Tuesday

Obama’s COP26 Speech and the best bottom up response I know

Reflecting on Obama’s Speech to COP26 I got a strong sense of how little change is going to be created by #TopDownApproaches to the #ClimateCrisis and how crucial it might be to recruit eg from @XRBuddhists and the #ExtinctionRebellion group with which I have a standing order (@XRHSL), mobile (#Nomadic) teams of #CommunityDevelopmentWorkers, acting as #CommunityBees delivering what #BorisJohnson promised in his most #ChurchillianMoment (#10thMay2020); the #MoreGenerousMoreSharing version of #GlobalBritain. It involves house to house #BuddhistDoorKnocking skills (trained by #TriratnaJayaraja?) to cross-fertilise the “Sharing and Caring” experience and create the paradigm shift encapsulated by #MikiKashtan as that from #SeparationControlScarcity to #ConnectionFlowAbundance. 
Sign up with whatever “down payment” fits your commitment at https://PayPal.me/RefugeTreeWoods - suggested donation £1.08 for the money poor and £108 for the money rich. #2066Timebanking donations of 10mins+ welcome from those #MoneyPoorTimeRich.

My Last Ten Years

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1fVr2whpJ3Vc7imYTHPCiFA_Gzws2oNyD

What’s the opposite of an #AnnusHorriblis?; such was the (academic) year 2010-2011; the last time I’ve lived in a #RightLivelihoodTeam. I’ve spent 10 years since trying to recreate such a team, albeit applied to #ProgressiveEconomics embodying the #MoreGenerousMoreSharing ideal of a #TownSharingConsortium such as #StLeonardsSharingConsortium, which I founded in 2011 with three companies (of which I am a director!), with a #StLeonardsOnSea local cafe/nightspot and with the (#Mediation/#MarshallRosenberg inspired) charity “The Centre for Peaceful Solutions”.

#AspiringDrAmbedkarsOfStLeonardsOnSea (#ADAOSLOS for short) has subsequently become the title for the team of workers from the #TriratnaBuddhistCommunity that I’d hoped to attract*. Attempts between 2011-2014 failed in recruiting a team of “Community Bees” going house to house to cross-fertilise the “Sharing and Caring” experience and create the paradigm shift encapsulated by #MikiKashtan as that from #SeparationControlScarcity to #ConnectionFlowAbundance. From 2015 in moving back to Canterbury, my life refocused on providing Dad with an increasing level of care culminating in over 5 months of #DadAndSonIsolation that began on #19thMarch2020. Dad passed away on 30th August 2020 at home with me.

Thanks to a “Timely Inheritance”, in the years 2014-2020 I was fortunate to be able to become custodian too of what I named #RefugeTreeWoods, the main branch of which is in the #WildWestOfWales; the other by the #PeakDistrict, near #Sheffield. Here there are working retreat opportunities as “we” do the groundwork for the #FestivalOfTheNewSociety2066; a focus for my life’s work of hopefully assisting the #EvolutionOrExtinction & #SpiritualCommunity teachings of #UrgyenSangharakshita so that they flourish beyond the centenary of the 1967 foundation of this #NewBuddhistMovement by seeding further #RightLivelihoodProjects including bands of nomadic** #CommunityDevelopmentWorkers, living much of the year on land projects inspired by #Buddhafield.

Reasserting the importance of #StandingForGenerosity in a place I love, I once again tried to kickstart the possibilities of a #HastingsAndRyeConstituency #TeamBasedRightLivelihood (#TBRL) by standing in the 2019 General Election as #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate, which was, in the phrase beloved of the comic history book #1066AndAllThat “A Good Thing” #IMHO, but has not produced the “golden egg” of a team to carry the #AdoptANeighbour (etc) work deeper into the community, as I would have hoped.

I’m waking up to my experience of 10years as a #FreeRangeBuddhist who has been unsuccessful in asking for ordination in the  #TriratnaBuddhistOrder. My failure in closening friendships and forming teams living the #RightLivelihood dream has taken it’s toll on my resilience & health and so in November 2021 I have felt it necessary to reassess and step back from my ambitions in relation to forming such a team which I’d also hoped an unfolding of various #PaulCroslandDraftAuthor publications would strongly #InfluenceAndSupport. The timetable even for bringing out Book2: “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory; #108Quests towards #KinderPolitics & #DeeperAccountability” before the (presumed) #GeneralElection2023 I’ve now “officially” announced as “dropped”. Letting go of that which with which I identify myself so closely I am however finding to be “a difficult thing”***: http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2021/11/former-footer.html


*http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/p/triratna.html

**Mediation Support Ltd, which owns #RefugeTreeWoods,#WildWestOfWales & for which I work full time, offers such nomads(& their descendants) 28days accommodation a year for a cost of just 108hrs work (or £758 as the cash way to own 108th of the company). It is envisaged that #OrganisedHippies with Buddhafield connections can, on a similar basis offer year round bases for Nomads for much less than the cost of a Van conversion- eg £10,000 -saving you a lifetime’s rent.


*^*#PaulCroslandPlaylist: Paul Crosland Funeral Service Playlist


Sunday

Former Footer


Had you emailed me (at first name dot surname @gmail.com) recently, the following (long-winded?) plea for a 1st follower(see TED talk above)in developing “the Festival of The New Society 2066” is what you would have got by way of autoreply:
*********
In politics trust the voice that does most to get their opponents heard.
********* 
As Head of Restorative Justice for the UK-wide charity for community mediation I produced (back in 2003) a revolutionary book of cases of people getting beyond “Righteous Anger” etc; now a free pdf-or word document- here: 

My main occupation is “Paul Crosland Draft Author”; the current plan has me finishing writing a book a year such that in 8 out of the 12 years leading to my 67th birthday, (when not “Living The Dream” that for me would be to lead a “Buddhist Right Livelihood Team” instituting a “Town Sharing Consortium” & “MutualCare Agency”) the  gestating books listed below will be born. If any of them interest you, a request FROM YOU for a Zoom call discussing the points of mutual interest is likely to be well received:

1.  ”The Myth of the Heartless Tory; 108 Quests towards Kinder Politics & Deeper Accountability” 
-arising from being the most successful Independent Parliamentary Candidate (GE2019) in the history of the Hastings & Rye Constituency*.

2. Invest in 2066 Country; 108 Quests towards the “Festival of ‘The New Society’ 2066” 
(-outlining Small PositiveGroup Economic Power in which perhaps 1 in 10 people sets up a currency like “2066 Timebanking Hours”)

3. Level Up Our Life; 108 Quests (with Merlin’s mates) towards the Mind-Creative Integration of Classicalist-Hippy-Punk energies in each(?) of us.

4. 108 attempts towards cross-fertilising & future-proofing Spiritual Community (Voices sought from within Quakerism, Triratna Buddhism & the “Nonviolent Communication Movement”)

5.  ”Dad post Dad” -ideally written with my sister and Maria Arpa MBE, founder of “The Centre for Peaceful Solutions”.

6.  ”Judas Was Paid; the spiritual roots of 6 Whip-Free Accountable Mavericks in Parliament”

7.  ”The third 22 years instalment of the ‘22-44-66-88 Not Out (!)’ #PaulCroslandAutobiography”

8. “(FreeRange) Buddhist Politics; how Spiritual Communities (can) contribute to a kinder, more accountable politics” (perhaps drawing the books 1,2,3 & 6 into a PhD thesis).

To get “Beyond Polarisation In Politics” I suggest we need:
Goodwill & Co-operation; 
text me if you are low on either.
-or simply top-up via playlist on

Please subscribe/follow (then lead me!) via:
1) https://facebook.com/paulbasicincomecrosland
2) https://Twitter.com/paulcrosland
3) https://YouTube.com/PaulCroslandRefugeTreeWoods

Main blog:
https://additionalinfo.blogspot.com 
(AKA http://2066.uk)

The Most Valued Talks of the #PandemicEra are shared here onwards: https://twitter.com/paulcrosland/status/1443745617981943808?s=21

Please submit questions for 
“#KinderPoliticsQuestionTime** with #TonyAndPaul”; all episodes are added to this playlist of dialogues with “Hastings & Rye Constituency” constituents:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM4IagQQExoygUHKDyT3nDdPY-VCsKvFL

For a wider selection of news stories feeding the KinderPoliticsQuestionTime”: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM4IagQQExoyem5msqmJ-9DK8AmcOLlSw

****************
P.S.
PDF is the world’s third largest growing religion; if you find this hard to believe, just type into a search engine “convert to...”

Saturday

Extinction Rebellion Hastings And St Leonards (XRHSL) update

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1CALBqUFEDdd2I5BjsYTXM6CYidrbcON9
This week Hastings Borough Council made available their report on the progress of their Climate Emergency Action Plan 2020/21 to 2021/22. At best these are well intentioned aspirations at worst they are just more ‘blah’, ‘blah’, ‘blah’. 

They claim to be “putting climate change at the heart of decision making” but are they really?


Time is running very short. We know that the systems of local government makes the task of an appropriate response very hard, and that it might even feel impossible. But when there is a will there’s a way- so we demand to see that will in action. We demand our leaders and representatives rise to this emergency with the level of bravery it calls for. There is no choice. There is no Planet B ...


So we will be taking action on Wednesday 13th October …

 

Please join us between 12 noon – 5.00pm for our Crisis Talks table outside Muriel Matters House, Hastings (next to roundabout at Pelham Place) to raise public awareness, and put our concerns to council representatives going in and out of the building. 


HBC want to “develop an engagement and communication plan, which supports and encourages local organisations, businesses and communities to act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”


Please come and answer their call: tell the council what you want them to do!


At 5.30pm we will be performing a die-in on the pavement outside Muriel Matters House. Councillors will be invited to join us or to witness the powerful moment of contemplation created by mass action reflecting the fears and frustration of their local constituents. If you can join for no other part then please join for this.


We will finish at 5.45pm with the full council meeting starting at 6pm. None of these events will be unlawful in any way. 


Further actions designed to hold our representatives to account will follow, and everyone is welcome to join us. As always, ExtinctionRebellion(XR) acts in peace.”
#KinderPoliticsQTpodcast now available too


Friday

Another MythOfTheHeartlessTory opening

July 2021 version of the opening of the book, now subtitled “Breaking The Mould Off UK Politics & Caring (as if) On A Living Planet”:

“Everyone has a heart, everyone cares for someone; perhaps starting with them self. Imagine caring for all life on this planet; how might we begin?

Having put the above question on Twittersoon I attempted my three-bullet-point answer, such as that answer was then.

1) #LivingPlanetPolitics @ceisenstein?; 
2) #GrassrootsManifestoes @GManifestoes?;
3) #ConvergentFacilitation @mikikashtan?

In the writing of this book I hope that my three points will be further developed, and, with the help you provide simply by my imagining you and “your precious”, hopefully out-grown.

Can you think of a politician behaving in such a way that you are alienated from them and whatever it is they were caring about when they said/did x? The primary UK example I can think of is the Prime Minister saying “Let the bodies pile high”. This wasn’t Winston Churchill, facing the consequences of his World War Two decision to sink the French navy to the extent that he could, in order to prevent it falling into Nazi hands, and at the reported cost of y lives. It was Boris Johnson. Have you spoken to anyone yet in such a way that what Boris cares about - a healthy economy, thereby saving even more lives, and, in parallel, his premiership- is even recognised or perhaps (dare I suggest it as a contemporary of his at the Oxford Union in the mid-80s and always sceptical of his being #BestPrimeMinister) honoured?

And at a more local area too, what politician said/did z, such that you are alienated from them and whatever it is they were expressing their caring about when they said/did z?
Perhaps your MP has received death threats arising not just from doing/saying z, but the dehumanising effect of the collective reaction to z may well have built the tension towards the death threat, as I suggest it did in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency with Sally-Ann Hart, after an “unkind representation” of what said about Disability and the Minimum Wage (whilst sitting next to me at #HastingsHustings) broke through to the national media & currently still dominates the online profile of the MP elected 12th December 2019…..”



Even today I find myself in despair on (compelling?) Twitter. I saw a tweet that was a response to “demonising” and, to me, that tweet appears equally “demonising”. I can only see such things askance, for, as in the Bible, I do, of course, seek to remove others’ motes whilst having a “plank in my eye”. 

Seeing on Twitter much of behaviour that reminds me how much I care about a world that gets beyond demonisation, I draw strength from this #YouTubeFilmlet:

& progress, hopefully more creatively than reactively, by replying:

“I’m keen @PaulCanOnlyGet1 to #RolePlay “people who think it's acceptable to drown entire families just because they want to join friends & relatives and make a positive contribution to a country that desperately needs them” I suggest a #WeZoomedAcrossDifference zoom call. Tues?”

I’ll post any Zoom dialogue between me and this other Paul on https://youtube.com/c/PaulCroslandRefugeTreeWoods; please subscribe!

*************************************
April version of the opening of the “Myth Of The Heartless Tory” book:

Standing for election can be a traumatic experience, accompanied by denial of the trauma. It has taken 18 months before I have seen my actions as others perhaps saw them earlier. Though my critics expressed their opinion less classically, perhaps I was akin to Icarus, flying too near the sun? 

Almost 18 months ago now, Hastings Independent Press published what I call "A Tale of Two Independent Candidates": 
“Amber Rudd’s majority over Labour candidate Peter Chowney at the 2017 general election was just 346. The three other candidates, Nick Perry of the Liberal Democrats, Michael Sheridan of UKIP and independent Nicholas Wilson all lost their deposits. 

The Lib Dems as unrepentant Remainers and UKIP as belligerent No Dealers had clearly differentiated programmes from both main parties in that election. Mr Wilson, however, was a paid-up member of the Labour party. He said he had joined it “to vote for Jeremy Corbyn” but was standing separately on an “anti-corruption” ticket. As he polled 412 votes, and Cllr Chowney lost by a lesser margin, it is hardly surprising that Labour held him substantially responsible for their shortfall. 

Could history repeat itself two years on? For here comes another independent candidate, Paul Crosland, on the 2019 ballot – not, as far as is known, a recalcitrant Labour member, but one who is espousing radical causes that seem likely to attract more fringe Labour voters than Conservatives.” 
So, in what kind of politics can an independent candidate polling just 412 votes be held "substantially responsible" for a) the shortfall of 346 votes & b) for their party not getting the victor's 25,668 votes? IMHO an unfair, blaming (rather than responsibility-taking) kind of politics.

I chose to stand in 2019 in a “marginal seat” where I knew the back-story that includes this assumption by the "Independent"(left-wing!) local press that the 412 votes of my predecessor as the independent candidate were in some sense rightfully Labour's! Thus Nicholas Wilson (known as “Mr Ethical”) was scapegoated for the "Labour Party trauma" of Amber Rudd winning by 346 votes and I found myself threatened, in a surprisingly upsetting way, for the decision I took to be #StandingForGenerosity

Amongst other things, I contest both the assumptions about where Nicholas Wilson’s votes came from and where my 565 votes cast in 2019 came from. I suggest that neither are minor, parochial issues, but signifiers of a number of overdue changes needed in UK Politics for democracy to survive/flourish.

In standing as I did in 2019 I can simultaneously show the influence I had as an Independent Candidate in shifting the policy and publications of Hastings Labour Party. In other marginal constituencies other local branches of major political parties can be significantly shifted by the actions of Independent Candidates. My findings, dialogues and reflections amount to an informed proposal of a new kind of politics in a democratically deficient UK. Within this vision I have realised through standing and reflecting long and hard on the shortfalls of the vision I formerly presented that regime change is not necessary to make most of the difference.

Though I moved out of #HastingsAndRyeConstituency on the day of the General Election result -under a number of pressures, personal and political, I was not, like the independent candidate in this constituency before me, castigated for losing Labour an election. 

Nonetheless I was assumed by some to have capitulated with the Tories. That accusation is worthy IMHO of unpacking if we are to hold dear in this country anything other than polarising/reactive (rather than creative) politics which, IMHO, doesn't get the best out of anyone. Does standing up for something other than a #HowlingHustings make one an ally of one party and an enemy of another?

Though I value my two decades engaged in mediation work in settings as varied as prison and 10 Downing St, I’m no saint. I’m certainly not (yet) free of the antithesis of the #KinderPolitics for which I stand. I evidence my own #UnkinderPolitics in writing epitaphs for Teresa May and Nigel Farage; the former PM who upset some wheat and didn’t have a viable way of enacting Brexit, the latter an unelectable individual (under first past the post politics) from whom the lessons of his massive impact on UK politics have not yet been learned. 

In the forthcoming book, "The #Myth Of The Heartless Tory", with input from #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay & #ChrisGidlowAuthorAndHistorian, I wish to explore with you: 
  1. How #KinderPolitics might produce #DeeperAccountability & more #InfluenceNotControl 
  2. How Independent Candidates, without needing to be elected, may become the mediators and influencers of seismic "Welfare Initiatives" way beyond the extension of free school meals during the Covid19 crisis. (I picture the creation of a new political consensus (like after WW2) to the extent that any political party seeking substantial numbers of MPs being elected could only achieve their electoral goal if they supported at least an experimental trial in the area of  "UniversalBasicIncome" or lowering the pension age (#PensionsAt30?) as a step towards the “BasicIncome culture-shift”.)
  3. a #DeeperLegitimacyParliament and route towards #ConvergentPolitics without compromising "A Democracy of Met Needs".

Wednesday

10point GrassrootsManifesto to help establish Convergent Constituency Manifesto

NB For Inspiration before you share your 4-10 point manifesto here (or on twitter, reminders of the labelling used below on Twitter.com/gmanifestoes) see #ChrisGidlowAuthorAndHistorian’s #HastingsCitizenManifesto at https://youtu.be/Bb-N70EgiX4 

Now mine, July 2021
#GrassrootsManifesto  @paulcrosland, #CanterburyConstituency:

1) #PensionsAt30 funded by #LandValueTax of 3%pa -a step towards #UBI; 

2)#DeeperLegitimacyParliament ie #50percentToElectAnMP ;

3)#ReclaimTheLampposts;

4)#NukeFree;

5)#PeerMediation training in #schools;

6) #NoBlameNoPain culture promotion (#PaulCroslandCultureSecretary?);

7)#NonMonetaryEconomy promotion (esp #Timebanking/#2066Timebanking/@freelender #MoreGenerousMoreSharing (#InvestIn2066Country);

8)#GrassrootsEnvironmentalism;

9)#AdoptANeighbour #SocialCare overhaul;

10)#350millionpounds/wk to #NHS -including a rebalancing of #BigPharma’s influence with that of #ComplementaryMedicine & #CloserToNature lifestyle #EcoTherapy *:

Four Quotes relevant to my “Myth of The Heartless Tory” writing

I offer 4 quotes below, which don’t amount to a summary of the (difficult to complete) "Myth of The Heartless Tory" (forthcoming book; perhaps 2022):

A) "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

B) The popular myth is that #WinstonChurchill said:

 "If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain."

C) 

 "An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”"

D) 

"There's something wrong with democracy when we aren't in healthy communication between:

1) the collectivist

2) the individualist

3) our sense of a #3rdOrderOfConsciousness with a #TouchOf the Transcendental.

My advice is to find friends who embody the three key energies that we might progress with integrating these energies more deeply in the heart of each of us: 

A) The “Creative Hippy” -distinct from the “Reactive (& pleasure-seeking, bohemian) Hippy”

B) the #CreativeClassicalist 

C) the #CreativePunk

The creative tension between these energies has been developed in talks over a number of decades on “Free Buddhist Audio”*; based on the 1990s observations of Reginald Ray, of the history of Buddhism in South East Asia & the respective roles of:

a) the lay (which I equate with Hippy)

b) the #settledmonastic (Classicalist)

c) the #ForestRenunciant" (CreativePunk)

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1A3VfU8zC6uVG_FzUnxaULOShLt6s1tTR

(#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate)

*I particularly recommend the way that Vajragupta has carried forward the themes, eg around integrating our idealism with our experience without falling into (the trap of) doubt, especially from 40 minutes into the 2010 talk: Being Radical - 40 Years of The New Society & his 2021 talks on #BuddhismAndPolitics

Thursday

Letter to Make Votes Matter

http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hot-topics/campaigns/petition-launched-against-priti-patels-first-past-the-post-plan
states:

“The proposals, which were announced during the last session of Parliament in March, would make it easier for unpopular and highly divisive candidates to get into city and town halls on low levels of voter support, the reform movement says.”


Dear Co-ordinator of 20th May 2021 Hastings Meeting 

Please recognise (& read to the meeting, to which I send my apologies) that Proportional Representation is the only way that a divisive candidate called Nigel Farage became a parliamentarian; #FPTP stopped this happening in UK Parliament, Farage was an MEP. 2ndly PR excludes independent candidates who can advance policies (eg #UBI) that the two main parties shun. I stand for #50percentToElectAnMP and look forward to constructive engagement with how this builds a #DeeperLegitimacyParliament etc


Yours faithfully 

Paul Crosland

Independent Candidate, Hastings & Rye Constituency 

Sunday

How a Spiritual Community can release it's wealth for India, for example

My proposal within a Buddhist Movement with lots of real estate is that: 1) People sell as much equity in their homes as they can afford without risking losing their ability to live ..[insert adjective depending on where you are on the householder-hermit spectrum]; 2) These people, whether or not they've raised extra money from their real estate, buy shares in the Retreat Centres and Buddhist Centres owned across the Western World (worth hundreds of millions) 3) The Buddhist Centres retain 51% control and use 25% of the 49% of their capital value raised to address the concerns of our larger Buddhist brotherhood & sisterhood in India; which might be a Vaccination programme for the entire nation, blind to religion and caste.



Monday

"Have Working Class Labour Voters gone Tory forever?", asks The Telegraph

"Have Working Class Labour Voters gone Tory forever?", asks The Telegraph and a rich reply is due in "The Myth Of The Heartless Tory" book by #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate, informed by dialogue with #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay and others....

Most Mondays what do you do? I find that I have a fresh start to the book I'm writing about modern politics, culture...

Posted by Paul Crosland, Independent Candidate on Monday, 10 May 2021

Saturday

In response to Green Shaming

In Ore Ward, for Hastings Borough Council Elections, 6th May 2021, my long-time acquaintance, Gary Rolfe, Green Party gained 205 votes. 

Seeing the #GreenPartyShaming going on on Facebook (with a Tory elected in a most-“deprived” ward) I wrote:

As a #GreenPartymember who stood as #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency, somehow gaining the highest #IndependentVote in the history of the constituency, I found the experience an eye opener as regards the distance to be travelled to get from #UnkindPolitics  to #RespectfulPolitics, by which we gain #DeeperAccountability rather than end up with #HowlingHustings. The experience has led me to write the forthcoming #MythOfTheHeartlessTory; I’m confident that I’m not the only Green who sees as much threat to humanity from Labour as the Tories; here’s the only blog I found of the #5thDecember2019 #HastingsHustings that brought the town into such direspute: https://going-postal.com/2019/12/the-howling-at-the-hustings-in-hastings/


Thursday

Was there a serious #OustBoris #ToryPlot before SuperThursday?

Have I misread a conspiracy ie #ToryCoup to #OustBoris? Was the appearance of a #MaxHastings master-move actually just Radio4’s World At One digging up an old enemy of Boris or did Max Hastings make the move to get his message of a clear & profitable route out of 10 Downing St & on to the uplands of #BorisJohnsonPublicEntertainer? In the #MythOfTheHeartlessTory I’ll be comparing the fortnight before the local elections as a period of blood-letting akin to the two months between #Pussygate in early autumn 2016 & the 20point recovery in opinion polls that Trump support needed to regroup after that setback. The main bloodletting “victim” is #CarrieAntoinette, whom TheSpectator has been IMHO effective in HoldingToAccount. Should she be seen to continue to seek to set Boris’s agenda and he act disproportionately according to her will/taste, the #OustBoris #ToryCoup will still rally & rally stronger. No one placed a bet at the #10 to 1 odds I offered. I repeat my offer at 5to1 that Boris will not be leading the Tories come the next election; up to £100 of bets (ie 20 x £1 bets) being taken. 


Saturday

The only poll that matters

#PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate on #ToryCoup to #OustBoris (complete with Facebook Response) 

The idea that “The only poll that matters is the General Election” needs serious reconsideration in relation to the unfolding #ToryCoup to #OustBoris..:

Not so; #BorisIsMortallyWounded & is unlikely to see out his elected term of office, unless the #ToryCoup to #OustBoris is foiled by #RishiSunak refusing dialogue. Elementary mistake to think that Starmer’s polling is what counts more than RishiSunak’s, which is, of course, being done in secret. I offered generous odds on #BorisJohnson being out of office soon; that Facebook Advert/Boosted Post is doing the rounds of the #SouthEastCoast this weekend?: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1g0UPaZGGfwsnuszkNWfKeNShbcNPeycP

“The mistake the #lefties are making is to presume that #BorisJohnson is invulnerable until the unlikely day that #KierStarmer is more popular; actually, as with #MargaretThatcher the question is whether there’s a Tory who better protects the integrity of the “Conservative Brand”. The interview on #WorldAtOne during the week of Boris’s former boss, former head of the Telegraph, #MaxHastings, was painting the picture of Boris leaving #10DowningStreet to have an easier life (& richer one) as #BorisJohnsonPublicEntertainer. Even the #DailyMail put the knife into Boris twice this week, with front-page headlines about #BodiesPiledHigh-#gate and (my favourite headline since #FreddieStarrAteMyHamster; #BorisPaintedIntoACorner. Now it’s #CurtainsForBoris”
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1nFQmG1GIsJvZTSDi0ksOX05AefAqyiok


Friday

What is the “Refuge Tree Woods YouTube channel” about?

An unexamined life is not worth living" they say. I also hold myself to account in public for how I am living it; me "The Imperfect Idealist". I share what delights, what troubles, the joy of friendship and the quest for reliable meaning in life.Whenever I manage to get-up again, after phases of my #bipolarwarriorcycle that are conventionally called depression, I will be again #standingforgenerosity and hopefully learn with you here as we(?) fall down time and again in building #CommunityCohesion, #ConvergentPolitics & a “Democracy of Met Needs”.

As the #GE2019 #PaulCroslandIndependentCandidate I’m seeking to establish a tradition of #HastingsIndependents keeping their deposits (ie 5% of the vote) in general elections. I offer on #HastingsTube a way for us to get to know each other better in the search for the #ReplacementIndependent. Would you welcome group mentorship to become the #IndependentCandidateToCome?

Alongside observations on life and “Mess In Progress” talking to the camera to prepare for books such as “The Myth Of The Heartless Tory” , Investin2066Country and the Festival of The New Society 2066”, “LevelUpOurLife”, “Dad post-Dad” & “The Secular Religion Of Music; Integrating the Classicalist, The #CreativeHippy & The #CreativePunk within”.

#AppliedBuddhism from #FreeRangeBuddhist 007, who has experienced #DadAndSonIsolation until Dad’s August 2020 death, then #LockdownMentalHealth issues & recognising my loneliness and “vulnerability”  ie #PaulCroslandLonelyHeart,
#PaulCroslandDraftAuthor, practicing #NobleFriendship. 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1mIDTXXAekSu8xnTznkt4mn_xb2GJiTcs

Saturday

Please bring the year 20xx closer

"An unexamined life is not worth living" they say. I also hold myself to account in public for how I am living it; me "The Imperfect Idealist". I share what delights, what troubles, the joy of friendship and the quest for reliable meaning in life. I stand for generosity and fall down time and again as I experiment in  #CommunityDevelopment in #HastingsAndRyeConstituency; having founded #StLeonardsSharingConsortium in 2011 & recruited #ADAOSLOS #RightLivelihoodTeam to promote it’s #NonMonetaryEconomy potential in the year 20xx.
When might you be contacting me to find how helping me bring 20xx closer (in one of a myriad of ways) could serve you (& your nearest and dearest)?

Sunday

Dear mentor in Brazil

To my friend and inspirer, Dominic Barter, in a correspondence trying to check how freely I might quote in the 2021(?) publication of “The Myth Of The Heartless Tory” from 6 films we recorded back in 2010, I wrote as follows: 

Beyond the reference to the recognition your RestorativeJustice work secured in NESTA's "Radical Efficiency" report (see Part 6 Brazil case study) and your prediction (already quoted in my #GE2019 #MoveForwardMoreTogether themed leafletof a time of more collective decision making on so many fronts, I seek to point the reader towards Miki Kashtan’s https://convergentfacilitation.org towards the end of “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory” book.

Having asked Miki for an interview she wrote back wanting more clarity and expressing how stretched she was so I dropped it. It may be that before mid June you might initiate a zoom with me that provides fresher quotes and perspectives informed by the extra levels of poor government you have In Brazil’s tackling of the coming of this #PandemicEra. 

My barely informed comment on Brazil and Covid19 is, of course compared to in the UK where the fault of my Oxford contemporary Boris Johnson is IMHO over-egged by the left; the reality being structural and mass civil disobedience (in the name of British liberty) having accounted for much of the high death rate here. 


Saturday

3 hour vaccine conversation

Deeply concerned, on Sunday 28th February 2021 I instigated a “3 hour Vaccination Conversation” with #StLeonardsLocalTreasureTonyMay. This was fruitful in unfolding the #VaccineHesitancy’s emotional onset & the inadequacy of the official response to such doubts.

“Try 1hr 10mins in to this recording & the following 23minutes or so; #HastingsPierFire apart, our greatest 10mins to date for opening up much needed #DialogueNotDebate, Tony May?”


(From the full film I recommend (& have asked my Political Secretary to transcribe for this blog) the twenty minutes from 1hr10mins to 1hr30mins. Please subscribe to this blog via the left hand column (in desktop view)).
Subsequently asked by a mutual friend & well-wisher “How can we persuade Tony to go along with the vaccination” I replied:“Some Points for talking to the Vaccine Hesitant: 1) Let go if the idea that the task is persuasion & recite the serenity prayer as this might not be something you can change and which (heart-wrenchingly) you need the serenity to accept2) Recognise the terrain you are on as one where trust to talk about this needs to be earned anew. If you can win that trust then be as ready as you can to be with that person in the midst of their anxieties.Very little of this terrain is about facts and arguments 3) Gently open up the sense of choices that the person has and alternative futures. Be vulnerable and honest as to what it means to you that the person has a decent quality of life and a decent range of choices they can make that might get them there.”

Sunday

Jackie Weaver & Handforth Parish Council “Cancel Culture” highlights the timeliness of a book subtitled #BeyondPolarisationInPolitics

Serious issues of how local politics looks to people & on what basis ghosting is approved of; just two of the “#JackieWeaver & #HandforthParishCouncil issues to be addressed in “The #MythOfTheHeartlessTory; #BeyondPolarisationInPolitics   by #PaulCroslandDraftAuthor. 
The playlist below collects together a range of films made around the key #Handforth meetings (10th December 2020 & the infamous ...2021). I encourage you to look in particular at the sycophantic way #JackieWeaver was received on Breakfast TV & all the constructive lessons about conflict missed:.https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM4IagQQExoyxrzjXkKEwuzNyvlO_x8jV And here Tony May discusses with me the conclusion of “The Myth Of The Heartless Tory”https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1IMC1qrzGfg_U7xYVLPtOYTFKxQ4cx0hQ

Friday

Outline of "The Myth Of The Heartless Tory" book; seeking publisher for 2021

Introduction or Chapter 1 The Myth of the Heartless Tory

and the
a call for "Kinder Politics and Deeper Accountability"
(From) Paul Crosland
Independent Candidate
2019-2029(?)
HastingsAndRye constituency


Chapter 1: With my oldest (historian) friend; Chris awaits the open season for shooting the Conservative and Unionist Party

St Leonards Warrior Square Station -Platform 1
(Two days after the 64th anniversary of the (1956) largest one-day mass conversions -which was led by Dr. Ambedkar -i.e. Friday 16th October 2020)

Chris Gidlow, author and historian
(known 43 years; friend for the last 38 years)
*Anyone mentioned in this book is hereby invited to be a guest on a "Politics On A Platform" dialogue.
Plus Russell Brand.


Chapter 2: #StLeonardsLocalTreasure Tony May finds his “Kinder Politics” voice in relation to a “New Statesman" call for an Anti-Tory Alliance.


Chapter 3: #StLeonardsLocalTreasure Natalie Williams' Myth Of The Undeserving Poor


Chapter 4: Death Threat to the "putative villain", Sally-Ann "Heartless", after 322 voted in Parliament not to extend the School-Meals voucher scheme.



Chapter 5: Have you cast your vote yet on the percentage of Tory MPs who are Heartless? Patronising? Decent? Honourable?

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1DwOvITv36QzJ31abL_ahm9R91dshTzAi

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1QEtf0GoKi6MqLuTPzpLMO2oqy6-KtsMp

Chapter 6: A Tory leader's call to stand up for the most marginalised.


Chapter 7: Getting beyond a politics dominated by two main myths


Chapter 8: #GrassrootsManifestoes & outlining the comparative ease with which a #DemocracyOfNeeds could be delivered 


Chapter 9: #DeeperLegitimacyParliament; what that would look like. 


Chapter 10: 108 variations within Nonviolent Resistance & modelling #DeeperAccountability


Chapter 11: The arc of one and one's MP's journey towards the perfection of Wisdom and Compassion


Chapter 12: "In politics, trust those who do most to ensure their opponents' voices are heard"


Chapter 13: The #RightLivelihoodTeam providing a #ShadowMP service AKA "The Aspiring Dr Ambedkars of St Leonards on Sea" (#ADAOSLOS)



Chapter 14: What price for your deal with "the opposition"?




****************
And here’s a reading out of a slightly earlier draft Introduction or Chapter 1feedback please to paul[dot]crosland@gmail{dot}com