Little wonder

Thanks Stan. The addict one is a picture that may never leave me; it was in the papers about five years ago, a young girl in a bedsit found days after her death. Just can't get it out of my head and, yes, I unashamedly blame the govt and the army for her death.

Big thanks to the cherry-pickers

Thanks for the help, Salman. Always good to hear constructive criticism. I'm on it.

You asked.. The govt have replaced jobs and honour with dole and drugs. The war on terror acts as a convenient tool to instil a sense of fearful gratitude among the public and to bagsy the best smack and dope to numb and de-populate the West's emotionally vulnerable and ill-parented. The govt's duty of care has diminished without shame and is overseen by a legal system that cares only for itself. Social services have gone mad, ruled by faceless, unqualified experts who answer to no one in order to confuse and lengthen cases to fill the pockets of lawyers. The mismanagement of adoption and family law in general is a snakepit of deception, causing untold suffering to the vulnerable children that the govt chains to the system. Once parentless or badly parented children reach adulthood, they're eight times more likely to go to prison, become alcoholic, chemically dependent, sell their bodies and die before their time compared to well-parented children from unbroken families. Financial constraint on parents is the biggest cause of separation, which feeds the system with yet more cases that frustrate parents and alienate children. Depression is now widely attributed to circumstantial debilitation caused by a legal system that plays with people's emotions like seals off a whale's back. With each divorce, the govt is presented with another victim whose housing needs and utility bills he must meet or face homelessness. Fathers are being systematically de-humanised to set them apart from society and diminish their sense of responsibility. The army oversees the transportation of drugs for the govt, while their personnel, most of whom are decent, upstanding citizens, would be of more service to the British people fighting crime and helping to rehabilitate the mindset of the young and vulnerable at home rather than servicing someone's else's war abroad under the flea-bitten flag of democracy. The govt rewards criminals with privileges, views the poor as a ghastly statistic and uses the middle-class to elevate the status of the rich. The police are the UK's largest drug-dealer by far, utilising laundered money for drugs. They pick on the weak and vulnerable to achieve targets and shy away from dangerous criminals unless the media demands otherwise. The UK has become a services island but we need spiritually rewarding work to enhance the lives of the poor and corrupt. The govt has no intention of changing the status quo, which serves only the rich. Girls and boys are dying from drug addiction and alcoholism every single hour. The number of deaths attributed to addiction are minimised to a fraction in order to lull the young into a false belief-system that drink, taxed to the hilt, is not that harmful and that the taking of drugs is a rite of passage to adulthood. The reality is that drink and drugs are the UK's biggest killer and ruiner of lives, and the govt's general apathy to constructive change sends a hopeless message of depression to the young. Perhaps this girl's prayer was answered, but I still hold the govt and the army responsible for her death.

Big thanks to Jolono and Sid. Always wanted to do poetry really, just thought it was a bit fluffy and prim before. How wrong I was.

Hi Julie, Great to hear you're keeping up the good work at Worthing Library, and I hope you'll be at the Wheatsheaf on the 15th May with Raymondo. Hi Shoe, Great to hear from you and I like scalpel sharp. Just snagged my little finger Stanleying an old box to save on buying one to send some piccy books! Hi Stan, Carlin's got it right for sure.

Alison, I'd love to read your poetry. I'm sure you'd pack a massive punch. What I find so exciting about the form is that you can say so much with so few words. ScoZen, those scenes are commonplace but swept under carpets pretty sharpish unless the media gets a sniff. Probably half of all the Guildford punks from my teenage years had died through drugs by the age of thirty. Most govt ministers had shares in their constituency's pharmaceutical concerns back then. Drug dealers the lot of them, just like today only it's on a much bigger scale now.

Many thanks Magic for a very kind post. Good luck with the exams. Ask for all the nigglesome worries that may be buzzing around your mind to be removed beforehand and you'll be right on the button.

OOh, you're lovely, Scratch, and a new baby with you too. I bet you're nestling now, you lucky thing. Thanks for your beautiful comment.

Thanks, Rob. Looking forward to seeing you at the Wheatsheaf.

Great to hear from you, Alphadog, and well done for conquering your demons (which, as you know, is an ongoing battle!) I have no doubt that it's a battle that can walk hand in hand alongside fighting for a fairer world. After all, I used on the world's unfairness from the word go, but then it got to the stage that I took on the world's problems because mine were too big! Circumstance can be the best healer, and the duality of our battling spirit is altogether beautifully and undeniably complimentary, resonating equally with the most disenfranchised and the better off, mostly because addiction and disenchantment targets people from all walks of life, thank God. I now pray for the rich in the same breath as for the vulnerable and hungry, which would have seemed unthinkable only months ago. The system does need to change but I get the feeling that it will require the full backing and welcoming of the rich as of the poor, and only through shared adversity may our hopes be realised. Here's to you, Alphadog. You're not half-employable because you only have half a degree. That's a modern myth that has served the govt very nicely in keeping down youth unemployment figures. Now there's no jobs left, they start charging! Wicked. I fled from education with 6 very ordinary O levels, sure that the best university in the world is life and seeing as much of the world as possible.

It's horses for courses, I reckon. After my illustrious O levels, I found that I couldn't concentrate for more than a second on anything other than LSD, women, parties, pubs and travelling, which became the fabric of my life for way too long. Now I'm finally growing up (I'm forty bloody seven!), I see it as a passage of time I had to go through to enjoy life without stimulants to dull my feelings of alienation from the world as I previously saw it. I totally admire you for seeing out your degree course. It's obviously something you're extremely passionate about and not just a means to an end. I didn't mean to dissuade you from following your dream to get a degree. It's just I have a mental block on universities (probably to be found in the form of a very worn-out chip on my shoulder!) My Dad's a fully fledged professor, Cambridge Don (and outcast), academic-extraordinaire and status quo dissident but it was he who told me never to go to university, to run and take in as much of the world as I could, so with my deftly selective hearing and unquenchable thirst for hedonism I remembered it very well. I've got to say I'm passionate about education and love reading my picture book story to children in primary schools, which is an amazing experience that I never dreamt would happen to me. I'd love to meet you so if you can, try to get to the Abctales evening on May 15th in Soho. It's a really good night out with some amazing talent. If you'd like to read your poetry, email Tony Cook. He knows winning work when he sees it. Have a brill week and hunt down that degree with flying colours!

No doubt it's a depression, mate. They can call it a double-dip with chocolate on top for all I care. Stay strong and keep positive. The next one's on September 11th.

ps. just tried to contact you privately but there's no contact bit on your file so I'll post here. It's a longshot but if you live in the Surrey area I could pick you up and we can go to Soho together on May 15th. I park for free in Putney and catch the 14 bus from there (£2.70 return with an oyster/ a dastardly £4 without). The £3 entry can be waived cos they've stopped your benefits (surely that's not right but I've been there) so it's pretty cheap all round. Richard

Cheers Florian. Off to read the third installment of your latest series.