The Western Rail Bypass of train congested Birmingham

I attended my first Railfuture national conference on Saturday 7 November in Bristol.

Steve Wright, Secretary of Railfuture West Midlands, suggested a semi-fast rail service on the Black Country Line for the 38 Km from Stourbridge to Lichfield and a further 36 Km on the present freight only line from Lichfield direct to Derby, instead of passengers having to go via Tamworth.  Those 74 Km (over a 100 Km from Worcester) could, perhaps, take Euro-style, sleek, white, ICE trains.  Brilliant! In the meantime, diesel trains from lines finally electrified might be used.  Therefore, cheaper, simpler and easier to achieve than the new mode, tram-train.

It would be the first rail project in Dudley and Walsall for over 100 years, after decades of the total destruction of the tram network, then destruction of half the rail network.  This was followed by the construction (at least 1 Km on a rail line) of fast roads and motorways quickly delivered, one after the other and, over very many miles.

After very many years of asking, Dudley borough on the shortest branch line in the UK, was eventually allowed to have the much more sensible Parry People Mover taking over from a DMU that had to travel over from the other side of Brum every morning and back in the evening!

Re-learn the wisdom of our forebears of putting trains where the people live and work.

The Black Country Line gives us the choice of a train into Brum from Dudley or a train as a direct service to the south or north of the UK. The new line bypasses Birmingham Grand Central and Wolverhampton but with a link to both by changing at Dudley Port on the WCML.

Stop the bypassing of the Black Country with Brum getting all the light rail and heavy rail projects.

MOVE IT!

Over 100 years, Western influence in the Far East, Middle East and in parts of South and Central America has been so malign that I think we need to

• Move out of the Middle East, where our 100 years of military intervention and unappreciated influence has not gone down well;
• move away from the War of Terrorism;
• move out of the War industry that gives us such good economic growth and prosperity but, where our armaments, weapons and military intervention kill the people of the Middle East and are used against our own heroes of the armed services.
• Move away from world leaders and governments being overthrown by our American led coalition.
• Move towards greater toleration and humility in listening to and accepting the majority decisions of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
• Move out of attacking other countries or deposing their governments, unless we have a 60 to 40 majority of General Assembly members.
• Move away from revenge foreign policy;
• away from drone kill as many as possible that also means mistakes are made and many innocents (non-fighters) get wiped off the face of the earth;
• away from shoot to kill policy, to shoot to maim to bring them to trial, unless your life is in imminent danger when the Police have always been allowed to shoot to protect themselves.
• Move away from military strength on the world stage, to moral strength on the world stage.
• Move away from our continuous at sea, never stop threatening to wipe out much of humanity with our wonderful Weapons of Mass Destruction deterrent.

A righteous foreign policy of constant killing and military intervention on foreign soil, in every year, for 101 years!

JUST KILL THE LOT OF THEM FOREIGN POLICY AND BE DONE WITH IT, YOU WIMP CORBYN.  No need to bother with the judiciary or any law apart from our victor's Law of the Jungle.  Of course, WE are untouchable.  (I am caricaturing right wing politics)

Today it has been announced that the murderer of our Western hostages in Muslim majority countries has been drone killed to keep the streets of Britain safe.  Yet, Islamic State rose to power out of the invasion of white armed forces, with the occupation of, and warfare on, Muslim majority countries.

The white, Western powers have been involved in the Middle East to ensure their supplies of oil, originally for their warships and war planes, for 100 years.  The War of Terrorism from 7 October 2001 in Muslim majority countries to the present day has been particularly provocative for some Muslims.  Now, their beheadings of Westerners and a Japanese man in the desert and their intention to bring about another Caliphate in Iraq/Syria has been equally provocative and unacceptable to the 'Christian' Westerners of NATO.  Hence, the killings must continue until Islamic State is eradicated - like the eradication of Communism, Nazism, Fascism and, before that, of German imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  After all, we can't have any rival upstart threatening our power and influence over the world.  And, of course, we only kill the individuals who pose a direct threat to us from 3,000 miles away - like Emwazi, shot to kill today, and threats from Saddam and his WMD in Iraq for all those years that Saddam was about to wipe us out before we finally did something.

Only the West knows Best and don't you forget it.

To be deadly serious, Corbyn is NOT a warrior, NOT a warmonger .  He does NOT believe in upping the violence to turn friends into enemies and, then, with more retaliation from our side, making even more ferocious enemies.

Extravagance for London, Scotland and Brum; austerity for Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall

Dear Laura and Cllr Roger

My subject heading, above is, for me, one example of one legitimate meaning of corruption.

If I may be so honest as to say so, there is this one big flaw in your argument:-

Money is no object for rail projects for London (£15 billion for Cross Rail east-west and now Cross Rail north-south in the planning at similar expense), two very expensive HS2 stations for Birmingham and tram extensions for Brum at over £100 million per mile, to end up replacing hybrid buses.  In other words, business cases are quickly written to make the business cases watertight, unassailable and more secure than Fort Knox - as we have seen with the £50 billion HS2 line - and, the very low priority rail line to the middle of nowhere in rural,depopulated southern Scotland at £10 million per mile.

Business cases are dishonest because they are always made to come up with what the right wing political masters want!  Like the cost benefit analysis that made the Kidderminster, Blakedown, Hagley motorway bypass essential to be built in the 1990s to bypass a mainly rural, dual carriageway and queues at traffic lights in Hagley (we stopped this wasteful idiocy).  So much for it being essential!

Like the business case that made Metro One essential because it would get 15 million passenger journeys a year.  It turned out to be five million every year or less and, been loss making every year ever since.  In other words, it was built under false pretences - corruption in my book.  So much for honest and accurate business cases.

In this age of supposed austerity (now in year six), you and Roger should be livid at the following weird and wonderful and very extravagant public expenditure schemes that go to London and Scotland, with crumbs from the rich man's table going to Birmingham and never the Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.  This, in 34 years of fruitless endeavour that must have cost millions of pounds in salaries to the team of officers and, in generous expenses to the many PTA, ITA and the Transport Delivery Committee councillors.  This is all the exact opposite of Gordon Brown's prudent economics for the poor taxpayer.  It is what you get with right wing politicians out of control because there is no checks and balances from left wing politicians like me who never get elected - until, extraordinarily, one did on Saturday, 12 September!

For me, this is all corrupt economics and nothing like living with our means, limits and boundaries of steady state green economics.

In addition, passenger numbers on our urban rail network is increasing.  The demand is clearly there for more rail lines in the rail and road congested Black Country.  More capacity is urgent.  It cannot wait until the 2040s before you work on getting diesel (or better, electric) trains on the Black Country Line.

How to build a railway:

This is how it is done at £10 million per mile - ten times cheaper than Metro in Brum city centre:

http://www.bordersrailway.co.uk/project/how-to-build-a-railway.aspx

Example:

MOVING HEAVEN AND EARTH

Earthworks are often the first and most visible sign that the railway is being built. Firstly, surface layers – in this case cycle-path tarmac– are removed. The ground is then excavated down, or built up to the level where the railway line will lie. Embankments or retaining walls are built either side of the track, using earth sourced from other locations which is then stabilised or re-enforced. Some of the pre-existing embankments will also require improvement. Drainage also needs to be created, as well as installing pumps, laying pipes, building storage tanks and building culverts (drains) which allow rainwater to flow underneath, and away from, the railway. 

WORK TO STRUCTURES

There are a number of structures along the route: 137 bridges, 42 newly constructed and 95 in need of refurbishment. A variety of work is required to existing bridges in order to help them comply with safety standards and make them suitable for the railway to run over or under. We may have to demolish and re-build some structures, including the creation of entirely new roads. However, where parts of a bridge can be re-used, we will keep these in situ to minimise construction works and we only ever replace what is failing or unsuitable. 

​

LAYING THE RAILWAY

First we create a railway formation (the foundation on which the railway lies). This is flattened, ready for ballast to be laid on top. Ballast consists of layers of crushed stone which form the track bed and also help to drain the railway. We then level and stabilise this ballast using special machinery, before laying sleepers at precise intervals all the way along the route. Then the tracks are finally laid on top and fixed into place.​

Electrification and electric trams seem to be beyond the UK's level of competence:

Now in the sixth decade of electrifying our rail network we are, still, nowhere near seeing an end to it.  The Swiss did theirs in two decades before 1939.  34 years ago we went haring off into electric trams to replace mainly trains.  Only 22 Km would have been achieved by the end of the year when we were assured that 200 Km would be up and running by they year 2000, fifteen years ago.

This summer, there was an inexplicable delay of three months when all work was stopped on two major English electrification schemes.

Are we competent in building HS2?  Should TfL come to the West Midlands to advise us?  Should we get a further opinion from the European rail industry who do know what they are doing?

Yours sincerely

Letter to 'Midlands Today' re Dudley Central Mosque

Dear Editor

Could your reporter please explain, in replying to this e-mail, why there was a ten year legal dispute over the land.  Why was it so controversial?  Why could the land not be sold to the Muslims?  What was so unsuitable with the land at Hall Street, please?  The reporter failed to explain.

Could your reporter also explain, as he did not do so in his report, why the council is so reluctant to let them build their own brand new mosque, as other neighbouring councils have done.  Has the council been intimidated by the EDL, in his opinion?

I think your vox pop interviews with people like me who know little about the issue, is not at all helpful when the reporter could have used the time to throw some light on the matter.  His report was in danger of fueling anti-Muslim feeling and prejudice against Islam, when this has been all too frequent with the demonstrations in Dudley.

Why was there no interview with the leader of the Dudley Muslims?  You did interviews with two people from the mosque and three people picked at random off the streets.  One man even said there were too many mosques but not enough churches that completely missed the point of Dudley Council recognising that the old Victorian primary school, as Dudley Central Mosque, was wholly inadequate and unfit for purpose!

Please let us have interviews with people who know what they are talking about - only!

The model of the mosque shown had a dome and a minaret.  However, one Dudley councillor told me that, under revised plans to please the objectors the Muslims, in a spirit of reconciliation and compromise, had excluded both in the most recent plan.  Is this correct?

Here was poor reporting by the BBC on a clear issue of justice for the Muslim community in our borough.

I would be glad of a response, please.

Railfuture is also 'wowed' by the basement station that is the Grand Central Shopping Centre, Birmingham

Dear Lloyd

I have just read Michael Tombs glowing report on the redeveloped Birmingham station that he so approves of.  Here is another point of view.  Please could you forward this to Michael for his comment:-

36 escalators, Michael wrote but, are there any stairs from platforms to concourse?  Surely, there must be!

Bullring Shopping Centre was opened in 2003.  With rising rail passenger numbers throughout the 1990s and continuing to this day, the authorities should have realised that additional tunnels were needed at the eastern approach to Grand Central basement station, then.  The new rail tunnels could have gone in after the demolition of the old Bull Ring and before the shops and stores were built for the new Bullring Shopping Centre.

£750 million of railway money for what is, mainly, yet another brand new shopping centre is a misappropriation of public money.  In other words, corruption.  From the BBC, I heard that Grand Central is likely to be sold to the owners of the Bullring and, Birmingham City Council will profit, as a result.  It will profit from the misappropriation of railway money when, like yourselves, they were also partly responsible for the blunder of failing to build the new rail tunnels in the 1990s.  This, when for years there had been much talk (but never any action, of course) of building an underground railway in Brum!

Both the railway industry, the DfT and Brum City Council are responsible for destroying our original tram network in the 1950s, for destroying about 100 miles of our urban rail network in the 1960s and building roads, offices, houses and trading estates on about 50 miles of former railway line.  There remains 78 Km that the transport authorities refuse to re-open for passenger trains.

78 Km of double track rail lines, some literally alongside roads with bumper to bumper traffic is complete idiocy.  But, this stupid transport policy has gone on for 50 years!

These sincere and well-meaning politicians and officers also demolished not one but two of our magnificent Victorian rail stations.  A third remains standing.  This is Moor Street Station, the closest to Grand Central but it was overlooked for connection to Grand Central in favour of the further away, Snow Hill Station.  Every train that stops at Snow Hill also stops at Moor Street.  Yet, in another blunder, Snow Hill was chosen and Moor Street will never get its £100 million per mile (for construction costs) tram!

After 34 years of wasted endeavour to get Midland Metro, some rail lines remain unused and waiting for electric trams that never arrive, let alone the once popular passenger trains!  The network of 15 tramlines and 200 Km by the year 2000, never arrived.  They were never delivered in that year or, even fifteen years on!

Grand Central Shopping Centre and station - the station tagged along as an afterthought and shoved in the basement of the John Lewis store - remains one of the UK's worst rail and road congestion bottlenecks.  So much for £750 million of railway money that is mostly wasted!

Please correct me, if I am wrong in any detail, above.  If no-one puts me right, I will assume that my information, here remains accurate.

Letter to Toby Rackliff of 26 Oct 2015

Dear Toby - please make time to read and re-read this and then reply

Many thanks, as in 2014, also in 2015 giving me some of your time on the 15 October.  My delay in writing is due to my shooting off to enjoy my retirement with more walking and cycling the big hills in Scotland on the day after we met with Cllr John.

I rather rashly said, "I'll give you a break for five years" - that I now withdraw!  It was some wishful thinking on my part, at the time, when I wanted to move on to other matters and to forget about this whole ghastly business!  However, I still have many questions and so much I just do not understand.  Hence:

1. When the Borders Railway can get diesel trains back on 49 Km without first putting either freight trains back or electric trams, why must goods trains or Metro go on the 38 Km Black Country Line, first?  Please could you explain in laymen's terms.
2. Laura wrote, on the 15 Sept: The main obstacle to reopening the Stourbridge – Walsall railway would be the need to completely replace the derelict 15km double track alignment between Round Oak and Bescot with new track and signalling built to modern standards and also repair the underlying infrastructure (including Parkhead Viaduct) to enable it to safely carry heavy rail trains once again.
3. Could you please explain to me how replacing derelict 49 Km "track alignment, with new track and signalling to modern standards ... " was no obstacle of any kind for Network Rail and Transport Scotland at £10 million per mile.  And, this was the very first Beeching closure reversed by the professionals.  Done, too in beautiful countryside and not in our heavily congested Black Country, where the need is far greater.
4. Laura wrote, "Similarly the Lichfield-Brownhills section of railway would also need to be completely rebuilt to accommodate future passenger trains whilst the Brownhills - Walsall section of railway was been removed completely many years ago and now is partially used as a cyclepath."  All of this applies, exactly to Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank - the Borders Railway.  Yet, the money was found and the work done.  Even on all the new rail structures!
5. There is a huge "potential role of Walsall – Stourbridge for rail" PASSENGER not "freight for the next 30 years" as Laura wrote.  Please have some consideration for commuters and rising demand for passenger trains in the Black Country.  With human climate change and resource depletion, it is urgent that we stop wasting transport infrastructure like the 38 Km Black Country Line.
6. Could I please have the business case study for electric trams on the roads and railways of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall instead of diesel passenger trains on the nationally important 21 Km and wasted double track rail line through an increasingly congested and populated urban conurbation.  This, when according to Patrick McLoughlin, the city centre extension is costing £75.4 million for three quarters of a mile of Metro.  This works out at £100m per mile for road running Metro.  It is also likely to be a similar enormous figure for Metro in Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall when road running.
7. See letter from McLoughlin to Louise Ellman MP, dated 30 Sept 2015 that gives this and the £750 m Grand Central Shopping Centre as the sole railway money for the seven district authorities in the West Midlands.  Nothing else for us in how many years?  A complete page, in McLoughlin's letter, of rail investment and projects being delivered to the North of England and its Northern Powerhouse.  Nothing more for us.  We are being bypassed and ignored!
8. I agree with Laura's e-mail as regards the costs, 

"The newly opened 30 mile rail line cost around £300m for largely single track railway (albeit with some long double track passing loops).  In some ways the reopening of this line was actually simpler than, for example re-opening Walsall – Round Oak would be, as rebuilding the track-bed didn’t require the removal of the existing, derelict tracks first."

This, therefore, is £10 million per mile for diesel trains on new rail lines and new structures.  This is ten times cheaper for diesel on new rail lines on the existing formation, than light rail electric trams on roads.

Laura cannot be right with her second sentence, above.  According to the website, Borders Railway did have to lay new track bed and rails.  In addition,

"There are a number of structures along the route: 137 bridges, 42 newly constructed and 95 in need of refurbishment. A variety of work is required to existing bridges in order to help them comply with safety standards and make them suitable for the railway to run over or under." (How to Build a Railway, from Borders Railway website)  Yet, still, £10 million per mile.  Ten times cheaper than road running Metro.  How does the business case resolve this?  Please may I have sight of it?

9.   Could you please give me the amount of the bid that you and the team have put together (during public consultation, too) for road and rail running Metro in Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall?

10.   I cannot understand why you did not make it clear, in the draft plan out for consultation, that you and the team had no intention of putting VLR or heavy rail on the old line.  It seems, that your intention has always been Midland Metro and nothing else for road and rail running through the Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.

11.   Why were the public and I told that the ITA and Cento were keeping an open mind over the 21 Km from Stourbridge to Walsall when, all the time, you were working on a new bid and business case to get the money for Metro?

12.   Could you please tell me.  Are you (ITA/Centro) in talks with Intu over Metro coming to Merry Hill and the Waterfront?

13.  Could you please explain why you are no longer pursuing Metro on the Camp Hill Line and nearby roads.  Peter Plisner did a report, some years ago, that I saw on 'Midlands Today'.  Why did the business case, at that time, not tell you that it was far better value for money to rebuild the stations and to return the passenger trains?

14.  For me, the PTA/Centro reopening of Walsall to Wolverhampton years ago was not nearly as important as the Black Country Line to bypass road and rail congested Grand Central but, to still allow trains from Dudley Waterfront and Dudley Port (on the WCML) to bring passengers into Grand Central, as you said, Toby that Metro trams would be able to do.  Diesel trains can do it, too but much more economically!

15.  There is much in common between your profession, Toby and mine!  I was a Brum and Sandwell social worker for 35 years.  We all know about the media highlighting of social work blunders, neglect and failures.  I can remember how my colleagues and I all got into a rut of the one and only (foolish) decision that had to be made and no-one challenged it in case conferences (out of respect for, or fear of, the managers)​.  As a retired, old man I am asking you to think of the alternatives, of a different way of doing things, of brainstorming all the options.  For 34 years, since 1981, the councillors and Centro said that the 200 Km Midland Metro network would be the answer to our road traffic congestion problems.  However, it was never delivered over these last three and a half decades.  Yet, you are still endeavouring to get it - to this day!

I am really sorry to be such a pain, Toby.  However, I hope you can understand why I am so critical and dissatisfied with ever worsening road and rail congestion.  It has gone on for the nearly fifty years of my being a student, a failed teacher, a social worker and, now, a one foot in the grave OAP in the Black Country and Brum.  In addition, there remains worsening train and traffic congestion in and around Grand Central and its basement station.  Now, the grandest of many road/rail congestion bottlenecks in England.

All of this - and much more I have recorded, previously and elsewhere - is not nearly good enough.

But, my genuine good wishes to you, Toby.  Thanks again for seeing me.

Tim

Let them eat cake - nuclear cake but only imported from France!

WRITTEN: 23 September 2008 e-mail

With the approaching energy gap, Prof Fells' power cuts, fast rising
populations all wanting the electricity high life and not wanting to save
energy let alone be energy efficient, why not leave it to France to sell us
their nuclear electricity?  Let them expand and we get on with offshore
wind and other renewables and, the likes of us - the righteous remnant - vainly pleading for a low energy present and future!

Oil is more important as a chemical building block for the 500 everyday
products on which we depend than to turn, very inefficiently, into
electricity.  It is urgent that we stop burning oil.

Many years ago, I can remember Jonathon Porritt saying that renewables would not be enough but we must go down that route.  The Greens were right since the 1970s when New Zealand was the first Green Party.  Our Manifesto for a Sustainable Future is correct in its analysis and solutions.

However, such is the urgency of reducing the burning of fossil fuels, I now think that James Lovelock and Mark Lynas are right, too.  Nuclear is the lesser of two evils.  BUT, leave it to France AND still use deserts and
rooftops for solar power - everywhere.

Humans won't restrain themselves, so nuclear is what they must have - to postpone inevitable ecocide!

I hereby resign from my life membership of the Green Party and FoE!

Economic and transport illiteracy and lunacy!

This is economic and transport illiteracy and lunacy!

From Dudley Council, dated 21 September 2015:

"Not wishing to pre-empt the outcome of the study, it should be noted that previously the re-introduction of diesel multiple units (heavy rail) has been shown to be uneconomic.  Although the Council had until recently pursued the possibility of introducing a short shuttle service between Castle Hill and Dudley Port, these plans have now been abandoned. 

Proposals for the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre and test track facility have been modified to facilitate the full passenger proposals (Metro) subject to the outcome of the Rapid Transit Study mentioned above."

MY COMMENT:

1. In the 1990s, Dudley Council and the other six district authorities were all wanting the Western Orbital Motorway to complete the Black Country and Brum motorway box.
2. They have never wanted the existing and usable 78 Km of double track railway line brought back into passenger use to make for the reinstatement of the railway box around Birmingham and through the heart of three Black Country boroughs.
3. Sustrans (sustainable transport that should also mean railways) has not taken sides over what, to me, is so very obvious as to what is, and is not, sustainable transport.
4. Our magnificent seven authorities, that includes Sustrans, failed to get their 54 miles of new motorway (in the 1990s).  It was called the Western Orbital Motorway.
5. In 34 years of useless but very expensive endeavour, the seven authorities and Sustrans (and me!) failed to get even 10 Km of light rail trams on the middle section only of the UK's only unused but usable, north-south, inter city express line (ICE) - the Black Country bypass ICE Line.  Even when they were promised £35 million by the 1990s owners of Merry Hill Shopping Centre!
6. The bypass line bypasses what remains one of the worst rail congestion bottlenecks in the UK - what is now called Grand Central Shopping Centre and basement station.  Many more shops than platforms and perhaps, even trains.  An even grander shopping centre to use while we wait for our delayed or cancelled trains.  "Find out about the new bars, restaurants and shops now open in this state of the art shopping complex." (How Grand Central sells itself - it is not a railway station but was built with railway money!)
7. The Black Country Line had 100 years of successful passenger trains from London Paddington to the north.
8. For 50 years of increasing road and rail congestion and worsening rail capacity - to such an extent that we are urgently spending £50 billion to build HS2 - "the re-introduction of diesel multiple units (heavy rail) has been shown to be uneconomic" on the 38 Km Black Country bypass Line.  Yet, it is economic (with an unassailable business case) but impossible to achieve, the much more expensive, electric light rail trams on this same line.
9. At £100 million per mile, Metro trams are planned to run from Grand Central to Edgbaston along congested roads.  On the same length, but continued to Quinton is planned the £15 million SPRINT tram-buses to also relieve road traffic congestion.  Why this duplication?  Why not make some of the existing buses limited stop?  Why not concentrate on more electric hybrid buses?  Scrap SPRINT.  Concentrate on buses and returning the trains.
10. It is also transport lunacy to allow and even put new raised bricks across the whole width of towpaths on bridges and, sometimes beneath them.  This discourages both walking and cycling and, in my opinion, Sustrans should be opposed to this practice by the Canal and River Trust and be helping to get the towpaths fit for purpose for modern day use and not for 18th century horses pulling boats!

Who are the real terrorists?

It is OUR side which keeps going to war in the Middle East to keep our streets safe from terrorists.  If we initiate the wars without UN approval, does that not make us the real terrorists?  Is our aggression not inviting revenge attacks from those who are at the sharp end of our warring?  Does the US of Aggression and its 51st state (UK or United Killers) not have the worst record for killing the most foreigners - and, in their own country, too?!

Learn this lesson from Syria

Rage against the oppressor with extreme care and with non-violence.  Only overthrow an oppressive government (regime) by the ballot box, not the bomb and bullet.  If there is no ballot box, put up with the tyrant or get out of his reign of terror, oppression and sheer nastiness.

Questions for Radio Scotland Big Debate

Is the panel horrified or relieved that Jeremy Corbyn has said that he would never press the nuclear button if he was PM?

Are those responsible for the car emission test also at fault for not picking up that there must have been a much higher proportion of VW Group diesel cars passing the emission test when compared with other manufacturers?

If VW Group engineers felt it was necessary to put in defeat devices to meet emission standards, does that indicate that the emission test was far too rigorous for even the world's top car engineers to meet?  Even they could not possibly reach the target that was required!

Should not the expenditure and effort go towards minimising harmful emissions as quickly as possible?  VW already make some of the cleanest cars.

What is the point of Real Driving Emissions testing, that is so vital for Patrick McLoughlin, if vehicle manufacturers cannot meet the standard?  Does it not already happen?  In fact, more of it should be taking place on the road to clean up or remove the most polluting vehicles.

"I am pushing hard for a joined up re-testing programme across Europe."  Patrick McLoughlin, letter to Louise Ellman MP, 9 October 2015  But not pushing hard to reduce the cocktail of poisonous gases that all petrol and diesel vehicles spew out.

Should our 0.7% of GDP overseas aid budget be used to build a prison in Jamaica to facilitate British born Jamaican prisoners repatriated to Jamaica?

QUESTION for BBC Radio Scotland's The Big Debate on Friday 2 October, at Wigtown Book Festival (that I am attending in the ten days)

and, copied to my heavily war reliant MP, James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis)

When we are told this week that it is going to be years before Islamic State is defeated (if ever), is it not immoral, illegal and pointless to drone kill Syrians and Iraqis that we think, we hope, are members of Islamic State?

It continues our 101 year foreign policy of every single year ('Guardian' 4 page spread of evidence on 12 Feb 2014) attacking other countries to protect our vital strategic interests in so many countries around the world, who have not declared war on us.

Is the West on the side of governments or rebels?

Why should a government NOT be ruthless in putting down a rebellion?  Any UK government would be.  Even the good people of Scotland in 2014 had the fear of God put up them, if they dared to be so stroppy as to vote for independence from big brother England.  Our problem, in our so well meaning, we know what is best for you fortress, is supporting the rebels to overthrow their governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia, Libya and now Syria.  And look where it gets us.

(reply to David Blair article, 'Putin's Plan for Syria is a war without end', in the Telegraph on 2 Oct 2015)

Standing with the people means being cut down by the state!

It was good to read the above posts and replies.  I was at Wigtown Book Festival yesterday when I heard Robin Yassin-Kassab speak very powerfully and assuredly about Syria.  He said, "I stand with the people not the states".  His oratory brought a round of applause.  For me, this is all very well but when the people get clobbered when they stand up to their oppressive dictator, is it really worth all the bloodshed and mayhem?

In both Christianity and Islam, aren't the adherents urged to obey the earthly powers, the authorities of the land that have been ordained of God/Allah?  I have not been impressed with the behaviour and foreign policy of our English monarchs and rulers down the centuries.  However, I would not dream of trying to overthrow them, knowing I would simply end up in jail or with my head cut off or being burnt at the stake!  Here in Wigtown, two women were drowned at the stake in 1685 because they would not acknowledge the authority of their earthly king over and above that of their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Today, we Westerners continue to enjoy great comforts and ease of life.  But then we are the top dogs in the world, still.  Our economic wealth has partly come from the armaments and ammunition that we make and sell that end up in the hands of any old dodgy regime.  Far better to gain employment in more ethical ways.  But then the Scots will get their wages from building and maintaining WMD at Faslane for the English to sail beneath the high seas to threaten nuclear annihilation on a huge section of humanity!  Our own aggression, immorality and illegality sets a very bad example to other countries and peoples, like Assad and Islamic State.  Tim Weller

REPLY:
Tim, I think it’s a misconception that people in Syria in 2011 (or Russia 1917, or France 1789) all decided to have a revolution. It doesn’t happen like that. Instead, regimes collapse when they can no longer bear the weight of their own economic/social/political contradictions. And yes, Islam has an idea about loyalty to the ruler even if he’s unjust – but it’s not an idea I agree with. I don’t blame the revolution for what’s happened in Syria, but the violence of the counter-revolution.

I do blame the revolution in Syria, Robin because State violence was met with protester violence.  Pretty impossible for most of us not to, I know.  But then that shows how important it is to rebel only if you are of the amazing calibre and of the heroic stature of a Gandhi or a Dr Martin Luther King Jnr or one of their many tens of thousands of followers who resisted even revenge over the decades of  suffering.  But, in the process, slowly wearing down the powers that be - and winning!

I think governments (if they do what America, Britain and France want) or regimes (if they don't), Robin will always stifle any opposition either by force as in Syria in 2011 or, much more sensibly as in London by Police action (like kettling) to allow dissent on the streets but only up to a point.  Like last year, the Establishment put the fear of God up some Scots to make them vote 'No' to independence.  The English government and all major parties threatened the Scots with all kinds of dire consequences if they rebelled and voted 'Yes'.  In countries like Ukraine, Syria and Israel, dissent is met with violence.  The West uses violence, coercion and coups to get their way in countries that are not part of their supposedly so very free and democratic Club of nations that toe their line (the Western aligned countries).

NOTES:
Wikipedia has:
"The unrest began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of Arab Spring protests, with nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government, whose forces responded with violent crackdowns. The conflict gradually morphed from prominent protests to an armed rebellion after months of military sieges."

"The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي‎, ar-rabīˁ al-ˁarabī) was a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both non-violent and violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began on 18 December 2010 in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution, and spread throughout the countries of the Arab League and its surroundings."

"Many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,^[23][24][25] as well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators. These attacks were answered with violence from protestors in some cases.^[26][27][28] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is Ash-sha`b yurid isqat an-nizam ("the people want to bring down the regime")."

Rich World Poor World: which half has had enough?

Migrants, after centuries of missing out want a slice of the good, rich life

It seems to me that for centuries the white nations have dominated and controlled the world very much more than the Arab or black nations.  We don't like it, one little bit, that the dreaded foreigner has had enough and wants the rich, good life of plenty, too.

European and American slavery was far more extensive than Arab slavery.  The white countries grew very rich from

• the slave trade,
• from collecting colonies and exploiting our power over others,
• from our wars around the world and the world wars that became thus because of the Europeans had their colonies fighting for them;
• from the white man's successful interference and spread of his culture, his civilisation and Christian faith;
• economic and trading domination  - and military might - keep the traditional white nations in world control and running the show.

Wearing blood red on Fridays

05/05/2009

Cllr Ken Turner has written in the News (23 April) of his intention to dress in something red on Fridays to show support for our heroic soldiers battling it out in the Middle East.  The only problem is that you'll get some mischievous devil, linking blood red not with the 16,000 UK fighters who have been killed but with the rather greater number they have killed in our numerous wars around the globe since 1945.

 

I am a sensitive soul and was shocked to read that the US/UK, with our Western allies, have bombed or rocketed 19 nations since 1945.  Thankfully, this friendly fire to bring democracy, freedom and Western culture and civilisation to the poor, benighted nations in their darkness and sin, has not resulted in many of us civilians being bombed and killed.  So that's all right, then.

 

In the Vietnam War, alone, encyclopaedias tell me that some unknown figure between two and four million men, women and children were napalmed, rocketed and murdered in cold blood by our ally and friend who had only 58,000 of their number killed in the sixteen year war.  I suppose it was the fault of the Vietnamese in not letting us show them how to run their country and, instead, defending their homeland from our well-intentioned troops.

 

That war showed just how many times more the people of foreign lands are killed than our own heroes invading their countries.  In our two current wars, this trend continues.

Perhaps, Cllr Ken is remembering the slaughter of the wholly innocents - many directly at the hands of our armed forces - even to this day.

Perhaps, he does ALSO mean red for the buckets of blood shed of those pesky foreigners who won't let us invade and occupy their countries without killing some of our heroes in the process.  How dare they kill our brave boys.

Our stupid, barbaric behaviour in Gaza

28/12/2008

Dear Sir/Madam

We are seeing collective capital punishment by our side on the Palestinian families of Gaza.  Just two days after Christmas, hundreds of men, women and children are being killed, wounded and traumatised by the armaments and ammunition we have produced and sold to our good friends and close ally, the Israelis.

Rather than understanding the reasons for rockets being fired into the border towns of Israel from Gaza, we prefer to make, yet again, a wholly disproportionate response.  Revenge is sweet for our side and for the Palestinians.  It ups the anti and invites ever more rockets into border towns that kill Israelis infrequently.  Therefore, ours is a counter productive response, too.  For us and the Israelis, we have to wipe out every Palestinian to stop their rockets.  Stupid and  barbaric indeed.

Our aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan sets a very bad example to our friends the Israelis who, quite understandably, use killing of civilians to similarly 'defend' their expansionist policies into ever more of the West Bank.

On the very same day that hundreds of men, women and children have died at the hands of the Israelis, our church leaders prefer to condemn the immorality of government policy.  Yet, that did not include condemning government immorality in a decade of supporting the Israeli terrorism to supposedly stop the Palestinian terrorism.

As Peter Ustinov once said, "The Palestinians are the second victims of the Nazis".  The one time oppressed are still the oppressors.

Yours

Heavens Above!

FAO: the Editor of 'Premier Christianity' - and copied to my MP, James Morris and Rt Hon Michael Portillo who is quoted here (in case both may like to put me right).

HEAVENS ABOVE!

For me, "Defying ISIS" (issue dated, August 2015) 

• by not selling our armaments to other countries that may end up in the hands of Isis;
• through abiding by the resolutions of the General Assembly of the UN;
• by leaving the Middle East to the peoples of the Book and their governments (regardless of whether or not they toe the Western line);
• by never again interfering, occupying and drawing boundaries of straight lines on the map;
• by never again destabilising, overthrowing or supporting coups in the Middle East, Libya and Egypt;
• by repenting of our behaviour that reminds me of dictatorial, know it all, Roman Emperors;
• by renouncing our unethical, hypocritical and duplicitous foreign policy that makes sure those Muslim majority countries know who is boss around their countries;

No wonder whites can never dare to show their faces in some Muslim countries for fear of kidnap or murder.

Our example is terrible - and, they see us as the Christian West, too.  What is good for the goose is good for the gander.  No wonder some Muslims want their own Islamic State, like the Jewish state of Israel.

Our disgraceful examples in Muslim countries may have spawned Islamic State.  We even used chemical weapons in our foolish, nonsensical, Christian European war that began 101 years ago this month.  In every single year since, the UK alone has waged war somewhere around the globe according to research by the 'Guardian' in February 2014, including US/UK atomic bombs 70 years ago on civilians.  Mass slaughter of those made in God's image by us clean living British and American believers - and, now, we again impose a vapourised death by fire and flame from the heavens above.  But, our terrorist enemy, in revenge, uses eyeball to eyeball individual slaughter of those they view as too closely identified with the wicked West.

In addition, truly barbaric behaviour by our good friend and ally, Israel in July and August 2014 when Isis also hit the headlines for the first time.  Co-incidence or, after 100 years exactly, did we begin to reap the whirlwind of Muslim temper finally snapping?

OR, this piece:

We have never taught non-violence in our homes, churches and schools.  It always goes without saying that the West can take violent initiatives in the Middle East without a by your leave.

We breed children who take it for granted that Western coercion, force and violence is a done deal every time.  And this has gone on for 101 years as the West has violently interfered in the Middle East.  No wonder, having set such a disgraceful and violent example, some Muslims who are so angry with the West, have now well and truly got the message.  The message of violence and aggression from us sinful reprobates.

Last year, on the 'Moral Maze', I heard wonderful Michael Portillo (a 1990's Secretary of State for Defence) sadly conclude,

"One of the reasons why I think people are being so violent in these countries is that so much violence is happening in those countries.  The alternative to violence is to talk."  (Moral Maze, 15 October 2014)

Was he saying in effect, 'There has been too much violence in the Middle East', as if he was reflecting on NATO action in Afghanistan and Iraq and feeling uncomfortable with his own party's role in it all with, perhaps, giving birth to Isis?

Or, was he saying in effect, 'There has been too much violence in the Middle East, so what else can we expect but more violence?'

War, violence and aggression are the norm for the rich West and set a dreadful example

We must work to end all wars because it leads to yet more wars, revenge, bitterness and spiraling violence.  The colonies were captured by the western European Great Powers and their empires were maintained by violence to put down unrest.  Centuries of warfare between the western European powers made violence the norm.  This led to WW1 led to WW2 that led to the Cold War that led to the War of Terrorism that includes killing by remote control from thousands of miles away.

No empires would have meant much less killing down the centuries and the Christian nations actually complying with their Founders rejection of empire building.  Extraordinary that such a clear and simple command was so soundly and outrageously flouted by the vast majority of good Christians for the last 1700 years!

Why always Iraq but never Afghanistan?

John Payne has quoted from Wikipedia, "A strong supporter of the Blair government, he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq,[7]"

Am I alone in thinking that so many, rightly, condemn the Labour Party for attacking and invading Iraq but seem to excuse or even agree with the attack on, and invasion of, Afghanistan that began the War/Crusade of (not 'on', in my opinion) Terrorism on the 7 October 2001?

Afghanistan then got it in the neck from us upright, peace loving and law abiding Westerners for the next 13 years (to Dec 2014).  All this slaughter as revenge and punishment for having Al Qaeda in the country, who launched the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

Am I completely off beam in thinking like this?