If 'The Truth Will Set You Free'...

If 'The truth will set you free', why do so many of us seem so scared of it?

To believe in a delusion or set of delusions surely sets us up for far worse....

It is nigh impossible to coerce or control someone who knows the truth because their fear factor will be gone if knowledge is power.

Why this post? 

Why these ever more censorious times? might be a more pertinent question.

I saw an interesting post on social media yesterday (before it disappeared). 'Everything being censored is what you need to know.'

It is often argued that truth can be relative, but if you have any doubts, there is a simple solution. Rather than take one person's word on a matter, just keep asking the questions that bother you with an open mind, check out multiple sources (including non-mainstream) and join the dots. Following the money in any given situation is also a good tip. Ask yourself who benefits?

Finally gut feelings play an important role in our internal guidance system. If something feels 'wrong' it probably merits closer inspection and question.

Don't You Know There's A War On?

'What did you do in the war Daddy?
'I shopped our neighbours on social media for having a glass of wine with a friend on their balcony son.'

We are at war it seems.
Which brings out both the best and the worst in people.
We are told we're all in it together. But actually we have to stay apart.

The enemy is invisible. We are told we need to hide from it.

No one seems to know a lot about this invisible enemy. Is it a killer or can an individual recover with just a few restive days in a handy Scottish castle? Are those it kills just about to die from other causes (aka Eddie Large in the final stages of heart disease)? Do the small percentage of apparently healthy victims have underlying health issues they didn't know about? It's odd that their healthy status seems to be declared on the same day as the death rate for that day, which wouldn't allow time for a full post mortem.
Anyone recall that months after David Frost died, his apparently healthy 31 year old son collapsed and died while running a marathon of an undiagnosed heart condition? My own family suffered the tragic loss of an apparently fit and healthy 10 year old niece the same year, who collapsed and died while warming up on a sports field one Saturday, another hidden heart condition.

Even the means of contraction is argued over with no clear information on whether it is airborne or otherwise.

As for the advice on staying safe, that just seems to concern 'social distancing' and personal protection equipment, not solid commonsense advice on what we can do to boost our own immune systems by optimising our nutrition and lifestyle or what else we should be cleaning apart from our hands. Would a daily temperature check before leaving the house be just as useful as locking a whole country down?

How many die in hospital? How many die at home? Hospitals in themselves are dangerous places and known to generate more than 20,000 UK deaths a year from hospital-acquired infections including sepsis. It doesn't help that most hospitals have sealed windows nowadays, forcing all staff and patients to inhale the same recycled air circulated via air handling units, which may or may not be serviced on a regular basis, and use outsourced cleaning and maintenance, over which they have less control and accountability. Many staff also arrive and go home in uniform kit which potentially transports germs in and out of the hospital.

All we know for sure is that we are dealing with germ warfare, but is it natural or was it created in a laboratory? The means certainly exist and the use of germ warfare has been both possible and, at various times and in various conflicts, employed since WWI. We also know that sometimes natural viruses come along or mutate from more harmless ones, hence the caution against prescribing too many antibiotics, so they still work when we really need them to.

They say the first victim of any war is truth. But what is truth anymore?
Fake news is everywhere. But the 'fake' label seems to exclude sponsored news, news owned by media goliaths or news angled to further political agendas, if not conspiracy ones. There's no such thing as news without spin any more. Even the timing of the Queen's special speech was apparently carefully timed to be neither too early nor too late in the crisis.

Perhaps follow the money is the best advice that can be given in any crisis. It is clear that many millions will financially lose in this situation (largely the middle and working classes, who are likely to be squeezed past breaking point in many cases), but who will gain? Who gained from the last (conventional) war when Iraq needed re-building and large contracts were ripe for the picking?

Meanwhile;
'Put that light out!' was the cry all over the land in WWII.
'Put that human freedom out!' could well be the cry for this war, if we are not careful.

Ah well, at least I've stocked up on my bread and circuses for the week. Now for my prescribed hour's exercise on a deserted bit of shoreline.

You've Had Your Chips - a short story

You’ve Had Your Chips

At first it seemed a marvellous idea. A microchip implant which meant you never had to carry (or lose) money, keys or ID ever again. What freedom! Especially for someone like Sarah who had a brain like a sieve and was forever forgetting things. Once she had even lost a flight through forgetting her passport! 

Sarah was indeed the first in her neighbourhood to have the implant and extol the benefits of a smaller handbag to all her friends, neighbours and colleagues, though eventually it became mandatory, so she needn’t have worried.

Of course she felt a bit sorry for all the locksmiths, shopkeepers and others who lost out when keys and cash became a thing of the past, particularly the homeless. Though strangely the homeless soon started disappearing from the streets, so presumably they had solved the homelessness crisis. Either way, it was nice to see clean streets again and not get accosted every time she went out. 

The council grew satisfyingly efficient. They always remembered to start the birdsong tape at six every morning to brighten everyone's day. So much better than the old days of slippery bird poo and scavenged binbags everywhere. They also lined the streets with attractive no maintenance plastic trees which never shed any leaves or caused any root damage and each remained green all year round possessing a discreet solar panel at the top to power the driverless vehicle plugged in at pavement level.

Years went by and things became more and more expensive with transaction charges added to every electronic purchase but Sarah didn’t worry too much. They had to pay for all this new technology after all. And it was so convenient. She just went out less in the evening and had fewer holidays. Anyway you could get some lovely second hand clothes these days. She had never realised before.

Then one day Sarah went into work and it was announced there would be a special departmental meeting at 11am. Sarah wondered what it could be about. She soon found out. Her department was being closed and they were all being made redundant. Those closer to retirement age weren’t so upset and immediately started planning all the holidays they were going to have, much to the irritation of younger staff like Sarah.

From that day forward Sarah went into overdrive applying for new jobs. She had never been unemployed in her life before and wasn’t about to start claiming benefits now. No money wasting holidays for her. However many of the jobs she was qualified for in banking no longer existed. The electronic technology was rendering them useless, hence the closure of her department.

Eventually six months and many interviews later Sarah landed a job in a bank of a different kind, a DNA bank where she became a risk calculator for insurance companies. It was better paid and Sarah reveled in her tenth floor glass office – the first office she’d ever had all to herself.

To celebrate Sarah decided to throw a party inviting all her former colleagues. Only seven turned up out of the thirty people Sarah had worked with. Out of those thirty it turned out that fourteen had died. Sarah was shocked. She had been so absorbed in looking for a new job, she had only kept in touch with one colleague who was equally determined to find another job, Lisa, who had eventually taken a pay cut to work in an Estate Agents. Jeff the relationship manager had been killed in a car crash but the others it seemed, had all died of heart conditions, even Paul and Jason, who had only been in their forties, one while running a marathon. 

‘I can hardly believe it.’ Said Lisa. 

‘I know.’ Said David. 

‘We must be jinxed! Maybe we should all go for heart tests.’ 

‘That’s not a bad idea.’ Stuart chipped in. ‘I saw Jason’s widow the other day. She said just before he collapsed that he had a tingling pain in his right arm.’ 

‘I thought heart attacks affected the left’ said David. 

‘So did I’ said Sarah. ‘And I’ve had to learn a bit about medical conditions for my new job.’ 

‘She said much as she misses him, the insurance has come in handy as he was about to run out of money after their cruise.’ added Stuart.

‘Nice’ said David. ‘I hope my wife doesn’t say the same about me if I conk out. We’re also about to run out of money if I don’t get that departmental job I’ve just gone for. ‘

‘Well as long as you haven’t got a tingling pain in your right arm, you should be alright.’ joked Stuart.

David blanched. ‘Funny you should say that.’ He said. ‘Here. Pass me that fish knife.’

‘Why. What are you going to do with it?’ asked Stuart.

‘Something I suspect we may all need to do.’ replied David. 

They watched as he rolled up his shirt sleeve, tied a napkin tourniquet around his arm and used the tip of the fish knife to extract the microchip.

                                                                               ©LS King 2020

Disruption Is Not A Sexy Word

I fervently hope that when we get to the end of the ghastly CO-VID situation, it will put an end to any notion that 'disruption' is any way exciting or sexy.

It is not.

It is destruction by another name.

Destruction of the good stuff as well as the stuff that needs re-thinking. It is no discriminator of what it destroys; livelihoods, families, mental health, physical health, our freedoms and choices, our human history and heritage - it really couldn't care less.

And at least one company has been doing it for years, yet strangely it's not exciting or sexy when Southern Rail does disruption!

It's a head frack!

So let's stop this celebration of all things disruptive and broken and turn our attention to mending them to the best of our ability.

Let's put the 'sexy' into consistency, reliability, loyalty and sanity. And prove that creativity can still be a viable bedfellow to these if it's fear of loss of creativity that makes disruption seem attractive.

And while certainty is something that can never be guaranteed we know that few people thrive on instability. On not knowing where their next meal or pay cheque will be coming from. We know what causes people to spiral and stop striving to be their best selves.

I also fervently hope that this crisis will not be used as an excuse to close libraries, museums, post offices, community centres, places of worship, art galleries, pubs, cafes, tourist attractions and everything else that facilitates social contact and cohesion, It seems an odd co-incidence that just as we are being driven towards an online cashless faceless society of social isolation, along comes a virus which drives us even further into the soulless vacuum of an online cashless faceless society of social isolation!

Let us also not forget that a good 20% of the population, either through age, disability or illness are not part of the online world and face complete discrimination and disenfranchisement if their currency is no longer legal tender for the brave new world ahead.

So thanks for the dolphins in the Venetian canals, but no thanks for the panic-demic, the deaths and the excuse for a police state. As soon as my fellow human beings stop being weapons of mass destruction, I for one, want to be amongst them again!

Muse at Ten - Mass Mind Power Experiment to Heal the CV Situation (and world)

Fed up with being scared silly watching the doom and gloom on News at Ten each night and having a bad night's sleep as a result? Well why not do something about it? Why not switch off the news, switch off social media and take ten minutes out to join me (LIVE from your living room) in a mass thought power experiment to heal the CV situation (and world)? I think we can all agree that the world needs all the healing it can get at the moment. Here's how to join in Muse at Ten; (and please spread the word). At 10pm each night, find a quiet comfortable place, take a few slow and deep breaths and ask the universe (or your God) to dissolve the virus. Visualise everyone in every country affected rising from their sick beds and feeling 100% well again. Envisage, shops, restaurants, pubs, schools, libraries and everything else you value re-opening and blossoming again. Spend about ten minutes focusing on healing everyone and everything affected. You can start with our city and then expand your energy beam of focus wider and wider into healing the whole country and healing the world and planet generally. Think of all the other people doing the same as you. Feel the power of intention in every pore. Imagine you are a channel for the power of good intent. Let’s see what people power can do! If nothing happens at least it will help us feel better and healthier than watching the news! Tip To help you focus, it is worth doing one of the following; light a candle or hold a crystal, lucky charm or talisman during your meditation. If you believe in angels, saints or other spiritual beings, you can ask for their help too (Archangel Raphael is for healing) For the naysayers reading this, It is a known fact that mental states - in particular the negative ones of fear, isolation, loneliness and anxiety have a HUGE impact on mental and physical health and vulnerability to illness and infection. Therefore let us boost the opposite mental states of calm, love, healing, positivity and a Dunkirk spirit generally of helping our neighbours. Hopefully we can also boost our immune systems in so doing. If improving our own mental states is the only positive outcome of this experiment, then that alone is worth it.

Keep Calm and Carry On!

The famous British 'stiff upper lip' may be unfashionable and even mocked in the world of woke but the wobbly lip simply doesn't serve us!

I am shocked that the 'nuclear option' of potential economic ruin is even being considered re putting Britain on lockdown over what is, essentially, a particularly nasty dose of flu. And sadly every flu epidemic brings deaths.

Here are my emergency measures if I ruled the country:

Personal Safety Measures

·        Boost immune system with plenty of sleep, good hygiene, nutritious food and vitamin C and don’t let yourself get run down or dehydrated

·        Don’t kiss babies, toddlers or the very elderly or sick on the face.

·        Don’t kiss pets

·        Wash hands with soap each time you go indoors/feed your pet/change a nappy/prepare food etc.
Clean your mobile phones, remote controls and keyboards daily

·        No public handshaking, hugging or kissing. Reserve intimacy for intimates.

·        Carry a packet of tissues around at all times (coughs and sneezes spread diseases) and don’t spit in public.

·        Don’t buy uncovered food or share food and wash all fruit and vegetables before using.

·        Extra measure: Face masks are not known for efficacy but wearing latex gloves can be more beneficial. The Queen has a habit of wearing normal gloves (replaced every day) to reduce her own exposure to germs. They are not just an accessory to her outfits. And she is apparently hardly ever sick.
     Invest in a thermometer and check your temperature every day. If it's above normal, self isolate.

·        Keep calm and carry on! Business as usual.

Public Safety Measures

·        Invest in temperature scanners at airports, train stations, shopping centres and venues to pick up anyone with a high temperature who might need further testing.

·        Bring back public ban on spitting or coughing/sneezing without handkerchief (as used to exist to prevent spread of TB) and chewing gum deposits as well. Extend to sports pitches and activities.

·        Isolate only those who need isolating. Keep everything else open for business as usual

·        Reopen any closed wards or nursing homes as emergency isolation centres and offer incentives to NHS staff to come out of retirement to staff them.

·        No buffets or food sharing

·        No uncovered food in cafes, restaurants or shops

·        Cleanse public building and public transport door handles daily and businesses need to cleanse shop trolley and basket handles

·        Keep calm and carry on! Business as usual.

   A pandemic of panic helps no one and the stress of being triggered into a heightened or
   prolonged state of anxiety is enough to bring many people’s immune systems down and
   render them vulnerable to infections.

The Great Online Heist of Real Life

Noticing that Brighton and Hove's William Hill betting shops have closed down the other week, it's time for serious questions to be asked when even the parasites are leaving town!

'Disruption' may be the sexy buzz word, but the collateral damage of disruption appears to be an increasingly impoverished gig economy with diminishing job security and a generation (Z) growing up now who have little hope of ever owning, even through inheritance, their own homes.

Below is a round up of the great online heist of real life so far. Makes one wonder what the intention is for all these people put out of work with first a major loss of industry in this country and now a growing lack of service industry jobs in the following categories, particularly as we are relentlessly funneled towards a cashless self-service society.  'Smart' technology is a major driver in this non-consensual future we are heading towards.

A friend who works in AI believes the eventual aim is that machines and robots will take over the everyday business of living for us and we will all be given 'an allowance' on which to live, which sounds ominous enough.  Implanted chips in our bodies will serve for ID, door keys and all manner of other functions. But why keep us alive at all if we are not even any use as consumers any more? The mind boggles.

Meanwhile here's what's disappearing from our High Streets and from our lives whether we like it (or voted for it) or not;

• Betting shops 
• Travel Agents
• Railway ticket offices
• Bus ticket offices
• Box offices (theatres and cinemas)
• Banks (and cash points)
• Building societies
• Post Offices
• Libraries
• Community Centres
• Pubs 
• Churches
• Petrol stations
• Magistrates courts
• Shops (more and more shopping is online, not just owing to convenience, but because people's disposable income is falling and parking has become extortionate)
• Cobblers (most shoes are moulded, not repairable)
• Garages and body shops (fewer cars are repairable and increasing numbers are written off by insurance companies, which used to be fixed. as being 'economically unrepairable')
• Computer repair shops (fewer computers are fixable or upgradeable and many now need to be  thrown away)
• Appliance repairs (appliances have become more throwaway and less economically repairable)
• Council clerks
• Call Centres
• Opticians
• Hotels and guest houses (now being usurped by Air BnB, despite lack of safeguards and insurance)
• Newspapers and magazines
• Publishing

Once we have self-driving vehicles and trains, guess what else will go!

Yes, taxi, bus and train drivers. This is no minor revolution but a seismic shift to society from which it is unlikely to recover if we cannot see the jobs rising up to replace all those which will be lost. '

Divide and rule appears to be what's happening. Drive everyone online, encourage social isolation and addictions, throw us lots of distracting bread and circuses (including plenty of of issues, major and minor to worry about). Then we are ripe for the heist, to be filleted and robbed of that is real and true from our lives including our money.

From Cheer to Fear

While my childhood in the 1980s wasn't the happiest, I was aware that around me was an optimistic society.

Our hair was big and our pop music was bouncy (if you didn't count The Smiths). A particular favourite of mine was Mental as Anything's 'Live it Up' (below), which never failed to boost my spirits.



We'd somehow successfully navigated the threat of Nuclear war, oil running out and the closure of the pits and most of us looked forward to the future.

Clothes and pop music were eagerly devoured with the lines to all our favourite songs learned from 'Smash Hits' magazine or 'Jackie'. Pop star pull-outs lined our bedroom walls.

No one cared about looking like a supermodel. In fact we only had models. Supermodels hadn't yet been invented. However we accepted that very few people looked like a model and were happy with 'pretty' and aspired, if anything, to 'girl next door' in terms of looks. That winning combination of wholesomeness and prettiness.

Drugs were virtually unheard of in the Irish town where I grew up. Glue sniffing was about it and many of us bought (or were bought) a single of 'Just Say No!' by the Grange Hill cast. Our teachers still walked around with a cane under their arm (at least in my first year) -  gesture enough to keep the vast majority of us in line at school - as we knew they had the power to use it.

When I did school work experience on my local newspaper and was paired with Don, the 'Courts & Sports' reporter, crime was low level. the odd stolen ladder or charity box. Father Ted genre crimes.

While our homes tended to be decorated in various shades of brown and our parents' cars beige, we ourselves were colourful and any clothing, particularly involving a fluorescent zigzag paired with a RaRa skirt, was a must. We also loved experimenting with make up and hair.

We enjoyed thriving shops, libraries, community centres, pubs, cinemas and nightclubs. Banks, Post Offices and ticket offices were plentiful as were jobs. If we wanted something we generally had to work for it and save for it, but that made the acquiring of it all the sweeter. You had to be about 50 with a mortgage to be trusted by the bank with a credit card. Luckily our cheque books and cash did us just fine.

If we had time to feel blue from our busy social lives, we just felt blue for a while. No one called it 'depression' or 'anxiety'.

You had to sit and wait for the phone not to ring to get your heart broken, not have it mercilessly shattered within seconds of checking on your love interest's internet or mobile phone activity.

No one seemed to worry about their weight or what they had or hadn't been blessed with in the body part lottery. Or at least if they did, they never talked about it. Life was for living, for getting on with.

Fast forward to today and we have a society which seems ever more miserable and fearful, even though it's never known more material goods and comfort and enjoys international travel we could only dream of!

We have allergies that kill us (as oppose to merely being a nuisance) and people with anxiety and depression from a young age.

Yes, we have tackled many of our 'isms', but as societal acceptance has grown, other intolerances seem to have risen up to take their place. In the good old days friends could have a difference of opinion without falling out over it. That level of diversity seems to have evaporated. I believe we have also become less caring about each other and more selfish as a nation. I remember people sticking up for each other and helping each other as communities. I remember respect for the elderly. What happened?  And how could social isolation become the number one social ill in an unprecedented era of electronic connectivity?

Social mobility was also important. Now most wealth is going one way - in an upwards direction - to those who already have far too much of it. This is having a crippling effect on the rest of the economy, akin to a tourniquet cutting off the blood supply to the rest of the body. Debt has been turned into credit -  abracadabra!

Our tramps (who often took to the road by choice) have been replaced by homeless in ever increasing numbers.

Addictions of all varieties are skyrocketing and it is not uncommon to find people in their 20s complaining of a level of ill health they might have expected to encounter in their 60s.

As if we needed any more woes, we are warned there is a 'climate emergency' but are not told what we are supposed to do about it, apart from worry and find ourselves fleeced for ever more taxes, greener cars, greener boilers etc, usually within a few short years of replacing the previous for environmental reasons.

The TV news has almost become a no go area with its carpet-bombing of doom and gloom.

Perhaps that is why we still find so much 80s music playing everywhere we go. It reminds us all of how life should be. Buoyant and optimistic. Looking forward to a bright future!

I for one refuse to live in fear. Let's all make this our mantra.

Workplace Bullying - stamp it out!

All workplaces experience internal conflicts or disagreements from time to time as part of normal working life. Above is a handy chart explaining the difference between a natural occurrence and an artificially created one.

Obvious forms of bullying would be name calling, shouting at or even physical shoving. Now there are better laws against the obvious, what is more commonly seen nowadays are the following more pernicious types.

Less obvious forms of workplace bullying include:

• Constant nit-picking and fault-finding of a trivial nature

• Not giving appropriate credit or praise for good work

• Undermining or belittling someone in front of others or encouraging co-workers to.

• Not including someone in normal workplace conversations or activities

• Setting unrealistic goals/moving the goal posts/inconsistency

• Repeatedly disallowing meaningful work in favour of menial tasks

• Giving someone too much or too little to do

• Increasing responsibility while reducing authority

• Withholding information to prevent someone from doing their job properly - ie setting them up to fail

• Dismissive behaviour

• Exclusion from meetings and training opportunities

• Not standing up for that employee when there is a (genuine) issue or witholding support.

• Exhibiting favouritism towards other employees which disadvantages the target

A clever bully won't necessarily do the above all of the time just so they have some examples of how they've treated the employee fairly in case the employee ever plucks up the courage to complain about their treatment. This messes with the employee's head even further when the bully is sometimes nice to them.

In the early stages of being bullied at work, the victim may feel that they are at fault and will attempt to work harder or behave in a way which reduces the unfair behaviour of the bully. This unfortunately gives the bully the means to control the victim further, increasing their ability to manipulate.

It is a common misconception that employees are bullied because they are weak or incompetent. On the contrary employees are often targeted because they are competent and good at their jobs and their aggressor (often, but not always, in a senior position) feels threatened by this or jealous of them, rather than seeing them as an asset who can help them look good/the company thrive, if treated respectfully and lawfully.

Employees who face bullying in the workplace may experience a number of issues, including stress, depression, illness, insomnia and even suicidal tendencies. 

There is also a high cost to business  

• Higher staff absenteeism and turnover

• Lower staff morale

• Decreased productivity

• Legal and workers’ compensation claims

• Time lost for managers dealing with issues

• Potential reputational impact

It is hard to quantify what the yearly cost to the UK of workplace bullying is as so many employees are still too scared to report bullying as they cannot afford to lose their jobs (unfortunately the messenger is still often shot, despite being the victim and doing the company a service in flagging up a serious problem which will eventually impact on their bottom line.) Many more are forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, even if they have spoken up. Shockingly up to one in three women and one in four men report they have experienced workplace bullying in their lives. Even more shockingly women are just as likely to be bullied by other women as men. Protected characteristics legislation has helped, but many staff continue to be bullied outside of these.

Here is a basic infographic of the dynamics of workplace bullying.

There are no failsafe ways to deal with office bullying, but if you cannot stop a colleague/boss bullying you, here are a few things to try;

• Does your company have an anti-bullying/harassment or respect policy? If so, read it.
• Talk to their boss to try and resolve, reminding them of aspects of company policy.
• Join a Union and seek advice and support
• Talk to HR (if you have an HR officer or department)
• You can also get free advice from ACAS on the phone
• Contact National Bullying Helpline for help and advice here
• Keep a diary of anything untoward that happens, just the dates and facts, in case you need to file an IGP (internal grievance procedure) or take other actions later.
• Look after yourself, ie sleep, eat and exercise regularly
• Minimise your contact with your bully if possible (work from home or another location? Plan holiday dates different from theirs?)
• Ensure you have a life outside work which offers you comfort, self-esteem and distraction.
• Do the best you can and try to stay as positive as you can with your other colleagues until the situation either improves or you can find a better one.
• Remember, it's not your fault. You are an employee with a problem, not THE problem and your employer has a duty of care towards you to sort bullying out once made aware.

International STAND UP to Bullying Day is 28th February 2020. Get your workplace involved!

The Ghost of Stuart Lubbock

It is 19 years since Stuart Lubbock, a 31 year old butcher and divorced father of two, was found dead in TV star Michael Barrymore's swimming pool following an all night party in March 2001, yet Police are no nearer to solving the tragedy.

Of two things they are sure. It wasn't suicide and it was no accident either.

Stuart died of a serious forcible assault causing devastating injuries to his anus, possibly while being choked and drowned at the same time, which would explain the absence of reported screams as he was being attacked (there is some difference of opinion between pathologists).

Police believe they have narrowed it down to three suspects who would have been strong enough to carry out the assault, possibly two of them working together. A fascinating Channel 4 documentary 'The Body In the Pool' has spent two and a half years poring over the evidence and interviewing friends and family, Police, pathologists and journalists in their pursuit of the truth in this still 'live' case.

A £40,000 reward for new information has been offered by Crimestoppers and The Sun in the hope that loyalties will have changed and consciences may have started to weigh heavy in the intervening years. All eight people present that night deny any involvement but at least one is lying and it is highly possible more than one was a witness, if not a participant, in the crime.

Interestingly all the guests were known to Barrymore except Lubbock, who had been picked up that night in a nightclub and invited back to the party with them. It happened like this. Lubbock had gone to his local nightclub with his brother Keith as they did every weekend. At some point Stuart popped to the loo and returned excitedly telling his brother that Michael Barrymore was in there.  Michael Barrymore subsequently emerged and a female friend of Barrymore's invited Stuart Lubbock back to the house for a party. Lubbock's brother was all but ignored as Barrymore and hangers on, now including Stuart, swept out of the nightclub and into a taxi. It was the last time Keith saw his brother alive.

Everyone who knew Stuart agreed that Stuart wasn't gay. If anything he was a 'ladies man' who had struggled to stay faithful to his wife. What they all agreed is Stuart would have been 'starstruck' by meeting Michael Barrymore and probably flattered to be invited to the star's party, keen, no doubt, to tell all his friends and workmates about it on Monday morning. Stuart came across as somewhat naive and trusting.

The taxi driver who drove the group to Barrymore's home in a nearby Essex village was interviewed and said Barrymore seemed drunk as he was unable to walk in a straight line. While he drove them to the house, Barrymore (sitting behind him) leaned forward and mumbled. 'I could do with a f**k.'

What happened next is sketchy, but one of the guests remembered seeing Barrymore rubbing cocaine into Stuart's gums in the kitchen at some point in the night (which Barrymore denies). Barrymore himself talked in a filmed interview of lending swimming shorts to his male guests and putting on the pool lights.

Early next morning one of the guests rang 999 to report a body in the pool. By the time the emergency services arrived, Barrymore had had the body removed from the pool, claiming that he himself couldn't swim, a claim quickly refuted by his ex-wife and many others who knew him.

At first the Police were swayed by their interviews with party goers claiming the death was accidental and did not seal off the house and pool as a potential crime scene, a mistake they later admitted. Police believe that opportunities were taken to remove incriminating items from the scene and from the house, possibly by Barrymore's personal assistant (though he denies this). Certainly the property was cleaned up in between the incident and the Police returning some time later.

When Stuart's inquest came up, interestingly Barrymore hired top QC Michael Mansfield to represent him. It is almost unheard of to bring a QC to an inquest as it is the purpose of an inquest is to establish who someone was, where they died, when they died and how they died. It is not the purpose of an inquest to establish if a third party was responsible and who that third party might be. An inquest is not a criminal proceeding. In the event disagreement between pathologists meant that an open verdict was recorded.

Which brings me to some things which bother me about Barrymore;

• His first reaction was to flee his own house when the body was found.
• When challenged as to why he had not entered the pool to get Stuart out he claimed he could not swim (subsequently contradicted by those who knew him well). It would also have been odd indeed for him to buy a house with a swimming pool and keep a collection of swimming trunks around if he could not swim.
• Items were removed from the property (including a pool thermometer and door handle) which may have played a part in the death
• Barrymore hired a top QC to represent him at the inquest.
• In 2002 Barrymore demanded another investigation into Lubbock's death and tried to claim Lubbock's internal injuries must have been inflicted in the hospital. A Police investigation showed this was untrue.
• Barrymore has said it was just 'another night' which happened to go wrong, as if such an incident doesn't warrant a fuller explanation or Stuart were somehow partly responsible for his own death.
• Having initially been questioned and cleared. after a second arrest and questioning six years later, Barrymore tried to sue the Police for £2.4m in 2018, claiming they had ended his career through 'unlawful arrest'. He won nominal damages.

However aside from the unsavoury nature of the case, I believe it is Barrymore's own lack of answers and deep remorse for the fact a young man died at his house which have effectively ended his career.  Some expectation that the passage of time means that somehow yesterday's news doesn't matter anymore. In fact he is even 'harassed and bullied' over the Lubbock death making Barrymore the victim!

Yes, he may never have been charged but Barrymore was a family entertainer and his many fans would have been appalled at the scandal surrounding the Barrymore brand, not least that there has been no proper closure for the poor Lubbock family.

Doubtless Barrymore is sorry and wishes it had never happened, but he comes across as feeling sorry for himself most of all.

The ghost of Stuart Lubbock has clearly not finished its work for the loss of Barrymore's lucrative career is surely the worst possible fate he could face and every attempt to re-start it has backfired over the years.

In a recent press conference Essex Police made it clear that they believe someone present at the party killed Stuart Lubbock and they are still confident that they will apprehend the murderer.

For me the most horrifying aspect concerning this alleged murder is that it may have been committed, not for money or revenge, but for fun. For kicks.

Corona virus? Use a hankie!

While I was born some decades after WWII, my grandparents almost made me feel as if I had lived through it with them. I almost have palpable memories, even if they are genetic, rather than lived experience.

Sometimes when modern life goes a bit too insane or paranoid I seek refuge in the common sense of those times.

How did the message 'Coughs and sneezes spread diseases' become out of date exactly?

Why did they stop fining people for spitting in the street when TB (tuberculosis) can still be spread this way, and is actually back in the UK again after a long absence?

I can only assume we must have become careless and complacent, losing our laws, common sense and manners when antibiotics were invented and multiple vaccinations came along, assuming they could save us from all ills.

Pre-antibiotics, common sense, rigidly enforced, was all there was. And a bar of carbolic.

So far it seems the Corona virus has killed no more people than the average flu outbreak. The scary bit is the unusual strain of it, the fact there is no vaccine and no anti-viral medication.

In reality there are plenty of people who WON'T get it, even if it spreads worldwide because their immune systems are too strong or they are symptomless carriers. As with any disease it is the vulnerable who are most at risk, the very old, the very young and those with pre-existing conditions or who are poor or malnourished. Those with compromised immune systems, in other words.

So before we go nuts stockpiling masks, goggles and spacesuits, why don't governments go back to basics in their nationwide emergency measures? When governments actually start introducing nationwide emergency measures, that is.

Fine everyone who coughs or sneezes without using a handkerchief or who spits in the street.
Insist that everyone from the very young to the very old washes their hands at every opportunity and train all cleaning staff to pay particular attention to door handles, light switches, toilet flushes and everything else likely to be touched by multiple persons in public places. In fact I am staggered we have not had foot-operated WC flushes and handbasin taps for years, like many Italian cities do.

Enforcing sensible behaviours and encouraging people to look after themselves (and each other) will surely rid the world of this virus quicker than anything else, and until it either burns itself out, as viruses eventually do, or an antidote is found.

Good personal hygiene should never go out of fashion, irrespective of how many antibac chemicals and medicines are invented.

Another aspect of WWII, sadly forgotten, is the equally useful saying 'Keep Calm and Carry On.' It is both unhelpful and downright irresponsible to allow or facilitate mass hysteria. The virus of fear can be just as deadly.

Finally a friend and journalist - Fleur Kinson - offered the following thought which I quote in full; 'Why hasn't the World Health Organization forced the end of the Chinese market practices that cause ALL of these modern epidemics? Swine flu, bird flu, SARS and all the rest have been born in crowded Chinese markets where live and slaughtered animals are clumped together with people in unhygienic conditions. It is known and anticipated that all these new epidemic viruses arise in these environments in China. Why has no international agency forced the Chinese to adopt difference practices? Countless lives across the world are affected. We know where these things start, so why don't we stop those environments?'

The Abortion Stall

Yesterday I was walking through the middle of Brighton when I noticed an array of gory-looking poster display boards ahead. At first I assumed they were slaughterhouse scenes and it was some kind of animal rights stall but as I drew closer I realised it was a display of human foetuses in various stages of abortion around a leaflet table.

'Brave.' I thought. (Brighton is not exactly liberal about subjects like anti-abortion, for all its 'anything goes' ethos).

I noticed several people standing around poised with leaflets at the ready and did my best to dodge them.

One slightly built well-dressed lady in her sixties collared me though.
'It's ok.' I smiled. 'I'm not a fan either,' smugly assuming this would let me off the hook.
Instead her eyes widened and she rounded on me. 'So what are you DOING about it?' she demanded.
'Erm. Nothing. It's none of my business what other women do.'
'Really?' Her eyes flashed at me. 'So if you lived next door to a young child and heard it being abused every night, you would do nothing, would you?'
'Of course not. That's hardly the same thing.' I replied, somewhat stunned.
'Life is life!' she replied emphatically. 'Thousands of babies are being murdered every day. Cut up in the womb alive, their body parts sold, and people like you are doing nothing. Most women don't even know what happens. They are not being given all the choices. The BPAS is supposed to advise them but it's really just an abortion clinic. So is the Marie Stopes'
'Look, bad stuff happens every day. I replied. We can't possibly campaign against all of it. It's just not possible. And ultimately it's none of my business what other women do with their bodies. I just know it wouldn't be right for me,'
'At least take these leaflets and read about what you are walking way from.' she insisted. I took the leaflets and she let me go.

I walked away marvelling at her tactics and whether she really believed they worked. It was tempting to be rude to her, but despite the steeliness of her resolve, I detected a mental fragility as well in her desperation to convert. I wondered what her back story was. Had she had an abortion and then regretted it? Had someone close to her? Had she been denied a grandchild? Had she been a doctor who performed abortions who switched sides or was she simply a staunch Christian?

I didn't read the leaflets but I didn't throw them away. Later on I recycled them in my local Library next to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service leaflets on abortion, by way of offering some balance.  Maybe she had a point. Adoption seems to have become a dirtier word than abortion these days, but it's nevertheless still an option, Perhaps its waning popularity has something to do with the  trend of modern women desperate for fertility treatment claiming they 'couldn't love a baby unless it was genetically mine'.
I really don't understand this at all.
My cat is not genetically mine, but I love him unreservedly!
Personally I have always thought it would be a good idea to have women desperate for a baby and women desperate to get rid of an unwanted baby share the same clinic waiting room and be kept at least an hour waiting for their appointments. A lot of human suffering, cost and heartache might be saved if they all got talking to one another and realised they were all human and all suffering though what they did and didn't want. It used to be commonplace for adoption within families for example where an unmarried woman who 'got into trouble' would hand the baby over to a married sister or aunt who would raise it as her own, but with the mother still in the child's life. Yes, there were forced adoptions as well, but those dark days are long gone. There is no shame in being an unmarried mother nowadays, and plenty of support available, in most cases.

Notwithstanding there actually IS a market in aborted baby parts for stem cells, skin grafts and everything else, so abortion is a worldwide racket, and arguably the biggest reason why pregnant women find it so hard to access independent advice.

Recently I read '40 Years of Murder', the autobiography of one of the forensic giants of the 20th century, Keith Simpson. In the 1950s, a badly decomposed body, dressed in the remnants of a summer dress was brought to his pathology lab. She was identified by the dress fabric and the necklace as the wife of a young BBC executive who had gone missing several months previously in the summer. It was hard at first to ascertain the cause of death, but Professor Simpson eventually found enough soft tissue in the womb area to detect a mass of salt water. Her womb had been perforated by an illegal abortionist. The Police interviewed her employer and it emerged she had had an affair with him, fallen pregnant and he had arranged a private abortion for her. She had died shortly after the procedure and her employer arranged with the abortionist to dump her body in a shallow grave in a nearby forest. Unusually both were brought to trial and were convicted of manslaughter.
While abortion will never be risk free, at least its legalision prevented many more horror stories of this nature.

I suppose the biggest thing which puzzles me about abortion is why we have so much of it in a country with free contraception available to all and no shortage of sex education in schools and on TV.  I could understand it more if we lived in a third world country or a country where contraception was prohibited for religious reasons.

Prevention will always be better than cure though, and in an overpopulated world, our government should start offering tax incentives to remain child-free or at least limit numbers through proper family planning. We also have plenty of kids languishing in children's homes and on the street desperate for families/couples who claim to love children to adopt or foster.

Is Prince Harry a victim of Coercive Control?

Prince Harry, one of the world's most eligible bachelors, is introduced to a stunning charismatic American actress with a megawatt smile. He is beguiled. They have things in common. They are both the products of broken marriages, they are both used to being in the spotlight, he as a Royal, she as a successful actress. Perhaps she won't be fazed by dating him as many girls are when they realise what is involved. Moreover he notices elements of his late mother, Princess Diana, in Meghan Markle - her ever photo-ready star quality, her stated desire to do good in the world, her troubled family background, her independent spirit and her sense of fun. Then there is Meghan's need (and hunger) for the limelight, also just like his mother, and much as this turned out to be a double-edged sword for Princess Diana.

Prince Harry has had relationships before, often for several years at a time, usually with horse-loving blonde home counties types. But never has a girl changed his personality before.
He has always remained (and emerged afterwards) as the same happy go lucky bloke with the cheeky ready smile, universally liked and popular with everyone who encounters him. Caring too and committed to patronisng many worthy charities in the memory and footsteps of his late mother.

This time things are different.

Reader, he married her.

At first everyone is delighted and charmed. Here is a genuine 'breath of fresh air' joining the Royal Family, American and mixed race to boot.  Stylishly dressed and made up on every occasion in modest yet figure flattering designer outfits, Meghan's joining 'The Firm' will surely bring the Royals into the modern age, if Prince William marrying Kate Middleton, another commoner, several years previously had not.

Meghan has a brief 'starter marriage' behind her, but she loves dogs and children and alarm bells were slow to ring, unless of course you count her rather unorthodox wedding where she called many of the shots on everything from choice of preacher to flower arrangements with the royal band excluded, notwithstanding her side of the chapel was decidedly empty, except for her mother Doria.
Her estranged father gave some embarrassing media interviews begging her to reconcile with him, joined eventually by her equally embarrassing elder step-sister, but this provoked public sympathy rather than otherwise as her relations were clearly 'on the make' looking to cash in on Meghan's new Royal status, unlike her mother, who remained quietly dignified.

All in all though, this marriage looks like it will be a major and internationally unifying union, a reboot to any stuffy notions about the Royal Family and a clear sign that it has learned from the tragic saga that was Princess Diana's life and is embracing new and more progressive times.
Trolls and cynics abide in manageable numbers at this point.

Fast forward 19 months since the wedding and Prince Harry;
1. No longer sees his former friends
2. Is no longer close to his brother William, who had always been his closest ally
3. Following an unprecedented seven week hiatus away from his birth family over the festive season and holed up with Meghan in Canada, he has come home to be rude to his beloved Grandma, the Queen - a move to separate him from his country? Tellingly baby Archie has been left behind in Canada - collateral in the face of any obstacles against stepping down from Royal duties...?
4. The latest is that Prince Harry has voiced fears for his 'mental health', which suggests a man torn - perhaps between two ultimatums: ie; 'It's me and the baby or your family. Which are you going to choose' v 'It's your family or your wife and baby. Which are you going to choose?' It may not be a decision to step back for him so much as an agonising dilemma with unbearable pressure and conflicts of love and loyalty on both sides. And of course his family is no ordinary family. Not as easy to turn his back on as, say, Meghan's father was for her.

Too fantastical to believe?

Well I am not the first to comment on the personality change in Prince Harry from easy going bloke up for a laugh and a joke to worried looking 'Prince of Woke.' He has changed everything from his style, attitude and habits to his diet, and all since he met Meghan. This is a classic sign of being in a coercive relationship. Coercive relationships work a bit like a cult. A predator targets someone they wish to manipulate, charms and convinces them that they are what they need/all they need/their soulmate and it's them against the world, plays on their weaknesses and exploits them. Their target can be highly intelligent but still possess emotional vulnerabilities (Harry lost his mother at a young age for example and will always feel that void). A predator will then begin to convince their target that friends and family are bad for them or don't have their best interests at heart like they do, just by sowing seeds of doubt in their minds or playing on a perceived fault or failing in a friend or loved one until it becomes a full blown estrangement or feud.

This behaviour is more common than people think, hence there are now laws against coercive control in the UK and it is classified as a form of abuse in a relationship. Coercive control doesn't always involve physical or emotional violence (or taking charge of a target's bank account and keeping them short of money) either, just manipulation and the victim slowing losing control of their life and sense of self and sanity as divide and rule takes effect. It can be perpetuated by either gender and either gender can be a victim.

Why?

Power.

In Meghan's case she has gained a real Prince along with a title, a baby and a world stage for any woke charitable foundation she cares to found. She is known the world over (which she wasn't as an actress) and has also gained a bevy of powerful celebrity friends including Michelle Obama, the Clooneys and the Beckhams, people she probably wouldn't have been best buds with otherwise. Moreover she has gained money and a share of the Duchy of Cornwall pie, just as her career in Suits was probably nearing its final season and her acting career about to wane. There is now talk of book deals, Netflix films and a whole host of projects being lined up on the back of her brief career as a Royal. Harry, as the potential victim, also has a subconscious trigger for playing along - here is the independent woman he loves breaking free from the Royals but attempting to keep her status, just as his beloved mother tried to a generation ago, only she was not allowed to emigrate with him and William as the direct heirs to the throne.

So what evidence is there?

Apart from obediently pulling the plug on her lifestyle website and personal social media accounts for the sake of Royal protocol when she got engaged, how hard has Meghan actually tried to be a Royal, knowing it was a complete lifestyle change, incompatible with being the strong independent feminist she claimed to be, and doubtless well briefed by Harry and others as to what she would be letting herself in for?

Has she even realised there is a difference between being a celebrity and being a Royal and that the two are mutually exclusive? Is she trying to create some kind of hybrid in MeghanMania ™ world? Just as there is a difference between environmentalism and conspicuous consumerism including private jets and mashed avocado and the two are mutually exclusive.

1. She stage managed her own Royal wedding and refused to let her father attend, rather turning it into a celebrity-laden gathering to showcase herself and her marriage and substituting her own choice of preacher, music and decorations. No Royal bride has ever exercised this level of control over a Royal wedding.
2.She arrogantly turned down a plush apartment at Kensington Palace insisting that Frogmore Cottage be refurbished to her taste at huge public expense.
3. Meghan retained her Manhattan PR agency throughout her courtship and marriage. Why? What possible use could she have for them in her new permanently changed life as a member of the British Royal Family?
4. She had the Sussex Royal website created a full 9 months before the announcement they wanted to step back from Royal duties and move to Canada.
5. She had various friends leak her 'struggles' within her new role, akin to Princess Diana's 'cries for help'.
6. She upstaged Princess Eugenie's wedding by announcing her pregnancy on the same day.
7. She upstaged Harry by appearing at a presentation he was hosting and making a cringe-worthy speech of her own, even though not scheduled to do so.
8. There was the extravagant jet-set baby 'shower' in New York bankrolled by the Clooneys
9. There was the strange pregnancy without end where everyone waited for weeks for an announcement and even the date and venue of birth kept changing (to the point there were suspicions of a surrogate).
10. Then baby Archie was hidden for weeks, cameras not even allowed at the Christening.
11. There was the embarrassing 'Not many people have asked if I'm ok' interview in the midst of their African tour, which seemed to be more about them and their first world problems than the deprivation all around them.
12.There was a free holiday at Elton John's gaff by private jet, after which Sir Elton infamously claimed to have offset the carbon used via a donation to an environmental charity (a claim that backfired).
13. She guest-edited Vogue with a feature 'Forces of Change' featuring many of her inspirational women friends without seeking Royal approval.
14. There was the 7 week break from Royal duties and spending Christmas with the Royals as tradition expects.
15. There is now the extraordinary announcement that they intend to 'step back' from Royal duties and emigrate to North America without prior agreement or negotiation with the Queen and on their terms - ie keeping Frogmore cottage and other Royal perks, despite claiming to wish to become financially independent.
16. Finally there was the telling comment from Prince Harry's own lips; 'What Meghan wants Meghan gets...'

I don't doubt the newspaper scrutiny has been an irritant and bane to the Sussexes, but they have not helped themselves with their strange self-entitled behaviour and refusal to play ball and throw some bones to the press in terms of the standard event pictures and interviews they would expect to participate in as Royals. And let's face it they have also failed to play ball and work with the Royal Family itself, despite being members of it! It is a bit like actors accepting roles for a long-running play but then refusing to follow the script. Harry knew the drill when it came to how to play the media, but has clearly been overruled by his wife. As for Meghan, she is no shrinking violet when she wants media attention. And she clearly does want to play a centre stage role in the world.  It just has to be on her terms.

One thing is for sure. Harry has not been wearing the pants in this relationship. Meghan has been the driver from day one and she definitely has an agenda, even if she has made some ill-judged moves and gaffes along the way, and Meghan is definitely at the heart of her own agenda.

It will be interesting to see how the Sussex story plays out from now on. I suspect the plans to break free from the Royal Family but still enjoy Royal perks will backfire for this couple somehow.  I thought Meghan would wait until at least baby no. 2 before making such a dramatic move, though I assumed it would be in the form of a marriage split rather than trying to disrupt the actual core structure of the Royal Family.
I also suspect she won't hold onto her current level of power and influence, over either Harry or the world. When all is said and done Meghan is no match for the Queen, whatever she tells herself.

Laura King © 2020