PROMPTED BY DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S 'AFRICA' - episode 6 - 'The Future”

His talk of climate change and more difficulties for wildlife and humans provoked incensed, vitriolic  comments on 'The Independent' blog site.

1)  Why do so many contributors use such weird and wonderful names?  Are they so ashamed of what they write that they cannot bear to stand by their comments using their real names?

2)  Why does no-one ever concede a point or even give credit to a valid point made by someone else in the discussion?

3)  Nothing that the climate scientists tell us, ever makes the slightest difference.  We all go our own sweet way, anyway.  We all carry on regardless with our fingers crossed, doing what we want to continue with our ever-rising and unsustainable material standards of living.

4)  Even if the climate scientists are wrong (I hope they are) and James Delingpole IS right about everything (I hope he is), is it not wise to take all the many positive, practical and helpful measures that will leave more finite resources for future generations?  Living more simply so that others may simply live is simply ethical and ecological.

1. The history of the planet is one of constant warming and cooling periods that is perfectly natural and normal. What we, so intelligent and sophisticated and clever humans are doing, is NOT – and, we are part of nature and NOT above it and that is the problem!

2. It seems to have started with the white European races burning and clear felling their forests for farming and building. Now, everyone is doing it. Next, the Europeans started on the fossil fuels – in earnest from the 18^th century – converting carbon into carbon dioxide. Now, everyone is at it. So far, we have got away with it. It may not be for ever, however.

3. Margaret Thatcher, in one of her three major speeches on the environment as Prime Minister, commenting on our industrialisation said, "we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself.”

4.  This not too dissimilar from the more direct, "Either, we get our numbers and our activities into harmony with the powers of the earth to support life or, collapsing eco-systems will do the job for us." In other words, we either live within the rules of the way the planet works or, we get our come-uppance.  We respect and preserve and in harmony with eco-systems (life support systems) or, they collapse and our numbers and activities suffer.  We live within Nature's parameters or, Nature has the last word.

5.  The other unfortunate effect of ripping through our one-off geological inheritance is that we leave nothing for our children and grandchildren who will then be up against it. But, that doesn't matter because it will NEVER happen in OUR lifetime – and that's all that matters!

The potentially rich Falklands are OURS and OURS alone. Good-o!

Is there not a good comparison, here with N Ireland - and our other remnants of Empire?

The clear majority in N Ireland, want to remain in and with the UK and not become part of 

the Republic of Ireland that seems more logical and fair. Until that changes, these two tiny 

remnants of our glorious British Empire will remain for ever British. Just like Gibraltar, too. 

What other lands around the globe belong to us Brits, can someone tell me? All this,

thanks to our invading and occupying forces over the centuries.

"Grab and brag.  Occupy and fortify" - a Victorian sentiment quoted by Jeremy Paxman in  

his BBC TV series on the British Empire.

The Falkland islanders had better not change their mind, now with all the rich mineral 

resources around their islands that us Brits and us Brits, alone can make good use of in 

the years to come.

Our good, great and glorious Empire still has its uses to enrich us, still to this day. What a 

pity that N Ireland and Gibraltar don't have any oil reserves to enrich the homeland!

Tesco, Asda and the High Street

For many decades, some have been prophesying the death of the High Street - first, in the 1970s from too many building societies, then from too many charity shops and, in the last 20 to 30 years, from superstores like Tesco in Stourbridge and Asda in Halesowen.  In the early 1980s we had the rise of Merry Hill Shopping Centre.  In Halesowen, in the last decade, Lidl came and Aldi next to the new Travel Lodge on Earls Way/Whitehall Road.  However, the High Street remains as vibrant as ever, thanks to coffee shops and tea rooms, pound shops and our Farmers Markets in Halesowen and Stourbridge.  The passing of the years has shown that there is room for many small businesses and large superstores in our High Streets up and down the land.

The great thing about Merry Hill, of course, is not the free parking but the enormous car parks that make us get out of our cars and walk for really great distances for those who are normally so wedded and welded to their cars and sofas - no more parking outside the shop you want to pop into and back into the motor and away (except for High Street, Stourbridge that completely destroys my argument!).  All thanks to pedestrianisation and Merry Heaven and the nirvana of economic growth!!

I remember that Oldbury in Sandwell was a real dive in the 1960s and 70s - dilapidated and down at heel until the superstore, Sava Centre heralded the town's revival and transformation.  It, now even has Sandwell MBC's prestigious Council House.

Apartheid sorted; N Ireland sorted; Israel/Palestine sorted when?

Magnificent magnanimity from the South African government led to a peaceful transition from the immoral apartheid state, to majority rule there.

Amazing perseverance from outside politicians and concessions from both sides led to the Good Friday peace agreement and, for many years now, far fewer killings in N Ireland.  Dr Ian Paisley was transformed and even became, almost, best friends with a former IRA commander, Martin Maginnis.  They were even known as the chuckle brothers from all their laughter, such was their similar sense of humour.  Astonishing, astounding but, proves what can be achieved.  Oh, for the miracle of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas becoming benevolent and bosom buddies!

When will Israel and Palestine, similarly get together?  First, actually sit in the same room in the White House and talk about the weather would be a good start!  Let them indulge only in small talk for the first few meetings.  Better, get them to play funny games together, watch romantic comedies, to see the 'Sound of Music' together or 'Cool Runnings'.  Next, when the're all smiling and happy, sit them down to thrash out compromise, concessions and some amazing mutual magnanimity and self sacrifice to bring, at least, an uneasy peace with justice, some kind of harmony between the peoples; even peaceful co-existence and tolerance, if not actual acceptance.

One problem, I think, is right wing thinking that brought us colonialism, empire building by the Western European nations, leading to one of them going one better than imperialism with their Nazism.  The 1945 victors have since defended their 'colonies' and dependencies - called defending their vital strategic interests around the world (or, more domination to bring democracy, freedom and the blessings of Western Christian culture down the barrel of a gun).  Such foreign policy is not about fairness with peace; not about living within our own borders; is not conducive to compromise and land sharing.  Hence, our ally and friend, Israel continues this white man thinking, this Judeo-Christian tradition, with its perpetual right wing, coalition governments that think like the West with disputes settled by coercion and military might is right - always first and last and only.  Thus, Prime Minister Netanyahu ups the anti with his tendency for a "belligerent stance",  "warmongering rhetoric", and "messianic impulse" (Yuval Diskin, former head of the Israel Security Agency, aka Shin Bet; former Mossad chief Meir Dagan,^[124] and the RAND Corporation in the US.  Taken from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu)

Another problem is that the fundamentalist, evangelical Christians in both Israel and the USA/UK want biblical prophecy quickly fulfilled, Armageddon and the return of Christ to wind things up and themselves taken to be with the Lord for eternity.

"The Jews were the first victims of the Nazis and the Palestinians are the last."  Peter Ustinov

"We either live together as brothers and sisters of the one human family on this one and only planet or, we perish as fools." So far, the latter is looming. But the true, born again believers have nothing to worry about because they will be taken up to be with the Lord!

The UK Independence from America and Israel Party

It seems to me that we get into such a lather about being ruled by Europe and losing our sovereignty that we are already semi-detached from them and much more in union with America and Israel.  For years, we have been fully attached to the United States of Aggression and their well funded and supported, 52nd state, Israel.  The UK is the officially unrecognised 51st state with our special relationship, our common language, films, Christian faith and strong kinship with Israel and the Jews; and, of course, our solid support for every war our American friends fight after they fought and won for us (with the Russians) the 2nd World War.  We still sent armaments to the US during the sixteen years of the Vietnam War, although not troops that time.

One 'Thought for the Day' contributor (on Radio 4's 'Today') said we have attacked or bombed or occupied 23 countries since the end of the 2nd World War.  Caroline Lucas MP related part of the full list on 'Any Questions' and not one other panelist disagreed with her.  If our friend and ally, Israel is included, it is even more than this, of course.  Leonie and Emily, Yr 11 pupils at Lambeth Academy, seemed to think that the UK in its time, had NOT invaded only 22 out of nearly 200 countries in the world!!  (Radio 4's 'BH' on 20 January 2013 in an amusing piece called 'Teenagers Fight Back')

After all that, not surprisingly, the White House would like us to stay in the EU to continue to represent the Anglo-American world view and to keep Europe on side (the US/UK side). ‘Today’ 10 Jan 2013

The European Courts of Justice and of Human Rights, alone makes our membership of the European Union worthwhile.  Officially leave the EU and we lose them both.

Europe has a transport system that is much better than ours.  We would do well to learn how they do their superb railway system, instead of ours being like the poor American rail network.  Chief Executive of Network Rail, Sir David Higgins said on 'Today' on the 8 January 2013, "We still have a Victorian rail network ... we have 500 Victorian signal boxes."  The McNulty Report of 2010 stated that our rail costs are 40% higher than four European nations; a shocking statistic that came out in the same interview.

In Birmingham and the Black Country, we have 38 miles of unused and underused double track rail lines around our own New Street Station that is the UK's no 1 rail congestion bottleneck!  Yet again, we model ourselves on America instead of Europe and get into such a state about being members of Europe.  This is all complete madness yet, we have no insight into our insanity!

Let those four European countries run our rail network to bring it up to their standard of excellence.  It does not mean being ruled by them but having the humility to be shown how to do things better by Europe and not by our good friends in America.

All this shows that we need more union with Europe, not less!  Let us distance ourselves from America's bad examples and learn from our immediate neighbour, Europe.

We have to be honest and face up to these 9 observations on the Faith!

God is wrong in having 'Rules for Waging Holy War' in Deuteronomy 20 v 1-20.

He is mistaken about homosexuality being immoral.  I believe I am right in saying that Christians, Muslims and Jews did nothing about changing the law to prevent homosexuals being imprisoned.  Now, all of them accept the new law without a murmur of dissent being heard.  Homosexuality is not unheard of in the animal kingdom, of which we are part, as the human animal.

God shows favouritism in having one nation out of 193 nations as his one and only Chosen, Special and No 1 nation who is the apple of His eye (Israel).  For the surrounding Arab nations, Israel is seen as part of the all powerful, all domineering, War of Terrorism Western powers.  The West is noted for its centuries of Christianity and, unfortunately, its Scriptures command the faithful to pray only for the peace of Jerusalem - certainly NOT Mecca or any other city!  Thus Israel is identified even here, with the West in the heart of the Arab and Muslim Middle East.

God has missed out the most obvious and much needed command that should be the first and foremost viz: "Thou shalt embrace non-violence and never embark on attack, aggression and dominating other countries." The last one, domination, in defiance of temptation 3 that Jesus rightly rejected.

The Lord's Commandment no 6 is not strong enough with "Thou shalt not murder."  It let the people of Israel off the hook to allow them to wipe out the inhabitants of the holy land - the land that God promised them and them alone - as now.  Hence, we have in the Bible how the people rejoiced that, "King Saul has slain his thousands but David his tens of thousands."  No wonder the modern people of Israel are so ready to attack their neighbours, of course in self defence and, so desperate not to kill women and children.  However, Israel always seems to end up killing many more of them than their enemy kill Israelis. Over ten times more in both the November 2012 attack on Gaza and the 2008/2009 war on Gaza when 1,400 Palestinians, unfortunately and quite unintentionally, of course, ended up dead.

All God-fearing Jews, Christians and Muslims should see this behaviour, above as morally deviant.  Perversely and shamefully they do not, viewing instead, homosexuality as being morally deviant.

God is wrong in having Kings and Queens over past centuries who all appointed themselves as having the authority and power of God on earth; together with Presidents and Prime Ministers down the years.  Two of them, since 7 October 2001 with the War of Terrorism, who both believed they were doing God's will in attacking first Afghanistan on 10/7 (2001) and then Iraq in March 2003.

God is prejudiced in disallowing women from positions of leadership in His church.  Yet, His Son was forgiving, compassionate and sympathetic to women - even those caught in adultery and, prostitutes, too.

It is unacceptable for God to promise one nation, Israel all the land from the cedars of Lebanon in the north to the deserts of Sinai in the south; from the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west (Joshua 1 v 4).  It all the more encourages that nation's expansionist tendencies, the growth of illegal settlements on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem; and, the flouting of UN resolutions.

Skyfall-ing in

The most spectacular and the most impossible to nod off Bond film ever.  In the process, perhaps, the film with the world's worst driving!

'Skyfall' underlines the status quo, so that the next generation is brought up 'right'.  It passes on our society's established values, attitudes and beliefs, over recent centuries, that are not the most worthy - of getting our way by coercion, force and, astonishingly, the slaughter of the innocents (this latter is not in the Bond films).

I think the films reinforce our Western predilection for such things that has been at the heart of too much European life for centuries of going out to conquer and dominate other countries.  All this, even after the Europeans' world wars that finally brought them up short to unite in peace between themselves.  Such a pity that the European's non-violence between themselves did not spread to leaving other countries well alone, too.

We had twenty children killed in Connecticut a few days ago;
twenty thousand children in our 13 years War of Terrorism;
even, many more than that, in the War on Communism in SE Asia between 1945 and 1975.
The Bond films nurture our Western ways for such things, to ensure they are passed on to the next and succeeding generations.  The general media message is: enemies are essential but, making and keeping friends with those who do things differently from us - other cultures, religious beliefs, political systems and traditions - is not so essential.

The film glorifies and promotes behaviour that we are not meant to indulge in - from speeding over roof tops breaking every imaginable speed limit, even sending old ladies flying on pedestrian crossings, to blowing up a beautiful old and isolated Scottish mansion.  It also continues the silent, imperceptible, so easily absorbed indoctrination of us all that we have very dangerous enemies of the State and that attack, aggression and violence is the only way - to get them before they get us.  Therefore, we cannot possibly abandon our love affair with guns and grenades, rifles and bombs - even when the sky falls in on the New England families of the latest killings.  We are subconsciously inculcated with this drivel via entertainment, of which fifty years of Bond is the most popular.

 It is totally incomprehensible for us that our invading, attacking and occupying of other countries might make them so ungrateful that they turn into our enemies and try and hit back.  Indeed, quite outrageous for them wanting to harm us.  We can't have them defending their lands and resources from us.  Or, of letting them be so un-Christian (or un-Muslim) as to show revenge on us.

Never mind - "Man is God's greatest work."  (Sister Wendy Beckett on Desert Island Discs 16.12.2012.)  She could not possibly have meant the nation's greatest role model.  Could she?  What does Sister Wendy make of 007?

Uncomfortable home truths?

APHORISMS galore:

It is widely considered, it is universal, orthodox thinking, that we can go on expanding our numbers and activities on a planet that is not expanding.

We are living infinitely on a finite planet.

We are living unnaturally on a natural planet.

We are living for economic growth and population growth.

We are living beyond our means, our limits and our boundaries.

We have a live it up today and to hell with tomorrow mentality.

We are living today to come a cropper tomorrow!

What we take today, we don't have tomorrow.

We are liquidising our assets; living off capital as if its income.

Expansion economics from a diminishing capital resource base!

Economic growth is ecological retraction as the chickens eventually come home to roost.

Wealth creation is actually poverty creation.

There's no material gain without pain - eventually!

What goes up must come down - never ending wealth from economic and population growth must be living in cloud cuckoo land.  It must, eventually, lead to economic bust and population crash.

What takes an age for us, goes in the twinkling of an eye in the geological time scale of the earth.

Never before has the poor planet seen such an unnatural explosion of greenhouse gases, as the lot of us burn up the fossil fuels in 300 years that the earth took 300 million years to form.  Thus, the Lady must be right with this:

"We are embarked on a massive experiment with the very life support systems of the earth itself."  Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher (the most honourable thing she ever said!)

The Wild, White, Western Powers!

The West's world wars, after centuries of the European countries dominating everyone else, was the (not so grand) climax of centuries of warfare by and between these Christian, white, European nations.  The 2nd World War was the zenith, the high point (actually, of course, nadir or low point) of centuries of discrimination, persecution and hatred of the Jews, not by Muslims but by the Christian, white, European nations.

Questions for author and speaker, Kevin who was much taken by our victory in the battle of El Alamein as what prevented the Nazis from invading occupying what was then Palestine:-
From Christ's temptations, how would you conclude was His teaching on dominating other countries? From the Sermon on the Mount, how would you conclude was His teaching on warfare?

For President George Bush Jnr, the prophet Mohammed's teaching was "good and peaceful". What a pity that the President's actions, for all the many years after the 7 October 2001 when he launched his War of Terrorism, was the exact opposite of being "good and peaceful".

The exact opposite of "good and peaceful" was the hallmark of the first half of the 20th century and the second half was not much better - thanks to a string of American Presidents and European Prime Ministers, voted in by us!  A century of bloodshed and of white inspired conflicts.  It saw our wars (directly armed or in direct engagement), continuing on (almost immediately from 1945) in SE Asia and the Middle East.  It also very nearly saw a nuclear exchange between the two white, super powers over missiles both had installed - first, the Americans in Turkey on the Russian's doorstep and then, the Russians followed in Cuba on America's doorstep.

For Israel, attack is the best form of defence

Israel only ever tries violence, terrorism and targeted assassination as the best forms of defence.

The nation was born in 1948 out of Israeli violence and terrorism against the British.  Terrorism was rewarded and its attacks and aggression on its neighbouring countries since then hardly endeared it to those nations.  An Israeli promotional film, I recently saw at church, actually admitted it was surrounded by enemies, as if this was something to be proud of rather than ashamed of, as a sign of failure.

After 64 years, I would have thought Israel would have tried a different strategy to win friends and influence people - even if this was only out of sheer self-interest to improve its security and future prospects.  But, then, it is an outpost of what the Palestinians see as the loathed USA/West in the very heart of the Arab/Muslim Middle East.  So, what more can one expect from Israel/USA/UK than continued warfare to ratchet up the hatred, to never bring peace with justice for either Israel or Palestine?

We must always remember our dead and never ...

... those they killed for democracy, freedom and prosperity.

For me, the wearing of the red poppy is a mark that the wearer supports the shedding of innocent blood in far off lands AND by our military, too.  All this is done to maintain OUR freedom, our wealth and democracy.  Done to maintain the defence of the realm; the defence of OUR  realm!  Instead, give the poor beggars who are denied our democracy and decency, better housing, warmth and clothing - NOT drone attacks and the provocative presence of foreign soldiers!

Remembrance should be about reflecting on the continuing popularity for war to get our way around the world.  Why are we such a leading exponent of violence on other nations' soils?  Only those who themselves get killed in the process are honoured as having made the ultimate sacrifice, as having truly served their nation and been the real heroes.  What about the rest of us who advocate non-violence and abiding by international law and UN resolutions?

We only honour those who died fighting for our country, not those who died at our hands defending their country from us, their invaders and occupiers.

The poppy to mark all the blood we have shed.

The poppy is a symbol of how precious war is to us.

The poppy is the mark of how the wearer does as he is told and gladly supports the shedding of blood when their unrighteous government tells them to do so.

"But its OUR land, not yours!"

OPEN LETTER TO RUTH JACOB, who showed the film on Israel at our church in September.

So say both the Palestinians and the Israelis.  Both are wrong and both are right.  Both can't compromise.  "The Israeli/Palestinian congflict is not black and white.  "Both are the good guys and the bad guys ... (this is) a clash between wrong and wrong ... a tragic clash between right and right ... (neither) pro Palestine nor pro Isarel but pro peace." said Amos Oz on 'Start the Week' on 5 November 2012.  Both will not share with the other, so both suffer and have less than the best - especially the Palestinians who are under the cosh, dominated and controlled.

Do you believe that the greater boundary of the Promised Land (Joshua 1 v 4) is a legitimate ambition for Israel once all of Judea and Samaria falls into its hands?

Why do you think Israel is surrounded by enemies?  Is this really something to be seen as a badge of honour, as the film seemed to think?  For many evangelical Christians, Israel is likened to God.  Israel is hated by the surrounding countries because as Jesus said,  "As they hated me, so they will hate you."  The very hatred for Israel by all its surrounding countries shows how Biblical prophecy is being fulfilled and is proof that God is slowly but surely working His purposes out in the Middle East for His greater glory.

Self defence against intermittent/interminable rockets coming over the border turns out, from time to time, to be an all out, large-scale military attack, invasion and re-occupation of Gaza, as we saw in Dec 2008 to January 2009.  Is that fair enough?

Do you want a state for Palestine, provided it is Gaza and it is Judea and Samaria that officially become part of Israel, along with East Jerusalem?

It seems to me, that evangelical Christians, like those who saw the film on Israel at Hasbury Christian Fellowship in September, back Israel every step of the way.  They do so as part of their work to help God give all the land, promised to only Israel and not to the Arabs, from the cedars of Lebanon in the north to the deserts of Sinai in the south and, from the great river Euphrates in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west (Joshua 1 v 4).  Evangelical Christians do so to make sure that Bible prophecy is fulfilled.  Only in this way is Armageddon (the end of the world) and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus hastened.

In other words, the solid Christian support for Jews and Israel, come what may, has an ulterior motive - to boost their own cause, to hasten the end of the world and, to turn Jews and Israelis into born again Christians, like themselves!

Hurricane Sandy - stereotypical thoughts

The planet and its life support have never before seen such an onslaught from humans and their greenhouse gases upsetting the natural order of things.  Thus, I think, we get our come uppance as payback time gets ever nearer.  It creeps up on us as we determinedly carry on regardless, in our mad mad world, with our fingers crossed.  We think we can get away with it for ever.  Living infinitely on a finite planet.  Living unnaturally on a natural planet.  Pretty foolish - and damn stupid, actually!

Alternative way of putting the same thoughts:

The planet and its life support systems have never before had humans on its surface in such an enormous and ever increasing number; AND, so resolutely and so enthusiastically  pouring out ever rising quantities of greenhouse gases - so dangerously; and, eventually, to screw up what is meant to be the protective and life giving greenhouse blanket round the planet.  The planet has never before seen human emissions of greenhouse gases.  What a terrible shock for the system!  The planet will carry on serenely.  We humans will not.

No wonder Nature is hitting back and giving us our come uppance!

Whatever the actual rise in temperature, what seems obvious is that our unprecedented burning up of every ton of fossil fuel we can lay our hands on is bound to have an effect.  It's called the enhanced greenhouse effect - not quite what we want!

"Either, we get our numbers and our activities in harmony with the powers of the earth to support life or, collapsing eco-systems will do the job for us."    Green Party manifesto from many years ago.

The problem of Israel - an outpost of the loathed USA

The problems that I have with Israel are these:

As last night's film showed, it is a mirror copy of the West, in particular the USA from whom it gets so much funding and enthusiastic support from the powerful Israeli lobby in the corridors of power.  There are many US companies in tiny Israel.  I feel the UK is the 51st state of the US and Israel is the 52nd.  Both countries are swift to carry out the wishes of
the USA in the Middle East.  As a result, both the UK and Israel incur the wrath of the vast majority of the populations of the Middle East who are horrified by the West's and Israel's attack, invasion and occupation of first Afghanistan from 7 October 2001 and then Iraq from the 19 March 2003.  I include Israel with the West and NATO because, as I say, it looks and feels like a very powerful Western nation.  They even speak the most impeccable English, too!

While Israel continues, by its own tragic admission in last night's film, to be "surrounded by enemies", it is a failed state.  It can make the desert bloom but it cannot turn enemies into friends.  It cannot turn the victim mentality of the Palestinians into bosom buddies.  "It is more blessed to give than to receive" is beyond its comprehension.  It simply takes yet more land in the West Bank for itself, feeling that is fair enough when it gave up Gaza.  But that was without the agreement of any Palestinian.  And what was left behind was razed to the ground to prevent the hated Palestinians from benefiting in any way!

In addition, the abysmal track record of who does the most killings puts Israel at the top of the league.  Its might is right, shoot first ask questions later tactic means it simply ratchets up the loathing.  The occasional extra-judicial killings by Mosad don't exactly help, either.  Those of us who want to be proud of Israel, continue to observe their answer of aggression to every problem, in utter amazement at such a foolish and counter-productive policy.  For them, it is always war, war and never jaw, jaw.  Lots of military aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinians but not lots of talking or acts of sacrificial giving or sharing of the land.  Now, threats against Iran to wipe their nuclear installations off the face of the earth.  No balance of terror is allowed by Israel; only they are allowed to place Iran and Syria under the threat of nuclear annihilation, with the blessing of the USA.  All their wars have got them absolutely nowhere.  It has not given them the peace and security that other Western nations enjoy.  Israel and the West are not respected by so many in the Arab world.

Yet, knowing all of this, many evangelical Christians look upon Israel as the apple of God's eye.  It doesn't say much for God!

"I'm glad I'm not a woman or a homosexual in a Muslim country!"

Such was the comment of one pro-Israel Christian and friend of mine in a church meeting.  

It sounded as though he was pitying women who have the misfortune to be born a Muslim.  Unfortunately, I think that leads to some trying to improve their lot by bringing our own Western culture and true religion to them in their darkness.  They don't know any better but, rejoice - good news - we do!  We can help them on the road to enlightenment and freedom and appreciation of how the West does all things best.

Was he not overlooking how we each regard our own way of life as superior and the best.  Muslims regard the Christian West as being decadent and degenerate.  They don't want to be pitied or looked down on.  Just left alone, I think.

I do find it ironic (to put it gently) that a Western Christian should be so sorry for Muslim women when, for most of its life, women have been very much second class citizens in and out of the Church.  Only in more recent years, after 2,000 years, have women finally been allowed to take some leadership roles but, only in the Protestant churches.  Only since the Second World War were women awarded degrees in the UK!

Only in 1967, did we decriminalise homosexuality and it was no longer lawful to imprison them for homosexual acts.  The evangelical Church did nothing to bring about this reform.  At least, the churches followed secular society by welcoming the homosexual but, not what they see as the homosexual sin, nor allowing them into any influential position in their fellowships.

Islam and Christianity are similar in some of their beliefs - especially on women and homosexuality.  Both Muslims and Christians are children of Abraham, have Jesus Christ as a major prophet (Islam) or as fully divine and fully human (Christianity) and, both are very strong on having the one, true God.  Both faiths are patriarchal, are obstacles to championing women's rights and, certainly (but not my church), remain obstacles to women equality in church leadership roles.

All this yet, my friend and Christian is so glad that he is not a woman or a homosexual in a Muslim country.  He should be mighty glad he is not a woman or a homosexual in the UK!

Israel or the USA or the Church?

Is it Israel or the USA that is the apple of God's eye?

How can you have a God of justice and equality having one Chosen Nation, Israel, only and, then putting that nation on a pedestal above all others as the apple of His eye?

Is he not meant to be the God of all the nations? Or, perhaps, he is the God of none of them.
And, supposedly, along with Israel, He is God of one of the most military powerful and economically one of the strongest nations in the world - the USA. This is the exact opposite of what the Founder of this most Christian of all nations intended, from what we know of His life and teachings. Therefore, it is not Israel, the Chosen Nation that is the top dog amongst all the nations of the world but the USA that is. In addition, it claims that it is the City set on a hill, to give a light to all the Jews and gentiles and is the salt of the earth. It is called manifest destiny. It is the USA that claims to be especially blessed of the Lord and has a special place in God's heart. Yet, it is these same Christians who so highly regard Israel as especially favoured of God.

Is Israel the Lord's Chosen Nation or is it the USA or, as in replacement theology, is it the Christian Church?
God must have two or even three Chosen Nations on whom he heaps all His favours and blessings - at the expense of the rest.

Delicious Poetic Justice

"Our empire was an amazing thing" Daily Telegraph headline, quoting from a piece, under the title, written by Jeremy Paxman (16 Feb 2012)


The article begins,
"The history of the British empire is full of amazing stories of adventure, of war, of greed and plunder, cruelty and courage, heroism and low cunning."  I think, this is exactly, what our unethical foreign policy has resulted in since we reluctantly found our empire was declining and enthusiastically threw in our lot with the USA empire!  Paxman's sentence must still apply to us when one 'Today' programme 'Thought for the Day' contributor announced that our nation had bombed or invaded 23 nations since 1945; Libya being the 23rd.


The very people who were and are most vocal in support for our glorious and mighty empire, are the very people who are most distressed at seeing foreigners on our streets.  One was my Uncle Robin who worked for Barclays in Durban, South Africa in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.  He was surprised (and appeared to disapprove) at the increasing number of black people he saw in the UK whenever he returned to the homeland.


In other words, we can colonise and populate and exploit their lands but we don't like it one little bit when they legally and peacefully (unlike us!) come and live in our land.  The boot is now on the other foot.


"Grab and brag; occupy and fortify."  A common Victorian sentiment, quoted by Paxman, about our 19th century pre-occupation of Britannia for ever ruling the waves - not just for a thousand years, like one western European nation once wanted.  So we have our so morally upright, virtuous and Christian nation gladly bowing down and worshipping the devil when the Founder of their religion roundly rejected that same temptation.


'Perfidious Albion' as someone described the UK.  Along with our foreign policy remaining hypocritical and profoundly unethical.  Robin Cook MP was the first Foreign Secretary, when he was in that position, to state that he was working towards a more ethical foreign policy.

Only Half Responsible!!

Linda and I would like to welcome you all to the reception and to thank you
for coming.

We would like to welcome Tim to my family, even though he nearly finished
Becky and me off for good with a fancy piece of footwork on one occasion.
We were in the Cuillin Hills ...
That was on our very first day climbing in the Cuillin.  Later, in the
week, he redeemed himself by belaying the three of us as we abseiled off
the Inn Pin.
He is a great outdoors man, like me.  His mum and dad must have named him
after me!!  My love of the great outdoors has rubbed off onto Becky and my
son, Jonathan.
Becky, like husband Tim is a great rock climber and mountaineer but is even
more of a cyclist than young Tim.  She hasn't worked her magic on this Tim
fully as regards cyclo-sportive events but, did on me without wanting to
got me into long distance cycling events that bridesmaid, Charlie got her
into.

So Becky and Tim are well matched.  But, one or two warnings for Tim about
what this young lady gets up to - if he hasn't already sussed her out.

  as a small girl, she had a mischievous streak - my black corduroy cap
  she hid and I never saw it again.  The watch she also smuggled away to
  some hiding place or other she did find, again and so I got that back.
  She would tie grandad's laces together when he was having forty winks.
  So watch out , Tim in your old age!  She would regularly hide her shoes
  to get out of coming home from grandmas.  So if things go missing Tim,
  you know why.  She would hide in the kitchen cupboard with the tins when
  she heard me come home from work.
  Becky was a great explorer - not just hiding but climbing trees, making
  dens and with the other girls of Hunnington Cres banding together into
  the Explorers Club.
  Thanks to Becky's heart for exploration and going on holiday to central
  America, the medical profession in Aber is now much wiser on tropical
  diseases, due to her becoming the unwitting host for a Bot fly larva and
  the resulting baby Bot fly.
  Part of her exploring was to find out why certain ingredients were
  needed in cake making by missing them out.   She missed out eggs and
  they came out like biscuits.  She experimented with food colouring to
  make them look much, much more interesting.  A creative streak, indeed.
  As a result, she is an excellent cook and cake maker.   Good move,
  Becky!
  Such was her exploring tendencies, she found the tiny pond in thick
  cloud below the summit on my favourite mountain in Wales, rather than
  the massive lake fifty feet below the summit that I wanted her to take
  me to.
  On Boxing Day 2010, Becky and I attempted to summit a major 900 metre
  hill in Snowdonia NP.  Despite the deep, soft snow she gallantly, took
  the lead, in trail blazing or, rather floundering on and up through the
  all too rare but truly magical conditions.

Anyway, I am only half responsible for my dghtr turning out like she has.
So only half an apology is due to you, Tim!!  In fact, you are totally
responsible for her now, Tim jnr.  I have finally got her married off to a
truly wonderful, practical, helpful son in law of mine - and a superb
mountaineer.  What an achievement!!!

Longest ford ever; broken bikes, and sea spewing spray, foam and froth

We loved the way you are modernising the flat, although it seemed fine the way you now have it.  The first floor gives you great views from the lounge window without too many stairs to climb.  It was fascinating to watch the crashing seas, the explosion as water hit rock, the mass of white water shooting up and the plume of spray like smoke then being blown way over the headland to the right.  A few years ago, I sat in the car, for ages, watching a similar scene on the glorious coast road near Durness.  This is the very furthest northern road on mainland Scotland.  I was waiting for the gale force N wind to abate - again one April - to climb the nearby Foinaven, a very high and very long Corbett, with four summits and one of the very best Scottish mountains.

We cycled every day except Wednesday, after my front brake cable broke on the way back on the Camel Trail.  On Friday, cycling near Trerice, Linda's rear axle broke and I had to get the car to execute a smart cycle rescue and recovery!  The first time I have ever had an axle break with any of my bikes.

You were certainly right about Carnewas.  Excellent food and a main course £2 cheaper than what we paid the next day on our way home at the Huntsman's Inn in the village of Ide, three miles from Exeter.  Ide has the longest ford I have ever seen that is signed as a ford but where cars and motorbikes are prohibited!  So what is the point of the thing?  The ford is a great length of river in front of the footway and a row of cottages.  I suppose it is meant for farm tractors only.  It is deep at one point.  Do you know it, Gordon?

Eating at Carnewas needs cash only and lunches stop at 3pm.  I very neatly penned that on your Explorer map, without obscuring anything important, for future borrowers of the map.  I hope you don't mind!  Linda and I rustled up £12 in coins for two main courses, with only 20p left and the lovely lady serving us very kindly gave us two big mugs of coffee for free.  For that Saturday trip, Linda hired a brand new Claud Butler mountain bike that was too small for her from the House of Fun in Fore Street, Newquay!  The bike, on the return trip, behaved so badly that we thought we should return it to the House of Horrors.

Dan Woolnough's best man speech

Good afternoon ladies and gentleman I hope that you are enjoying what has been a brilliant wedding and celebration today......and many congratulations to Becky and Tim on this very special day.

Thank you to everyone for attending and on behalf of everyone here thank you to both Tims and Linda for excellent speeches and thank you to the bridesmaids Caroline, Charlie, Ella and Emily for all their hard work today. I must say that the bridesmaids look amazing and are only outshone by the beautiful bride who looks absolutely stunning in her wedding dress. [-mentioned 'beautiful' Ushers John and Rob-]

Please now join me in a round of applause. --CLAP--

I have met most of you already but for those of you who do not know me, I'm Dan and have the honour of being Best Man. I met Tim whilst at Aberystwyth University and we became great friends with our shared interest in outdoor pursuits. We lived in the same flat and have spent a considerable amount of time climbing together.

Having known Tim for almost a decade and from the bits I can remember I can definitely say that Tim has a strong-willed and kind character with a positive genuine outlook on life.

Tim also has many hidden talents, he has both musical and poetic sides playing the harmonica and fiddle, and has been known to write the odd poem when the occasion demands.

Tim is often a vital ingredient to a good occasion and partial to fancy dress on a night out. The costumes you may be interested to know have included a robot, a Red Indian, a lion and sparkling pink Lycra amongst others.

I could talk for some considerable time about what Tim got up to at university and in the intervening years.

However there is one memorable event that springs to mind prior to graduation in 2007. Tim, his brother Basil and I purchased a beach dingy and we attempted to paddle in one afternoon 20 miles along the River Ystwyth back to Aberystwyth. Little did we realise the epic the trip would become. We braved rapids without life jackets, narrowly avoided a huge waterfall only by hanging onto a rotten tree branch and later returned home in the dark and soaking wet. We never actually reached the end of the river despite our greatest endeavours but it was a thoroughly exciting and enjoyable adventure and a typical Tim Willson idea.

Now to Tim and Becky. It was of course at Aberystwyth University that they first met in March 2006. As you all know one of Tim's passions is the outdoors, this includes climbing, walking, running, mountain marathons and cycling. At Aberystwyth Tim was a member of both the AMC [-Aberystwyth Mountaineering Club-] and the AWC [-Aberystwyth Walking Club-]. He regularly led walking groups on the weekends. I am told from some of the victims that these walks were long and arduous and after Tim's Stag Do walk I can confirm this to be the case. [-mentioned Greg-]

But something certainly went right and Tim and Becky's relationship proceeded to blossom. This has arguably led to Tim's greatest achievement to date....marrying Becky.

I asked Tim what he thought Becky saw in him when they first met and rather modestly he said she was no doubt “entranced by his clothing, his riches, his wit and his intelligence”. I will let you all decide whether this is the case amongst yourselves.

As I'm sure you are aware Tim and Becky prior to becoming engaged had been an 'item' for some years and the question of when they would become engaged had been hanging around. As some of you will know proposals are a dangerous business and can hang by a thread. I am reliably informed that Tim proposed whilst rock climbing.........so you may ask whether Becky could refuse.........no doubt positioned at the end of a rope and dangling over a huge precipice somewhere in North Wales.

Having known Tim and Becky for so long I am sure of their love for one another and the lengths each will go to, to make the other happy. It only takes a moment to see that Tim and Becky are sweet and affectionate to one another and that these qualities will remain throughout the rest of their lives as they embark on their marriage.

I wish a happy marriage, a successful move into their new home and a fantastic Honeymoon trekking in Nepal, which starts on Friday.

Now Ladies and Gentlemen I am sure you will all agree this has been a brilliant wedding and a wonderful occasion......please ensure you have full glasses and raise your glasses for a toast, to our hosts Tim and Linda for putting so much hard work into today.......to Tim and Linda.

Finally please now raise your glasses for a toast to the new Mr and Mrs Willson and their happy marriage.......to Tim and Becky.