At midnight Gene's blog will close down for an indefinite period...

At midnight Gene's blog will close down for an indefinite period...

Well folks this is it. At midnight Gene's blog will close down for an indefinite period. We all know why. Detterling has seriously invaded my privacy and anonymity. A totally despicable thing to do. He has obviously hired a private investigator and posted some information thus obtained about a former work colleague. He also obviously plans to release bit by bit a series of disclosures that he has obtained through the actions of this money-grubbing snoop. Disclosures that will reveal my identity.

FOUL PLAY!

I am so sorry that loyal readers will be deprived for a period from enjoying this blog - but I must protect my privacy. I will figure out a way to return.


Love you all,


GENE

THE MOST SLIMY CREEP EVER TO CRAWL OUT OF A TYNESIDE SEWER

THE MOST SLIMY CREEP EVER TO CRAWL OUT OF A TYNESIDE SEWER


Detterling regarding your most recent correspondence:


1 You have engaged a private investigator to dig up material in a totally futile attempt to harm me.


or


2  You have been contacted by one or both of those two teacher governor scumbags.


Either way despicable.


This makes you candidate for the title of  'The most slimy creep ever to crawl out of a Tyneside sewer.'

An open letter to Detters

An open letter to Detters

A CHALLENGE FOR, AND A PROMISE TO GENE VINCENT

THE CHALLENGE:

[1] Produce some concrete evidence of the existence of the TES Opinion Clique - other, that is, than your demented vapourings on the subject;

[2] Tell us where we can purchase a copy of Annie Baker's book "ORDEAL! THE TALE OF MY TORMENT AND SUFFERING INFLICTED BY THE CLIQUE";

[3] Substantiate or withdraw the utterly despicable allegation that

" .....a gentleman from West Sussex posted that his wife had committed suicide after being harassed and bullied for months by The Clique."

Obviously, for the sake of the widowed gentlemen, these data could not be published en clair, and so all you will need to do is to send me a verifiable internet source. I suggest the name of the Coroner's Court where the inquest was held, and the month and year when this took place. I will do the necessary research, and Christ help you if I catch you out in a lie.

Now let's take this step by step:

[1] Produce some concrete evidence of the existence of the TES Opinion Clique - other, that is, than your demented vapourings on the subject...

It is absurd of you to claim that The Clique did not exist. You are certainly aware of how many posters on TES Opinion Forum engaged in protracted crossfire about The Clique both at the time of it's reign and following its demise. Unfortunately the Opinion Forum was taken down about two years ago so no data is readily accessible. However, I do have some relevant posts that I have on a now disused laptop - it will take me a few days to retrieve this data but I will certainly publish it. Also check any archived posts you may have and you will no doubt come across adequate proof of The Clique's existence.

[2] Tell us where we can purchase a copy of Annie Baker's book "ORDEAL! THE TALE OF MY TORMENT AND SUFFERING INFLICTED BY THE CLIQUE";

Check Amazon or Abe Books.

[3] Substantiate or withdraw the utterly despicable allegation that

" .....a gentleman from West Sussex posted that his wife had committed suicide after being harassed and bullied for months by The Clique."

Now Detters you know that this is impossible. I never knew his name or that of his wife.

Yes, you will ruin me if the press publish all this. Although I am guilty of nothing other than playful satire. But could you live with yourself  -  with the guilt of involving the gutter press? This is the sort of behaviour that got you banned for life from the TES website. 

My feeling is that all these threats are in retaliation for the way I silenced that snake in the grass, Mr Anon of Northwood. Whatever you think of me you must admit that I pulled off a brilliant stroke here. No press archives will ever surface.

An Easter Sunday homily...

An Easter Sunday homily...







(This homily was delivered on Easter Sunday 2017 in a C of E church on Tyneside by a visiting C of E pastor who wishes to remain anonymous.)


Dearly Beloved,


First let us get all the Tyneside colloquialisms, aphorisms, clichés and platitudes out of the way:


"Northern born and northern bred. Broad in the arm and thick in the head" "nooling"  "charver"  "mint" "belter"  "away the lads" "hinny" "wor lad" "gan nin" "howay" "Geordie's lost his penga" "Toon army"  "Bonnie lad"  "Doon the double ra" "Scotswood Road"  "The Blaydon Races" ...


Oh! my. Doesn't that feel better? (laughter)


Now dear brothers and sisters we have all heard the quote from Edmund Burke:

“Evil thrives when good people do nothing”

This is a quote that stirred my heart. Evil has surely made itself known and one does not have to go far to see it or hear about it. This quote has applied to each and every one of us from the beginning of creation until the end of days on earth.  From a Christian perspective, I have recognized the necessary participation we as believers need to have in this world.  Now this morning I would like to apply the corollary to Edmund Burke's observation and state that: "Evil disappears when good men do something."





Edmund Burke

Dear brothers and sisters let us cast our minds back a few years to a dreadful reign of terror that befell England's green and pleasant land. This occurred on the Opinion Forum of the website of the TES publication. Many of us are familiar with what happened but let us refresh our memories. A nefarious grouping, who became known as The Clique, gained a hold on Opinion Forum. The Clique was composed mostly of  pinko liberal and extreme left-wing Fascists and their agenda was to exterminate all opinion that did not go along with their support for such left wing/liberal causes as the Gay Lobby and pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia stances. To say The Clique carried out a reign of terror is to totally understate. These guys made the Waffen-SS look like 'bob a job' Boy Scouts.



In those dark days on Opinion Forum you toed the pinko liberal line or else! Many suffered horrendously. A recent account by a survivor  - a lady named Annie Baker - I recommend to all of you.  Her book is entitled:

ORDEAL! 
THE TALE OF MY TORMENT AND SUFFERING
 INFLICTED BY THE CLIQUE

and it makes harrowing reading.

The Clique activities were led by pinko liberal  par excellence Obergruppenführer  Detterling. He was aided and abetted by a dreadful woman from Glasgow's Gorbals named Seren_dipity, by an pathetic mummy's boy named Bigkid and by a host of fellow travellers with codenames such as Lilyofthefield, Inky, Jacob, Scintillant, Florian Gassmann et al. Detterling directed operations and the group communicated through landlines, faxes, mobile phones, telexes, texts and the personal messaging facility of the website. Anyone who looked as if they might be dissident to The Clique's agenda was targeted, harassed, bullied and hounded.

And who was the good man who opposed such evil? Step forward Gene Vincent:  Educator, Novelist, Humanitarian and Humorist. Gene fought The Clique from the very outset. His war cry was:

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on Opinion Forum,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in cyberspace,

we shall defend our principles, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender...

He taunted The Clique with:

"COME ON CLIQUE. MAKE MY DAY!"

At times things looked grim. Possibly the lowest point was when a gentleman from West Sussex posted that his wife had committed suicide after being harassed and bullied for months by The Clique. This news seemed to galvanise Gene into a superhuman effort and he staged, metaphorically speaking, his 'Normandy landings' and within a matter of  weeks The Clique was vanquished.

So: "Evil disappears when good men do something."

Now dearly beloved what I hear you ask became of Obergruppenführer  Detterling? Well, my dear brethren Obergruppenführer  Detterling is living right here in your midst on Tyneside. (Gasps and sharp intakes of breath from the congregation) 

Yes, now an old man of 73, he can sometimes be spotted ambling along the Scotswood Road bizarrely dressed in a blue denim jacket, lovat chinos and in green socks in open-toed sandals.  Mostly however he remains indoors listening to his collection of appalling late 60s/early 70s progressive rock albums: Emmerson, Lake and Palmer, Barclay James Harvest and Iron Butterfly.

And why I hear you ask is he not in sackcloth and ashes praying to the Lord to forgive him? Why not indeed brothers and sisters?


Detterling claims to be writing his memoirs. Whether this is so or not I have no way of knowing. And if such memoirs are written it is not for me to speculate on whether they will be published. What I can say with confidence is that in these 'memoirs' there will be no mention of Opinion Forum - or if there is it will be a completely sanitised account.

I called on this wretched soul last week in preparation for this homily. I knocked on his door and after an interminable wait hear footsteps shuffling to the door. The door creaked open and there stood Detterling a pathetic wretch of a man.

"Good morning Mr Detterling I bring you tidings from Gene Vincent, he sends you the following message: 'WHAT LARKS DETTERS!" I said in a most civil manner. He glared at me venomously and snarled in best Fr Jack fashion: "Gobshite!" He slammed the door in my face and as he shuffled inwards I heard a muffled: "Bastard!"

Father Jack:  "Gobshite!"

GENERAL ELECTION: Detterling predicts a landslide victory for Jeremy Corbyn

GENERAL ELECTION: Detterling predicts a landslide victory for Jeremy Corbyn


In an immediate reaction to Theresa May calling a General Election on June 8th the aging Tyneside pinko liberal, Canting Dettering, in an interview with the Huffington Post predicted a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn.


"Any psephologist worth his salt can see that the country is crying out for a Labour government led by the charismatic Mr Corbyn," claims the former supply teacher.


Mr Detterling is 73.




Labour's charismatic leader Jeremy Corbyn

Gene's blog may be (temporarily) closing today. Reopening after Easter

Gene's blog may be (temporarily) closing today. Reopening after Easter


I may be closing down this blog until after Easter. I will inform readers on my decision later today. I just need silence and serenity in this holy season.


I wish all my readers a happy and holy Easter.


(Detters I wish you, Delia, Sebastian, Cosmas and Damian a blessed Easter.)


GENE

Resurrection Morning   ...   Edward Coley Burne-Jones

An olive branch for Easter

An olive branch for Easter









Detters it is just not right that we carry on with this bickering as we approach Holy Week.


I am putting out this olive branch: a permanent truce. I will donate £200.00 to a charity of your choice and we leave the past in the past. Okay? I think you have accepted by now with Anon of Northwood out of the way there is no possibility of any damaging press articles appearing - and the claim of an email from the Geography HOD I take with a pinch of salt.  


So the past in the past and we carry on with light-hearted banter and rip-roaring, rollicking good fun.

‘The powers of darkness are at war with life’, says pro-life academic suspended by Catholic university

by Dan Hitchens

posted Thursday, 30 Mar 2017

The Catholic University of Louvain (Wikimedia)

   

The Catholic University of Louvain has initiated 'disciplinary proceedings' against Stéphane Mercier

A pro-life philosopher has been disciplined by a Catholic university because he expressed his opposition to abortion.

Stéphane Mercier, a lecturer in philosophy, has been suspended from teaching at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), in Belgium, after distributing a pro-life paper to students for them to think about.

Mercier told the Catholic Herald that he had asked students to “reflect on the arguments by themselves. I said repeatedly that no one should feel forced to agree with me.”

He added that he had only been encouraging the students to consider the issues. “I did my job, and I’m now under a disciplinary procedure which really doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Mercier was suspended after a protest from the feminist campaign group Synergie Wallonie.

The group drew the university’s attention to the written text accompanying Mercier’s lecture. He says he often distributes a text to help students think about the lecture and review their notes. The paper questions the concept of a “right to choose” an abortion.

Mercier told the Catholic Herald that pro-lifers were contending with dark spiritual forces. “The worldly powers that be, and the spiritual powers of darkness, are at war with everything truly Christian. So we’re fighting for life and for the Lord’s commandments against evil powers.”

However, he said, although the situation was “exhausting”, “I’m at peace, because the Lord himself is our strength in the fight. The Holy Virgin crushes the serpent’s head. My fiancée is a strong support.”

He asked for prayers, saying: “I entrust myself to every Catholic’s prayer to stand firm, so that God brings forth supernatural peace to my family and me.”

In the paper which Synergie Wallonie objected to, Mercier argues that the acronym “IVG” (Interruption Volontaire de Grossesse) to describe abortion is comparable to Orwellian “Newspeak”.

Mercier writes: “It is a euphemism that conceals a lie: the truth is that abortion is the murder of a innocent person. And it is a particularly despicable murder, because the innocent in question is defenceless. The murder of an innocent person capable of defending himself is revolting; but to attack someone who does not have the strength or the resources to defend himself is even more dreadful.”

The university decided to investigate. It has not announced its findings, but says on its website that it has begun “disciplinary proceedings”, and has “also decided to suspend the two courses for which Stéphane Mercier is responsible until further notice.”

UCL’s statement added that “in the spirit of the 1990 Act decriminalising abortion,” the university “respects the autonomy of women to make this choice, in the circumstances specified by the legislator.”

Mercier pointed out that Catholic bishops sit on the university’s board. “So how can another delegate from the University say that my pro-life stand is at odds with the values of the university? It doesn’t make any sense.”

He said he had challenged the university authorities on their decision: “I asked what their ‘values’ could be if they don’t include the dignity of human beings, but we’re still waiting for the answer.”

The university has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall


Due to a prior engagement in the Good Yarn I was unable to see the first episode of Decline and Fall last night. Anyhow, Marianne God bless her, has recorded it for me and I shall watch it at my leisure this weekend.


Detters no doubt you watched it. Any initial impressions?








Decline and Fall review –


Waugh-mongers be damned! This is a fine show

The ghastly gaggle of toffs are back with Jack Whitehall as the perfect Pennyfeather and Eva Longoria bringing the glamour in this excellent companion to Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel

 

Decline and Fall review – Waugh-mongers be damned! This is a fine show

 

Evelyn Waugh

A ghastly gaggle of braying Oxford toffs leave behind a trail of destruction, safe in the knowledge that they’re rich enough for their own mess not to affect them and that it’s the poor man who will suffer the consequences ...
The previous government administration? Actually, this is Decline and Fall (BBC1). And you were worried that what satirised in 1928 might have lost some of its relevance today?
Jack Whitehall is a splendid Paul Pennyfeather, decent but naive, and easily led astray by the raggedy collection of fellow “teachers” at Llanabba, the hopeless public school in Wales where he ends up after being kicked out of Oxford.
They’re wonderful, too: David Suchet as ineffectual headmaster Dr Fagan; Vincent Franklin as dipso Prendy; Douglas Hodge as gay peg-leg Grimes, who somehow always ends up in the soup (bigamy soup this time); Stephen Graham as creepy porter Philbrick.

There’ll be a hoo-ha about this adaptation, of course – the usual one. How can a work so dependent on the wit of the written word translate to the screen, the Waugh-mongers will cry. But this shouldn’t be seen as an alternative; it’s more a companion piece. Of course it doesn’t all go in, and will be lighter for it.

But having reskimmed the novel, I’d say that Rev creator James Wood has done an excellent job. This is less adaptation and more like a damn good edit, which manages to retain verbal nimbleness as well as the novel’s essence and spirit (plus a little light racial awkwardness). And as for tossing a pig’s head into the opening scene with the Bollinger boys, well, I think that’s allowed, as well as further adding to modern political relevance.
In fact, can you hear it, beyond the hoo-ha, coming from the ha-ha, where the author is buried, in Somerset? Actually, you can’t, because it’s not noise but silence – the sound of Waugh not turning in his grave.