Cycling the UK: In Search of Identity

So SLP continue to plod along and really has been a one-man band for a few years now. Admittedly, I get some business support but little comes of my charismatic nature during events despite enthusiastic welcomes. Nobody uses the market online even with PayPal facilities in spite of running out of most of my olive oil this year with shop sales increasing. Is my refusal to be a capitalist a psychological barrier to expansion? Or is it Natural Providence that sets the delimitations of my ventures?

Coming back from a 1,000+ km bike ride around the UK was met with the same ambivalence. On the road people were fantastic, offering food, drink, and occasionally somewhere to stay. Yet when my sister lost here temper with me for the first time in living memory because, despite full mobile reception she couldn’t contact me from either her business mobile or landline, belies what really is going on here. Her compassion allowed me to complete my journey because she paid for, online, the main ferries between Wales and Ireland and Scotland as well as the train fare back to London since I refuse to own a cash card now. Is it natural providence that socially engineers who can return a phone call, what I can sell on the internet, who can have sexual relations with me, how often I can fix my computer systems, and so on? I was vindicated in my conspiratorial theories when I recently received letters dating to early 2012 addressed to SLP. Who knows how many membership applications have passed me by.

When I heard my sister lose it I was quite upset, for a member of my family was denied communication with me. The journey, however, around the UK was a Dervish wonderment, and tells me that I am much freer playing music and writing poetry than to come back and deal with an eviction notice stuck on my door. Yes, my housing association Helix, did a u-turn and instead of re-housing me under the context of refurbishing the property they are instead cancelling my parent’s tenancy agreement; I have lived here 14 years, mainly alone. The evolution of my personal existence was to become a free man with diminishing obligations to the state. Hence I denied myself the right to put the tenancy in my own name, which keeps me free from bailiffs and other authorities who have socially constructed arraignments against me. I really do believe I am a threat to national security, especially if anybody would follow me in my footsteps. As such I don’t proselytize. This might include giving myself the title Augustus Caesar, which all Freeman can do because it evokes power over the ‘senate’. My antics have also included guerrilla gardening on the railway line in the name of providing sustenance for oneself, likewise a refusal to pay Council Tax on the basis that Lewisham Council could not enforce a court claim against me in which I stated my human lawfulness; I freely scribe and publish my life concerning all the interesting encounters I have, which is a form of witnessing any injustices in my life, although I vow to keep a positive outlook always.

Thus said, my global cycling ventures, which always meet with disappointment at close colleagues who would rather have a free holiday instead of joining me, depict me as the ideal lifestyle for the individual who needs to evolve further. During this latest journey through 5 capital cities and various other ancient places including Kells, Iona and Dunaad I did so without any form of legal ID—no passport or driving license. On this last example DVLC refused to acknowledge my title Augustus Caesar (AC). Why? They asked for a title and in the end they put nothing. Interesting , I recently came unstuck in one or two places where even train tickets require a legal ID. And if my journey wasn’t a prophetic enough statement already isn’t it interesting that I end up in Edinburgh a day before the vote for Independence?

All this is about identification. The political issues of national security and military capacity, economics and fiscal measures, political allegiance and bureaucratic centralisation, and land ownership and wealth re-distribution, is only the modern-day context for bashing it out on the parliamentary floor. In banality it is about a bunch of politicians keeping themselves in employment. They feed off the emotional capital of the masses, and though it may be true that the wealth of Scotland drains into English hands, Cameron, Brown and Milliband will use any pretext to prevent drastic change from occurring. I was, quite frankly, disgusted at the gloating of ‘No’ voters who now feel quite vindicated in their thinking that they have always been right. For them it is just another quick-fix over the masses, a cultural abstract victory that silences the voice of change. And true, Scotland is predominantly Labour without which Labour could never win another general election. And all this stuff about Scots fighting next to Irish and English during the War was a way of getting any doubters off their emotional armchairs. Devolution? There are changes here that no politician will fully understand and grasp. I met the Scottish in the street, and it was never about Scotland vs. England. This should not have been another War of Independence that the politicians harangue over. This was an opportunity to bind even deeper the Scots and the English surely, and not a form of ethnic cleansing. However, in modern times there was never any popular division between these two countries; rivalry, say on a sporting level, is not a division of interests. Fundamental change can happen so long as the onus stays on the motive and not the facade, and with it the ties between England and Scotland would only get stronger with each in their own image.

I was disappointed also at the naivety of the Scottish people although I think the whole thing caught the government unawares too—did Cameron believe that this could finally extinguish the Labour party flame? I believe he did not see all the immediate exigencies. But what really hit below the belt was the criticism levelled at that hero Andy Murray who single-handedly carries the whole of British tennis on his shoulder. If any one person is allowed to vote honestly and have an opinion without rebuke then surely it is this man. Again, Andy Murray wasn’t talking about renouncing England, he isn’t that naive. Instead, I believe, he was implying cultural re-identification, but his stance was flouted by these gloaters who reacted in the wake of their ‘victory’, “Imagine what is going to happen when he next plays Wimbledon?” Independence for Scotland must surely mean cultural re-identification.

So what is the solution? I saw the economic division between north and south in Ireland. Did my prophetic journey provide an answer? Dunaad, that ancient capital where it is said that the Irish kings ruled Dalriada from. These Irish, known as the Scotti are responsible for making Scotland a Gaelic country. It ruled for a thousand years from the Aintree coast to the Hebridean and beyond, being kings of the sea between although the Vikings had something to say here. Might this provide the real solution to both countries—how to appease the Gallic sentiments coming to the surface? The Scottish families that still predominate may have a cause that goes beyond their religious Presbyterianism. Even after Celtic Christianity faded from the northern limelight, Dalriada remained a bridge against the Viking raids. The wealth of Scotland lies in its seas even more so. Its fisheries and potential renewable energy capacity could form the bedrock for a renewable identity.

For a collection of photos and videos of my bike ride the original blogsite is down now but go to my Facebook.