First World War links to Second and every other

A full century and more of wars, courtesy of the people of violence in the Jewish/Christian world in 1914 through to today!  Perhaps, the Quakers, the Mennonites, the Amish and the JWs know something that the rest of Christendom don't? 

This foolish, first world war, from the adherents of the Jewish/Christian Bible, has meant that these good people have, so far, had 112 years of warfare around the globe to bring many millions of humans to have a premature end to their lives.  A planet of people at war with itself, despite having the Bible example and teaching to live by!  Or are the violent, unacceptable parts of the Good Book, part of the problem?

Professor Gary Sheffield, in his 2014 book, 'A Short History of the First World War', believes the values that led to the 1914 war are different from those of 112 years on.  He wrote,

"We should try to see the First World War as contemporaries viewed it and seek to avoid excessive use of hindsight and the imposing of 21st century values on individual who lived 100 years ago." Page 3

Don't we need to have excessive use of morality and conscience?  Values don't change.  Greed for land, resources and domination of others is unchanging down the centuries.  The rich and powerful Judeo-Christian nations are most at fault for using military might to get their way.  The weak and powerless most likely to meet an untimely end.  It was forever thus!

Again from Gary, "All historical writings must be judged in the context of the period in which they were produced."

This sounds so fine.  However, human behaviour does not change from one generation to the next.  Right and wrong are unchanging as we see with the values of the Ten Commandments, written about 3,500 years ago but still valid and both upheld and broken today.  Killing is wrong whether it is murder or done by elected politicians telling individuals to go and kill as part of the much loved government armed forces.

Page 3 title, 'The rise of German power' shows a refreshing lack of paranoia at the end of the 19th century before the 'strange' Kaiser got going in 1888.  Gary tells us that the lack of paranoia was down to Bismark's skill in orchestrating "a new international equilibrium" amongst the leaders of Britain, France, Austria-Hungary and Russia.  But all too soon undone.

On page 194, we read Gary wrote a letter in 'praise' of the world war, entitled "It was a great war.  One that saved Europe".  'The Times', 1 Feb 2014

Gary lays into people like me, on page xii: "the First World War prompts people (like me) to go public with views based on emotion, limited knowledge and flawed understanding."  Hence, I play into his hands by asserting that it is the people of violence who are far too ready to use violence to get their way.  It is called the militarisation of diplomacy.  Warfare is popular with the public and popular leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have used 'success' in war to cash in on that.  PM Keir Starmer needs a war to boost his popularity.  Strong, warring PMs are much loved by the electorate.

When you have military might and power, it is all too tempting to use it to get your way.  Hence, WAR.  Unbalanced men like the Kaiser Wilhelm II who reigned (and thought he ruled) in Germany from 1888 to 1918, Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump are good examples of "not all there" (Lord Salisbury concluded on meeting the Kaiser in 1891).  See page 4 for further examples of the Kaiser being "possibly mentally unbalanced."

from 'Preface' - quotes:

"sowed the seeds of fascism in Italy and Germany"

"It killed millions and brought the world, albeit not directly, to an even greater conflagration."

"It facilitated the rise of the USA to global power and so made capitalist democracy an ideological force to contend with Soviet Marxist-Leninism, setting the scene for the Cold War."

"The result of an appallingly destructive war was a post-1918 world that was less than ideal.  This led into a sense of futility, that the war had not been worth fighting."

"The Empire, not Europe was where potential threats lay."

From the last two lines of page 174, Gary quotes the common view that "a second round of hostilities (became) inevitable."  He says that this is too simplistic and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression brought the economic crisis and "aided the electoral growth of the Nazis."  Page 175

I maintain there was unfinished business with the unsatisfactory conclusion of the war so evenly balanced for four years but only one culprit getting it in the neck with reparations, to leave bitterness and revenge.  It could have gone either way at different points, even from 1914 onwards.  Not one side should have thought they had won.  All of humanity lost out - big time - and it has never ended, to this very day.

Website: www.garysheffield-historian.com can no longer be found.

Publisher: Oneworld Publications

from Nir Hasson of Haaretz

There is no way of understanding the manner in which the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli society operated over the last two-and-a-half years without recognizing the fact that vengeance was part of the fuel that drove things. The destruction and killing in the Gaza Strip, the Jewish terror in the West Bank, the destruction of villages in southern Lebanon and the legislation of capital punishment have no logic other than the wish to take revenge.

...

As explained by journalist Yehuda Schlesinger on Channel 12: "We should have seen much more revenge there, with rivers of Gazan blood." Broadcasters on Channel 14 were obsessed with vengeance. This also cropped up in sermons by rabbis, in interviews by politicians, in statements by the prime minister, who used the Biblical term Amalek, by the defense minister who talked about "human animals" and in the new hit wedding song, "May your village burn."

https://www.haaretz.com/ty-WRITER/0000017f-da24-d718-a5ff-faa4b8a00000

Brum's election result in May '26 from Jane Haynes

The biggest party in Birmingham now is Reform UK with 23 seats. The party had never held a seat here before.

Greens are the second biggest party, with 19 seats, a massive surge after previously holding two.

There was a massive anti-Labour vote, but the party managed to retain 17 seats, just ahead of the Conservatives, with 16 seats.

Liberal Democrats made no forward movement, with 12 seats, the same as it had at the start.

Independents of varying types claimed 13 seats, and the Workers' Party have one.

Questions for Cllr Simon and Laura Sadler

1. How has the Council's declaration changed or modified your plans and policies and actual delivery in any way?
2. Has it made any difference in reality, apart from on paper?
3. Can you give me actual examples, please of money spent by the Council in the short term to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the medium to long term?
4. Is Simon a Climate sceptic or does he accept human-induced (or anthropogenic) Climate science and why?
5. Are you, personally, Laura a Climate sceptic or do you accept human caused Climate science and why?
6. Does spending £20 m on Halesowen town centre worsen or will it reduce Climate/GHG impacts?
7. At Merry Hill Shopping Centre, does the Council's approval to transform the grass and tree covered Dudley No 1 Canal embankment into one of rock and stone for the Dudley Metro Tram, help to mitigate Climate and resource/oil and gas shortages or worsen them both?
8. Does your council's second attempt in recent years to fill in a safe, pleasant and well used Laurel Lane subway with rock and stone, mean more people will have to stop the traffic at the nearby Pelican crossing to bring about more air pollution and oil shortages from the vehicles stopping and starting more often?
9. Would the Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) which I have enjoyed for 18 years, help to improve the quality of life for us all, if it was extended to all age groups as a reward for leaving the car at home?
10. Is it possible to end all Metro extensions at the present Merry Hill tram stop, so that the planned £15 billion for 8 lines over 150 miles of Metro and  380 tram stops by 2040, could be used to fund regional FFPT for all ages?  It only needs the political will to transfer the capital pot of money into the revenue budget. 

What Campaign for Better Transport wants - oh dear!

Greedy Transport We Can Ill Afford.  Green Transport Cuts Climate Emissions

"It commits to set up a Mass Transit Taskforce, which - among other things - should make it easier for more tram and light rail networks to be built."  Writes Campaign for Better Transport.  BUT ...

Trams were used to destroy two West Midlands mainline railways over these last 45 years.

The Merry Hill monorail was never connected to the principal mainline railway, so it soon closed to make way for the Dudley tram (still not arrived!) over 30 years later, which destroyed that London to Edinburgh mainline through the Black Country!

These billions in price and in weight of GHG emissions simply accelerate the Climate Emergency.

Those billions would be better spent on Fare-Free Public Transport for all and not just my age group (I'm 78 yrs old).

Used to entice car commuters out of their cars onto bikes, buses, trains - and the trams we do have.

Used to address Climate catastrophe and resource depletion instead of worsening them in the 101 ways I and others have written about.

INSTEAD, billions are going into 150 miles (240 Kms), 8 lines, 380 tram stops of new West Midlands tram extensions by 2040 (their target date).

The greenhouse effect ...

is related to the complex processes of absorption, circulation and emission of energy by the planet's climate system. The increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has caused irreversible changes in the planet's climate dynamics.

The Christians taught the Jews how ...

to do slaughter on a grand scale in the 1930s and 40s. Over the last 80 years the Jews and Christians have combined to slaughter the Muslims in the Middle East. And, in far greater numbers than Jews/Christians killed by Muslims.

Yet, they are all the Children of Abraham!

Continuing destruction of the second ...

W Midlands mainline railway - now in S Staffordshire between Brownhills and Lichfield, a distance of 12 Kms - is causing more use of cars, faster decline in finite oil reserves and accelerating the heating of the planet's land and oceans.

The first one was for trams at 3 x the expense per Km of other tram construction projects around the world.

That means 3 x the quantity of GHG emissions to further underline the folly of top officers and their cllrs and MPs who rubber stamp their thoughtless, madcap, Trump-like schemes. 

Nothing quite like the idiocy of us humans to make things worse for ourselves! 

'The Making of the Modern Middle East' by Jeremy Bowen

Bowen on British blunders betrayal and duplicity but ... put so diplomatically and gently. The essence of moderation and fairness. Therefore, it comes across as all being accurate, correct and truthful - which it is! 

It has more decades to run - more torture!

Dear Alan (are you a LibDem in Stourbridge?) - it is definitely NOT too late because they wanted 200 Kms by the year 2000 CE and, since Jan 2020, Andy Street (who is very keen on Metro and HS2 extensions) has been working to get 150 miles (240 Kms) by the year 2040!  I've been fighting them (TfWM/WMCA) since about 1990 and count on my pleasant, persistent but irritating opposition as very successfully slowing them down!

MORE DETAILS:

They have been trying to get 200 Kms of tramways to replace or duplicate mainline railways and bus routes since 1981.  By the year 2000 they had precisely 21 Kms, 19 Kms on the first mainline railway destroyed between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton.  By the end of this year, they will add a further 7 Kms when the Dudley Tram, (aka by me as the 'Donald buffoon Trump' tram), opens on the even more important principal mainline railway from London to Edinburgh via Dudley, "the historic capital" of the Black Country.  This is on the unused for passenger trains, 56 Kms (Stourbridge to Burton on Trent) out of the 120 Kms between Worcester and Derby.

After​

 Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

​for four decades, the 56 Kms has been give over to:

• freight trains as far as Round Oak (coming up from Port Talbot, S Wales)
• Very Light Rail (VLR) test track
• VLR innovation centre and HQ for VLR - yet another!
• ​cycle-walkway
  
• fresh air
• by December 2026, with a bit of luck, the fantastic Dudley Tram.  It will have taken them only 7 years of actual work on the ground, for 6.7 Kms of tramway on a railway​
   "of national strategic significance".pdf
  ​would you believe!

​Hence, I think, I am right to call these shenanigans​ or Trump-like stupidity, ​the UK's biggest and longest running scandal in UK finance/transport history.  And it has yet more decades to run!

Am I right, Alan or, am I completely deluded and out of my aging, weakening mind in writing about all this?  Please tell me why the LibDems (David Shepherd is one notable example) have never agreed with me and, therefore, shown no support or help.

This green canal embankment is now a rock and stone horror show, as in this before photo:​

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

​Best wishes

FROM: www.HerbEppel.uk

"If you’re interested in how we get to 100% renewables have a look at a new University of Oxford report, co-authored by Jan Rosenow, which advocates electrifying industrial operations using existing and emerging technologies — such as huge heat pumps, thermal batteries, electric-resistance heaters, induction tech, and plasma-based systems —all able to run on an increasingly clean grid  and a vast potential to reduce companies’ fossil-fuel exposure."

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-industry/industry-fuel-shocks-electrifying

My Thought of the Century from Rev Lucy Winkett

Early one morning last week, I was taking a walk from the church to the park in central London where I live. I walked down Waterloo Place, named after the battle more than 200 years ago when on a June Sunday, 60,000 casualties and thousands of horses were killed on a muddy field in present day Belgium. Past the memorial to the war in Crimea fought three decades later when hundreds of thousands of men died, many from infected wounds.

Historic acknowledgement of terrible bloodshed collided with the present day as I noticed a new statue, as yet without too many crowds to see it, had appeared overnight. We now know it was put there by Banksy.

Up on a plinth is a well fed man, dressed in a western style business suit. In his right hand, he holds high a huge flag. His other hand is in a fist. He is marching forward. But the flag he’s carrying has blown into his face and he can’t see where he’s going. As the viewer, we witness his next step taking him off the plinth, marching into thin air. One more step and he will fall.

The man’s distinctive posture lionises individual autonomy, allied with what seems to be a determination to dominate in the name of whatever’s on the flag he’s holding. But the flag, presumably the reason he’s marching in the first place, is itself the very reason he can’t see the way ahead.

I found myself addressing the man as he towered over me…. Sir – you’re holding your flag up proudly but you can’t see where you’re going. I don’t know what made you think you should be up there, but you don’t have to stay. Now, the only way is down.

But when you’re scrambling to get up - in the mud of the wars similar to the ones that are commemorated all around you – there’s a chance you could recover yourself, and turn your flag, no doubt colourful and vibrant, into a symbol of a different kind of unity. You could use it to bind the wounds of war, to wipe the face of Christ on his way to be crucified. You could use it to make shade in the heat, bring warmth in the cold.

In addressing the man in my mind, I thought of the prodigal son in Jesus’s parable, leaving his community to seek autonomy, marching off his own particular plinth, finding to his surprise, off his pedestal, that his father still welcomed him home. I found myself feeling compassion for hubristic and lonely humanity, as we consistently choose domination over cooperation, clenched fists not open hands.

And for evoking these reflections, I thanked God for the inventiveness of artists, who in these bellicose and dysregulated times, powerfully and provocatively show us another way.

American Evangelicals are Trump's core base!

Too shocking for words!!

The Olympics of Art

The Venice Biennale 2026 - "a large scale, contemporary, international arts exhibition held every two years in Venice."

'Today' interview on 6 May

Sir Anish said, "Let me start by commending these five incredibly courageous women who form the jury of selection for the Biennale.  For having the courage to say 'We resign rather than consider these two countries, Israel and Russia for the prizes given out at the Biennale.  I am saying they should have included the USA because of their horrendous politics of hate and the ceaseless warmongering that gone on now for the last many months.  One of the things that is said in this or the unspoken vision here that these curators articulate is that culture matters.  That culture is a forum through which politics is influenced.  That is one of the great things, so that it is no longer just entertainment at the Bienale.  We are now talking some other serious question."

INTERVIEWER: Some say that Art should be separate from politics.

"Well, they are wrong.  It seems to me that many things that artists do is to try to articulate other agendas for our inner psychic consideration.  Empathy with those destroyed by war.  Empathy with the millions living in poverty.  The dispossesed and the hundreds of millions refugees in the world.  The environment ...  This is part of what these five courageous ladies are articulating."

INTERVIEWER: We have to reflect American culture.  We have to reshape culture to reflect Donald Trump's image.  An insistence that the US artists at the Bienale must reflect American values.

"Well there you go.  That is utterly disgusting and I will not mince my words.  What an utter shame that the artists they chose and the artists themselves - and I do not criticise the artists who tried to set aside from this - that the White House pushes its agenda in this cultural sphere.  It is absolutely horrid."

Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor CBE RA (born 12 March 1954) is a British [2] sculptor

Seven major Scottish summits in four days

Short April '26 expedition meant a four day consecutive sprint of seven Graham's visited during a glorious spell of high pressure which I now must have for safety and to reach the cairns between 610 and 762 m, listed in 'Munro's Tables' of the SMC.

One summit, Stob Breac 688 m, was almost completely surrounded by impenetrable forest and I set off not knowing how on earth I was going to get to the top.  Forest roads took me to a steep burn which gave a gap in the trees and a safe route out to open hillside before it became a deep gorge over to my left, below the summit.  I had parked at Inverlochlarig, north of Loch Katrine and, as usual, had the help of the 29" wheel, self-powered bike.

Another summit had a proper, pyramidal, mini summit topped with a beautifully built small cairn.  This was 'The Stob' at 753 m.  In the distance, 6 Kms to the West was Stob Binnein 1165 m and Ben More 1174 m.

Another summit had me flat out for over an hour with my head resting comfortably against the stone cairn before the final one of Day four, reached through awkward, slow toiling, heather.

The next day was a great cycle ride, partly on NCR 7, to the Russian oligarch's palace, Aberuchill Castle, via St Fillan's and the cafe in the Golf Club House.  Then to my favourite Westmorland Hotel and walk from Kirkby Stephen on the very last day.  Discovered:

Stunning limestone feature of a stream flowing two or three metres above the stream bed on the side of a vertical escarpment - Ewbank Scar, near Kirkby Stephen!

My one day with one summit took me out when I had no idea how to get to the top.  I chose the corrrect side to get through an impenetrable forest surrounding the hill, found a steep stream without trees right up to it and found that that route was safe to get up and down.

IRRESISTIBLE

IRRESISTIBLE:Cycle or walk as little or as much of the UK's TOP, 20 Kms cycle-walkway for its length, its location and convenience for the W Midlands 2.8 m population.

VISIT: An upgraded attraction in South Staffordshire on its smooth tarmac for Share With Care walkers/cyclists.

MEET at Woodland Trust Himley Plantation car park at 10 am on Sat 8 August to try out the UK's longest, urban-rural-urban cycle-walkway with two coffee shops in two preserved railway stations.

 Map of Dudley's section.jpg

The green splodge in the top left hand corner of the map is the wood, with car park indicated!

Ride from there northwards, in the company you choose!  On tarmac and well drained surfaces.

ULTERIOR MOTIVE!  To embarrass the people with power and money to finish the deadly Dudley section to enable full commuter, business and leisure use through the countryside and two towns.

SPOT THE CYCLIST photo:

 20260420_142408.jpg

Bowen, brilliant as ever, on British blunders betrayal and duplicity but ...

Jeremy Bowen's 2022 book, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East' in the spirit of the wicked, wild, warmongering West. The Middle East made in the image of Britain and France after the First World War and made by us Brits and America from 1945.

All put so diplomatically and gently. The essence of moderation and fairness. Therefore, it comes across as being accurate, measured and truthful.

It is essential we we understand what our ancestors have done over our history, put right our centuries of misdeeds and come down on the side of the Way of Jesus AND, on the side of the last 200 years of Climate science.

Essential that we politely stand up to murderous, tyrant Trump and have nothing to do with his immoral, illegal and idiotic behaviour. 

From John

"What do the UK Jewish community expect in the way of increased Government protection? They already have Shomrim vigilantes roaming Golders Green impersonating policemen and involving themselves in arrests, can you imagine the furore if UK Muslins did domething similar? Maybe we should just let the Shomrin bear arms and shoot to kill.  Given the root cause of antipathy towards British Jews is the continued Israeli genocide in the Middle-East they might be better aiming  their protests towards Netanyahu rather than Starmer."

Laurel Lane subway; Nature Recovery Programme for Manor Way

Thanks so much for replying.  It sets a good example for other officers and members to follow.  You are the best at replying.

Regardless of our formal roles and positions in our society, we are all citizens and members of our nation and of humanity.  We each have a responsibility to listen and learn from each other and to get informed about the implications of our individual actions and decisions we take from day to day.

As one of my three excellent councillors - and my wife and I voted for Tom Russon with our postal vote the other day - could you please give me the name and contact details of the council's tree officer?  I would like to ask him/her to fill in the gaps in the row of cherry trees on the central reservation of Manor Way between Manor Lane and Jct 3, M5.  Many years ago, I asked the national highways body in charge at the time, to reinstate the thick and extensive tree and shrub coverage which we had before carriageway resurfacing in about the year 2000.  What we got were the cherry trees, as a way of reinstatement.  Three or four have since died.  Could there be a much more extensive nature recovery programme to absorb CO2, which is urgent, where there is room on that central reservation before it narrows at the M5 end?

You were also in agreement with me, last year Jeff, over a tree planting scheme on that much neglected Lapal Lane South/Manor Way corner.  Clearly there is money (£20 m) to fill in the well used and popular Laurel Lane subway and for other cosmetic changes.  Please leave the subway well alone but, certainly, ensure the Pool Road car park is safe and not suffering from "The alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a severe deterioration mechanism, which can severely limit the service life of outdoor concrete structures."  You reminded me that it was called "RAC", if that is the spelling.

Very best wishes and thanks for all your good work, Jeff.

Two senior Dudley officers and Cllr Jeff Hill

Dear Laura, Mark and Jeff - it would be nice to have a response from each of you that tells me you have taken the trouble to read every word, below.  PLEASE!

You three were the three most important VIPs at the Town Hall yesterday so this is addressed to you three.  I came away thinking you were all pretty laid back and unconcerned about the IPCC warnings in their one every three year Assessment Reports since the UN set this prestigious panel up in 1988.

Can we really afford £20 million for something that is nice but not as urgent as waking up to actually ACT over rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions threatening life support systems and even our ability to water and feed ourselves as temperatures rise to bring floods, fire, drought, melting ice caps and retreating glaciers?

Our Western wars since the end of the 19th century are a fact of life as, right now, we are at war against Russia, Gaza, Lebanon and now Iran and its three proxies.  But it comes at an enormous cost of even faster declining oil/gas reserves, with only a trickle left in the North Sea that we can take and burn.  It is leading to rising prices at fuel stations, higher inflation, a greater percentage of GNP for the military to wage our wars and, the cost of borrowing for HMG is rising, too.  All disasters.

All these wars hasten oil/gas shortages and deepen the Climate Emergency.

HS2, Metro and Sprint are greedy vanity projects.  £20 million to deal with concrete problems in the Pool Road car park may be urgent, so that must be done, perhaps.  Otherwise, we must reduce the demand for energy - a double whammy because burning oil worsens all our Climate problems and, as we burn the finite fossil fuels, an empty, cavernous space is growing above the underground lagoons of oil and gas as they dwindle away.  I have heard on Radio 4 experts saying 7% from one and 8% from another of oil/gas left in the North Sea fields.  In 2023, I heard Keir Starmer on national 'News' say that almost all the gas has gone from UK fields in the North Sea..

I remain concerned about the fast unfolding of the Climate and Energy crises that I am seriously thinking that I must cancel my April hillwalking trip to Scotland by car, even though I am so miserly in my driving I get over 80 mpg from the diesel Civic on a long motorway run to the high hills.  We need every drop of oil for the petro-chemical industry, for our descendants and should not be burning it.  Last week, my wife and I went by train and back to Scotland for a short break to see friends.

THE THREE Rs to bring HOPE:-

Much faster retrofitting, renewables and rapid or revolution of living simply so that others may simply live to bring a rapid reduction in energy consumption.

AND,

can you do more than 10 miles per litre of petrol/diesel in the car you drive; max 10 kWh per day over a year for home consumption and max 20C for the room you sit in?  Much lower in other rooms.