From the Liverpool Waterfront ~ Podcast Recording from Gaydio Manchester

From the Liverpool Waterfront ~ Podcast

Recording from Gaydio Mixed Tape, Manchester 2012

I

Over eleven years I made podcasts which went out from the Liverpool Waterfront. All but three of the 122 Podcasts are in my author name Ian Bradley Marshall, which I rarely use, although I maintain because all my published works in print and on Kindle are in that name.

Most writers have author names. Many will have several names depending upon the genre of the title they are writing about.

I took my parents’ advice on this, and I remember my father’s gentle forthrightness, more, a touching of the rudder.

“If you write contentiously, not everyone will approve. Always remember the factor often overlooked, Ken. People who have a gripe are likely to have long memories. Envy motivates.”

— DBW

My mother considered my request to use her maiden name and, reader, rest assured that that request was considered very carefully. It was not a ‘given’. To this day, I remember the look, and the sense of privilege being bestowed upon me to write in the maternal family name of Marshall. I remember, too, the absolute joy I saw in my Mum when being informed that her second great-grandson’s middle name was Marshall. That took all of us by surprise. And it was wonderful.

I’m sometimes asked about the other names. The quiet reply, seen but never heard, is the flip side of the saying that a picture tells a thousand words. If that be the case, reader, then the eyes, with a gentle almost imperceptible smile, speak a million words, and we quickly pass on.

II

I am of the old school, pre-social media era, which means I remember a lifetime as an adult approaching my fifties when social media was still several years away. Not even Facebook existed. That was still thirteen years into the future (2004). In 1991, the world was very different. We were yet to enter into the frenzy of nightly chat shows kiss n tell before the watershed hour and kiss n tell ALL because we demand to know, and you are required to tell us whether you like it or not after the watershed hour.

I look back at the two decades straddled by 122 podcasts and now realise that it is essential that they remain in place. However, sentiments expressed at the time of recording are not always held by me now, in 2023.

I did not like the idea of leaving the European Union, and the podcasts reflect that.

They also reflect acceptance of Brexit because I live in a vibrant democracy.

I did not relish the idea of Scotland becoming independent. Through my maternal grandmother I am connected directly to my Scottish ancestors. The break-up of the union is a fearful prospect, and my podcasts reflect that fear, reflecting a mindset that has long changed.

I look to the day when we have a completely united Ireland - the people are moving quietly towards that, and the politicians need to get in step - and if the people of Scotland choose independence, then I will support them. They will need all the support they can get because the EU will not by any means rush them ahead to the front of the applications to join the queue.

Likewise, Wales.

But in these very dangerous times, we would be foolish to presume that we are safe.

The War in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia, and the War in Israel and Gaza following the holocaust of 7 October 2023 by HAMAS remind me that we should never presume that our freedom and independence is permanent.

Dark forces are feverishly at work in that so-called Land of the Free across the Pond. Isolationism is once again gaining a foothold. It happens every time.

“If we isolate ourselves, we are large enough to self-sustain. So leave the world to fight amongst themselves.”

— KTW

The Quiffe - otherwise known as donald the trump - has other plans. With knowledge comes the ability to understand; with understanding comes the ability to discern facts and to discern what would be right and wrong, what would be good and bad. And discernment is dependent upon wisdom, the ability to set our course on the basis of our knowledge, understanding and discernment.

But one thing that people offshore cannot always fathom is that we are an Island people, a Maritime people. Our mindset is different to that of landlocked nation-states. And I have no doubts, that if the United Kingdom became four independent nations, always keep one thing in mind. It is this…

Families stick together. They fight amongst themselves like I don’t know what! But should an outsider decide to pitch in, suddenly the family unites as one. And that person, if that person is lucky, will escape with clothes, albeit in tatters. We also have our institutions embedded within two thousand years of structure, development and history.

I look at the Land of the Free and think,

“Erm, fifty states, resting upon a mere 247 years of independent history. Well, turn those fifty states into 50 nation states and watch the mayhem. Even if they do it peacefully, their institutions embedded within 247 years of structure, development and history would be a doddle to unravel. Already, dark forces are unravelling the 1776 United States Constitution.”

— KTW ibid

Try doing that in Britain. Some, here, want a written constitution. But we have an unwritten constitution. And in the writing we can reach back to Magna Carta. In other words, our constitution is constantly evolving and adapting to new circumstances, but keeping in place 808-year-old main fabric. We are, as four nations, so interwoven, and this interweaving was never more evident than on the week following The Queen’s death at Balmoral, Scotland on Thursday 8 September 2022 and when, for the first time in 121 years, the United Kingdom heard that proclamation

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King

The Nation had last heard this in 1901 upon the death of Queen Victoria Empress of India and the new reign of the King Emperor Edward VII. Queen Victoria had reigned for sixty-four years. The Late Queen reigned for seventy years. I look at the ensuing 122 years up to today. In my own lifetime as a youngster and then as a teenager, I watched an empire morph into a commonwealth. It used to be officially referred to as the British Empire and its Commonwealth. During this morphing, for a very short time we referred to the British Commonwealth. But this did not seem right. It was not right. Freedom and Democracy rightly demanded change. A further morphing took place into what we now know as the Commonwealth of Nations, and whose Articles empower the Commonwealth to appoint its own Head.

In time, we will see Australia and New Zealand with their own independent Heads of State. Yet the warmth will remain. There is something else that should never be under-estimated. The Commonwealth of Nations comprises fifty-six independent nation states, and we thus find an untold evolution from its original seven nation states.

II

The one factor, worldwide, that stands to mess everything up entirely, is human nature. Humankind sees itself as the ultimate Species, that which has evolved out of Nature. Human Nature insists that:

Nature is subordinate.
Inanimate.
Without intent, absent of soul, bereft of spirit.

III

The 20th Century was still finding it difficult to come to terms with the 19th Century’s Charles Darwin’s Origin and the Evolution of Species.

It caused the Nazis apoplexy, as it threw into mayhem their warped ideology of Arianism. This in turn led to a deliberate and sustained attempt to exterminate the Jewish People, the mentally and physically disordered, the Gyspy or Romany Peoples and homosexuals and other deviants ~ today’s LGBTQI+ worldwide community.

Yet, in this 21st Century, many still cling to such rubbish. And they will kill and deliberately dismember in furtherance thereof. It pops up constantly in conspiracy theory whose intense breeding ground is social media.

Meanwhile,

Nature looks on.
Nature adapts.
Nature is ever present.
When the universe seemingly closes down,
Nature waits patiently.
One senses that Nature is outside
of what we call time.

IV

In this 21st Century we are constantly finding new species, never before seen, and yet in existence for millions of years. We are troubled. How can this be? We are the ultimate species.

Nature smiles benignly in reply
but with that very knowing look,
the one that says,

“Well, you might take a different view if you saw what was approaching. But hey ho. You know better. But I know this, too. When you are gone, I will still be here. I will await my time. It may be millions, even billions of years.”

— IBMKTW 2023

Ian Bradley Marshall MIXED TAPE Gaydio Broadcast

27 November 2023
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Digital Artwork by KTW

The Banner Image is by Courtesy of the Owner and Artist Frau Rita Schneeweiß
Der Himmel über Rheinland-Pfalz im 14 Apri. 2021
and to whom all rights are reserved. R.S.

The Skies over the the Rhineland Palatinate on 14 April 2021