Fourteen

Via aljazeera.com

As the sublimely wonderful Stevie Wonder so eloquently pointed out, if you believe in things that you don`t understand; you suffer – superstition ain`t the way. It is a distinct possibility that what separates religion from superstition is the comparative definition of faith and idiocy but when politics, the economy and policies ranging from health, education and immigration seem to be pulled from magic hats by black cats and chimney sweeps, tarot readings and the most transparent of crystal balls now pass for governance.

The French, during what became known as la belle époque between the Franco Prussian War and the First World War, invented a delightful compromise between religion and superstition by creating a new and lucrative career. Realising that 13 sitting down to dinner would result in terrible bad luck because that was the number taking part in the last supper, professional dinner party guests could be employed to make up the 14. Known as “Quatorzièmes”, these witty raconteurs could expect free food and drink in exchange for some outrageous banter the more scandalous and questionable the better. Inadvertently, the early “Quatorzièmes” paved the way for 21st century politicians and professional controversialist to make money and expect free food and drink by spreading outrageous, scandalous and questionable banter.

By spooky chance, 14 is the number of unaccompanied refugee children allowed to leave the scandalous camp in Calais known as the Jungle. Pretending to be shocked by images of dead and dying children attempting to flee from illegal wars in violent war zones, the UK government decided ages ago to allow 20,000 desperate human beings some form of sanctuary within our borders by 2020. Additionally, children with family members already in the UK would be allowed to join those families. That was agreed and passed into law in May, five months ago.

The minibus had not yet arrived in Croydon before scurrilous newspapers who endlessly tub thump about insecure borders and British sovereignty yet keep their profits safely beyond UK borders and well away from the taxman were bleating that these were not children but terrorists. Hanging up the garlic and sharpening wooden stakes in preparation for a vampire invasion, the superstitious villagers have heeded the warnings of the Shamans making a good living exploiting hatred and ignorance. Look…look, a woman was raped by a footballer. She`s a witch…burn her…burn her. Look…a child possessed by the Devil…kill it…kill it.

As we tumble back towards the dark ages of Salem and Pendle, consider the new witch hunts based on an accidental place of birth being Aleppo and now Mosul. The west, including the UK; scream outrage and demand accountability for the war crimes being committed by Russia and the Syrian regime. Bombing the blazes out of Aleppo civilians in order to dislodge a relatively small force of anti-Assad rebels is clearly the action of corrupt and barbaric monsters displaying little or no respect for a horse shoe placed above the door.

How very different are the actions of the western coalition in Iraq. Allowing the Kurdish Peshmerga and a questionable if heavily armed Iraqi army to do the dirty work, western air powers, including the Royal Ait Force, are bombing the blazes out of Mosul civilians in order to dislodge a relatively small force of IS rebels. Putin and Assad are laughing all the way to the graveyard. Bombing Aleppo and bombing Mosul creates only three things; corpses, refugees and blatant sorcery. The 14 young men recently arrived from the Jungle will hopefully be attending a school in the very near future and not taking to a suicide belt after being pushed to the extremes by “Quatorzièmes” peddling superstition, idiocy and hatred.

Still, we can always distract ourselves by buying the Halloween tat so readily available in UK supermarkets. The UKIP death spiral dressing up set is particularly popular.