Chaplain responsible for Phill Jupitus joke: official

Twunt: Aword that gained parlance with the industrial tribunal of one Catherine Sanderson also known as petite anglaise.

Her boss read it on her blog and sacked her. The exact translation of the word 'twunt' was much debated at her tribunal which she eventually one. 

After much trying I did not actually get dooced, but it seems my downfall comes courtesy of old media and for me the question is not so much as to the exact translation of words but whether or not I am responsible for the utterances of one: Phill Jupitus. 

I would contend I have never been responsible for what Mr Jupitus has to say on any subject. Others dissagree....

Crossroads

Someone drew my attention to a blog post once, which was complaining that all the best blogging vicars end up on the dole.

The author listed what he considered to be the top blogging vicars and noted that none of them were any longer ministering. I was one of those on the list! Now my first reaction was to be flattered that someone felt I was one of the best blogging vicars and then slightly worried that apparently I had lost my job and had not noticed.

I am now however at a place where I need to make some choices. I'll tell you more if you want to know....(did you know you can comment on a blog?!?). It looks like I will be retiring in a few months....then I suppose I will be in God's hands.

Nothing is set in stone but this is looking like the most likely outcome.

I'm not self pitying or maudlin about this....I am at peace, and floating towards whatever the future holds.

From one of the children

"Well I hope you live long now, I pray the lord your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap"

 Elvis Costello, "Tramp the Dirt Down"

Today there is only one subject: Margaret Thatcher's legacy. To listen to the voice of her contemporaries such as Ken Clarke, you hear talk of a Britain in the 1970s in terminal decline, of a reform and rebirth that is still with us.

To talk to the young people with whom I work you can certainly find supporters of Cameron but very few Thatcherites. Of course for those aged considerably under 30 that is hardly surprising, she is not even a memory to those for whom Blair is the first Prime Minster, those who came to political maturity in 2010. 

At a funeral, I find it is often the children who have the final say on the deceased. We who grew up in the 1980s have always been 'Thatchers children'. More so those of us who grew up in the deepest south, who's parents voted for her in their overwhelming majority in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

My father bought his council house in Sussex in 1984 and told his children that is Kinnock won the next election we would end up living in the Soviet Union and the country would be ruined. Kinnock did not win and we prospered as a family. 

However I am struck that her traditional conservative side was so out of step with the cultural world I inhabited. Her frumpy dresses so far from the music my brother listened to - Culture Club, UB40, Spandal Ballet and Madness. Her mother-knows-best world view so far from the comedy I spent my youth enjoying - Ben Elton, Blackadder, Loadsamoney and the Comic Strip Presents.

As much as she was on the right side of history she was also on the wrong side of it. She helped to dispatch the cold war but she also unfailingly supported dictators like Saddam Hussein and Pinochet in the mistaken belief that the alternative was worse. The Arab Spring gave the lie to that.

That Mandella was a terrorist -she refused sanctions on Apartheid South Africa.

She bought in section 28 which was predicated on the mistaken homophobic view that a if a left wing gay teacher was in a school he was there to proslytise. I have no doubt that she would have hated gay marriage, I don't know what her view was on civil partnerships, but it was probably not affirming.

She also would not give and inch to the Sinn Féin or the IRA yet by talking to them we may have achieved a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

Though many of my parents' generation admired her and many of today's young people vote for her party. I do not know many of her children who would vote for her if she were leading the conservatives today.

Of course as I always note when preparing a funeral, the only problem of building the service around the memories of the children is that they only really knew one side of the person who has died. 

Annulus Piscatoris

Just a quick note to point something out.

Today the pope will have his ring broken. In fact by the time of writing it is probably already broken.

The ring in question is known as the Ring of the Fisherman. It is personal sign of office of the pope and is there to remind him of the fact that he occupies a job who's first holder was a fisherman.

It is solid gold.

A ring to remind the wearer of the humble origin of his church in the most valuable mental on earth.

Of course not all Popes have gone have been quite that humble. Pope Pius IX had a ring with a picture of himself on it. In diamonds. Proper bling that!



In case anyone thinks I'm getting at the Roman Catholic Church here, I should point out that my own church with it prelates who sit in the House of Lords and live in palaces suffers from exactly this problem.

We use the language of humility more often that we are humble after all one of the things that people are drawn to in  religion is its ceremonies and ancient powers. Jesus however was not a fan of religion and tried his best to beat it out of his followers. It did not take long to come back.

We need to notice this dichotomy at the heart of our contemporary faith  how the church founded on the powerlessness of the cross is now so tainted with the scandals of inappropriate exercise of power. We need to own this our greatest failure and where we cannot be all we should be, be honest about what we are not.




Also I really wanna see the College of Cardinals do the Harlem Shake.

Eastleigh LD

I had wondered for some time if in fact Chris Huhne was guilty, of course following on from the mess of a certain Tory Peer being wrongly accused of crimes by those on Twitter, no blogger now comments on active legal processes, but privately I wondered, mostly because his legal team seemed to want to have trial thrown out that seemed rather desperate in my opinion.

Also his ex-wife was going to plead marital coercion which suggests that her defense includes and admission that he was indeed driving the car, to argue against her might lay him open to the charge of perjury.  

But moving on to what we can all speculate the By-election. This is the first by-election in a Blue-yellow marginal this parliament, the rest have either been red-blue marginals or safe red.

The interesting question of what Labour voters will do. Traditionally the LDs have been able in the south to put the Labour squeeze on by telling their supporters that 'Labour can't win here'. This is true, but it is hard to argue that voting LibDem is the only way to oppose the Tories! They will have instead to argue to Labour voters that another Conservative strengthens that side of the coalition.

This election is far from easy from the Conservatives. UKIP may mount a challenge which could split their vote and the council is a virtual LibDem monopoly with only four seats going to the Blues. Councillors are you foot soldiers in a By-election and so that is going to hamper the Conservatives. They will therefore have to put out their brightest and their best. It could be Maria Hutchins their candidate at the last election, her website is down probably in readiness to put up an by-election version. That doesn't mean it will be her, it just means she is interested in the job. The LibDems may be tempted to go for a the local boy or girl someone who had worked the constituency for the local council like the chair Keith House. However I think this might be a mistake what they need is someone who has experience of opposition to the conservatives and a proven track record as a constituency MP. Someone who is a bigger hitter than a local cllr.

Am I the only one who thinks Sandra Gidley should be considered?

Almost probably. 

Still, at least wont get done for contempt of court for saying it.