Brum bankruptcy has not been helped by transport idiocy, constant changes and much waste of assets

Dear Richard,

 December 2025 Quiz

I first came to Brum in 1967 and then was a student from 1968. I've seen everything imaginable ever since - but am now shock-hardened!  Read this to become impervious, too - and for some good, clean fun!

 Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

 My Christmas 2025 letter

Always constant transport (ring road and tram/railways) construction and destruction (eg. 50s tramways) and re-construction (eg 80/90s Metro tramway instead of railway reinstated).

Centenary Square was rebuilt three times between 2000 and 2020. The last version cost £16 million.

Smallbrook Queensway crescent of buildings built in the 60s and demolished now.  John Christophers' excellent plan ignored.

After nearly 40 years of writing to the authorities, they still overlooked three mainline Brum/Black Country railways which could have been reinstated. All three were spoiled as mainline railways. My major success was playing a small part in stopping the Brum to Bristol mainline turned into part tramway to ruin it as a mainline railway! But it is taking, so far, nearly ten years - from 2016, to rebuild the three stations on the third mainline instead of tram stops, as originally planned!!

Trams first to get trains reinstated (which never materialise, of course) in this famous, absurd quote from 2000 by Tom well-meaning Magrath, Passenger Services Director, Centro (now TfWM):

"Light rail provision provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time."

Thus, doubling, at a minimum, the cost is typical of how Brum has seen how it must do construction projects, even when the Black Country Mainline Railway is "of national strategic significance", according to a letter sent to me by Network Rail and the DfT!

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

After 40 years, there remains about 100 Kms of railway wasted in the West Midlands as motorways and roads become more congested.  SEE:

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

Best wishes for a more sensible 2026 in this crazy, mixed up, upside down, back to front, inside out world!!

Liberal democracies allowed aggression to be rewarded in 1948 - and violence and more massacres ever since.

 "The ascendance of xenophobic, America-First nationalism has cast doubt on the long presumed identity of American and Israeli interests and rapidly eroded the taboo on open antisemitism, while Israel's decades-long occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza put in question that compatibility of Zionism and liberal democracy."

from   warupdates@mc.haaretz.com   on 20 December 2025

Dan Sagir:- Like Israel, South Africa's Apartheid Regime Banned Foreign Journalists. It's Harder to Hide the Truth Now

"In 1986, I was deported by South Africa's regime for reporting on the anti-apartheid struggle. Today, Israel's government is also trying to control what the world sees about its actions in Gaza – yet the truth has a way of breaking through

"In early March, the Israeli government made a cruel decision: to stop the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, claiming that "Hamas' refusal to accept the Witkoff Plan" left it no choice. The attempt to starve the civilian population as a bargaining tool failed resoundingly: Within a short time, food warehouses emptied out and hunger began to spread throughout the Strip. Horrific images of starving civilians, including young children, were disseminated around the world. U.S. President Donald Trump was forced to intervene and to pressure Israel to restore the supply of aid and to strive to end the war."

Two peoples fighting over one land was recognised in Balfour

Comment from 'Connecticut' over Haaretz article:

"You don't seem to realize Oli that every thing you post in response to this article only illustrates what the author has so accurately put forward: Zionists cannot tolerate the existence of non-Zionists between the river and the sea, and will bend any fact, tell any lie, to propagandize that what they are doing is legal, justified and moral. They will even commit crimes and expect to get away with them. They are terrorists who create endless terror. It is the only world they see and know."

Let RIP!

I feel it is Big Power rivalry, always.

The American led West always wanting to remain the Dominant Player, the Top Dog in the world.

We must have our colony adjacent to China and another right up against Russia's border. Like the 1962 crisis that nearly ended the world.

We must have our NATO military exercises as close to Russia as we can get away with. Sail our super prestigious, £3.5 billion each, aircraft carriers as close to China as international waters allow.

A bigger expansionist NATO, of as many members as we can collect.

Growing international arms trading of more countries importing Western weapons and using them to keep our factories busy and employment high.

More wars around the world would help no end.  Robin Cook's "moral foreign policy" was short lived.

Much more living unnaturally on a natural planet and infinitely on a finite planet ...

Humanity will never end.  We are just the greatest; we can't help it.

This is what all writing, investigation and academic research must be about

This year tested almost everything we take for granted – public trust, democratic norms, and the idea that facts still matter.

From the war in Gaza and its devastating human toll, to political upheaval in Israel, to rising tensions on campuses and attacks on Jewish communities worldwide, the story of this region has been relentlessly complex. And too often, it has been flattened into slogans, stripped of context, or distorted beyond recognition.

At Haaretz, we don't accept that.

Our journalists begin with verified facts, but they don't stop there. They explain how today's headlines connect to decades of policy and history. They show how decisions made in Jerusalem reverberate through Gaza, the West Bank, Washington and the Jewish world. And they insist on covering realities that make people uncomfortable – because the truth doesn't defend itself.

This year, our reporting came from the ground up: reporters witnessing events firsthand, editors rigorously testing every claim, analysts placing breaking news within a wider framework of law, power and consequence. They challenged official narratives, traced long-term consequences and insisted on asking questions that many would rather avoid.

Our journalism resists spin, challenges false narratives and refuses to look away.

That work is more necessary now than ever.

Thank you for reading.

Esther Solomon
Haaretz English Editor-in-chief

Standing Together - but not with Israel's government

"Two years ago a group of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists stood almost alone in Israel in calling for a ceasefire, as Israel launched a massive offensive on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks of 7th October 2023. Emily Wither returns to hear how the lives of these activists have changed. She explores whether their message of peace and coexistence is breaking through at a time when societal divisions are deeper than ever.

"The group Standing Together, known for their matching purple t-shirts, is a group of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel (referred to by the state as Israeli Arabs, the country’s largest minority making up over 20% of the population). "It is unusual in either Israel or Palestine to find a mixed group working together for a shared cause and advocating for coexistence. Standing Together has received criticism from both sides of the conflict; with many Israelis calling them traitors and some Palestinian groups calling for a boycott of the movement. Despite all this the group say the only way to achieve a lasting peace is for the communities to work together."                                 Reporter: Emily Wither

I believe, regrettably ...

It seems, how we are treating the Palestinians in Gaza and, now, even the West Bank, is a watered down liquidation of the Jews when our Christian nation of Germany had 12 years of evil madness under the Nazis.

The novel 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding is a lesson in how even the most saintly human can degenerate into inhuman savagery and barbarity.

We all need the humility to recognise that our behaviour can so easily slip over into brutality when the circumstances are right.

West Yorkshire Trams when trains and buses need those wasted billions

YES, "buses are better", especially if everyone gets them as Fare-Free Public Transport, as OAPs like me have had, in my case, for nearly 18 years, in all of England.

• There is a working railway line between Bradford and Leeds.  Make that popular and successful and, fare-free buses for all with the public money saved from abandoning West Yorkshire trams.
• They destroyed every tramway in the 1950s, apart from Blackpool.  Replaced with diesel buses!
• From 1981, W Midlands County Council was promising us 200 Kms of tramway, of ten lines by the year 2000 CE.  We got 20 Kms by that year, with 18 Kms on the first mainline railway destroyed to get trams.  2 Kms on a main road, still as clogged with traffic as ever.  Actually, it's more congested now.
• By 2023, that figure had gone up to 23 Kms towards the 200 Kms.  Since Jan 2020:
• They are promising us 150 miles by 2040 for £15 billion (Jan 2020 figure).

The full sorry saga of squandering public money for trams is told here:

 Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

The first 300 years of practice by the Followers of the Way was in line with Christ's spirit and practice

The post Constantine Christian world brought Christian believers to support their nations' domination and power over other nations.  To argue that their way of conducting their affairs around the world was in line with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.  But not for me!

So we have the Russian Orthodox Church supporting their countries war with Ukraine and we have our Christians supporting our nations' efforts, to help Ukraine win and stay within our Western orbit, rather than go back to the Russian side.

In the USA, we have their Christians and the evangelicals, in particular, supporting our Judeo-Christian Western dominance in the Middle East.  This is seen with our particular brand of right wing, very wealthy and powerful Israeli nation being the shining light of Judeo-Christian religion and culture in the otherwise dominating Muslim/Arab world of oil rich states - but with diminishing reserves of the black gold.

Annexing Greenland for America, taking the Occupied West Bank to our side and keeping tight control of Gaza is all part of Wealthy Westerners maintaining their Judeo-Christian dominance in the world.

Their Lord and Saviour's rejection of such greedy, selfish pre-occupations of gaining more at the Other's expense is immaterial and out of date after 2,000 years of domination around the world.  I disagree.

We dominate and control by having our Elizabethan piracy, followed by conquering and taking over other lands lock, stock and barrel to bring enslavement and empire to enrich ourselves further.  All contrary to the most obvious ethical teaching and certainly contrary to the spirit of the life and teaching of the Founder of their religion and culture.

All of this is justified because Jesus Christ never told his Centurion contact to leave the Roman army.  Christ never preached against slavery, never railed against the Roman Empire of his day as being the exact opposite of His Way of living.

We can go to war because Christ never preached using words like non-violence, non-collaboratlon with evil governments, never preached against the capital punishment of crucifixion and certainly not corporal punishment.  So all those things are just perfectly fine and dandy to do!  But not for me.

Anyway, Christian living is about recognising the spiritual battle in the spiritual realm.  Christian pastor Dr Mike Evans wrote,

"No battle can be won in the physical realm until it is first fought and won in the spiritual realm.  I'm talking about the battle over Israel's future."  20 October 2025

Therefore, we fight on God's side against the Devil.  How that actually works out in day to day living means supporting, it seems, our government's behaviour - for good or ill in the spirit of Romans 12.  It means being uncritical because otherwise you are judging another person and that is definitely anathema and contrary to biblical teaching.  Far worse than warring for years to keep our Power and Control around the world!

Dudley Council inattention, uninterest

I have spoken to senior officers at TfWM/WMCA and at the Dudley Gp NHS Trust, both about policy.

May I please, similarly, have a face to face meeting with your Tree Officer and relevant colleagues about the decades old lack of reinstatement after carriageway resurfacing of Manor Way/A 456 aka Halesowen Bypass?  After years of asking, lollipop, standard trees were, eventually, planted but, when gaps appeared, nothing was done.  May I suggest your 2026 New Year Resolution is that Nature will be put higher up the agenda as a positive, practical, helpful way to adapt/mitigate your own 2020 declared Climate Emergency?

May I be allowed to speak to the relevant officers, please?  I have even offered to pay for the proposed, pocket handkerchief, woodland planting scheme at Lapal Lane South/Manor way.  No one has ever come back to me, after months have gone by.  A meeting is overdue, methinks!  Tim Weller

Difference between being anti-Israel and being anti-Semetic - interview by Evan Davis

Mark Regev said, in all innocence, "What is it about the Jewish state that is so offensive?"

PLEASE!  Get Jeremy Bowen, on PM, to answer Mark's question or, to speculate, from his decades of reporting from the Middle East.  His great book from 2022 is 'The Making of the Modern Middle East'.  Essential reading for all, especially for dear Mark Regev.

LITTLE, HARMLESS, INOFFENSIVE ISRAEL!

Last week, on Radio 4 'PM', Mark Regev said, "What is it about the Jewish state that is so offensive?"

Short answer:

Because it IS so offensive in attacking and being aggressive and annexing more Palestinian land - two years of collective punishment, war crimes and "acts of genocide".  Bibi and former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant are wanted for war crimes!

My answer:

Your State of Israel, Mark, was born out of terrorism from 1945 to 1948 with funding from American taxes to help arm the three terrorist gangs.  For one example, only: one gang blew up the King David Hotel in 1946, with 91 killed.

The British were mandated to rule Palestine but the terrorists (one, the Haganah gang, became the IDF) sent the British packing from whence they came.

In other words, contrary to international law, aggression was rewarded.

It has been like this ever since.  Israel and the West has won every war against the Arabs.

The 1956 Suez Crisis, courtesy of Israel and the West, was immoral and illegal.  A war crime.

My taxes, my government, my country has murdered over 70,000 Palestinians in over two years.

Tens of thousands more were injured by indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks by the IDF using American and German weapons, Elbit military products and drones made in factories in England.

Only a small minority of the 70,000 slaughtered would have been Hamas fighters who had every right to defend their country under international law.

In effect, my country stole the land of Palestine and gave it to the Jews after our side murdered six million of them between 1933 and 1945.  'Our side' because Germany was part of the European Christian West when the Nazis came to power in 1933.

David v Goliath reversed!

Parallels between Israel/Palestine then and now.

2,000 years ago we had Palestine ruled by the mighty Roman Empire.  The brutal Romans in charge.

1,948 years later it became the world's only Jewish State where other faiths are found but, the Jews are in charge under brutal Bibi as their longest-serving PM.

He proudly claims the total tally of Hamas operatives killed by his armed forces.  Over 70,000 out of 2 million killed in over two years of attacking Gaza.

The Israeli King Herod slaughtered all the Jewish boys under two years of age.  He feared his power and rule was threatened.

Like Horrible Herod, Bibi believes any concession to the Palestinians would threaten the very existence of his country.  Jeremy Bowen has thought that Bibi feels more secure when he is at war with the Palestinians.

We still have Palestinians but they are like what the Jews were then.  Now under the boot of Bibi, the mighty power in charge.

The Jews plus the all powerful, WMD equipped traditional Christian nations are right behind Israel, except some accept a home for Palestinians must be found for them, now that the Jews have their land.

80 years ago the World War victors were worrying about a land for the surviving Jews after Western wars had brought annihilation for six million of them.  The work of a traditional Christian Western nation that became obsessed with hatred instead of the beautiful attitudes of Matthew 5.

That most famous Jew who has ever lived, fought not for land that Bibi's predecessors have secured from 1948 to the present, at the expense of the Palestinians and through aggression.  He lived and taught of a land far beyond the reach of the Herods and Bibis of this world.  A land in the heart and soul of each one of us.  Those citizens with the heart and understanding of Christ, have an obsession with right living, of compassion and justice for the down trodden and the deprived of everything.

The Gazans live in a barely habitable desert of smashed concrete and rubble.  The Occupied West Bank Palestinians are second class people, barely tolerated by the settlers who are eager to get their hands on more land to complete the occupation of Judea and Samaria.  Out of similar oppression came the Light of the World who wanted the people of His Holy Land to share with the Other.

Instead, it has become the antithesis of Christ's Kingdom on earth.  A stain on Western, so called, civilisation.  It is our rich and powerful liberal democracy that has the lot - all at the expense of the rest - like the Palestinians.       TimWeller1@gmail.com

ESSENTIAL READING after Matthew 5,6,7 and all four Gospels:

'I Shall Not Hate' by Izzeldin Abuelaish

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity (2011) is a book by Izzeldin Abuelaish which describes his life in Gaza and the killing of three of his daughters in 2009. It narrates both Abuelaish's own story and explores the history of the conflict, as well as supporting calls for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, stating that "violence begets violence and breeds more hatred"  Wikipedia

'The Making of the Modern Middle East' (2022) by Jeremy Bowen.  One of the 25 chapters is 'Gaza'.

WE are each meant to be legal, decent, honest and truthful!

In 300 CE we had the tragedy of Emperor Constantine embracing Christianity.  It then became the norm for coercion, force and violence, already of course in his empire, for Christians to be caught up in it, too.

So Western Christendom, led by England under Elizabeth 1 to take over other countries lock, stock and barrel without consent; looting their treasures, stealing their people to farm land for no wages and housing them in miserable conditions.  No wonder we are so wealthy!

We are meant to have a legal and ethical foreign policy based on justice and honourable behaviour.  Yet, our own ally and friend, Bibi Netanyahu, lacked the integrity to resign after the authorities knew of preparations for the 7.10.23 attack but failed to act.  The shameless Bibi then used the example of the annihilation of Jericho and the Amalekites in the Old Testament, to do exactly the same to Hamas, knowing full well it is impossible to distinguish between combatant and non combatant, between Hamas member and Gazan.  Hence, the International Criminal Court has ordered his arrest for war crime charges to be heard in a criminal court.

He also failed to live up to his own Old Testament teaching in the Scriptures of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  1,219 people slaughtered. More than 240 people were taken hostage, but for our friend and ally Bibi even OT directives, let alone the New Testament ones that the rest of us try and live by, failed to impress the man.  He is a law unto himself.

Now, his own Commission of Inquiry into 7.10 is to be headed up by himself and most of the members of the commission to be chosen by - wait for it - we all know who: our good friend, Bibi.

"Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence, and recent escalations"  Wikipedia

My 3/3 Unbelievable 2025 Christmas Quiz

Question One

Which is the only country that does not allow journalists to witness the results of its wars, apart from the very occasional foray escorted by the military to proudly show what they, the military, want the reporters to see?

Possible answers:

CHINA, ISRAEL, VENEZUELA

Question Two

The woman at the top of transport last decade and then Chief Executive of the WMCA is now Shadow Head of Great British Railways.  What is she remembered for in the West Midlands?

Possible answers:

TURNING 2 MAINLINE RAILWAYS INTO TRAMWAYS?

STOPPING TRAINS OPERATING ON THE WORLD'S SHORTEST BRANCH RAILWAY?

FAILING TO GET AN NCR NUMBER FOR THE UK'S LONGEST, URBAN-RURAL-URBAN CYCLE-WALKWAY, OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE, IN THE DUD/DEAD CENTRE OF ENGLAND WITH A POPULATION OF 2.8 MILLION?

Question Three

Which building in Brum city centre has an impressive ever open main door policy to allow cold air to sweep round the ground floor corridors and through the attractive colonnades into the cafe of this Grade 2 listed building?

Possible nswers:

THE TOWN HALL

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE

THE EXCHANGE

Answers and compliments only (no complaints!) to timweller1@gmail.com

My favourite non-fiction book is ...

... Jeremy Bowen's, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East', pub 2022.

Reading this illuminating and timely book, I can only think that the Mighty Oil Rich Middle East was made in our image over more than 100 years of exploitation and domination and, oh so well meaning, intervention.  Actually, all those lagoons of oil were far too valuable for those native Arabs to have any control of!  We needed them for our wars, anyway.

TODAY'S NEWS

Jimmy Lai - businessman and pro democracy activist - sentenced today in Hong Kong. 

"Politically motivated prosecution", is how we see it.  Found guilty of national security offences - guilty of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.  Sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Would Jimmy have been so pro liberal democracies and on the side of the White, West is Best, if we had never invaded China to start the Opium Wars?

Our great victories meant we owned and ruled a tiny piece of China for 100 years.  Is that really right?

Or, was it a terrible mistake to give Hong Kong back to China?  But it was the only lawful thing to do.

Was it a terrible mistake to give Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005?  It could have been the Two State Solution?  Pack all the Palestinians from Judea and Samaria into Gaza and our Israeli allies would be on their way to Likud's Charter ambition to have "the land from the River to the Sea" as the sole Jewish State?

Would there have been the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre if we had behaved even decently and honourably and not made war on China?

"The Chinese authorities want everyone to forget that they killed hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989."  (Amnesty website)

Why, perhaps, soon the biggest embassy in London?

Did China join in the Scramble for Africa like the  European colonialists?

Why is China criticised by the West for helping out in Africa?

Or is it only out of self-serving, self-interest that we, the upright, noble, Civilised Nations would do such a thing.  And, in addition, sail our £3.5 bn, state of the art aircraft carrier, provocatively parallel to the coast of China?  To teach China a lesson?  Who is boss?  Not them!

My Christmas 2025 letter

Defeat apathy, acquiescence, loud silence - THIS YEAR!

I note that my fellow citizens, Christians, other faiths and all of society as a whole, fully support our boycott, divestment  and sanctions (BDS) against Russia in our proxy war.  Ukraine has been attacked since their Revolution of Dignity in February 2014 when they overthrew their properly and fairly elected pro Russian President for refusing to continue the process of closer ties with Europe and looser ties with Russia.

BDS against Russia but not against our close friend and ally, Israel for its collective punishment, indiscriminate and disproportionate slaughter of non-combatants who are Muslim Palestinians (some Christian believers) who knew nothing about the 7.10.23 atrocity by the very small minority of their over 2 million population, viz Hamas fighters.

Now, in this week's Radio 4 edition of 'Crossing Continents', I’ve heard that increasing numbers of Israeli Jews are becoming more vocal and active in targeting Israeli Palestinians who have shown, in word and deed, solidarity with their fellow Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Or, simply for being Palestinians.

Palestinians are being intimidated as the new Jews ripe for persecution by the very descendants of the Jews who faced the horrors and death camps of a Western European Christian nation, no less.

Peter Ustinov, a Jew, once said that the Jews were the first victims of the Nazis and the Palestinians are the second victims.  Two groups of humanity that our own humanity, let alone our Christian teaching in the New Testament, should have protected as our very own members of the human family, rather than persecuted, massacred, murdered and starved in homes that they cannot escape from.  No chance for them of sailing in small boats across the Med to escape to Egypt or Cyprus or Lebanon.

My fellow Christians, other faith adherents and almost the whole of our society has been one in support of Israel and in almost total silence over the call by people like me wanting consistency in our nation's foreign policy and, therefore, BDS imposed on Israel for over 70,000 Palestinians murdered - so far.

This number in two years, with very many tens of thousands seriously injured, deliberately done by Western Europeans/Americans who are funding and supporting slaughter.  For me, it amounts to a second holocaust that the Jews have been involved in.  This time, shockingly and unashamedly the responsibility of Jews, plus Christians especially the evangelicals of America.  But all of us are implicated and stand condemned for our wickedness and guilty silence.

Or, will you also write to your MP and councillors?

Dear Alex, The damned sheer hypocrisy ...

... of condemning Russia's aggression with lots of BDS to punish them but nothing for our great friend and ally, Israel who, indiscriminately and disproportionately, has slaughtered and wounded many tens of thousands of men, women and children.

A tiny minority of the adult casualties had every right, under international law, to take up arms to defend their country from Israel's aggression.

Why is Israel so correct and law abiding by doing exactly what Russia is doing?

Israel, off and on, for 80 years and Russia for nearly 4 years, but in reality since 2014 after our friends in Kyiv overthrew a properly and fairly elected pro Russian Yanukovych.

We throw the book at Russia but fund, fuel and support Israel's attacks - a nation subjugating the indigenous population of Arabs.  They had co-existed in peace with the Jews since 70 CE.  It was only our white man's, European imperial war of 1914 that upset the apple cart after 1900 years of good relations between the Children of Abraham.  It has been disastrous ever since.  Our hero, Churchill, rushed us into joining the war on 4 August 1914.  With disastrous consequences ever since.

The killing of non-combatants in Gaza has slowed after two years of our genocidal behaviour of a second holocaust, or atrocity, that the Jews and Christians have been caught up in.  We 'taught' the Muslims how to do their atrocity of 7.10.23.  But Israel, part of our - The World Power - has always had the upper hand, the power and control, the iron fist, the tightening vice-like grip as a member of the Western Club. She is OURS, the cuckoo in the nest in the Arab Middle East.

Christmas!  King Herod slaughtered the boys under two in Palestine. An Israeli king, no less?

Am I completely off my rocket in thinking like this?  I know the Hamas armed wing is equally as brutal and revengeful as the IDF.

Alex, my truly excellent MP - and anyone - put me right - please.

3 Christmas 25 reflections

3 short Christmas reflections - nothing changes and revenge everytime

Our Judeo-Christian War on the Palestinians must be reinforcing Putin's conviction that in attacking Ukraine (for becoming part of the West) he is truly attacking Nazis.  (Our side slaughtering Palestinians and laying waste their scrap of land reminds me of what our side did under the Nazis.)

The current Radio 4 'Crossing Continents' is showing evidence that the 20% Israeli Palestinians are becoming the new Jews, ripe for persecution by the 80% Israeli Jews. 

You and I are the problem in this sad world of ours.

Only our side must dominate. Sharing and balance and toleration are all totally unacceptable!

Please add to Munroist 4692 ...

 " ... how long you have taken, your first and last hills, your age, plans for the future, where you are from and any other details which may be of interest."

Dear Alison

I started serious mountain walking in October 1974 with my MLC Introductory Course at Ogwen Cottage in Eryri, Birmingham's Outdoor Pursuits Centre at that time.  I completed the English and Welsh 2,000 foot hills on 6.9.2019 with Snaefell on the Isle of Man.  I bought the 1973 book of tables and the list compiled by George Bridge and then started adding a date by each summit visited.

I started visiting the Munros and Tops together and recording each with a date beside the name, with my first recorded on 6.3.1983 in summiting Schiehallion.  My last was Knight's Peak on 2.6 2008 when I was 60 years old.

My first Corbett was Merrick but the date was unrecorded until I visited the summit again on 20.5.2025 when I completed my round of Donalds with my last, Mullwharchar.  I met another walker, a year younger than me, who advised getting back to Glen Trool via Merrick.  How very right he was!  And it was an exhilarating twelve hour day.  I was exhausted by then!  My last two Corbetts were Ainshval and Askival on Rum on 24.4.2019.

My first Donald was Shalloch on Minnoch on 22.7.2011 and the last on 20.5.2025 was Mullwharchar.

My first recorded Graham was Glas Bheinn on the stormy day of 13.4.2014, I noted!  I'm 78 years old in January and have 154 Graham summits left to visit before I'm 81, when I'll definitely be too old and decrepit!

Thanks for being the Munro Clerk and for all your hard work in keeping everything up to date and compleated.

to Cllr Michael Moran of Rugby

Thank you for replying.  Normally, no one does.  You received the email as a member of the WMCA Board, whom I lobby from time to time.  Some of them know me.  I live in Halesowen in Dudley borough.  I'm a retired old geezer on my way out, trying to be a good ancestor to my children and grandchildren and very concerned at the way our leaders are behaving.

Please speak up, Michael, because you are an important political leader, to influence your MP and our government over compromise and a fair settlement for both parties to the Russia/Ukraine war.  And, for our ally and friend Israel to stop the inhumanity and suffering in Gaza and the West Bank.  Boycott, divestment and sanctions would help but we cannot even do that.  We sell them military products, instead to join in the genocide.  Germany much more so in helping Israel to behave in a similar disgusting way that the Nazis did.  Astonishing!

WE CAN'T ALWAYS SEE OUT OF THE BUS!

Help get car commuters into buses by using the screens and audio by telling bus passengers of the next stop when it is wet and dark outside and the inside of the windows are all steamed up!  For every single bus.

Complicit in many appalling crmes done by our ally and fellow religionist - we are the problem

The Puritans under Cromwell went to war, overthrew their King and executed him.

The most pious religious 'saints' have done nothing in the face of murder and mayhem.  In truth, they have joined in the warfare, putting country before Christ!  Almost ALWAYS failure, negligence, cover-up over OUR crimes in the unHoly Land.  We have made it unholy.  So unholy, we are guilty of the most brutal, vicious behaviour in the Middle East that has steadily worsened over the last 125 years and accelerated after the 7.10.23 atrocity.  The first acceleration of brutality was seen after 9/11 in 2001.  A most foolish over-reaction of vicious punitive measures that brought death, destruction and catastrophe to the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq.  And boosting immigration to Europe to escape our horrors brought upon them.

We always go for the extermination of enemies rather than living in harmony, tolerance and compromise to bring about mixed nationalities of multi-faiths all living in peaceful co-existence in one land.  On one planet.

This is my challenge to Jews, Christians and Muslims.  To actually LIVE OUT their faiths. To repent and to behave as their Founder and Prophet teaches in the Gospels. 

Importance of Black Country Active Travel Route spelt out

Thanks to S Staffs DC for the amazing transformation of their, S Staffs section, of the UK's definitely most important for being the longest urban-rural-urban cycle-walkway from Brierley Hill to NW Wolverhampton, through three council areas in the heart of England.  I derisively call it the Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway in dud, deadly, Dudley's section.  More politely and correctly the Black Country Active Travel Route on two disused railway lines and not even an NCR number - STILL!  Hint, hint!

Eco tips

Small is beautiful, to minimise is magnificent. Therefore, 10-10-20 is 'ideal' :- at least 10 miles/litre, no more than 10 kWh/day over a year, max 20C for the room you sit in. Try to reject the car for the bus but bike is BEST!!

And to enrich nature is urgent because we are part of nature.

Trumps new National Security Strategy ...

 ... aims to prevent NATO becoming "a perpetually expanding alliance".  The strategy contains wording harshly critical of much of Europe, suggesting it faces "civilisation erasure through migration and EU integration."

We humans love killing and cruelty directed at each other

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/01/gaza-west-bank-syria-lebanon-israel-ceasefire?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other 

We humans love killing and cruelty directed at each other  - not just animals to eat but killing other humans! It brings God into disrepute and makes complete nonsense of His supposed characteristics, eg how could a God of Love and Justice, who is Omniscient so knowing how we would turn out, has then gone ahead and created us?

I think we are no better than the Russians ...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/01/gaza-west-bank-syria-lebanon-israel-ceasefire?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other 

​BDS for the Russians but not for ourselves!

The West, our taxes are to blame; we behave like the Russians slaughtering Ukrainians.

This is our inhumanity to man, we are the robber in the story of the Good Samaritan and we have no insight. Uncivilised​, ​British barbarians. And Hitler was a European in a 'Christian' country.

Perfidious, immoral, brutal Britain for centuries and, after 108 years (2,025 take away 1,917), our 'rule' over Palestine continues, courtesy of the Shameful State of Israel - backed to the hilt by ourselves since the all things to all men/women but biased to the Jews because of our Bible, 1917 Balfour Declaration and, the cheeky, arrogant Sykes/Picot Agreement of 1916.

Western aggression on Gaza and the West Bank is ...

... disgraceful, disgusting, hypocritical and sends an unacceptable message for Russia to continue her attacks on Ukraine.

W Mids Combined Authority (WMCA) silence, even no boycott/divestment/sanctions, amounts to total collaboration with Israel in its war on Gaza and West Bank.

Therefore, through apathy and acquiescence, WMCA is morally responsible for murder.  In the unHoly Land for 2 years (UK since 1917) and with Russia modelling our own coercion, force and violence around the world for centuries.

No conception that there might be a connection between wrong action leading to a response, a reprisal with another wrong action.  Yet, a good worthy action might elicit a smile, a thanks or, a one good turn deserves another.

Rugby Council Leader

Dear Michael

Thank you for replying.  Normally, no one does.  You received the email as a member of the WMCA Board, whom I lobby from time to time.  Some of them know me.  I live in Halesowen in Dudley borough.  I'm a retired old geezer on my way out, trying to be a good ancestor to my children and grandchildren and very concerned at the way our leaders are behaving.

Please speak up, Michael, because you are an important political leader, to influence your MP and our government over compromise and a fair settlement for both parties to the Russia/Ukraine war.  And, for our ally and friend Israel to stop the inhumanity and suffering in Gaza and the West Bank.  Boycott, divestment and sanctions would help but we cannot even do that.  We sell them military products, instead.  Germany much more so in helping Israel to behave in a similar disgusting way that the Nazis did.  Astonishing!

Was it Peter Ustinov who said "The Jews were the first victims of the Nazis and the Palestinians are the second"?

Do give me your perspective if you wish, Michael.  Your WMCA Board has sanctioned this:-

Dudley's deprived get a £1 billion tramway to heavenly Merry Hill Shopping Centre!

Dear Alex

LEARN FROM HISTORY!

With your military background you have something to contribute to ending this dangerous impasse between Russia and the Europeans.  Even neutral Switzerland is weakening, slightly, I have just read.  There must be compromise with no semblance of either victory or defeat for either side.  Our side's very provocative, overbearing conceit must be reined in, I think.

We failed to nip in the bud German, justifiable anger, in the years after the folly of the Treaty of Versailles and the even greater stupidity of the 1914 war.

We failed to nip in the bud Russian anger at the very one sided, unbalanced situation after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and ensuing events.  The MAD of the Cold War and even MADDER ever since!

The article, below, is what a retired CoE vicar sent me - and, his question is pertinent and challenging.  I have just added a further two short sentences at the end of my penultimate paragraph of my blog post,

The Revolution of Dignity led to today's Russia/Ukraine War - found at the foot, below.

Tim Weller

FORWARDED:

Thanks Tim.

Leading experts warned NATO expansion would lead to conflict. Why did no one listen? — Analysis - Mass News

Some of the evidence is given above.

But how to move forward now?

Best wishes,

John

to George Fraser, Mayoral administrator from Bob Whitehead of WMCC

12 November 2024

Dear George,

It is quite a few months now since our correspondence tailed off, but the issue of business-sourced greenhouse gas emissions remains. Given the mayor's commitment to economic growth, we are very worried that the pollution from this source could increase, and not subside, due to new plans. Let us give two examples, the projected increase in flights (including at night) from Birmingham airport, and the potential destruction of Merry Hill's nature, landscaping, public open space and housing land due to the planned tram incursion. We fear there are other examples.

We note that the commitment to a Net Zero region by 2041 does not seem to have prominence in the mayor's plans.

So, we repeat, before the WMCA embarks on a new round of potentially polluting business investment, can we have an indication of the current offenders in such matters?

We also trust that environmental concerns will have a high prominence in the discussions about transport and investment at this Friday's WMCA board meeting.

12 Nov 2024

Dudley's deprived get a £1 billion tramway to heavenly Merry Hill!

It is very important that when Dudley and Sandwell citizens are on such low incomes that they have a little help with energy and food bills, that they get a spanking new, state of the art, wealth-flaunting, prestigious, £1 billion tramway on the former, principal mainline Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance". Described as such in a letter to me in 2018 from Network Rail and the Department for Transport. 

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

SEE:

West Midlands Metro’s route draws a poverty line in Dudley, data shows | Express & Star https://share.google/1iURkSKcmVJKOqTPk