Virtual Methodist

In response to my little rant about the Guide promise last week, one friend, and former Guide leader suggested that the quote at the top of my blog sums it up... I was just about to change that quote, and now have, so for those who (like me) had forgotten it was there, is was "You become like what you worship." Tom Wright: "Simply Christian" It chimes well with something else I read today by Kate Muir, in the late Dennis Lennon's book "Fuelling the Fire" (which was also the source of the new quote at the head of the blog - good book, worth reading). I don't often reproduce huge chunks of text on this blog, but this struck a chord with me... It describes her experience in an Argos store... They have changed a bit since this was written, but I am sure anyone who has experienced the joys of shopping in such a store will know what she is saying: "I was there again last week, on another errand in the hellish glare of the store, its So...

There is a basic principle that underpins the theory of evolution by means of natural selection, and that is the survival of the fittest. The theory suggests that this is most potent at times of environmental stress such as an ice age or other global catastrophe. We are currently in the midst of an economic ice age, a global economic catastrophe. And nature, red in tooth and claw, will out. The big predators on the financial markets have been bringing down the slower moving beasts, be they banks or entire countries, while our esteemed political leaders seem to be applying evolutionary principles to their policies and exercise of power. The recently passed Welfare Reforms, allied with cost-cutting measures that disproportionately affect the poorer members of society, has produced a situation where people will be perfectly fine so long as they don't lose their jobs, get ill or grow old. It is, effectively survival of the financially fittest out there. Unless you make personal pro...

Sir Michael Darrington is retiring. Not heard of him? No. Neither had I. But apparently he is/was the MD of Greggs the Bakers, an outfit which, when I was a resident of Edinburgh, owned a few wee corner-shop bakers, but now seems to be taking over the world with its sausage rolls and cheese and bacon lattices. But anyway, I blog briefly on this because whilst I was making my lunch I briefly turned on Radio 4's You and Yours , a programme which generally causes me to turn off immediately, but this gentleman was speaking very cogently about the excesses of the capitalist system. Whilst describing himself as a capitalist (and watching the onwards and upwards march of Greggs he could be described as a capitalist par excellance) he has been described as denouncing the excesses of the capitalist system in the manner of an archbishop, particularly those aspects of it that have caused the banks to lend money to speculators who have bought up foodstuffs to hoard them, driving the price up. ...

Well this week the credit crunch caused some of the biggest beasts in banking to crack, with the result that the Republican administration of George Bush, champion of the free-market, was forced to intervene to nationalise AIG and prop up the US banking system. But although that caused stock markets across the world to bounce back to a certain extent, the problem hasn’t gone away… Many financial institutions are still at risk of collapse… Investments have a long way to go to regain their lost values. There will be political ramifications… both in the US Presidential campaign and perhaps even with regard to the leadership of Gordon Brown here… But ultimately the biggest losers are those at the bottom of the pile. Taxpayers who cannot afford the accountants who will help them avoid (if not evade) taxation, those whose mortgages have been foreclosed and employees who have been laid off without million dollar golden goodbyes. This has all led to a flurry of articles looking at who is to bl...

A few weeks ago I went to Old Trafford to watch the Scum (sorry, Manchester Utd) annihilate Middlesborough. The football played by Ronaldo, Tevez, Nani and Shrek etc was (and this is difficult for a Liverpool fan to admit) awesome, but the atmosphere around the so-called "Theatre of Dreams" was curiously flat. The banter for which British football crowds are rightly famous was muted, and there were only 3 chants of real note. The first related to Solskjaer, a player who has retired (maybe the Man. Utd fans are so slow-witted they haven't noticed that yet!). The second was an affectionate tribute Nemanja Vidic, their Serbian defender suggesting that being from Serbia he's likely to "f*****g murder ya!" The final one was directed at the small knot of Middlesborough fans in the corner of the ground below where I was sitting. In it the Man. Utd fans suggested that their opponents were from "the worst place in Britain." Now I wouldn't have expected...