Number Ten

Just listened to this: Anthony Sher plays the Prime Minister, Haydn Gwynne is Polly, his policy adviser, Stephen Mangan is Steve, Polly's sidekick, Elizabeth McGovern the Prince's American aide.

 

A really  good radio 4 series, Number Ten shows how intentions are not straightforward in politics. Vested interests, personal problems, conflicts of interest, clashes with other power groups (e.g. the unions), media sabotage, all make this a compelling series that exposes the kind of pressure (and crisis living) that political leaders today face.

 

More please!!!

 

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_10_(drama_series)

for details.

 

 

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Myerson and Hyman say they hope Number 10, like The West Wing, will move political drama beyond the satire of programmes like Yes, Minister and the 'one-issue' polemic of recent docudramas on David Blunkett, John Prescott and Tony Blair. 'The West Wing was about people who, however fallible, were trying to do good,' said Myerson. It is a quality that politicians of all parties share, he added.

The aim of Number 10, he said, is to show politicians as human beings, real people who grapple with the 'dilemmas of decision-making, the pain of surrendering principle to pragmatism and the joy of achievement in the face of the pessimists'.

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Good News Day

As the Prime Minister prepares to announce an amnesty for all immigrants working illegally in the UK, a serious tube crash threatens to jeopardise his plans.

And Raise Them To Eternal Life

The party promised to eliminate Britain's carbon footprint, but poll ratings are plummeting and the unions are cutting up rough. Even the PM's stepson is protesting.

Who Won The Election?

As the government prepares for a major cancer screening initiative with a private American company, a leaked letter between the Prince and the Prime Minister appears to advocate legalising cannabis.

Rule Of Law

The PM is launching a new organisation intended to integrate Muslims into British society and prevent radicalisation. But first he has to decide whether to back Turkey's application for EU membership.

Home And Away

Crises loom on two fronts as the Prime Minister faces a backbench rebellion while British troops are being held hostage overseas.

 

Karen Armstrong on Prayer

Extremely well put!

Prayer Helps Us Chip Away Our Egotism

I always had difficulty with prayer. If God knows everything and is, as the Qur'an says, closer to me than my jugular vein, why did he need to hear my requests?

I disliked the idea of a God who demands endless praise -- he reminded me of a tyrant who demands constant, obsequious abasement from his subjects. Surely God did not need to be reminded that he had created the world and that we are all miserable sinners, as we say so frequently in our liturgy.

And I had great problems with petition. Why should God answer my prayers, when he so clearly fails to heed the prayers of many hopeless people throughout the world? I also did not really believe in a God who would intervene in history and change the natural order: Why should he avert a storm from the location where I am planning a picnic and send the storm onto some other unfortunate folk?

But then I came to understand that prayer is really for us. It is selfishness and egotism that hold us back from God and our best selves. We use language to build a protective carapace around ourselves, to ward off attack and to bolster our self-esteem. How rare it is to really apologize; and how frequently the person who does apologize points out that you too are somewhat to blame

Prayer Helps Us Chip Away Our Egotism

I always had difficulty with prayer. If God knows everything and is, as the Qur'an says, closer to me than my jugular vein, why did he need to hear my requests?

I disliked the idea of a God who demands endless praise -- he reminded me of a tyrant who demands constant, obsequious abasement from his subjects. Surely God did not need to be reminded that he had created the world and that we are all miserable sinners, as we say so frequently in our liturgy.

And I had great problems with petition. Why should God answer my prayers, when he so clearly fails to heed the prayers of many hopeless people throughout the world? I also did not really believe in a God who would intervene in history and change the natural order: Why should he avert a storm from the location where I am planning a picnic and send the storm onto some other unfortunate folk?

But then I came to understand that prayer is really for us. It is selfishness and egotism that hold us back from God and our best selves. We use language to build a protective carapace around ourselves, to ward off attack and to bolster our self-esteem. How rare it is to really apologize; and how frequently the person who does apologize points out that you too are somewhat to blame for what has occurred.

How rare it is really to praise. There is a nasty little part of us that feels impaired by somebody else's success or good fortune. I recall a friend once saying to me: "Oh Karen! Congratulations on your marvelous reviews!" And then, almost immediately: "Have you put on weight recently?" People are often reluctant truly to thank somebody from the bottom of their heart or to express need: It is a tough world and you have to seem in control.

But prayer teaches us to use language in a different way: To thank, praise, and beg pardon wholeheartedly, without holding anything back. And as we do that, we chip away at our egotism. And that, in turn, will make us a force for good to the people around us and make the world a better place--without asking God to perform a miracle. for what has occurred.

How rare it is really to praise. There is a nasty little part of us that feels impaired by somebody else's success or good fortune. I recall a friend once saying to me: "Oh Karen! Congratulations on your marvelous reviews!" And then, almost immediately: "Have you put on weight recently?" People are often reluctant truly to thank somebody from the bottom of their heart or to express need: It is a tough world and you have to seem in control.

But prayer teaches us to use language in a different way: To thank, praise, and beg pardon wholeheartedly, without holding anything back. And as we do that, we chip away at our egotism. And that, in turn, will make us a force for good to the people around us and make the world a better place--without asking God to perform a miracle.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/karen_armstrong/2007/02/i_always_had_difficulty_with.html

 

Experience of Poverty

 It really is a little disappointing that I must say the vast majority of my colleagues in the States of Jersey who have such a breadth of knowledge and experience and business acumen, have very, very little experience on a personal level of what it is like to try to retain one's pride in a very costly community.  Broadening the tax base and implementing support systems and broadening the welfare mechanisms in our society and taxing food is going to make retaining one's pride in this community a little more challenging for those people that attempt to on a daily basis.  It is unless you have lived a life of absolute getting-by that you will understand this. 

 

Deputy P.V.F. Le Claire:

 

 

Another Statistical Blunder

"Average salaries approximately £31,000 in the Islands.Therefore there will be an awful lot of people earning more than that in the Island, including accountants" says Deputy John Le Fondre in the States of Jersey.

Please note that this is by no means close to the median wage, which is (on the basis of pretty well every other country in the world) likely to be considerably less. Jersey still refuses to go to the extra trouble of ensuring that it reports median salaries, and until it does so any use of "average salaries" is hopelessly misleading. Wages are skewed distributions, not normal onces, and in fact there will be all awful lot of people (more than 50%, probably up to 70% or higher) earning less not more than the average salary.

The States Statistics department always issue these figures without much explanation, and the JEP usually makes matters worse. A course in elementary statistics for all States members should be compulsory!

A Political Commitment

Some good stuff in a States Speech the other day. It shows some Jersey politicians really care.

 

 

 

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We are dealing with a single-parent family, one child, part-time work, fairly good income for that part-time work, and it is well worth Members studying this letter because from a monthly net income of £1,650, with all the outgoing standing orders listed and the weekly expenses of petrol, parking charges and food, this lady has a disposable income of £327 per month, that is £76.30 per week.  From that income she must pay for clothes, she must pay for replacement breakages, the sort of things that we all have, the washing machine goes wrong, the need for a new toaster, other activities such as birthday parties and presents.  She says: "Eating out is a rare occurrence; cinema is a luxury."  Now, I think this is very important because this... I am happy that vulnerable people in the current welfare system are going to be protected.  This side of the vulnerable community is outside the net at the moment: no income tax, no income support.  I believe that when I was elected Constable of St. Martin, I took on a commitment.  My commitment is simple.  It is to offer the care and protection of the very old, the very young, the poor, the sick and the people who could not look after their own affairs.

 

We are building a society, which is going to be better for the population of this Island.  On the idea that we should be working together through the departments of the States, I would like to bring you one little anecdote.  Not an anecdote because it happened last night in my Parish surgery.  One of my clients came in and said: "I am in trouble boss."  "What is the problem?"  "Well, I have actually had my social security cheque and incapacity benefit halved this month."  "Oh, why is that?"  "Well," he says: "I have a medical board to go to on 3rd December.  Here is the letter."  Sure enough, a medical board to attend on 3rd December to see if he is still incapacitated and fit to receive his incapacity benefit.  In the other hand, he showed me 2 other letters; one was for an appointment for an X-ray for his condition and the other one was an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon for 5th December; medical board 3rd December, orthopaedic surgeon 5th December.  He is going to have an operation, a major operation.  Now, for goodness sake, when we get this thing going, can we get the computers to talk to each other?  The net result was he was on half of his incapacity benefit and he had his rent to pay on 1st December.  Now, to him, that was a big problem, a very big problem, because he just did not have the money.  To me it was simple because I could say: "Right, we will give you a temporary loan to tide you over until your incapacity benefit goes back up to the full value, which apparently is going to take 2 weeks after his medical board.  I think this is just plain administrative stupidity.  I mean, why can the departments not talk to each other?  I would please address that to the departments. 

 

Connétable S.A. Yates of St. Martin

Parent Power

I think the days when parents had a lot of power are long gone, in my house
anyway. To get my teenage son to do anything is a mixture of argument,
persuasion, bribery, and when all else fails, increasing the level of
decibels. Sometimes threats ("I'll pull the plug on the PC if you don't come
and help with the dishes now").

How do you communicate with someone semi-permanently plugged in to an MP3
player, a mobile phone, who grunts at you anyway? I think the diplomatic
core at the Foreign Office probably had an easier time negotiating about the
Teddy Bear teacher.

I think the positive parenting manuals are probably written by the same
people who made those baby-grows that never fitted because they were
designed to fit on an immobile doll rather than a real baby. "One size fits
all" usually means won't fit anything, whether in baby clothes or in
considering children, who are all very different, despite the "grunt" stage.

Death of TF Torrance

TF Torrance has died. I still remember as a young student writing to him about some aspects of "unconditional grace" which I was unclear about an interview in a student Christian magazine. I did not expect much in the way of reply, but back came 5 sheets of hand-typed paper, duling signed by him.

 

Of all his works, "Space Time and Incarnation" is perhaps the most interesting, although I found "Space Time and resurrection" to be equally interesting, if perhaps slightly rougher around the edges. "God and Rationality", a book collection of various essays was also accessible, but his masterpiece is probably "Theological Science".

 

 

 

 

http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/2007/12/t-f-torrance-eulogy.html

 

Eulogy by George Hunsinger

Thomas Forsyth Torrance (1913-2007), who died peaceably in Edinburgh on December 2nd, was arguably the greatest Reformed theologian since Karl Barth, with whom he studied, and an eminent 20th century ecumenist. Having served for 27 years as Professor of Christian Dogmatics at New College, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1976; and in 1978, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for his contributions to the emerging field of theology and science.

In theology he generally placed himself somewhere between Calvin and Barth, though also moving well beyond them. An accomplished patristics scholar, he devoted himself to Eastern Orthodox–Reformed dialogue, being highly esteemed among the Orthodox for his ecumenical spirit and his grasp of primary sources in the original languages. He once surprised me by saying that his favorite theologian was Athanasius, whom he placed in illuminating relationship with Barth. An icon of the great Alexandrian appears as the frontispiece to his The Trinitarian Faith (1988), an exposition of the Nicene Creed which remains perhaps the most accessible of his numerous learned works.

Besides the theologian, the ecumenist, and the church leader, there were at least three other Torrances: the translator, the interdisciplinary theologian, and the historian of doctrine. English-speaking theology stands greatly in his debt for his monumental efforts in editing and translating not only Calvin's New Testament commentaries but also Barth's voluminous dogmatics. His interest in Einstein and modern physics from the standpoint of Nicene Christianity has yet to be adequately assessed. Least well known, perhaps, is his work as an intellectual historian. Scattered throughout many journals is a series of essays on virtually every major figure in the history of doctrine, though alongside Athanasius he had a special fondness for Gregory Nazianzen and Hilary of Poitiers.

In breadth of learning, depth of scholarship, quality of output, ecumenical conviction, and devotion to the Nicene faith, theology and church will not soon see another like him.