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THE TIME IS NOW
Date added: Sunday 29th March 2009
A POEM CALLED “TIME”
There on the wall the old clock sits
The second’s ticking off, marking time
A blank face, just there, with nothing to give
Except the marking of time.
There once was a time in my life long ago
When time it stood OH so still
It’s funny somehow, the older I get
How time, it just seems to go.
Here in my chair by the window I sit
Gazing out, watching natures own time
The birds and the bees, the flowers and trees
Passing through, and waiting their time.
The seasons they come and the seasons they go
Each in their own good time
The wind and the rain, the sleet and the snow
All disappear with the passing of time.
A new year has dawned, how will it be spent?
This time that is left to me
Will it pass like that old clock on the wall?
A blank face just ticking, with nothing to see.
How quickly time goes doesn’t it, one day leads into another, with not a care in the world and maybe you don’t even give
it a thought, till one day time jumps up and hits you in the face, know what I mean? One day you look in the mirror of life
and you think! ‘Is this really me I am seeing,’ as you touch your face and feel for the first time that you are not as young as you thought you were.
Maybe too you feel as if your memory has fallen by the wayside as you can’t remember those important times and dates that mean so much to you. If you don’t feel like this then rejoice, and for sure the young people who may visit this website, or are among my many friends on Facebook won’t be feeling this way YET! But you will of course have your memories.
For the most part memories should be of the good times but as we all know, life is never that simple, life has a way of doing many things, things that destroy, that hurt us deeply, and yet life has a habit of turning bad things into good, and I thank God that he does that.
I find it hard to take in that it is two years ago that a nuclear bomb burst over the heads of my family and our community of Cullompton and Mid Devon as we were told of the calamitous loss of a wonderful son and grandson, a day that is forever burned into our memories for ever more.
So vivid are the memories of the outpouring of love and support at the time of Daniels funeral from my community, such an outpouring that almost chocked me, that left me overwhelmed with both grief and love.
All of you, my friends who visit me here, or on Facebook are very much in my thoughts today, for some of you are families who have serving servicemen and women today in Iraq and Afghanistan, some I know have suffered as we suffer, and are coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. To you especially I give my thoughts and prayers today, and too so many have loved ones who have been terribly injured, that in itself is a disastrous bombshell for each family and each and every serviceman or woman.
To my many other friends who are not connected directly with our services and yet have such love for them, I say to you especially THANK YOU! FOR YOUR LOVE, SUPPORT AND CARE. Our servicemen and women thank YOU, and I will go further than that dear friends and say THEY NEED YOU!
Of all the things they need to keep them going there is one vital thing that stands above all others, and that my dear friends is KNOWLEDGE! The need to know that they are not forgotten heroes, because that is just what they are, HEROES in so many ways. They need to know that our people will not, and have not forgotten them.
They fight a war not of their choosing, they are doing the job that they have been sent to do and they do that with the dignity and pride that makes our servicemen special, they honour the flag of the United Kingdom and in doing that they honour you too.
We in our own right and way should honour them too, we should stand as one and say we honour and respect you for what you do in our name, and we will hold faith with you daily till you are home again on this, our countries shores.
This is the catalyst that has formed the foundation stone of Operation Braveheart, the fallout of our personal nuclear bomb. I will gather the fragments of broken spirits and broken hearts in my family and in my community and many other communities across the land. Let us not be among those in this country who vilify and degrade our bravehearts in active service, let us honour the fallen both of today and yesterday, and I pray that we will all learn from it and be the better for it.
It would be so easy for me to turn my emotions today into a political statement but that is far from my thoughts today, except to say that I have no faith in this Government, its leaders or indeed the labour party, they have lost touch with the feelings of the people and have left us the poorer because of it.
A national debt of over two trillion pounds is an awful bank statement to leave for future generations.
Truth left untold and hidden from public view, kept in the dark recesses of power in case we dare question the validity of a war in Iraq, that should not have happened the way it did. I wonder really if it is a question of profit and loss.
Who profited the most from this disastrous exercise? We most certainly know who the losers are do we not.
.At the time of Daniels inquest last year I publicly challenged ex Premier Tony Blair to publicly make some form of recompense to those bravehearts who paid the ultimate sacrifice or who have been so severely injured. In that challenge I asked him to make a fitting donation to one of the many service charities who care for our servicemen’s needs after having to leave the forces.
This he could have done by donating just one of the many fees’ he earns from his lucrative public speaking engagements he now undertakes since leaving office.
At this time Mr Blair has not responded to my challenge.
You may like to read about Mr Blair’s earnings from a report that came to my attention, and draw your own conclusions.
THIS REPORT STATES.
Tony Blair’s earnings since leaving Downing Street are calculated to have topped £12 million, more than six times his previous lifetime income.
The former Prime Minister, who tours the world speaking to audiences including investment banks, private equity firms and chambers of commerce, is now said to be the highest-paid speaker in the world. Since launching himself on the speaking circuit last October, Mr Blair is understood to have earned more from speeches than Bill Clinton, the former US President, did in his first year after leaving the White House.
As the stock market has plummeted and the housing market has slumped, the man who as Prime Minister championed the “light-touch” system of financial regulation blamed by some for the current crisis is enjoying an unprecedented boom of his own.
Mr Blair receives £84,000 of taxpayers’ money to run a private office and is entitled to an annual pension of £63,468,
but this pales to insignificance beside his private earnings. He has made £4.6 million from his memoirs, an estimated £2 million from JPMorgan Chase — including bonus — and £500,000 from Zurich Financial Services.
On top of that he has exceeded the $9.2 million (£5.8 million) that Mr Clinton earned, according to his wife Hillary’s financial disclosures, from speeches in his first year outside the White House.
I can tell you that Tony Blair has already made more money than that,” a speaking industry source said. “He is now probably the highest-paid public speaker in the world.”
At the United Nations there is fear that his focus on commercial interests is jeopardising his unpaid role as Middle East envoy.
One senior official said: “There’s a view in the UN that he’s not making any progress and that from all the status that he brings to the position, he doesn’t seem to be achieving anything . . . He’s meant to work on the distribution of aid to Palestinians and not brokering peace in the Middle East, though he’d like to do that.”
Such is the demand for Mr Blair, who works exclusively through the blue-chip Washington Speakers Bureau, that he has a two-year waiting list for bookings, with clients prepared to pay $250,000 (£157,000) for a typical speech of roughly 90 minutes.
“He is one of the biggest stars in the world. Who else is there?” said Max Markson, the public relations organiser who has taken Mr Clinton, Cherie Blair and Nelson Mandela to Australia.
Since Mr Blair can pick and choose audiences, some will be surprised by his selection so far. He has become a particular favourite with the Washington-based Carlyle Group. Next month he will address a conference of its European investors in Paris about “geopolitics”. He addressed a similar conference for Carlyle in Dubai in February.
Carlyle Group is a leading private equity investor in the military. Its board has been graced by both Presidents Bush and its former European chairman was Sir John Major.
Carlyle and the Blair Government have a controversial history. The National Audit Office said taxpayers lost millions from the privatisation of spy technology because of Labour’s decision to appoint Carlyle Group as a preferred bidder too quickly.
Mr Blair also chose to address a dinner hosted by the Kuwait Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. The Kuwaitis say Mr Blair spoke without payment. As a government body, it is forbidden from paying its guests.
Critics of the funds fear that they will buy strategic parts of economies, then use the leverage to influence policy. Much of the money is from Arab nations who might be tempted to discourage business with Israel.
But Mr Blair’s office said: “We should encourage their investment, especially at a time when institutions are facing a real problem getting cash.”
His employers in the finance industry are happy. The investment bank JPMorgan Chase said he “has played an extremely valuable role here” while a source at Zurich Financial Services said: “He provides us with pretty useful insights.”
But there is frustration about his performance as Middle East representative for the Quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
A Western diplomat in Jerusalem said that Mr Blair had failed to achieve a key UN aim to promote free movement in Gaza: “I wonder if his overstretchedness has produced a tactical blunder.”
A UN official in Jerusalem said: “There is a general sense that he is not around.”
Mr Blair’s office said: “Tony Blair’s current role in the Middle East takes up the largest proportion of his time.
“No official of the UN or any other Quartet member has ever raised any such concerns with us. When Mr Blair took up the post he said he would be spending at least a week a month in the region, and that is exactly what he is doing.”
Property portfolio takes a tumble.
South Pavilion Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire: bought for £4 million in May. Likely to have fallen 3.1 per cent to £3.76 million
Connaught Square London W2: bought for £3.65 million in 2004. A similar property on the same street fetched £5.5 million this summer. The Blairs’ mansion is likely to be worth more since they connected the adjoining mews house, bought for £800,000 early last year
The Panoramic Park Row, Bristol: two new-build apartments bought for £265,000 each in 2002. An offer is understood to have been accepted on one of them this month for £285,000
Myrobella Trimdon, Sedgefield: bought for £30,000 in 1983. Now worth £126,000, down from a peak of £140,000 in summer last year; similar properties have fallen in value by about 10 per cent
Acknowledgements to the Times online.
I shall continue to lobby Mr Blaire and I challenge him again to do the honourable thing in respect of our servicemen and women, for those we have lost, nothing can bring them back but, if you should ever read this Mr Blaire, then do the honourable deed, show some remorse to our wounded and to the families whose loved ones have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and what a sacrifice that is, to give your life for Queen and Country, what I am asking of Mr Blaire is surely a tiny drop in the financial seas that he now swims in.
it a thought, till one day time jumps up and hits you in the face, know what I mean? One day you look in the mirror of life
and you think! ‘Is this really me I am seeing,’ as you touch your face and feel for the first time that you are not as young as you thought you were.
Maybe too you feel as if your memory has fallen by the wayside as you can’t remember those important times and dates that mean so much to you. If you don’t feel like this then rejoice, and for sure the young people who may visit this website, or are among my many friends on Facebook won’t be feeling this way YET! But you will of course have your memories.
For the most part memories should be of the good times but as we all know, life is never that simple, life has a way of doing many things, things that destroy, that hurt us deeply, and yet life has a habit of turning bad things into good, and I thank God that he does that.
I find it hard to take in that it is two years ago that a nuclear bomb burst over the heads of my family and our community of Cullompton and Mid Devon as we were told of the calamitous loss of a wonderful son and grandson, a day that is forever burned into our memories for ever more.
So vivid are the memories of the outpouring of love and support at the time of Daniels funeral from my community, such an outpouring that almost chocked me, that left me overwhelmed with both grief and love.
All of you, my friends who visit me here, or on Facebook are very much in my thoughts today, for some of you are families who have serving servicemen and women today in Iraq and Afghanistan, some I know have suffered as we suffer, and are coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. To you especially I give my thoughts and prayers today, and too so many have loved ones who have been terribly injured, that in itself is a disastrous bombshell for each family and each and every serviceman or woman.
To my many other friends who are not connected directly with our services and yet have such love for them, I say to you especially THANK YOU! FOR YOUR LOVE, SUPPORT AND CARE. Our servicemen and women thank YOU, and I will go further than that dear friends and say THEY NEED YOU!
Of all the things they need to keep them going there is one vital thing that stands above all others, and that my dear friends is KNOWLEDGE! The need to know that they are not forgotten heroes, because that is just what they are, HEROES in so many ways. They need to know that our people will not, and have not forgotten them.
They fight a war not of their choosing, they are doing the job that they have been sent to do and they do that with the dignity and pride that makes our servicemen special, they honour the flag of the United Kingdom and in doing that they honour you too.
We in our own right and way should honour them too, we should stand as one and say we honour and respect you for what you do in our name, and we will hold faith with you daily till you are home again on this, our countries shores.
This is the catalyst that has formed the foundation stone of Operation Braveheart, the fallout of our personal nuclear bomb. I will gather the fragments of broken spirits and broken hearts in my family and in my community and many other communities across the land. Let us not be among those in this country who vilify and degrade our bravehearts in active service, let us honour the fallen both of today and yesterday, and I pray that we will all learn from it and be the better for it.
It would be so easy for me to turn my emotions today into a political statement but that is far from my thoughts today, except to say that I have no faith in this Government, its leaders or indeed the labour party, they have lost touch with the feelings of the people and have left us the poorer because of it.
A national debt of over two trillion pounds is an awful bank statement to leave for future generations.
Truth left untold and hidden from public view, kept in the dark recesses of power in case we dare question the validity of a war in Iraq, that should not have happened the way it did. I wonder really if it is a question of profit and loss.
Who profited the most from this disastrous exercise? We most certainly know who the losers are do we not.
.At the time of Daniels inquest last year I publicly challenged ex Premier Tony Blair to publicly make some form of recompense to those bravehearts who paid the ultimate sacrifice or who have been so severely injured. In that challenge I asked him to make a fitting donation to one of the many service charities who care for our servicemen’s needs after having to leave the forces.
This he could have done by donating just one of the many fees’ he earns from his lucrative public speaking engagements he now undertakes since leaving office.
At this time Mr Blair has not responded to my challenge.
You may like to read about Mr Blair’s earnings from a report that came to my attention, and draw your own conclusions.
THIS REPORT STATES.
Tony Blair’s earnings since leaving Downing Street are calculated to have topped £12 million, more than six times his previous lifetime income.
The former Prime Minister, who tours the world speaking to audiences including investment banks, private equity firms and chambers of commerce, is now said to be the highest-paid speaker in the world. Since launching himself on the speaking circuit last October, Mr Blair is understood to have earned more from speeches than Bill Clinton, the former US President, did in his first year after leaving the White House.
As the stock market has plummeted and the housing market has slumped, the man who as Prime Minister championed the “light-touch” system of financial regulation blamed by some for the current crisis is enjoying an unprecedented boom of his own.
Mr Blair receives £84,000 of taxpayers’ money to run a private office and is entitled to an annual pension of £63,468,
but this pales to insignificance beside his private earnings. He has made £4.6 million from his memoirs, an estimated £2 million from JPMorgan Chase — including bonus — and £500,000 from Zurich Financial Services.
On top of that he has exceeded the $9.2 million (£5.8 million) that Mr Clinton earned, according to his wife Hillary’s financial disclosures, from speeches in his first year outside the White House.
I can tell you that Tony Blair has already made more money than that,” a speaking industry source said. “He is now probably the highest-paid public speaker in the world.”
At the United Nations there is fear that his focus on commercial interests is jeopardising his unpaid role as Middle East envoy.
One senior official said: “There’s a view in the UN that he’s not making any progress and that from all the status that he brings to the position, he doesn’t seem to be achieving anything . . . He’s meant to work on the distribution of aid to Palestinians and not brokering peace in the Middle East, though he’d like to do that.”
Such is the demand for Mr Blair, who works exclusively through the blue-chip Washington Speakers Bureau, that he has a two-year waiting list for bookings, with clients prepared to pay $250,000 (£157,000) for a typical speech of roughly 90 minutes.
“He is one of the biggest stars in the world. Who else is there?” said Max Markson, the public relations organiser who has taken Mr Clinton, Cherie Blair and Nelson Mandela to Australia.
Since Mr Blair can pick and choose audiences, some will be surprised by his selection so far. He has become a particular favourite with the Washington-based Carlyle Group. Next month he will address a conference of its European investors in Paris about “geopolitics”. He addressed a similar conference for Carlyle in Dubai in February.
Carlyle Group is a leading private equity investor in the military. Its board has been graced by both Presidents Bush and its former European chairman was Sir John Major.
Carlyle and the Blair Government have a controversial history. The National Audit Office said taxpayers lost millions from the privatisation of spy technology because of Labour’s decision to appoint Carlyle Group as a preferred bidder too quickly.
Mr Blair also chose to address a dinner hosted by the Kuwait Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. The Kuwaitis say Mr Blair spoke without payment. As a government body, it is forbidden from paying its guests.
Critics of the funds fear that they will buy strategic parts of economies, then use the leverage to influence policy. Much of the money is from Arab nations who might be tempted to discourage business with Israel.
But Mr Blair’s office said: “We should encourage their investment, especially at a time when institutions are facing a real problem getting cash.”
His employers in the finance industry are happy. The investment bank JPMorgan Chase said he “has played an extremely valuable role here” while a source at Zurich Financial Services said: “He provides us with pretty useful insights.”
But there is frustration about his performance as Middle East representative for the Quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
A Western diplomat in Jerusalem said that Mr Blair had failed to achieve a key UN aim to promote free movement in Gaza: “I wonder if his overstretchedness has produced a tactical blunder.”
A UN official in Jerusalem said: “There is a general sense that he is not around.”
Mr Blair’s office said: “Tony Blair’s current role in the Middle East takes up the largest proportion of his time.
“No official of the UN or any other Quartet member has ever raised any such concerns with us. When Mr Blair took up the post he said he would be spending at least a week a month in the region, and that is exactly what he is doing.”
Property portfolio takes a tumble.
South Pavilion Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire: bought for £4 million in May. Likely to have fallen 3.1 per cent to £3.76 million
Connaught Square London W2: bought for £3.65 million in 2004. A similar property on the same street fetched £5.5 million this summer. The Blairs’ mansion is likely to be worth more since they connected the adjoining mews house, bought for £800,000 early last year
The Panoramic Park Row, Bristol: two new-build apartments bought for £265,000 each in 2002. An offer is understood to have been accepted on one of them this month for £285,000
Myrobella Trimdon, Sedgefield: bought for £30,000 in 1983. Now worth £126,000, down from a peak of £140,000 in summer last year; similar properties have fallen in value by about 10 per cent
Acknowledgements to the Times online.
I shall continue to lobby Mr Blaire and I challenge him again to do the honourable thing in respect of our servicemen and women, for those we have lost, nothing can bring them back but, if you should ever read this Mr Blaire, then do the honourable deed, show some remorse to our wounded and to the families whose loved ones have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and what a sacrifice that is, to give your life for Queen and Country, what I am asking of Mr Blaire is surely a tiny drop in the financial seas that he now swims in.