In response to - 'IAdmireAngelinaJolie'
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Why does our Judeo-Christian side ...
... much more often implement the violent examples and commands of the Bible than the clear and obvious NON-VIOLENT teaching of the New Testament?
Deal with road traffic congestion in this way
AIM:-
Saturday, 25 October 2025
Not in my Name
I am livid that my taxes are used to support the ever so ethical, righteous and democratic Judeo-Christian West, for two years, arming Israel to the teeth. Thus, we have turned Gaza into a demolition site, flattening the homes of children and their parents still living in them. How cruel and inhuman is this? We support an Israel government obeying God to wipe out the Gazans just as he told them to do exactly the same with the Amalekites in the Bible - annihilation.
This is not just an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, as taught in the Old Testament but a retaliation that is 70 times 7 that Jesus taught was meant for forgiveness NOT revenge! OTT, indiscriminate slaughter, that looked as though it was going on for years. God's command to wipe off the face of the earth every evil Hamas person was finally cut short by the very man that the God fearing American electorate had elected with such enthusiasm - 80% of evangelical Christians. How ironic!
Gaza, OUR human abattoir stopped. Thank Trump but not the God of the Judeo-Christian West - renowned for our inhumanity.
Friday, 24 October 2025
from Greenpeace - unearthed@act.greenpeace.org.uk
Global coal use hits record, despite renewables boom
Global coal consumption hit a record high in 2024, even as renewable energy surged, according to a State of Climate Action report. Rising electricity demand meant more coal was burned overall, threatening efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C under the Paris Agreement.
While the report says solar and wind grew “exponentially,” their expansion needs to double to meet decade-end emissions targets. Industrial emissions, particularly from steel, remain high, and the carbon footprint of heating buildings is not shrinking fast enough. Deforestation is also continuing at alarming rates, with over 8m hectares lost last year.
Some governments, including India and the US under Donald Trump, are doubling down on coal, though these impacts could be offset if other major players like China and the EU continue favouring renewables.
Thursday, 23 October 2025
Porritt, in his latest blog post
As we all need to keep reminding people, overall energy consumption here in the UK has actually declined by a massive 28% over the last 20 years – one of the reasons why our greenhouse gas emissions have declined by 40% during that time. As the indefatigable Andrew Warren points out:
“There is no good reason why this trend should not continue. There are still approaching nine million homes on the gas network running gas-guzzling boilers, and many of these could readily switch to electric heating. There are still some fifteen million homes with grossly inadequate insulation. And still a majority without energy efficient glazing”.
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
October 2025 expedition to Loch Lomond and Trossachs NP
Chasing down 5 Graham hills in 6 days, Monday to Saturday inclusive to be present for the Jed/Jayne nut roast feast on the Sunday. Total for Sept/Oct is 14 in 20 days away from home. Leaves 154 left at 77 and 3/4 years old!
Day 1 was travelling up after being with Jed at Little Fishes but, surprisingly quick with lighter than normal traffic on M6 northbound. Got to Inversnaid Hotel to car camp and then long, very tiring day on Tuesday for the Graham in low cloud, N of Ptarmigan.
Dreadful conditions underfoot meant that I should have gone via Ptarmigan from Rowardennan. That way you drop down to the 450 m col, from the 731 m summit on the way to the 632 m Graham. Compass was essential but the GPS was reassuring and a help in getting to the low summit cairn. At least I walked part of the West Highland Way I had never walked before. Met a 10-year-old who got his dad to take him on it to Fort William camping all the way. But did they manage the full length?
Wednesday was the direct route to Meall Mor 747 m, with 600 m height gain in 1.5 Kms = 40% slope if 100% is vertical. Is that right? Safer to take the longer route to the NW. Fabulous views from the top.
Thursday was Ben Venue, above Trossachs Pier. SS Sir Walter Scott steamer with biofuel turbines for clean emissions on Loch Katrine with its drinking water for Glasgow. Steamship cafe, towering viewpoint and lots of toilets. All this modern, no expense spared, top tourist attraction was very good. Lots of walkers on the hill that is really circuitous and up and down on the final section!
Friday saw an afternoon quick 4 hrs to the Strathyre Graham, then car camp at Balquhidder; and Saturday a cycle and climb to the summit round a curved ridge where the best view was down to Loch Voil from the summit I wanted to be the summit! Found a rowan growing out of a large boulder and saw a fox and deer on the summit ridge. Then a fast car drive home at no more than 70 mph and exactly 2,000 revs. Jed's birthday bash was my first proper meal in seven days. I had gone down to 58 Kg before the slap-up feast, courtesy of 2-year-old Jed! Jayne's delicious nut roast would not allow remaining out a day longer. I deserved it. Back to normal 63 Kg weight!
Sunday, 12 October 2025
The unbelievable horror show - aggression pays, every time, with us renegades
The unbelievable horror show for which we ourselves are wholly to blame - Ghastly Gaza.
From 1945, there were three Jewish/Zionist terrorist gangs, with one now renamed as the IDF. The three saw off the mightiest and biggest empire humanity has seen, with the financial support of the USA from day one. Terrorism and aggression, in 1948 and in subsequent wars, were rewarded with the land of Palestine and yet more land as our side won further victories in the wars. No wonder the unHoly Land has been in tragic turmoil ever since, as Palestinians have objected to their treatment by the West is Best.
Friday, 10 October 2025
My answer to tramways being built throughout the UK
Do you think I am on the right lines with this? Please be honest and frank!
Tuesday, 16 June 2020
"Let's build new tram lines with routes where people want to go" - 'Inside Croydon' (only, please!!)
Thursday, 9 October 2025
Economic growth for all but the planet - that cannot!
Does your drive for economic growth mean a rising population to feed more families that will also fuel the growth of everything else - buildings, roads and power lines? Does economic growth mean a rising Climate and Nature crises? Does economic growth mean more multi-modal rail and bus modes? Does economic growth mean widening more motorways and junctions? Which ones are you talking up? Jct 2, M5, Oldbury? Thanks for a well organised and most worthwhile Stoke Summit on Friday. TIM WELLER 0791 380 4363
Climate not greed compliance!
It is not just the huge, immoral cost of trams (we all love them, but) but they are the wrong priority and greedy. Metro trams are at the top of Andy Street's and now Richard Parker's multi-modal transport programme. Four rail modes and three bus modes are totally unacceptable when the money must go for green hydrogen, renewables, grid reform, retrofitting, car commuters clogging roads, regional Fare-Free Public Transport for all and true Climate compliant expenditure that will cut GHG emissions in the medium to long term. I don't think there is any movement over Climate compliance measures by the authorities. They are still playing at it. Some talk but little effective action. I think we all need to be more assertive and united for the funds to be more fairly distributed and for the morally right Climate measures. What do you think? Am I right or wrong? Feedback, please.
OTT transport provision for W Mids but not Stoke!
Dear Nigel
I was the skinny, balding old man who sat next to you for the last session with the MPs on Friday afternoon. I gave you the pink sheet you are welcome to give me feedback on, if you wish. Email attachment, at the foot.
I said to Gareth Snell, at the close that all the transport projects on all of your wish lists could be met if only you would oppose the TfWM/WMCA/Midlands Connect £15 billion (Jan 2020 figure) by 2040 for 150 miles of 8 lines of trams and 380 tram stops. We all love trams. However, should the Climate Emergency override that and bring about a little restraint? Gareth would not dream of questionning what the West Midlands is getting.
Is this a correct and a fair enough view, from me, of Friday's meeting, do you think?
4 STOKE MPs hanker after a Mayor
Midlands Connect Summit at Stoke, 12 September 2025
"As a Sub-national Transport Body, Midlands Connect", is to make "the Midlands region fairer, greener and stronger for everyone who lives here."
My attendance brings this:
FOUR STOKE MPs hanker after a Mayor.
In a conversation with me, Gareth Snell would not dream of questioning the projects that Mayor Richard Parker has secured for the West Midlands Combined Authority and Midlands Connect organisation. In effect,
The WMCA and Midlands Connect have destroyed the UK's only railway "of national strategic significance" that could have taken vehicles off the M5/M6. Work is ongoing to turn it into a dog walkers' paradise of a cycle-walkway. In other parts, our cllrs/MPs and transport experts have put buildings, a test track and, shortly, 6.7 Kms of trams (simply a “bus on rails”) on two sections.
- "Good luck to what they get, I cannot criticise the billions coming their way and virtually nothing for us."
- 'It is of no concern of mine to be bothered about the billions in weight of deadly greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted'. (what Gareth was thinking!)
- CLIMATE EMERGENCY was never mentioned.
- Tens of billions secured for the highly prestigious HS2 for the West Midlands and not Staffordshire.
- This largesse is widely ridiculed as being nowhere near being completed after 16 years and will not be for another 10 years, just to Birmingham.
- The HS1 line never increased capacity. Nor will High Scam 2 when it has no stations, so you have to keep the existing intercity service!!
- It ends at Handsacre, an insignificant village in Staffordshire.
- But even the much-looked-up-to WMCA failed to get its 200 Kms and 10-line tramway network by the year 2000.
- By that date, it had a paltry 20 Kms with 18 Kms on the first mainline railway. This, to replace commuter trains for many times more per Km!
- It has a trifling 23 Kms,
- Now, £15 billion to 2040 for 150 miles of tramway, 8 lines and 380 tram stops.
- Failed to complete its motorway box on its western side.
- Has such horrendous motorway congestion that drivers use it at night to escape long hold-ups.
120 Kms between Worcester and Derby. One of only two north-south railways between Brum and the Irish Sea now drowned, dead from political and transport expert idiocy, breathtaking incompetence and stunning indifference.PHOTO of the principal, mainline railway for dog walkers/cyclists, near Brownhills!!
There are Staffordshire railway lines wasted and overgrown in the Stoke area.The enormous gulf in funding between Stoke and the West Midlands is laid bare, here:
- But brilliant for Nature and bees - and Climate compliance.
- The Stoke Midlands Connect Summit ended with the four MPs wanting top billing for the A50/A500 upgrade. It's already dual carriageway!
- Yet more clamour for PRIVATE transport as public transport remains in the doldrums.
4 rail modes for West Midlands. NOT FOR STOKE - it has to make do with one.3 bus modes for the W Mids. NOT FOR STOKE - just one for them.But Stoke MPs must not interfere in other MPs’ business - over anything, so they have to keep silent!
You wonderfully listed a number of places that could and should have improved transport but the names meant nothing to me. I would love to have more details, please and I'll look them up on the OS maps.
What, exactly, are you campaigning for?
I would love to have your honest, frank thoughts on that pink sheet I gave you - please!
Near Brownhills on the Staffordshire section of the wasted 56 Kms between Stourbridge and Burton between London and Edinburgh.
Railfuture's full map of 2003 - no progress, whatsoever. Just regress. Only continuing destruction!
What do you think of my thought that your public transport provision is threadbare compared to ours in the W Midlands. We have four rail modes:
High Speed - tens of billions in price and weight of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Heavy Rail - although about 100 Kms of railway lines in the heart of motorway-congested Midlands still unused or partly used. About 100 Kms have been destroyed for roads, building and for:
Light Rail, and
Very Light Rail in Coventry and the test track at the former Dudley Castle Hill mainline railway station.
And three bus modes - the Sprint bus that thinks it's a tram;
Guided busways
Regular buses
Do you think that this is OTT as regards railway provision, when the national debt is rising with increased interest payments on them and, rising temperature, too from rising GHG emissions?
Was it you who told me that you would have cycled to today's transport meeting but you thought a suit was essential? I always cycle to my local meetings in Brum from Halesowen, a distance of nine miles on over six miles of traffic-free routes - and I'm 77!
WMCA Growth Plan 2025
Point 1:
A Showpiece to impress and flatter; a glossy piece of propaganda to entice inward investment
Hotel entrances: one with the canopy and the other with the waterfall!
The first was the 'Lodge on the Loch' (Lomond) which allowed me to park under their canopy outside the front entrance so I could get the bike out of the car without the rain pouring onto my sleeping bag when I lifted the back up to get the bike out. They were then happy to have the bike in an empty room for two nights. WELL DONE to them!
The second was the Royal Hotel at Comrie in Perth and Kinross County. Worn-out and leaking lead flashing meant that in the heavy rain of Storm Amy, you had to negotiate a waterfall to then get behind it to open the front door. Mostly, it was just a drip that was fun to dodge to get at the front door handle!
September 2025 expedition to Graham hills
10 major 2000 foot hills visited: 9 Grahams and one other in ten days.
14 day expedition of 13 nights - ten sleeping in the car, the last 3 nights in three different hotels - Royal in Comrie after my cycle ride and walk in the immaculate estate of a Russian oligarch; Travelodge at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire after the internal wheel arch mudguard dropped off; Westmorland Hotel at Tebay after a stormy and wet walk of five miles around the nearby country lanes.
3 summits above Glen Luss on the first day's walk, two on the second and one on the third to get that area completed. Next, the two above Glen Douglas where there is a new metal sign indicating you've arrived at the 'Hill Access car park'. Except, I saw it all too late after a torturous walk back from the second hill with long grass, a new tree planting scheme and then a beautiful right-angled tear in my trousers from the damned barbed wire fence!
Excellent Lidl in Alexandria for GB 10 size women's sports trousers, bought and worn immediately for £13! And men's size 42 boots with good tread but not my size.
The Judeo-Christian world wants the peace prize for ending the human Abattoir ...
... their slaughter of Muslims (and other faiths) in the unHoly Land.
Monday, 6 October 2025
Far too much demolition and construction in Brum
In 57 years of living in Brum and the Black Country, I have seen the scandal of excellent roads, railways and perfectly good buildings and public realm projects all destroyed. What a waste of public money, resources and of finite fossil fuels! And the spewing out of GHGs!
Inner Ring Road was demolished in two places to make way for one-way streets and traffic lights. How absurd!
Public realm projects in Digbeth has cost many millions; Centenary Square was rebuilt three times in 20 years; and the Kennedy Memorial was lost when the inner ring road was destroyed.
I have visited and seen three Brum Central libraries in my 57 years of living here.
2 in one day in Manchester; 90 every day in Gaza for 2 years
The forever war of 80 years by the Children of Abraham - the three branches seem particularly prone ...
The people who believe in violence to solve disputes, like everyone of our PMs and Presidents, like Starmer, Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are wholly to blame for violence on the streets of Gaza, Kyiv and now Manchester.
I do find it strange that an Israeli peacenik should write, "In my view the ultimate evil in the world is aggression, and the only way to repel aggression is unfortunately by force."
Is not using force or violence, aggression also? Both Israelis and Palestinians accuse the other of just that - aggression. It gets them nowhere but to yet more revenge violence. Revenge is so sweet for the victim of aggression. However, when the victim of aggression hits back, we call that terrorism. Hence, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State, some Palestinians are all terrorists. Our side - NATO and Israel - are the peaceniks, the peacemakers because we use our violence and aggression - whoops, I mean force - to bring peace out of aggression by our military might is right!
This is all absolutely absurd. Better to talk to terrorists, who are people like us and get a negotiated, permanent settlement - as in N Ireland. Netanyahu and Abbas may then become the Israel/Palestinian Chuckle Brothers like Paisley and McGuinness were in N Ireland. That is even more absurd!
I was surprised to read that many Quakers joined up in even the 1WW that led to the second half of the one World War. Ten years of war that started in the supposedly 'Christian' nations of Europe and then brought in all the numerous nations of those 'Christian' empires around the world. We can't blame the Muslims for this 20th century carnage and, without the Communists, we would never have won in 1945. It was mainly our side that initiated this death and destruction in 1914 - and, solely Western Europe in 1939.
Still, to this day, we steadfastly vote for the three main political parties who are the war parties for every year for, at least, the last one hundred years (source: Guardian 12.2.14). We only remember to continue our war crimes of aggression and the businesses that fuel them. Quakers are not exempt!