We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday
Come on board. We’re on a bus journey to the end of the ride. See if you like it. There are ten stops and you can get off at most of them. You are possibly a Christian and the driver is a Christian…
Writings
Essays, letters and talks on peace and disarmament, politics, economics and faith, from 2015 to today.
2025
2024
Fifty Problems for Atheists.
Out now, my book: Fifty Problems for Atheists. It is timeto think about the Creator or Atheism, the Genesis one issue. Really, it is the biggest issue there is. Atheists tends to be known for what…
We Christians Worldwide Agree – We Make Peace on Earth
Sometimes the Christian faith is obscured by wider events, opinions and quarrels and the maelstrom of the secular media. So it is with war and militarism. We are in the middle of two intense wars in…
2022
We Can Disarm the World
Appeasement – The World’s Biggest Lie
A. Hitler and Appeasement. Even now around the world, “appeasement” is seen as the argument againstdisarmament and world peace. People vaguely see disarmament as the cause of War. The world now…
Militarism Messes Up Africa
Small Arms Militarism. We need to see how militarism corrupts a Continent. Africa contains no superpowers. It a vast continent of smallish and some bigger states with a more rural economy that others…
The People Who Decide on War
The people who decide on war keep well away from the front door. They sit and talk and laugh and sigh While all the pawns charge and then die. Wars come and go. The other side is all to blame, and…
The Tory Leadership Election and the Judgement of God.
Christ on his knees washing hot feet – his teaching moves fast – the king/ruler of Israel and the world – going to the centre of political rule to teach us. Rule is service, doing the common good…
No porkies post
1. NO PORKIES POST – The UK Current Account Problem.
Boris’s rhetoric of economic success is dangerous. When the UK overall trade weakness is exposed, millions will ask, how could things have got so bad so quickly? It has got bad slowly, been ignored…
Possibly the Most Important Issue on the Planet
Elaine and I have just had a discursive chat which may be important, though it was not full of laughs. We were discussing the scale and scope of trauma in the lives of people we have known, studied…
Bible
The Old Testament for Now
It might seem strange that the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee should lead to a rereading of the Old Testament and much of history, but I have just been through that adjustment and want to share it. The Old…
From War to Peace
From War to Peace: 1
Chapter One: Winning the War and losing the Peace. Defeating Evil and Winning the Second World War. Winning the Second World War was perhaps the greatest war victory in history. Hitler and the Nazis…
Personal
Hitch-Hiking Round Europe with Colin Wills 1961 and 1962
(Incomplete) For two summers Colin Wills and I hitch-hiked around Europe, the first one to the Adriatic Coast via Germany and Austria, and the second down through Italy to Greece from Brindisi and…
We Can Disarm the World
Ending the Western-Russian Stand Off for Ever
Russia and the Ukraine. It is sad that we not only do not understand our enemies, but also that we cannot, because we are so self-righteous and indoctrinated. Russia has been wronged badly and…
2021
We Can Disarm the World
We Can Disarm the World Exhibition. 1 Not Home for Christmas
Those who go to War promise success. They pretend the War will work. They hype up soldiers, require patriotism, demonize enemies and talk up their weapons. The arms people have been working at this…
We Can Disarm the World
We Can Disarm the World Exhibition. 3. WW2 Hiroshima
The Second World War was worst than the first. It was six years. World War One was the War of trenches. World war Two was the War of bombs. Its devastation ate up ten years of world GDP. 60 million…
We Can Disarm the World
We Can Disarm the World Exhibition. 7. Mission Accomplished
The Second Iraq War occurred after a long series of errors and failures in the Middle East driven by the aim of making it a big market for western weapons. It had oil wealth, and in the 1960s and…
We Can Disarm the World
We Can Disarm the World Exhibition. 2. Tolstoy Writing Resurrection
The Peace Movements throughout the 19th century were strong and critical. They understood that weapons created conflict and were pushed by capitalists wanting profits from wars. The Napoleonic Wars…
The World’s Best Policy -Costs Nothing
Disarm the world by agreement and close down one of the biggest contributors to global warming. ONE HUNDRED ARGUMENTS FOR WORLD DISARMAMENT. 1. Weapon based wars have killed two hundred million…
We Can Disarm the World
This Full Remembrance Day.
This Remembrance Day we will once again be invited to live inside the Battle of Britain and be grateful for the armed forces that defended us against invasion, as though that was the typical form of…
Establishments
Christians might do well to do some sociology. After all the Bible is full of it. One basic concept is “establishments”. They are people with privileges and patterns of control who maintain their…
Boris Johnson’s Holiday on Mustique; What really happened?
After Christmas 2019 Boris Johnson and his partner had a holiday on the island of Mustique between the 26th December and 5th January. It was in a villa named Indigo which has three bedrooms, three…
The Painting, We must Disarm the World.
The conclusion of this painting is not subtle, but the content is complex and needs some explaining. Good paintings speak for themselves, but this is not a good painting. The two peaks on the left…
Easter politics book
The Cross and Power.
The cross is precious to Christians, the centre of our salvation, the place of God’s forgiveness and grace to us, the place where human sin does its worst and loses, the measure of God’s love and the…
From War to Peace
Our Part in Destroying Yemen
In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher stepped in to do an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The opportunity occurred because the US during Carter’s Presidency tried to cut pushing arms around the world. Thatcher…
We Can Disarm the World
Two World Wars – Same Cause
BURYING THE MYTH OF APPEASEMENT: ARMS CAUSE WARS NOT PREVENT THEM. How industrial militarism got underway – the pioneers. A world dominant political ideology grows like a river flowing. Tributaries…
We Can Disarm the World
The New World Order – The Fall of the US.
The United Nations’ Rebuke to the US for its sanctions policy against Venezuela and the wicked consequences of it continues the UN movement from vasseldom to the US to independence from it. The…
The Bipolar West
Perhaps the West is post-democratic. Its voters no longer articulate where they stand ideologically and why. Elections are no longer debates. Rather leaders are promoted and sold, and other brands…
Jesus
Jesus and the Pandemic
Jesus went around healing. The Gospels are full of sickness, serious illness and healing, Jesus’ insistence on healing. We often focus on the healing miracles, stopping at their enormity, when, of…
Might Is Not Right – The Choice Is Clear.
Is it good for the world if the United States and China are armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons? The answer is clear. No. It is costly, threatening and destructive; sooner or later millions…
We Can Disarm the World
Might Is Not Right 4 Lethality
The MOD announces another contract. These are for missiles which will fly from planes to the ground to kill people. Killing people is wrong, but not when you describe it in these terms. “A…
We Can Disarm the World
Might Is Not Right 3 – Jesus Turns It Down.
The painting was messed up by a couple of failures which I’ll try to sort one day, but it signals up John 6 15 and the importance of politics throughout the Gospels. It shows the 5000 plus crowd…
We Can Disarm the World
Might Is Not Right – Military Bases and Projecting Power.
The UK has a load of military bases and theatres of activity around the world. They include, I think, the following. Afghanistan, Ascension Islands, Bahrain, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Estonia, British…
Might Is Not Right 2 Automated Killing
Elbit Systems, an Israeli company with a UK subsidiary, has been given a US$137 million contract by the UK Ministry of Defence to provide the British Armed Forces with the future target acquisition…
We Can Disarm the World
Your Continuous at Sea Nuclear Deterrent
Oh, ho, ho ,ho, we still are great. For we have nuclear subs. They are continuously at sea while you are all in pubs. Yes, they protect you ‘gainst the foe, in China, North Korea. We are your…
Politics
The Worldwide State Corporatist Model
We all need to understand State Corporatism. It is the system in politics where the State interlocks with big corporations, or companies, in running the nations. It has been about for a hundred and…
Big Picture Christianity
Prophecy Reconsidered
The Bible offers us God’s reflection over centuries, cultures and empires on our political ways and miseries, especially through the prophets through to Jesus. It is time to revisit prophecy, away…
Big Picture Christianity
A Christian Wake Up Call.
Things must change in British politics and public life. But why are Christians incapable of doing it? During the Evangelical Revival they ended slavery, provided education for the nation’s children –…
2020
TPNW
The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 2.
LAURA KUENNSBERG: Prime Minister, it is good of you to have this impromptu interview. BORIS: No, don’t mention it, Laura. The British public deserve to hear me as leader of our leading country…
“This Interview Does Not Exist” (Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – TPNW- 1)
BORIS: So, hello, this is my TV appearance for today. Thank you for submitting your questions early so that Dominic could think about them. Oh, Dominic’s gawn. Who did this? Laura, ask your question…
Christmas is Political
1. Jesus – God’s World Ruler
First, the central truth that Jesus is God’s World Ruler. We know it opened up in Isaiah 9 and throughout the prophets. “For to us a child is born, To us a son is given, And the government will be on…
Apologetics
God and Providence.
PROVIDENCE. A long standing Biblical and Christian understanding of the stuff around us is that God provides and we receive. Christians give thanks and are grateful for all that is provided because…
We Can Disarm the World
Militarism Is Replacing Democracy Around the World – This Should Concern Everyone.
It is obvious that militarism undermines democracy. States where the ruler looks to the army are different from states where governments are formed by democratic support. Either might is right, or…
Church and Society Articles
Can the Church of England Sing from the Same Hymnsheet on Gender and Marriage?
At the risk of inflaming discussion – oh what fun – I want to suggest that the Church of England and other Christian groups are doing a poor job of discussing marriage and gender issues for reasons…
Economics
Sunak’s Real Problem
Most of us can see a problem emerging for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Coronavirus has led to the excess expenditure of some £400 billion to keep the normal economy afloat. It is not over yet…
Christianity
How Has So Much American Evangelicalism Become So Distorted?
This is no slight problem. American Evangelicals (and the label is complex) have, in their links to Trump and their views, ignored so much of Christ’s teaching that the meaning of Christian faith…
We Can Disarm the World
A Full Remembrance Day Reflection
Each year we honour the dead, those who were slain in war for us. Often they were young men taken from life. We remember them. We think how many. We recall the horrors of gas, of submarine warfare…
We Can Disarm the World
The United Nations’ Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons Is Backed by the Church of England for the UK
OVER 30 BISHOPS INCLUDING BOTH ARCHBISHOPS HAVE URGED THE UK GOVERNMENT TO COMPLY WITH THIS TREATY TO HELP MOVE TOWARDS A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD. AT PRESENT THE UK GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO HIDE AWAY FROM…
Politics
Pricking the Trump Balloon
Let’s state the Christian obvious. God had created everything. Human beings just move stuff about. Those who claim to “create”, to be “big” are just blowing up their own balloons. Thatcher’s “wealth…
Re-Remembering War
Re-Remembering 4
THE INDIAN “MUTINY” (1857-9). RUNNING A CAPITALIST EMPIRE. Accounts of the Indian “mutiny” often focus down on little events or issues which tripped the “mutiny” into action, but it was part of a…
Re-Remembering War
Re-Remembering 3
3\. THE SECOND OPIUM WAR OF 1856-60. The East India Company imported opium from India to China, until in the 1830s there were five million addicts. The Qing Government issued a decree banning opium…
Re-Remembering 2
THE CRIMEAN WAR DISASTER AND THE LIES OF WAR. Wars generate lying on a massive scale. We are right and they are wrong. This is for the glory of the nation. This is your Christian duty. The Crimean…
Re-Remembering War
1. Re-Remembering War.
We are coming up to Remembrance Day, but this year it must be different. Usually, it is frozen in a sacred, silent respect for the dead and an implicit, always unchallenged, understanding that they…
All the World
Forget about Bojo and even Trump. They are dangerous froth. Dangerous because they are Tory autocratic and Plutocratic opponents of democracy. They need to be defeated democratically in elections…
The Reformation of the Church of England
The Facebook posts on the Church of England receive some interesting responses about what churches are doing, some nonconformist critiques and soft defences – No, its not really nationalist, but it…
Teresa/Trump letters
( read this slowly) My Americans,
I am your President and I am Donald Trump. I come before you and you will elect me again to be your greatest President because you are the greatest electorate in the world and we are going to make…
We Will Disarm the World in Five Years
We, the people of the world, can make peace. You, superpowers, have run the military show for a century – doing World Wars, Cold Wars, death and destruction everywhere. You have had your turn and it…
We Can Disarm the World
Ending the Military Science and Technology of Killing
THE AGE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL WARFARE. Science is seen as benign, but around the world the military and the arms industry does much of the world’s most advanced scientific and technical…
May/Boris
Hello My People.
Now we have conquered Coronavirus, I thought it would be a good time to have a fireside chat. As you know, I am both Churchill and Roosevelt. Of course, you must still wash your hands as I taught…
What Are Exam Results for?
Let us look properly at this exam results crisis with Covid – not at the detailed problems with estimation, but with all the issues in the bigger scheme of things which are brushed under the carpet…
The End of Talking It Up
TALKING UP is a vast cultural move. Lots of people do it and believe in it. That is understandable because advertising is the biggest cultural force on the planet, apart from Christianity, and it is…
A World Liability
We call ourselves Great and see much of our history as glorious, but this rethinking of slavery and colonialism may cast us in a very different light. Perhaps, even, the United Kingdom needs to…
Big Picture Christianity
This Is the World Crisis
The word, “Crisis”, may be is overused, but it has its content. Events explode out of normal channels into destructive and fast-moving processes we cannot control. But you did not notice the key…
An Estimate of the Economic Costs of the Second World War
Sometimes War Costs are calculated by trying to add up figures of national income but they rarely see the full picture, because the real changes are so complex. A big danger is that GDP figures might…
We Think Too Late
We are all slow in our thinking. Changing our mind may take ten years, but by then the chance is over. Consider the end of the Cold War. The USSR had imploded under its military costs, and both…
Christianity and the Market Now
Sometimes the Lord God collects the ball from the other side of the pitch, puts it in front of you on the six yard line and says, “Kick”, and it is like that now on Markets. What are Markets? The…
Reassessing China’s Surveillance.
I’m sorry. This is a time when I have to step up to the plate and admit I was wrong. Let’s give some background. I had looked at the way China was treated by the colonial powers in the 19th century…
One Standard for All
So, for a short time, world-wide, we are sober and can address ourselves because of Coronavirus. We have tried to preserve life, especially the lives of the old and weak, because we should. Billions…
What is Said and Done
Simply because it is the Prime Minister, we have to address the words. I use the Guardian’s account. The prime minister expressed optimism the UK was “making progress in this incredible national…
Bible
Jesus, Easter and Politics
This Easter many Church services were to have taken place, but they have had to be cancelled. They would have been almost apolitical in content. Yet, Jesus life, especially during Easter week, death…
The Next Stage – we need a new Tax on Bank Deposits
Unless the Government Accounts are to go into total meltdown we will need some more Government revenue through taxes – new taxes. The best one I can think of is a tax on bank deposits, personal and…
War or Peace?
The Journey to 1945
How industrial militarism got underway – the pioneers. Becoming a militarized world did not happen by accident. As industrialization took place, it was planned by those who wanted to make and sell…
We Shall Disarm the World
NOT SWALLOWING CAMELS. War, militarism and the arms trade probably account for more than half the world’s injustice and evil. Jesus warned us about straining out gnats and swallowing camels. This is…
Turning the Big Switch
We experience fighting and violence day by day. There is the trooping of the colour and the services of remembrance, but that is not it. Activities of state around the world are done with soldiers…
Can the Church of England Do Anything?
I was thinking this morning about a friend, John Houghton, a lovely man whom it is a privilege to know. Then I became utterly pissed off with the Church of England. That needs a bit more explanation…
We Will Line You Up Against a Wall
So, we call you out, you who hide behind Whitehall, the Pentagon and the talk of defence, but sell the killing stuff wherever you can. Come out, all of you. You have designed the kit, to blast homes…
The Emergence of the Trivial Life.
Often the biggest changes emerge almost unnoticed, and in the 1920s a world-shaping change emerged in the new affluent United States in both the East and West. What do you do when you are rich and…
2019
Big Picture Christianity
The World Church
It is astonishing that in the 21st century the World Church should be so fragmented and never realize its biblical identity or think of acting together. There is no conceivable doubt that the Church…
Brexit, the Church of England and Welby’s political position
The Archbishop of Canterbury seems set to accept an invitation to chair a post-Brexit Reconciliation Panel. Justin Welby’s political position on Brexit is: the people decided to leave in the…
Viasat’s Money and Priti Patel.
Priti Patel is Minister of State at the Home Office. It is suggested she should withdraw from any Cabinet discussions on an advanced military satellite system contract that the MOD is considering…
Why is Militarism on the Inside of Government and Protest on the Outside?
The Queen, a gracious Head of State, is surrounded by soldiers, changing guard, being inspected, sloping arms and marching round her. She emphatically does not need them, but they are history, we…
The World-Wide Spy System and Christ.
Spying and Covert Politics. Everybody should think about spying and the secret services; it is one of the world’s great problems. Since WW2 it has been linked with internal repression, dirty tricks…
Before Annas – Politics in the Light
Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. Although Judas came to identify him in the dark and facilitate the arrest, Jesus stepped forward, identified himself and insisted that only he be…
My Great Speech to the Nation
Could I just say how honoured I am to be your new Prime Minister. I would just like to say what a fine Prime Minister Theresa May has been, and if she had had better support, she might be standing…
Why Trump is more stupid than Cheney
The United States kills far more of its own people than have ever been killed by other states. We knew the number killed in the US Civil War is roughly equal to the Americans killed in all external…
From War to Peace
Why War After Versailles? It’s the Arms Companies.
It is time for a real debate on War. There is one group that profits from wars and rumours of war and that is the arms companies. War is their business. They say, “The prevention of War is our…
Jesus and Politics
Christ’s Anti-Populism
Early in the Gospels there is a verse which says that Jesus trusted nobody because he knew what was in their hearts. In particular he did not trust people who flocked to him. He was anti-populist. In…
BAe SYSTEMS, THE BLAIR GOVERNMENT, THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE V MR. JUSTICE BEAN.
There has never been a case like this in UK Courts. BAe were guilty of corruption in relation to Tanzania. I say this in defiance of the sentence, because as Mr Justice Bean makes clear, because the…
Teresa/Trump letters
You Do It My Way
(This text is transcribed from a small voice recording machine obtained through the White House rubbish disposal system which occasionally does not work properly) Oh, where the fuck is that voice…
From War to Peace
The End of Johnson and Hunt
Oh Nazanin, how could we all have been so stupid. We are so sorry and rage at our UK Governments, especially this one, for this sordid history. A Guardian article today links the wrongful detention…
From War to Peace
The MOD Puts a Dummy in Its Mouth and Westminster Abbey Sucks
THE PEACE-FREAKING SERVICE. Westminster Abbey is holding a service to “Recognize Fifty Years at Sea Continuous Deterrent” on the 3rd of May. We are told this is a “peace keeping through the…
Easter politics book
6. Peace and weeping over Jerusalem.
We need to hear the social dynamics of the Gospels. Here they are astonishing. Jesus is surrounded by personal adulation. Normal people milk the crowds, enjoy the popularity, become slightly smug or…
Easter politics book
The King Enters Jerusalem – the Political Choreography.
The churchy view of this event often does not quite get there. There are palm crosses mixing messages, because the palms were adulation and the cross was suffering, and there is the King but not a…
Easter politics book
Chapter One: He has the Paperwork
King of the Jews That Easter was political can’t really be in doubt. Titles define politics – President, Shah, Prime Minister, Chancellor, Minister, Czar, Ayatollah. The terms in Jesus, time were…
From War to Peace
A Fifty Years At Sea Independent Nuclear Pointless
We have a fifty years at sea continuous independent nuclear deterrent. Every day at least one nuclear submarine prowls the seas around the world, ready to launch nuclear missiles with multiple…
Teresa/Trump letters
Dear Donald, What a roller coaster…
Dear Donald, Well what a roller coaster it is running world politics! I recognise that Medium Britain, as I now call it in deference to the Great United States of America, is concerned with more…
Blog
Media Addiction, Children and Education
MOVEMENT FOR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY Discussion Paper Alan Storkey Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image which teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation…
2018
Big Picture Christianity
Big Picture Christianity
1\. The Christian World Presence. About 2.3 billion Christians are found around the world in most countries and continents. In cultures not historically Christian, like China, there are at least 50…
From War to Peace
Understanding the Early Nazis
Around the world the Nazis are understood as the personification of evil, and rightly so. The Holocaust was the most evil act ever and the people who did it are beyond understanding, because entering…
From War to Peace
St Peter’s Church, Coton: One Hundred Years’ Remembrance Sermon.
The text today is Jesus’ words. “Those who take the sword will perish by the sword.” WE HONOUR THE WAR DEAD. We are gathered here to remember and honour our dead and injured in the Great War, perhaps…
From War to Peace
How the Churches Have Learned Not to Do Peace, but Can Start World Disarmament If They Wake Up.
THE CHURCHES CHOKE ON PEACE. Nobody can doubt that Christianity and the Bible major on Peace – peace with God, peace with yourself, with your neighbour, and nation shall speak peace unto nation…
We Can Disarm the World
How World Disarmament Must Happen
This is a request you sign a petition, but more, it shares a strategy and understanding you may want to own. The points are not new, but putting them on the table together points the way ahead. It’s…
Militarism – The Biggest Failure of Value-Free Economics
There is a long critique of economics that looks at the value-free way it totals product, expenditure and income. If I buy, it is expenditure, but if I do unpaid (make a cup of coffee, build a house…
A Strategy for World Multilateral Disarmament
This is a request you sign a petition, but more, it shares a strategy and understanding you may want to own. The points are not new, but putting them on the table together points the way ahead. It’s…
World War One’s Great Buried Conclusion – World Multilateral Disarmament
In November this year – the centenary of the end of the Great War – much of the world’s population will be wondering why WW1 was not the “War to end all Wars”. They will probably not hear an answer…
Another Corbyn anti-Semetism charge, but look at the context.
There is a concerted campaign to smear Corbyn with anti-Semitism. here are some source materials to 2014 and the Commons Debate on recognising both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine…
Notes on the Dollar: There could be trouble ahead
US is involved in Tariff War with China and aggressive deals with others. US has substantial long-term trade deficits, so that China and Japan have come to own a lot of US assets.There is an…
Bible
Peace on God’s Terms: the Book of Isaiah
Hearing Isaiah. We can all read biblical texts many times without hearing them. Jesus warned, quoting God’s words to Isaiah about the message he was to carry, “You will be ever hearing, but not…
May/Boris
Another letter
My Dear Theresa, Thank you for your letter, which, I think, will not go down to posterity. No, I will not apologize. I understand that you and your cronies need to black me out before the upcoming…
From War to Peace
Your Brilliant New Fighter Concept Plane Thing.
The Vision of the Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson. Perhaps you missed the announcement about Britain’s new fighter. You, just a single little person, do not really need to understand…
Teresa/Trump letters
Trump’s Final Briefing from May
My dear Donald, if I May, So, at last you are coming. I am ecstatic. It is just what I need right now in the calm of the English summer. We politicians are just sitting about eating strawberries…
Teresa/Trump letters
Donald – you and Kim Jong-un
My Dear Donald, I know you are busy talking to Kim Jong-un but I just had to drop you a line, and, as you know, I cannot Tweet. First of all the G7 Summit. It was good to see you there from a…
Exhibition: God’s creativity and ours Sunday, 20th Coton. You are welcome.
Art Exhibition: God’s Creativity and ours. Coton Village Hall, Parish Room, Church and Churchyard Sunday, 20th May, 10.00-5-00 Alan Storkey. The complex language of creation We see each day and…
Exhibition
Viewforth early dusk.
Rather proud of this one. Looking across the links towards the Barclay Church, Edinburgh
Creativity exhibition
Epitaph to the Sun Newspaper
Do newspaper editors, writers and owners ever consider that they might harm people? Day in, day out, the “tabloids” in some of their coverage pump out pulp stirring celebrity soup, ripping into…
Creativity exhibition
Grantchester Millpond.
This is another of the Grantchester Eight, the one we have in our living room. It probably fits the Grantchester sonnet best, so, I’ll include it again. GOOD MORNING, GRANTCHESTER. Hello, says God…
Creativity exhibition
Grantchester below Mill
Another of the Grantchester Eight, below the mill in late summer.
Creativity exhibition
Grantchester at Dawn
Another Grantchester painting. Not always around to see the dawn, but the start of each day is always something special.
Creativity exhibition
Grantchester, Winter Morning
Here’s the third Grantchester painting, my biggest landscape. Looking towards the mill, early morning in late winter. Always Gods glory.
Creativity exhibition
Hello, says God, Good Morning, Grantchester.
Two paintings by the Cam. Another six to follow. One Sonnet. GOOD MORNING, GRANTCHESTER. Hello, says God, Good Morning, Grantchester. Today we have a rose and yellow dawn. No need to hurry. Toast and…
Creativity exhibition
A Bit of the Big Picture
So, first, the experience. Away at a meeting of Movement for Christian Democracy at Scargill House deep in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales perhaps two decades ago. Winterish, but with a wind and…
Blog
Cambridge Analytica/Facebook/Russia
Today there is a vast system persuading us to buy things. It is already corrupt in the sense that it uses psychological techniques, forms of bribery, convinces people to buy things they do not need…
Creativity exhibition
The Heavens are telling the Glory of God
Experiencing the creation as it is, this morning and every day, cannot be done without the word “glory” crowding in. Glory is everywhere in little things and big. It is the glory of God, the…
Christianity
Christ’s Defeat of the Cross
The Cross is sometimes not understood by non-Christians. Why should Christians venerate this awful event, and even, to use Paul’s words, glory in the Cross? It seems perverse. The opposite is true…
From War to Peace
Christ’s Victory over the Cross.
Christ defeated militarism on the Cross. The conflict may go unnoticed, but is perhaps the most important in human history. In his teaching Jesus insisted, “Do not fear those who can kill you, but…
Blog
Don’t let Communist Russia get away with it.
Could I say, as Foreign Secretary for Overseas how completely disgusting it is that Putin is poisoning our Russians. Mr Skruple is an honoured citizen among us, one of the people we want to welcome…
From War to Peace
Can the Church run?
We Christians are running the race, individually and corporately. There should be training, singlemindedness, speed, and perseverance in the race. We are to get to the finish, God’s finish. Paul is…
Teresa/Trump letters
Let’s talk about the Weather
Hello, ordinary folk, Weather will cover the whole of the UK today, and it will get jolly worse overnight. I am going to talk about it because it doesn’t involve reading, and I am Foreign Secretary…
Teresa/Trump letters
My World Policy
Dear TERESA, got it right, but now my dictation typist takes over. I dictate and she rights. Sometimes we leaders have got to stick together, though I am the leader of the Free World and you are…
Before the Eye
We Cambridge people think things through a bit, While you make light of light and then switch off. So photons travel 60 trillion miles, without much fuel, nearly straight ahead, while we are merely…
Blog
My Speech to the Nation
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I have been asked by Teresa to speak to you about Brexit, and I am happy to oblige. It is a privilege. Indeed, privilege to be an Englishman, and to vote for myself and…
To the President of the Great United States of America.
My dear Donald, Could I just say that you are a wonderful President and are leading the Great United States of America to a new wonderful future and are making decisive decisions every day and are…
Teresa/Trump letters
My dear Donald, if I still may,
It has been very good to listen to you on the phone and to meet you at Davos. I must say we have tremendous rapport, stand shoulder to shoulder and I am right behind you. And I know, contrary to…
The Christian Political Faith: Re-Opening the Door.
Christianity has had a deep impact on politics for two thousand years, but its principles and commitments have often been mixed with other attitudes and been compromised by actual Christian…
Sociology
The Stage Beyond, “Their Time Is Up.”
The recent exposure of sexual violence and exploitation in Hollywood, politics, in London taxis and many other places has resulted in a reaction among women which is firm and cannot be dismissed. It…
We Can Disarm the World
The SLOWNUKE App.
Hello, there, I am your friend and a technological whizz kid. I have been researching and making operational an amazing technological development in the field of nuclear weapons. We have developed an…
Teresa/Trump letters
New Year’s Greetings.
My dear Donald, This is to wish you a happy New Year, and also to the employee reading this to you. Now it is 2018, another year, and we will all have to do different things. My New Year resolution…
We Can Disarm the World
Think about this year and peace.
On the 11th November 2018 the whole world will be recalling the end of the Great War, the War to end all wars. They will think of war and peace then, and perhaps only then. But they will be aimless…
2017
Politics
Ms. Patel, aid to Israel, Boris, Fallon, Fox, the Arms Industry and the Truth?
The media have focussed on the sacking of Priti Patel as Secretary of State for International Aid, and breaking the Ministerial Code, but they have said little about what she was doing in all her…
A Large Bias in the Remembrance Day Memory
On Remembrance Day we remember those in the armed services who were killed and injured in all wars, but especially this year in the First World War. This has been the year of Ypres and Passchendaele…
Fake News and the Right Wing Media
As the discussion of fake news grows I have been inclined, without thought, to see it as something generated by the new fast media. Of course, there are new techniques, but I was awakened this…
Truth and the Sociology of the Gospels
Jesus’ Parable of the Minas (Luke 19 11-27)
Introduction. For a while I have been unhappy with the interpretation of this parable which is generally accepted. Normally it is linked with Matthew 25 14-30, the parable of the talents and it is…
Christianity
Reinstating Holiness in life today.
The Strange Word. Holiness does not seem to feature much in our general culture, and many of us will not have thought about the word for ages. A year could pass in the Daily Mail or Channel Four…
Blog
Party Leaders, Winning, Emptiness and Popularity.
The Conservative Party needs a leader. Since Thatcher, long-lived and falsely successful leadership (North Sea Oil and selling off the State’s family silver) we have had John Major, William Hague…
The Fragmentation of Western Christianity and Addressing it.
This paper, appearing in stages, suggests western Christianity of differing types has fragmented and in part lost its way. As a result of this failure Secularisms of various kinds, some dangerous and…
Blog
Good Morning, troopers,
It is exciting that you have turned out in such large numbers and have managed to finish breakfast by this unearthly hour. My first hope for Brexit is that the Full English breakfast will be returned…
From War to Peace
What Mr Fox says
Liam Fox, the UK Government International Trade Secretary, spoke at the DSEI Arms Fair and is quoted in The Independent as saying the following: “If nations and peoples have an inalienable right to…
From War to Peace
A Christian Policy for North Korea
The time has long come for some clear thinking about the North Korean military threat. But, of course, it is not the only military threat in the area. Another is the United States under President…
European not Brexit Christianity.
Anglican Christianity did not express a strong view on Brexit. It issued a prayer for the Referendum which was scrupulously neutral between staying and leaving. It seemed that the Anglican commitment…
Teresa/Trump letters
My Very Dear Donald,
Thank you for your wonderful letter full of informalities and pearls of wisdom. Could you put the “e” before the “r” in my name, please. It’s harder than “Donald”. I shall treasure it as pure you and…
Teresa/Trump letters
Dear Treesa
I thort i’ts time yoo gotten a tweet from me to yoo NOW. I try to rite out of the system, so they carnt get me. Sleazy Washington that is. I learnt to tipe for my fans and twitter, but will not put…
Coach Transport
A National Integrated Coach System for £10-20 billion in five years
Summary. Tackling road congestion requires the highest efficiency in passenger movement, especially in terms of using road space. Cars are profligate, using 20-60 metres per passenger. Coaches cut…
Economics
Wrong and why it was – The Coming UK Economic Crisis.
Review. This analysis, or alanysis, has proved wrong and I need to apologise that it was so, and also try to assess why. So, first the apology. I am sorry for a prediction that proved false and I…
I need your advice, Donald
My dear Donald, This letter is more personal than my previous ones. Then we were concerned about rockets and you sorting the world, but I have a problem and need your help. Were you not such a superb…
Bible
Truth and the Sociology of the Gospels
Are the Gospels True Records? Most people want to know in a broad sense whether the Gospels are true or not. Immediately there is a lot to take on before one would give assent including miraculous…
Politics
Do you want a Capitalist Run Health Service?
A Capitalist National Health Service. The NHS has been discussed in this election in terms of chronic underfunding, but not much in terms of its continuing privatisation. National Health Action, one…
Blog
My dear Donald
It was good and positive to see you at the podium again, exercising strong leadership and speaking to the world. I see you were wearing a red tie. It is a good move. I have been wearing a lot of red…
Blog
The Brexit Negotiations – Why May does not matter.
The central claim in the Conservative election campaign is that May, alone among the leaders, can bargain a good Brexit deal. The election was called to give her a mandate and we should vote for her…
We Can Disarm the World
The United States kindles modern Islamic Militarism.
However, Carter’s biggest failure occurred in relation to Afghanistan, a blot on an otherwise deeply peace-seeking Presidency. A key figure in his administration was Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National…
The Anglican Failure on War and Terrorism and the Growth of Peace
Today Jeremy Corbyn will make an important speech. He will point out that the broader Western policy of military dominance and war has contributed to the development of terrorism. This is not to…
More important than Brexit – our accumulated trade deficit
This all voters need to know. More important than the Brexit trade deals is the UK trade deficit. It is sometimes called the “hidden deficit”. It is usually measured by the Current Account and is…
Critique of the Archbishops’ Election Letter
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written a three page letter about the UK election to be disseminated this weekend. Such letters, this one at short notice, can be mildly considered on a…
Dear Donald, if I may,
Can I just say how magnificent you were at your inauguration, Mr. President. I wish I had been part of the innumerable crowd. I am writing because we have lost a nuclear wocket. It went slightly…
My Dear Donald,
My Dear Donald, No sooner had I stepped carefully into the plane than I thought of writing to you to thank you for your hospitality and to cement our special relationship. I can still remember the…
2016
We Can Disarm the World
This Time We Remember and Think It Through.
This Remembrance Day could be a solemn, but frozen, remembrance of those who died in war, including the First World War, or we could go further and think through why wars happen. Here are two dozen…
We Can Disarm the World
The Fear Machine.
Jesus’ teachings on fear may be more important than we recognize. We tend to think of “not being afraid”, a subjective attitude, as the focus of Jesus’ repeated commands. But perhaps, when he says…
We Can Disarm the World
Teresa May’s Fictions on the Trident Nuclear Weapons’ System
(written for Christians on the Left) In her first policy debate in the Commons as Prime Minister, Teresa May pushed through the gateway decision on the new Trident Nuclear system. The debate was…
The Iraq War
War does not work. Disarmament does.
It is time to change a basic British attitude. For a century of more we have been taught that, sometimes, our going to war is good and can bring about a better world. Blair believed that, together…
The Iraq War
The British Military Formation of Iraq.
The End of the Cold War and the possibility of Peace. On the 2nd August, 1990 Iraqi troops under the orders of Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and started the Gulf War. It was a momentous event in…
The Iraq War
A Summary of Possible Conclusions on the Iraq Inquiry (before Chilcot published)
The Iraq Inquiry Report comes out on Wednesday, 6th July. There will be a few days debate in Parliament and then the Summer Recess will arrive and people will be off on their holidays, and we will…
The Iraq War
The Iraq War Report
The Iraq Inquiry Report comes out on Wednesday, 6th July. There will be a few days debate in Parliament and then the Summer Recess will arrive and people will be off on their holidays, and we will…
Jesus and Politics
Jesus and Power.
edited version of talk given at WYSOCS Conference, Leeds, 14/5/2016 Christianity is two billion people going to Church on Sunday? Correct? Not exactly. Sometimes it might seem like that with clergy…
The Iraq War
Was the Iraq War Unlawful?
Tony Blair, as Prime Minister, was primarily responsible for the United Kingdom observing the rule of international law, including that embodied in the United Nations. As with all Prime Ministers, he…
Jesus
Jesus’ Parable of the Minas (Luke 19: 11-27)
JESUS’ PARABLE OF THE MINAS (Luke 19 11-27) Introduction. For a while I have been unhappy with the interpretation of this parable which is generally accepted. Normally it is linked with Matthew 25…
From War to Peace
Background to Iraq – slaves to our history
Iraq seeks its Independence. Iraq has a long history which goes back to the dawn of writing and even the Garden of Eden. Abraham journeyed from Ur. The Babylonian Empire rose and fell here, and after…
Christian Perspectives
The Servant Queen and the Whole Earth
The Bible Society, HOPE and the London Institute have just published a lovely book, entitled “The Servant Queen” as a tribute to the Queen on her 90th birthday. It shows Elizabeth’s clear sense of…
Apologetics
Big Picture Christianity
Chapter One: Some Starting Points. Christianity and world culture. Christianity is the faith of perhaps two billion people world-wide. It is the largest faith community by a long way, and it is…
War or Peace?
The Unnecessary Cold War.
Chapter Twenty Five: The Unnecessary Cold War. Rethinking the Cold War. The Cold War became normal for my generation throughout most of their lives. It lasted from, say, 1946 to 1990, forty four…
2015
We Can Disarm the World
Arms limerick
Said the salesman, “You must buy our arms, Like your neighbours, to face wars’ alarms. For when they attack, You can then strike back, Without any military qualms.
Blog
Sataday mornin market.
Michael were a bit pissed, an he peeled orf Freda’s arm. “I’m just gooin t’maarkit,” he say. The pigs, they were a screechin and the Auctioneer were rattlin on as he go over the stones ter the ring…
Worldviews
Racialism and Nationalism
Introduction. The Statism examined in chapter one contributed to both Russian Socialism and the dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin, but Racialism involved another set of commitments and ideas which…
Worldviews
Postmodernism.
Overview. Postmodernism is a cultural movement which has marked the last few decades of the 20th century. It is there, even here, but many people are not sure what it is. Partly, this is because it…
We Can Disarm the World
Pursuing Peace honestly in Iraq and Syria
1.Bombing does not add up to a Policy. The Conservative proposal for bombing ISIS is being presented as policy. It is an attempt to damage ISIS and cause it to contract from the area it is fighting…
Blog
The Moneychangers in the Temple
I have been asleep most of my life in relation to the level of control exercised by the Right in western politics. Just doing work on the United States at the end of WW2. Roosevelt had fought the…
Blog
Autumn Statement Review
This is, if you want it, another review of the Autumn Statement. Osborne is giving away £6.2 bn more next year, half on tax credits. It is a slight anti-austerity move. His basis for so doing is an…
We Can Disarm the World
Twenty Four Arguments Against Renewing Trident
The Ministry of Defence and repeated Governments have been trying to keep the issue of renewing Trident – the UK’s nuclear weapons system – off the political agenda, mainly because the case for it is…
Blog
Self-righteousness and the Council Tax
Jesus’ life and teaching towers over human history and politics. He is the light that shows us what is going on in clarity and true perspective. First, we listen to him and then we see, darkly at…
From War to Peace
One Victory for Peace – Christian Democracy in Europe after 1945
Chapter Twenty Five: One victory for Peace – Christian Democracy in Europe. Militarism did not have it all its own way and there is one astonishing story which now enters the frame. Europe had been…
Economics
Money Creation, Credit Seigniorage, Vanishing Money and the Banking Crises
email comments to alan@storkey.com. Any reasonable use may be made of all or parts of this paper. This version: 05/11/2011, early versions 2008-9. Summary. As a series of severe banking crises occur…
Psalms
Psalm 46
Psalm 46 “He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth.” What does this Song mean? It rocks across vast themes and defies a merely poetic interpretation. Let’s have a go at it. The opening is…
Poetry
Post Modern Easter
(written over several Easters around the events of the Iraq-Kuwait-Allied forces war, jury service at Harrow Crown Court and the Spring Harvest Easter Celebration at Butlin’s, Minehead) Is this the…
Christian Perspectives
A Biblical Worldview of Government
(A short summary paper of some key principles for discussion) Some two billion of the world’s population are Christian. They hold, varyingly, a perspective on politics and government drawn from and…
Epistemology
Foundational Epistemologies in Consumption Theory
FOUNDATIONAL EPISTEMOLOGIES IN CONSUMPTION THEORY Alan Storkey VU University Press is an imprint of: VU Boekhandel/Uitgeverij bv De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands tel. (0)20-6444355…