Get housing put right for the poor by diverting the funds from the luxury projects the rich want

You are doing a brilliant job, with my full support. But you are only deploying half the arguments:- money must be diverted from the foolish projects and staff redeployed to get housing conditions transformed, the poor lifted up, put FIRST and our urgent Climate Action Points implemented. The authorities have no excuse. READ MY EMAILS, my young friend. Tim 

If landlords are such a pain and have all the power, should we be campaigning for redistribution of wealth so that every adult is able to own something - from a flat to a house, commensurate with their income - so that every citizen is responsible for their own accommodation and its heating and maintenance?

Why was I given thousands only because I was told by a colleague who should not have told me?!!

I was NOT in "the waste and street-scene services"

They also said alleged equal pay liabilities had resulted from “serious mismanagement in the waste and street-scene services”. “Ultimately, the lack of timely information on the severity and implications of the emerging issues has hampered the ability of senior management and members to intervene effectively,” the report read.

FROM:  https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/i-feel-ashamed-birmingham-councillors-30895281?utm_source=birmingham_live_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=special_politics_newsletter&utm_content=&utm_term=&ruid=6db6f86e-a20b-408e-85ec-dadc3d71ea71&hx=9b10baa28681e794b3069cc29f853088a2cc779b74ae1562da08058b92680918

If landlords are such a pain and have all the power ...

TO:

citystaff@acorntheunion.org.uk

... should we be campaigning for redistribution of wealth so that every adult is able to own something - from a flat to a house, commensurate with their income - so that every citizen is responsible for their own accommodation and its heating and maintenance?

Get Growth, Climate Justice and Social Justice

 Many billions are available for HS2, Metro, Sprint and third runway but NOT for:

1. sorting out even the council homes of the poorest in the land to make them Climate proof with solar power, highly energy efficient electric heating and damp/condensation free homes which are healthy to live in.
2. NEVER any money to subsidise the healthiest, plant-based foods and to tax the unhealthiest foods that are high in saturated fats, sugar and  salt.  Yet, scientists have been telling us for decades to eat more fruit and vegetables and to increase our fibre intake.
3. Always money to keep the motorist happy but never plans to extend Fare-Free Public Transport from the pensioners to the working people who must be given financial incentives to use bus, train, tram instead of the car.
4. Millions to tear down and rebuild but never to retrofit, to insulate and to conserve energy in homes and buildings leaking heat we cannot afford to lose with the Climate Emergency declared last decade.

THREE MAIN REASONS FOR OPPOSING FOUR SELF SERVING, GREEDY TRANSPORT PROJECTS

 High Scam 2, Metro, Sprint, Third Runway

The financial costs - all too clear.  In the case of Metro, second only in construction costs to HS2 AND, in running/subsidy costs nearly the same for 1,000 miles of bus routes but for only 23 Kms for trams!  Gross irresponsibility.

The environmental devastation unfolding around the world from human arrogance in ignoring the science of both physics and ecology.

The little matter of social justice, of one nation harmony and peaceful co-existence.

to Cllr Leslie Kaye

Many thanks for your email and for engaging, Leslie.  Good to hear from you.

How about putting your humanity and human decency into action by helping the poor in Solihull instead of the highly expensive and unnecessary HS2, Metro and Sprint coming to Solihull, to worsen the Climate Catastrophe you have declared.  HS2, Metro and Sprint also duplicate/replace adequate, existing bus and train provision in the same corridor.  "To those who have, yet more will be given.  To those who have little, even the little they have will be taken away from them."  (Christ expressing how those in power operate)

“Why can't we humans live in justice and in peaceful co-existence?”  Because we want ever more of the good, rich things in life, regardless of the penalties - and regardless of Climate, ecosystem damage and The Other.

Because of human greed called economic growth, Leslie, that gives us ever greater riches from a diminishing capital resource base and a quest for power over others.  Like our Western ally and friend, Israel using its vast power to get and control yet more territory in the West Bank, Gaza and south Lebanon and, ultimately from "the River to Sea" as the Likud Charter puts it. Territory, rape, and plunder.  What our side has done over the last 15 months and in so many wars of aggression since 1945.  The Muslims were not responsible for the catastrophic World War in two halves.  Indeed the Arabs, under T E Lawrence, helped our British Empire to defeat the Ottoman Empire but, were then let down.

Humans are almost unique as one of a few species which will hunt its own kind for amusement.  Yes.  We Brits have been the worst at it for 500 years of Empire and obscene slavery slaughter born out of piracy under Elizabeth 1!  We fight wars because we enjoy doing so. The people riding the truck mounted guns in the middle-east are having the time of their lives because they have not been annihilated as Bibi promised us they would be.  We would have behaved in the same way at surviving death and injury over 15 months!  Churchill told us “there is nothing more exhilarating than being shot at without effect”.  Yes, but 'The Greatest Briton Who Ever Lived' (BBC TV, 2000 poll and series) wrongly hurried us into the developing mainland European War on 4 Aug 1914, when we would have been better abiding our time to see how things developed.  Churchill was the main protagonist for war in the July Cabinet and the weak HH Asquith was easily swayed and did not stand up to dear Winston.  (Read Robert Harris in 'Precipice')  By the 1950s, in old age (like me) Winston reformed.

You cannot change 3.9 billion years of evolution of life on Earth, only work to reduce the bad things. Peace comes from strength, not weakness, Peace comes through justice and in building a more equitable society of nations, as well as standing up courageously to the men and women of violence who kill men of non-violence like me as Trump will now demonstrate over the weakness and dithering of Biden.  Trump also wanted USA led NATO to get out of Afghanistan.  Biden did it and, badly.  Biden also wanted his May 2024 Peace Agreement implemented but friend Bibi was not ready to - until Trump came to power this month.  Therefore, both men had the same policies and intentions on two major foreign policy matters.

NOW, Leslie, STAND UP IN OPPOSING METRO AND SPRINT EXPANSION - and, please support me, Leslie.  You are a good man, of decency and honour.  You have the power and position as a councillor to do good.

Every good wish

to Alex Ballinger MP

Many thanks for your statement.

I would urge your government to:

• stop all military sales to Israel,
• to denounce today's incursion into Lebanon and the further killings there;
• to condemn Israel's aggression in the Occupied West Bank (aka Judea and Samaria) and
• to refuse to cooperate with any move to forcibly remove Gazans from their territory.
• For Israel, themselves, to pay for the reconstruction of the demolished, wasteland that is Gaza.

NOT THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH!

 COLIN'S TEXT to me:

"As for the continuing slaughter in Gaza & The West Bank, I can't see any prospect of an immediate end to it, as illustrated by the deliberate sabotage of ceasefire negotiations usually by Netanyahu whilst the God-fearing continue to look the other way.

"The depressing thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. If we all lived by the fundamental principles of most major religions & basic common decency & respect we, the planet & all its creatures would be in a much better place. Sadly, we are too readily influenced & manipulated by political & religious leaders to do their bidding in the pursuit of their own aggrandisement & self-interest. In doing so we betray the very principles for which we claim to uphold.

"This ceasefire is wafer thin & with so many who favour ongoing hostilities, sabotage is a real possibility. Even Trump is pessimistic that it will endure.

"In his Executive Orders, Trump has effectively legalised racism, misogyny, armed private militias (The Proud Boys), violence against law-keepers, willful pollution.

"He boasted about great America's role in ending slavery, seemingly forgetting that it was that country that pioneered it."  SELF: Our American colonies fully engaged with us Brits in pursuing slavery but the English engaged first in piracy under Elizabeth 1 that soon degenerated into slavery as we stole 10 million Africans for free labour in our colonies and looted their treasures to further enrich ourselves.  The Bible Belt of the southern USA, remains the heartland of evangelical Christianity.  Contrary to Scripture, the Bible Belt fought to uphold obscene slavery.  The result was 620,000 American young men being slaughtered in the 1860s Civil War to ensure slavery and racism continued.  This is NOT What Jesus Would Do, methinks!  This massive figure is only slightly less than all Americans killed in all subsequent wars around the globe, to the present!  (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1009819/total-us-military-fatalities-in-american-wars-1775-present/)

"As a "non-interventionist" in other country's affairs, Trump has now insulted Mexico, Panama, China, England, Wales, Denmark, Germany, France, Greenland, Canada. Yet, no criticism of Russia or Israel. Strange times.

"A brilliant sermon delivered by the vicar at the inaugural prayer service leaving Trump & Vance looking like naughty schoolboys. Have a look if you can."   END OF COLIN'S TEXT to me

EXTRACT of the brilliant sermon:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfrbAztlcs

MY EMAIL:-

It was great to see you this last weekend and to have a chat and to hear you speak, too.  A double pleasure.

My last email to you was about, for me, Christian discipleship and allegiance to the non-violent Christ being pre-eminent over the commands of the Romans 13 v 1-7 to go to war or to do anything contrary to conscience and Jesus' teaching.

You wrote:

"a sniper is targeting a community (in the USA that was founded by Christian believers fleeing persecution in Europe and is still much more Christian than the UK/Europe, with the Trump supporting and powerful evangelical Christian Church), or children are being abducted and abused or whole families (by US/UK/European armaments being used in Gaza and the Israelis wrongly occupying Judea and Samaria) or nations being slaughtered (Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq) I think I can, with great reluctance see a justification of the use of lethal force, of armed defence and even pre-emptive action."

I think your examples, Andy are similar to what our side and our arms exports to Israel are doing, until 19 January, for over 15 months in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria and for a shorter period in Lebanon.  We think we are on the side of righteousness and holiness but our Western governments are, yet again on the side of lawlessness, aggression, with "a plausible case for genocide" in Gaza.  Plus, our Top Man in Israel, Bibi and his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, are charged with war crimes, too.  Israel and the West has gone rogue, I think!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

In our service on Sunday 19 Jan, we heard that we must love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for our persecutors.  Yet, my own Linda and Barbara fully support the actions of the Israeli government.  The majority of born again Christian believers in the USA, certainly fully support the State of Israel's war on Gaza and with taking over the Occupied West Bank in total and, eventually as in Likud's Charter, all of the unHoly Land from the River to the Sea.  Linda and I have two very good friends whom I have known since my days living at BBI at 3 Pakenham Road in the early 1970s, who also fully support Israel taking over all the Promised Land (Gaza, Judea, Samaria) for itself in accordance with the Scriptures, they firmly believe.  A secular, largely Godless, Jewish state is equated with God's promises to the Jews that they will have their own territory from the River to the Sea, where the Lord will reign in Righteousness and Peace forever.

All my Christian Jewish friends avoid the BBC and, in particular, Jeremy Bowen who is the worst of the lot!  All their news seems to come only from Israel broadcasters.  Far too many evangelicals don't want a two state solution or agree with the present peace agreement of 19 January.  Astonishing!

THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM have let the side down.

The largest Christian church in Halesowen was called Zion Christian Centre until last decade.  Now, Life Central is their new name.  But Pastor Leon is, I expect, still very much on the side of Israel as being at the centre of God's plans for the unHoly Land and the return of Christ to the land.  All this biblical teaching was central to the politicians in the First World War, like Lloyd George steeped in the Bible, who were so sympathetic to the Zionists wanting to take over Palestine that they promised it to them in 1917 without even any consultation with the Palestinians/Arabs living there, comprising 90%, for over 1800 years, since the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD!!  Two very different world faiths, yet both Children of Abraham, were given the same land by the all powerful Christian British Empire.  The stupidity of our leaders giving Two Nations, Two Peoples to battle over the One Land!  Both, from the outset, have not been able to get on with each other with intermittent but recurrent massacres for well over 100 years.  It is tragic and reflects so badly on the God of the Bible making only the one people His Promised People.  He must have known how we humans would turn out.  Hence, it is we Brits who are solely responsible for the Almighty Mess that is now the unholy land, in caving in to Jewish/Zionist terrorism in 1948 that had its roots dating back to the 1914-18 war.  The most stupid and unnecessary war in the history of humanity that was fully backed by born again Christians in Britain and in Germany, who ended up killing each other!

HOW THE MIGHTY ARE FALLEN!

We Brits, with our mighty and biggest Empire in the world, were defeated by the coercion, force and violence of the Zionist terrorists between 1945 and 1948.  It has been a catastrophe ever since and, with no sign of things getting better with Biden, now Trump both encouraging and arming Israel to the teeth.

HISTORY OF CATASTROPHES from 1914:

In 1914, we were much more Christian as British people but we still all, apart from the Quakers, Mennonites, Amish and a few extremely brave Christians refusing conscription, rushed to war and fought defending the side who were responsible for the assassination of the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, too!  How immoral and, how back to front that was, in supporting the side, the Sebians who had done the two murders!!  We Brits fought (to lose nearly 1 million of our own citizens), in effect, to encourage them to do more assassinations!

Our idiocy then resulted in world wide 20 million dead and 21 million injured/maimed.

It led to the stupidity and economic revenge on Germany with the tragic Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

That led to the rise of Hitler in the 1930s and the second half of the all out World War initiated by the Christian Western empires of Europe.

That led to the Cold War, of Stalin's purges, of a nuclear arms race that very nearly resulted in nuclear holocaust for the planet.

But the Cold War was ended by our Number One Enemy with their bulldozing of the Berlin War in 1989 and the disbanding of the USSR and of the Warsaw Pact military alliance in the 1990s.

We upright Westerners would never have even dreamt of doing that!

That led to the backlash with Putin changing his mind over joining NATO and the EU.

That led to the over enthusiastic pro American/European hotheads in Ukraine who were unable to wait for an election to replace their pro Russian President, and went ahead with their Revolution of Dignity in February 2014.

So, war between Russia and Western weapons backing Ukraine, ever since.

WE ARE THE PROBLEM

The last century, I think, has turned out to be the most evil and destructive in the history of humanity, not because of Communist or Muslim countries but because of greedy capitalist ones exploiting finite resources as if they are infinite AND, with centuries of Bible and Christian teaching that cannot be clearer:- that killing one another is not the way, as your Dad said in one or two sermons I heard.  Instead, protect yourself and others without killing the assailant.

We have to have the Police and military but they must operate within national and international law. There have been too many violations since 1914, in particular - by OUR side!  And since 300 AD the Christian Church has been identified with emperors, monarchs and governments who have used power, coercion and force to gain territory and to get their way, contrary to the life and teaching of Christ, on whom we are all supposed to be basing our lives!

WE BRITS UP TO NO GOOD!

It is our Christian ancestors who are responsible for slavery for 300 years, for apartheid in S Africa and, with wiping out the original inhabitants of New Zealand, Australia and America (especially North).  A shameful, disgraceful, despicable record now going on apace in the unHoly Land with the blessing of Trump who has the support of leading evangelicals like Franklin Graham and Dr Micheal Youssef!

Repentance begins in the House of the Lord.  But you would never think so.  Anyway, do give me your thoughts, Andy - if you wish.

All the best

WHY WE NEED A LIVING INCOME from the New Economics Foundation

 

Britain’s social security system isn’t working.

21.4 million people cannot afford life's essentials without going into debt

One in five people lived in poverty before the pandemic, including 4 million children

One in ten households would have to spend three quarters of their income to eat healthily

Dr Gabor Mate talking to Piers Morgan

Gentle speaking Dr Gabor Mate is a Jewish/Israeli/Canadian psychiatrist, psychologist, expert on trauma and a child survivor of the Holocaust.

He maintains that the State of Israel came into being at the expense of the Palestinians.  It was founded on attempted extirpation, continuous expulsions from homes and the periodic massacres of Jews/Israelis but much more by our side of the Palestinians, since 1945, in particular.

The historical context is one of continuous expulsion from homes, land occupation, oppression in the West Bank, a very one-sided record of killings and an absence of peaceful co-existence.  He feels this cannot be viewed as historically controversial.

The governing party in Israel is Likud.  Their Charter is to exclude Palestinians west of the R Jordan - from the river to the sea.

"In Canada we have seen suppression and erasure of the indigenous Indian population and an utter denial of their narrative.  A few decades ago, if a native child spoke her tribal language they would stick a pin in her tongue.  This practice was seen in residential schools."

"Let's inform ourselves of the actual experience of both sides.  In the absence of a two-way conversation there is no moving forward.  Both sides must explain to the other."

"In 1956, when I was 13, we saw the Hungarian revolution against Soviet occupation.  Did Russia have the right to defend itself against the Hungarian revolutionaries?  Israel has a right to defence but Palestinians have the right to defend themselves against occupation.  Of taking their olive groves, their lands, of destroying their homes and jailing their children and torturing them.  That's the history.  Unless you know the history, it looks like some poor little country trying to defend itself but, against whom?  Against a people they have been displacing and occupying for 80 years.

"I loved the dream of a Jewish state until I found out at what price, at what nightmare that imposed on Palestinians.

"Minimum condition is the ending of the occupation and the inhuman seizure of Gaza.  And international law must be respected by Israel and she must live within its borders that are internationally recognised.

"Let's look at both Charters and lets start with the basis of recognition and peace and the ending of the ending of the unspeakable occupation."

"Food, water, fuel was turned off" said Piers Morgan.

GABOR:  "Israel and its big brothers, the US and the UK must stop supporting the illegal, brutal, inhumane and rapacious occupation.  There must be pressure.  Get the historical experience.

"In 2005, before Hamas gained power, the world's most traumatised children were in Gaza, according to the Journal of World Psychiatry.  They were living under war conditions.  Of course they are full of rage.  What do we expect from this population that has been suppressed and tormented and crucified for decades?"

To XR

I do think it is extremely important that you take seriously what I have written in my email to Fran,below and the action points in the attachment.  BECAUSE:

£ spent = lb in weight of GHG emissions, as a rough rule of thumb, such is our addiction to fossil fuels.  (GHG = greenhouse gas)

Fossil fuels are finite but we behave as if they are not.

Fossil fuels are changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere, with disastrous consequences.

We are all living unnaturally on a natural planet and infinitely on a finite planet.  This is pretty stupid!

Therefore, HS2, Metro extensions and Sprint are nice but VERY NAUGHTY!  Their roll-out is the exact opposite, in fact, of what we should be doing, in my opinion.

10-10-20 VISION:

Can you keep to NO MORE than 10 kWh per day?  Linda and I manage 3 kWh averaged out over the year!

NO LESS than 10 miles/litre for the car you drive.  I get at least 14 miles per litre with Climate driving and cycling and bus as much as possible.

NO MORE THAN 20C temperature for the room you sit in.  Always less than that for us two!

From Colin

Perhaps, read this from a non-Christian, former social work colleague of mine:

"As for the continuing slaughter in Gaza & The West Bank, I can't see any prospect of an immediate end to it, as illustrated by the deliberate sabotage of ceasefire negotiations usually by Netanyahu whilst the God-fearing continue to look the other way.

"The depressing thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. If we all lived by the fundamental principles of most major religions & basic common decency & respect we, the planet & all its creatures would be in a much better place. Sadly, we are too readily influenced & manipulated by political & religious leaders to do their bidding in the pursuit of their own aggrandisement & self-interest. In doing so we betray the very principles for which we claim to uphold.

"This ceasefire is wafer thin & with so many who favour ongoing hostilities, sabotage is a real possibility. Even Trump is pessimistic that it will endure.

"In his Executive Orders, Trump has effectively legalised racism, misogyny, armed private militias (The Proud Boys), violence against law-keepers, willful pollution.

"He boasted about great America's role in ending slavery, seemingly forgetting that it was that country that pioneered it."  SELF: Our American colonies fully engaged with us Brits in pursuing slavery but the English engaged first in piracy under Elizabeth 1 that soon degenerated into slavery as we stole Africans for free labour in our colonies and looted their treasures to further enrich ourselves.  The Bible Belt of the southern USA, remains the heartland of evangelical Christianity.  Contrary to Scripture, the Bible Belt allowed hundreds of thousands of their young men to be slaughtered in the 1860s in their Civil War to ensure slavery and racism and poverty, for mainly the blacks, to continue into the distant future.  Not quite What Jesus Would Do, methinks!

"As a "non-interventionist" in other country's affairs, Trump has now insulted Mexico, Panama, China, England, Wales, Denmark, Germany, France, Greenland, Canada. Yet no criticism of Russia or Israel. Strange times.

"A brilliant sermon delivered by the vicar at the inaugural prayer service leaving Trump & Vance looking like naughty schoolboys. Have a look if you can."

EXTRACT:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfrbAztlcs

George Kennan, diplomat, wary of military alliances

"At the end of World War II, the majority of American leadership was in agreement that the most viable approach against the political and militaristic expansion of the Soviet Union was to implement a containment strategy that would help keep the Soviet expansion in check and protect Western democratic values. American diplomat, George Kennan, described this strategy as “a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the United States, there can be no permanent modus vivendi [agreement between parties that disagree]”; concluding that America had only one option to proceed, “long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” In 1947, President Harry Truman made the containment of the Soviet Union a top priority, laying the groundwork for the Cold War by introducing domestic policies that centered on undermining communism in the United States. Such action helped set the tone for the next four decades of United States foreign policy."

FROM:  https://online.norwich.edu/online/about/resource-library/5-key-cold-war-events

We can expand because we are a beacon on the hill, have a manifest destiny, we are the ever so Righteous Ones, have God on our side.  The Communists are the very embodiment of Evil and must be fought at every turn.

Lunar Society historian, Richard Vinen

For the first time, for a Lunar Society meeting yesterday, I visited the luxury, extravagant, grandiose Edgbaston Park Hotel that is owned, managed and is on the campus of the University of Birmingham.

This, after reports of the most distressing conditions having to be endured by patients in our government run NHS hospitals.

It seems that the authorities have the money for the most wonderful university and college buildings to be built but not for simply decent hospitals and prisons.  The authorities should be putting the sick and the poor as their top priority and NOT our top academics.

My meeting was with the Lunar Society that in the 18th century had Brummie leading lights - Boulton, Murdoch and Watt - led the world in exploiting finite fossil fuels to bring us the industrial revolution for three hundred years and this century's frightening Climate Catastrophe.

The widespread declarations of the Climate Emergency has meant much of Los Angeles being destroyed in wildfires, unprecedented floods for the UK and Holyhead port, the UK's second busiest port closed for six weeks.

The speaker, yesterday was the historian of Birmingham, Prof Richard Vinen whose key word for me, in his talk, was "destruction".  Destruction of buildings and transport infrastructure.  Two Birmingham major city centre libraries have been demolished and the city is on its third library since I moved here in 1968.

We are now on our second brand new major New Street railway station.  Two demolished!  The latest building cost three-quarters of a billion pounds.  The fine Victorian Snow Hill station was also destroyed.  For decades, that station's platform Four has been out of use for commuter and regional trains.

All of this is a scandal, in my opinion.  Yet, knowing all of this, the UoB fully supported the biggest office building I have ever seen for a university and hospital railway station.  All that was essential was a platform that DID need to be three times longer than the old one and more ticket machines and staff at peak times.

It seems that the University Station had to look pretentious and prestigious to fit in with the other brand-new university buildings. Yet, all the academics are unanimous in warning of the danger in burning up our remaining fossil fuel reserves.  Indeed, the Vice Chancellor of the UoB is Prof Adam Tickell who is, I believe, a nephew of Sir Crispin Tickell who wrote Margaret Thatcher's major speech on Climate in 1988 to the UN.

In 1977, while taking a sabbatical at Harvard he wrote Climatic Change and World Affairs. This was one of the first, and for at least a decade, the only book on the coming climate crisis, and what governments should do to prevent it. He argued for mandatory international pollution control, something that is finally taking shape. Margaret Thatcher credited him with convincing her of the science of global warming and the danger that it posed for the planet, which resulted in her speech on the subject to the Royal Society in September 1988. This brought climate change into the mainstream of British politics.

Fight the Climate Emergency by ...

... by saving greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the medium to long term by spending on insulation and energy efficiency measures in the short term!

Dear Gentlemen - the three leaders and the Independent to reply, PLEASE.  Others are welcome to give their views, too.

SUGGESTION 1

Floor 3 at Halesowen Library, I think, can have a false ceiling with new lighting to shut off a large wasted space that is simply the top of floor 3 at the floor 4 level.  It would save the massive energy bill.  Am I right?  Can this be done?

 Halesowen Library floor 3.jpg

SUGGESTION 2

Would the private sector, eg David Lloyd Sports Centres, be interested in taking over the three borough leisure centres?  Then use the money to properly insulate and solar power the remaining council properties to cut GHG emissions.

SUGGESTION 3

Can you sell off Halesowen Town Hall and make use of existing halls and rooms in, for example the Halesowen churches and hotels, etc?  Halesowen Community Church in Albert Road, Halesowen is a popular venue for many varied activities.

Use the money to retrofit, update your antiquated, inefficient heating in too many council owned properties - and to do SOLAR PV.

SUGGESTION 4

Use the billions you want for Metro and Sprint expansion to be used instead to fight the Climate Crisis in these ways:

 Action Points - 2024 version.pdf

You must lobby HMG to redirect funds from wasteful, nice but unnecessary projects and the staff now being employed into doing them, to vigorously fight the rise in GHG emissions.  Staff must be retrained for retrofitting/insulation/solar powering work.

SUGGESTION 5

Fight clogged, polluted roads by both rewarding and penalising car commuters who do not need cars for their jobs, so that the road network is freed up to benefit essential users like bus drivers and community nurses/tradesmen/lorry drivers.  Do/get:

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

SUGGESTION 6

Stick to the Excellent Enhanced Bus Partnership with bus operators and STOP franchising that is very expensive to only bring greater business risks for the councils that are not good at doing commercial ventures in the dog eat dog world of sharp capitalism.  Learn from the Brooks Bar and Bistro venture.  NO MORE SINKING MONEY INTO RISKY COMMERCIAL VENTURES.

SUGGESTION 7

Scrap Dudley Tram Phase 2 that is shockingly expensive and wasteful.  Reinstating the commuter trains and the 1990s monorail would be cheaper and, be more responsible, with fewer risks for Dudley town traders seeing more of their customers and profits going to Merry Hill.

TIM WELLER

My experience of WMCA committees and boards

Many thanks, Beate.  How did I come by your name and email address, please?!

The councillors and MPs are meant to pick up on these things but they have not done so, many are very poorly informed, change so often and have to rely and believe the full-time, professional officers - the senior officers who are always so eloquent and polished in their delivery to committee.  I attend as a member of the public from time to time but I'm never allowed to say anything or even to hang around afterwards to speak to members or to speak to officers.  Dan Essex quickly rounds me up and ushers me out onto the street!

Councillors and MPs are lobby fodder, are rarely asked to vote, have to toe the party line and dare not challenge, scrutiny and be as outspoken as I am, as a complete nobody and responsible to absolutely no-one!!  I don't have to watch my back as the politicians have to do to keep getting voted back in.  The committees and boards are talking shops for members to chip in with their thoughts.  Very largely a waste of time, I feel.  I try and influence them via email but I rarely get a response.  THANKS SO MUCH for yours!

I have been following the sorry saga of transport since 1967 when I first came as a student for an interview at Westhill College in Selly Oak.  Then, it was to be a mighty flyover for Bristol Road, not a bypass as we now have.

It is extremely serious ...

Dear Helen and Dan

Yet again, Helen told me this morning (Friday) that my concerns are not relevant to Governance - of how well or badly the CA is governed and, Dan is not the slightest interested, either.  In my opinion, it is purely political and most foolish that you and your colleagues are spending three times more per Km in building tram extensions in the W Midlands when compared with similar schemes around the world - a dataset of 46 in your consultant's report.

This is rather like our side dismissing concerns reported today (Friday), with our Gazan killings being much higher than the Hamas run Health Ministry has thought, as being "inflated for political purposes", as was reported on BBC News.

You both do not wish to be acquainted with uncomfortable, true facts because it is none of your business.  In effect, you are saying my concerns are political - rather like different political parties have different manifestos.  It is all subjective and a matter of opinion.  However, when the Emperor has no clothes... you have a duty to say something!

It is totally irresponsible and complete idiocy to rebuild a railway "of national strategic significance", according to Network Rail and the DfT and then to use it as a dog walkers' paradise of a cycle-walkway for 14 Kms, to use it as a 2 Kms VLR test track and to have the most expensive tramway of 10.7 Kms that the world has ever seen - even when most of it is built on an existing and, for 100 years, a principal mainline railway!  And this for over a billion pounds when finally finished!  Fully in line with your consultant's conclusions that is so astounding he is recommending a further study by an independent regulated body.

Sticking your fingers in your ears is the height of irresponsibility and is a political decision, as all decisions are - even the most petty.

Please end your political indifference and acquiescence in wrong-doing and say something.  Action is needed to end the totally unnecessary £15 BILLION, 150 miles tram extension programme which is deepening, not lessening, your own declared Climate Emergency and is an existential threat for all of us, as the eminent Oxford Professor of History, the author Margaret MacMillan said on Radio 4 'Sideways' on Monday 6 January. 

Your denial of the Climate Crisis is in line with the University of Brum that has their most prestigious coffee shop and conference centre at Centenary Square with wide open external and internal doors throughout opening times!!  The evidence is there that you are all Climate deniers, despite your hypocritical declaration in 2019.  A stunning absence of integrity from people who should know better.    

Have you seen the report from 

 CNNCT Costs Comment September 2024.pdf

EXTRACTS:

"Upon first inspection the costs of the Midland Metro projects are astronomical

but, in truth it is extremely difficult to provide completely accurate data for one
telling reason, the actual costs are kept very much under wraps, even to the point

where Freedom of Information requests are refused ... "

AND AGAIN:

When you scratch the surface, data suggest that the Midland Metro extensions
represent some of the highest costs per kilometre ever seen, anywhere in the
World for tram schemes. As a sense of scale, the current average for infrastructure
costs per kilometre of light rail corridors or route, is under £30 million. Midland
Metro Alliance projects report an average of over £100 million per route kilometre
as shown in the results: -

Dataset Average Cost per
Route Km (£M)
Infrastructure Only Schemes 27.93
All Inclusive Schemes 84.91
Midland Metro Alliance Infrastructure Only Schemes 116.01

• Regardless of how the money has been spent, Midland Metro Alliance projects
should be comprehensively reviewed by an independent regulated body, to
understand exactly why these costs are reportedly three times the global average.

With best wishes for sensible action - URGENTLY.

Franchising: What you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts

TfWM said eight in ten public transport journeys in the West Midlands were by bus which accounted for more than 240 million passenger journeys during 2024. It is estimated the network contributes £4.4 billion a year to the regional economy.

Currently, TfWM pays £50 million a year in top up funding to keep commercial bus services on the road but control of routes, timetables and some fares still rests with the operators such as National Express which runs the majority of services in the West Midlands.

If approved, it is estimated the transition will cost the authority £22 million with the roll of franchised bus services starting in 2027.

In addition, it will be necessary to buy buses and depots, funded through borrowing and paid back with future fare income.

to Libby at Brum FoE

Please can you also campaign for my nearly 40-year-old insistence that there is no need for tramways to take over railways and bus routes.  Use the staff and the, literally, billions in price and in weight of GHG emissions for Metro and Sprint extensions, to get car commuters onto buses, trains and trams, to free up road space for essential vehicle users.

IN ADDITION:

• Use the Metro and Sprint money and the staff at WMCA to address instead of accelerating the Climate Emergency.
• Use the money and the staff to get the homes of the poorest insulated.  Even the private landlords must be given loans to get their properties made Climate compliant.
• Use the money and the staff to build small and medium sized homes for those on state benefits and other low incomes.  And solar powered with batteries.  I think, batteries in homes to balance the grid and to store solar electricity are more important than for private cars.
• The TfWM/WMCA HQ must also be made Climate compliant - to eliminate the charge of hypocrisy.
• Buses, trains and trams are far more important than private cars.  Their use must be boosted, not cars. 
• Midland Metro extensions are three times more expensive per Km to construct than any other place in the world!  See:
   CNNCT Costs Comment September 2024.pdf
  Summarised here:

• Sunday, 15 December 2024

  SHOCKING DATA re Midland Metro costs from CNNCT Ltd - consultants

  Confirms my own research in Like for like comparison of infrastructure building costs

  "In total, 79 Light Rail projects from across the world have been researched when gathering data."

  " ... data suggest that the Midland Metro extensions represent some of the highest costs per kilometre ever seen anywhere in the World for tram schemes."

  "Midland Metro Alliance projects report an average of over £100 million per route kilometre as shown in the results: -

  Dataset Average Cost per Route Km (£M) for 47 LR projects, here:

  Infrastructure Only Schemes 27.93   (Infrastructure costs only, extensions to existing tram projects for example.)

  All Inclusive Schemes 84.91  (All-In – Total project costs including the Tram Lines, Vehicles, Depots etc.)

  Midland Metro Alliance Schemes 116.01   (Infrastructure costs only, extensions to existing tram projects for example.)

  • Regardless of how the money has been spent, Midland Metro Alliance projects should be comprehensively reviewed by an independent regulated body, to understand exactly why these costs are reportedly three times the global average." (my, Tim Weller's emphasis)

Is there anything you can go along with here, Libby?  Please explain your point of view over what I have written.

Runaway expense and runaway greenhouse effect!

But started by Labour - Andrew Adonis and Gordon Brown.  Oh dear, the folly of our betters and masters.  High Scam 2 is not much use when there is only one station between the two termini - and that is an airport!  Let High Scam 2 passengers fly in a plane.  Next decade they'll be able to fly on land, too on a train.  Runaway spend, spend, spend to accelerate away the runaway greenhouse effect!

Brutal GAZA scenes worthy of Stalingrad or medieval or ancient warfare

Sideways on Radio 4, 6 Jan 2025:  25 Years of the 21st Century: 1. The Age of Digital Warfare

PANEL of historian and writer Margaret MacMillan, former Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nick Carter and author, Professor Anthony King.

The invasion of first Afghanistan, understandable and then the invasion of Iraq, lost a lot of moral authority for the West, said Margaret MacMillan.  "A lot of countries in the Global South no longer believed, if they ever did, that the West knows best."

Nick Carter describing the events after 9/11 said that rather than the response being the global war on terror, "it was a political problem that needs to be dealt with in a sympathetic fashion rather than meting out revenge which happened in Afghanistan. ... Western activity in Afghanistan and Iraq alienated much of the world and it didn't solve the problem of terrorism for that is not how you solve the problem of terrorism. ... And it means that the countries we alienated are questionning our Western narrative.

ON GAZA:

Professor Anthony King: "The increased urbanisation of the battlefield.  In the ethno-political wars we have seen and in the inter state wars and in Ukraine. ...  Look at the conditions in Gaza.  What we see is brutal scenes worthy of Stalingrad or worthy of medieval or ancient warfare where soldiers are fighting in ruins, civilians are in dreadful conditions.  That is more the future under AI enabled militaries rather than some beautiful surgical death by precision."

MACMILLAN:

"We have to come to terms with our own mortality as a species.  Climate change is the big existential threat out there.  We don't always behave reasonably and we haven't been behaving reasonably lately but we are capable of looking at adversity when it comes to us and seeing that we have to do something about it."

On Mon, 6 Jan 2025 at 21:44, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

"Gone rogue" is a very good way of putting it.  Very true.  And Israel is our friend, ally, our big arms purchaser especially from the USA and Germany that are important members of NATO.

Google search:-

"Israel, being located in the Levant, is outside the geographical scope of the alliance. While it has had close security cooperation with the US and other Western countries, Israel has not sought formal membership in defense alliances like NATO."

Israel is firmly on our side.  WE have slaughtered over 40,000 Gazans and 6 million Jews in the 1930s/40s.  We have gone rogue since our religion went rogue and immoral in betraying its founder's teaching in 300 CE.  Christendom and Christians have done war, violence, killings ever since.  A disgraceful, despicable, violent world faith!

A Google search has, "As of 2024, there are approximately 292,000 Jewish people in the United Kingdom, making up 0.48% of the population."

"The 2021 census recorded 3.9 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, which is 6.5% of the total population."

Yet another transport blunder when they should, instead, have reopened the Black Country Railway, bypassing Brum and, then on to the North and Scotland

 Nannie2 - commenting on a piece in the 'Worcester News'

4th January 11:17 am

User ID: 863582

Worcestershire Parkway was a very ill-thought-out project which cost the council tax payer £20 million just to provide 500 parking spaces principally for commuters to London. The only Cross Country service which stops there is the hourly Nottingham to Cardiff and travel to Bristol and the southwest is not possible. Passengers travelling to the northeast, northwest and Scotland still have to change at Birmingham New Street. The useless hourly X50 bus service from the city to Parkway does not provide worthwhile connection times. Although the journey time from Parkway to Birmingham is 31 minutes whereas fromForegate Street it is 45 minutes the overall travel time is still much quicker from Foregate Street. No other city of circa 100,000 population has three mainline stations and there were other options which should have been considered but the council simply ploughed ahead with Parkway which was first mooted in the 1980s based on a bogus Public Consultation exercise. No other solutions were rigourously submitted to technical and economic analysis and representations from Network Rail and Great Western Railway were simply ignored. There was no reason why the idle industrial land at Shrub Hill could not have been developed to provide 500 parking spaces and with a bus station at Shrub Hill a multi-modal transport hub could have been created. Worcester's problems are exacerbated by the hideous separation of the National network preventing some Cross Country services traveling via Shrub Hill as this would provide the much-needed connection to the southwest. Integration of bus, rail and active transport modes is what's required and yet our hapless County Council seem determined to fragment transport and frustrate passenger mobility which blights the local economy.TO NANNIE2:-You write authoritatively and with so much good sense. Can you explain why our 120 Kms former principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance", according to NR and DfT, is being broken up into a tramway, a Very Light Rail test track and a cycle-walkway between Walsall and Lichfield? And, that there are STILL no passenger trains on that SAME line between Lichfield and Burton on Trent.

Lay down your life for your friends ...

Lay down your life for your friends, NOT take the life of your enemies, at the say-so of the Lord's appointed "powers that be" in Romans 13 v 1-7.

And when you are meant to lay down your life for friend and foe.

And love your enemy, too.

Why all the killing by the Onward Christian Soldiers with their grossly OTT obedience to the godless and secular and most unchristian authorities?

It is all because of Paul in Romans 12 and not because of Christ in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. And elsewhere. 

HE laid down his life to show Western Jews and Christians that we are NOT meant to slaughter our fellow children of Abraham nor one another as we have been doing so enthusiastically since the beginning of the last century. Actually, since the tragic conversion of Emperor Constantine in 300 AD/CE.

Christian societies brought Western empires, chattel Slavery and never an end to all the much-loved slaughter in our frequent wars.

Something is desperately wrong with our 'Christian' discipleship.  And with our Western morality.  And with our conscience.

SCANDALS UNCOVERED, HERE:

As regards equal pay, I've had no adequate explanation why some council employees received generous payments and others of equal status did not.  At the time, the opportunity to apply for payments was hushed up and not openly promoted as something both union members and non-union members should do.  WHY WAS THIS?

I've had no explanation why Brum CC, after 40 years, remains promoting what appears to be the most expensive public transport mode to build after HS2.  Brum's tram schemes are three times per Km more expensive to construct than all other tram extensions throughout the world.  Trams are used to replace or duplicate bus services and two mainline railways - one in Brum and the other between Worcester and Derby via the Black Country.  The third, down for trams, was saved for TRAINS but the three stations are taking an age to build!

The latest tram scheme in Sandwell and Dudley is promoted as having to be done to get the mainline railway reinstated with passenger and freight trains!  Very costly trams first to get the TRAINS BACK.  Unheard of anywhere else in the world.  How bizarre!

Billions wasted, misused, wrongly allocated that, in my opinion, is tantamount to theft.  Certainly, the corrupt use of public money.  Money that could be used to help the poorest Brummies with food, energy and housing bills.  Instead, they suffer.

Staff are working on wrong, mistaken and Climate-accelerating priorities, all of whom could, as one example, be employed to upgrade and insulate the homes of the poorest in the city.

Andy Street did nothing to stop the rot and is rewarded with a knighthood.  Another scandal!