'Riders on the Storm'

 I love page 198 and on page 22 about "our journeys of understanding".  That reminded me of what my Quaker, spiritual father told me about being true to our lights but, being open to enlightenment from whatever source that comes.

I'm asking, Alastair if you might check out this, below, please.  I wrote, 'deadly greenhouse gases to threaten all life on earth.'  Is it alarmism or being alarming?  True to the science or is it pseudoscience?  And, where do you stand over Wikipedia telling me that Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect?  Should we be talking about a possible runaway greenhouse effect for earth, as well?  The tipping points, too?  Three tipping points left?  Sixth mass extinction now?  Please put me right.

I wrote,  'Trams look green but you and I have to BE green'.  I'm grateful to you about the need to BE green; and "the ground of our being" (Teilhard de Chardin?) being more important than doing.

TOP CLIMATE ACTION REQUEST

People must not be hoodwinked into accepting Metro tram extensions, underground and overground to replace/duplicate buses and even trains! £15 BILLION to 2040 wasted when that money must go for Fare-Free Public Transport and electric buses on bus priority roads.  Please email those exact words to Mayor, Andy Street, at: MayorsOffice@wmca.org.uk

Malcolm.Holmes@wmre.org.uk,

and deborah.cadman@wmca.org.uk

Then forward the reply to timweller1@gmail.com  - me!

THANKS so much.

Every £ we spend = finite fossil fuels burnt = deadly greenhouse gases to threaten all life on earth. 

Trams look green but you and I have to BE green and campaign for commuter/regional and freight TRAINS on our local railway line that doesn't get the 6 Kms of trams and 2 Kms test track.  That STILL leaves 48 Kms of railway "of national strategic significance" on the Black Country Railway between Worcester and Derby, alongside or near to traffic-choked motorways and roads.  And every crossing is built, too - see my photos.  They built the important railway and forgot the trains and nine stations!

MY ENDORSEMENT OF 'POACHER'S PILGRIMAGE' by Alastair McIntosh

Extract from e-mail to Jonathon Porritt:

"Have you ever come across author Alastair McIntosh?  I am reading 'Poacher's Pilgrimage'.  It's a beautifully crafted account of his walk from the southern end of Harris to the Butt of Lewis and interspersed with ecology, spirituality, respect for the old ways on the island and, his brave challenges in official, formal sessions with the military over our alternative non-violent direct action.  Or, at least, diplomacy rather than the militarisation of diplomacy.  And pilgrimage (your "treading lightly") to describe how our three score years and ten should be like AND, not poaching from future generations."

MY ENDORSEMENTS as I was reading the book:

A truly great writer who holds the readers' attention with wonderful descriptions, remarkable knowledge and delicious humour.

An outstanding book.  Nicely left of centre, an amazing command of the English language.  A giant of a man.

Every page keeps my attention and interest.

400 pages of erudition and anecdotes, of walking, talking, recalling - all related so skilfully and often humorously that it made me smile.  A masterclass in writing.  A literary great.  Politically correct, liberation theology supported and, a socialist.

Anti-war, pro-nature, pro-humanity.  This man is a Quaker, a pacifist and argues for Christ's non-violence in both his life and teachings.

This book is pure poetry in prose, with a sense of fun thrown in for good measure.  After the Gospels of social justice, non-violence and other divine ethical teachings, this must be the greatest and most important book I have ever read.  My 'Desert Island' book! 

Life and death must never be the same again when its all over

Dear Ros and Cllr Chris - and everyone else who is interested

Every cloud has a silver lining; and, if you snooze you lose

You wrote, Ros, "When the time is right, we will look to resume our engagement with decision makers on the climate crisis and how we build a fairer, healthier and sustainable future for all."

I do think this is understandable.  However, I am so concerned at our society being up the creek without  a paddle ("to be in a serious quandary with little chance of a positive outcome").  Does our present predicament foreshadow when fossil fuels will be scarce and the climate emergency even more blindingly obvious?  Then, things will be ten times worse, won't they?  Therefore, we must work immediately towards that lower impact, fairer and more sustainable society where the rich help the poor, the strong help the weak and the advantaged help the disadvantaged.  And, where the old like me, give way, give preference to the young to enable them to thrive as we elders fade away and are gone.  We must continue to explain the uncomfortable realities of life and death, I think.  That does mean urgent engagement with everyone and especially decision makers.  And we are all decision makers, too of course.  We can each lead by example.

It seems, the virus crisis is making a small difference to the climate crisis and the reality of resource depletion, especially finite fossil fuels.  Highly dangerous greenhouse gases have dropped as air flights and movement by fossil fuels have lessened.  We are becoming more dependent on contact by phone and computer and on walking and cycling and, certainly no unnecessary travel now by public transport or, when it is all over, in cars.  Physical distancing still enables us to talk and to socialise at two metres when in the open air.

When the virus has eventually died out, we will all want to get back to how things were.  However, we must NOT, entirely.  I think that we must still restrain our use of fossil fuels and to minimise our dependency on them.  This is because we are fossil fuel junkies that is leading to climate catastrophe, Attenborough's "collapse of civilisations" and "extinction of much of the natural world" and "time is running out" warnings.  And he said that at COP 24 in December 2018, if I remember correctly.

Now is the time to live and campaign so that we permanently change our lifestyles to respond to the much greater climate emergency, the uncomfortable realities of resource depletion and unsustainable living and dying.

That wonderful Stourbridge Quaker and Green Party member, Joyce Millington, in the 1980s and 90s, was urging rationing of finite fossil fuels.  I think this is as urgent as ever when the virus has died out.  But our fast changing climates most definitely have not and are alive and well and changing for the worse, we are told.  I think we must have less social connectivity by hungry fossil fuels and more connectivity with nature and the uncomfortable realities of life.  Hence, these ideas:

 My ten point West Midlands plan for the new Gov...

 A5 flyer Feb 2020

But what do the rest of you think?  If we wake up, we may win!

Tim Weller

I want the GP to be upstanding and outstanding

Dear Andi - time for me to reply, in blue, below to your most welcome last e-mail of the 23 June, when you wrote:

"Hi Tim 

"Thank you for the respectful and less aggressive tone in this email. I do appreciate it.  Certainly not aggressive, I hope since I am forever going on about trying non-violence and making friends as a more helpful and positive UK foreign policy!  Sometimes I have to be forthright and straight.  And, you are in a prominent leadership position, Andi so I do expect more from you.  You are my leader, too after all.

"However in my last email to you I also made it clear I won't respond if you copy lots of others in. Let me restate that it's not polite to spam all sorts of people with no declared interest in the subject. Jonathan Bartley is not involved in this conversation. Jonathan is even more important than you are, Andi.  I met him in person in a public place when I tried to tackle him about my concerns.  He explained that he could not speak to me, then but, gave me his card for me to contact him.  A week or two later I wrote to him.  There has never even been the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone a reply.  This is no way good enough, Andi.  Neither are our Solihull or Birmingham councillors, or any of the others you have included. Do you understand that by copying all and sundry it is perceived that your intent is to publicly embarrass the primary recipient of your email? Conversations like this must be private and confidential, or there can be no trust between us.  Andi, others have got to be aware of what is going so very, very wrong.  It is not just you but all your GP members who must be won over in order to change your very mistaken transport policy.

I have been campaigning and working for a greener and more sustainable, sensible and ecological society since I moved here, to this house, in Jan 1976.  I have been attending FoE meetings since the 70s and GP meetings since the 80s.  I have been, largely, a successful failure.  However, in those matters where I have got my way, it has been through maximum publicity, making waves, well and truly stirring things up and making a nuisance of myself!  Only by pleasantly but constantly pointing out that something is wrong and that there is a far better, more constructive and helpful way forward, have I won.  Well, actually, mostly lost!  I have used mock battles (x2), interviews, press releases, petitions, letters/e-mails, phone calls, personal visits, gate crashing politicians surgeries, observing umpteen boring meetings at council HQs and transport HQ and catching the politicians before they skipped off to evade me.  I even went to the Strasbourg Parliament to see one MEP who never held surgeries or wrote to me but did see me, there (but a complete waste of time)!

"But as you have listened to at least one of my requests I will reply on this occasion. 

"It is true that WMGP has not debated or voted on rail policy. This is not good enough, Andi.  And my very own political party has never given me a fair hearing.  I attended one Dudley GP meeting, this decade where I was allowed to tell the meeting about the idiocy of turning our local mainline railway into a short, shuttle tram line on part of it.  But, only while you were all voting on some important matter or other.  None of you were interested or at all bothered!  However, I think you misunderstand how the Green Party works.  It should work by hearing my side of the case and not just the Establishment's.  Please don't be one sided in formulating transport policy.  Hear the other point of view.

"Members democratically decide national policy, with proposals subject to energetic debate and taking evidence into account. This sets out our broad policy agenda.  What about deciding on LOCAL policy, a wasted mainline railway almost a stone's throw from where we were sitting in that Netherton GP meeting?  Never a debate/discussion, no evidence and no hearing of my side of the case on a vital local and regional and even a national issue

"We don't set regional or local policy in this way. There are many reasons for this. One is that we simply don't have the time or resources to do so at  regional level, given our current electoral position. Manifestos are drawn up by small working groups given authority by the regional executive. They will do so in line with national policy and adapt it to local circumstances. There is no members vote on developing regional policy - if we tried to do this we would never do anything else! And we certainly wouldn't have an MEP and around 100 councillors, as we do now.  Deciding to no longer run roads, buildings or extremely extravagant Metro trams on railway lines should NOT be a highly complicated issue for GP members to grapple with and to come down on the side of ONLY trains going back on train lines.

Is your first priority, Andi getting members elected or postponing extinction?

"On public transport nationally the Green Party sees roles for tube-like metro systems, for both heavy and light rail lines including trams as well as investment in bus services. Like you, we want to massively expand the provision of public transport and make it as cheap and accessible as possible - free public transport is something we'd love to see happen.  Excellent.  So please shout about it using the evidence I have provided you with.

"But as a political party we must keep all options on the table that aren't diametrically opposed to our objectives. NOT options that are stupid and scandalous and unsustainable, Andi just because they are public transport.  What is politically possible isn't always our ideal scenario but that's just politics - it's messy and imperfect. Most of the time we have to compromise or we get nothing at all. Of course - we could crusade for utopia and be proud of our glorious failure. But we're more interested in making change happen. So don't be preoccupied with getting councillors elected who still don't do much when they are.  So our much vaunted and hoped for Cllr Will, only lasted one term before shooting off on his grand tour of Europe with Vicky.  The Solihull Opposition GP have not lifted a finger to help me because, like you, they want trams as their top priority instead of using the £2 BILLION to get the trains back and reversing the gradual decline in bus use.

At the last count, in Stourbridge in May, did you say something to me about not standing yourself because you were co-ordinating all the other GP candidates who were standing?  Should you not have been leading from the front, Andi and doing the two jobs?  At least, I stood simply to have the opportunity to courageously mutter something, anything green and sensible from the platform.  I would have loved to have heard other GP candidates spout off for one or two minutes, as I tried to do rather lamely last May.  The most important sentence was my last: "You are about to authorise something as silly, for half a billion pounds, as putting London Underground trains for 6.7 Kms on the London to Paris, Eurostar, HS1 line."

The 'brief', parabolic history of humanity must now be on the slide and the prophetic Green Party is silent.  A guilty silence.  Truly disappointing.

"As I've said many times, we support bringing back trains on the Black Country line, but we can't rule out trams or Sprint buses in all circumstances everywhere. But you should as a true green and Green!  It would be unethical to mislead the public about what is possible given the political and financial constraints that exist.  But you are misleading the public.  The financial constraints demand that you understand that fareless, electric, priority at traffic lights, bus lane, buses PLUS, the trains and stations back where the lines still exist is the politically sensible, prudent and the financially responsible thing to do.  NOT FINANCIALLY BRUTAL, FISCAL STINGING, METRO-LIKE TRAMS, ANYWHERE.  My advice gives the least greenhouse gases.  And that is all that matters.

"You are completely free to disagree and campaign for your own vision, if that's what you want to do.

I first stood for the Greens in the 1992 General Election.  In my own constituency of Halesowen and Stourbridge as it was called then.  My agent was the wonderful Quaker and Green activist Joyce Millington of Stourbridge.  For years, she had been rightly calling for fossil fuels to be rationed, as we nearly had in 1973 during the three day working week to save oil.  I completely agreed with her.  It is even more urgent, now that all good Greens and greens should be calling for fossil fuel rationing; that we should be getting out of all fossil fuels as quickly as possible - out of enlightened self interest.  That is what I will be doing if there are any public platforms that I can get on, if I get nominated as an Independent candidate for Metro Mayor next year.

I want the Green Party to be fearless and outspoken.  To be different from the other parties.  To stand out from them with integrity and honour.  To be as different from the grey parties as the awesome Greta Thunberg in sailing instead of flying and, in using buses and trains instead of cars.  PLEASE Andi!

All the very best to you, my friend

Tim

True national hero who has not had to engage in warfare to be a hero.

​

Dear Ian Kirk-Smith - and copied to my war voting MP, James Morris Esq

I drove over to a meeting with Ludlow Quakers last night to hear your outstanding and veteran, national hero, John Lynes speak about the history of the Middle East and its present turbulence.

For 

​one

 decade, John 

​was

 part of Christian Peacemaker Teams, observing and recording man's inhumanity to man.  He explained that such work does have a moderating effect in abating violence.  If these brave men and women are held, they and their spouses have signed that no ransom is to be paid and no rescue launched.

From last night's meeting I have concluded that talking to terrorists is invariably done, sooner or later and that Islamic State, that we call murderous barbarians, akin to Hamas trying to wipe iron clad Israel off the face of the earth with pinpricks on a map, are wanting a caliphate based on the First Caliphate of the 7/8th century.  John said that it was a golden age of Islam, with a level of civilisation well ahead of that of Europe. 

​

 Jews and Christians mostly lived peacefully in Muslim countries, but often had to pay an additional tax.  Before the 18th century, Jews were certainly better treated by Muslims than by Christians.

I was reminded that Islamic State is fighting for a caliphate free from Western interference, and modeled on earlier caliphates.  Perhaps, we can hardly be surprised at that after 100 years of off and on Western military intervention and of British duplicity in the Middle East!

Further, can UK aerial bombing of Islamic State be justified when our Parliament chose to commence air strikes only after two American held hostages were beheaded in retaliation for American bombing of Islamic State?  Free humanitarian gifts from the air for all the refugees would be more in line with the life and teaching of the non-violent Christ of the Gospels whom some Muslims feel that the 'Christian' West should be following.

Finally, when I mentioned to the organiser that I was a visitor, he kindly gave me a copy of the outreach issue of 'The Friend' and invited me to write when I said, "What I would really like is for Quakers to conscientiously abstain from voting for the three main political parties who so love to conduct their crimes of aggression and warfare in the Middle East."  I might also have added that there might be a non-violent Green Party candidate standing, however, that would fit the bill nicely for the ethical voter!

Yours sincerely