The Angry Exile: Numbers game.

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

Thursday 18 February 2010

Numbers game.

It's become clear over the years that governments will pull all kinds of tricks to avoid telling the truth about unemployment figures, and the current UK government is one of the most egregious in that respect. They'll admit that it's gone up some what with the recession and everything, which was obviously either the fault of the Americans (providing that Barack Obama is safely out of earshot when they say it) for indulging in sub-prime lending without first making sure the UK could cope with the fallout, or the hated Tories for doing, well, everything that they did 25 years ago. What they won't be too keen on shouting about is that it's actually a lot worse than just the numbers of jobseeker's allowance recipients would suggest.

The number of people who are neither in work nor seeking employment reached 8.08 million in the last three months of last year, the highest on record.
In all, 21.3 per cent of working-age adults are now "economically inactive", a category that includes students, the long-term sick, unpaid carers and those who retire early.
Much of the in increase came from people opting to study instead of working or seeking work.
However, 78,000 of the inactive were recorded as “discouraged” workers, people who have simply given up because they do not believe there are any jobs available.
The “discouraged” total rose by 57.9 per cent from 2008. A total of 5.75 million inactive people do not want a job.
The figures were published by the Office for National Statistics, which also disclosed the number of people claiming jobseekers’ allowance at its highest since the month before Labour come to power in 13 years ago.

Not a pretty sight, but actually it's uglier still.

The data showed that there were a total of 28.91 million people in employment in the last quarter. However, the total conceals millions of people who are not working full-time.

And not all the full time jobs directly contribute to the economy either. Some of them are public sector jobs of course. And while some public sector may have value and contribute indirectly, the doctor who makes a patient well and able to work again for example, some certainly don't... and all are paid for by taxing the private sector. How many people are we talking about here?

Public sector jobs increased by 5 per cent over a year to 6.09 million. In all, the state gained 290,000 employers[sic*] from September 2008 to Sept 2009.

So the two together make more than 14 million people living off the government's generosity with other people's money.

During the same period, private sector jobs fell by 735,000 to 22.82 million.

That's a ratio of very nearly 60:40, or to put it another way every three people who are in the private sector are between them supporting roughly two more people who are either working in the public sector or not working at all. 'Kinell.

Now as I said above I'm not suggesting that all public sector jobs are unproductive and should be scrapped, but being very much of the minarchist persuasion I'd happily wave goodbye to quite a lot of them. And the same goes for the unemployed and economically inactive. Obviously that includes a number of people who've chosen retirement or the life of a stay at home parent, and a number of people who are simply between jobs, and a number of people who would work but are forced not to by circumstances not of their choosing - that's people stuck in the benefits trap as well as full time carers etc. So I'm not blaming or judging here, but I am wondering how much longer the work of three people must continue to support not just themselves and their dependents but two others and their dependents as well. And since the public sector seems unlikely to shrink I'm wondering will that ratio reach 50:50? Might it even reverse and become two working to support three more? At what point will it become unsustainable and come crashing down around everyone, and how will the pieces be picked up?

It's genuinely fucking frightening.

* After blogging this I noticed the Libertarian Alliance had written about it too and pointed out that almost certainly 'employees' was meant where it said 'employers'.