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.