Exposing One's Truths - UKGov Consultation on Ending Vaccine Mandates

I'm not one to keep quiet about my political or indeed apolitical leanings in 'real-life' but for some undefined reason I don't regularly post politically minded pieces on here (or at least not for a while). Perhaps it's in part because politics was the fiery spark and continued flame throughout my previous blog - ecomonkey.blogspot.com - which I wrote for around 10 years and got a little burnt out by towards the end. This journal was a deliberate move away from that kind of discussion - from politics to poetry!

In these 'pandemic' days of fear and confusion however, it seems that almost every conversation, every nervous or determined silence, every thought, idea, deliberate or unconscious action or non-action, every poem even is political in one way or another. 

To reveal one's political thoughts, aspirations or allegiances puts one in a very vulnerable position. Yet to keep them hidden seems to me even more detrimental to one's health, mental state and indeed the nature of the culture in which one finds oneself. And if one's purpose is to better the culture and society one lives in, then exposing one's own truths seems like the only viable option..

So, today I completed the UKGOV Health & Social Care Sector consultation around ending mandates - Revoking vaccination as a condition of deployment across all health & social care. I stated why I am opposed to Vaccine Mandates and why I think there should be no discrimination based on choice. You can have your say too by filling in the short form here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/revoking-vaccination-as-a-condition-of-deployment-across-all-health-and-social-care

The consultation ends on 16th February 2022 so please do voice your opinion as soon as you can.

The last two questions of the consultation are the meat of the piece and I took some time to lay down my thoughts before sending. I've copied my answers below in case it might help you to express your own opinion. Some of the details and figures come from the Together Declaration who informed me of the consultation. The rest are my thoughts and opinions based on months, sometimes years of research.

Of course you may disagree with my reasoning, perhaps agree just a little.. whatever you feel about this issue, I think it is important for us to take opportunities like this to voice our thoughts, if for no other reason than to cathartically release pent up anger, fear, confusion or apathy that can stagnate if kept quiet inside..

Q. Which particular groups might be positively affected and why?

Every group will be positively affected by the permanent eradication of mandatory vaccination procedures - whether upfront or covert - for the following reasons:

• Mandatory vaccination procedures will result in the loss of 120,000 members of staff, in addition to the 60,000 workers in care-homes and other ancillary posts.
• The NHS is already in need of 95,000 staff so such sickening losses will be devastating to the nation’s health.
• Added to the current 2 year multi-million NHS waiting list, mandatory vaccination procedures will be a monumental disaster, ensuring myriad damage and fatalities across the population including those who are vulnerable and protected.
• It is well known that Omicron is mild, VACCINES DO NOT STOP TRANSMISSION, and that natural immunity from having had Covid is higher (see the Israeli and other studies). Thus it is clear vaccination is to protect the person having it. Not anyone else. 

Perhaps it wasn't the 'proper' place to do so but having no section offered for additional comments, I also added a caveat of sorts about the lies and disturbing choice of phrases used in the consultation wording itself, and this I added to the above question.

Please desist the deceitful blurring of facts and fabrication of the truth about Covid:

• Omicron presents no more of a threat to public health than the winter flu. It does not require mass vaccination.
• Those who do seem to catch and suffer from all variants particularly Omicron, are those who are vaccinated not those who have chosen to abstain or wait until vaccine testing is complete to decide.
• It is clear that the government intentionally ignores the latest clinical and scientific advice and uses only that which fits with its agenda purposely fabricating ‘science’, ‘the numbers’ and deliberately confusing the public.
• If it was the government’s aim to achieve public health and safety as it claims, restrictions would have taken place far sooner than they did and would have only been necessary for a short period of time without generating undue stress, fear and mental health issues on the public as well as denying care to those with genuine needs.
• Constant repetition of the lie “vaccination is our very best line of defence against COVID-19” will not make it true.
• NHS and care-home staff have a professional duty to protect their patients/clients by being there to provide the best health care possible in accordance with their training and the patients/clients wishes, not to adhere to government whims and fancies.

Q. What actions can the government and health and social care sector take to protect the groups identified if vax not a condition of deployment?

To protect all the groups identified the government and health and social care sector must take the following action:

• Government can ensure that the NHS is well funded and staff well paid (not just adequately) so that vacancies are filled and staff are able to fulfil their roles - to care for patients and clients - efficiently and in the necessary compassionate, unhurried manner.
• Government can admit to fabrication of truths about Covid and the false, confusing tactics used to confuse the public and generate fear. It can put measures in place to ensure that such abuses of power do not take place in the future.
• Government can listen to the science (not their own convenient and convoluted ‘science’) and act in accordance - issuing advice rather than mandates about how to manage and live with Covid and other viruses that may be forthcoming.
• Government can put an end to stealth privatisation of the NHS, embedding private interests, fragmenting our national institution, entrenching political posts & private providers and instead provide the funds and support needed for the NHS to survive and then thrive in its public capacity. E.g. eliminate systemic bias when awarding contracts, end the use of public money to build unnecessary private hospitals, rescind the abhorrent processes of private US companies buying our GP services which will inevitably result in loss of care for all and so on..
• Health and Social Care sectors can continue to provide the best services possible focusing on lifestyle and health as well as pathology.

Well, that's my piece said, for now. Maybe I'll find some peaceful poetry to post next, ha! Much love.. x

My 2nd story published on @Vocal_Creators is for a competition with @FiskarsAmericas competition. 

A Stitch In Time is a short story about family, belonging, escape and the legacies passed from one generation to the next. It revolves around one of my favourite crafts - sewing.

"..The fabric was snipped into shape with the orange handled, adult-only scissors whilst loose threads were cut away with the large blue zig-zag pair cleverly designed to inhibit fraying or straying. All bad habits are removed at the base, prevented from developing into worse ones because we all know that one bad thing leads to another.."

If you enjoy it, please 'like' it and feel free to share.

Thanks for reading x

Edge Of The World

I sit at the edge of the world

waiting for the end

will it come fast or slow?

if she's here, will she know

what to do if I drop

and won't wake up?

I sit at the edge

wait for the end (of the world)

this bed provides comfort

but it's not my friend.

outside grows greyer

I screen it away

blindness protects

from the harshness of day..

I sit at the edge of the world

wait for the end

will I choke on the blood

or the vomit or bile?

will it be instantaneous

or go on for a while?

will it hurt or feel dreamy?

will my last cries be heard?

I sit at the edge

wait for the end of the word

I had it here somewhere

the perfect reprise

a shimmering spirit

who giddies the skies..

I sit at the end

and wait for the courage (to take me..)

I suppose I ought to add a little something about this pieces's provenance just in case anyone is concerned: 

Dealing with chronic pain and more than one defined ongoing illness can often, for me at least, bring up a sense of something that could be insensitively described as a vivid dose of hypochondria or, more sympathetically, as an acute awareness of death's ever reaching fingers drawing close - making it's presence felt through an increased intensity of usual symptoms with additional new strains of discomfort - a seemingly random pulsing vein here, an occasional eye twitch there and/or some unusual stomach spasms for example. Perhaps at night there is also a feverish heat emanating from the neck rising to the lower skull..

All these happenings can easily conspire to make one think about the inevitability of leaving this life and act as a reminder that the departure board can change it's details of time, destination, even mode of transport, any time it pleases. There are no guarantees and (as was made abundantly clear in the small print) any deposits made are unlikely to be refunded.

Whilst it is seldom enjoyable to ponder these things for any extended period of time, I feel sure that acknowledging the existence and inevitability of death is a healthier way to live than denial and pretence.. Perhaps.. 

Maybe this is all subjective. Besides, my intention was to explain that Edge Of The World is a poem that comes from this kind of pondering rather than any desire to deliberately accelerate the process or indeed charter one's own private train to Elsewhere. I hear cancellations and delays are forecast anyway..

Until next time, may your days be filled with love & kindnesses :) xx

The Radio Edit

In the radio edit
we’ll make sure to leave a gap,
a poignant edge-of-the-moment
full-of-potential stop-go trap
between the chorus and the bridge,
the knowing and the liminal.
We’ll harmonise speculatively
on the incoming vertical
and wait
just enough
for one
breath.. taking.. gasp
to take us to the climax
hit us like a sudden gust
sweep us up over the waters
to the blue sky we can trust.


In the radio edit
we’ll repeat the chorus here
‘til it chimes with all our heartbeats,
becomes one with collective ear
and just when they’re feeling comfortable
singing along to the melody
we’ll cut the vocal, play just the tune
bear the weight of expectancy
as the audience falters unsure,
words slipping off their tongues
through the open lips of surprise -
will they stay or will they run?
Do you sing the words regardless
drawn towards the spot of light,
make your own mark on the record
stand tall, prepared to fight?
Or do you stop there on the spot
afraid to sing alone
the only voice resounding
mantra under desert sun?

Too late! The strings are soaring
drums beat loud, vocals return,
accustomed order is resumed -
our song will now play on.


In the radio edit
we’ll focus on the expected frame
of chorus following verse and chorus
following verse and same again
all the way up to the bridge
where keys change unsubtly,
usher them into a room beyond
ever so gently.
‘Take the step, it’s just one note’
Noting the rise in splendour,
letting them know ‘oh yes, it was good,
but now it’s even better.
Come up, up, up where the air is clear,
sweeter, breathe deep, let it in,
raise your hands if you want to go faster -
here comes the chorus again!’


In the radio edit
we’ll keep it short and sweet,
focus on the melody
highlight the lyrical beat.
We’ll give them what they expect to hear
with a little extra flourish,
a flouncing twist of pleasure -
you’ve been here before, you know this -
and they’ll return time after time
to listen to our song
but this cropped and censored version
can’t hold you for too long.


There will be no lengthy intro -
a gradual build of sounds
layering cozily over each other
in which the listener will lounge,
deep piles of sirens singing
harmonies we can’t deny;
there will be no vocal mosaic,
divided, reapportioned, reapplied.
Brightly coloured tiles
bearing glorious luscious notes,
expanding and contracting
in a universal flow.
There will be no vast extensions –
a stretching out of time,
basking in melodic rays,
float on a sea divine.
No waves to lift our heart and mind
into glorious ecstasy
where music is the food of love -
each note a chance to breathe.


The radio edit will be a joy
but it will never feel this free.
This original extended version
plays just for you and me.

Places of Poetry - Honing Time

Here is my first poem for the wonderful Places of Poetry project where you can read, rate and pin your own poems about places in England & Wales.

This piece - Honing Time was conceived just outside the St Peter & St Paul church at Honing, North Walsham in Norfolk.

Sat in the car, warm
artificial coziness embracing
life worn bones, lovelorn tones
cossetting weak flesh in sleepy summer aroma.

Outside, mini helicopters whirr,
dragonflies zipping back and forth amongst
fields of wheat, ferociously engaged
in a busy ballet, a network of greetings.

Transported through millennia
in the blink of an uncertain eye
by the rogue time machine
that is this Norfolk countryside.

Searching for clues of who I might be –
notice the field, its hand has revealed –
the five of spades caught up in the shape,
the fiery beacon of glimmering trees

alight in the shimmering heat of just gone noon
on this pleasantly barmy august day.
Green olive branches sway gracefully,
long swathes of ecstatic leaves reach

out in all directions, beckoning me
towards their haze fuelled dream.
An aura of whispered secrets glows
translucent, spectrums sing

a multicoloured halo of time
traversing tales, long ago stories
of what might have been, what was
and what may be on its way.

Hypnotised mind fills with memories,
dreams and long forgotten hopes.
In a trance, I am thinking the thoughts of another;
Do I see what she sees too?

How many others have sat in this spot;
how many others have stood in this place;
observed the same view transformed
by the passing years? How long have these trees

watched us, overheard our sighs and
wondrous gasps? How long have they danced
their magic entrancing her and him and I
through glowing portals to other times?

Ask the dragonflies, what have they seen?
They will laugh at our notion, ridiculous
of individual lifetimes. Prehistoric creatures
have seen more than we could ever hope to be.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

I’ve taken some time to consider and deliberate the pros and cons of re-entering the dangerous world of ‘social media’ after a deliciously long hiatus and the blessed relief of being back on the sturdy ground of communication by email, SMS, good old-fashioned letter writing and even some, dare I say it, face-to-face (*gasp*) interaction! 

After too many years contributing to what I’ve found to be essentially an unfettered distraction from real life, a time-wasting, self-absorbed system, with serious detrimental effects on our mental health and wellbeing, I developed a grim disdain for Facebook’s blatant manipulation of our innate need for connection and the wilful distortion of our perceptions of self and others. Having also endured a painful battle to break free from the endless scrolling addiction which seems to dominate and tarnish this so-called sophisticated and civilised era in human evolution, I was not keen to enter the circus ring again. 

In the end however, after a gloriously productive year or more of concentrating on writing without social media distraction, I have decided that the benefits of the system - being able to share my slowly expanding body of work with others, gain relevant feedback and gather inspiration from available sources - is a vital part of my creative process. Whether or not I can use the system without falling prey to its hollow side remains to be seen. 

It seems as though Twitter (which I’ve not used before mainly because short posts are not my forte - long meandering paths of words and stretches of ideas with a liberal splattering of parenthesis contained asides are much more my field, as you, dear reader, may have noticed!), linked to this blog on which I etch heartfelt words and multi-layered dreamscapes, could be the best medium to enable the necessary creative functions without too much collateral damage. So, here I am. Hello! *gulp* ...