Jude Smith

Morning: today is the day in the church calendar where we celebrate Christ the King! (its also apparently the best day to make Christmas Puddings). I'm off for the first of three services at three different churches in about an hour but I feel that I need to put some thoughts out there about our current state. I really wish that I had taken a course on late antiquity at university, because I am currently fascinated about era change. Thats what I feel we are on now. I feel that we are in the throes of one of those civilisation shifts that we have read about in the history books (or didn't in my case.. where is that copy of Gibbon). Europe has been in the ascendancy since the mid 1400's I guess. And now, through ripping ourselves apart in war, this little patch of land (for that is what it is) is running dry of resources and no longer makes anything. Instead we pass money to one another- and thats no future. Our citizens have grown fat on the fruits of two hundred years...

Two years ago yesterday I sat in a flourescently lit room, as a seemingly unreally fit (in the sense of the word that existed before ten years ago) noted down my goals. "Errr.. lose three stone" I heard myself say. "When by?" came the reply. "Easter". And so began a journey. The day I nearly bought a breadmaker. I used the money (and then some) to invest in some personal training sessions, and my life changed. At the risk of sounding like I am writing for a health magazine I should put some flesh around that statement. Let me start with the raw facts. I have lost 80lbs in weight. Thats about 36 kilos. Five stone and 10 pounds. I have lost about 14 inches off my broadest parts! In some areas I have lost 5 dress sizes, in others just three. I have gone from being obese to be healthy in BMI terms. I have gone from not being able to walk up two flights of stairs without puffing to being able to run a half marathon. What the raw facts don't tell is t...

So metal theft is under the spotlight because man of the people Dave, thinks its appalling (thats another of his words, like absurd) that it happens, especially from war memorials. If Dave and his chums would like to do the sums or look at the data they would discover that acting (and the proposal seems sensible) over war memorials is like punching the guy who looked at your sister while three other women are being held at knifepoint. One memorial a week for small sums of metal. Put your hands up if you have had a journey delayed because of metal theft (more than one a week I suspect). Clergy friends: any of you unable to get insurance because your lead has gone more than three times? Anyone else had a funeral of a metal thief for whom it all went wrong (a colleague took one this week)? Anyone had significant leaks afterwards? Lightning conductors gone? Schools- how about your gutters? Anyone lost their phone connection (my parents and 20,000 others for a couple of days following men...

Morning one and all. Well I am back from holiday and in a particularly shoot from the hip place! So today's topic of tirade is poppy fascism! Its a strong comment but I think its where we have gotten to as a nation. As I tap away many folks are getting in a little tizzy about the fact that England can't wear poppies on their shirts on Saturday. FIFA is being pilloried as if they had run over the Queen Mother's cat in a hummer whilst playing gangster rap! What FIFA is actually doing is holding to the line that stops Israel celebrating the 1967 land grab, or Iran commemorating its losses in the last thirty years. Or actually more comparatively, it stops there being a Comic Relief shirt, or a Children In Need one.. or some other charity. Because in our latter day tyranny where one gets stared down if one doesn't wear a poppy, we have forgotten that the Poppy campaign is just that. It is a charity fundraiser. I am not saying that the British Legion is not worthy of ra...