UNRWA on the banning of humanitarian aid to Gazans for 60 days, so far

Starvation as a weapon of war

JUSTIN WEBB:  Hostages must be released and Hamas disarmed, says Israel over 18 months into their war to eradicate Hamas and thus bring peace and justice to the remaining Gazans still alive.

International Court of Justice in the Hague.  In a case today, UN is asking for access to bring in food aid banned from Gaza, said Justin Webb.

Sam Rhodes, Dep Dir, UNRWA: Border was closed on the 2 March 2025, almost 60 days ago.  Gaza still under conflict and savage bombardment after more than 18 months; a population entirely dependant on humanitarian aid.  That flow has been completely blocked.  Gaza is sealed and remains under siege.

How close is it to completely running out of food?

UNRWA:  Pretty close.  The UN was feeding 2 million people.  Those distributions have stopped.  Community kitchens are running out of food.  People are reduced to one meal a day in their tents and that is a meal of rice and a can of beans or peas.  The situation is really desperate and these are people who were already on the verge of famine when the last international report came out six months ago.  It is lack of food on top of an already desperate situation in terms of food availability and of water availability both worsening public health conditions and their mental health.  And most people are living out in the open.

WEBB: Israel says when food does come in it is taken by Hamas.

UNRWA:  That is a factual error because no food has come in for 60 days.  Secondly, during the ceasefire period when food did come in, it was being distributed directly by aid organisations with robust and seasoned mechanisms for the collection of distribution of aid. It was being looted by criminals earlier on in the conflict, possibly with links to Hamas.  But that aid was under strict constraints and controls by ourselves.  If there is no aid around people will steal and loot.  We have been doing this for 30 years and have strict controls in place.

WEBB:  Israel says that some of your staff took part in the 7/10 massacre and are members of Hamas.  They don't trust you as an organisation.  There is such a breakdown of trust the world should not be surprised at what has happened.

UNRWA:  You are referring to nine employees who may have been involved, in an organisation of 30,000.  Do not tarnish the whole organisation with the charge of being sold out to Hamas.  International law makes the politicisation of humanitarian aid as being illegal and unacceptable.

Have I got this right?

Was it not the Labour Party and Tony Blair, with their enthusiastic embrace of revenge for 9/11, meted out to the Muslim countries of Afghanistan and Iraq and hatred for Iran, that then led to the rise of terrorism in the UK and other NATO countries?

Revenge is always so sweet for everyone.  9/11 was revenge for so many US/UK/NATO military bases on holy Muslim soil.  It was revenge for our side refusing to countenance leaving it to Osama Bin Laden and his military to oust Russia from Afghanistan and to deal with Saddam Hussein.  OBL and his ilk saw foreign, heathen Christian troops on holy Muslim soil as the ultimate, mortal sin that could not be tolerated whatsoever.  Hence, 9/11.

One wrong always leads on to another wrong in a counter action as we see, yet again in the Israel colonial settler war against Muslims in the one Land that is rightfully theirs and only theirs as the Bible says - so that settles it!

Is Israel the ultimate tragedy of, traditionally, Christian Britain spreading the Gospel of Christ along with capitalism/democracy?

The nation of Israel is the result of the ultimate tragedy of Christian Britain and its politics of going into all the world to make disciples of Jesus Christ with their interpretation of what that means (controlling as much of the world as possible).  So we saw, for the Brits (and European Christianity), it meant stealing the land, their people and their possessions and controlling the native population by coercion, force and domination.

In Palestine, between the European World Wars, we showed favouritism towards the Jews against the Arabs during the British mandate and favouritism led to them joining the club in 1948.  That club was the US/UK/EU empire with Israel as a W European nation.  It meant them being funded by the Christian West to be our nation in the mainly Arab Middle East.

Avi Shlaim: Israel's aim is domination and military supremacy

Israel is a settler, colonial state taking over both Gaza and the West Bank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17HklzMRRdE

16,678 views 25 Apr 2025

Speaking at a screening of the documentary "Under Fire: Israel's war on medics", Israeli historian and author Avi Shlaim charted Zionism's political journey from the founding of the Israeli state to the perpetration of genocide in Gaza by its current government. Accusing Israel of turning Gaza into a "wasteland" and "mass grave", Shlaim held international powers responsible for unconditionally supporting the actions of a "fascist" government, adding that they too were on the "wrong side of history".

Is this a correct and acceptable summary of where we are in the Gazan Genocide?

Dear Joy and Jeremy

After more than 18 months, I remain appalled and disgusted at the very one-sided, ongoing slaughter of children and civilians.  Civilians like you, Joy who is always so brilliant at teaching the non-violent Christ and entertaining the children - this week.  The thousands of dead children happened to be born in Gaza, Lebanon and the Occupied West Bank.

It is justified, by our side because they are terrorists and our politicians believe this so firmly that they use our taxes, military sales and a pitiable pittance of diplomacy to pursue an unwinnable and unjust war on the Palestinians.  Over the last eight decades they have been dismissed and murdered as the terrorist PLO, Fatah and Hamas.

I would urge you to join me in writing to Alex Ballinger, our MP, that he must be encouraged to continue to express his disquiet in the corridors of power in Parliament.  He must insist that BDS - boycott, divestment and sanctions must be imposed on Israel by the UK - until both peoples have their own adjacent states living in peaceful co-existence with each other.  All of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) must be given to the Palestinians and the Israelis must move out for reasons of peace and justice.  They did it in 2005 with Gaza.  Gaza must be rebuilt by Israel, for Israel, together with US/Germany/UK who flattened it.  Land for Peace.

Love and blessings

Tim

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Is this a correct and acceptable summary of where we are in the ongoing Gazan Genocide?

I spoke to two lovely Christians today about the Israel/Palestinian 18 months war.  Mike said he was not informed about the matter.  Perhaps, I should have asked him what he did know or, I expect he was not ready to talk about it.  His wife, felt that accepting the personal salvation Gospel of Jesus Christ through faith in Christ alone was the answer.

My own understanding of the facts:

An asymmetric war, one-sided, very unequal two sides with only one side getting hammered and pulverised every day for 18 mths to leave over 50,000 dead after over 1200 Israeli and other foreign nationals dying on Day One on 7.10.23.

We regard all Palestinians as terrorists in voting in Hamas in 2006, a terror gang.  Our side fuels the slaughter of fighters and civilians without a murmur of disquiet.

Therefore, they can only be beaten by our side being bigger and better terrorists in order to get the better of them.  But in over 100 years of mutual massacres, we never have and, the over 50,000 deaths in 18 months must be called a war crime and genocide.

This is called a war of self-defence, accepted in international law.  But when does a war of self-defence going on for so long or resulting in so much death and destruction become an illegal war of aggression?

More importantly, how can the aggressor call his aggression self-defence when he is occupying Gaza?  Doesn't the self-defence need to come from the Gazans being pushed around, displaced, occupied and ruled by Israel?

Shockingly, the biggest and most powerful empire in the world was seen off, back to the UK, by the three Zionist/Jewish terrorist gangs between 1945 and 1948.

From 1948 onwards Israel has won every war or, as in 1973, maintained their hold on the land.

Therefore, winning land by aggression was rewarded with Israel allowed to keep the land.  In international law, countries profiting from aggression are outlawed, unless there is a peace agreement by all sides.  Or, if it is our side profiting from the aggression, as in this case, then it's a different matter.

One of the terror gangs, Haganah (founded 1920), Hebrew for defence, became and is the Israeli Defence Force to this day.

Question for Richard Parker in Wolverhampton

Since 1981, why has your party neglected the freight only and unused or partly used railway lines and concentrated on Metro tramways, instead.  And even then, you never gave us the promised network of 200 Kms by the year 2000.  In fact, only 20 Km by 1999 and even then all but 2 Kms of the 20 Kms were on the first mainline railway destroyed to get the tramway?!

Our model home since 1976

My concerns, as they were with the Gables housing development in Hagley, are these:

1. There is a moderately fast growing population in the UK to exacerbate a worsening housing crisis that started last century.
2. Gracious and spacious housing provision, as we saw last decade with the Gables, is certainly less obvious at Harvino so that is great.
3. However, in my opinion, each unit is still too large on the main site behind the front block of eco-apartments in the Blue Bird building.  Housing units must be more densely provided because land is in limited supply and must be used for growing our food and for giving nature more room to breathe and survive.  We are part of nature, after all!
4. Most of us want an ever more prosperous lifestyle but that cannot be delivered on a planet that is not growing and never can grow to keep pace with our ever more greedy demands placed upon it (called economic growth).
5. Most of the housing at Harvino is for the wealthy with every adult owning a car, as my wife and I both do.  But, since 1976, we have been living and, brought up two children, in a modest, eco-home that is a mid-terrace, three storey town house at 28 Hunnington Crescent, Halesowen.
6. This house has been plenty big enough over these 48 years!
7. Even the wealthy, like ourselves, must be prepared to live more simply so that others may simply live.
8. This home of ours is a mini power station with, literally, every roof tile covered in solar panels since 2013.
9. As a result, since we had the gas meter taken out on the 30 November 2023, we spent 50p/day on total energy and 50p/day on the electricity standing charge to Octopus, over these first eight months.
10. If every roof was pitched E/W and plastered with PV solar, like ours, on your new Bellway housing estates, every home would supply nearly all of their energy needs from the sun, so fewer power stations would be needed.  And fewer solar farms and fewer battery storage sites, too!

RECOMMENDATIONS

Every new home must be 100% electricity.

Must be E/W oriented to have 100% covering of PV solar panels.

The battery storage must be double the power of the solar array.

To save energy, every new home should have the lounge, dining, kitchen on the first floor with bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor.  Upside down living!  Old age infirmities and disabilities are catered for in this way, too!

The garden, front and back, should be no bigger than our own at 28 Hunnington Crescent - pretty modest, so a tall order!

Obsession with always the flash and fancy, the wealth flaunting, vanity projects galore!

Dear Sarah

You wrote, "The article you refer to was actually a guest article about a research project, rather than one of our own projects."  But it is your own projects, supported by young and old alike that have been such a disappointment to me and those who support me.  Since last year, CBT has had a major campaign to get more tramways rolled out across the UK.  Further examples:

Transport 2000 and now CBT has always supported HS2 and the tragic Metro tram here in the West Midlands that has resulted:

1. in the loss of two out of three mainline railways converted to tramways;
2. 200 years ago, tramways were being converted to railways.  200 years on and back we go to tramways instead of railways!
3. about 100 Kms of freight only or unused/part used railway lines near to or alongside congested motorways and main roads, still remain as money has been diverted to trams;
4. a further section of the 120 Kms Worcester to Derby principal mainline railway is due to be converted to a cycle-walkway after all the crossings were designed and built to take intercity trains!
5. Many hundreds of millions of pounds (actually billions), since 1981 has been lost to tram projects and for Sprint buses when that money could have been used to stem the decline in bus use and to change the view that the bus is of low status and not for car drivers.
6. All that money wasted when it could have been used to give all you youngsters the Fare-Free Public Transport that my OAP age group has had for decades.

Please, Sarah view the attachments I sent you and see if they make sense to you.  Please pass them onto colleagues.  Or, have I completely lost my marbles?  Just be honest with your thoughts!

Lunar Society meeting blurb: "To allow all its citizens to benefit, rather than a select few"

Dear friends

This was the excellent intention stated on the publicity that went out for the Society meeting on the 3 April as the three speakers applauded Birmingham's economic miracle that has benefited the already well heeled.  The rest can ill afford the hike in council taxes and loss of social care services when they are already so dependent on food banks and charitable help with paying their energy bills.

Our honourable wish and the individual help we all do give to the poor, does mean the Society is campaigning in wishing to see the benefits for the rich trickling down to the poorest in Birmingham and the Black Country.

The Society is also campaigning when it invites the most likeable, Andy Street to address its annual dinner for the third time.  Lovely man though he is, he remains a prominent Conservative politician and campaigner for Metro, Sprint, guided busways and an HS2 extension to Manchester.  These four extremely expensive transport projects have not only resulted in the loss of two out of three mainline railways but is taking finite resources that should be going to make the homes of the poorest in the region highly energy efficient, solar powered and well insulated.  The money is clearly there.  I think the Lunar Society should continue its stated intention: "To allow all its citizens to benefit, rather than a select few"

The select few, like me for 17 years, have benefited from regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT). I think, all of the West Midlands should be benefiting from FFPT and not just the elderly like me.  It can easily afforded if Metro, Sprint and guided busways were to be ended.

Rachel Waterhouse, our wonderful founder who was an inspiration from when I knew her, I think would want the Lunar Society to continue to speak up for all of us in the region, especially those who are missing out on the economic miracle that has benefited the rich.

Could David or Jo please send me the recommendations from the Climate Change Working Party?  Thanks.

36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews

36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews have published an open letter criticising the Israeli government's military actions in Gaza, saying they can 'no longer remain silent'.

Robert Stone explains why he has signed the letter (02:05) and caller Jamie (08:08) gives his reaction. The Board of Deputies is the largest body representing British Jews. The board has traditionally supported the Israeli government. But the letter is highly critical of recent actions by the Israeli government. With particular reference to the killings of 15 paramedics, the letter says: “Such incidents are too painful and shocking to take in, but we know in our hearts we cannot turn a blind eye or remain silent at this renewed loss of life and livelihoods, with hopes dwindling for a peaceful reconciliation and the return of the hostages." Listen to the full show on Global Player: https://app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/... #israel #gaza #palestine #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup

Did Israel know about October 7?

"Egypt said it warned Israel days before the attack that "an explosion of the situation [was] coming, and very soon, and it would be big." Israel denied receiving such a warning, although Michael McCaul, Chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee, said that warnings were given three days before the attack.

"In the months preceding the attack, Hamas publicly released videos of its militants preparing to attack Israel. A video released in December 2022 showed Hamas training to take hostages, while another video showed Hamas practicing paragliding.^[92] On September 12, Hamas posted a video of its fighters training to blast through the border.^[93] After the attack, the IDF said that Hamas had extensively studied the military bases and settlements near the border.^[94][95]"

^{In July 2023, a member of the Israeli signals intelligence unit alerted her superiors that Hamas was conducting preparations for the assault, saying, "I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary". An Israeli colonel ignored her concerns.[103]}

FROM Wikipedia:

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_7_Hamas-led_attack_on_Israel#:~:text=Egypt%20said%20it%20warned%20Israel,three%20days%20before%20the%20attack.

Israel was warned of the 7.10 attack but did nothing!

I heard on BBC Radio 4 that four Israeli women, (were they released hostages?) passed on their concerns about suspicious military activity over the border in Gaza, just days before the 7.10.23 attack by Hamas. So Israel knew, dismissed it, knowing it would give them a good reason to wipe out Gaza for good if it came about.

Israel's failures taken out on Gaza

Astonishing blindness to our own unethical, hypocritical and contradictory foreign policy for ourselves and Israel.

No sanctions on Israel for its, so far, 18 months perpetual war of 'self-defence' on a weak and powerless nation that for 77 years has been under the heel of regional superpower Israel, with the West's full backing.

The 2 million population of Gaza is controlled by land, sea and air by Israel.  That country's Mossad is able to explode mobile phones and pagers supplied by Hezbollah but claims to have known nothing about the months of preparation into the Hamas attack of 7.10.23, launched from Gaza.

Mossad's incompetence and negligence over 7.10 is being taken out on the Palestinians with the war crimes and genocide now being seen on the wholly innocent Gazans

SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA BUT NEVER ON ISRAEL - because she is on our side, silly!

ISRAEL MUST BE ALLOWING MILITARY AID FOR HAMAS BUT NEVER HUMANITARIAN AID FOR GAZANS!  Is this really true?

The cold-blooded murder of Ukrainians is so worthy of sanctions but the elimination of Palestinians who have nearly no-one to help them when the country responsible for their murders is so firmly on the side of the US, UK, EU (the world's jury, judge and executioner).

Our enemy attacked Ukraine and sanctions were immediately imposed.

Our friend attacked Gaza, Lebanon, Occupied West Bank in 18 months of self-defence and that war is fueled by our side and everything they want is given to them. 

Why do we have 100% economic and military sanctions against Russia for over three years but very nearly no kind of disapproval expressed against Israel for their very one-sided, unequal war to slaughter Palestinians and Lebanese who have only the attacked humanitarian aid workers, the UN and the welfare/health wing of Hamas to keep them alive?

The continuing seven weeks blockade on all food and medical supplies imposed by Israel is seen by our side as not being worthy of sanctions.  Nothing is getting through to keep the Palestinians alive.  Yet, Israel must be allowing weapons and ammunition through to the military wing of Hamas so that they can continue to use bomb, bullet and air strikes against only Hamas fighters.  Israel intends only the men of violence to be killed but the truth is that Gazans slaughtered is now over 50,000 with hundreds of thousands injured, with the last hospital now bombed and out of action.

Why is the IDF never able to stop military aid to Gaza but very effectively stops humanitarian aid to the civilians who want to live in peaceful co-existence alongside Israel?

The Bible says that we must "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."  Why not for the peace of Gaza City, too?

"We had no wish to meet violence with violence" said top Cardinal from Iran in 'Conclave' by Robert Harris (p 264)

Righteous states and rogue states!

We are firmly on the side of one rogue state, fueling their many war crimes but, hypocritically, have a proxy war against another rogue state, Russia.  Maybe, we are even a bigger rogue state than they are!  Surely, we can't be the problem, can we?!

Brum, bankruptcy, bin men and commissioners

As a BCC social worker for 25 years, last decade I received very many thousands of pounds thanks to the success of Leigh Day over the Equal Pay Scandal.  I write scandal because, for the life of me, I still cannot understand why I received this very nice cash bonanza.  (I got shot of much of it for the benefit of others - the poor and truly sustainable energy)  However, I was not going to turn it down, of course.  Yet, presumably, it has contributed to the bankruptcy of BCC.  Is that so?  Or, can you put me right, please Bob?

Would Sharon Graham and the Brum bin workers accept the exact same pay rules, structure and organisation as we see in Greater Manchester (ie, the best/most generous for the bin workers, out of the 10 Gt Manchester councils)?  After all, Brummies must simply do what the Mancunians do in everything.

Is it only Brum who has had these troubles over bin collections and, why them alone?

From what I have seen, Social/Climate justice has taken the back seat with every political party that has councillors.  It was even the Labour Party (supposedly, the best for justice for the poor at the expense of the rich) who, in 1981 with the Labour W Mids County Council authorisation, started the continuing idiocy even to this very day, of rebuilding 200 Kms of tramways on three mainline railways (two now achieved) having only just destroyed the first electric tram network twenty years earlier to get air poisoned diesel buses!!  Now, billions wasted = billions in weight of deadly GHG emissions!  GHG = greenhouse gas (ultimately, the curse for all life on earth, according to Climate science).

Why have I been nearly the only one (Jane Haynes has been excellent), as far as I am aware, who has kicked up a fuss about the scandalous abuse, the exorbitant fees in paying each of six Birmingham Commissioners, plus two political advisors, well over £1,000 every DAY for five years plus expenses for, so far, incompetently guiding the city council into yet another bin strike?

Michael Gove, on their appointment in September 2023, said he was "confident that they will be key to resolving Birmingham City Council’s issues as quickly and effectively as possible."

"The price of Birmingham City Council's recovery from financial ruin is destined to be costly - and on top the council must also pay off the tab of expert commissioners set to cost over £1 million in a year."

"The top earner was lead commissioner Max Caller, who personally has picked up £102,900 just in fees, with expenses, fuel and hotel accommodation on top. He works, on average, 13-15 days a month."  FROM - https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/million-pound-year-cost-commissioners-29208453

This man's work, for all that futile expenditure, has made things worse.

My survey conclusion/summary for TfWM survey

You need to call me in to discuss face-to-face, please my experiences and the history of West Midlands transport over the 57 years I have studied, lived and worked in Brum and the Black Country.  In 57 years, you have only re-opened/improved the LFO line, Walsall to Rugeley and Moor Street Station through to a new Smethwick Galton Bridge station.  And, you've built the most enormous railway station to replace the three times smaller University station.  In eleven years, I have had two one-hour meetings with Laura Shoaf but, she is so high up in the hierarchy it seems she has no say in decision-making!

In 77 years, we are now in our third incarnation of New St Station and the second for Snow Hill station.

In 77 years, you have failed to build the two additional tunnels needed at New Street station, on either side, even when total rebuilding of the area on both sides was taking place!

You've destroyed about 100 Kms of W Mids railway line and another 100 Kms remains for trains.  Less now, because of the trams and your intention to extend the dog walkers' paradise from Brownhills to Lichfield on the principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance".

We must get right behind our brilliant friend and ally, even when she always acts like a rogue state, and support her to the hilt, as we are doing!

Hardly surprisingly, we are much more bothered about our No 1 enemy fighting our friend and ally, Ukraine than our even greater friend and ally, Israel fighting their 77-year-old, vicious war of so-called 'self-defence' against the Palestinians who want to be left well alone to live in peaceful co-existence with all the Israelis.

We are firmly on the side of one rogue state, fueling their many war crimes but, hypocritically, have a proxy war against another rogue state, Russia.  Maybe, we are even a bigger rogue state than they are!  Surely, we can't be the problem, can we?!

Confession time

Dear Gerald - you are mischievously pricking my conscience!  Confession time!

You are so right, of course.  I have used train travel for visiting every Knoydart summit over 2,500 feet over the years but, mostly the Astra for sleeping, living and eating in for visiting each summit over 2,000 feet, once each, all over England and Wales and then Scotland.  In recent years, only twice a year, as my self-granted 'reward' for being so good at cycling to and from work almost every day for the last nearly 20 years of my career and using the bike for very nearly all my social work visits when I was officially classed as an "essential car user".

My 100% food-fueled mountain bike is also essential for so many of the remote summits miles up forest roads and tracks before I can start the big walk.  Becky Rosseff introduced me to mountain biking when she lent me her folding-in-two bike, in the early 90s!  That made me get my own in January 1995, which I still use.

I also drive more slowly on motorways.  Much of the time, with the lorries in order to get over 75 mpg with my guilt ridden conscience gnawing away, as I use up the oil and screw up the planet.  I've read in an XR book that it is called "cognitive dissonance".  I call it reducing my hypocrisy quotient to justify my wicked ways.

Better people than me do the round of over 1,000 summits in two or three continuous expeditions.  Even in my prime, that was always a complete and utter impossibility though, Gerald.  And, I've got so soft I'm using hotels more instead of a sleeping bag on the bare hill!!

Confession over and out for the count!

We're like mighty Emperor Trump demanding ...

We're like the Emperor in the Hans Christian Anderson tale - demanding yet more finery, a wish list of never-ending goodies and all at the expense of the welfare of the poor and the ill, so that waging war can be fully funded.

PLUS:

So that railways and buses can be replaced/duplicated with tramways.

So that we play our full part in funding war on Russia and the Palestinians. 

So that buildings and facilities can be regenerated as a status symbol of extravagance and flaunted wealth.

BUT, it is all vanity and prestige to cover our naked selfishness and greed and empty thoughtlessness. 

God/Nature had the first word in our creation and if we don't live in harmony with Him/her, we will be simply dispensed with.

But the Emperor is as naked as naked could be - and no-one tells him!!

CONCLAVE - the book - so entertaining but plausible throughout

I SPOIL THE WHOLE THING IN THIS SPOILER ALERT!!!

An outstandingly good read, so full of humanity and one of the most Christian books I have read.  Quotations from the Bible are appropriate but not overdone, as top Cardinals desperate for the top job, speak and pray.

Cardinal Lomeli as Dean of the Chapter, is in charge of the whole Conclave procedure.  He is genuine, so true to life and a real figure in being tempted and then being appalled at his thoughts about his fellow cardinals - such a lovely character in being so human and appealing.  He even stages a break-in of the last Pope's bedroom in a bid to find the evidence he is sure exists somewhere.  He asks for forgiveness for some of his most unworthy thoughts.  He is so genuinely not wanting and never expecting to be elected Pope.  To his astonishment, after different Cardinals are found wanting in different and devious ways and are ruled out, it is Jacopo Lomeli who comes a poor second out of only three left on the final eighth ballot.  Only in one ballot did he vote for himself and that was so out of character that the Good Lord made it coincide with explosions in Rome as an ISIS attack was launched that shattered glass where the voting was taking place!

Throughout, Lomeli confides much about the senior Cardinals being voted on and you are treated to his own preferences and why.  At the close of the book there is a surprising twist where the winning Cardinal seems the most unsuitable, is nearly never included in the ballot and then turns out to have been up for gender reassignment in a Swiss clinic if the Pope, in the dying days of his papacy, had not selected him for promotion from Archbishop of Baghdad to Cardinal.  But it is this Filipino who not only wins over the affections of the 117 Cardinals but the reader, too.  And hero Lomeli is so delighted, too!

Not a single Catholic could be offended - even by the impressive array of misdeeds and interesting incidents that are unveiled to move things along so excitingly.

What sheer brilliance from top novelist Robert Harris who shows his careful and diligent research to unveil yet another gripping tale.  This is my fourth of his - so far!

Dead slow on urgent, obvious measures - even low hanging fruit ignored!

Dear Katie

Many thanks for this and for your concern and action on Climate, ecology/economics and simply wise spending.  In my old age and retirement I want to encourage and support you in every way I can.  As I do with my own 36 year old youngster and one 40 year old, both in environment paid work.

You wrote, "boosting efforts, and to inspire and support new groups."  This is fair enough but I would want the WMCA and all you full-time, professional officers to be taking a lead for the rest of us to follow.  And I really don't see that, Katie.  The CA and the seven councils are moving so slowly and you are all desperate for the 150 miles and 8 lines of tramways (LR), VLR in Coventry, now guided busways I've been told by Calthorpe Estates that will save the demolition of their fine HQ building.  Plus, Sprint buses and High Scam 2 that has no stations to be of any practical use at all, apart from for frequent flyers who will have the alternative of flying through the air on land, instead of the air!

All this, when there are existing railway lines lying unused or partly used alongside or near to congested main roads and motorways.  One purpose built, principal, mainline railway "of national strategic significance" is being turned into yet more of a cycle-walkway between Walsall and Lichfield.  Astonishing!  Perhaps 100 Kms in the West Midlands is available.  Only one railway station has been rebuilt this century and that was the existing University station that was rebuilt many times bigger for £50 m.  An enormous building when it was the platform that needed to be made three times longer, as it now is!

And, Metro and Sprint for wealthy Solihull town centre that already has very good railway and bus routes - and, an airport not far away!!  Billions spent by the wealthy, like me, at Tram/Transport HQ at 16 Summer Lane.  One billion £ in price = One billion lb in weight of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is a very rough but helpful and stunning rule of thumb, such is our foolish but understandable addiction to finite fossil fuels in our lifestyles.

You are concentrating on groups and those speaking on behalf of groups.  One very important group is the Birmingham Route to Zero (R20) Taskforce, as here:

"The launch of the Birmingham Route to Zero (R20) Taskforce followed a cross-party declaration of a climate emergency by Birmingham City Council in June 2019, with the council’s Cabinet then agreeing in July 2019 to make tackling climate change one of the authority’s main priorities. Climate Change has been recognised as an existential threat to Birmingham, the UK and the World for at least the last thirty years or so. Now action is called for. This new climate change taskforce for Birmingham has drawn up a plan of action to tackle the causes of climate change to make our city and our world a better place for future generations to come. The taskforce works in partnership across the city, engaging with our many different communities, age/disability groups, and business, commercial and residential areas."   (from -  https://lunarsociety.org.uk/resources/ian-ward-presentation-the-future-of-transport-in-birmingham-and-the-west-midlands-july-2021/)

Are you engaging, inspiring and challenging this taskforce?

May I see their "plan of action" and are you working to it and on it, Katie?

Bob Whitehead's brilliant W Mids Climate Coalition plan of action is here:

 Action Points - 2024 version.pdf

This is Dudley FoE's:

 ClimateActionPlan DudleyD1.pdf

However, in 57 years of closely following transport affecting Climate/ecology/economics in Brum, nothing has changed.  Road traffic congestion, demolition/rebuilding, the destruction of nature for concrete, brick and tarmac and the exhaustion of finite fossil fuels has continued apace.  With Labour as the worst offender.

It was in 1981 that two LABOUR councillors, Phil Bateman and David Sparks, got cracking with getting a 200 Kms tramway network by the year 2000 to rival Manchester's.  By that year, they had got precisely 20 Kms with all but 2 Kms on the first mainline railway wrecked!  The Green Movement and Green Party are all in favour of this mish mash of different public transport modes when the urgency is, in fact, insulating and solar powering and making highly energy efficient the homes of the poorest in the W Midlands.  No redundancy or unemployment.  Simply, WMCA transport officers retrained and redeployed to work on Bob's Action Plan.

Best wishes

YOU YOUNGSTERS MUST GET A GRIP! Jo, please forward to John Street for his response

Dear friends - could Joe please reply?  And any others would be nice to hear from, too!  Especially, Raj.

"The Lunar Society is committed to stimulate ideas, broaden debate and catalyse action – heritage for the future."

It was great to see Joe chairing the meeting really well at the last Society meeting on the 3 April. He asked speakers from the floor to stand up and speak up.  I was one who did!  I said not one speaker had mentioned the Climate Emergency and there was a very audible ripple of approval/assent from others in the room.  UK national and regional governments each declared their own Climate Emergency in 2019 but, for the last six years, have continued with business as usual economic growth/greed, as the planet's life support systems have reeled from higher temperatures bringing extreme weather events and disturbed climate patterns that I first read about in the 1980s.  Ever since, things have slowly got worse as Climate scientists have been ignored and their predictions have come about.

One of our three speakers insisted that he had unintentionally included the Climate Emergency when he said that the people of Nechells are dying a few years younger than the wealthy parts of Brum.  That is true but that is more about social justice than Climate justice, although 'Loss and Damage' payments to the poor Global Black Majority by the rich Global White Minorlty nations are an essential part of both adaptation and mitigation of Climate.  He also thought that the Clean Air Zone was a direct response to the Climate Emergency.  It was not, although it is true that cleaner air does mean fewer greenhouse gas emissions but the introduction of CAZ was not a response to the Climate Emergency.  It was talked about well before the Climate Emergency was declared but is a good, tiny step in the right direction of getting car commuters onto bus, train, tram to free up the road space for essential users.  Something more effective, I think, is here:

Bus and businesses at the centre

The prestigious, famous founders of the Lunar Society unwittingly gave us immense wealth from their work but also the disastrous consequences of burning finite fossil fuels as if there is no tomorrow - and, on which our very well-being and way of life is now well and truly locked into as fossil fool junkies.

The Society was revived by Rachel Waterhouse who had first started the Birmingham Consumer Group.  In the 1980s, I was part of the group and on the committee and we all, as watchful and eagle-eyed consumers, saw that Metro tram expansion on three mainline railways was NOT a good idea!  Today, one is saved but the other two are lost.  First Andy Street and now Richard Parker are enthusiasts for Andy's January 2020 Metro plan to spend £15 BILLION by 2040 on 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops.  The original 1981 plan was for 200 Kms by the year 2000.  In 1999, only 20 Kms had been opened and that was on the first mainline railway destroyed to give us trams and, today the total is 23 Kms!!

All of this with not a murmur of disapproval from a single person that I have so far met at Lunar Society meetings.  Even when we have known since the 1980s that the fine, gleaming white, Calthorpe Estates HQ was down for demolition.  Apparently, this building is now saved by the tram extension to Bearwood being replaced by a guided busway, I have heard.

I would like the Lunar Society to be leading the way on Climate compliant measures to slow the impact of Climate catastrophe by opposing Metro tram expansion and, instead, for the money to be used to extend the Fare-Free Public Transport that I have enjoyed for 17 years, to be given to every other age group.  That is the reward for car commuters who leave their motors at home and use free travel on bus, train and tram.  However, there has to be a stick, too.  MORE DETAILS here:

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

The Climate Crisis is deepened by every pound spent, such is our addiction to finite fossil fuels.  As a rough rule of thumb and to vividly bring home the predicament we are in: every £ spent = one lb in weight of greenhouse gas emissions.  Oil is far too valuable to be burnt as we are doing in ever greater quantities in a crazy Trumpian bonanza of idiocy divorced from reality.

Yet, we were inhabitants of Trumpland decades before the man became President.  We were Trumpians from the day we replaced electric trams with diesel buses - and, ever since, never looked back!  SEE:

Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

The Bleak, Barren, Backward Black Country in a modern, civilised, developed, First World Nation!

Hi Beccy - and copied to another key player, Ninette (Sustainability Lead Strategy & Transformation at the NHS Trust.  The Trust HQ is only 500 m from the UK's longest, urban-rural-urban cycle-walkway but was not the first.)

Thank you for your note.  You wrote, you are "working with our partners at Sustrans and Dudley Council to arrange a session to discuss."

I would ask that you please include me in your session as someone who, last decade, started alerting the authorities to the quite disgraceful state of our 1980s Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway.  Since then, things have only got worse in the Dudley section with former councillor, Chris Barnett, in recent months, reporting the presence of not only dirt/quad bikes but also 4x4s.  Chris might also be included to make use of his expertise, please.

Last decade, I was invited to a very well attended meeting called by Chief Officer, Matt Williams who has now moved on from Dudley MBC.  He was based at the Lister Road Depot, so the meeting was held there.  However, no changes or improvements were seen - only further deterioration.

Dudley's section of this important active travel route must be seen in its context of surrounding landfill hills that are popular with the dirt/quad bikers and the 4x4s.  The whole vast area has no security whatsoever and is a complete free for all.  Yet, it is contaminated and, with dangerous gases emitted.  Public rights of way (PROW) also cross it but one path is impossible to find on the ground.  Therefore, perhaps Dudley's Local Access Forum needs to be informed and included in the meeting.

I think the very many years of neglect by the authorities over this vast area between Gornal Wood and Kingswinford and next to the Dudley owned and popular Himley Hall, might well have led to the arson attack and bulldozing of the 'Crooked House' in August 2023.  It is a lawless and a 'wild west' land that the authorities lost any interest in a very long time ago. This includes the Police to whom I complained when I was threatened and abused by the quad bikers last month on this same cycle-walkway from Barrow Hill Nature Reserve, next to Russells Hall Hospital.  Even the Police are powerless to act, it seems and don't want to know!

My response to XR poll

Constant dialogue with officers and members of the WMCA and TfWM is essential to win them over to urgent Climate compliant decisions.  The W Mids Climate Coalition has 11 action points that must be implemented.  

 Action Points - 2024 version.pdf

However, almost nothing has changed since their pious Climate Declaration of 2019.  Hence, the charge of hypocrisy with their present business as usual policy.

FIRST STEP: Abandon Metro, Sprint, Guided Busways and pointless bus franchising.  Instead, regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) and 'Virtuous commuting'.  

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

Next, use the funds saved to insulate, solar power, make highly energy efficient every home of the poorest in the region.

The honourable, prestigious Lunar Society must act

Our side (our firm ally and friend Israel) is indulging in cold blooded murder of even our own people when they are aid workers or paramedics.  Our friend's resumption of the slaughter is stopping the release of hostages that is only seen when Israel keeps to the Ceasefire Agreement.

I think the upright, early members of the Lunar Society would be horrified by our slaughter of all and sundry, including those who are trying to save lives in Gaza and the West Bank.

My taxes, my government, and my side allow the killings by Israel and the killings by Ukraine (for Ukraine, admittedly in self defence but where compromise is now essential). This is total hypocrisy, totally outrageous and total war that is never ending by all four countries! Except Gaza is hardly a country that WE have flattened with our weapons. And no-one cares a sod because we are safe and secure in our beds.

  

Should the prestigious Lunar Society be saying something - perhaps?