A few drips here 

And a few drips there

If left for years would rot below….

Roger the Dodger

(from Festival Eye 1990 Deaths )

Roger Skinner (alias The Dodger, alias Speedy Roger) died on Wednesday 11th October 1988. His van burnt while he slept at Frestonian Yard, West London. “He wasn’t all bad” said Vanessa (whose head he’d split with an iron when drunk). He was a star, a convoy driver, rock and roller, great with kids. His best band – the Cramps, his drink – Martell brandy.

At the funeral: his family and his “adopted family” – us lot.

On a scrap of paper I saved from the fire he’d written:
“Well what a shame – just when I had the whole caboodle about to become a soluble aspirant to the truth and freedom, you in your infinite incompetence have pulled the mat – whoops – I mean oppurtunity out from underneath my basic reality concept…”

(from earlier webpage at

https://www.phreak.co.uk/stonehenge/psb/rogers.htm )

My summer reading was the yellow On Site Guide, now I’m thinking about the rewiring job. Here’s a touched up photo of the new consumer unit with blue and brown wires, I’ve been consulting with UKDIY and think this is right, but I’ll post it and check with them and sleep on it before powering it up!

In three days time there’s a referendum on whether Britain should exit the European Union (Brexit). I fear that the haters will win plunging Britain into years of chaos and that the poor will become poorer.

1.  I believe a European Parliament is a good idea [ More…]
2.  People I respect and who know more than me about politics and economics say Remain [ More…]
3.  People I dont respect say Leave the European Union, (many for contradicting reasons which are bonkers) [ More…]
4.  OK, there are people I dont like on both sides, and outside in the wild fringes of political thought. [ More…]
5.  Money : there’ll be less swirling around if Britain leaves the common market [ More…]
6.  Low waged people and on those benefits will suffer the most from BREXIT [ More…]
7.  What would happen at the Irish Border and possible Scottish border? [ More…]
8.  Ok there are global problems of overpopulation, climate change, war, famine, refugees.
   Shouldnt we cooperate with others whereever possible to tackle world problems? [ More…]
9.  Democracy – we vote for MPs by first past the post and MEPs by a fairer PR system [ More…]
10.  I love Europe, I love this one planet, and Herefordshire’s nice too!! [ More…]

BECAUSE:

1. 
   

   I believe a European Parliament is a Good Idea

   and should decide things about European pollution, trade deals, human rights etc. We elect MEPs by PR which means a broader range of people elected who have to co-operate with other parties. In Britain MPs are elected by first past the post which gave the Conservatives and absolute majority in 2015 with only 36% of the vote.

2. 
   

    People I respect and who know more than me about politics and economics say Remain

   Caroline Lucas, Dale Vince, Vince Cable,, Paddy Ashdown, Shirley Williams, Jeremy Corbyn and most Labour, Green Scottish and Welsh politicians, and most economists, scientists and other experts

3. 

   People I dont respect say Leave the European Union

   (many for contradicting reasons which are bonkers)
   And many things the Leavers say about sovreignty is just plain wrong

4. 
   

    OK, there are people I dont like on both sides,

   and outside in the wild fringes of political ‘thought’.

5. 
   

   Money:

   

   there’s be less money swirling around if Britain leaves the common market. I’ve seen how many lorries use just Southampton port, many small businesses who pop through the chunnel would be bankrupted by the increased paperwork, visas, and delays, easier for europeans to buy from within the smaller common market. And many big foreign firms will move their factories out of Britain to Ireland or the mainland to keep inside the common market. Recessions and Inflations tend to go in a downlward spiral.
   And our music industry would be hit.

6. 
   

    Low waged people and on those benefits

   will suffer the most from BREXIT. Hedge fund billionaires will make money out of the chaos, but with a reduced economy there’ll be less to spend on benefits etc,plus more would have to be spent on expensive lawyers and civil servants to renegotiate with every other country.

7. 
   

    What would happen at the Irish Border?

   Would fences and customs posts have to be erected – costing more public money, and disrupting local trade? And if Scotland then has a referendum and decides to join Europe not England there’d be the same problem with their border, and more loss to local businesses who work both sides.

8. 
   

    Ok there are global problems of overpopulation, climate change, war, famine, refugees.

   
   Shouldnt we cooperate with others wherever possible to tackle world problems?
   Is Britain going to spend the next years renegotiating contracts with every other country rather than focusing on the problems in Syria and other hotspots?

9.  Democracy

   – we vote for MPs by first past the post and MEPs by a fairer PR system. two big votes every five years. The House of Lords is appointed by the ruling government.
   IN we have MEPs elected by PR from many directions who will have to cooperate over decisions, OUT we have westminster MPS elected by first past the post where presently the tories have a majority with 36% of the vote and can pass whatever laws they want and control the rest of us. In four years time maybe Labour and the SNP will get power with a similarly small vote.
   Paul Mason in today’s Guardian writes that Brexit is a fake revolt – working-class culture is being hijacked to help the elite

   Its a UKIP trap

10. 
    

     I love Europe, I love this one planet, and Herefordshire’s nice too

    

there were a few kids out there who never knew their biological dads but knew me – caring for our kids and teaching and learning with them – also known as playing – is fun, satisfying, and an honour and a privilege. That many of you may never have had a chance is due to the paranoia of these days – remember, the most dangerous thing for kids ? Cars squashing them.. [dicegeorge]

Today its ‘Fathers Day’ whatever that means – for my dad it mean a chance to sell more fancy greetings cards in his bookshop, which may explain some of my cynicism towards such ‘special days’ …

Every day is a special day and every day we remember,

every day is Sunday

as Wally said.

Yesterday Jo Cox, a good, new, Labour MP, was killed in the street by a nutter. I’d never heard of her, but she seems to have been a good  lady. She’d worked at Oxfam and so probably had first hand experience of the desperation of thousands of refugees from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. The killer seems to have been a supporter of far right groups, but there are nutters of all colours and persuasions, how would it have been different if he’d been a mad pro european?

Campaigning for next Thursday’s Euro Referendum was suspended for two days. Most people in Britain , Leavers, Remainers and Don’t Knowers are united in shock.

But after I’d posted a youtube video of her speaking on the Aleppo crisis at the Westminster  parliament, one of my so called facebook ‘friends’ wrote:
[War monger gets shot!. Im not supprised or bothered.
She wanted syria bombed on “Humanitarian Grounds” she was plainly deranged and will not be missed.]

Someone wrote that she was appalled by his words.
He wrote:
[ She wanted syria bombed on “Humanitarian Grounds” , hows that not being a war monger?]

I wrote:
[There is an international human rights argument for bombing killers like ISIS, and for sending in UN peacekeeping troops armed with big guns. I supported stopping Saddam Hussein cos of his gassing the Kurds but that went all wrong when the Yanks didnt have a peace plan just a war plan.]

Alex Massie wrote in the Spectator:

Sad doesn’t begin to cover it. This is worse, much worse, than just sad. This is a day of infamy, a day in which we should all feel angry and ashamed. Because if you don’t feel a little ashamed – if you don’t feel sick, right now, wherever you are reading this – then something’s gone wrong with you somewhere.

I’m a Liberal. I agree with most of what Shirley Williams and Paddy Ashdown and Vince Cable and Kirsty Williams and Jo Swinson say and believe. (But not everything). On some things I’m more liberal than them! They have to be responsible in what they say, as MPs. But if they say one little thing wrong over the years and years of talking and listening they get hammered. Like poor little Nick Clegg unwisely signing a pledge not to cut tuition fees.

Oh, and Caroline Lucas, the green MP, I’ve heard her speak live several times and I think she’s great. I think she’s the best MP at Westminster. Good people like these, and from Labour and the Welsh and Scottish parties should get together and form a progressive alliance, they should be our Government not the Conservative party with a majority of seats in Westminster after getting just 36% of the vote in the 2015 election. The European elections for MEPs are by proportional representation and much more fair. Not perfect though – liberal hacks love to bore you with superior complicated voting systems !

It would probably make for a better world if democracies elected more women than men, on average they seem better at listening and compromising, unlike the macho male house of Commons  confrontational ya boo red/blue system.

This aint my best writing, but I want it published by midnight…
Jo Cox MP, another hero fallen, more kids hurt…

I dont like thinking about what’s going on in Alleppo and other rapey places. I wish it never  happened but that’s not good enough …

I don’t have all the answers, it seems to me there’s a crisis of over population and planet trashing coming up soon, no now…

I hope our scientists will solve it all, but i doubt it…

But being angry and shouting seldom works in my experience,

it makes things worse,

have you ever been experienced?

I have…

George Miles
alias DiceGeorge
Frday 17th June 2016

and thanks for those out there who’ve let me mother their children, what  a privilege and honour for me that you’ve trusted me into your/our  family: teaching kids is a natural vocation which we all share, and remember that a  child speaks not with the accent of its biological parents but of those  he/she lives and plays with..
(is not that Nile Rogers guitaring?)
[dicegeorge]
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lx2NUmxTQ0

Happy Solstice, New Year, etc, blah blah….

I really must try to finish reslating the roof in 2016 !

[george]