Thank you, Graham. Lovely to be here.
Comment is about Sarah James (poet profile)
Original item by Sarah James
Liked this a lot Ian - reminds me of that last walk in the dusk on holiday - and it radiates a stillness and heat of itself. Good stuff
Comment is about A July Evening (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
well done Cate - great poem and worthy winner. Thanks for organising the competition so well Isobel :-)
Comment is about 52 Hertz Competition Results (blog)
Original item by Isobel
A worthy winner. Congratulations Cate. Well done for organising this Izz. Expect you had a whale of time doing it
Comment is about 52 Hertz Competition Results (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Hello Nigel,
Thank you for the comments on my poem "My Poetry". I have written a poem similar to this but a little risque, just a little. I may post it in the future.
Thanks,
Shirley
Comment is about Nigel Astell (poet profile)
Original item by Nigel Astell
Ian, this is a very lovely poem. Makes me want night to hurry. It's the only time of day I can relax outside. It's so very hot here.
Nice poem and nice read.
Shirley
Comment is about A July Evening (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
The terrors of Tring:
http://www.fotch.co.uk/
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thanks Alex, glad you enjoyed it :) Best wishes, Dave
Comment is about The Language Of Love (blog)
Original item by Dave Dunn
Thanks Alex, I appreciate your comments. :)
Comment is about Hell From Leather (blog)
Original item by Dave Dunn
As a contributor the the David Shepherd scheme to save the tiger, I am painfully aware how the habitats of so many of our fellow creatures are threatened by over-population abroad. If anyone asked me to fund contraception and provide a financial incentive for not decimating the environment, I'd be even happier. I am intrigued by any assertion - in this essentially techically demanding age - that wholesale immigration into these small islands is to be desired. Selective - brainy and/or financially well-off maybe; but when we have a million of our own young people out of work then something is amiss with our thinking on this subject and our own education system. As another old codger, I am still paying tax via my pension and anything I receive has been agreed by legal contract with my own government during my working life. I have paid up and I still continue to pay up - and contribute!
Comment is about QUESTION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
it's not proper rugby though, Is it John? :-)
Comment is about We Are Lion (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
None of what you have just said in any way justifies the position taken by you or MC. You are correct that the issues you mention are also factors in Stop & Search, but that does not make your conclusion correct.
The idea of...oh well then, lots of 'types' might be agrieved, does not in any way shape or form justify the treatment of black people on the grounds of Stop & Search - it just doesn't!
Like it or not you are trying to justify the unjust, defend the indefensible. What you are doing comes across as a racist smokescreen.
Black people do not commit 5 times the amount of crime that white people do - therefore they should not face 5 times the amount of stop & search.
Also why is it that black people are 28/30 times more likely to be stopped - under section 60 stops? Again do black people account for 28/30 times more crime than white people?
No they don't!!!
How on earth are we having this conversation - excuse the french, but it's fucking ridiculous!
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
I'm not sure it is helpful to think of ethnicity in isolation, in regard to these issues. Ethnicity intersects with other factors such as youth, maleness and socio-economic deprivation. I would imagine that the police stop and search far more males than females, for instance. Far more poor people than rich people. Far more young people than old people. As individuals, perhaps whole swathes of the population have the right to feel aggrieved.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/12/police-stop-and-search-black-people
Now please let me know how much crime is supposed to be committed by black people? Do black people commit 28 times more crime than white people?
Ludicrous!
Even if you go off the most tame of estimates...Screw it, let's take 5 times more likely to face stop and search.
Now can anyone explain how black people commit 5 times more crime than white people?
If they don't and - they clearly don't!!!!!
then your position is in the toilet.
Seriously have you any idea how truly idiotic it is to try and defend this situation. To defend this is either stupidity of the highest order, denial, racism; or a combination of all three.
What decade are we in - this conversation is a sick joke.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Congratulations Cate,
Well done!
Comment is about 52 Hertz Competition Results (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Cynth,
I`m desperate for any kind of street cred.
I anticipated the difficulty in reading the blasted thing. I`ve been thinking of changing it as below.
The idea is to give it a first and last line rhyme and - by the double spacing - to isolate the triple-rhymed centre of it (and maybe cause that to be read as a single mouth-full).
I`ll mull over it and if I change, it will be centred.
Thanks for the comment.
NOSTOS
(Odysseus yearns for Penelope across the wine dark sea)
Mighty Aphrodite hear my groan.
Suffer no moon, nor star, nor any sky light,
Only her eye light,
Under her brow beckoning bright,
Safe-harbour me home.
Comment is about (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Congratulations, Cate, and excellent job in the organising, Isobel.
I didn't offer any comment on my vote (for Cate, as it happens) but essentially I felt it was better by a country mile than anything the rest of us offered. You don't post anywhere near enough, Cate.
As for the booby prize? What can I say?
Thanks for the mammary.
Comment is about 52 Hertz Competition Results (blog)
Original item by Isobel
M.C.
As a vigorous and wholehearted contributer to the worlds population myself I have long been interested in the point you raise.
World population day nears and the good news is that the world population is set to peak.
Apparently (particularly in the developed countries) much of the increase has been due to us old farts living longer. We have no need to worry though, as the immigrants have come in to most of the richer countries to work and ensure that our pensions are properly funded.
Not to mention population replenishment (it is reported that half of the babies born last year in Britain were born to foreign-born mothers)
As an old codger myself, I too wish to keep all the goodies `in house` so to speak, but I am sure that the off-spring of the newcomers will eventually adopt our own contraceptive habits and grow old and sparsely childed like ourselves.
I appreciate that this may mean a continuing immigration stream (to fund the continuing `pension` needs and consumer numbers) but this is to be desired.
So, helping to keep up the numbers overseas will - in the long run - benefit us, and all the the other economically well-off nations.
So fear not folks, our foreign aid is well spent in providing future immigrants for our own needs - so keep giving!
Comment is about QUESTION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Fine. As long as you agree that he has something to complain about ... that's all I wanted to know. Blizzards of statistics, that can be used to prove what you like, I have less interest in. And who are these upper middle-class female pensioners in Tring, in which you seem to have developed an Betjemanesque interest? Let's have a poem about them. And here's a challenge. Keep the politics out of it.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Félicitations à tout le monde qui a participé !
Great subject and kudos to YOU, Isobel, for doing a fantastic job (as always) in running the comp! And it got me writing again! XXXXX
Comment is about 52 Hertz Competition Results (blog)
Original item by Isobel
As a law-abiding person, of course he has something to complain about. However, the London police must target appropriate demographics in order to be effective crime-stoppers. Stopping and searching upper-middle class female pensioners in Tring would not be an effective use of their time. The stats suggest that young black men are also much more likely to be VICTIMS of gun/knife crime, so turning a blind eye to it would not really be serving the black community. Unless we want to suggest that the lives of young black men are somehow less 'valuable' than other lives, that is - a dangerous position to defend, as I'm sure you know.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
So let's get this clear. What you're saying, John and MC, in a nutshell, is that Lemn Sissay has nothing to complain about?
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
I went to Wikipedia to check the claims of both sides in this fascinating debate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_Kingdom#England_and_Wales_crime_statistics
These are the official MPS crime figures for London in 2010, broken down by ethnic group:
In June 2010 The Sunday Telegraph, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained statistics on accusations of crime broken down by race from the Metropolitan Police Service.[n 2] The figures showed that the majority of males who were accused of violent (including those subsequently acquitted) in 2009–10 were black. Of the recorded 18,091 such accusations against males, 54 percent accused of street crimes were black; for robbery, 59 percent; and for gun crimes, 67 percent.[25]
Street crimes include muggings, assault with intent to rob, and snatching property. Black males accounted for 29 percent of the male victims of gun crime and 24 percent of the male victims of knife crime.[25] Similar statistics were recorded for females. On knife crime, 45 percent of suspected female perpetrators were black; for gun crime, 58 percent; and for robberies, 52 percent.[26]
Operation Trident was set up in March 1998 by the Metropolitan Police to investigate gun crime in London's black community after black-on-black shootings in Lambeth and Brent.[27]
Between April 2005 and January 2006, figures from the Metropolitan Police Service showed that black people accounted for 46 percent of car-crime arrests generated by automatic number plate recognition cameras.[28]
In London in 2006, 75% of the victims of gun crime and 79% of the suspects were "from the African/Caribbean community."[29]
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
I have already detailed the fact that stop & search statistic FAR outweigh the reality of crime statistics for this group - that is an end to it!!!
Black people do not commit between 5/ 30 times the amount of crime of white people.
And like I said your examples are anecdotal and meaningless. For every racist coming up with the tripe your coming up with, we could find hundreds of people with very differing experience. The facts/statistics are what is important not bogus/weird claims.
The MET was found to be institutionally racist by the inquirey. You can say whatever you want - I am once again simply stating the FACT of the matter and the reality!
Take your racist tripe somewhere else - you've clear got a disgusting attitude towards other people - simply on the basis of the colour of their skin. I have no respect for anything you have to say from this point on, you've lost my respect entirely.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Mon 8th Jul 2013 19:48
Thanks for reading I'm a right softy me, and leaving your comment.
Had to have a look at your samples, really liked Pablo Picasso,s aperitif , very rich, and flashback, will be reading more
Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
Sorry I've come late to this - life horrendously busy at moment. There is a formal winner - but as you say - I think we are all winners, in that we've all got together to makes something terrific - and we've managed to communicate our feelings to others - communication runs right through the 52 hertz theme - so for me that thought is special.
Will post the results later tonight - have dinner/tea and then a lot of taxying around to do for now...
Comment is about Message to Isobel (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
I thought Id commented on this Dave, but just checking through I see somehow I`ve missed it.
There is an honest rawness about this piece which is disturbing and hauntingly sad.
Cate xx
Comment is about 52 Hertz (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
Yo Isobel, thanks for your comment on my piece "The Last Song." And thanks for getting me writing again after a rather long dry period!!
Cate xx
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
Hi John, many thanks for your lovely comment on my piece "The Last Song."
I havn't actually written anything for a while, but got such a buzz out of trying out my old skills that I might just be forced to start writing again!!
Cate xx
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
Hi Yvonne, thanks for your comment on "The Last Song." I do love trying out different styles and skills, and its good when they come off!!
Cate xx
Comment is about Yvonne Brunton (poet profile)
Original item by Yvonne Brunton
Hi Francine, thanks for your comment on "The Last Song" Cate xx
Comment is about Francine (poet profile)
Original item by Francine
The theme for tonight is time - - - so if you have any to spare come down and join us.
Comment is about Write Out Loud at Stockport tonight (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Chris Co - when accusing someone of talking absolute nonsense, pause and be sure you have face to face reality, individual and collective, in your personal locker. The sheer number of crime suspects in reported crimes whose racial identity is IC3 (BLACK) might be a good place to start when considering police action in certain areas. I spent thirty years dealing with this on both "sides of the fence" and actually know something about attitudes, causes and their motives. I have faced - physically and mentally - that about which I speak and instead of so-called anecdotal examples (no names, no packdrill, pal!) I have the experience of daily reality to fall back on. I note that none of my assertions were individually challenged as to worth/truth...not surprising since they have a factual basis rather than the pious patronising lectures we often hear from those about whom my mother would say "butter wouldn't melt in their mouths".
MacPherson - a lawyer with all the street-wise experiences of the average member of his social origins, expressed views that matched them. I have heard the same sort of thing from others with similar detached views of what society is about. A pinch of salt and a bit of plain speaking that embraced much more was an opportunity he woefully missed in his Establishment haste to tar ALL the members of a great public service. I'm sure a mind that sees the Police Service as "institutionally racist" would undoubtedly be hesitant in accusing the legal profession of being "institutionally venal and corrupt". In short, collective generalisations should be avoided by those
who should know better despite the pressures on them
to dance to a desired tune.
Comment is about Lemn Sissay condemns police stop and search behaviour (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Wherever Mr Keane chooses to lead us, he's always stimulating company.
Comment is about The Roads: Heaton Moor Road (blog)
Original item by J F Keane
Alexandra! You are another one with whom I completely agree. Every poem, every word in it comes from the poet's heart and soul. So! Is it really possible to judge? They say that tastes differ. I also hate judging and when I vote it's not judging but giving preference to the poem I like most of all. Love you all! Regards and best wishes, Larisa
Comment is about Message to Isobel (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
How right you are, dear Cynthia!
Comment is about Message to Isobel (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
I'll get back to this. It needs time to absorb.
Comment is about Trees (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
steve mellor
Mon 8th Jul 2013 12:46
I thank you for the time to comment
'I should cocoa'
an old-fashioned phrase (upper class) which usually means 'absolutely no way'. I can imagine Terry Thomas using it.
what the derivation is though, I couldn't tell you
Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
You are honest about a real problem, and confront the animosity lurking in many breasts about the basic 'humanitarian' issue, population growth. Birth control in countries requiring so much financial assistance would be a productive step forward. When there is nothing else to do, the human animal copulates - and populates. The ancient idea that 'numbers rule' is still the operating force in many undeveloped minds of the 21st century. It is a real thorn of ideology that must certainly be addressed.
Comment is about QUESTION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Why do you need 'classical street-cred'?
This took several readings, but I finally lined up 'grant, suffer and safe-harbour' as the three active verbs of supplication. A full stop after 'bright' would have helped a lot. Was 'light' supposed to be repeated, according to some formula? What am I missing?
Comment is about (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Fab title. Great concept. It takes a clear mind to develop something so spare into truth so deep.
When you're posting, run your script right up to the top margin. Often the whole of a short poem will translate completely to the Blog List. That can be an advantage sometimes.
Comment is about Love's Circumference (blog)
Original item by Katy Megan
Shocking! -ly delightful for a hot summer's day.
Comment is about I'm a right softy me (blog)
Original item by Ste J Bee
The first part of this is so captivating. Your opening line is an excellent 'hook' to interest the reader. IMO, it then dissolves into 'cuteness'. I appreciate that the 'underworld' idea has been top-sided, and that is excellent, but now it needs some really powerful words to back up the concept. Get out your thesaurus, if poetry really intrigues you, because there is no shortcut for developing your diction skills. Writing poetry is work.
Comment is about Fiona Writes. (blog)
A joyous tribute, well executed. Written with love. Delightful. Lucky couple. XX
Comment is about A Toast To Craig And Hannah (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
You know your stuff, Dave! This is a great, hard-hitting, really effective poem, whether read or performed. And it rhymes, too! Maybe the most angry material has to.
Comment is about The jaw-dropping scale of theft by the rich (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
Love it! Lateral thinking and falling off the edge. XX
Comment is about Poetry Nitez (blog)
Original item by c byrne
Harry O'Neill
Tue 9th Jul 2013 23:14
Ian,
Nicely maintained piece of nostalgia.
I like the way that `traditionally` runs in the third line...and the chairs creaking like `age old men`
(I`m not sure I `get` the last line in stanza two)
Makes me want to go there though.
Comment is about The Westgate Run (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley