropriate those tragic deaths and make them British.

Quote: If it had happened here, they could have been our children.

That isn’t statesmanship, that’s UKIP, The Daily Mail, Britain First. Terrible!

He then finishes with And we know that they are plotting more attacks.

That is pure tub-thumping and scare-mongering with no actual, specific factual evidence or any reference to authority. Benn just SAYS it. While it is no doubt true, such terrorist attacks are happening (being planned) despite 50,000 over-flights and about 5,000 actual bombing raids. During all those bombings, the number of Daesh recruits has continued to grow.

So the question for each of us – and for our national security – is this: given that we know what they are doing, can we really stand aside and refuse to act fully in our self-defence against those who are planning these attacks?

See the shift? 

Just SAY they are planning attacks (don’t actually prove anything) then quickly move on to what must now happen BECAUSE “they are planning attacks”.

Can we really leave to others the responsibility for defending our national security when it is our responsibility? And if we do not act, what message would that send about our solidarity with those countries that have suffered so much – including Iraq and our ally, France.

First, this is a calculated mis-representation of the truth. The UK does a lot of important work. We exchange intelligence with the US, Canada and Australia AS A STANDARD. We fought in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and were already bombing Daesh in Iraq on a more or less daily basis and supplying Special Forces support, and training the Iraqi Army. What exactly is that if not working towards security there, towards the eradication of Daesh, and (theoretically) “our long-term security”?

Easily, EASILY we could have continued doing our legal, invited, specialist part without bending or breaking any international laws. No, this is about dick-waving and saying “we have to stand by France”. The stand-by-France stuff is just a cheap excuse. 

(I add here that I love France and the French and mourn their dead, but this is not about fraternity, but an act of international war…)

BTW France refused to join the coalition against Iraq, remember, and the US citizenry emerged all-things-French for a few years. But let’s skip over history, 2003 is centuries ago.

And PS, France knows we fought with them in WWI and WWII and gave a home to the Free French under de Gaulle, and then liberated France in 1944, so P-L-E-A-S-E.

Now, France wants us to stand with them and President Hollande – the leader of our sister socialist party – has asked for our assistance and help. 

So? You’re supposed to be a statesman. A friend comes round and says X beat him up, will you go round and petrol-bomb the house? You say, “Mate, no, that will only make things worse. I will, however, make sure the police know and act.”

And as we are undertaking airstrikes in Iraq where Daesh’s hold has been reduced and we are already doing everything but engage in airstrikes in Syria – should we not play our full part?

Psst. The Iraq element is LEGAL, invited, almost clear-cut, and far less dangerous. Syria involves a classic Reservoir Dogs stand-off including, already, two super-powers and could lead to a major conflict, even a third world war.

Just imagine Russians, Syrians, Saudis, Chinese, the USA, Britain, France, Jordan, a twitchy Israel, Turkey, all going at it, all with different agendas.

And you PRETEND that’s just 1% different from bombing Daesh in Iraq. You should be shamed of yourself.

It has been argued in the debate that airstrikes achieve nothing. Not so. Look at how Daesh’s forward march has been halted in Iraq. 

The reason air strikes can contain forces (but only trivially damage them) is because WHEN THEY START TO EXPAND THEY ARE EXPOSED IN THE OPEN.

It isn’t rocket science. Jesus!

They have PAUSED.

In WWI we bombed the German defences in France for weeks at a time. Just shell after shell after tens of thousands of shells. We did it for WEEKS ready for our next offensive. The Germans simply bunkered down and when the barrage stopped they knew the allied soldiers were coming and they slaughtered them, 50,000 or more a day.

Soldiers being bombed get under cover. Allegedly, like the Viet Cong, Daesh is digging tunnels under Raqqua. How many attacks, bombs, tanks, drones has the Israeli Army used on The Palestinians. How is that going?

The House will remember that, 14 months ago, people were saying: ‘they are almost at the gates of Baghdad’. And that is why we voted to respond to the Iraqi government’s request for help to defeat them. 

NOTE. THE IRAQUI REQUEST.

The Syrians, on the other hand, have NOT asked us to go in, so we are breaking international law.

But again, be reminded, troops on the offensive make “soft targets”. Troops bunkered down suffer relatively few casualties. This is why military experts say you need at least a 6:1 advantage when attacking.

That means 15,000 holed-up Daesh fighters can make things very difficult indeed for an attacking army as big as 100,000 (and that’s a fully-trained, cohesive army, not a rag-tag of over 100 alliances).

Look at how their military capacity and their freedom of movement has been put under pressure. Ask the Kurds about Sinjar and Kobani. Now of course, air strikes alone will not defeat Daesh – but they make a difference. Because they are giving them a hard time – and it is making it more difficult for them to expand their territory.

They do NOT “make a difference” except making it hard for them to expand territory (because they are then in the open…)

Instead, they build more tunnels, plan attacks, and, meanwhile, civilians die.

Where is the evidence of this “hard-time” we are giving Daesh in Raqqua? We take out empty training camps, a check point, a truck, a car, a tent…

Now, I share the concerns that have been expressed this evening about potential civilian casualties. However, unlike Daesh, none of us today act with the intent to harm civilians. 

INTENT is irrelevant. It’s the result that matters.

Again, that’s a cheap shot by Benn.

Rather, we act to protect civilians from Daesh – who target innocent people.

We will kill you and your children to stop Daesh doing it. Understood.

Now on the subject of ground troops to defeat Daesh, there’s been much debate about the figure of 70,000 and the government must, I think, better explain that. 

In other words, as shown by numerous experts, the 70K total is utter rubbish. But note, this was the last Labour speech of the night, yet, above, clearly, Benn is saying the numbers don’t add up and must be questioned. Isn’t that a reason to pause and say, DON’T bomb?

But THINK. Every expert, every one says we must eventually go in with an army and 15K means at least 90K. But Benn is clearly hinting the 70,000 isn’t real. No-one knows if ANY Syrian fighters would actually take on Daesh. They hate ASSAD.

In other words we will bomb and bomb and bomb forever, or we will go in with UK-US troops or the UN.

But we know that most of them are currently engaged in fighting President Assad. 

Er, yes?

But I’ll tell you what else we know, is whatever the number – 70,000, 40,000, 80,000 – the current size of the opposition forces mean the longer we leave taking action, the longer Daesh will have to decrease that number. 

You’re showing leg now Mr Benn. We are (you allege) “Hurting Daesh with Air Strikes” and yet in the same breath you say Daesh is growing every day and/or is increasingly capable of going out and engaging the non-Daesh fighters in Syria and reducing their number. 

Surely in a straight fight both sides will lose men (but strangely, numbers-wise Daesh is growing.)

Where is your EVIDENCE of this attrition or possible attrition? Where has it been said that non-Daesh fighters are being seriously and asymmetrically depleted by Daesh? The various factions for the most part avoid each other.

PS note how he slipped in 80 as in 80,000 when he KNOWS it’s not even 70,000.

What? Let’s look at the logic. The magic seventy thousand, the 70,000 who are supposed to be used sometime in the future (to attack Daesh defensive positions where they will need a 6:1 majority) are being killed right now when Daesh come out to engage them in the open or attacking THEIR defensive positions when they (non-Daesh defenders are advantaged).

And so to suggest, Mr Speaker, that air strikes should not take place until the Syrian civil war has come to an end is, I think, to miss the urgency of the terrorist threat that Daesh poses to us and others, and I think misunderstands the nature and objectives of the extension to airstrikes that is being proposed. 

As to the nature and objectives of the air-strikes, I don’t think I have heard them uttered. Containment is a given, degradation doesn’t appear to be proven.

And of course we should take action. It is not a contradiction between the two to cut off Daesh’s support in the form of money and fighters and weapons, and of course we should give humanitarian aid, and of course we should offer shelter to more refugees including in this country and yes we should commit to play our full part in helping to rebuild Syria when the war is over.

But we HAVEN’T been cutting off oil

But we haven’t been cutting off money

But we haven’t been cutting off arms

We haven’t even shut down their web sites

And to date we have offered to take a total, a TOTAL of half a per cent of all the refugees. (That’s half a per cent of those who have already fled. Let’s ignore the next million.)

Now I accept that there are legitimate arguments, and we have heard them in the debate, for not taking this form of action now. And it is also clear that many members have wrestled, and who knows, in the time that is left, may still be wrestling, with what the right thing to do is. But I say the threat is now, and there are rarely, if ever, perfect circumstances in which to deploy military forces. 

Waffle. There is no ARGUMENT here.

Now we heard very powerful testimony from the honourable member for Eddisbury earlier when she quoted that passage, and I just want to read what Karwan Jamal Tahir, the Kurdistan regional government high representative in London, said last week and I quote: 

‘Last June, Daesh captured one third of Iraq over night and a few months later attacked the Kurdistan region. 

Swift airstrikes by Britain, America and France, and the actions of our own Peshmerga, saved us. We now have a border of 650 miles with Daesh. We’ve pushed them back, and recently captured Sinjar. Again, Western airstrikes were vital. But the old border between Iraq and Syria does not exist. Daesh fighters come and go across this fictional boundary.’ And that is the argument Mr Speaker, for treating the two countries as one, if we are serious about defeating Daesh.

This is disingenuous. As I have said, air strikes work when an army is in the open, attacking the enemy’s position. So Daesh were doing well and were easy to target. 

So the rabbit goes down the hole. It’s like rednecks with guns taking pop shots every time a rabbit comes out.

Once a week they wing a rabbit, but the rest are underground and breeding. There are ever-more rabbits.

But the redneck says, look we have the under control.

Now Mr Speaker, I hope the house will bear with me if I direct my closing remarks to my Labour friends and colleagues on this side of the House. As a party we have always been defined by our internationalism. We believe we have a responsibility one to another. We never have – and we never should – walk by on the other side of the road.

Nope, but there are many ways to fight bad things other than bombing them

And we are here faced by fascists. 

Crafty. Are you going to mention Hitler (and Churchill?)

Not just their calculated brutality, but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this chamber tonight, and all of the people that we represent. They hold us in contempt. They hold our values in contempt. They hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt. 

So fucking what? Just because someone DOESN’T LIKE YOU is not an excuse for bombing and killing civilians

They hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt. 

So do a lot of UK voters, matey.

And what we know about fascists is that they need to be defeated. And it is why, as we have heard tonight, socialists and trade unionists and others joined the International Brigade in the 1930s to fight against Franco. 

History? Hilary, you are arguing that your Labour colleagues should vote tonight with the Tories. That is the Tory party, who while formally neutral on Franco, wanted a Franco victory and even allowed Franco to site a signals base in Gibraltar. 

While it is true the Labour Party were pro-Franco, the Trade Union Congress was split. Many of the British volunteers were hard left or communist. 

Approximately one third of Irishmen who fought for Republicans died, a group composed primarily of socialists, trade unionists, and former IRA members. The "Connolly Column" of the International Brigades was named after the Irish socialist leader executed after 1916 Easter Rising, James Connolly.

It’s why this entire House stood up against Hitler and Mussolini. 

Yay, Hitler, you managed it.

It is why our party has always stood up against the denial of human rights and for justice. 

Then stop helping the bloody Tories

And my view, Mr Speaker, is that we must now confront this evil. It is now time for us to do our bit in Syria. And that is why I ask my colleagues to vote for the motion tonight.

Prrrrtttt!

Daily Prompts 2776-2800 -

09 November 2015 - 17:55

2776 We are nearly done, let us pause 

2777 The far faint sounds of a winter drum

2778 Paper cuts,sawdust, glue, string

2779 My blood undoes itself, my heart fills with air

2780 A juggler, playing with his balls

2781 You were born here, in an ordinary way

2782 It is time for one of us to go, or both to die

2783 You play me like a straining string

2784 I would like to talk with dolphins and learn to hold my breath

2785 Treading softly on the things I said

2786 I could become this picture, but I pause at the edge

2787 Ships, ships, ships, white, pregnantly heaving

2788 As if the heavens strained and suddenly broke

2789 I am almost innocent

2790 A big fat, yellow moon

2791 I once loved a Polish girl, on a ferry to Ostend

2792 Her hair bloody, matted with snow

2793 The hardest thing is to be loveless

2794 This the way the mourners walked, black, and damp with drizzle

2795 The rough moonlit hedges, the deaths of small creatures

2796 Two riders came, both dark, the larger with a dirty scar

2797 I am anchor-less, a victim of the tides

2798 You could admit it and then move on

2799 After deaths there comes a silence

2800 By the bottle, by the pint and by the jug

Daily Prompts 2751-2775 -

07 November 2015 - 07:25

2751 The dead sleep in the dark, barely hoping

2752 I have never forgotten.

2753 He owned fifteen acres, an ox, two good horses

2754 It is always too late here, and always the wrong time

2755 God is smaller in the mall

2756 They have circled the wagons

2757 My bowels water

2758 In my dreams I have legs, a stout heart, the love of a good woman

2759 The Jewish Kamikaze: Torah! Torah! Torah!

2760 The shock of the volley

2761 Do they really think nothing has changed?

2762 She says the reception was somewhere else

2763 What we think when we are falling

2764 A sergeant I had never me and didn't know

2765 The point of pointlessness is that pointlessness has a point

2766 The weight of my rifle

2767 Do philosophers just fuck, or do they talk themselves out of it?

2768 How the memory strikes us, the details that emerge

2769 I'm the salmon that prefers downstream

2770 I should have died then, could have, wanted to

2771 The theoretical physics of the crisp packet

2772 The words we use to see things again

2773 Magnolia 

2774 The pit-bull respected, the Labrador loved

2775 The small repeated blows that make the heart

Daily Prompts 2726-2750 - 

03 November 2015 - 08:20

2726 "Lord, Lord, Lord, it was worth a try." (Harry Chapin)
2727 I hear the gentle click and clack of Mary's ghost making tea
2728 RHUBARB
2729 It was a night for old ideas, smoke, murder
2730 A quart of milk, four ounces of tea, and a pound of arsenic (for the rats)

2731 When girls wore petticoats and smelt of Tweed
2732 I am thinking of writing a bible
2733 We listened while those who knew the secrets talked
2734 A joyous fucking YES? Really?
2735 You will not convince me this is better. I say bitter

2736 By the bowels of your mother!
2737 Come here, let me mop your brow and sing
2738 A bright bird on a dark sky
2739 And then again, and again, and again
2740 There was something here when I looked before

2741 What matters, nothing else, is whether the line is straight
2742 I have a degree in self-pity, a PhD in misery
2743 Ants, Yummy!
2744 Reading older poetry, flicking through today's
2745 Admit it, there can be too much singing

2746 The Last Bus Home, Old girls in leather skirts and top-deck Karaoke
2747 Woman, red jacket, dog, a silver greyhound
2748 I suppose you can fuck me. This is as joyous as it gets.
2749 Die o'clock, getting on for late
2750 My flame has died. Occasionally I poot dull smoke

:
:

Daily Prompts 2701-2725 - 02 November 2015 - 06:10

2701 The smell of the fairground, electric

2702 I am the bastard John Thomas Smith

2703 The 04:50 stopping train to Crewe

2704 The smell of too much time, trains, loneliness

2705 Like a patient under the knife

2706 The Time Caller

2707 I need to hear melody, euphony, a whiff of poetry

2708 Staybridge Station, 2 AM

2709 I have found the hole in time, that isn't there and can't be found

2710 At the centre of your earth

2711 Milk Wood Estate, Llareggub, Highly Desirable 3/4 Beds from £399,500

2712 The Poetry of Death

2713 Cider With Susan Gibbons

2714 OK OK OK, I'll turn it down

2715 I will do it again. Nothing is impossible

2716 One Republican, Two Republicans, Many.

2717 Jennifer Blossom SRN

2718 Watching monkeys fuck in the zoo

2719 Don't be a baby. It's just a tiny prick

2720 The Soft Meadows of Our Memory

2721 Someone I don't know is having a birthday

2722 The Origin of My Morality

2723 Capsized

2724 The Ladybird Introduction to Immigration Policy

2725 Be quiet now: it is time for you to leave

October Blast 24 2651-2675 

30-Oct 08:12 Friday

2651 The virgins are arriving, led by a brass band
2652 My Last Will and Excrement
2653 The tinkle of abandoned wind-chimes
2654 An ache rising from the bowels
2655 They are captured on dark streets, shaved, bathed, anointed 

2656 This is a summer for Disco Tents
2657 They live a quieter life, apart from the sacrifices
2658 You cannot comprehend the measure of my disgust
2659 Hair slicked with Brylcreem, perfectly parted
2660 The Joy of Tax

2661 Lately, I have been working on a Time Machine
2662 Hoe pressure rises
2663 The dark prehistoric smell of wolf
2664 This is the contract we make
2665 I could fuck a kitchen girl, go riding

2666 When there is just one pit left, will it be a church?
2667 You forget, thinking it could never have been that bad
2668 Polishing Brass
2669 The men are lined up in the rain, each wondering how he came to be there
2670 I sleep with the horses: it is more pleasant there

2671 In the day we light candles and pray. At night we slit throats
2672 TRIGGER
2673 When you are old and high on drugs
2674 I was born with the soul of a slave, you an emperor
2675 It is the lightness of you an air of forest morning 

October Blast 23 2626-2650

29-Oct 00:33 Thursday

2626 There are places nobody goes, villages beneath water

2627 CRICKET

2628 I am folding the table-cloth, barely marked

2629 There is always someone stupid enough to start a song

2630 Mist smelling of cordite, blood

2631 Synopsis of the Great English Novel

2632 KINGFISHER

2633 We stopped at a fucking dump called Addlesstrop

2634 Arrive Feb, die March

2635 I am lining up my medals, folding my beret

2636 'Tis the light yonder, Sire!

2637 That's the thing about Bournemouth

2638 BLUE

2639 Carcinogens and Chips

2640 A dull, old train, stinking of dust and failed promises

2641 Eeenie-meanie miney fucking mo

2642 I am walking dishonestly and down a crooked path

2643 British, Huh? Have you met The Queen?

2644 Always remember, this might be the last time you ever make love

2645 Fairy Nuff

2646 We are thinking of bombing Hamburg, or Milton Keynes

2647 Absence makes the heart relax

2648 Turning off the torches lest the needy find us

2649 National Kill Your Best Friend Day

2650 Stone, Sand, Water, Sky

October Blast 20 2551-2575 

26-Oct 08:05 Monday

2551 Our bodies pressed together by darkness, heavier and heavier

2552 They are singing hymns outside the banks, managers cowering inside

2553 Lampposts, one of those words that never looks right

2554 We live on all the other days

2555 The Man From Laramie

2556 It was your quarter-birthday so we shared a tiny cake

2557 I woke on a rug

2558 The sea around me, the sky above me, and you

2559 It was not sex, but they would call it sex

2560 St David's. the old tin church, the smell of incense 

2561 There are times when I am sickened by us

2562 The various colours and textures of our faeces

2563 The country of the middle ear.

2564 She followed the track and hoped she would not be met

2565 I have a fear of being re-incarnated as a Republican

2566 In the various parts of life

2567 St Ives

2568 It's early in the morning, but still too late

2569 I would kill myself with a shot-gun, but I don't like loud noises

2570 He hid his books beneath his kilt

2571 I am in love with a goldfish

2572 Marbles, Arlies, Small muddy goals, the world

2573 Colander

2574 I would like to come home unexpectedly and surprise myself at the door

2575 What if there were rainbows every day, then one day not?

 October Blast 19 2526-2550

 25-Oct 08:05 Sunday

2526 I was leaning over you when you moved

2527 Space Travel for Seniors

2528 Porcupine

2529 They have herded their calves into the centre

2530 You are like old foreign bank-notes, vaguely meaningful once

2531 That's what I was trying to tell you, so to speak

2532 The poor will give upon kidney to the Chinese

2533 Erotica, retina

2534 I need something here, melodic, mellifluous 

2535 The Gods are in the dark this time

2536 This is how we decompose

2537 Why I love tractors

2538 I live in a huge, dull, palace

2539 Penises of various shapes and sizes

2540 The Poets are crying out for famine and disease

2541 Someone has written on the whites of your eyes

2542 Consume! Consume!

2543 I want to sit in a warm kitchen, drinking slowly with a few good friends

2544 It is better to squat when you shit

2545 I am not stubborn. I am a lighthouse.

2546 I love you so much I would lend you a book

2547 Launderette

2548 A nest of mice in her bed

2549 I opened a shiny box and a light came out

2550 What is this life if full of doubt we have no time to hang about?

October Blast 17 2476-2500 

 

 17-Oct 11:20 Monday

2476 Once on a bus with Denis Potter

2477 RIGMAROLE

2478 I dreamt I was an incredible horseman

2479 That's a Joke, Yes?

2480 In 1953 a gale blew the roof off our house

2481  Barefoot we damned the brook, patient engineers

2482 Frozen Peas

2483 My horse was magnificent and everyone loved him

2484 ENNUI

2485 The sky is lower than it was this morning

2486 Never mind where you are going; you will know when you get there

2487 Fairies

2488 This moon is big, bigger than ever

2489 I do not like this form of dying, there should be more

2490 The shine of fresh water

2491 I would just like to stand up one more time

2492 You lie like a dollar watch bought in Marrakesh

2493 I hated onions, cheese, radishes, my sisters

2494 Your answer is a weak one

2495 I am trying to reinvent my father

2496 All the King's Horses, All the President's Men

2497 As the people became lighter, the wind took them away

2498 Minefield Football

2499 Suddenly it occurs to me, we can dig

2500 I have found a small hole in time. I hide there, sometimes.

October Blast 15 2426-2450

16-Oct 08:11 Friday

2426 We need more ways to waste our time

2427 The Last Love Letter of Ebenezer Smith

2428 Black Beauty

2429 How the fox falls, upon another fox

2430 Blood, simmering gently

2431 I would describe myself thus

2432 My books in many boxes

2433 When your internet is down 4 days

2434 May I go now? There are things I must do

2435 Random acts of unkindness

2436 Cameron Cameron in La-La-Land

2437 The ugly moments between the smiles

2438 Ironing, Ironing, Ironing, and then ironing

2439 NODDY

2440 In truth, I would prefer not to

2441 An Ugly Sunset

2442 The roar of falling snowflakes

2443 The light above the trees

2444 Ice, blue ice, ice forever

2445 Archangel

2446 The lights of the fairground

2447 The dark art of opening jars

2448 Best to continue walking, best not to see

2449 It takes a man

2450 Three daughters, each with child

 October Blast 15 2226-2450

 12-Oct 18:20 Monday

2226 The sea is metal, the sky metal

2227 ABCESS

2228 So that every one of you might understand

2229 Today is show and tell

2230 We will be found dead, burnt up, dry as tissue

2231 There is another way but I will not go there

2232 PINCERS

2233 It is more or less as we expected, but bad for all that

2234 An unstoppable ugliness

2235 How death arises

2236 She thinks of it like a trapeze artists worships the sawdust

2237 I will wear shorts, sandals with socks, a knotted handkerchief upon my head

2238 Turmeric for health reasons

2239 SUBSISTENCE

2240 The horses came just as night was falling

2241 Deeper, the ears imploding

2242 Small blind creatures, aperitifs

2243 Miguel who cuts down trees

2244 He crouched, waited, thought about leaping, waited more

2245 Sonnet on fourteen pianos

2246 The smell of almond polish

2247 I have arrived but you bounced past and are gone

2248 Unburden me, lay me in a shallow grave

2249 The Bad Sister

2250 Before the world was as sweet as this

October Blast Prompt Set 14

2401 Never underestimate the power of a turned face

2402 An Obscenity of Professors

2403 He brought his teeth with him in a brown paper bag

2404 Secretaries end to end

2405 It's a kind of murder, out on the verandah

2406 Various poisonous confections

2407 A pause of falling suicides

2408 Sticklebacks

2409 A series of silences is music to the soul

2410 RUBBER

2411 Few will hear, but that's how it has always been

2412 Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

2413 Does a croc without water still latch on and twist?

2414 Will Shakespeare, Midfield Dynamo

2415 The awkwardness of first love

2416 It is known that certain moons talk

2417 I hear you knocking

2418 The glass and clatter of a steaming kitchen

2419 PLOUGH

2420 Back where we were just sixty minutes ago

2421 Two hundred billion billion white plastic bags

2422 I saw three ships come sailing by

2423 Accidentally exposed to a poet

2424 Words ending ack, ick, eck, uck

2425 Contagion

October Blast 12 2351-2375

10-Oct 09:51 Saturday

2351 Bargees here for the body, prepared to fight

2352 This is a strange church with strange smells

2353 Jacob's Ladder

2354 You should not expect applause except the flutter of hands in your gut

2355 The pig with a house of straw

2356 You must find your key, then sing

2357 Brothels, Parliaments, Churches

2358 Let us not prolong this

2359 There is an unwellness in your soul

2360 I dismiss myself and cast me out

2361 Come Waves Overwhelm me for I cannot die

2362 Command Centre

2363 The contents of the saddest box on Earth

2364 Jennifer, you are rudely late, impossibly early

2365 If I rob you i have made your load lighter

2366 Mesopotamia

2367 I almost came out alive

2368 The Aliens Reported Back: Worthless

2369 The fat grey flanks of the walrus

2370 All for one and I'm the one

2371 Remember, there is good and bad laughter

2372 Long ago, before the world was a wild uncaring place

2373 So many ways to say hung

2374 The glint of steel in the bush

2375 Gong Farmers, Pure Collectors

09 October Prompts

2326 We collect our invisible belongings and exit

2327 Tarzan

2328 This is how things are designed. It is absolute

2329 The smell of coal-tar soap

2330 Chain Bridge, Ferry

2331 Camp Coffee, Garibaldis

2332 Rule Britannia!

2333 Running my finger under the tap

2334 SALT

2335 Out for a Chinese, the bus back

2336 Twigging

2337A stand-up wash in the kitchen

2338 Picking delicious scabs from your knees

2339 Last Night of the Proms

2340 Eggs, Chips Echo'd Bread

2341 Running for trains, always missing

2342 Jockeys in their Triumph Spitfires, dates in town

2343 Tea might help

2344 The Market Place

2345 The difference between a pantry and a larder

2346 Carriage after carriage, heartless

2347 Fireworks, a Diary, Harmonica, and once an opened till

2348 Copper Thomas

2349 Skimming stones, hiding in bushes, vowing eggs

2350 Stores Away!

October Blast 09 2276-2300

07-Oct 11:15 Wednesday

2276 Village Stocks, Electric Chairs

2277 Crucifixion, but a long way off

2278 We cannot be sure you are our sort of person

2279 I so detest it when they become educated

2280 Eventually we will eat our shoes, and then our books

2281 Pigs Fucking Pigs and Pigs Watching On

2282 It is all mud and I detest you for it

2283 Suitable Lampposts

2284 Remember when men were black from work but marched and sang?

2285 There is a far-off beauty in bells

2286 Pure gravestones, white as light, leaning crosses

2287 No poor, and now no disabled, no limbless, none struck

2288 Mist

2289 Genuinely, if a pox fell upon them, I would rejoice

2290 Would Communists be Worse, or Fascists?

2291 The soul gone, the heart. Now tax the air.

2292 Next!

2293 You took too much of my life

2294 If we could only find another Botany Nay

2295 We would march into Hell, nevertheless

2296 These are my last few unknown places, shadows of shadows

2297 Watch them, imagine smart grey uniforms and a certain kind of cross

2298 Tsars fell, Empires fade, but the filth and bile remains in festering minds

2299 Surely the poor have uses? Fertiliser, ballast, bad examples?

2300 Jesus, Privatised

SCUM!

I think yesterday may have been my polemic day. As well as a terrible poem, I got this from my daily batch of prompts.

I don't usually post a fresh story, but I can't imagine this placing anywhere (The Spectator, maybe?) so here it is.

Please share.

Alex.

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

5 Oct 2015

SCUM

Apparently, there are no poor people. We have it on authority from a particularly ugly immigrant who once ran a market stall, moved up to selling plastic shit computers and fell into importing millions of Chinese electronic boxes for other quite-rich people to access SKY and became a Lord. Thank-you Lord. How are this sweat-shops in Guangzhou, Alan? Not too many poisonings, I hope, suicides below ten a month? All good then.

We the quite-rich-really, we spread the word on our iPhones, jump in our low-slung go-fast striped Sierras, burn rubber on our dissolute ways to the best food banks. Some of us even change out of our pyjamas.

Obviously we squabble a bit over Tesco Everyday Corn Flakes (who the Hell wouldn’t?) and who wouldn’t shove a bit to get the only packet of Thai Chicken Flavour Crisps (hardly out of date.) You can’t stay in to watch your Blu-Ray of Fast & Furious on your 90-inch 4 x HD Panasonic and NOT eat crisps with your Stella.

We the quite-rich-really, we are the soldiers, the old soldiers, the ex-soldiers, the wives of soldiers, the children of soldiers. We are the archers who tramped towards Calais, our breaches undone to let dysenteric shit run out of us as we marched towards our murder. We are the full-fingered who followed a king, slept in fear and won for our country in a muddy field called Agincourt. We were soldiers, and when we have scrounged for a pack of Carling, we dance on the backs of soldiers, our fathers, brothers, uncles.

We-the-quite-rich died of Phossy Jaw, lead poisoning, mill-smashed limbs, gas and rock falls as we hewed your coal, and when we took a break from that we holidayed in The Ardennes, Gallipoli, Balaclava, Isandwhala or over Berlin. Occasionally we succumbed to malaria or snake-bite. Occasionally, somehow we won through, and you pinned badges to our chests. Rorke’s Drift or the skies over Kent.

We are the smoke on lamps, the smoke on ceilings, the smoke that lines our lungs. Our places are old, old, old, worn out, and yes, our children find chemical ways to live and then they are incarcerated. We are worn out, worn down, trampled even as you ignore us (except when we disturb you). We are the peeling labels on old tin cans, the shadows, your inconveniences.

We-the-pretty-well-off-actually, some of us have two pairs of trainers, and a change for when our favourite trackies are in the wash. We, the assistants, the apprentices, the miners, the steel-workers, the trawler men, the front line, we who unfortunately have managed to survive, we, Wellington’s Scum of the Earth, the stout Yeomen of England, now we lounge around in our penthouses, texting each other about the market, vaguely trying to choose between Cannes for the weather or the Alps - the shine of virgin snow.

Naturally, we the-fucking-loaded, we, the buyers of Chateau Lafitte ‘42, we who slum it sometimes with merely a half-decent oaky Chardonnay, obviously the last thing we want is work. Why in shit’s name would we want to work?

Would we want a job to feel human again? Would we want a job so our kids grow a little higher and stand a little taller? Of course we wouldn’t. Fuck me, Alan, of course we wouldn’t. It’s great here on the estates, we’re absolutely rolling in it, and we laugh our devious ways to the bank, to the boozer, to the betting shop. It’s hard to believe how happy are knowing we aren’t poor.

I was five in 1953, Alan, outside Fosters Garage, waiting. The sun was high, everything shone, and The Queen, the actual QUEEN was coming to see me. Imagine that. We were on Cardiff Road, just past Whiteheads Iron & Steel and Godins Steel if you (or HM the Queen) had just come through town. Up Corporation Road there was Lysaghts, too, and British Nylon Spinners and Stewart & Lloyds. One day they would build Llanwern. The docks creaked under the weight of coal going out and pit-props coming in, New Zealand Lamb incoming at 2/6d a leg, frozen in steely holds. Proud men worked then Alan, every man worked; and when her car came: the queen, bright and pretty in her light-blue hat waved at us with a white-gloved hand. We saw her for almost two seconds.

Maybe our leaders were just as bad back then. The poor will always be with us, eh? Except, we weren’t poor then, either. We only worked sixty hours a week, and we had a roof over our heads, didn’t we? Compared to a peasant farmer in the Domesday Book, we were kings, Kings!

We got to Barry Island once a year. We went to the Lido. We walked to save the bus-fare and were skinny. We stumbled towards adulthood, kicked a ball around weekends. Were we loathsome then, from the wrong schools, with the wrong accents, and ‘difficult’? Did you hate us so much when we joined together, all-for-one and one-for-all?

OK, our skin wasn’t fine - fruit would have helped - but the steel snaked from hellish furnaces, the cars rolled from lines, we made your cabinets and televisions, and sailed old fat ships on dangerous seas. We didn’t want to sit at your table, ours was fine, but a few bob extra would have been nice, say enough not to have to cut apples into four, or have to pick potatoes piecework on weekends to pay the rent. Just a little bit more was the point, but then it turned out we had never had it so good.

These are interesting times, but remember once Kings thought Kings were forever. Some of us are tired, some of us are beaten down. But just remember Alan, remember David, when you see your flushed cheeks in the mirror, that once a thousand noble knights, the cream of France thought there was no fight left in the poor.

So to the Alan’s and the David’s and the Boris’s, and Gideon AKA George, to those with puffed red Nazi cheeks and swollen trousers, to those with mothers called Felicity Alexandra followed by barrels, and 17th Lords, remember, when the pig is spent and you have zipped your swollen trousers that corruption carries the seeds of its own end.

We, the various microscopic inhabitants of your Jermyn Street cheeseboard, the tired but not yet dead, we will find a way.

Let me put it this way… You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, fuck the fuck off and die.

1,144 Words

October Blast 08 2251-2275 

06-Oct 00:01 Tuesday

2251 Cherry Blossom

2252 A Commonwealth of Thieves

2253 Major Major

2254 A ferret, a flat-cap, an old pair of boots

2255 A Small Lie

2256 The Unwritten History of the Native American

2257 A Pity Youth Does Not Last

2258 Trees, Path, Light

2259 A Substantiation of Inconsequentials

2260 A Coat on a Chair

2261 Grinning, with someone else's teeth

2262 The Stilted Sixties

2263 Beyond Coincidence

2264 John, Paul, George and Sylvia

2265 My Hi-Viz Jacket and Trousers

2266 Air Hostesses and Similar Animals

2267 BAYONET

2268 Seven Pillows of Wisdom

2269 Underneath the King's Horse

2270 A Ring of Steel, and Inside Our Servants

2271 The Former News Editor, Albert Jackson Brown

2272 Work Like a Chinaman

2273 Gravitas

2274 A Confederacy of the Aged

2275 The Men Are Rowing Out

Help my Son and Help Yourself

At the end of November, my son, Alex (PJ) Pearson-Jones, after just twelve months as a power-lifter is off to Vancouver to compete in The CommonWealth Powerlifting Championships

He needs to raise funds to cover flights etc. 

If you can help his crowd-funding, great, but in the meantime I'm offering membership of Boot Camp from now until the year-end for the ridiculously low price of £50, (normally £198) all the £50s to go the PJ's travel fund.

Please help, join us in BC, and/or share widely.

Alex

October Blast 07 2226-2250

05-Oct 08:05 Monday

2226 The smoke on lamps, the smoke on ceilings

2227 Gain is Loss Somewhere

2228 The peeling labels on old tin cans

2229 1953, Fosters Garage: the sun was high, the queen was bright

2230 People kill People. Guns are labour-saving devices

2231 All six of us stumbled through, the poor breeding

2232 We dance on the backs of soldiers

2233 Lido

2234 The town is old, old, worn out, worn down

2235 What was beautiful as the blood spread

2236 In the name of God, fuck the fuck off and die

2237 There is a place called Limousine 

2238 I feel endings lining up, disaster

2239 We all need to be stretched, some by the neck until they are dead

2240 If. If there was a school shooting every day

2241 Loathsome, his fat red nazi cheeks and swollen trousers

2242 It is not about the crime, not about the criminal

2243 We lead fools, their babies as appetisers 

2244 In honour of a distant death

2245 Hepatitis-T, starting in a Manchester Hotel

2246 Bing Bang Bong!

2247 We must not be disturbed, we are above those things

2248 Apothecary

2249 Two years ago, when I was still alive

2250 Ethelred the Fraud

October Blast 06 2201-2225

04-Oct 00:01 Sunday

2201 Nightmare in Twickenham

2202 The Hills Above Bradford

2203 Suffragettes

2204 Hope moves in circles

2205 The various microscopic inhabitants of a cheeseboard

2206 I am tired but I'm not dead yet

2207 The dark secrets of the scrum

2208 Watermill

2209 I am perfecting flapping

2210 One beautiful minute or  a decade of survival?

2211 In these most interesting times

2212 The English, Vanquished

2213 Icarus Jones

2214 There are no poor people

2215 A field, a day's march from Calais

2216 A Small Poorly-Lighted Place

2217 Jezebel

2218 Writer in Residence for the NRA

2219 Dysentery

2220 The White Hunter's Fist Assistant

2221 English Lady, Purple Dress

2222 A Catastrophe but Forgettable

2223 Letter From America

2224 Professor Blenkinsop's New Machine

2225 Let me put it this way...

 October Blast 04 2151-2175

 02-Oct 23:59 Friday

2151 The Strange Case of Mary Bridget O'Hare

2152 Outclassed

2153 B is for Badger; F is for Fox

2154 The babies are lined up, anointed

2155 "Let us go then, you and I"

2156 How we come back to ourselves

2157 Moondown

2158 GLASS

2159 A Moment in ER

2160 Finally, the edits are removed

2161 TAPS

2162 Drama, of a kind, just not dramatic

2163 Modesto, California

2164 Reading Larkin's Diary

2165 Yes, fucked up. Why are you surprised?

2166 We have arrived. Be happy

2167 Cold Sore

2168 As the clouds part, light

2169 The footsteps of strange men

2170 Coffee and a Croissant

2171 Derek Derek, P.I.

2172 Garbage

2173 Blood in the sink

2174 I am ready; you need to be ready

2175 A set of perfect, artificial, teeth

 October Blast 03 2126-2150

 02-Oct 12:05 Friday

2126 A fistful of dirty coins, the taint of blood

2127 We stay off the streets these days

2128 We wait, we try to stay alive

2129 I've ordered a 21-Gun Salute

2130 My brother, heavy

2131 El Presidente

2132 Granite, polished wood, amazing plastics

2133 Is death better or worse when casually dealt?

2134 Frankincense

2135 Enough salt, enough peer, the right amount of heat

2136 They went there merrily, pockets jingling

2137 CUSTARD

2138 His own worst friend

2139 The first time I died it was messy

2140 I would have a fiery daughter, a peaceful son

2141 The mourners dressed as bananas

2142 Feel the weight of night, the closing down of unseen clouds

2143 My lives have been varied, some too long

2144 I attended high masses but did not inhale

2145 My Father's Toolbox

2146 If condoms grew on trees, money in furrows

2147 AK47

2148 Georgie Williams wears a Nazi armband

2149 Time Gentlemen, PLEASE!

2150 One more school, soon to be forgotten

 October Blast 02 2101-2125

 01-Oct 20:25 Thursday

2101 Ball Games

2102 The Burned Children of Various Middle-Eastern Countries

2103 The Wisdom of Augustus

2104 BUCKET

2105 Letters from the Pope

2106 At the dead end of the valley

2107 Cherokee

2108 Margaret is Marigold now

2109 Apache

2110 Ships Passing

2111 Wait, let it fall as far as here

2112 Her Dirty White Dress

2113 Only a pint or so of gin

2114 Articulate, Enunciate

2115 Landscape

2116 The Working Lives of the very, very poor

2117 A Serenity of Dying Larks

2118 Plasma

2119 Poetry before the poets

2120 Peeling potatoes, the radio on

2121 How exactly did you end up here?

2122 A Thin Red Line

2123 Shark versus Crocodile

2124 I Never Promised You a Rose-Garden

2125 Blackberry

October Blast 01 2076-2100

 01-Oct 01:120 Thursday

2076 Like a body taken up from the flood

2077 Late, very late, too late

2078 Most of the family had gone to Mars for the weekend

2079 Master the art of losing badly

2080 Like a daughter needs a mother needs a daughter

2081 You cut me like a wire divides cheese

2082 Hickory, Dickory & Dock

2083 When your ex-wife keeps calling

2084 Montezuma

2085 Let us talk about great small things

2086 Too tired to rise from my chair

2087 The Smell of Burning Plastic

2088 Think of me as the dead, as the pocked exiles

2089 TOAST

2090 We stood together, fell individually

2091 The car continues, driving by memory

2092 Sitting in the Gods

2093 Serviceman

2094 PLUM

2095 Me, God, and two brown-tops in the snug

2096 Some have passed, some are waiting to pass

2097 On a tram, Cambrian Road

2098 There is not enough time

2099 Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Strawberry Jam

2100  None of us meant to hurt her