horsemouth the 'strangely soothing' (who will save the world?)

or so a friend has said. it may have been the mention of the equinox (saturday 20th 9.37 am) or it may have been hannah arendt's history-wide schema.

friends have been out samba drumming and protesting ahead of priti patel's 10 for 2 anti-protest law ten years inside 2 teach you not to protest. now horsemouth thinks protest is pretty essential to the smooth functioning of the state (because the alternative is insurrection, terrorism and sabotage). this is why it is a good idea to let the people protest. you know what's going to happen priti. some blameless do-gooders will protest they'll be charged with protesting under your 10 for 2 law, a judge will free them driving a coach and horses through your carefully drafted bill and holing it below the waterline. 

after this equivocal reading the cops and CPS will leave it rot on the statute book unused. 

to work these kind of neo-fascist power grabs need an event (a 9/11 say) and then you can get away with anything you don't even need to pass any laws. whether the great british public will approve of your legislation to deal with the likes of son of swampy horsemouth doubts. doubtless the daily torygraph  will commend you for your enthusiasm. 

you're not the boss of them priti, they're the boss of you. 

actually, thinking about it, with the kind of impoverishment likely to result from covid a few years down the line, a law banning protests might be a useful thing to have. horsemouth tends to think we are entering a re-run of the 80ies (which was itself haunted by the 70ies) by thatcher's children who want to stage a re-enactment. sorry that's not very soothing

horsemouth was once (in the 80ies) denounced for being on an ego-trip of being a revolutionary. he regrets he has to admit that his critic was entirely correct (as subsequent events proved). horsemouth blundered about like an idiot and it really was a miracle he didn't end up in jail or with a criminal record (for this he has to thank various lefty lawyers). maybe he did some good or maybe he was totally ineffectual if not actually harmful (he really can't tell). horsemouth retired and hardly ever wanders out on marches and pickets and such things.

he thinks they are important because working, paying your taxes and voting once every five years is not enough.  

nonetheless there's nothing like a bit of heavy handed policing for turning a drama into a crisis.

because of his hannah arendt musings he has discovered sandburg 'perhaps the first american urban folk singer' and poet, author of I Am the People, the Mob.

this afternoon work.