Do you accept, Tony that each of us is guilty/responsible for the war crimes of our properly and fairly elected governments whether it be in Israel or the UK?
Friday, 11 July 2025
Tony is correct - it doesn't excuse inaction
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Scandal of Stourbridge sidelined - all Birmingham's fault (very nearly!)
STOURBRIDGE RAILWAY REMAINS FORGOTTEN, as roads clog with traffic.
- The railway runs from Worcester to Derby via Stourbridge and Dudley town for 120 Kms.
- 56 Kms is ready built but is unused or partly used for 56 Kms between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent.
- Freight trains run from Port Talbot to Round Oak Steel, next to the Waterfront, next to Merry Hill.
- Elsewhere, passenger trains and freight trains run on the same track. Why not our forgotten railway?
- Not even the Metro trams from Dudley town will use that railway into Stourbridge Jct station.
- INSTEAD, the trams will divert off it into Merry Hill when they should remain on the railway into OUR town.
- The wealthy Merry Hill owners are given a £1 billion asset tramway to make them even richer!
- That is the spectacular scandal of taxpayer generosity to the rich.
- This is the stupidity of wasting a total of some 100 Kms of railway in the West Midlands while we all get stuck in traffic jams and the Climate emergency worsens - by 40 years of Metro idiocy.
- If work cannot be stopped from taking the tram off the railway onto the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment at Merry Hill, stop it destroying even more nature to accelerate Climate catastrophe. Therefore, ...
- Terminate the Dudley Tram at the Merry Hill tram stop at Merry Hill NOT in Cottage Street, Brierley Hill.
- In fact, far more sensible to keep the tram on the railway from Cinder Bank roundabout to connect it with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.
- The freight trains will have to run at night.
- The billions planned for more tram extensions must go to give everyone the totally Fare-Free Public Transport that I have had for the last 17 years.
Their foolish plan shows the scale of the destruction and idiocy:
This map shows what is still left for railway TRAINS, not trams to be reinstated:
Positive, practical, sensible Climate compliant action here:
Some fun at the expense of the bigwigs, here:
Many thanks
The Epitomy of Incompetence
The idiots in charge put the BCIMO Innovation Centre and VLR test track (now in administration) on the site of the former Dudley Railway Station with its continuously welded track and concrete sleepers. It was more recently used as the Dudley Freightliner Depot until the 1990s when it closed.
This principal mainline railway between London and Edinburgh via the road congested Black Country, then was to become the Metro tram extension from the first mainline railway converted to tramway. After nearly 20 years of trying, this first mainline to tramway was finally achieved in 1999 when it opened for trams instead of trains! This then led to more decades of them trying to put a tram extension on the Black Country Mainline Railway through Dudley instead of trains, would you believe!
After many cock ups, work having to be redone and failures, the Dudley Tram is expected to finally arrive at the VLR Innovation Centre and test track in time for Christmas 2025 - but, after all that, this will still be only for the first half of the 10.7 Kms extension! The leader of Dudley Council, Cllr Fred Hunt, had told me in the mid 90s, in all seriousness, that the tram would arrive in Dudley by the year 2000!! He, like all his fellow councillors in 40 years of failure have NEVER wanted trains reinstated, only trams!
What utter and complete idiots. What a shambles. Unbelievable stupidity by professional transport experts and politicians. Taxpayers' money shoved down the drain - never for TRAINS only trams between London and Edinburgh through the Black Country!
Monday, 7 July 2025
BCIMO has failed
See Dave's email to me, below.
From: david parsons <dave0861@outlook.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2025 at 16:06
Subject: My prediction has come true.
To: Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com>
Campaign for Better Transport has allowed two mainline railways to be converted to tramways (and much else!)
Campaigning has helped to shape transport's rich history. For instance, in the 1970s, under our old name of Transport 2000, we helped see off plans to halve the British Rail Network from 11,000 miles to just 5,000. I am looking forward to exploring the impact of campaigns like this, as well as high-profile anti-road campaigns, bus campaigns and more.
First 16" wheel Brompton bike on 'The Three Castles Walk'!
This was my crazy idea to cycle on a Brompton folding bike on the exact line of the footpath to take in every stile, gate and footbridge to cycle or walk between the three castles I had never heard of before! One problem was its length of 19 miles over remote but beautiful farming land and countryside.
The inspiration for the attempt was a small concertina map, laminated on both sides, at a large scale of the route between Skenfrith, White and Grosmont Castles in Monmouthshire. I had only just come across it and paid the £5 for its shirt pocket size.
By Brompton because I had been borrowing my sister-in-law's six-speed folder for a little cyclo-cross. It was great, for its small size, for lifting over stiles and gates. But even better to quickly get over the boring tarmac between the footpaths.
I set off at 3.30 pm and, almost immediately in Skenfrith, I had a local man saying he greatly respected my attempt at doing the round. What a nice guy and a great encouragement.
Later, on the ride/walk, I met a man who, on hearing what I was up to warned me of a gorge coming up. "If you want to leave the bike it will be safe in the shed." His niece and her husband had done the 19 miles in eleven and a half hours.
On a tarmac stretch, a 92-year-old guy was very slowly walking with two sticks to feed polos to his horse up the lane. We had a lovely chat for 10 or 15 minutes about life and events. He spoke about having had enough of life but knowing he had no control of such things.
I arrived at White Castle at 7.30 pm, to make 4 hrs of hard labour. I used the bike to cycle round for the best site, out of the wind, for the night in my bivy bag. A niche in the castle wall of the Outer Ward was ideal. On the other side was Offa's Dyke path.
What a good night's sleep I had! No sleeping bag but I has sufficient clothing to put on, got up only once and slept until 8 am.
DAY 2
A sheep farmer on his quad bike got my explanation for seeing my very different bike. He had never seen anyone using one before. Later on, I abandoned the ride when confronted with a steep bank above a lane I had to surmount, to then lift the bike over the stile. I was tiring quickly after my exertions of the previous day and decided to cycle back to the start on the road and to turn the walk/cycle into a three-stage affair. I had proved it could be done on a bike but I was undecided whether the bike was more of a help or a hindrance. A great help in cycling back to the car!
I crossed two such narrow footbridges that on one I had to fold up the left pedal and push the bike in front of me!
The rest of the day was visiting the church, finishing my Robert Harris novel and exploring Skenfrith Castle and village.
DAY 3
Not nearly such a good night's sleep in the car for stupidly not bothering with my sleeping bag, right beside me! I used the bivy bag again - not a good idea!
The bike took me to where I needed to cycle up the path and tracks to Grosmont. It was a pain on the uphill sections but brilliant down hill! On the road at Grosmont I had a chat with three walkers which was fun. 7 am start to 10.30 to that point, a little short of Grosmont itself. Then an easy uphill incline on the tarmac, and fast down into Skenfrith.
Three days of no punctures or accidents and the most amazing, desolate, wild countryside! A 2 mins shower at Grosmont!
NEXT TIME:
One stage left - from Grosmont Castle to where I left off the previous day. But then, with the bike again, it will be up to 380 metres to the high point of the 'Three Castles Walk'.
I'm left wondering if I'm up to having a long day of 11.5 hrs and not bothering with the bike. Should I try it? I had 13.5 hrs at the end of May for my final Donald summits.
Friday, 4 July 2025
Johnnie Moore and the Gaza Humanitarian Aid Foundation
Many thanks, Paul for your invaluable thoughts and new email address. The following may be of interest to you and Ruth. Do put me right with your own insights, please.
Thursday, 3 July 2025
Third annual walk or cycle of the major Black Country Active Travel Route
Invitation to walk or cycle a magnificent, nature rich cycle-walkway!
The fog of war, the hatred and violence generated by violence.
Hamas is controlling their people, rewarding those who kill Israelis, syphoning off the food aid and selling it at inflated prices, living in grand homes and killing Gazans themselves. Hamas are bounty hunters.
Hamas shoot at their own civilians at a distribution centre in Rafah. They treat their people like thieves and take the food off them.
On 7.10.23, Hamas put Israeli babies in ovens to kill them that way.
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
Circumnavigation of Earls Hill and Pontesford Hill by 16" Brompton bike.
Circumnavigation of Earls Hill and Pontesford Hill, Shropshire by 16" wheel Brompton bike.
On bridleways and one footpath with a kissing gate at either end which meant lowering the saddle to squeeze through. As a friend has found on the 20 Kms Black Country Active Travel Route, a folding bike works perfectly well.
The bike is more compact, even unfolded and that makes it easier to lift over stiles, not that there were any on my route today.
The worst section was near Pontesbury Rocks, a BMC approved rock climbers' site but, not between 1 March and 15 July when Peregrine Falcon are nesting and bringing up their brood. On that section, rocks on the path meant carrying the bike unfolded, holding the useful triangle part of the frame (by the seat post).
MY CONCLUSION: Brompton Cyclo-cross works brilliantly well!
PROTEST: Our side is responsible for a 21 month holocaust
Our side is responsible for a 21-month holocaust of tens of thousands of mainly women and children from our military products supplied to our major, powerful, friend and ally, Israel.
"destruction or slaughter on a mass scale" Google definition of holocaust.
Our side ended the March ceasefire.
We broke the Peace Agreement with Hamas when air strikes resumed by the Israeli Death Force.
Very many more innocent citizens, medics, aid workers and journalists have been slaughtered since then.
One of two films made in Gaza, banned by the BBC as being anti-semitic and prejudiced against our side, is to be shown on Channel 4 this evening.
Louisa Compton, Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs and specialist factual and sport, said in a statement: “This is a meticulously reported and important film examining evidence which supports allegations of grave breaches of international law by Israeli forces that deserves to be widely seen and exemplifies Channel 4’s commitment to brave and fearless journalism.”
Protest to your MP that boycott, divestment and sanctions must now be imposed on Israel.
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
Our evangelical friends want the lot - from the river to the sea and more!
TRANSCRIPT
Yesterday, 29 June 2025, Radio 4's 'Sunday' covered Israel's war on Gaza.
"500 people killed and 4,000 injured. Those are the casualty totals stated by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza for people waiting to get aid from the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation." Thought to be registered in Delaware but, from the address given, it was not found there.
Some evangelicals believe the Lord's coming is linked to the fulfilment of Israel taking land and the warfare that is inevitable in the unHoly Land before Christ's return.
An excellent woman, a former co-Chair of Kingston Liberal Synagogue and recently suspended from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, spoke so well. She said she really loved Israel, was a proud Zionist but was deeply critical of the actions of the current government which was being governed by the extremists in the governing coalition. She said she is speaking up against the horrendous actions that are taking place in Gaza because of the extremist elements in the Coalition.
Monday, 30 June 2025
Action needed on HEL
Many thanks for your kind words, Ian.
- I suspect, from my own site visit earlier this year, that the obvious neglect, broken fences, polluted stream, 4x4s and dirt bikes riding over it, that all this has gone on for many years, if not decades.
- The vast area of slag and landfill heaps/hills is adjacent to the two disused railway lines from Pensnett Nature Reserve to Baggeridge Country Park which were converted to, definitely, a walkway and in the 1980s - possibly. But no maintenance since then or, so it appears.
- Dudley's section of 5 Kms is in a disgraceful condition because it is used by the same 4x4s and dirt bikes that roar all over the hills of the landfill site alongside it.
- Yet, our section is the south section of the full 20 Kms Black Country Active Travel Route through three nature reserves, two cafes in old railway stations and one Woodland Trust property.
- It runs from Fens Pool Avenue, Brierley Hill to the canal towpath in NW Wolverhampton. North from Dudley's boundary near Himley Hall the cycle-walkway is fine. A smooth, free draining surface of even tarmac in places. Far worse in Dudley!:-Full set of photos:
Chant: 'Death, death to the IDF' - Bob Vinen
Chanting 'death, death to the IDF' is simply not in the same league as the IDF's actions in bringing death and annihilation or genocide! And extermination is the whole aim of the war, as Netanyahu has made clear from the outset. The Palestine side chants the wish in anger at being wiped off the map but our Israel/USA/UK side actually does the wiping out. A very different matter altogether!
These Israeli men and women, part of our Judeo-Christian Western world, have brought so much death, death and destruction to tens of thousands of mainly women and children.
Death, death and destruction as they have cowered in the world's biggest open-air prison camp controlled by Israeli guards - by US lot of shameful humans. Done by OUR side which is firmly on the side of Israel/USA/Germany in slaughtering our fellow humans just as WE did, our side in OUR 'Christian' German and Polish concentration camps in the 1930s and 40s.
Chanting one's disgust at what OUR authorities are doing in a modern-day, 21st-century holocaust, seems pretty tame in comparison. Nothing changes.
Sunday, 29 June 2025
Inability to Share - so the unHoly Land
Dear Leon
Christ will return when Israel has the lot - do you believe that cousin Paul?
There is the most enormous credibility chasm between evangelical Christians wanting Israel to have all of the Greater Promised Land or, at least, Gaza and Judea/Samaria, and the way they are going about it in fully supporting coercion, force, violence, starvation, murder and killings.
Trying to find an apt parallel
For the BBC to have any connection with Hamas is as unacceptable as the 13 year old son of the Russian or Iranian or Chinese Deputy Minister of Agriculture or a KGB official, narrating an hour long film giving us three children's view of Gaza's death and destruction. It is seen as the BBC being thoroughly treacherous in seeming to allow Russia or Iran or China space on the airwaves! It is seen as helping our No 1 enemies, Russia, Iran, China, in some way!
Saturday, 28 June 2025
This invites laughter of derision
An absurd, far-fetched reason for censorship. It invites derision. In my view, the boy’s family links to the agricultural wing of Hamas are irrelevant. If the film was about the suffering children of Israel, having to endure a sudden dash to a nearby air raid shelter day or night, and the narrator was the 13-year-old son of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Israel's government, I would not have dreamt of complaining. Let them make such a documentary and broadcast it, as long as the one featuring the three children of Gaza is also broadcast.
We must have anti-Israeli love speech to put them right!
Direct citizen participation in existing democratic processes is nothing new!
Hi Tony and friends
Again, you would do that only through your local group..
Friday, 27 June 2025
Guardian article on the banned/censored Gaza film
Have you ever wondered what you’d do if your world is destroyed?” asks 13-year-old Abdullah, speaking at the beginning of an intimate BBC Two documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, that airs on Monday night. “Most important, could you stay alive? After all this, you could say we’re experts.”
Abdullah, now 14 and heading back to his prewar home in the north of the shattered territory, is the English-speaking narrator – one of three children whose stories of hope and endurance are at the heart of an hour-long film, a distinctive and deliberate choice intended to make the film resonate after 15 months of war.
In an email exchange via the BBC, Abdullah said he wanted to be part of the programme “to explain the suffering that people here in Gaza witness with the language that the world understands, English” – and so that viewers learn about the situation on the ground without being “blurred by misinformation”
FROM:-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/17/gaza-how-to-survive-a-warzone-bbc-documentary-children
Open letter signed by more than 600 industry figures says corporation is failing in its journalistic responsibility
The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and the British film-maker Mike Leigh are among hundreds of figures from the cultural world accusing the BBC of censoring Palestinian voices, after its decision to delay the broadcast of a documentary on medics in Gaza.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, has received an open letter signed by more than 600 industry figures – including some of his own employees – stating that editorial caution over the subject has spilled over into “political suppression”.
The signatories demand the immediate release of Gaza: Medics Under Fire, claiming it has undergone extensive editorial reviews and fact-checking and has been ready for broadcast for months.
"13-year-old who narrated the film, Abdullah al-Yazouri, was the son of the deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas government."
In my view, the boy’s family links to the agricultural wing of Hamas are irrelevant. If the film was about the suffering children of Israel, having to endure a sudden dash to a nearby air raid shelter day or night, and the narrator was the 13-year-old son of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Israel's government, I would not have dreamt of complaining. Let them make such a documentary and broadcast it as long as the one featuring the three children of Gaza is also broadcast. It is called Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/feb/21/bbc-pulls-gaza-documentary-iplayer-hamas