Meaningful songs #31 - TIR NA NOG

This is the thirty-first in an occasional series of songs from my collection, with the intent of introducing music to younger readers that they may gain appreciation of music from the classic years, 1957-1990. 

I have lived long enough to hear the "popular" music industry become ever-more formulaic, lazy, uninspiring and cynical; delivering "units" and "artistes" as interesting and memorable as polished mud.

Meaningful songs that eloquently convey a story, sentiment, or social comment and make it to national consciousness are rare these days. If you agree this song is meaningful, please introduce it to someone young; they might enjoy becoming "musical archaeologists".

Todays song, titled "Our Love Will No Decay", released in 1971, is by a group called Tir Na Nog.

Tir Na Nog are an Irish singing duo whose name is from Irish mythology

From their eponymous first album, hear the song here

Our Love Will Not Decay is a folk song reflecting upon the resilience of love to adversity. It is a gentle but uplifting song that has served me well.

OUR LOVE WILL NOT DECAY
    
Were the calf to die in the womb

And the ewe to bear her lamb too soon

Should the field of barley fail

And the baby at your breast grow pale

Our love will not mildewed grow, no

 

Were the snow to last into Spring

And your fingers blue up to the ring

Should you curse the icy blast

All your beauty, it destroys at last

Our love will not mildewed grow, no

 

But with every new-born day

The same thought through our lives will always stay

And the sun will shine through the dew

The baby will have rosy cheeks like you

And our love will not mildewed grow, no

Return to the first article in this series or hear the first song in this series.

Read the next article in this series or hear the next song in the series.

For the index of all songs in this blog click here

Post Office scandal

Heads must roll here!

Here in the UK (United Kingdom) there started, in 1999, a scandal that continues to this day (2024). It has been called the largest miscarriage of justice and corporate mismanagement in UK history as more and more incredible facts fall from this ongoing story. My personal feeling is that heads must role, "honours" be revoked and prison time (corporate maleficence and perverting the course of justice) set for some, followed by disbarment from managerial role(s). Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster who fought back and coalesced his fellow Post Office victims into a credible and effective lobby group said  the Post Office was run by "thugs in suits" and, for a second time, refused a Post Office compensation offer, though did accept a Knighthood bestowed by King Charles III for exemplary public service; and from Sir Richard Branson an offer to host Sir Alan's wedding on his Caribbean island of Necker. As things stand now, after a public enquiry and establishment of rules for compensation settlements, Sir Alan is scathing about progress and said the scheme has become "a gravy train" for its administrative lawyers - no change there then!

Born in the defective bowels of a system from Japan's Fujitsu company, it's errors and software bugs were blamed on the Post Office workers using it; all were blamed, some were jailed, some died and all are still to see a resolution to a political, corporate and legal conspiracy of hostility, denial, corporate maleficence and lying. (Dec 2024 - as a postscript to this saga a postmaster I met said not all postmasters had problems with the Horizon system; many more didn't have problems then did! As a software person I know that doing steps 1, 2 and 3 to do 4 may give correct results but doing step 1, 3, 2, 4 may not and that such anomalies are easy to fix. So where were the experts at Fujitsu UK?)      

At the core of this saga is Fujitsu software errors, compounded by senior management at the Post Office who opted to blame and then prosecute the users of the system, despite the head of the Post Office (Paula Vennells) being told directly as far back as 2013 of these problems; thereby setting in train years of trouble for all concerned and death for some.

£100,000,000.00 has been wasted fighting sub-postmasters, who for years protested their (actual) innocence, even though the Post Office knew of flaws and backdoors into the Horizon system for Fujitsu software engineers (and bad actors). They put their head in the sand, instructed other legal entities to put sub-postmasters through hell to push the problem(s) away,  thereby hanging on to their bloated salaries. Absolutely disgusting behaviour!

This will rumble on "forever", with each corporate and political component blaming each other (into the long grass of retirement), but if you wish to gain a better overview of the scandal here are a few good places to start. This story is truly jaw-dropping.

The scandal explained

Critical praise for Mr Bates Vs The Post Office

Background details relating to the dramatized story

BBC Podcasts

Mr Bates Vs The Post Office (Only available to watch in the UK) rocked the perception of the Post Office management "organised crime group", affecting not only employees but actors portraying them.

Update 17th Feb 2024: The case against the Post Office has been proved, the victims idetified, yet very little, if anything, has improved for many of them, for the "pass the problem" phase of this fiasco has commenced. Whilst many victims wait to have their degrees of sufferance and loss evaluated, in order to decide upon their "compensation", government and those involved, with a view to minimising their degree of exposure to blame are arguing amongst themselves. So far the only people who have benefited from this disgrace are "the lawyers".

Update 20th Feb 2024: It is now publicly apparent that David Cameron's government knew David Cameron's government knew more than they have ever revealed. They knew of a 2016 internal investigation into the scandal and of Fujitsu's backdoor into their flawed Horizon system, then the investigation was aborted. This revelation is being seen by some as lying at the highest level of government (in order to underline a belief that Cameron still cannot be trusted and by association, neither can Prime Minister Rishi?)

Update 29th Mar 2024: The UK business and trade committee says the Post Office is not fit to run its own Horizon compensation scheme as they are in disarray, whilst some politicians are calling for a police enquiry, with prosecution and prison terms to follow for people complicit in this national scandal. 

Update 9th Apr 2024: Post Office run by thugs in suits.

Update 16th Apr 2024: Post mortem continues.

Update 29th Jun 2024: Fujitsu software engineer has his day but what did we learn from that?

Update 29th Jul 2024: Finally, those that haven't died or settled, there is some closure.

Update 16th Nov 2024: As the Post Office scandal enquiry draws to a close investigation continues, the lying and wringing of hands continues, as it will do so for years, such is the self serving machinations of British law practitioners, whilst rightful recipients of agreed compensation await their payment. One person said, "I think the Post Office is waiting for us to die", whilst another (Oct 2024) is demanding they "Just pay up".

Update 17th Dec 2024: As the Post Office enquiry finally draws to a close we know all of what we may ever know. I'd like to end with the closing statement of the "saviour" of Post Office workers ruined by this national fiasco, Sir Alan Bates; then the final session of ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells, still blaming everyone but herself,  though this time rightfully humiliated when everyone just started laughing at her. I hope she never works again, as "little" people continue to suffer the fall-out of this (ongoing) national disgrace. 

There will be no satisfactory resolution for the hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters whose lives and careers where wrecked, so that those responsible for the grievously flawed Horizon system could avoid corrective and expensive action(s). Fujitsu are no-where to be seen, which seems odd as they built the system and literally for years and years collected their cash but did not fix it.

In my common parlance, this was a cluster-fuck of the highest order. Shame on you all.

Update 25th Apr 2025: Yet another revelation and Fujitsu are not looking good now. They wrote the flawed Horizon system for the Post Office but retained rights over its code, thus denying Post Office techies the rights to interrogate it (for its errors), thus allowing Fujitsu to keep sucking on the nipple of public money as they told the Post Office problems did not exist; furthermore the Post Office have paid over £600,000,000 to Fujitsu (and will continue to) as it could not afford to replace the Horizon system, as they didn't know how it was coded to start with. What a complete fuck-up!

Final Entry 8th Jul 2025: The show is over and the historic dust starts to cover this national disgrace, people wait for a sense of completion and resolution; whilst some (hopefully) wait for a prison sentence.

Anglian Water (et al) - Bloody cheek

Why is Thames Water in trouble?

 

Windermere Is The Colour Of Their Logo

Accounting Geniuses?

It really ticks me off when I read articles about large organisations, in this case Anglian Water, but also Thames Water (the worst), United Utilities (in a world heritage region) and Severn Trent Water, who all tell captive customers who must buy from them because they alone serve an area, that charges are to rise appreciably to pay for "this, that, or the other".

Leaving aside thoughts that strategic services such as water should be state-run, not for political ideology but to prevent my grievance that in years past, when they should have planned for future works by putting money aside, they dispersed too much cash into shareholder's pocket and are now really asking the public (customers) to stump up money they have given away? 

Some companies use exotic accounting (guilty auditors?) to make the acquisition of debt look like an ever-growing profit stream and the controlling influence of OfWat is laughable, for the attitude of these water companies seems to be, "we don't address really serious issues within our industry, but take your money and do as little as possible to give as much as possible to directors and shareholders (to fend off take-over attempts), whilst ecological considerations regarding our dumping of waste we can ignore, no-matter-what the rules". (i.e Farmers cannot put shit in rivers but we can!)

Professionally run (for profit) companies should not need to run to their customers for money, they should borrow from the financial markets, their shareholders or the Government if it is at their behest work has to be done.

Anglia Water - bloody cheek!

Thames Water chief trying to defend bonus payments once again as debt piles on.

They are all at it, but Northern Ireland water authorities have the most to answer for as Belfast Lough and Lough Neagh, the largest body of fresh water in Northern Ireland have been declared toxic because poisonous blue-green algae blooms are the new norm. NI Water blames "historic underfunding of sewage networks" (BY THEM!) for the pollution!

My personal belief is that industries that are vital for the upkeep of living standards of any populace, such as water and sewage, electricity, security, education, prison, police and health, should be publicly owned (by the State for the sole benefit of its contributors). Privatisation of such functions merely strips-out money to profit-takers or parasitic shareholders when it should be retained for the betterment of the service; it also fosters a management mentality focused on short-termism and the next annual dividend war with predatory rivals, equity funds, asset-strippers, etc. etc. (Mark my words, the National Health System will be next - under onslaught from national and American raiders).

State owned in my world means government can steer an enterprise, but not withdraw its profits into any other government holdings or "slush funds" and under no circumstances should any politician hold an executive role. The Labour Party in the UK seem to be touting a similar mantra, but who believes anything political parties looking for election say; for years and years many successive governments have failed water services and water ecologies, preferring to abrogate their responsibility into the hands of Ofwat, who more and more frequently seem not fit for their stated purpose of policing the activities of UK water companies, though I think they know their reputation is on the line because they have just set about scrutinising all water companies.

I know I live in my own "simple world", but whilst I'm kicking the water industry (for it isn't a service), have a read of this; oh and this.

UPDATE Sep 5th 2023: It just keeps happening again and again and again and AGAIN and AGAIN.

UPDATE Dec 4th 2023: Whistle blowers say Environment Agency collude with polluters.

UPDATE Dec 12th 2023: Thames Water (actually Kemble) are at it

UPDATE Mar 28th 2024: Thames Water (actually Kemble) dump 72 billion litres and demand investment - bloody cheek!

UPDATE Apr 22nd 2024: Thames Water's mismanagement is breath-taking

UPDATE Apr 30th 2024: Thames Water and Salmon - nolonger.

UPDATE May 15th 2024: United Utilities failed to protect their world heritage region.

UPDATE May 20th 2024: Water utility investors (shareholders) have been loading the companies with loans (debt), then withdrawing billions to themselves over the last 30 years. What does OfWat do for a living? Sit on its hands? The more I read of water companies in the UK the more I realise each should become non-profit organisations. They are a fucking disgrace.

UPDATE May 21st 2024: They should all be privatised, without any payment to shareholders of directors.

UPDATE Nov 21st 2024: Government legislation banning the payment of bonuses or dividends from "customer money" for many water companies was introduced, though nothing to prevent the "old" practice of taking on new debt to pay such bonuses. (A complete waste of legislation then!).

UPDATE Dec 11th 2024: The BBC investigated Severn Trent Water, for several years a flagship of the water industry, thought to be profit making and yet honouring all of its commitments to consumers and the environment alike, but as they say, "if it seems too good to be true ...", this is the case. They are no better than the rest and compound their guilt by utilising exotic accounting of the worst kind, that makes acquisition of debt look like an ever-growing profit stream; whereas more and more money from customers is "wasted" paying off debt - their auditors must be complicit surely?

UPDATE Feb 16th 2025: Thames Water, the water company with the largest debt has just made that. a lot bigger by taking on an extra £3 billion loan, to help it with its debt problem! Let's hope this money for structural business changes (whatever that means), is not wasted on share-holder dividends (as usual). I think the government know Thames Water would be better off in the long term if nationalised, but they can't bear the though of the money they would have to raise to achieve it, nor the precedent they would set.

UPDATE Mar 16th 2025: Thames Water are back in the news again as their story of corporate maleficence seems to be at a tipping point: Would hey will be allowed to borrow yet more money, or  fall into Government hands. The public do not really want either solution as we know they will pick-up the tab again.

UPDATE June 6th 2025: Thames Water got a huge restructuring loan, so they were seemingly out of trouble for a while (by building their debt for the Government to eventually inherit) and so (obviously) they still wanted to milk the company for undeserved bonuses that were challenged by Ofwat, who fined them £123 million, causing their new investors/rescuers to pull out of their deal and the Government to ban bonuses for bosses at six failing water companies. Thames Water are going down!

The UK's environmental watchdog(s) condemn both Ofwat and past Governments for allowing the cavalier ways of the whole water industry, as water quality and pollution grievances rumble on; but if you are still with me I am closing this topic with a recommendation to watch this YouTube programme by the New Statesman, titled "Who's to blame for England's sewage crisis?"

-------------------- = --------------------

When the Brits knew what to do ......

I admit I copied this from an original Reader's Digest article and that I am impressed. Britain had balls then and a shedload of chutzpah.

The shortest war in history lasted 38 minutes

When the sultan of British-protected Zanzibar died and a new one took over without British approval in 1896, the Brits were not happy. Tension escalated when Sultan Khalid bin Barghash refused to step down, but the British warships spent less than 40 minutes bombarding the palace before Khalid fled, marking the (very quick) end of the Anglo-Zanzibar War.

July 04 2024 - Police let her down but here's a Brit who knew what to do!

July 19 2024 - A Brit rightly exercising his duty of care to smart-arses on his bus, in an article reflecting the pathetic "concerns" of others, including on-board teachers. An Aussie would say, "Good on ya mate" .

July 30 2024 - Two slime-balls tried to take this Brit's Rolex watch (probably stealing to order) and he was having none of it. Police crap about letting them have it obviously got through to him - good man!

Nov 2025 - Brits can be humorous and pithy at the same time and if occasionally you get under their skin, they will turn on you, exemplified by this withering condemnation of Donald Trump.

Final Note - Britain, the UK, the loosening union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or whatever it is supposed to be know as these days, is becoming a less and less united place to exist because of free-loaders, both home-grown and "imported", with criminal activity and lack of tolerance toward each other impinging more and more upon everyone in the country. We need simple solutions and cost-effective deterrents; we need the death penalty back for more than a few in my mind.

Word of the day - MESSIANIC

The word today is Messianic

Messianic is an adjective and from my research means the following:

- To be characterised (by followers) as being a Messiah

- To expresses thoughts, actions, words or beliefs as if a messiah

- To project a persona of a messiah or saviour to followers/believers

- To exert influence or control (benevolent or otherwise) over believers

70's cult leader Charles Manson - a messiah to followers.

A word open to misappropriation, positive or negative, skewed by belief

If someone says you are messianic they believe you be be influential

If someone says you're messianic you may be saintly or a devil for them

A person, group or nation may be deemed messianic

In a non-religious world being messianic usually is "bad" behaviour

In a religious world being messianic could be "good" or "bad"

If you need more start here or here.

There is an index of words of the day.

If you are brave or foolish enough to dig into the different types of words in English, try this.

Australia's dirty secrets

Leaving aside Australia's unwillingness to engage with their apparent national misogyny, which has been longstanding and only now coming to the national table for true debate,  Australians are (finally) waking up to their country's dirty secrets. The sort that undermine their stated aims on climate change and stewardship of the country; for Australia is the world's second biggest coal exporter ( >350 million tons of coal) and still relies on fossil fuel for its own electricity needs, refusing to give up coal whilst making net zero pledges This fact was exposed to the wider world by 3000 Australians who converged at the Newcastle (NSW) coal export station for a 30-hour (weekend) blockade of it's shipping lane. Surprisingly, some would say, it was approved by the local police.

Unsurprisingly, 109 protesters became a little heady with their 30-hour success and 104 were subsequently arrested and charged for their refusal to leave the harbour channel when the time came to get the money flowing again. Ah! - big cash business vs global climate change again; which confirms what many global authorities already think: Australia is a "climate laggard". The fact that four new coal mine licenses have recently been granted also shines a light on Australia's cynicism, much to the delight of "the greens".

Australian coal protestors at Newcastle (NSW)

 

The press in Australia talk about their greenhouse gas emissions as "a national disgrace", which they are; indeed the latest statistics regarding CO2 emissions per person make Australia the 10th highest polluting country (out of 208). Leaving aside minor states (Palau, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Trinidad, Brunei, Gibraltar) only Canada is worse at 9th. In numerical terms Australia has a value of 15.12, whilst the UK value is 5.00 and many countries are openly asking, What is Australia doing about climate change?

We here in the UK are being financially thrashed in the name of saving the planet, whilst the Australian parliament seems to have their heads up their collective arse on this. I have friends and family members who are Australians (for 40+ years) and their consensus is that Australian politicians are self-seeking power brokers, too busy looking big for their local voters, who squander time in office by being mostly ineffective and unable to address national issues such as their health service(s), housing, finance, banking, misogyny, agriculture and land management. (Scathing or what?) Of these a dysfunctional housing market that has precipitated 122,000 homeless people - half of 1% of a 27,000,000 population, is currently in full focus due to impending national elections in 2025.

It is not all bad news from Australia, as pure ("gold") Hydrogen was added to the list of permitted natural substances in 2023, when 18 companies were granted exploration licenses across 570,000 square kilometres (32%) of the state of South Australia. This followed the discovery of a large gas field by a company called Gold Hydrogen, which intends to bring it on-stream as soon as possible. This will alleviate some measures of CO2 and other gaseous emissions, which are slowly falling in response to internal efforts and energy generation is improving, but with regard to coal exports, merely thinking "we export coal but WE don't burn it" could be likened to "we sell poison but don't force anyone to take it" and does not absolve them, when their coal is burnt in the furnaces of less enlightened (or caring) customers, who indirectly are screwing one of Australia's ecologies and biggest tourist attraction.

Australian coal exports will become a major embarrassment as Australia's greenhouse pollution from coal is higher per person than any other developed country! Not good when air quality is already bad in the large cities. 

If I could ask Australia one thing, it would be this. "You have the most polluting neighbours in the world (China and India), but do you want to remain in that club when you have wind and sun aplenty and a huge landmass on which to generate electrical power; so why won't you?" Australia used to look forward, but at this time it is looking away.

COP28 took place in Dubai, with little progress and others will follow, but will oil and coal producers actually take note and why are the Australians even bothering to attend, for many will just laugh at them. See how your country is doing.

P.S. Trees of any kind (maybe not Palm oil plantations) are good for the earth as they soak up all sorts of crap, air air-born gaseous pollutants and give us Oxygen, whilst enabling many forms of biological diversity amongst them; so if you are able, please plant a tree and nurture it as best you can, if not for yourself but the children of the next 200 years. Perhaps checkout this site as well.

As an aside, surely this cannot be acceptable; even though I understand there are long-standing strains and injustices between authorities and indigenous (Aboriginal) citizens (especially in the Northern Territory) it seems to me that criminalising 10 year olds is a good way to seed a criminal underclass of the future.

OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE, THEY MERELY FADE AWAY (They die only when found)

For many days I've likened to death,
shot in the arm, the leg and the chest;
and laying on mud therein a ditch,
I've prayed for an end - to toss in my pitch;
but no-one's heard me - no-one's seen;
as I fight for death - to forget what's been.
I fight for death but she's taking her rest;
so I merely exist in my time of pain;
and I'll never die, I'll just exist,
I'll never move and I'll never stir,
for as long as mankind - I'll always be there.

Some soldiers were brought back

W

J nnbb

AR Warfare FIGHTING Armed Conflict WW1 Trench LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR

This poem was inspired by the film "Oh! What A Lovely War".

The war wasted men,
the trench souls
and minds
puppeteer'd from above
by moustachioed children.

Rapacious rats
crawled over dead
zombies of patriotism
and thoughtless death,
as they enriched the soil with blood.

And the glory of death is remembered.
The warmth of sacrifice cherished.

For the good of peace
death was refereed by God
who was on both sides,
helping poppies to grow;
orange spotted with black.

One for each man:
dried blood stains
on the face of a gas attack,
picked in bunches
and held in a virginal hand.

And the glory of death is remembered.
The warmth of sacrifice cherished.

Start reading about the film and stage play here ...

QUELLE BELLE GEURRE

La guerre a gâché les hommes,

les âmes tranchées

et les esprits

marionnettiste d’en haut

par les enfants moustachioed.

Rats rapaces

rampé sur les morts

zombies du patriotisme

et la mort insensée,

comme ils ont enrichi le sol avec du sang.

Et la gloire de la mort est rappelée.

La chaleur du sacrifice chéri.

Pour le bien de la paix

la mort a été arbitrée par Dieu

qui était des deux côtés,

aider les coquelicots à pousser;

orange tacheté de noir.

Un pour chaque homme:

taches de sang séché

face à une attaque au gaz,

cueillis en grappes

et tenu dans une main virginale.

Et la gloire de la mort est rappelée.

La chaleur du sacrifice chéri.

WAR Warfare FIGHTING Armed Conflict WW1
Trench LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL

11/11/11 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, lest we forget?

The war wasted men,
the trench souls
and minds
puppeteered from above
by moustachioed children.

Rapacious rats
crawled over dead
zombies of patriotism
and thoughtless death,
as they enriched the soil with blood.

And the glory of death is remembered.
The warmth of sacrifice cherished.

For the good of peace
death was refereed by God
who was on both sides,
helping poppies to grow;
orange spotted with black.

One for each man:
dried blood stains
on the face of a gas attack,
picked in bunches
to be held in a virginal hand.

And the glory of death is remembered.
The warmth of sacrifice cherished.

La poem en Francais? :........

La guerre a gâché les hommes,
les â mes de tranchée
et les esprits
marionnettiste d'en haut
par des enfants moustachus.

Rats rapaces
rampé sur morts
zombies du patriotisme
et la mort sans réfléchir,
comme ils ont enrichi le sol avec du sang.

Et on se souvient de la gloire de la mort.
La chaleur du sacrifice chérie.

Pour le bien de la paix
la mort a été arbitrée par Dieu
qui était des deux côtés,
aider les coquelicots à se développer;
orange tacheté de noir.

Un pour chaque homme:
taches de sang séchées
face à une attaque au gaz,
cueilliens en grappes
et tenu dans une main virginale.

Et on se souvient de la gloire de la mort.
La chaleur du sacrifice chérie.

How many people in the world?

I came across this website, which you may be tempted to visit, that gives details about the world's human population.

We humans are the "elephant in the room" when looking at many world problems, from famine to war, to monumental destruction of habitat, including our own. Cutting the number of children being conceived for a couple of years might is a good and long-lasting solution?

People / Km2 - The UK is officially full so stay away!

I think a falling global population can be our only viable option for human continuance, but many  "professional" Demographers do not, citing population growth is needed to facilitate market growth, as if "growth" is good for the world as opposed to merely good for multi-nationals. Fewer "workers" mean more robots can be used, which can be switched off or on as demand varies; it means less is demanded from the Earth and we can proceed with more and more set-aside for re-wilding. 

Those who say we need more people to defend ourselves (war) forget that we could produce robot armies to our hearts content and virtually automate wars if we have the wealth to do so. I just don't see  continuous human population growth as being desirable in any way, as many in more enlightened populations are demonstrating by a "jaw-dropping" global fall in babies.

Remember: Mabel Wolff (nee Mabel Phillips)

Sometimes it is good to remember that "little" people(s) of the world often achieve great things, only to slip down the cracks of history, back into general obscurity. Here is a Welsh born woman, Mabel Phillips, whose uneventful early years started to change after marrying a German sailor, Max Wulff, in 1909.

Anti German sentiment following WW1 saw Mabel relocate to Germany after Max was deported, which for her and others must have been testing to say the least. Her loyalty to Max, her faith and their church was to become her "story" and the reason she is remembered.

Mabel's story is nothing in the scheme of things but the continued existence of "her" church to this day is her marker in the world. I wonder how many other markers exist of people long forgotten? I fear I have none, but live in hope of remembrance.

RIP Mabel (Phillips) Wulff's marker.

Who can you remember this day?

Why?

 

Why would you want to do this?

At the other end of moral questions, why would New York kill a Squirrel? Is it perhaps because of busy-body complaints/jealousy against someone making money off the back of a pet squirrel? Petty or what!

Why did the USA vote in TRUMP?

Why does the west keep funding Russia and its offensive in Ukraine by buying their oil and gas, we might know the true reason(s) but the hypocrisy of western words and their actions does seem blatant.

Copycats - sometimes better

There are songs that are truly great (sellers) and remain favourites because of sheer presence, lyricism, presentation and, to be honest, being released in a time conducive to being a hit in the first place.

To be a "hit", as opposed to being an also-ran, cover versions need at least 3 of the above criteria to be successful again, sometimes more than the original, but often not.

I will keep adding to this list as covers come to mind, suggesting why they succeeded (sometimes better than the original).

STEP ON YOU AGAIN by John Kongos

  Covered, transformed and bettered by The Happy Mondays

I'M FREE by The Rolling Stones

  Covered, transformed and bettered by The Soup Dragons

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS by The Beatles

  Covered and transformed from psycho-pop to jazz-funk by 801

  There re at least 146 cover versions of TNK (some on YouTube)

HOLE IN MY SHOE by Traffic

  Covered humorously by Neil (real name Nigel Planer)

LIVING DOLL by Cliff Richard

  Covered and ruined humorously by Cliff Richard and The Young Ones

HURT by Nine Inch Nails

  Covered, transformed and bettered by  Johnny Cash

This next song has been copied by many artists, most better than the original.

EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' (AT ME) by Fred Neil (is a poor rendition)

  Best covered, transformed and bettered by Harry Nilsson

  Covered with country pickin' by Glen Campbell

  Covered with respect by Rick Watson

I LOVE ROCK 'N' ROLL by The Arrows

  Covered in attitude by Joan Jett and The Black Hearts

IT'S MY LIFE by Talk Talk, 

  Covered in Gwen Stefani by No Doubt (feat Gwen Stefani)

FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE by Peggy Seeger

  Covered, transformed and bettered by Roberta Flack

  (who sang it just as well live)

DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOVE by the Shirelles

  Covered and bettered by The Mamas And The Papas

THE IN CROWD by Dobie Gray

  Covered, transformed and bettered by Bryan Ferry

JEALOUS GUY by John Lennon

  Covered successfully by Bryan Ferry at the right time (Lennon's death)

WITHOUT YOU by Badfinger

  Covered and bettered by Harry Nilsson

NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU by Prince

  Covered and bettered by Sinead O'Connor

  Covered and transformed by Puddles Pity Party

    Puddles Pity Party site here

DIAMONDS AND RUST by Joan Baez (Song history here)

  Covered and transformed from folk to heavy metal by Judas Priest

  Transformed from their heavy metal back to folk by Judas Priest

GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU by Argent

  Covered respectfully but overly bombasticly by Kiss

WAR PIGS by Black Sabbath (great video!) 

  Covered with a twist by CAKE

  Covered and transformed from rock to solo by Puddles Pity Party

  Covered and transformed from rock to choral by Rondellus

TAINTED LOVE by Gloria Jones

  Covered, transformed and bettered by Soft Cell

SATISFACTION by The Rolling Stones

  Covered and transformed from rock to soul by Otis Redding

  Covered and transformed from rock to indie by DEVO

  Covered and transformed from rock to very indie by The Ventures

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER by Bob Dylan (Song history here)

  Covered, transformed from folk to rock and bettered by Jimi Hendrix

  Covered and presented in a unique way by Bastion Rose

OH YOU PRETTY THINGS by David Bowie

  Covered (let's leave it at that) by Peter Noone (Ex Herman's Hermits)

This is a rare example of a record company having faith in the early part of an artists career.

SPACE ODDITY Original acoustic version by David Bowie (1st release)

  Covered, transformed and bettered (just) by Bowie (2nd release)

  Covered and bettered by David Bowie (3rd release - the hit)

  Covered and transformed by Bowie's former bassist Gail Ann Dorsey

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD by David Bowie

  Covered and bettered by Lulu

  Covered respectfully by Nirvana

  Covered (remixed) many time by Bowie (to make better?) - one here

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS by The Beatles (history here)

  Covered, bettered? and transformed from pop to rock by Joe Cocker

  N.B. Joe Cocker did loads of covers

AMERICAN WOMAN by The Guess Who

  Covered, transformed and bettered? by Lenny Kravitz

This next song has been copied by many artists, none better than the original.

BREADFAN by Budgie (underrated yet influential 70s Welsh band)

  Covered and only made more popular by Metallica

  Covered well, with respect for the killer riff by Florence Black

  Covered with original's passion by "unknowns" Galactic Lemonz

  Covered badly (weird syncopation) by Alunah

  

LIGHT MY FIRE by The Doors

  Covered and transformed by solo guitar by Jose Feliciano

  Covered and transformed by Will Young (1st version)

  Covered and transformed by Will Young (2nd version - the hit)

  

THE ONLY WAY IS UP by Otis Clay (original soul hit)

  Covered, bettered and transformed to pop by Yazz

  Covered (let's leave it that) by Stornoway

ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART by Dionne Warwick (US hit)

  Covered identically but at the right time in the UK by Cilla Black

  Covered and bettered by lush orchestration by Rebecca Ferguson

  Covered poorly by actress Sheridan Smith for TV homage

Want some more varied music?

Finally, something for the weekend? NBN1,  NBN2,  NBN3,