It is possible to make four 1's total 1 when they are just four individual and separate 1's rather than symbols of arithmetic value.
Over the past twenty four hours I experienced several ways in which the human being attempts to have control over their environment and over their lives, and while each factor appeared to be linked to each other and therefore have an overall meaning, they were not connected and therefore their accumulation was still separate events rather than a totality. Where an explanation appears simple it is often complex.
I awoke to the news that the Conservative Party had won the Crew and Nantwich By-election by the same order of majority as had the previous established and highly regarded Labour Member. The size of the majority would have been significantly greater had the replacement Labour Candidate not been the presentable daughter of the Member who had died, and had not the Prime Minister given away several billion pounds as a bribe not just to those who were adversely affected by the abolition of the 10% tax rate but to all tax payers other than those who pay the higher rate of tax. The Labour Party made their position worse by pretending the election was some kind of class struggle because of the education, wealth and lifestyle of Conservative Candidate and winner. The Labour establishment then attempted to pass off this nonsense as a bit of fun, and to pass off the result as just mid term public blues in a third administration at a time of international economic turbulence and it is claimed that the man who had led the country through previous economic down turns was the man who would see the country through the present one. Although this was the first by-election the Conservatives had won from Labour for two decades, it should not be interpreted as a seed change in the long term political inclinations of the British public, they argued. This can also be interpreted as code for saying Gordon Brown has not got it and unless we can find someone quickly to replace him who will be acceptable to the UK as well as to our political party we are all in he proverbials.
Meanwhile the Conservative Party and their Leader did and said exactly what was needed to underline the difference between the two leaders and parties. No, they agreed, no conclusions could be drawn between the result of one election and what would happen at a General Election. Yes, it did mark a significant change but only in that people who had never voted conservative were now doing so, but the Conservative Party and their Leadership would have to continue to work and demonstrate they could do a better job if they were to translate the individual victory into gaining sufficient seats at a General Election to be able to form the next Government. I could not have crafted a more effective response, especially as the labour administration had tried to paint them as the former party representing the landed gentry and those with great wealth, the public schools, officer class, the Church of England and the major professions
The Conservatives also made the point that the result was an indication that at a General Election Gordon Brown would be an electoral liability for the Labour Party and therefore they would do all that they could to encourage the different factions within the Labour Party to break loose and destroy themselves.
There has been a significant hard core within the Party and more outside side it within the trade union and left politics who hated Tony Blair because he successfully moved the Party into the centre ground of a mixed economy and refused to yield power to the trade unions and class war fanatics. Among those who strongly opposed the Blair Government were idealists some like me who hoped that politicians would find a more equitable economic system than capitalism and for a world where differences are settled through talk and negotiation rather than the knife and the bullet, and in this group are included Christians who regard the New testament as a fundamentalist document and not subject to interpretation according to fashion and circumstance. However in a democracy the party of individuals who are elected to form a government have to govern in the interests of everyone, the majority, as well as trying to ensure that the rights and interests of everyone are safeguarded unless the behaviour of an individual or group breaks the rules of the majority, imperils their welfare, and threatens the integrity of the state.
Our political system works well when the majority of those who gain power in the Government Party and in the oppositions are individual of integrity who want to serve their community albeit in different and at times conflicting ways. They do not put their personal interest and those of their family, friends and interest groups above the interests of the majority, and this includes the interests of their party. Of course they will want to take account of their own interests, their families and friends, party and interest groups, but not at the expense of everyone else.
Too often those going into politics are attempting to show the world and themselves that they exist, they matter, they have control over their own destiny by taking control of the destiny of others. They become addicted to a way of life and they start to do and say anything to retain their position and their control. They know they will find it even more difficult than before to go back to being a nonentity like the majority of those they have governed.
In my instance although I held a significant public position and I was able to excise considerable influence over the lives of others, I never assumed that it was more than a temporary situation and never used the position or took a decision without first attempting to ensure it was in the interests and in accordance with the mandate given through the appointment and the legal and professional framework. Of course I failed at times but the intent and the framework remained and I did not shift my position according to personal interests and changing circumstances.
From having had no power or control over any aspect of my life, I continue to regard any positive change as something to be earned and which had to be justified on a continual basis through making daily self assessments. I am interested that over the last decade the self assessment by managers has become as commonplace as the assessment of seniors and peers.
I was fortunate in that in my late teens I worked out that aspects of my behaviour and approach to life was the consequence of being excessively controlled as a child, although it was later when I understood the impact of have been kept secret. I was sixty before I understood why this had happened and only now find out the extent to which records of my early existence are minimal.
The effort over the past couple of days to visit and photograph every establishment providing food, drink and fun to the public, photographing and writing and listing what I had done can be regarded as an attempt to understand and take control over my immediate environment although have been really effective I would have had to have made direct contact with each establishment, sampled their offerings, made contact with owners and staff and interacted as appropriate with other users.
I did mention yesterday, that it would be good to visit each establishment at least once as a way of recognising that my effort was still that of an outsider looking in, and being as I am, I did not abandon everything else and start to establish links with even one of the establishments, but proposed to extend the activity to other communities in South Shields and to the rest of the administrative local authority area and then to region.
This is also what politicians do. First taking an interest in their ward, their political party administrative and Parliamentary constituency area, and if they become a councillor, or hold political office extend their interest to the boundaries so covered, and then through the council take responsibility for aspects of the administrative area which will cover more than one Parliamentary Member, or through the local political organisation likewise; then the regional party or regional local government bodies, and then the national. Some with the nerve and ambition jump from being a new recruit into seeking the highest position available, without being caught up in what is usually involved in gaining position, step by step.
In local government there is a similar situation, with some individuals rising gradually through their lives, while other appear to move into the most senior position with effortless appearance. This also is often marks the difference between those who feel harmony with their community and those who are more interested in what can be achieved through the position rather than holding the position itself. It can also mark the difference between those who are comfortable with living in a world where others are often in control, and those who need to be in control, or feel they are in control of themselves as well as of others.
It is also true that once one is on the climb for more control and power you realise that only in an extreme dictatorship does one hold absolute power, and that even in such situations you will have to give considerable to those immediately around you or who you wish to exercise the power, if you are to retain the position.
As a senior officer in local government there will be inter departmental contacts within the region and nationally and the opportunity to hold office in regional groups, and then to move to responsibilities and interests on a national and international level.
In my instance the experience was different in that as a nobody with out holding a managerial position, I become involved nationally and this led to quickly achieving senior managerial positions, so that when I achieved the highest position possible, I knew I had to concentrate on doing the job rather than using as platform to maintain and pursue national interests.
I also was fortunate to understand early on that holding any senior position in a democracy is restricted to only a proportion of the individual lifetime, usually ending long before that lifespan ends but always ends with the lifetime.
While I have it difficult to establish some views and position consistently throughout my lifetime I have always seemed to believe that what happens to my being at the moment of physical death, and subsequently, is governed by how I have lived in an arithmetic accumulation, and that one should not live on the basis of that final judgement, making great gestures to try and balance the books or tip the scales as the final accounting approaches, but concentrate on being consistent and achieve the right balance on a day to day basis
Over the past two nights I have witnessed one of the great phenomena of the last decade. and present decade, when just under 100 million phone calls and text were made to select the latest American Idol. I was pleased with myself because I predicted who the last two would be, commencing with the view that the high school angelic looking young man, David Autchuleta, would be the winner unless he did not maintain the same performance standard, and where until the final of three songs he appeared to waiver yielding to the emergence of a rocker, David Cook, a former bar tender, persuaded to enter the competition by his brother. At the end of final's night I agreed with Simon Cowell that the young man had out sung the older man in the choice of song and the way of singing and therefore was very surprised when Mr Cook was announced the winner, as he was, especially by a margin of some 12 million votes.
While this programme is cleverly prepared and presented to maximise public attention and involvement, I would like to believe that both young men started out just in the hope that participation would bring them some recognition and help further their desire to perform before the public, as well as making a good and better living for themselves and their families. The image of a young person who finds themselves quickly moving from being unsure and inexperience into a confident performer appears to be genuine but is also well crafted in the way the successful individuals are helped over the three months of the finals, and in the time they have to prepare for these shows after being selected as the TV series condenses the initial selection process, then the process in which the final 12 young men and women, become the final 12 then reduce week by week to one.
It is al understandable why this of all programmes appears to have caught the imagination of the public in the United States like no other, because it is the American Dream, at a time when The US appears to be redefining its image and its actuality in the world. Less than a decade ago it would have bee inconceivable for a Black man to have become President, where now if Mr Obama can gain his party's nomination, he could become the first President, whereas I suspect if Mrs Clinton wins the nomination America will still prefer a trusted but forward looking war veteran, to the wife for a former President.
I wrote the first draft of this early yesterday and such was the way yesterday went that I did not get back to the original train of thought, which ahd included a dream and other apparent links which upon further thought were not links at all.
Over the past twenty four hours I experienced several ways in which the human being attempts to have control over their environment and over their lives, and while each factor appeared to be linked to each other and therefore have an overall meaning, they were not connected and therefore their accumulation was still separate events rather than a totality. Where an explanation appears simple it is often complex.
I awoke to the news that the Conservative Party had won the Crew and Nantwich By-election by the same order of majority as had the previous established and highly regarded Labour Member. The size of the majority would have been significantly greater had the replacement Labour Candidate not been the presentable daughter of the Member who had died, and had not the Prime Minister given away several billion pounds as a bribe not just to those who were adversely affected by the abolition of the 10% tax rate but to all tax payers other than those who pay the higher rate of tax. The Labour Party made their position worse by pretending the election was some kind of class struggle because of the education, wealth and lifestyle of Conservative Candidate and winner. The Labour establishment then attempted to pass off this nonsense as a bit of fun, and to pass off the result as just mid term public blues in a third administration at a time of international economic turbulence and it is claimed that the man who had led the country through previous economic down turns was the man who would see the country through the present one. Although this was the first by-election the Conservatives had won from Labour for two decades, it should not be interpreted as a seed change in the long term political inclinations of the British public, they argued. This can also be interpreted as code for saying Gordon Brown has not got it and unless we can find someone quickly to replace him who will be acceptable to the UK as well as to our political party we are all in he proverbials.
Meanwhile the Conservative Party and their Leader did and said exactly what was needed to underline the difference between the two leaders and parties. No, they agreed, no conclusions could be drawn between the result of one election and what would happen at a General Election. Yes, it did mark a significant change but only in that people who had never voted conservative were now doing so, but the Conservative Party and their Leadership would have to continue to work and demonstrate they could do a better job if they were to translate the individual victory into gaining sufficient seats at a General Election to be able to form the next Government. I could not have crafted a more effective response, especially as the labour administration had tried to paint them as the former party representing the landed gentry and those with great wealth, the public schools, officer class, the Church of England and the major professions
The Conservatives also made the point that the result was an indication that at a General Election Gordon Brown would be an electoral liability for the Labour Party and therefore they would do all that they could to encourage the different factions within the Labour Party to break loose and destroy themselves.
There has been a significant hard core within the Party and more outside side it within the trade union and left politics who hated Tony Blair because he successfully moved the Party into the centre ground of a mixed economy and refused to yield power to the trade unions and class war fanatics. Among those who strongly opposed the Blair Government were idealists some like me who hoped that politicians would find a more equitable economic system than capitalism and for a world where differences are settled through talk and negotiation rather than the knife and the bullet, and in this group are included Christians who regard the New testament as a fundamentalist document and not subject to interpretation according to fashion and circumstance. However in a democracy the party of individuals who are elected to form a government have to govern in the interests of everyone, the majority, as well as trying to ensure that the rights and interests of everyone are safeguarded unless the behaviour of an individual or group breaks the rules of the majority, imperils their welfare, and threatens the integrity of the state.
Our political system works well when the majority of those who gain power in the Government Party and in the oppositions are individual of integrity who want to serve their community albeit in different and at times conflicting ways. They do not put their personal interest and those of their family, friends and interest groups above the interests of the majority, and this includes the interests of their party. Of course they will want to take account of their own interests, their families and friends, party and interest groups, but not at the expense of everyone else.
Too often those going into politics are attempting to show the world and themselves that they exist, they matter, they have control over their own destiny by taking control of the destiny of others. They become addicted to a way of life and they start to do and say anything to retain their position and their control. They know they will find it even more difficult than before to go back to being a nonentity like the majority of those they have governed.
In my instance although I held a significant public position and I was able to excise considerable influence over the lives of others, I never assumed that it was more than a temporary situation and never used the position or took a decision without first attempting to ensure it was in the interests and in accordance with the mandate given through the appointment and the legal and professional framework. Of course I failed at times but the intent and the framework remained and I did not shift my position according to personal interests and changing circumstances.
From having had no power or control over any aspect of my life, I continue to regard any positive change as something to be earned and which had to be justified on a continual basis through making daily self assessments. I am interested that over the last decade the self assessment by managers has become as commonplace as the assessment of seniors and peers.
I was fortunate in that in my late teens I worked out that aspects of my behaviour and approach to life was the consequence of being excessively controlled as a child, although it was later when I understood the impact of have been kept secret. I was sixty before I understood why this had happened and only now find out the extent to which records of my early existence are minimal.
The effort over the past couple of days to visit and photograph every establishment providing food, drink and fun to the public, photographing and writing and listing what I had done can be regarded as an attempt to understand and take control over my immediate environment although have been really effective I would have had to have made direct contact with each establishment, sampled their offerings, made contact with owners and staff and interacted as appropriate with other users.
I did mention yesterday, that it would be good to visit each establishment at least once as a way of recognising that my effort was still that of an outsider looking in, and being as I am, I did not abandon everything else and start to establish links with even one of the establishments, but proposed to extend the activity to other communities in South Shields and to the rest of the administrative local authority area and then to region.
This is also what politicians do. First taking an interest in their ward, their political party administrative and Parliamentary constituency area, and if they become a councillor, or hold political office extend their interest to the boundaries so covered, and then through the council take responsibility for aspects of the administrative area which will cover more than one Parliamentary Member, or through the local political organisation likewise; then the regional party or regional local government bodies, and then the national. Some with the nerve and ambition jump from being a new recruit into seeking the highest position available, without being caught up in what is usually involved in gaining position, step by step.
In local government there is a similar situation, with some individuals rising gradually through their lives, while other appear to move into the most senior position with effortless appearance. This also is often marks the difference between those who feel harmony with their community and those who are more interested in what can be achieved through the position rather than holding the position itself. It can also mark the difference between those who are comfortable with living in a world where others are often in control, and those who need to be in control, or feel they are in control of themselves as well as of others.
It is also true that once one is on the climb for more control and power you realise that only in an extreme dictatorship does one hold absolute power, and that even in such situations you will have to give considerable to those immediately around you or who you wish to exercise the power, if you are to retain the position.
As a senior officer in local government there will be inter departmental contacts within the region and nationally and the opportunity to hold office in regional groups, and then to move to responsibilities and interests on a national and international level.
In my instance the experience was different in that as a nobody with out holding a managerial position, I become involved nationally and this led to quickly achieving senior managerial positions, so that when I achieved the highest position possible, I knew I had to concentrate on doing the job rather than using as platform to maintain and pursue national interests.
I also was fortunate to understand early on that holding any senior position in a democracy is restricted to only a proportion of the individual lifetime, usually ending long before that lifespan ends but always ends with the lifetime.
While I have it difficult to establish some views and position consistently throughout my lifetime I have always seemed to believe that what happens to my being at the moment of physical death, and subsequently, is governed by how I have lived in an arithmetic accumulation, and that one should not live on the basis of that final judgement, making great gestures to try and balance the books or tip the scales as the final accounting approaches, but concentrate on being consistent and achieve the right balance on a day to day basis
Over the past two nights I have witnessed one of the great phenomena of the last decade. and present decade, when just under 100 million phone calls and text were made to select the latest American Idol. I was pleased with myself because I predicted who the last two would be, commencing with the view that the high school angelic looking young man, David Autchuleta, would be the winner unless he did not maintain the same performance standard, and where until the final of three songs he appeared to waiver yielding to the emergence of a rocker, David Cook, a former bar tender, persuaded to enter the competition by his brother. At the end of final's night I agreed with Simon Cowell that the young man had out sung the older man in the choice of song and the way of singing and therefore was very surprised when Mr Cook was announced the winner, as he was, especially by a margin of some 12 million votes.
While this programme is cleverly prepared and presented to maximise public attention and involvement, I would like to believe that both young men started out just in the hope that participation would bring them some recognition and help further their desire to perform before the public, as well as making a good and better living for themselves and their families. The image of a young person who finds themselves quickly moving from being unsure and inexperience into a confident performer appears to be genuine but is also well crafted in the way the successful individuals are helped over the three months of the finals, and in the time they have to prepare for these shows after being selected as the TV series condenses the initial selection process, then the process in which the final 12 young men and women, become the final 12 then reduce week by week to one.
It is al understandable why this of all programmes appears to have caught the imagination of the public in the United States like no other, because it is the American Dream, at a time when The US appears to be redefining its image and its actuality in the world. Less than a decade ago it would have bee inconceivable for a Black man to have become President, where now if Mr Obama can gain his party's nomination, he could become the first President, whereas I suspect if Mrs Clinton wins the nomination America will still prefer a trusted but forward looking war veteran, to the wife for a former President.
I wrote the first draft of this early yesterday and such was the way yesterday went that I did not get back to the original train of thought, which ahd included a dream and other apparent links which upon further thought were not links at all.
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