Wedding
Poor old Charles. His wedding has been pushed aside so that the great and not so good he invited can instead go to Rome for the Pope's funeral. Hopefully when his turn comes round on Saturday all will flow well, and he will finally be united with the woman who has played such a large parge in his life for so many years.
Once the dust settles I'd like the Queen to take a break, allow Charles to take over as monarch and enjoy her retirement. It could be argued that the prospect of not being at the centre of power would deprive her of the wish to live. She should spend time showing her offspring how it is done, after all she has as much experience as anyone.
It's vitally important that Prince Charles is considered fit to be King when his time comes. The prospect of President Thatcher, or any one of the other second-grade people who rule our country, fills me with dread. Prince Charles will go down well in history, whatever the media choose to say of him today. He has done so much over the years, with the Princes Trust, his association with many environmental causes and his knowledge about so much. Perhaps living with Camilla will give him more confidence, to knock back at those who try to find a reason, any reason, to attack him.
His recent outburst against a BBC reporter is to be applauded, we need to hear more like that from him, and the media may well be surprised at how much support he will receive.
May the happy couple enjoy their lives together.
Politicians
Suddenly politicians are to be seen everywhere, with nervous smiles covering promises that few believe they will keep should they ever gain power.
Our national puppet looks nervous. Perhaps he will soon realise that too many of us did not want to invade Iraq, and even fewer now understand what has been gained from such a pointless waste.
Blair is lucky to have the old Romanian in opposition as he certainly does have 'something of the night' about him, as shown by his recent decision to sack, and destroy the career of Howard Flood, his Deputy Chairman. Blair does seem the lesser of two evils. Personally I'd love the Liberal Democrats to be regarded as a viable vote - we could do with a hung parliament, to bring a vesture ofdemocracy back to Parliament.
We live in a dictatorship. My vote is worthless. I live in an area where the political party I despise holds sway. My vote, if made, will be worthless because the incumbent will be returned, as he has always been. In the past five years he has hardly put a foot in my town, he does little to help anyone, but is seen by the populace as a 'good sound chap'. That's not an argument I can ever win, so I will remain disenfranchised, along with most of the population.
There could be alternatives. The Internet, indeed all forms of communication could be used to ask the people what they would like to happen. They certainly would not have agreed to invade Iraq. The will of the people was ignored, and taking a country to war is a very serious act.
There are problems with allowing the people to have control. We are judged to be stupid, incapable of understanding the nuances of political decision making. Until it comes to voting for these people in an election.
Collective Mourning
The Pope is dead, after nearly 27 years as Pontiff a charismatically pious man has moved to be with his Maker. His life brings us all many messages and symbols that we may use to improve the passage of our own lives. This is not a time for mourning or tears, but for reflection. He took this world along many pathways, showing just how much power such a religious leader can still exert despite a declining church audience.
His greatest contribution must be the part he played in the decline of the communist regime. However eastern Europe is still in turmoil, and could so easily fall into lawless hands. Not enough has yet been done to bring true stability to that part of our world.
Communism contained many evils but the current form of capitalism is no sinecure. To resolve inequality the church does need to change direction, to move towards a new political revolution. There is still too much injustice, far too many people starving to death, many of the poorest people in the world are Catholics, living in lands where the power elite, and members of the priesthood, are living in absolute luxury.
There's a dilemma. The Vatican City oozes wealth, pomp and circumstance, while many in South America (for example) die in poverty. These two extremes must be brought together and the drawing together of the haves and have-nots should be the primary task for the next Pope. Leadership by example would be a good way forward, the church has funds with which to experiment with new social systems.
Pope John Paul did what he believed to be important. The next Pope will have a different agenda. Hopefully he will address poverty, over-population and sexual inequality.
