Free at last?

It is said that some prisoners become so dependent on the narrow confines of their cells and the monotony of lives minutely organised for them, that they have great difficulty in adjusting to life outside the prison bars; and may even commit further crimes in order to be safely locked up again, where they are looked after and have a recognised place, even if it is a miserable place in a harsh environment. Not everyone can cope with freedom.

Notwithstanding the verses on the Statue of Liberty, not all the huddled masses are yearning to breathe free - unless that means at someone else's expense, of course! Then there's no limit to the number that our masters expect us to welcome and support. It's not enough to deal with the home grown trash, it's somehow imperative to scour the world for human refuse to import.


...''Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!''

I'm not convinced the Founding Fathers of America thought of their enterprise as the creation of a refuge for refuse. Somehow that's what it's become.

It's even more grotesque to envisage our female ministers, the 'Blair Babes', harpies, fishwives and harridans to a woman; more particularly 'Five Bellies', our contemptible greedy and absurd Home Secretary, who is the one responsible for (failing to control) immigration, posing and imitating the figure referred to thus:

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome....

Life and art parody each other. Like Circe's pigs, our rulers fail to recollect themselves and how far they have sunk below their proper station and responsibilities.

Having turned Britain into a pig-sty, our rulers attempt to degrade it's inhabitants to the level of pigs, and control their living quarters, their mating, their movements and their diet. That effort at control now seems to constitute the main activity of government. Towards which abattoir will they be be driven? For whose benefit will they be slaughtered, morally, mentally and even physically?

Those who pay the swine-herds probably consider that they own the swine and certainly mean to profit from them. Physically, the armed forces are already being expended, in a small way so far, in pursuit of interests other than the defence of Britain, or the advancement of its proper interests. There's just been a scandal about a local hospital which faked its figures to appear to be meeting government targets, (in itself a good idea, necessary for good management, but needing to be relevant and monitored), so as to achieve a more financially rewarding status. It did so by economising on trained medical staff, and failing to count patients, let alone attend properly to them. It was estimated that over 400 people had died as a result. Well that's very New Labour, the National Health Service becomes the National Death Service, to benefit the most callous and crooked. It puts one in mind of the financial sector, where the bankers most feted and celebrated by the government, turned out to be competent only at self enrichment whilst destroying the banking system. Of course nothing will be done about either set of filth. Ministers drone about investigations, reforms, lessons being learned - but they're very slow learners (except when it comes to pocketing perquisites and appointments). Hempen collars all round would be just what this 'doctor' would order. If only the dead had been Labour politicians instead of real people, the world would be a better place.

Morally, emotionally and intellectually the population is deprived of the benefit it is entitled to expect from participation, (at the levels of their various comprehensions and abilities) in its heritage of religious and cultural institutions. Instead of the bread of life they are offered only the stony life of consumerism and socialism.

The ancient Greeks thought that involvement in the life of a small city state was essential for the full development of the potential of humanity, and that the institutions of such communities - where it was possible to hear and respond to a cry from the other side of the city- provided what was necessary for humanity. Their philosophers certainly didn't believe that Jack is not only as good as his master, but a damn sight better. They didn't insist on trying to turn sows' ears into silk purses. Our rulers deny that their are any such differences, and punish anyone who points out reality. It's been noted that the citizens of the ancient Greek city states displayed and were expected to display, a great deal more ability and versatility than is true of modern states, however much they prate of democracy.

The great exemplars of modern democracy, the government of the Obamessiah, recently displayed their mettle to the world. After so many decades of confrontation with Russia, their diplomats organised a small gift for their representative, Mrs. Clinton, to give to the Russian foreign minister when they met in front of the world's media. It was a toy button supposed to represent resetting the political relations between the two powers, who each still control thousands of nuclear weapons. Almost unbelievably, their experts in the language and culture of Russia got it wrong, using the Russian word for overload, instead of the word for reset, and writing it in Roman rather than Cyrillic characters! Presumably they had got rid of anyone who knew anything, and substituted some 'equality' or 'diversity' ignoramus. Fortunately, the Russians have a reputation for patience; they're certainly going to need a lot of it.

That vermin, deserving of all vituperation, our vile, vicious and venal rulers, political and economic, have expressed their contempt for their people by the destruction of anything small scale and local, denying that the British, and more particularly the English, have any right to their own identity, institutions and territory. They foist the foul fraud of 'Britishness' - sub human socialism - upon both the British and the human refuse they have imported to supplant them. It's been revealed that now one third of primary school children in Britain no longer have English as their mother tongue. The arrogance and insolence of these protected and promoted 'minorities' imported to act as sub-rulers over the mongrelised and miscegenised population, knows no bounds.

It's not surprising that many of the immigrants resent and resist degradation and assimilation to this level of the pig-sty. Many are Muslims. Although abominating pork as meat, they are of course eager to get as much as possible of the financial and political variety. Those of better class and quality may pay lip service to the multi-cultural nonsense, but it is merely a tool to make gains at the expense of the natives.They obstinately retain their own religion and culture. Good luck to them for preserving their religion, culture and identity; even if it's Islam, it's better than the degraded socialism promoted by our would-be owners. It should be no surprise that the young men who become 'home-grown' Islamic terrorists, their warriors, spring from the the most affluent and educated and apparently assimilated strata of these immigrants - although our media appear surprised - the politically correct fools.

The same gormless idiots are shocked to find that the natives of Iraq and Afghanistan don't welcome the imposition of 'Western' decadence on their societies - apart from the crooks at the top, whose worship of Mammon is as sincere as any capitalist's or socialist's, however often they may be seen in mosques knocking their heads on the floor. Their cousins and co-religionists in Britain don't like it either. The more rowdy insult returning British soldiers, as recently happened at Luton, under the protection of our traitorous politicians and their stooge police. The quieter and more effective organise crimes and divert government grants to finance terrorism. A year or so ago there was a series of television programmes about some of these 'British' Muslims accused of involvement in terrorism, after the explosions in London, and it was revealed that there is a network of otherwise quiet and unexceptional 'British' Muslims engaged in credit card fraud, benefit cheating and various other crimes to raise money for such purposes, and that the money for the explosives and training of some of these people had come from a local authority grant to a local Muslim 'cultural'group. No follow up of that naturally. It might shock the natives and embarrass the powers that be - amongst whom are now numbered many of these immigrants' 'community leaders'.

Indeed, these people now are the Labour party (and the other main parties to a lesser degree) in some parts of the country, and there have been accusations of ballot rigging by them. The postal ballots have, seemingly deliberately, been left open by this government, to easy abuse. It's known that such abuse has occurred. Some 'British' Asians were caught with a warehouse of false ballots, and I think Asian candidates of different political persuasion, have sued each other over similar corruption. They aren't leaving it all to the immigrants. There was a very strong smell of postal voting fraud hanging over the recent by election in Glenrothes. This seat is adjacent to the Prime Minister's, and he was personally in charge of the Labour effort there. Although the polls predicted a close result in what had been a very safe Labour seat, with a possible capture by the Scottish National Party, an unexpected flood of mainly Labour postal votes secured the victory. Since then its been alleged that one of the vote counting tables was not fully in public view, and the electoral register showing who actually voted has mysteriously disappeared from official custody - more lessons to be learned, or perhaps they've already been learned too well?

So, circuitously, we come to the topic that started me thinking about this post, Scottish independence. I don't know a lot about modern Scotland and its affairs - a bit more about those of the 16th and 17th than the 21st century - but it's impossible to miss the rise of the Scottish National Party and its campaign for the independence of Scotland from England, the breaking of the Union of the two kingdoms. Currently it forms a somewhat precarious minority government in the relatively recently established Scottish Assembly, which deals with local affairs, having narrowly taken over from Labour. Browsing a few of the Scottish blogs, it seemed that the main current excitement is how soon they can or should have a referendum on independence, there not being as yet a majority in favour of the break, according to opinion polls. There's no thought of asking the views of the English.

Indeed, something I found a bit strange was the way the SNP bloggers grouped everyone else merely as 'unionists', as if this overrode any differences between them, although in the larger context of British politics their stances on Scotland are only a very minor part of their views. Both 'them' and 'us' in this context are equally and solely Scottish. Small world. (The population of Scotland, is I think, scarcely more than half the population of London.) Will it be a brave new world that has such people in it? Will there be Tempests in the independent Scotland? Judging by Scotland's history, which has been described as exceptionally treacherous and bloodstained, that's a fair bet. The fact that Scottish national dress includes a concealed weapon, a dagger in the stocking, might be a clue to something in the national character.

A while back, when the by election was held in the constituency of Glasgow East, I looked at a forum on a Scottish newspaper's site as the result was awaited, and was astonished at the level of inventive invective the locals hurled at each other. Some of them hate each other as much as they hate the English.

What would be the foreign policy of an independent Scotland? I'm told it would be peaceful and even pacifist. What, no border reiving into the north of England? No attempt to revive the Auld Alliance with France? No completion of Bruce's attempted conquest of Ireland? How will that accord with the martial traditions of Scotland? Will the successors of the men who served in the armies of Sweden, France and England stay peaceably at home - unemployed?

Once the passion for independence takes hold, and the freedom of minorities to break a constitutional union and unilaterally secede from a larger entity is accepted, where will it end? It didn't end well for those who tried to break away in mid 19th century America. If Scotland breaks from England, may the Highlands break from the Lowlands, the Lordship of the Isles be revived to free themselves from the mainland, the Orkneys and Shetlands revert to Norway? Could the Picts be reformed, and send the Scots back to Ireland? Considering the venom to which they treat each other, might there be a civil war between SNiP's and SLabs? It is difficult to suppose that there would be any enthusiasm in England for raising an army to restore or re-conquer Scotland, so we could be left with a United Nations peacekeeping expedition trying to maintain order; perhaps drawn from the armies of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Rwanda and Nigeria with their recent experience of suppressing rebels. Might there, in future days, be tales told by old soldiers in Pakistan of service on the North West Frontier of Scotland, in the Highland tribal areas, being sniped at from the heather?

Peace also has its possibilities. How about Celtic Union with Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany? It could be based on rugby, perchance. All the politicians would be far too egotistical to concede power and privilege to each other, but they'd love the conferences, the speeches, the gossip, the travel, the limelight - the expenses! One would have to mind one's Celtic P's and Q's.

What would be the constitutional position of an independent Scotland? Would it be in the EU or not? Would it have a choice? If the English think to end their subsidies to Scotland, will they find that the EU simply replaces them - and they will have to pay more to the EU? Would the present Queen remain Head of State? Might the Stuart Pretender, Prince Michael of Albany attempt to assume the crown? Another Jacobite Rising- a 2015 to go with 1715? Could a Salmond Dynasty be the winner?

What would it be like at home for the Scots themselves? 'More Scottish Than Thou' may be an adequate slogan with which to attain power, but is it a sufficient basis for government? How different will a' SNiPped' Scotland prove to be? Will there be compulsory lessons in Highland Dancing and Caber Tossing? Will Gaelic be an official language, with equal status to English- or must we call it 'Scots'? Lots of opportunities for language teachers, sign painters and colourful cartography. Like Ireland and Wales, might Scotland force it's schoolchildren to learn the 'local' language, and require its bureaucrats to display proficiency?

What is the difference between SNiPs and SLabs, apart from tribal loyalty? Is it just the envy of 'Outs' for 'Ins'? Should we explore the ins and outs of the matter, will we find that as the Outs become Ins they are uncertain what to do next, having concentrated solely on achieving power; and as the previous Ins see themselves becoming Outs they are increasingly desperate and bitter at the loss of power, patronage, profit and perquisites, well knowing their own disinclination and unsuitability for honest labour? A naked and unprincipled struggle for power.

Rumour has reached me that the SNiPs are even more socialist than the SLabs. If the Scots choose to spend each other's money and blood, who will object, providing none of it spills over onto them? It's sad that a people who produced Adam Smith and David Hume should degenerate into socialists. I feel humanitarian regret that people are subjected to the loss of freedom and prosperity that socialism entails, especially if they have known better, and regret the destruction of Britain; but if that is the fate they choose, they will not be deprived of it.

Taking a birds-eye view, as a Raven might, one wonders what Scotland lacks of independence, apart from the name? Practically, is it not already as free as it could be, or as the EU would allow it to be? The usual features of foreign domination are not seen in Scotland. There's no English governor, supported by garrisons of English troops, imposing taxes on the Scots to pay for their occupation and remit tribute to England. They're not imposing foreign laws or an alien religion on a resentful people. Local culture and national symbols and sympathies are not suppressed. The higher levels of political and administrative office are not held by Englishmen. Big business, finance, agriculture, trade, the professions, the media, academia, religion and culture are not dominated by the English. It's very noticeable that all such positions are held by Scots. They have free elections to their own Assembly, which runs local affairs. Only foreign policy and the military are controlled by Westminster - and those are aspects of self governance where we are assured that Scots ambitions are very modest, so little change need be envisaged.

Indeed, an impartial foreign observer would note the exact opposite. It's England that is governed by Scots. It's England that is taxed to remit tribute to Scotland. It's England's sense of identity, culture, national symbols and festivals that are suppressed. Scots are prominent at the upper levels of English business, administration, politics and media in a way that the English are not in Scotland. The Scots allow the English to hold elections, but they have no English Parliament, and the Labour government at Westminster uses it's Scots MP's to enable it to control English affairs.

Something strange seems to have happened to religion in Scotland. The Covenanters and Calvinists who resisted the attempt of Charles I to impose Anglicanism on Scotland, and tried instead to impose Presbyterianism on England, have faded away to be replaced by the Son of the Manse, whose academic study was dominated by the history of the inter-war Labour party in Scotland, and who labours mightily to destroy the society, economy and finances of Britain with his socialist twaddle. It's fair to note that something as strange has happened to the Church of England. It's female priests, homosexual bishops, and black congregations would appear as hellish nightmares to those who established it, and they could hardly believe that this is now a reflection of England in both secular and sacred aspects.


Our rulers are not only socialist, they're also corrupt. Perhaps the two go together. Mao lived as an emperor,whilst imposing austerity on his people. On their lesser scale our ministers and MP's and quangocrats devote themselves assiduously to self enrichment, hypocritically exclaiming when the light of public scrutiny falls upon them, that they have done nothing wrong, followed all the requisite procedures and stayed within the law. Some are always more equal than others, but the socialists seem to be more disgustingly greedy than the others, all the more sickeningly so as they trough whilst proclaiming their efforts to help the poor.

In relation to Scotland, when following the Glasgow East by election, I noticed accusations that the previous MP had resigned to spend more time with his loot, to prevent an investigation that would have exposed him; and that Labour, especially in Glasgow was mired in accusations of thuggery and corrupt property deals. This is the political patch of the ill-esteemed and remarkably greedy Speaker of the House of Commons. Labour corruption is not new. Remembering the scandal of the 1960's when the major political figure of the North East of England, Dan Smith I think he was, was jailed along with an architect, Poulson, for massive corruption in public works, it would not be at all surprising if Scottish Labour politicians were corrupt. Since the SNiPs have taken over in Scotland, have they set the police to investigate such allegations, which would seem a useful stick with which to beat their rivals? Not that I've heard. Perhaps police and politicians already know each other quite well, there's little desire to rock the boat, and it's just a matter of snouts jostling for the best positions around the trough, without overturning it or turning on each other.

Scotland Yard - strange name for the headquarters of the London Metropolitan police - seems to have been completely Blairised, turned into creatures of New Labour. Our Home Secretary, 'Circe' Smith, was able to watch her 'pigs' invade Parliament to bully an opposition MP, and even arrest him on absurdly flimsy terrorist grounds; but Knacker of the Yard, was not allowed to feel the collar of Blair or Lord Cashpoint for trafficing in honours. It would be wonderful if the Scottish police would send Inspector McKnacker to Westminster to arrest the Speaker, and take him to the knackers yard.

Scotland already has more independence than England. Perhaps, like some birds when their cages are opened, they're reluctant to recognise their freedom and take wing, too comfortable with the old habits of subsidy dependence and abusing the English. It's said that 80% of the legislation passed by Westminster is just rubber stamping what comes from Brussels. How much difference would it make if Scotland had a direct relation with Brussels, unmediated via Westminster? Would the same complaints continue, or would the EU be accepted as a new gravy train to climb aboard, a new world to conquer? They may already have started. How long before Scots will be running Brussels, as they ran Westminster? It would not be altogether unprecedented. Just before the South Sea Bubble, long before Fred the Shred wrecked Scottish and British banking - OK, not all by himself; that famous Scot, John Law, introduced France to the delights of central banking that was going to make everyone rich, and resulted in the horrors of a debauched paper currency. He also escaped with a big bag of loot.

Will Scotland's independence mean England's freedom? Will England ever again be united, free of foreign rule and alien subversion? If the tide of EU regionalism breaks England into pieces, might something like the Anglo Saxon Heptarchy be revived? Could the North East recreate the Dark Age kingdom of Bernicia, which covered Northumberland and the south east Scottish coast roughly as far as Edinburgh. Maybe the Scots could reverse the decision of the battle of Catraeth, and take over Bernicia, thus freeing the rest of Britain from two sleazy socialist subsidy sumps, but no, they're far too canny for that.

So, at the last, what are the prospects of freedom? Some have more than they recognise, others think they still have what has long passed. If it's left to our rulers, there'll be less of it; they act as if intent on freeing us from freedom. A freedom-free zone is what they try to create, CCTV cameras spying on everyone, jobsworths bullying everyone, informers enforcing political correctness, ability crushed and failure exalted, the communist state nightmare imposed by the EU, no-one to know any better, or be able to aspire to more than the life of a herd animal, and in a badly run herd at that. Being of a low moral nature themselves, merely cunning rogues, they aim to debase everyone to below their own level to make them easier to exploit. In so far as they recognise quality, ability, superiority to themselves, they hate and despise it, and act against whatever gives people freedom to improve themselves physically or spiritually, and subvert the social institutions by which this may be assisted. Slavery is their ideal, with the slavish 'sheeple', totally dependent on their rulers, repeating slogans about how very free they are, trained not to recognise their mental chains. A population that Aristotle would have regarded as natural slaves, even if they carefully avoid the name, animated tools who exist not for themselves, but for the purposes of others.

Although the Brown Snotgobbler and his odious party are highly likely to lose the next general election, that is cause for only restrained approval, as Blue Labour may be only somewhat less statist, Clone-of-Blair having busily purged the Conservative Party of conservatives and conservatism, in 'de-contaminating the brand' to create another principle-free band of opportunist political power seekers. Put not your trust in princes, as the Bible had it.

As the external social aspects of our lives offer less scope for freedom, it becomes all the more important to develop one's inner resources. Don't be a sheep waiting for a Good Shepherd to look after you and tell you what to do. Become a goat, and do something yourself. Remember, Jesus may be busy - save yourself. Take heart from the great British heretic Pelagius, who opposed fatalism and reliance on the Church, and asserted that If I ought, I can. Or remember the parting advice of Buddha to his disciples, that they should not accept anything on authority, but should work out their own salvation with diligence. Ponder Plato's allegory of the Cave, written long before flickering shadows on the wall could be related to television or Hollywood.
To be free at last, a freedman entitled to wear the Phrygian Cap of Liberty, requires both inner and outer freedom.

All changed

All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Thus Yeats on the Easter Rising in his poem Easter 1916. Our world is undergoing lots of changes, maybe more than most of us will like. Just as Mark Twain quipped that to those who knew the Noble Savage, his nobility was far less evident than his savagery, it's predictable that until the poets and propagandists get hold of the memories, the misery and even terror in these changes will be more easily recognised than any fancied beauty.

In 1916 the Irish public was initially outraged at the rebels who had betrayed their country when so many of their countrymen, of both religious sects, were fighting in France. Of course the rebels claimed to be fighting for another country, and it wasn't Germany, whose rifles they used. Nor was it the Republic of Letters. The risible incongruity of men of letters staging an armed rebellion in a post office seems to have been lost on them.

The changes of our time have more to do with the death of nations than their birth. The evil monster of the EU swallows nations. The Orcs of political correctness and multiculturalism import and promote the vilest savages to assist them in debasing and destroying the institutions, religion, cultures and identities of the local people. Our ruling class of socialist traitors and bureaucratised crazies deliberately wastes the wealth of the people, warps their minds and morals with ignorant propaganda instead of education, perversion instead of religion, thought crime instead of justice. There are protests at the dumbing down of the public examinations, the substitution of fashionable climate change nonsense for science, the inversion of right and wrong in the legal system, the precedence of bureaucratic malfeasance over justice and the waste, incompetence and corruption in the expenditure of public money, that would be criminal if it wasn't done by our rulers.

So far, the general hope of redemption lies in a change of rulers, although there is also scepticism that the political opposition can be a major improvement. That's been the terrible beauty of democracy, the persistent illusion that change from one party to another will bring lasting improvement. That is wearing thin and our rulers know it, hence their accelerated efforts to claim every privilege and perquisite they can devise, and their recruitment of more thuggish police to guard them, and new laws limiting freedom, creating more opportunities for ministers to declare a state of emergency and making it a crime to photograph the police.

Clone-of-Blair is likely to come into office at a time when further unpleasant changes have occurred, such as more economic depression and rising inflation and continuing rapid decline in the exchange rate. He won't have an easy time, and will soon find charm, smiles and sound bites ineffective in solving the problems. People may see that the changes now coming to a head are greater than the usual short term cyclical variations. All the government's economists and spin doctors may not be able to put Humpty together again.

It's the material changes affecting their comfort that mainly upset people, and nowadays when the state plays Big Nanny even more than Big Daddy, they blame the government for any inconvenience. That's partly why our current Deluded Leader is so frantically spending money he doesn't have, blaming the Americans and the rest of the world for his own turpitude, ineptitude and folly and trying to look as if he is doing something helpful. Although some call him Moses, he has less chance of parting the waters of this financial tsunami, and walking dryshod to the Promised Land of revered retirement in the Worker's Paradise. Some jobsworth of an angel would nitpick about his failure to pass through the eye of a needle, and deny him admittance in any case, although he is a one-eyed jobsworth himself, and no angel.

Despite claiming the status of a world saviour, his attempt to gain recognition from the Obammessiah was less than a success. Forced to use the tradesman's entrance to the White House, granted only a short chat squeezed into the Obammessiah's normal schedule, and a brief showing to the press, where the Great One stiffly rebuffed his fawning, with the comment that he was sure Mr.Brown would not disagree with him to his face - virtually calling him a backstabber! That's an insulting contrast to the red carpet welcome given to the chiefs of the IRA when they visited a few days later. The fatted calf was killed for the killers of British soldiers, police and civilians. Those who caused little children to suffer are suffered to come unto Him. Trample the meek, it's the gunrunners, murderers, liars and thieves who are welcomed in the kingdom of this messiah. Brown's despicable grovelling to the drunken murderous oaf, to be knighted as 'Sir' Chappaquiddick Kennedy for his services to IRA fund raising and gunrunning is also disgusting, and indicative of his contempt for the country he is supposed to be leading.

Even the economic commentators are predicting a bad time ahead, and some, such as George Ure ,James Kunstler and Gerald Celente, suggest the changes will be rather more extensive than we will like. It may be that things are now departing which will be sorely missed, prosperity, longevity, order and civilisation among them. Throughout nearly all of human existence, paper wealth has had no meaning. Insofar as 'retirement' had any meaning, it meant reliance on the support of children and grandchildren. The value of financial investments is rapidly diminishing, and the whole idea of providing for the future, especially for retirement, by buying paper promises is likely to be exposed as a fraud. The inflation now being stoked by the governments of Britain and America to benefit crooked bankers is likely to eliminate whatever remains of the value of their currencies, and the value of savings in those currencies. Apparently the dollar has lost over 95% of its value since 1913, and the pound has fared no better. That's what usually happens to currencies, governments debase them beyond use, and that's what likely to happen to the pound and the dollar. No doubt rich crooks with political connections will profit from whatever arrangements replace them, at the expense of ordinary people. £sd used not to mean a hallucinogen. Livres, solidii and denarii were apparently traceable back to Carolingian coinage based on Roman units of considerable value, not small change. It may be that Lady Poverty will be a close and constant companion, although we bid her less welcome than did St. Francis.

Our highly interconnected globalised economy and society may prove very vulnerable to shocks, and to things like peak oil and imperial overstretch. Dmitry Orlov, in Closing the Collapse Gap makes a very interesting comparison between the Soviet collapse and the likely imminent collapse of America, and concludes that America will suffer far more. Another Russian, Igor Panarin, predicts that the USA is soon likely to split into several portions, although I do not see why the social and racial strains are expected to be resolved in such neat geographical divisions.

After the continuing crumpling of the financial system there are fears that the food supply may be decreased and disrupted, particularly if the current highly capital and oil intensive system of agribusiness ceases to operate reliably. Big cities will not be able to feed themselves on what food can be grown locally, especially if oil based transport becomes too scarce or expensive. In the 1930's Stalin ameliorated his immediate problems by sending armed hordes from the cities to loot the Ukraine, and murder all the small farmers who were reluctant to be forced into collective farms. It is conceivable that if food runs short in American cities in a few years time, the Obammessiah may unleash his hordes of criminal blacks and degenerate whites to rape and pillage their ways across rural America.

Eras do come to an end. This island has experienced many, so it would not be very surprising if we are now undergoing another such change. The signs suggest it may be so. This is no longer a civilisation or culture of development, enthusiasm, new cultural horizons. Rather it is a time of degeneracy, perversion and collapse. The changes in art and culture are not improvements, but tired imitations of chimpanzees tea parties.

There are long cycles, such as the approximately 2,200 year Zodiacal Ages , months in the Great Year of the precession of the equinoxes, Hamlet's Mill. Sometime in the next century or so the Age of Aquarius will start when the vernal equinox moves into Aquarius. That's a very long time in human experience, and there are many shorter cycles. Recently there has been some speculation that the winter solstice of 2012 may mark an important change, as it marks the end of the Maya calendar, and shows the way to the centre of the galaxy in the direction of a gap in the Milky Way; although apparently that orientation also lasts for a century or so. It's possible there may be some event around 2012 which will serve as a shorthand marker for a major change occurring over a longer time, such as the fall of Rome in 476A.D.

One can speculate as to what that might be, and perhaps the economic and political collapse of the USA could fit the bill, signaled by the government defaulting on its debt, or having to withdraw its forces from the 800-1000 bases it maintains in some 130 countries, because it can no longer afford to maintain them, or a humiliating setback in Afghanistan, which it would no longer be able to reverse. The rulers of America set it on a similar course to that of Hapsburg Spain, so it would not be surprising if it suffers a similar fate. China could be the rising power that eclipses America, as France did in the case of Spain.

Although such alteration may be inevitable, it may be that our rulers are deliberately provoking collapse, making things worse than they might be. Beyond the incompetence and stupidity and favouritism, evil may lurk. They are socialists after all. Are they deliberately losing control of borders, flooding the country with third world garbage, allowing precautions against disease to lapse, knowingly doing whatever will fail and cause waste and destruction? The Cloward-Piven strategy suggests that's exactly what they are doing.

In the normal course one would have to accept that as Tennyson said, The old order changeth, yielding place to new. It may not be possible to put Humpty together again, although government economists and spindoctors strive their mightiest. Eventually the ideals and the feuds of history lose their meaning for subsequent generations. The 17th century is ending in Northern Ireland. All that 18th century concern for the rights of property and rights of man, enshrined in a written constitution with a small government, is passing away in America.
As the generations pass and the cycles turn, we could agree with T.S Eliot's assessment, in Four Quartets:
We cannot revive old factions
We cannot restore old policies
Or follow an antique drum.
These men, and those who opposed them
And those whom they they opposed
Accept the constitution of silence
And are folded in a single party.

Although our world is ending, and much that was good is destroyed, the triumph of evil may be less complete than it now seems. The old religion of the northmen suggested that after the Ragnarok, a fresh new world would arise, peopled by those who had taken refuge deep within the Cosmic Tree.

Six hundred years ago, and more, a wise woman lived in the churchyard of St. Julian's in Norwich. She was an anchoress, a mystic famous then and since as Dame Julian of Norwich. She lived through the Black Death and the Peasant's Revolt, so she knew something of change. Her theology was notably optimistic, and a line of hers, All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well, was taken up by the poet Eliot, in his great poem Four Quartets: Little Gidding:
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

Forging a Ring

Last night I happened to see a television programme about Christianity. Naturally, given the proclivities of our media, it was presented by an atheist scientist gleefully gloating over the replacement of Christianity by Scientism as the effective established religion of the chattering classes.

It's been noted that successful religions tend to demonise their predecessors, and this programme about the Enlightenment period of the 17-19th centuries, gave a banal glorification of those saints of science, Galileo, Harvey and Darwin - almost a new trinity. Indeed, following the example of Pope Gregory, who ordered Augustine's mission to England to take over the practices and places of worship of the previous religion, merely re-naming them, so that the populace would become more readily accustomed to the new management; some of the programme was even set in a church, and church music was played as background to the scene at CERN, (the large hadron collider in Switzerland), described as a cathedral of science.

The choice of Christians to be fed to the lions of media mockery, was of course fully in accord with the tenets of political correctness. Although the most vibrant sector of Christianity appears to be amongst the blacks, we were not shown any of them. That's perhaps a little disappointing, even discriminatory, in a country where the second highest dignitary next to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in what is technically still supposed to be the established church of England, the Archbishop of York - is a black imported from Uganda.

Not so long ago, amongst evangelical sects popular with blacks, it was reported that some of the more superstitious had taken to beating and killing children who were suspected to be witches. Material there, one might suppose, for the rational and materialistic to investigate. One might even suppose that keen rationalists could be interested in the mentality of the blacks who, only a few years ago, transported children from West Africa to London to be murdered so that some of their body parts could be used in black magical procedures to benefit those who could pay for them. Hmm, pre- Christian practices still surviving or reviving, or possibly naive Christians confused about the Real Presence?

Ah, but no ... the doctrines of political correctness require blacks to be regarded as holy people - although less so than those who claim a patent on the term. Consequently the selected lamb had to be white, and turned out to be American; presumably one of those least affected by the Obamessiah whose utterance of the great mantra, 'Change', caused all liberal media hearts to flutter; even if so far it's proved a less creative word than the traditional 'Fiat Lux '. Should he turn out to be a failed messiah, who disappoints the expectations of his followers, will he, I wonder, become known as the Obamination of Desolation?

America, we were told in tones of hushed incredulity, is a place where a third of the population still takes the Bible literally, and prefers the creation account of Genesis to that of the Great Prophet Darwin (PBUH). Perhaps not incidentally, it's also a place that's still a lot more pleasant to visit on an expenses paid trip than, say, Libreville, Liberia, Lagos or London.

The unrepresentative representative of Christianity turned out to be an astrophysicist who believes that dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time as humans. This scientific solecism so shocked the programme makers, who had arranged for the interview to take place in a garden which has models of dinosaurs interspersed among the trees, that the camera lingered on several white women wearing long dresses and bonnets, as if to show us how old fashioned are these Americans. Literal mindedness all round. Well, they showed that 'single vision and Newton's sleep' may have more than one dream.

The next foreign trip took us to Rome. It's a fair bet than our intrepid scientists and media folk won't be planning a trip to Riyadh for a programme on Islam and Science. They're not crazy. Heads might roll. Rome is a lovely destination. It was pleasant to see the statue to Giordano Bruno, burned as a heretic in the Piazza Navona in the year 1600, and sit in it's shade quaffing a cooling beverage while listening to a local academic. It's also very safe since the Inquisition was packed away in a cellar of the Vatican. Bruno was a useful stick with which to beat Christianity, but he was quickly dismissed as too much of a mystic and insufficiently scientific. Similarly with Harvey. No time for poetic imagery; facts only please.

After a full and frank confession by a Catholic priest that he believed firmly in the dating system of Science, and abjured the errors of the past, it was time to visit the museum showing the Inquisition's implements of torture. This was full of facts, very scientific. The scientist was impressed by their documentation and methodology, almost at home as he stroked the manacles and showed how the iron clamps worked.

Having established the correct atmosphere, we were taken to Switzerland and escorted through the cathedral of science. A Revered Scientist told us he does not altogether exclude the possibility of a deity, but for him it is not a working hypothesis.The building looks ugly, a grimly rectangular entrance, guarding access to the working dungeons below. Vast expenditure, scant results, ugly environment, pompous jobsworths - you know it's a government project!

It's built like a prison, and that's what it is. It's designed to imprison sub atomic particles in a narrow ring, using very strong magnets, and accelerate them in opposite directions, observing and speculating about the results of the collisions.

It has one feature similar to something found in many cathedrals. They have beautiful high Rose Windows bringing light into a sacred space. This excludes daylight from an infernal space, but has a low circle of several layers of what look like metal bricks around the central ring. They're probably magnets. The visit to the torture implements of the Inquisition starts to seem like a preparation for visiting this place. Those circular manacles and clamps, made to fit the human body, look like precursors of this shackle intended for the body of nature. They were made of iron, and iron is famous for its magnetic property. It is magnetism that prevents the particles escaping from the ring, which holds them as effectively as iron holds a physical prisoner. No wonder the scientist seemed so fascinated with the implements of torture; he's the spiritual successor of the Inquisitors.

It's of a piece with the Enlightenment motif. Sir Francis Bacon, father of the New Philosophy, or science as we now call it, wrote that Nature was reluctant to yield her secrets and so had to be 'interrogated with power' - tortured. That was not just a fanciful metaphor as it seems today; in the early 17th century the belief still lingered that there is a living spiritual presence in nature. Anima Mundi was less wishy washy than the modern Gaia. Some have dared to equate her with the Virgin Mary, but that might have earned them the attention of the Inquisition, or of Protestant heretic burners. There are scientists today who speak of observer participation influencing events, and there have been strange people like Schauberger or Keeley,who sought to co-operate with nature instead of coercing it. Latter day alchemists, whose own abilities seemed to enable events that others could not replicate - very scandalous to the religion of Scientism, which still dominates the intelligentsia.

Confessions under torture, we know what they're worth. Obsession with facts and denial of meaning. Knowledge limited to the service of wealth and power. That's the dark side of Science. It's also the dark side of Religion. And of the State. The Inquisitor and the Scientist are one.

It's rather like The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien had wisdom. Saruman the White pursues knowledge. At first he is on good terms with Nature, then he falls under the dominion of the great Eye ('I', or Ego) and misuses his knowledge to pervert the forces of life into means of achieving personal power and domination of both society and nature. The Scientist is a servant of Saruman, who is a servant of Sauron the spiritual force of evil, who has forged the rings by which all life and consciousness is to be controlled. It doesn't have to be that way.

What do we find the scientists doing in their underground cathedral of science? They're trying to forge a ring! It's not the One Ring, it's not even one of the great rings, they don't have the spiritual depth for that, but it compels a lot of human attention and resources and directs them to a sinister implement for torturing nature, apparently merely because they think they can. The Manhattan Project was a precedent, we know what that spawned, and that they still went ahead with the first test, despite not being quite sure that it would not unleash an unstoppable chain reaction which would destroy the world. They don't believe in anything but physical facts and their own egos. They can't imagine a spiritual force manipulating their egos. For many, it may be their 'Precious'. This may not be the last stage. The Ring, or the Power behind it, may have a stronger will to which our foolish scientists and greedy rulers succumb. Some may become Ringwraiths, Nazguls of Science.

This is quite a step from the banal television programme with which we started. The Shire was a long way from Mordor. It's interesting to see where a religious, symbolic and mythological consideration of Science masquerading as Religion might take us.With apologies to Tacitus, one may say that they make a desolation, and call it science!

Pork with Style

Our unbeloved Home Secretary is certainly not the first or only British politician to be caught with her snout in the trough. It's just been revealed, for instance, that our Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has benefited similarly, doing up his expensive Scottish residence whilst living in a London flat with a political pal who turned out to be one of those sleazy influence peddling Labour Lords.

What is it that makes these people not only sanctimonious self-righteous scolds, but corrupt in such a dreary, grey, bureaucratic box-ticking, petty minded style? Things, including 'troughing' and corruption, used to be done with flair and grandeur. At least some of the money was spent on magnificent architecture and the best art money could buy, as well as providing patronage to scholars and artists and employment for the numerous servants required to run a palatial aristocratic house and estate. These stately homes are now an important part of the tourist industry, and the 'heritage' of the nation!

People with access to such opportunities were expected to have some culture, even if it was not bred but bought rather hastily after the acquisition of the wealth and status it was to embellish. Renaissance lords were expected, not only to pay for the art and architecture, but to have sufficient taste, discrimination and knowledge to keep their artists up to the mark. What a contrast with the modern manner, where prizes for modern art have been won by apes, where Caliban rules over Prospero and Ariel, where discrimination, taste and knowledge are swearwords, and high offices are usurped by those who would have been petty rogues and rough servants in a more civilised era. The world is indeed turned upside down.

There's also a contrast in sheer ability. It is rumoured that the Home Secretary is regarded, by her senior civil servants, as a lightweight ignoramus quite unfitted to her responsibilities. Our Foreign Secretary, bestrides the world not as a colossus, but more like a gibbering banana waving monkey! Our derided and deluded leader, far from appearing as the Saviour of the World that he imagines himself to be, is disliked and mocked by the leaders of other countries. By contrast, Walpole, although notoriously corrupt, was a very shrewd and successful Prime Minister.

We can't overlook the example of the most famously corrupt and flamboyant first minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who also rose from humble origins. To be fair, there were no pettifogging rules in those days to limit what an office holder could make from his office, and it was expected that even the most honest would profit substantially. Outdoing the king himself in pride and magnificence of display, however, turned out to be a 'career limiting move'. Despite his acknowledged great administrative and political ability, it was his inability to lose the king his wife which caused the minister to lose first his 'London' house and then his head.

Hampton Court Palace is certainly an extreme contrast with the poky suburban dwelling of the Home Secretary's sister, and an entourage of only two men at arms would not have impressed anyone in Wolsey's world. In our world it may seem excessive, an exercise in egotism, since if one mediocre politician was killed a dozen similar could replace her immediately. Sensible terrorists, wishing Britain harm, would not attack such people, seeing the politicians are doing far more damage to the country than any terrorists could hope to achieve.

In our world, the Home Secretary is said to have been a cookery teacher at a junior school. This is a modest job, potentially useful, probably within her ability. Had she stuck to it, the world would be a better place. In Wolsey's world she might also have had a useful place, not among the great of the land, but as a junior cook, at Hampton Court, contributing to the diners enjoyment of magnificent feasts.

In a different world she could still contribute usefully to a magnificent feast. The cannibals of the South Seas used to call their victims Long Pigs, as the flavour of human flesh was said to be akin to pork. Now there's a use for our porcine politicians. The Ravens would like a share.

Miss Piggy and the Kali Yuga

Some people with an irreverent attitude to our porcine Home Secretary, liken her to a TV cartoon character named Miss Piggy.

This is sharply amusing, and triply appropriate, given her omnivorous greed; reflected both in her personal appearance, which has otherwise earned her the sobriquet of Five Bellies; and her disposition to 'pig-out' or grub for every financial advantage to be gained by MP's and ministers under their self-servingly lax rules; recently revealed to the disgust and annoyance of the public. Although a married woman, she is continually referred to as Miss, being apparently one of the flock of crazed feminist Bacchant harpies, screechingly engaged in the destruction of family life, and social mores.

Actually,her sour disposition and scowling visage tend to create sympathy for the cheerful cartoon character and the useful animals with whom she is compared. There's also a sinister resonance with Animal Farm, as in true Stalinist New Labour style, she is one of our rulers, hypocritically pursuing their own comfort and advantage under the pretence of public service, and twisting language to help them deceive the public.

Other blogs have recently commented on the debasement of language by our current rulers, and it is characteristic of political correctness and Communism, and the shadowy power behind both. The Bible refers to a Father of Lies, as did the Zoroastrians, and indeed the motto of the Mossad, using a quotation from Deuteronomy, proclaims that by deception shalt thou wage war.


Our ruling filth, whenever some of its roguery is revealed, whines self-righteously that no rules or administrative procedures were transgressed, and they somehow deserve all they can get at the expense of the public. Alas, that the public is unable to give them even a small portion of their just desserts. Perhaps, if there is anything in the notion of re-incarnation and karma, they will be re-born, not as useful, cheerful pigs, but among those who give a bad name to pigs, or as plague bacilli; or even as wretched people who endure a particularly miserable life and painful death, considering that it used to be a common belief - and still is in the East - that such circumstances were a means of compensating for evil done in previous lives.

Of course, there's long been a belief that time brings moral deterioration to the mass of humanity, and not the 'progress' that is optimistically asserted by glibly affluent moderns. This is seen, for instance in Hesiod's scheme of metallic ages, in the Biblical image of the man representing empires from gold to clay, and the Hindu belief in ages dominated by successively lower castes and moralities. It is easy to suppose that our current rulers, and the type of people favoured by the media and lefty intellectuals, with the perverted culture that produces them, and that they worsen; provide evidence that we are now in the last and lowest portion of the cycle, the Kali Yuga; when the coarsest common man, rather than the spiritual or noble, or even the rich, is lauded, and the most materialistic, ignorant, vicious, depraved and criminal elements rise to the top. This phase may last for several millenia, although it is the shortest part of the cycle.

There has been a recent media fuss about children having children, all at taxpayers expense, and hereditary dynasties of loutish uncouth Labour voting people who have never worked or done anything useful, but are given more comfortable circumstances than can be afforded by many of those who have been taxed to pay for them. These are the core voters upon whom Labour rely, and whose administration provides jobs for the apparatchiks and Guardianistas, at the expense of decent people, and this moral and intellectual degeneracy and socio-political thralldom is the condition to which they are working to degrade everyone. Already many of the vermin who fill the offices of state really can't tolerate anyone who is or aspires to be anything better.

They are like Tolkien's Orcs, created from tortured Elves and bred inhumanely in darkness and foulness. Like Saruman, their leaders may pretend to be religious, and even holy, yet they serve Sauron. Don't forget that Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings to create a mythology for England.

This suggests that the Kali Yuga is well advanced, but has probably not yet reached its depth, when life expectancy will be very low - hence children having children, and living circumstances and culture will be very low - but that's the way our progressive leaders are taking us. That some people recognise and protest this shows they have not entirely succeeded. Rearguard actions and rallies in the long retreat are possible, and the evil are not always efficient. There may be unexpected developments, as the times become more 'interesting', and the Ravens may have more to observe and report.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

There's been a great fall. Not just Lucifer's; ours.

The politicians told us that Britain is a broken society. That was years before the economy started to fall off the graphs of share prices, the banks exploded like burst balloons and productive businesses shed jobs as fast as their sales orders disappeared. The remedy of our ruling and chattering classes is more of the state intervention which is a symptom of the problem rather than a cure.

Did Humpty fall, or was he pushed? Might he even have jumped? Will the TV detectives, mainly financial and political, find the right culprit? Will those in the public eye manage to evade blame? Will scapegoats be identified, to bear the brunt of public anger? Will the greedy and mendacious Masters of the Universe retire quietly with their ill-gotten gains? That last appears likely. It won't end neatly, with time for tea before the next scheduled programme appears, whilst you sit back and enjoy it. This reality show appears on your TV. but you may have to participate in it, and you may not enjoy it.

It's been amusing to notice how the media have minimised each stage of the economic decline, remaining firmly behind the actual level, and refusing to consider the possible further extent of the problem. Hardly surprising, considering their background, fawning relation to both powerful business interests and the politically correct and morally depraved leftist filth who control the public mind. They've now admitted we're in a depression; so it'll be worse.

Has the fall finished? Will things soon get better, so this episode of unpleasantness can be forgotten in the resumed hurly-burly of 'getting and spending'? Perhaps not.

There's much worse to come if you can believe the predictions of George Ure's Urban Survival site at http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm
His news for 12th February 2009 includes the following:

If you Think It's Been Bad So Far...

You ain't seen nothing yet...at least that's what a number of data points seem to be suggesting. This could be the beginning of the 'perfect storm' in economic terms. Some of the points I'm watching and pondering:

...

My attorney called yesterday to advise me that US banks were leveraged something like 83%, which is why we are having such a mess of things. Canadian banks, if I followed his logic, were only leveraged to about 78%, which is why people in Canada are not screaming bloody murder about sailing off the edge of the financial world. But in Europe - and this is a scary thing to think about, the leverage was on the order of the UK's 96%, which means that when Europe starts to collapse, it's going down big-time. We're already seeing the story's leading edge with headlines like "European banks' toxic debts risk overwhelming EU governments."
...
He's picking up the financial press on this, but it fits the pattern he's been predicting for a long time. Note that this is not from a mystic seer, nor someone predicting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but from someone who has studied the patterns of financial and economic statistics for a long time, and considered social trends, to conclude that massive economic and social collapse is quite likely, in the near future. You may not place much credence in his associates 'ricketty time machine', using shifts in the emotional content of language used in discussion groups on the internet to predict likely future events, - but they predicted the top of the stock market in America, within a day.

Another straw in the wind blows from the direction of James Kunstler's site at http://www.kunstler.com/ He has long been predicting that the declining output of oil, combined with growing demand from the rising economic powers of Asia, would force an end to what he calls the Era of Happy Motoring, and it's associated urban sprawl.

These are people who seem able to see further than most, certainly better prognosticators than Gordon the Saviour of the World, or the Obamessiah, or any of their court jesters.

As for economists; to whom many politicians turn in times of uncertainty,to read the runes or tealeaves; they're mostly eager to issue the expected soothing statements and encourage their master's continuing follies. The most competent and honest sect of economists, and hence the least regarded, is the Austrian School. They emphasise that a problem caused by government's over expansion of the money supply and ensuing profligacy, is not to be cured by even more of the same on a more gigantic scale. The Ludwig von Mises Institute at http://mises.org/ is their main bastion.

All the king's horses, and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

All the pompous commentators and cunning advisors to unclad Emperors, will have no more success. As things fall further apart, the Ravens will be fed.

Prophecy

Come Back, Colonialism, All Is Forgiven.
That's not the sort of headline you expect to see in our politically correct media, but there it is, on a story at Time, dated 14th February 2008, by Alex Perry. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1713275,00.html Noting the date, someone may have a sense of humour - something else, besides truth, that's politically incorrect. It's a story about the failure of economic development in the Congo.

"We should just give it all back to the whites," the riverboat captain says. "Even if you go 1,000 kilometers down this river, you won't see a single sign of development. When the whites left, we didn't just stay where we were. We went backwards."

"On this river, all that you see — the buildings, the boats — only whites did that. After the whites left, the Congolese did not work. We did not know how to. For the past 50 years, we've just declined." He pauses. "They took this country by force," he says, with more than a touch of admiration. "If they came back, this time we'd give them the country for free."

Thanks, but 'no thanks'. It's difficult to imagine many whites being willing or able to take up that burden again, or even being able to stop grovelling to the crazies who find the word 'golliwog' worse that any foul language, and justification for extreme execration and punishment. Africa will just have to continue rotting until the Chinese get around to absorbing it. They're busy with Tibet at the moment.

In the present circumstances it is very difficult to imagine any such change...and yet, circumstances do change, sometimes rapidly and dramatically...though you'd need to be a Prophet to predict that much of a change. The Prophet Nicolaas van Rensburg predicted it.

Not many people outside South Africa have heard of the Afrikaans prophet or seer, Siener van Rensburg. In South Africa he was famous up to his death in 1926. His predictions assisted Boer forces in the Anglo-Boer War. He was jailed for participation in a rebellion against South African participation on the Allied side in the First World War. He was ardently devoted to the cause of his people, hostile to British rule and friendly towards Germany. Some predictions attributed to him are amazingly prescient. Some Afrikaner's still have faith in him. He predicted that after much suffering under black rule, the Boere would regain control of South Africa, assisted by a resurgent Germany, and even extend their control over Africa up to the equator. Oh yes, he predicted that England would lose all its colonies and be destroyed. So far, so crazy, one might think.

Here's a summary of his life and predictions.
http://www.blogsouthafrica.net/2008/01/31/siener-van-rensburg-visions-of-the-future/

Here's a free book about his life and prophesies.
http://www.israelect.com/reference/WillieMartin/SEER.htm

The thing I find strange is that someone who died in 1926 would have been able to predict massive black emigration to Britain and Europe, and its concomitant decadence and disease, and see this as a major factor in the destruction of Britain.

He was no modern man, but a man of the past, the distant past. His powerful presence, and the awe and devotion and controversy he inspired, make him seem like an Israelite prophet, or a druid. Deeply religious, he apparently literally never read anything but the Bible, and his mysterious visions were noted in a couple of exercise books by his daughter. He seems a bit like the legendary Merlin, but one who never found a successful Arthur, and whose people attained their Camelot only a generation after his death. Such men have a hold on the soul of their people, and it is easy to see why the Romans were so determined to stamp out the druids, why the Biblical Kings of Israel had such an uneasy relation with the prophets of their people - and why Smuts suppressed mention of van Rensburg and his writings during the Second World War when a faction of Afrikaners rebelled in support of Germany.

The timing and interpretation of many of these prophecies is of course unclear; but it is disturbing in the light of the present economic situation, that he predicted that England and America would become full of debt, and bankrupt.

It's certainly not reassuring to notice that he foresaw further massive immigration of blacks into Britain, and racial conflict, and that this was likely to precede a war with Russia, which left Britain destroyed, and no longer even occupying a place at the diplomatic table of Europe; which will be headed by a revived Germany, not disposed to sympathy towards Britain.