Diary 18th To 22nd February 2018

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Diary Sunday 18th February 2018 A day so quiet that it might as well have been dead. Nothing happened that was out of the ordinary today at all. Very mundane. Pleasant but leaving nothing to write about. Diary Monday 19th February 2018 A sad day as it was dominated by the funeral of one of my neighbours, delayed since his death at home just before new year. A quiet cremation service, mostly for his family. One of my other neighbours gave me a lift there and back, and we slipped away soon after the service. My first funeral for a few years, and hopefully a long time before the next. Diary Tuesday 20th February 2018 The community centre cheap food service was running today and I got some very good bargain which saved me a more expensive shopping trip. Diary Wednesday 21st February 2018 Job searching at the community centre in the afternoon followed by a local Humanist (Atheist) group meet up in the Black Horse pub in Preston. After confusion over which room we were meeting in, we got a lovely quiet room and discussed some of the big isues of the day. We talked about two British men who travelled to help Syrian Kurds fight against Isis only to be arrested and charged with acts of terrorism themselves even though many would ee their action as unofficial counter-terrorism. There was talk on whether they were mercenaries, acting outside the orders of the British government and potentially compromising secret service operations. We touched on how the International Brigades who went to fight the Fascist forces of Franco in the Spanish Civil War would also be treated a terrorists now, though no action wa taken against them on their return by the British authorities. The second discussion was whether voting in local or national government elections and referendums should be banned for anyone not intelligent enough to grasp the iues they are voting on. While it might be thought by some that the issue of Scottish Independence and Brexit might have changed with restricted voting rights, and the critics of Donald Trump and Theresa May might have changed denying anyone a right to vote would be seen as extremely undemocratic. In Plato’s Republic, Democrasy was celebrated for Athenian society though many, especially women and slaves were excluded from the vote. It took the struggles of the Suffragettes, a hundred year ago this year, to ecure the votes for women (there were references in the previous discussion to Suffragettes being seen as terrorists by many in the 1910’s. The idea of setting tests to guage the intelligence of voters before letting them make their decision was quickly dismissed as unethical. We also discussed why we felt convicted felons hould not have to forfeit voting rights whilst in prison, and the idea of making voting in all elections and referendums mandatory, a it is in Australia, but with a vote of abstention or none of the above as a voting option. After the meeting I had a few more beers and came home. Diary Thursday 22nd February 2018 Welfare hearing day which I always attend with dread. My advisor liked my current job search activity but suggested a few more job leads to follow, both of which were useless. He also et my next appointment for a week today rather than in two weeks or as he did last time, ten days. I went to the library for a while before going to the community centre where they gave out free writing pads today as their stationary cupboard is well stocked. A nice end after a bleak start to the day. Arthur Chappell