Much stuff

Well, I have learned a lot over the past few days.

Yesterday saw me finally settle down to look at Mark's work and see what I could do. In a way it made me sad because... well just because I guess. There's this body of work, much of it incomplete, and somehow it needs to be seen,to be finished and hopefully to be sold.

 I have some ideas with the specific novel he asked me to complete, but the rest of the work? It's great but I can't just take it over, stamping my great me-ness all over it. I am half tempted to take the short stories and poems, all the stuff for which there isn't much of a paying market, and make a website to exhibit them and to generate publicity for any McCann material I can get out there.

Adaptation of the story he specifically wanted to adapt is one thing,changing other texts I am not so sure... But seeing how much of it there is, how fertile and colourful his mind, how much work he created, I become very sensible of the honour and the trust my friend has shown me. This is a very great gift.

Thank you Mark.

The EU Referendum

My thoughts on this aren't as cut and dried as my initial knee-jerk reaction, which is to agree with staying in the EU.

That reaction is born from a response to racism. My family had to deal with a lot of it when I first returned to Britain and it bores me to death.  The ridiculous reasons I have heard for getting out include: Having tough soldiers, having a great literary tradition and straight bananas. As I understand it,  unless we intend to occupy Brussels and beat them into surrender with Shakespeare recitals, these have no relevance. The straight banana story remains the archetypal Euromyth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromyth .

Shrieks about sovereignty are often the hallmark of those nations who consider the unfettered ability to treat their citizenship badly as some kind of right. I mistrust such indignation. The social chapter is one of the things I like about the EU. When the EU put a moratorium on the use of bee-killing neonicotinoids on crops, Britain's Environment Secretary Owen Paterson protested against it vociferously. That's a lot of dead bees, down to British Sovereignty.  Paterson's involvement with pesticide giants  Monsanto and Syngenta are highly questionable,http://www.desmog.uk/2015/02/24/is-owen-paterson-funded-by-monsanto
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/apr/29/environment-secretary-letter-syngenta-insecticide-ban
 Britain's sovereignty being influenced by Brussels is a matter of flag-waving heresy,Britain's sovereignty  being hi-jacked by corporate interests seems to be perfectly acceptable.

I want live bees, and when my government officials want to kill them, unduly influenced by private  corporations, I want someone to be able to step in.

So far I am for staying.

But there are things I don't like; TTIP for one, a big, nasty,obscure piece of legislation to which we should not agree.  And of course, 'Ever Closer Union' sounds a bit tentacular, a bit Smersh.

Putting on my wee trader hat, ignoring  preference in order think about the money.  I want to be able to trade in the market, and be part of the decision making processes regarding that market. I am influenced by the city traders, the FTSE analysis, the Financial Times who all see leaving as a bad move. I note that Boris' declaration sent the pound down to its lowest level in years. And I think hard; this isn't fear, this is about working in markets that like stability and while I am very ready to pay taxes to protect our society in all its needs, I don't much fancy my hard-earned greenies being put on the line for some idiot rolling around in a union jack pretending to be a sausage roll. Show me guarantees, not hopes.  'Outers' claim we can make new deals, well of course we can. But we will have to, and that is never a great position to start from;nothing worse than bargaining with someone who knows you have to make the sale.

There is more, but I think I will stop here. I think my decision is made, heart and head agreeing.

Agreeing also with Cameron. Who'd a thought it?

Travels with the Stranger

Shall I tell you every story?
Shall I show you all there is?
You won't believe me,  I know,
You have already decided.
Come then let me show you
the red harvest growing
From Timor to Dakota
From Aleppo to your door
You have seen footprints like these...
Talk, flames, talk. We are moving.

I did not ask him for mercy
When he lifted me, expecting
To break on Andromeda's rock
Waiting for heroes
and interesting monsters.
My phone fell from my fingers
I could not text every story
He gripped me safely, below us
the red harvest covered everything
horizon to horizon.