Jude Smith

Its Lent: a time when the Church of England along with many others of our brothers and sisters in Christ, take the time to reflect and repent. As the seasons changes through these next few days we face the death of God himself and we contemplate our part in that story. This year our institution needs to repent. We need to every year but in this moment I believe we owe the country an apology. On Wednesday the Chancellor announced that which we have known is coming for a while: that all schools should be academies by 2020. And any of us who have been in education believe this to be a terrible thing. And it is my belief that the Church of England should have stopped this. And it is my belief that we could have stopped this. The Church of England is the biggest single block of schools that could and perhaps should have a common ethos. These schools were set up to provide education to the poor and yet in a singular apathetic moment we have probably sold many such young people a rough...

How to live in a post democracy So- the last post was pretty gloomy, but all is not lost. Here are five things we can do. 1 Register to vote and tell everyone you know to do the same. Our best hope is to vote and make our voices heard in the time honoured fashion. Vote in everything, even if you spoil your paper. We have to show that this is still the way. 2 Subscribe. If we want a diverse media we have to pay for it. Become a member of the Guardian or pay for the Independent online. Or buy the Mirror. And for goodness sake BUY A TV LICENCE! You may also want to consider joining a Union. 3 Support the positive. For those of us who can afford local, organic produce then lets be intentional about it. Lets be intentional about using local energy supply and seeking companies who already have a commitment to things like good food labelling and non GM (which also includes Aldi and Iceland as far as I am aware). There is a list of companies who are anti TTIP. They are primarily...

In fact it may already be dead. Let us not fool ourselves that we still live in a democracy as we did even twenty years ago. After last year's election the Conservatives had a bigger majority than they, or in fact any of us, expected. However, the brutal way in which they have gone about implementing their agenda (as opposed to their manifesto), can leave us in no doubt that democracy as we have known it is over. Overreaction? Perhaps, but upwards of half a million (primarily young) people will lose their right to vote under new government registration laws. These have been brought in through the pernicious use of Statutory Instruments, designed in the 1940’s to free up parliamentary time in the post war rebuild. They are now being written into Parliamentary Bills to allow the detail to worked out in obscurity. Thus fracking, maintenance grants, and the already mentioned electoral changes have been foisted upon us. In this year- when the BBC is fighting for its charter r...

I’ve been busy during most of #piggate; and lets be honest no-one needs that in their mind for any amount of time. But, its got me thinking. Some have accused Lord Ashcroft of having a go at DC. But perhaps this is part of a larger strategy, to butter us up for whats next in Conservative leadership. If you like its controlled disclosure of what we can expect from the next leader. Every time we get a two day story about “Dave” as a fairly obnoxious young man it anaesthetises us to and normalises Team Boris. For every day spliff there will be many other Boris bongs.. And the sooner we rationalise them away, because after all Dave is a decent bloke.. the less repelled we will all be when its not Dave at the helm in 2020. #Piggate needs to not rumble on long. But lets remember that if we roll our eyes and cry “youth” for DC, we have to do it for BJ.. (if you’ll pardon the pun).

I've snapped... Reasons to Not Sing the National Anthem... (none of which make you a national security threat) 1 You Don’t Believe in God .. And so singing asking God to save the Queen is a bit odd. 2 You’ve watched recent Queen’s speeches .. And so you are fairly convinced that she is saved and that we might do better praying for other people. In fact (as the Queen) you find yourself wondering why people keep praying for you to be saved when you are pretty rested in God's grace. 3 You’ve read the third verse .. which is fairly abhorrent: even the royal website has dropped them! 4 You didn’t go to a posh school .. and therefore like a whole generation of people you think you have a terrible singing voice and so don’t really do singing. It seems that people who went to posh schools were indoctrinated that they are wonderful so will sing even if they sound like water draining… 5 You’ve had a crazy few days .. and so sometimes we all slightly zone out to try and...

One of my earlier childhood memories is hiding down a ditch watching my family walk past. They were, at that point, oblivious to my running away. It was a New Year’s Day, a sunny crisp one that had been accentuated my my Grandma’s divine roast potatoes. I was about seven. And I wanted a dog. The refusal to engage in the conversation (“you are not having one”) was the trigger for my flight. I wasn’t going to stick around with this group of unreasonable people who wouldn’t let me have an adorable waggy tailed friend. And thats when I found myself becoming part of a travelling community of dog lovers, roaming the world entertaining the masses. *insert screeching end of day dream sound* No- I don’t recall how it ended but I was back at my grandparents in time for one of those post feast teas where everyone stuffs white carbs into their overloaded bodies. We never got a dog as a family. And so two years ago, when I moved here, I resolved to get a dog. I have the perfect ...

Not sure why I'm blogging on this today but hey ho.. There is a new French law which bans supermarket chains from throwing away food. It has to be reused in one of several ways. Its a great idea but there is a dilemma in all of this, because despite the (processed to one degree or another) food going to better use than landfill: we would do better if it never made it to the shelf. What? Bear with me a moment. We produce too much: I’m sure there is a calculated formula by supermarket strategists to work out how much you have to buy in to make sure you never run out. And it means they buy too much in and too much is wasted. And then we applaud as we waste more energy reusing it. All of this, it seems to me, is made worse by us. Yes us. The consumer. Because supermarkets know we will go elsewhere if we keep finding that our supermarket of choice doesn’t have the whole asparagus that we so desperately need (I’m parodying). I think I am being logical in thinking that tha...