CATCHING UP WITH THE LABOUR AUTUMN BUDGET 2024 PUBLISHED A WEEK AGO

 I have been steering clear of political blogposts since the electorate in the UK showed the door to the Tory Party in the July election this year. There was no surprise that at last the British voters realized that there was something rotten in the Party that had been misgoverning us. In my less analytical moments, I have been known to mutter that Donald Duck could have won that election if he had been standing as the leader of the Opposition Party. Instead it was Sir Keir Starmer who became the prime minister, the man who lied his way into winning the leadership election within the Labour Party by claiming he was a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's ten principles. In your dreams! One savage and toxic brand of neoliberal politicians who believe in prioritizing the market and the pursuit of profit has been replaced by another type of politician, less nasty but still in tow to capitalists who look down on those they exploit. The water companies are still safe in their privatized industry as they pump our sewerage into our rivers, knowing that this new government has refused to renationalize the water industry. Remember, this so-called Labour government has also declined to end the two-child benefit cap introduced by the Tories that means over a million children living in poverty - and they have actually ended the universal winter fuel allowance which will lead to some impoverished pensioners dying as they juggle choices between food and heat.  

Donald Duck - the inevitable PM?

I am a member of Transform, a new political party formed a year or two ago to challenge the Tory maladministration. This blogpost was triggered by the mailing I received today from them. Here it is:

Hi Rob,   Welcome to issue 14 of the Transform newsletter. This newsletter was written before the results from the American election started to come in. Like millions around the world, we await

MY 'MINE TO DIE' (2024) - REVIEWED IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER: 'THE ST IVES TIMES AND ECHO' BY ITS EDITOR, TONI CARVER

 I think most authors must be interested in the journey of their books after publication. I remember how calm I was when, a couple of years ago, I took the 600 surplus copies of my first book: The Road to Corbyn (2016) to the local recycling centre at St Erth for disposal in the skip. In my enthusiasm, I had ordered a print run of 1,000 copies. A big mistake. I have learnt the lesson. Actually that trip to the St Erth dump gifted me an encounter which was priceless. The guy employed to oversee the skip into which I was casting my books asked me what the book was about. He was in his late-thirties or early-forties, weather-beaten, a hard, tough physique. Not a man to cross. I explained. He paused. "Did you write this?" "Yes", I replied. He paused again. "Can I have a copy?" "Yes!" "Will you sign it?" "Yes!" - and then he explained that he was part of a Traveller community which was based in the Camborne area and on the three occasions that Jeremy Corbyn had come to Heartlands to speak in political rallies between 2016 and 2019, he and his family had been there to hear and applaud him - just as I had. We got on like a house on fire.

Published in May 2024

My latest book: Mine to Die had an initial print run of 200 copies. I have learned to be careful, although there may well be another print run of 100 ordered soon - see this recent blogpost here: Rob Donovan - Author: MINE TO DIE GETS CLOSE TO ANOTHER PRINT RUN  The latest event in the book's journey since publication in May adds further encouragement and increases the likelihood of making that

WHAT BRITAIN NEEDS

 I am on the mailing list of a number of worthwhile voices of sanity in our distressed and muddled polity. Before I left Facebook, I would have shared on that platform - now I can copy a mailing that strikes me as being particularly insightful and paste it as a blogpost. I hope this gets read widely:

Dear Rob,   Leading economists wrote to the Chancellor this week demanding a change of direction. Concerned that the government won’t invest enough in public services and infrastructure, the group of economists – including top civil servants and academics – wrote an open letter to Rachel Reeves in the Financial Times. They argue the government is prioritising reducing government borrowing – and

FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (11) - PART TWO: HUGH MCGREGOR ROSS 'THIRTY ESSAYS ON THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS'

 Hugh McGregor Ross has an American counter-part, Professor Stevan Davies; these two scholars have studied the Gospel of Thomas and each, in similar ways, has opened the eyes of readers to the spiritual wisdom of the sayings of Jesus as recorded by Thomas. Stevan Davies writes in 'The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained' (2002): 'The Gospel of Thomas presents a vision of all human beings as potential children of God within whom already, unbeknownst to them, the divine light is shining.' How wonderful it is that our founder, George Fox, arrived at the same conclusion through his mystical experiences leading to his truth-finding in1647: we are all children of the light. 

1647, in England and 1945, in Egypt, when the only surviving copy of the Gospel of Thomas emerged from the ground in an earthenware jar, are key years and places when humanity was blessed. 

The Light and the Truth - in the Sayings of Jesus recorded by Thomas these are to be found within us.

In the first part of this blogpost, I summarized some of the knowledge and ideas of Hugh McGregor Ross recorded in his 'Thirty Essays on the Gospel of Thomas' (1990). In this post, I share the rest of his wisdom.

• The Gospel of Thomas was branded as heretical by Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, in the early third century. Ross notes that the original meaning of the word 'heresy' was neither abusive nor complimentary - it means literally a choice, for example of principles. But Christians such as Paul in the first century and then Ignatius in the second century began to apply it to views they regarded as erroneous - not representing a proper understanding of Christian belief. They were intent on creating a church for everyone with a defined dogma of belief. Other religions offer a pathway to a deeper personal spirituality: the Jewish faith has Hasidism; Islam has Sufism; Hindus have the

MINE TO DIE GETS CLOSE TO ANOTHER PRINT RUN

 My original print run for Mine to Die was 200; it had been 300 for Dying to Know and that seemed excessive given the number of unsold copies. A pity because DTK is a good piece of writing with very important messages about our misgovernment during the pandemic, some interesting bits of autobiography, and great photographs. If you haven't got a copy yet for yourself or if you are looking for a present for someone else, please press this link for a way to purchase. So I limited MTD to 200 copies with the hope that maybe the fates would be kind and the book would sell well enough to warrant another print run. 

I am getting closer to fulfilling that hope as you will read below. First, though, here is an extract from an earlier blogpost I wrote in March this year, shortly after MTD's initial publication:

"I am circulating this blogpost around the forty or so people in my network. If any of you are interested in buying a copy of any of my Matador books, they are available from that publisher, or from me directly for a signed copy using my website or just email me, or from any bookshop. I avoid Amazon myself, if I can (I only get around £2.50 for each copy sold by them and their warehouse system is not good news for their workers). It would be much to my advantage if you referenced any of my Matador publications in conversation with friends and family, encouraging others to support a writer whose only ambition is to be read more widely." 

The rock drill the miners called 'The Widow Maker'. This image was taken by J.C. Burrows in 1904 and appears in MTD on p.30. The account of rock drilling developments is on pp.28-33.

If and when you have read Mine to Die, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review on the Matador and Waterstones website. There are nine good reviews of Dying to Know on the Matador website and three on the Waterstones webpage. It all helps. I do have two reviews for MTD on the Amazon UK Books site and they needed verified purchases - so only if you must!

Thank you all for any part you can play in this exciting adventure which isn't just about me; those young Cornish miners and their families from the 19th and 20th centuries with their tales of bravery, strength, and suffering are the core of my story. MTD is my

FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (10) - PART ONE: HUGH MCGREGOR ROSS (1990) 'THIRTY ESSAYS ON THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS'

 In 1987, Hugh McGregor Ross's work: The Gospel of Thomas, Newly presented to bring out the meaning, with Introductions, Paraphrases and Notes was published. It had been nine years in the making, during which time Ross, dissatisfied with the first English translation of this Gospel, had learnt the ancient Coptic language of the manuscript to gain a deeper understanding. These thirty essays on the Gospel of Thomas published in 1990 serve as a companion, three years in the writing, each one following an idea Ross felt compelled to tease out. I am in awe of this scholar who has made such an important contribution to Christian theology from a background of scientific and engineering excellence. This is a man who had joined a specialist computer company in the week of the very first commercial sale of a computer anywhere in the world - see this link here for my earlier blogpost on Hugh McGregor Ross, his scientific background, his achievements, and his Quaker faith centred on the teachings of Jesus. 

Some of the contents of the jar found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi

What follows is a summary of the key ideas in these essays:

• Where did the Gospel of Thomas come from? It was amongst a group of twelve volumes discovered in a jar in 1945 at a site near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, mid-way along the Nile. They were buried by the monks of a nearby monastery at a time of persecution. The Gospel begins with this statement: 

These are the hidden logia

 which the living Jesus spoke

 and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote.    

A logion is a saying, given by a master, that has both an outer and a deep inner meaning which provides great reward for one's life. The manuscript we have is the only known complete version - written very clearly in black ink on papyrus.

• In the early 4th century AD, Diocletian was unifying the rule of the Roman Empire and saw Christians and Jews as a threat so he persecuted these monotheists. Sections of the Christian

FRUITS OF THE MARZION QUAKER LIBRARY (9) - KATE THOMAS (2022) 'FALMOUTH AND THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE' AND THREE OTHER GEMS

 I discovered Kate Thomas's booklet on Monday this week in the course of labelling books on the shelves of our library. The full title is 'Collective Amnesia: Falmouth and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' and somehow this booklet and its subject matter had remained unknown to me. 

I shall make contact with Falmouth Quakers and seek more information and understanding about the campaign to raise awareness of the evident racism . One way forward is to move from prominence the wall monument to a slave trader in the Anglican church in Falmouth, adding detail beside it that reveals the truth about Thomas Corker's role in the slave trade. Online, I have found that the latest reference to such a campaign is in 2022; the Church of England hierarchy and bureaucracy, whilst in agreement that action needs to be taken, seem to be stalling further