Closed. The boat sank, the sharks won.

My kids love the film Horton Hears a Who. For them it’s a simple film about an elephant in the jungle trying to save the tiny people of Whoville, while being chased by other jungle creatures.

But there is a deeper message. 

Horton is the only creature with the imagination and vision to believe the microscopic (invisible) people of Whoville actually exist and he is convinced that "A person’s a person, no matter how small." He rescues them and tries to take them to a place of safety despite the ridicule of his fellow jungle creatures and he is persecuted and hounded into admitting that Whoville doesn’t exist, after all that is the only way he can return to jungle society. 

But he won’t. He stands firm, alone but firm and he is caged, imprisoned and isolated until he admits he is wrong - which we know he isn’t. 

When faced with annihilation the people of Whoville finally believe their Mayor that they are in danger and unite, raising their voices to scream into the wind, "WE ARE HERE!" Together they are just loud enough that the jungle children can hear them and they are saved in the end. 

Last week I was here, with Witchy and several thousand other women and we shouted many things but regardless of the words we used we screamed "WE ARE HERE!"

WE ARE HERE!

We are human.

WE ARE HERE!

We will be heard.

WE ARE HERE!

We are women, we exist, we are strong and we are LOUD!

WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!

I’d like to try something. Yesterday this blog had around 200 hits/visitors. I know some of those will be repeat visits and some will be bots, and some will be trolls. But to the rest of you I issue a challenge. We need to shout together and be heard. 

Go to your own blog and post up the words "WE ARE HERE!" and then comment here to say where it is, or link back. Then get your readers and friends to do the same. Just how far and how loud can we make this go? 

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

Sadly these are not my words, I just copied them.

All due credit should be offered to Philip Pullman

This was briefly an article by Philip Pullman in the Times, but it seems to have gone. I’d like to share it here, with full attribution to the author.

Eh?

One-Armed CBeebies Host ‘Scaring’ Children

Cerrie Burnell is a recent addition to the cbeebies channel, presenting the filler bits in between the programmes. She is so far from scary that I am just astounded at the comments I’ve seen around the internet - all anonymous of course, as is the way of the interweb!

"Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on Cbeebies (Cerrie Burnell) may scare the kids because of her disability?

I didn’t want to let my children watch the filler bits on the bedtime hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter’s mind and possibly caused sleep problems… and yes, this is a serious post." From one of the message boards - from an anonymous poster obviously far too scared of Cerrie to admit who he is!

Yes, Cerrie has a difference, I hesitate to call it a disability because although she is obviously different she seems to have no problems doing her job extremely well. My kids didn’t notice her difference for ages and even then they shrugged and took no notice. In fact their conversation ran a bit like: "Oh yes, you’re right, that’ll make doing (insert random task - I think they said ironing but it might have been washing up) a bit tricky." Reply from oldest - "Nah, she’ll just get her partner to do it." Not scary at all and clearly has no impact on her ability to present on cbeebies.

I’m a bit gobsmacked over the whole thing to be honest. This is a young woman making her way in the world and doing it well. She doesn’t deserve the vitriol that’s been aimed at her and makes her out to be some sort of disfigured monster. 

So, what is this scary deformity that Cerrie has?

She was born missing her lower right arm and hand. Really, it’s barely noticeable. There is no nasty scarring, it’s not disfiguring and in any case it’s NOT scaring kids unless the parents are making that happen.

So, who fancies rebalancing the complaints with some letters and emails of support?

BBC, PO Box 1922, Glasgow, G2 3WT.

They have a WebForm for email too.  Although it wasn’t easy to track down on their site.

Go for it, make some positive noise!

Thanks Witchy, I hadn’t spotted this, as I really don’t watch that much TV after the kids go to bed - well, Heroes, CSI, Bonekickers, the odd film, but not much.

Lads Mag, Nuts, has it’s very own TV channel and it’s FREE! It’s beamed directly into MY home and yours, free of charge. How about that?  

Nuts TV has all the character of it’s lads magazine and much more.

Uh huh. Like I really want a channel that promotes "Sexy photos and even sexier videos with our Nuts TV fitness foxes!" Bleurgh.

If you want to complain - about Nuts or any other channel, then email, phone or write to:

Email:               info@freeview.co.uk
Telephone:      08701 111 270
Write to:          Freeview, DTV Services Ltd, Broadcast Centre, (BC3 B6),
201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TP

I dunno how many communications they’d need to encrypt it or charge for it - make it part of top up TV? Just don’t have that thinly veiled porn accessible for anyone to watch. I don’t care if it’s only on late at night, I don;t care if it’s mostly (male) sport such as Cage fighting, football etc. I really don’t, I just don’t want it unless I ask for it.

It’s insidious isn’t it? They pipe this stuff into our homes and for almost a year we don’t even notice it’s there. Late at night when watching CSI reruns I’ve noticed an increase in ads for text sex and various other unpleasantness. I can’t filter the ads like I can on here, although I do have a mute button or an off button. So this stuff seeps in unwelcome, unannounced and it’s just there, we barely notice it so it lulls us into accepting it as normal for it to be there on our tv screen in our home. It’s invaded and we didn’t see it.

We didn’t read the No Swimming signs did we?

But why is this crap free when the History Channel isn’t? Why can I get free porn on my TV but no decent film channel? Just, why?