The Angry Exile: 100 months to save the planet according to Prince Charles.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

100 months to save the planet according to Prince Charles.

Looks like someone has let Charlie play on the interwebs again and it sounds like he's found this site.

The Prince starts a ten-day tour of South America today during which he will be playing an elevated role as an international statesman working on behalf of the Government to support British interests on key issues.
Senior sources have revealed that Gordon Brown's Government wants to make more use on the foreign stage of Prince Charles's experience, expertise and contacts, particularly on climate change.
Government officials believe that the Prince's passion to protect the environment is hugely respected abroad and that he can play an increasing important role as he inevitably moves closer to becoming king.
Some believe he is an "asset" that has been underused in the past and they want to use him more in a role of "soft diplomacy".
In Thursday's speech, the Prince will warn that a failure to act in the next eight years will have catastrophic effects for the planet.

Oh Lordy, where do we start? First off, isn't it slightly hypocritical to jet around the fucking world to lecture people on climate change? Oh no, my mistake - it's really fucking hypocritical. I'm sure they'll say his carbon emissions are offset but frankly you've got no way of knowing whether the tree was really planted, the reduction really happened, or whether it was going to without you handing money over. In any of those cases you've really off set fuck all, and as far as I can see there's no way of knowing whether anything has actually happened other than you've had your wallet lightened. His Highness might be okay with that financially but as an argument? Nuh-uh.

Second, if the desire to use the Prince and his expertise (which I'd have thought was more about polo) is coming from Gordon Brown himself it doesn't inspire confidence in HRH. Gordon is the guy who claimed to have abolished boom and bust and now seems incapable of realizing that he'd done no such fucking thing. Trust his judgement on the Prince's suitability? Er, nuh-uh.

Some believe he is an asset... Like who? And so what? Loads of people believe in religions that are mutually exclusive and quite possibly all fantasies, and it doesn't bother them that logically the majority must be wrong. People believe in astrology. People believe crop circles are made by alien visitors. People believe all sorts of shit, and it doesn't make them right. And how does his inevitably moving closer to becoming king square with playing an increasingly important role? This is a political issue and the monarch traditionally keeps out of politics. Fucking hell, but I really hope Australia becomes a republic before he takes over.

Lastly there's the whole less than 100 months claim. Actually it's already down to 93 according to that website, and given that some are saying that a new climate accord is highly unlikely this year you'd expect them to be screaming that we're all as good as fucked. So I have only one question on that point: if in 7 years and 9 month's time we've still not agreed on action, yet the world is fine and it's all turned out to be bogus, what then? Will Charles finally shut the fuck up and go back to flogging over priced honey?

UPDATE: Fucking hell, he's spouting some quality bollocks now.

"I find it incomprehensible that there are those who doubt the science of climate change."

It's called the scientific method. "Skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin" - ring any fucking bells you witless cunt? Fuck's sake, Australian republic very soon please.

1 comment:

Unknown said...: Bonny Prince Charlie reminds me of Wooster (of Jeeves and Wooster). Where BPC is Wooster... where is Jeeves to save him from his idiotic deeds?; 29 March 2009 at 03:38