You are responsible for looming bankruptcy

It is a scandal that Dudley MBC is becoming bankrupt because of wrong priorities set by all you councillors.

When the Climate, Nature and now, Financial, Crises are worse than ever, you have:

1. persisted with the scandal of spending £650 million pounds of finite resources and in weight of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to destroy the UK's very last principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance"
    "of national strategic significance".pdf
   that runs through Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall between London and Edinburgh.
2. Persisted with spending £1 billion to regenerate your own town centre instead of keeping council taxes as low as possible to help the poorest in our borough.
3. Persisted with moving, all of 1 Km, one 1980s leisure centre from the edge of Dudley's town centre to a little nearer the town centre in Flood Street, to be next to the £650 m Dudley White Elephant Tram.
4. The really ancient (1963) leisure centre was at Halesowen that should have been redeveloped or completely closed when this was first proposed and, instead of Dudley Leisure Centre's wasteful expenditure to move it 1 Km.
5. Persisted with a business plan to run this extravagant, wasteful tram from the prestigious new bus station to Merry Hill SC that will attract Dudley town shoppers into Merry Hill, away from town centre shops.
6. Neglected, overlooked completely, the business plan to run the tram down to Stourbridge Jct to connect with the national railway network.  This is negligent, irresponsible and plain stupid.  The freight trains can run at night because you are supposed to be building in the magic "passive provision" to allow this to happen.
7. Otherwise, terminate the tram permanently at Duncan Edwards Leisure Centre.
8. All your present work to get the tram into Merry Hill destroys nature and landscaping and housing land to worsen the Climate and Financial crises.  Complete idiocy.
9. Dudley town centre and High Plateau both need 1, 2 bedroom, highly Climate/energy efficient, apartments to house our growing population that must be put to work to build a Dudley that is resilient to the Climate, Nature and Finance crises.
10. STOP the waste of taxes on wealth-flaunting, foolish, prestigious projects for our borough.  My Council tax has gone up 50% in seven or eight years.  This is scandalous when inflation has been much lower than this.
11. Sell the two loss-making borough halls but keep the libraries open.
12. The libraries are so essential for people without laptops.
13. DO NOT have anything more to do with commercial enterprises.  They are far too risky.
    
14. This means staying with the successful Enhanced Bus Partnership and NOT destroying it to take on all the extra financial costs and risks that comes with bus franchising.  We have to urgently go into reverse away from looming bankruptcy.

Presentation on 'The Last Words of Moses' - my own words on the matter

Dear Aaron

I much enjoyed meeting you at Hasbury Community Church and found your excellent address full of interesting details and insights.  The Lord has blessed you with great eloquence, and a great memory and intelligence.  You have a superb style of delivery that engages the attention of your audience.  Most attractive.

I have a somewhat jaundiced opinion of humanity's unhappy tenure of this planet to date and, with the record of Israel's leaders and kings in the Old Testament.  And no better since 1945, with the revelation of one Christian nation's horrifying holocaust, after centuries of European wicked oppression and persecution of the Jews; plus, Western and Christian wars around the globe, followed, with dear Bibi being the final straw for my sensitive conscience.  Hence, not surprisingly, you kindly commented that you totally disagreed with me.  Great!

You said you did not want a two-state solution but, presumably, Jews/Christians and Arabs living together in peaceful co-existence.  EXACTLY!  However, it does not help when we Jews/Christians/Westerners continue our imperialistic endeavours of being the dominant, controlling force throughout the world.  Hence, we decide unilaterally, what happens to our subjects whether they be the black peoples of past centuries or today's Arabs, Muslims, Gazans, Palestinians, Lebanese.  This is called apartheid governance where we White Europeans/Americans remain firmly in control over every other human group with the wrong colour skin.  We see it in our US/UK/EU member or representative, Israel, in the heart of the Arab, Muslim Middle East.  That tragedy began out of the disastrous 1914-18 World War and continued with our British Mandate over Palestine.  And has never ended, with our allies Israel and Saudi Arabia as the All Dominating Powers in the Middle East.

We are all turning the Greater Promised Land, from the Jordan to the Sea, a land flowing with milk and honey, into a desert of death and destruction, "an unliveable wasteland" - awash with the blood and the tears of the people of non-violence like me and of the violent.  First Gaza and now Lebanon.  Because of Old Testament barbaric, brutal, war crime ethics instead of New Testament ethics of repentance, reconciliation and forgiveness.  We all know what Yahweh wants.

Our Hebrew/Christian Bible seems to be inspiring our side, our representative Israel to "utterly destroy" (exterminate) Amalek

Aaron, in your talk, you even mentioned the annihilation of the Amalekites by the people of Israel that was commanded by the God of Israel.  I know at least one Israeli government minister has talked of doing exactly the same to the Palestinians.  The Jewish annihilation of the Amalekites was many centuries before the Nazis attempted the same wickedness on the People of Yahweh but, this time, failed.  It looks to me as though modern-day Israel is bringing the same atrocities on the Palestinians and Lebanese.  Have the Jews learnt nothing?

Listen to the horrors on BBC Sounds, Radio 4's 6 pm News on 14 Oct 2024, 08:35 from the beginning to 13:20 (nearly five minutes of OUR war crimes).

I started off so well for the first thirty years, too!  I was brought up in an evangelical Christian family, was soon converted and spent my late teens and twenties on summer beach missions in England and Wales.

The problem is that as I have read widely, listened widely, thought deeply and been preached at for decades, including Linda's eloquent talks at church (my wife), I remain disappointed by my Christian friends' embracement of coercion, force, and violence on other peoples.

My God is my conscience and the God revealed in the life and teachings of my Master, Jesus Christ - the very best monarch out of a terrible bunch of miscreants from around the world, including those in the Bible.  

Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see."  It starts with personal integrity and example.  In addition, all we have is the power of the pen and word.  Much mightier and more moral than the US/UK/Israel sword that has solved nothing since 1945 but only ratcheted up the mutual hatred between the unhappy Children of Abraham, especially in the unHoly Land.  Violence begets violence.  War has not achieved peace for Israel. 

I was honestly impressed by your good self, Aaron.  I genuinely think highly of you and wish you every blessing and goodness throughout your days.

By the way, the most Christian book ('I Shall Not Hate') I have ever read was by a Palestinian.  Details of the author here, from Wikipedia:

"Izzeldin Abuelaish OOnt MSC is a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor and author. He was born in Gaza, and was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital and has been active in promoting Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. During the Gaza War in January 2009, his three daughters and a niece were killed by Israeli tank fire directed at his home. He had been calling in reports about the effect of the war by phone to a TV station. In his regularly scheduled report, in tears, he described their killing on-air, in a video that was widely circulated in Israel and around the world."

Basic daily living standards for all - the absolute floor!!

Two extracts:

Published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal on Wednesday, the paper first sets a justice “floor” of basic daily living standards – defined as 2,500 calories of food, 100 litres of water, and 0.7kWh of electricity, along with a living area of 15 sq metres and annual transportation of 4,500km (2,800 miles). Then they calculated how much space there was between this and a safety “ceiling” – which was defined by planetary boundaries – that estimated how much humanity can push the climate, ecosystems, nutrients and phosphorus and water sources without destabilising the Earth’s systems.

and,

The paper mention(s) the UN secretary general’s calls for a global solidarity pact and reform of the UN into a more effective Earth governance regulatory body that would quantify the minimum rights of access to resources and develop safe and just guidelines.

The authors said the current global situation of worsening inequality and rising nationalist politics may not seem conducive to achieving the just and safe plan laid out, but governments can change and so can public opinion – particularly at a time of intensifying climate stress.

“That is why this science is important to remind everyone that you should take justice seriously, because otherwise it will hit back in terms of social instability, migration and conflict. If you are a patriot who wants to reduce migration flows, then you had better take global justice seriously,” Rockström said. “Justice is an integral part of safety – and safety is an integral part of justice.”

FROM:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/12/consumerism-and-the-climate-crisis-threaten-equitable-future-for-humanity-report-says

More prizes and awards for Metro mania

Dear Tom and Antony

Congratulations on winning the Heritage prize at the ICE, West Midland awards gala in Birmingham last night (19 September) for the replacement bridge over Birmingham New Road on the 120 Kms Worcester to Derby mainline.

Were you aware that this bridge, like Parkhead Viaduct and its sister, Stambermill Viaduct (still in use for freight despite never being strengthened!) down the track towards Stourbridge, were both carrying goods and passengers trains for about 100 years and could have been returned to its original use to relieve congestion on M5/M6 and other main roads in the vicinity?

Would you like to read this letter from Network Rail and the DfT about your broken up, principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" that is now part tramway, part cycle-walkway and part fresh air?

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

Would finishing the 56 Kms with TRAINS throughout, between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent, have been at a fraction of the price (per Km) that the seven W Midlands councils have spent for the trams on only 5.5 Kms?

Could you explain in layman's terms, please why it was regional taxpayers paying for the very hefty strengthening of Parkhead Viaduct rather than Network Rail with UK taxpayer funds?

And why not Stambermill still in use for steel freight trains?

Tom said,  "the teams’ efforts have prioritized the preservation of this local icon – a shining example of the MMA’s dedication to leaving a positive legacy.”  Would you all have been a lot prouder, with a stronger legacy, if you had played a part in restoring the Black Country and South Staffordshire section of the Alternative/Forgotten London to Edinburgh Mainline Railway - now broken up into heavy rail, light rail and a Very Light Rail test track, plus major cycle-walkway over infrastructure opened in December 2003 (railway bridge over M6 Toll) for TRAINS?!

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

It would be lovely to hear from you in winning me over from the absurdity of, now two mainline railways in Brum and the Black Country turned over to trams as we all sit in idle comfort in traffic jams in our cosy cars.

Well done, once again, for a truly great effort.

Tim  (from not so heavenly Halesowen with our own railway having homes and undergrowth running down it!)

CLIMATE EMERGENCY is at the heart of Environment and Regeneration Select Committee

Many thanks for the feedback and replies.  Always very good to have them - at last!

Environment and Regeneration Committee begins and ends with getting ourselves climate compliant!

In one sentence, Andrew, my answer is: because you all Declared a Climate Emergency in 2020!  If you are genuinely concerned and are not climate deniers, everyone of you will want to take my survey seriously and to give me your answers, PLEASE!  The topics in the survey are about human driven climate change that is on top of natural climate change and worsens it - very fast in the geological time scale but very much slower on the human scale, of course.  Until all the eight tipping points are reached.  And that is what is so alarming and deceptive.

Addressing Dudley's financial emergency is at the heart of addressing the Climate Emergency.  They are linked!  Climate priorities FIRST to sort out the finances - honestly!  Ask me what I mean and I'll give you examples.

 SURVEY/QUIZ no 4 - to amuse you and inform me

My survey of members' wishes are about matters that can all help to make Dudley MBC climate compliant, to reduce our council greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, therefore, slow the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels.  Climate scientists from around the world have been warning us about such burning for 200 years - two prominent scientists in the 1850s!  It really is as long ago as the 1820s when the first experiment was done!

Do you each agree that we can reduce them by diversifying into USING all the transport infrastructure we have, so that we don't always have to jump in the car, even if it is 100% electric?  (The self-congratulatory car to lull us into thinking there is nothing more to do!) 

Please tell me what you think and engage and argue your case.  Send back the survey quiz.  THANKS SO MUCH!

Tim

Bus fares clarified and sorted, here

You are correct that the concessionary price of £1.50 for pre-9:30am travel with National Express West Midlands (NXWM) applies to customers who hold a valid concessionary travel pass. Holders of a concessionary pass who are regular pre-9:30am travellers can purchase a pre-9:30am pass which currently costs £32 for 4 weeks travel if that is cost effective to do so. Alternatively, there is the option of paying for this monthly by direct debit which costs £30 per month.

On board buses, tickets can be purchased using a credit or debit card via contactless payments or with mobile devices providing there is a bank card linked to the phone to allow for contactless payments, or cash. Swift cards are another method of paying for travel with a choice of tickets and ways to pay.

The £2 bus ticket is for a single journey only and does not permit multiple journeys on this ticket. Single journey tickets can be purchased using any of the above methods of payment.

 

Customers can purchase daily tickets, for example the 1-day nbus ticket costs £4.80 which allows unlimited travel for one day in the West Midlands.

 

If a passenger is using a Swift card for a number of journeys in one day this will be capped at £4.80 regardless of the operator you travel with. I understand that NXWM operate a similar scheme called Tap & Cap where you can make as many journeys as you like on NXWM buses, using the same contactless card or device, and NXWM will cap the fare so that customers don’t pay more than they should. Further details regarding NXWM’s Tap & Cap can be found here.

 

Full details regarding all available pass and ticket options can be found using the TfWM ticket finder here.

 

If you have specific queries regarding ticketing options you can also call our ticketing team on 0345 303 6760 or start a live chat from the ‘Contact us’ page on our website.

Dear Cllr Asif and Democratic Services

In my 3 minutes of Public Forum on Monday evening, would you allow members to answer my survey/quiz, here pasted, below - please?  If you agree, could a paper copy go to each member and officer to write on in the three minutes?    Many thanks.    Tim

QUIZ no 4 - to amuse you and inform me - give me your choice against number

1  Should £100s m be spent on bringing Metro trams to Merry Hill when it will completely obliterate the only public open space, nature and housing land there? YES/NO 

2  Should £10s m, instead be spent on connecting that same tram, from Dudley town on the existing/missing railway link, to connect the tram to the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct?  YES/NO

3  How do you get a DOUBLE advantage from one sensible decision in this mad, mad world?!  Any ideas?

4  Or, should the Stourbridge Shuttle tram be used from Jct station on the freight line to meet the Dudley Tram?  It runs between Jct and Town stations.  YES/NO

5  Am I a friend of the earth or a foe of the earth in opposing?:

1. Cars, vans, lorries using railway lines as roads.

2. Housing estates and trading estates running down urban railways.

3.     Metro trams using our two former mainline railways with the 40 year old extension continuing on the former London to Edinburgh mainline in Dudley.

6  Are you in favour of cycles, walkers and horse riders using the less important, minor closed railway lines that have not yet been built on but are muddy, overgrown and uninviting?  YES/NO

7  Is it sound financial expenditure to put in Cycle Hire Hubs to encourage modal shift from car to self-powered cycle?  YES/NO

8  Should tens of millions be spent on converting more of the London to Edinburgh railway in Staffordshire into a cycle/walkway?  YES/NO

9  Do you want £100s millions in price and weight of GHG emissions be spent for the 2020 plan for 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops of underground and overground trams, costing £15 billion by 2040?  YES/NO

10  Do you want your taxes spent on boosting better, smaller/more frequent buses to free up road space for essential vehicle users?  YES/NO

11  Would a strictly enforced bus lane on two lane roads help?  YES/NO

12  Should the concessionary, fare-free public transport enjoyed by old crocks like me for many years, be extended to the younger, hard working commuters crawling  into work in their cars, to help free up roads for essential vehicle users?  YES/NO?

A personal appeal to Anne Shaw, Executive Director, TfWM

... I want to make this personal appeal to you, Anne, that you save one of my other guerrilla gardens, also dating from the 1990s.  This is the one I have at Merry Hill Shopping Centre, up against the rusty looking Iron Wall that comes out, at right angles, from the steep canal embankment opposite M&S and Primark.  My vertical guerrilla garden is exactly in line with the WBHE Metro and will be buried and destroyed when you put the 400 m concrete and steel viaduct along the embankment.

Please can you assure me that the colossal cost is prohibitive and that you will save all of the nature, landscaping, public open space and housing land?  The housing land, High Plateau, is directly above my vertical guerrilla garden, as in this plan

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

Perhaps, leave the tram at Flood Street and bring the Stourbridge Shuttle up from Stourbridge Jct station.  Or, by keeping the tram on the former principal mainline railway from Flood Street/Cinder Bank to Junction station?

These trees in this photo, below are not mine but are also on the line of the devastation to allow the £100 m Metro 400 metre viaduct to be built.

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

It would be an absolute delight if you would meet me so that I can show you exactly what I mean, please Anne.  And perhaps, Laura, too?

With every good wish

Dear Leader - Should you be spending ...

... is it millions, on hire bikes around the West Midlands when some of us would like to use the existing cycling infrastructure, (off-road, like canal towpaths and bridleways) but so many are not fit for purpose?

Could you switch the largesse, your generous millions, to doing up the 20 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Off-road Active Travel Route that connects three major centres of population - Dudley, Wombourne and Wolverhampton?

What is the percentage of wastage of these expensive hire bikes ending up in canals or so quickly having to be scrapped or lost?

Do you use underwater cameras and robots to search canals for missing hire bikes?

How many have you found?

How many have gone missing?

What are the usage figures for the bikes not stolen or variously disposed of by users?

What are the up to date usage figures for the two trial Transport Hubs in Halesowen?

Can people with unused or little used bikes be encouraged to use them by upgrading existing cycle-walkways, including towpaths, for these dormant cycle owners to use them?

PLEASE GIVE ME THE FIGURES AND EXPLANATION FOR YOUR VERY EXPENSIVE AND WASTEFUL PRIORITY.

The biggest regional, environmental/transport/finance scandal, lasting 40 years!

Since 1981, STILL no desire to stop the destruction of over 500 metres of nature, public open space and housing land when, INSTEAD, there is available the London to Edinburgh mainline railway, through the heart of the Black Country, that MUST be used to connect with the national railway network.  WHY NOTHING?  NO INTEREST.  WHY NO MOVEMENT?  BY ANYONE?!!

Russells Hall Hospital pleas

Thanks, Ninette for the chat on Friday.

To summarise and as a reminder of my pleas!

• Please ask if one or two Sheffield stands could go where there is room between the hospital building and the low wooden fence I use at the moment to lock my bike to.  E side of the main entrance.  The maternity entrance has them and I have used.
• Please support and encourage the present cyclists to continue to do so.
• Is there any cycling allowance for staff using bikes on official Trust business?
• Please gossip to colleagues the importance of public transport and cycling in fighting the obesity epidemic and for the prevention of so many diseases that clog up the NHS.
• I cannot remember what you said about how you get into work from Pedmore or, do you work from home mostly, as I expect is the case?
• Please do what you can to talk up the importance of the 20 Kms Black Country Active Travel Route that runs so near to RHH but is unused by staff, visitors and patients (except ME!)
• Very important because it is so long, connects three major population centres, is already well used in South Staffordshire and Wolverhampton and must be the UK's only urban-rural-urban active travel route.
• It is important for commuting, business and leisure purposes.
• But it needs upgrading and modernising.
• Please join me in talking to Action Heart (Ann Welsh is so helpful and excellent, copied in here) at RHH about having a healthy heart through using the car less and active travel more.  And, her people/patients using the Black Country Active Travel Route!
• You are welcome to join Chris Barnett and me for our Third Annual Walk Ride Cycle the Black Country Route on Sat 2nd or Sat 9th August 2025.

Very best wishes for your very important work, Ninette.  Remember, that I was cycling into work and, for work, for over 90% of the occasions since the mid 1990s to retirement in 2013.  And I'm still at it in my 77th year!

Why Bus Franchising is Unnecessary, Costly and an Irrelevance when you have EBP

Why Bus Franchising is Unnecessary, Costly and an Irrelevance when you have EBP = Enhanced Bus Partnership

On the 'Today' programme on Radio 4 on 9 September 2025, Chief Executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, Graham Vidler said,

from 2:21:00 - 

GUEST, Graham Vidler:  "extra cost and extra risk with franchising."

NICK ROBINSON: Why extra cost and why extra risk?

VIDLER:  "Extra cost because you need to transition from the current de-regulated market into a franchise market.  You have all the contracts and the staff to change over, in some circumstances.  You might also need to buy the depots and the buses.  The risk comes both economically and politically because in most franchising arrangements it's the local authority takes the most revenue risk.  So if passenger numbers are not where they expect to be, they and their council taxpayers take the hit.  Equally, in circumstances where services are no longer viable, it is them that will be the sole person responsible for making that tough decision to cut or reduce the bus service." 

"Buses account for two-thirds of all public transport journeys."

"We published independent research last week that showed the benefit of investing in bus service.  Every pound government puts in reaps £4.55 in economic and social benefits so we think there is a very strong case in investing in the nation's favourite mode of public transport."

ROBINSON:  Is the demand really there?

VIDLER:  "Take Norfolk as an example, not normally seen as a hotbed of public transport, but what they've achieved over the last couple of years is a huge investment in extending services, cutting fares and giving buses more priority on the routes into Norwich bus station in particular.  The result of that is a 16% growth in passengers over the last year.  A really tremendous example, I think, of what can be done when local authorities, bus operators and central government work together and back Britain's buses."

FROM

https://www.cpt-uk.org/news/economic-impacts-of-bus/

"The research also confirms the value of public spending to improve bus services: Taking a selection of typical investments including alterations that give buses priority over other traffic on the roads, higher service frequencies, and lower fares, researchers calculate that every £1 of public funding spent on a typical package of measures can generate at least £4.55 in economic benefits, a figure that rises to over £5 for more targeted interventions such as bus priority measures."

Not just dishonest but murderous

Not just dishonest but murderous, resulting in the never-ending and dishonest War of Self-Defence by the West on Gaza and the Occupied West Bank for our side to have permanent ownership and occupation.

In this very one-sided war between USA/UK/Israel v Palestinians/Arabs since 1 January 1919, it is dishonest reporting to fail to point out that our side has killed/murdered many more Palestinians/Arabs than they have killed/murdered us, ie Jews and Christians and those of no faith.  Zionism (a homeland for the Jews with them in charge as we have seen in the State of Israel for 76 years) seems to have been given a boost by the Dreyfus Trial when a wholly innocent Jew was found guilty and punished.  Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, was there and wrote about the trial.

FROM

https://palestinetoday.quora.com/ZIONIST-ETHNIC-CLEANSING-QUOTES-In-1895-Theodor-Herzl-the-founder-of-Zionism-wrote-in-his-diary-We-must-expro

In 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wrote in his diary:

“We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.” (America And The Founding Of Israel, p. 49 & Righteous Victims, p. 21-22)

Three 'Ways' all come and gone!

Thanks very much for the report of Tuesday's meeting.  To clarify, I am not wanting trams off railway lines when they are now on them at a much greater cost to our purses and planet than using TRAINS!!

I am insisting that even the Dudley Tram must now STAY on the railway line to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct station and must not wreck over 400 metres of nature, public open space and housing land at Merry Hill to only end up in little known Cottage Street, Brierley Hill - not quite in the middle of nowhere!

I think it is urgent that we stop the billions now being planned for 150 miles of trams in the West Midlands and stop the tram network rolling out between Leeds and Bradford in West Yorkshire, that Mayor Tracy Brabin is working on.  Like Richard Parker for us.  Both are desperate for their own tram empires by 2040.  The exact opposite of being Climate Compliant!  The exact opposite of all that history has taught us of how these people love to build (first waterways, next tramways, followed by railways, back to tramways now as railways continue to decline from having the tramways built on them) only for them all to be destroyed in the years from 1945 to the present!

My musings on Israel yesterday and today and forever(?)

We have the people of Israel to thank for the Ten Commandments over 3,000 years ago, for the quite outstanding Good Samaritan story and for the amazing, non-violent, Jesus Christ from Nazareth.

All three are at odds with their present-day practice.  Such a pity that today's people of Israel have somewhat departed the Faith.

Yet, their own Hebrew Scriptures contain the most astonishing teaching over obedience to their God, Yahweh to slaughter their Baal-worshipping neighbours.

This century, our side is still slaughtering our Allah-worshipping neighbours of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

Nothing changes.

A fall in pride "for invasion, exploitation and occupation”, leading historian, Alan Lester has said.

FROM    https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/sep/06/uk-history-survey-loss-of-pride-alan-lester

... there was a 22-point fall in the proportion of people saying they were proud of Britain’s history.

Prof Alan Lester, the editor of a new book on empire featuring guest essays from the eminent historian Liam J Liburd and the journalist Sathnam Sanghera, described the results as an “encouraging sign” that the public were becoming more discerning about Britain’s past.

“It shows an awareness that history is complicated, that Britons have done both admirable things and deplorable things in the past, and we need to break down history into the kinds of things that we see as sources of pride and those which we need to move beyond.”

He credits this shift in public consciousness to the Black Lives Matter movement and Britain’s changing demographics.

...

The Black Lives Matter movement was met by a ferocious response from the right, who attacked protesters and historians alike for interrogating Britain’s imperial past. Lester said: “Sathnam Sanghera wrote the foreword for The Truth About Empire, in which he talks about how unacceptable it is that we’ve reached this stage of fervent denialism about the past, and such a fervour about Britishness and patriotism, that historians just doing their job are being called woke and attacked.”

The historian David Olusoga had to employ a bodyguard at some speaking events; Prof Corinne Fowler, who co-authored a report for the National Trust in 2019, was often forced to call police for protection, and Sanghera stopped doing public events with adults due to the severity of the abuse he received on a regular basis.

The survey also showed a decline in the proportion of people who believed that Britain was better than most other countries, or that people should support their country even if it was in the wrong.

People were also less likely to express pride in Britain’s democracy, its economic achievements and its political influence in the world.

While the report authors note these survey results have happened despite Brexit and the toxic debates around immigration, Lester suggested they might be a reaction to it.

“Pride in the British political system and pride in the British economy have both taken a big hit. I suspect that’s because of disillusionment directly as a result of Brexit,” he said.

“People have simply had enough of what Brexit has done to Britishness, to the identity of Britishness and to the reputation of Britain overseas, and they’ve had enough of the hatred and the bile being directed towards people seeking asylum.”

Legal system skewed in favour of those with deep pockets

In an article for the Guardian in May, Bates wrote: “If the Horizon scandal has taught us anything about our legal system, it’s that it is skewed in favour of those with deep pockets.

“Large corporations can exhaust their opponents’ reserves – both in terms of finances and resilience.

“A prime piece of evidence for this is an internal Post Office memo, released as part of the current statutory inquiry into the Post Office, which only came about as a result of the findings of our original case.

“It is from Post Office lawyers pledging to: ‘stretch out the litigation process so to increase costs in the hope that the claimants, and more particularly their litigation funder, decide that it is too costly to pursue the litigation and give up’.”