Tim Weller's petition on Gaza

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/733962/sponsors/new?token=jpL93KxcQbbQmtMmTkdP

Sideways: Chasing Peace - Matthew Syed on what caused the 2nd WW

"History has shown us the dangers of agreements that end violence on the surface while leaving deeper tensions and grievances unhealed.  Most of us learn in school that World War 2 didn't erupt in a vacuum.  Its roots were tangled in the aftermath of the First WW, not least in the Treaty of Versailles.  Though it officially ended the war, it did so by imposing heavy reparations, humiliation and blame on Germany.  Rather than fostering reconciliation, it fed resentment, economic hardship and, nationalist fervour, ultimately setting the stage for another devastating global conflict.  And maybe one of the lessons we can learn from this darker side of our history and from Betty Bigombe's experience is that real peace isn't just the absence of war."

to Kelvin Crombie of CMJ UK

Dear Kelvin - and to our local friend and Elim Pastor, Leon Evans whose church my son attends.

I have read every word of the paper you wrote in 2023 which is your sincerely held, important truth.  It was very good to read your perspective, which is also that of my wife and other Christian friends of mine at church and elsewhere.  You are all of the conviction that only personal repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the lasting solution to the world's troubles.  I once, for many years, believed that, too.  The main truth for me now is that true Christian/spiritual faith must embrace non-violence, social justice, peaceful co-existence and living in harmony with nature.  These are all matters that the human family is struggling with but are fully in accord with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

The next paragraphs are my summaries of the very measured, detailed but readable account in the BBC's Jeremy Bowen's 2022 book, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East'.  Always very fair, impeccably researched and fully referenced from so many sources.  Plus, his 35 years of first hand experience of covering world affairs on the ground.  Except in Gaza where outsiders are excluded by an Israel fully in control by land, sea and air.  Such is their shame.  They should hang their heads in shame.

From my reading of Bowen, it seems that the Jews/Zionists ended up with the land because they became useful to British governments in helping us in our imperial wars and, with our Christian traditions over many centuries, it meant that we had more in common with them than the Muslims.  The Jews, possibly, would never have got the land, after 50 years of Zionism, if we had lost the 14-18 war.  The second half of the Wild West's World War also ended with the traditional Christian West winning and then having to quickly find somewhere for the Jews to go.  This, after we had slaughtered six million of them and had a most colossal guilt complex, so needing to make amends.  Thus, we caved in to Jewish violence from the three terrorist gangs and, by 1948 we had had enough and slunk away.  We left it to the United Nations to sort out the sorry mess after thirty years of failed and bad governance under the British Empire and then the Mandate.

Incidentally, although the IDF (formerly called Haganah, one of the three Jewish terrorist gangs of the 1940s) has won every war that it has fought, it has never defeated the Muslim terror gangs, viz the PLO, Hezbollah and Hamas.  Eighty years of Israel's violence with the American led West funding them - yet, still no peace and security.  Tragic.  Ineffective.  Only horror upon horror.  Never ending slaughter of Gazans who are labelled terrorists to justify our massacres and our starvation.

We left the mess, the disgrace of the two warring Children of Abraham both wanting the same unHoly Land for only themselves.  Jews and Christians v Arab Muslims.  For them all, having and living in peaceful co-existence is a complete non-starter.  It is an incomprehensible notion for all of them.

The next 80 years saw intermittent wars and, each time with Israel - well and truly on our side now - winning and, of course, being allowed to keep the land gained by aggression because they were our Judeo-Christian representative in the heart of the Arab Middle East.  "The cuckoo in the nest" for some Arabs.  Normally, we fight wars to stop aggression, as with Russia's war on Ukraine.  Ukraine must be under our wing, not the Russian wing.  Something amiss here with balance and sharing, I feel!  Our side has won every war against the Arabs but there is still no peace and security - even after 80 years.  Neither side can be the Good Samaritan to the other.

FROM MY BLOG - no reply or acknowledgement was received from CMJ UK:

Sunday, 22 September 2024

Presentation on 'The Last Words of Moses' - my own words on the matter

Dear Aaron - Aaron Eime of CMJ UK

I much enjoyed meeting you at Hasbury Community Church and found your excellent address full of interesting details and insights.  The Lord has blessed you with great eloquence, and a great memory and intelligence.  You have a superb style of delivery that engages the attention of your audience.  Most attractive.

I have a somewhat jaundiced opinion of humanity's unhappy tenure of this planet to date and, with the record of Israel's leaders and kings in the Old Testament.  And no better since 1945, with the revelation of one Christian nation's horrifying holocaust, after centuries of European wicked oppression and persecution of the Jews; plus, Western and Christian wars around the globe followed, with dear Bibi being the final straw for my sensitive conscience.  Hence, not surprisingly, you kindly commented that you totally disagreed with me.  Great!

You said you did not want a two-state solution but, presumably, Jews/Christians and Arabs living together in peaceful co-existence.  EXACTLY!  However, it does not help when we Jews/Christians/Westerners continue our imperialistic endeavours of being the dominant, controlling force throughout the world.  Hence, we decide unilaterally, what happens to our subjects whether they be the black peoples of past centuries or today's Arabs, Muslims, Gazans, Palestinians, Lebanese.  This is called apartheid governance where we White Europeans/Americans remain firmly in control over every other human group with the wrong colour skin.  We see it in our US/UK/EU member or representative, Israel, in the heart of the Arab, Muslim Middle East.  That tragedy began out of the disastrous 1914-18 World War and continued with our British Mandate over Palestine.  And has never ended, with our allies Israel and Saudi Arabia as the All Dominating Powers in the Middle East.

We are all turning the Greater Promised Land, from the Jordan to the Sea, a land flowing with milk and honey, into a desert of death and destruction, "an unlivable wasteland" - awash with the blood and the tears of the people of non-violence like me and of the violent.  First Gaza and now Lebanon.  Because of Old Testament barbaric, brutal, war crime ethics instead of New Testament ethics of repentance, reconciliation and forgiveness.  We all know what Yahweh wants.

Our Hebrew/Christian Bible seems to be inspiring our side, our representative Israel to "utterly destroy" (exterminate) Amalek

Aaron, in your talk, you even mentioned the annihilation of the Amalekites by the people of Israel that was commanded by the God of Israel.  I know at least one Israeli government minister has talked of doing exactly the same to the Palestinians.  The Jewish annihilation of the Amalekites was many centuries before the Nazis attempted the same wickedness on the People of Yahweh but, this time, failed.  It looks to me as though modern-day Israel is bringing the same atrocities on the Palestinians and Lebanese.  Have the Jews learnt nothing?

Listen to the horrors on BBC Sounds, Radio 4's 6 pm News on 14 Oct 2024, 08:35 from the beginning to 13:20 (nearly five minutes of OUR war crimes).

I started off so well for the first thirty years, too!  I was brought up in an evangelical Christian family, was soon converted and spent my late teens and twenties on summer beach missions in England and Wales.

The problem is that as I have read widely, listened widely, thought deeply and been preached at for decades, including Linda's eloquent talks at church (my wife), I remain disappointed by my Christian friends' embracement of coercion, force, and violence on other peoples.

My God is my conscience and the God revealed in the life and teachings of my Master, Jesus Christ - the very best monarch out of a terrible bunch of miscreants from around the world, including those in the Bible.  

Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see."  It starts with personal integrity and example.  In addition, all we have is the power of the pen and word.  Much mightier and more moral than the US/UK/Israel sword that has solved nothing since 1945 but only ratcheted up the mutual hatred between the unhappy Children of Abraham, especially in the unHoly Land.  Violence begets violence.  War has not achieved peace for Israel. 

I was honestly impressed by your good self, Aaron.  I genuinely think highly of you and wish you every blessing and goodness throughout your days.

By the way, the most Christian book ('I Shall Not Hate') I have ever read was by a Palestinian.  Details of the author here, from Wikipedia:

"Izzeldin Abuelaish OOnt MSC is a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor and author. He was born in Gaza, and was the first Palestinian doctor to work in an Israeli hospital and has been active in promoting Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. During the Gaza War in January 2009, his three daughters and a niece were killed by Israeli tank fire directed at his home. He had been calling in reports about the effect of the war by phone to a TV station. In his regularly scheduled report, in tears, he described their killing on-air, in a video that was widely circulated in Israel and around the world."

FROM COLIN:

"Very good, well said. I would be very interested to see Aaron's response, if you get one. Whatever the seeds of the current war, I can't use that to justify the actions of power greedy, egotistical men who have hijacked religion to befuddle the minds of the gullible. It is in the hands of Iranian & Israeli Gvts to end the slaughter. That they both seek the entire destruction of each other based on the writings of thousands of years ago signifies to me the shallowness of their morality. The persistence of violence is a matter of political will as is an end to it."

With every good wish and blessing be upon you, Kelvin

“Repeat the Berlin Airlift to circumvent Israel to get food and water into Gaza.”.

Please support my petition if you agree!  HMG wrote:

"Someone supported your petition: “Repeat the Berlin Airlift to circumvent Israel to get food and water into Gaza.”.

"You have 3 supporters so far.

"If five people support your petition, we’ll check it to make sure it meets the petition standards.

"If it does, we’ll publish it. If it doesn’t, we’ll let you know why."

Starting a petition, writing and talking to our councillors and MPs demands more commitment and determination than a simple signature!

"If you can't stop killing us, stop us from starving to death." (woman in Gaza, 20.7.25 Radio 4 1pm News

It is now too late with this petition to remove "Repeat the Berlin Airlift".  HMG will well know what we mean and the airlift work is all important to drop food on Gaza and water by boat from Cyprus.  Israel will not dream of stopping the RAF and the Royal Navy, as they did with the Greta Thunberg boat the other week!

There is no way that the Govt will even look at the petition, anyway without five supporters agreeing to them at least looking at it - when they might just possibly understand what we are on about, viz "If you can't stop killing us, stop starving us to death", as the Gazan woman said on Sunday, 1 pm Radio 4 News.

If we can do it for Berlin in 1948/9 to beat the Soviets/Russians, we can surely do it for the Palestinians to beat the Israelis.

Please be one of the five supporters of mine!  So far, I have two who have signed.  HMG must read it if we can get the magic FIVE!  THANKS

Not sent to David G

You are so right.  I am absolutely livid, enraged about what is going on in my name, with the support of my government, my taxes and the full support of so many other Christian believers, too.  It has, once again, rocked my evangelical Christian roots to the core when I used to preach the Gospel of Christ in the open air as a young man.  What some of my fellow Christians fully support has made me think that Christianity is simply not Christian enough.  Is not Christ-like when what is supported is violence and the slaughter of the innocents, yet again, as Herod did in the same land.  Now, it's Bibi following Herod's example.

Your response is so much better than the almost universal apathy and refusal to challenge or even engage.  You have been brilliant in engaging.  Fantastic!

However, what would be so helpful is a reasoned correction where I am wrong or where my conclusions are mistaken.  That our friend and ally Israel is likely to have slaughtered more children in two years than Putin has done in eleven years (or, certainly since his full invasion in Feb 2022) is not a record we should be proud of.  And, judgement begins in the House of the Lord - certainly to obey my Lord Jesus Christ.  He was particularly condemnatory of hypocrisy when we condemn Putin but not friend Bibi.  And I have read parts of his book: 'Bibi: My Story' which I enjoyed.

A quest for the truth, spoken in love, in these matters of morality in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank must win out over everything and then appropriate action taken in the ICC and ICJ (the civil World Court).

Let's have more Christian leaders like Bishop Rachel standing up for:

The House of Bishops released a statement on the situation in Gaza in May calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, and criticised the “sin” of violence.

It stated: “The death, suffering and destruction being inflicted on Gaza is a grave sin that violently assaults God-given human dignity and the very integrity of God’s creation…

“We support and applaud all those Jewish voices, both inside and outside of Israel, that are courageously pressing the Israeli government to end the war. We add our voices to those urging the government of Israel to turn away from its current trajectory and to affirm life and human dignity for all.”   FROM: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/12/stop-businesses-funding-israeli-settlements-bishop-urges/

WAS SENT:

Thanks so much, David for the feedback.  Although, I don't think the disgraceful record of Western, especially British involvement in the region is either complex or contested.  Simply, greedy, foolish and wrong!

I can assure you that my history must be correct because my authoritative source is the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in his revealing, readable but disturbing book, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East'.  His research and quoting of sources seems impeccable.  I, certainly, put things more baldly in my writings than his always very measured tone and fair presentation when I hear him on Radio 4.

My more stark style of writing does reflect my horror, especially by born again Christian believers, like my Linda and others who insist that Israel and the IDF have every right to do what they are doing because it is a spiritual battle against evil Hamas.  Is that what you believe, David?  You beat evil by doing a bigger evil for longer.  A good end justifies using bad means.  I have not yet put it to Linda: should we be showing/using the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit to confront evil?

I was so impressed that you had listened to the 'Today Debate' on Israel/Gaza with Anna Foster and liked her chairing of the event, as I did!

The honesty of the German Chancellor

Friedrich Merz said,

"Since the open invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we are faced with a complete different world and this world has been changed by Russia, mostly." (my bold)

'Political Thinking' podcast with Nick Robinson, July 2025

IF YOU CAN'T STOP THE KILLING, STOP THE STARVATION" Gazan woman on 1 pm News on 20.7.25

Repeat the Berlin Airlift to circumvent Israel and so get the food and water into Gaza.

The starvation and flattening of most of Gaza is an insult to humanity and especially to our side.  The American led West and NATO countries are responsible with our supplies of all things military used to slaughter and kill desperate starving people queueing for food and being picked off by armed mercenaries from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The plight of Gaza is far worse than the situation in Ukraine that is caused by Russian aggression and full-scale war since February 2022.

Israel's war on Gaza is funded and fueled by mainly America and Germany, leading members of NATO of which the UK is part.

Our taxes and our foreign policy is ensuring that if the Gazans cannot be killed with weapons they are starved to death.

We have a moral duty to act within international law, to uphold the Geneva Convention and to avoid war crimes. Are we?

"The Berlin Airlift was a massive operation to supply West Berlin by air after the Soviet Union blockaded all ground and water access to the city in 1948. Over 15 months, the United States and the United Kingdom, along with other Allied nations, delivered over 2.3 million tons of food, fuel, and other supplies, preventing West Berlin from falling under Soviet control." GOOGLE

'Derailed: The Story of HS2' on BBC Sounds

1)  "Thousands of houses and thousands of jobs by building HS2 Station on the edge of Birmingham City centre" claim by HS2 director and expert on 'Derailed: The Story of HS2', Radio 4, 'Omnibus' edition broadcast 19 July 2025.

Is this true?

TRANSCRIPT:-

2)  Protester: "If you were giving a local area £200 m to spend, what would you spend it on?  I don't think people would have said, 'Spend it on HS2 railway'.  They would have wanted it spent on commuter services."  In response, Presenter, Kate Lamble, said "HS2 champions had not effectively got across the possibility of the new line freeing up space for commuter services", said presenter/narrator, Kate Lamble. 20 mins in on 19.7.25.

Is what Kate said true?

UNTRUE because:

A specialist high-speed line with no intermediate stations apart from at one airport, means that every intercity train must remain on the existing, parallel line for all the stations that HS2 is far too fast to stop at.  Therefore, for the BBC presenter and investigator (not a protester) to claim that HS2 will free up "space for commuter services" is FALSE and misleading.

Russia and Israel Contrasted and Compared

• Russia, our 'enemy' attacked Ukraine after our victory in the 2014 'Revolution of Dignity to oust a pro-Russian President before the next election might have defeated him.
• Israel, our 77 year old friend and ally, has engaged in warring on the people it took over and all its surrounding nations.  From 1945 with its three terrorist gangs, one of whom became the IDF.
• After we won the Revolution of Dignity, Russia took over Crimea and started supporting the Russian speaking Ukrainians and fighters in east Ukraine.
• Our enemy started the war in 2014, our friend and ally has used American and German/NATO weapons to engage in warring on its neighbours, off and on, for nearly 80 years.

CONCLUSION

• Perhaps, an equal number of violent fighters have been killed on Russia's side and Ukraine's side.
• On Israel's side, the imbalance is colossal if you compare both combatants and non-combatants.
• In other words, we have the worst record for slaughter of the human family.  Yet, we claim the moral high ground with our friend having the most moral army in the world, with notice being given of intended death and destruction to help the Gazans avoid a sticky end.
• Israel has a genuine democracy which fits in with Western standards.
• Russia's democracy struggles to match.

All this evidence when we consider we are a cut above the rest of the world, the shining beacon set on a hill for the rest of the world to live up to our fine example of peace and justice.

The theory is so nice but, in fact, the practice is abysmal!

Inhumane military men and women of violence ...

•  ... can never stop killing those of us who accept that non-violence and non-collaboration with the warmonger and invader is the better, more effective and ethical tactic.
• Can never stop their warfare because they never seem able to defeat their enemy, eg:
• The Israeli Defence Force was first known as the terrorist gang, Haganah.  From 1945 to the 1948 surrender, their massacres defeated the mighty British Empire.  They also ousted the Palestinians and claimed the land for themselves in 1948.
• Although, the military has won every war since 1945, Israel has never been at peace with its neighbours.
• In other words, violence does not work.  It breeds war and revenge but never security, peace and happiness for the many successive and violent besotted Israeli governments and their supporting right-wing governments of other nations.

to Campaign for Better Transport on 21.12.24

"When you scratch the surface, data suggest that the Midland Metro extensions represent some of the highest costs per kilometre ever seen, anywhere in the World for tram schemes. As a sense of scale, the current average for infrastructure costs per kilometre of light rail corridors or route, is under £30 million.

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

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

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

FACTS ON THE GROUND

• In 1981, the W Midlands County Council and its transport arm, Centro launched their 200 Kms, 10 Metro tramway lines to be achieved by the year 2,000 CE.
• For 43 years, Birmingham City Council as the lead authority along with the other six councils, have all been working hard to achieve the wholesale conversion of bus routes and three (now two) mainline railways into a rebuilt tram network that they had only just wiped off the face of Brum and the region twenty years earlier.
• 200 years ago, we were converting tramways to railways.  We've learnt nothing in 200 years!
• By their target date of 2,000 they had achieved precisely 20 Kms out of 200 Kms, with a further 3 Kms added in the next 24 years, to today.  A quite disgraceful record even by their standards.  And on railway lines, too!
• Metro One opened in 1999 but never went as far as even the bus station let alone the Wolves railway station.  The latter was finally achieved, this decade, with 700 metres of tramway taking nearly seven years of work on the ground - astonishing!!  (Blunders, changes from the top, work having to be redone and, general incompetence, I understand)
• Today, the Metro Expansion Plan remains as 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops, costing £15 BILLION by the year 2040 (Jan 2020 cost figure).  THIS, with a £22 billion black hole in the nation's finances, would you believe!
• But for only two mainline railways to be converted to tramway and no longer the three - some good news!
• So far, at least two 12 month postponements for the Camp Hill line to have its commuter trains and stations back.  It is taking an age for three railway stations to be rebuilt.
• The money went on replacing a smaller University railway station with the most enormous station imaginable (the actual tall, substantial building - what will all the rooms be used for?)

The principal mainline railway currently being worked on to destruction is "of national strategic significance" - but this is of no consequence to the professionals or, their minders (the councillors)

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

Fairness and Opportunity: A people-powered plan for the green transition - Stephen Frost

The IPPR Environmental Justice Commission was established in May 2019 in recognition that action to address the accelerating climate and nature emergencies can be about more than staving off the worst; it can be about imagining a better world which we can build together.  Published July 2021

EXTRACT:

What does the commission call for?

To make this a reality, people need to be able to reach what they need and access good jobs locally. The government needs to invest in better public transport and make local transport like buses and trams free for everyone. The commission calls for all local public transport to be free at the point of use by 2030. It also needs to be easier to hire, rather than own, lots of difference types of vehicles, including electric bikes and cars.

We recommend that digital connectivity is treated as a right and that the government must commit to making it easier for people to access what they need close to where they live – the idea of a ’20-minute neighbourhood’ where most services people need are within close reach by a walk, cycle or bus ride.

The commission also argues that when governments make investment decisions about transport, they need to give more thought to nature and prioritise wellbeing and tackling inequality.

FROM:  https://www.ippr.org/fairness-and-opportunity/

Questions for Michael Solomon Williams of CBT

With the West Midlands Metro tram extensions costing over £100 m/Km to build, even on the former London to Edinburgh principal mainline railway through three of the four Black Country boroughs, is this the best way to get modal shift from wasteful and unnecessary car commuting onto buses and trains?

Is this ​one way to free up road space for essential users if car commuters are fined for using their cars​,​ when they have Fare-Free Public Transport?

Is it good economics and ecology to be converting our former mainline railways into tramways, as the West Midlands started doing in 1981?

Do tramways consisting of light rail, very light rail and ultra light rail complicate the public transport journey when we already have heavy rail, express or intercity rail and regional commuter rail - and, from the mid 2030s, high speed rail?

200 years ago we started converting our industrial tramways into railways as being a more modern and effective way of getting about than relying on canals.  Why are we going back to the future with tramways when there are hundreds of miles of existing but unused and freight only railway lines?

Can passenger trains be put on freight only or, existing but mothballed railway lines, of which we have about 100 Kms in the Midlands?

Or, should they be converted to tramways?

Do you think Fare-Free Public Transport that I've had for 17 years, paid for by abandoning trams replacing buses and trains that could be FREE - like I have?

Why always flash, expensive, highly prestigious, wealth flaunting, over-indulgent transport schemes like ​LR and VLR trams?

How could the money be better spent​ to help the lowest incomes?

Jeremy Bowen - always measured, fair and quietly authoritative

Dear Alex

Thank you for keeping me so well informed.  In my very nearly fifty years of living in Halesowen, you are the best MP as regards having a conscience over our nation's responsibility for funding and supporting warfare in other countries.

As a man of non-violence and non-compliance with states indulging in violence, I do take a stronger position than you would as an ex soldier.  You might be interested in reading what I wrote to a friend of mine, a born again Christian who is concerned about the war on Gaza.  It outlines the morality as I see it:

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

Jeremy Bowen - always measured, fair and quietly authoritative

I don't think the disgraceful record of Western, especially British involvement in the region is either complex or contested.  Simply greedy, foolish and wrong!

I can assure you that my history must be correct because my authoritative source is the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in his revealing, readable but disturbing book, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East'.  His research and quoting of sources seems impeccable.  I, certainly, put things more baldly in my writings than his always very measured tone and fair presentation when I hear him on Radio 4.

My more stark style of writing does reflect my horror, especially by born-again Christian believers, like my Linda and others who insist that Israel and the IDF have every right to do what they are doing because it is a spiritual battle against evil Hamas.  Is that what you believe, David?  You beat evil by doing a bigger evil for longer.  A good end justifies using bad means.  I have not yet put it to Linda: should we be showing/using the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit to confront evil?

Thanks for all that you are doing, Alex.  I wish only to encourage and support you to get an end to our government fueling this second holocaust involving Jews/Zionists/Israel.  But, this time, with them dishing out the slaughter of our fellow humans.

Best wishes

Bishop Rachel shows how you can and must stand up to hatred and murder and mass destruction

Stop businesses from funding Israeli settlements, bishop urges Government https://share.google/lMaOymE0eJrEYv47V

Our deeply compromised Christ is proved by the action of our great friend and ally, with the strong support of our local Christian church leaders from their apparent/likely inaction over more than 100 years of massacres by and between the three branches of the Children of Abraham in the unHoly Land.  Funded by the Christian West with everything military imaginable.

It seems so shocking but so true to form, that our side seems to have murdered many more children of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank in less than two years than Russia, our traditional enemy, has done since it started the war against Ukraine in 2014, just after our side won the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv.

The UK has the most responsibility for the tragedy that is Israel because Palestine was, for 30 years, part of our biggest empire the world has ever seen.  Yet, in 1948, we caved in to Jewish/Zionist terrorism, meekly got out and handed the lawless mess over to the United Nations.  We, perfidious Albion, did a Pontius Pilate!  The Zionists sent the powerful British Empire packing.  We were happy for territorial gain from aggression to be rewarded by the terrorists keeping the land, contrary to international law.

One reputable news channel told me that 81% of evangelical Christians in the USA voted for Donald Trump in 2024.  Some of his biggest supporters are the Messianic Christians who identify closely with Biblical teaching that Christ will return only when all of the Promised Land is in the hands of Israel - from the River to the Sea.

I think, deeply compromised, fallen/fake faith to true faith can only come from our Christian leaders renouncing violence and denouncing Israel for using God's commands to annihilate the Amalekites (and others) to justify Jewish (later Israel's) actions in Palestine from the First World War up to today.

The Chair of Churches Together in Halesowen, if there is agreement from the other church leaders, I think should write to our MP, Alex Ballinger that BDS - boycott, divestment and sanctions - need to be implemented against our great friend who has gone rogue.

Tony is correct - it doesn't excuse inaction

Do you accept, Tony that each of us is guilty/responsible for the war crimes of our properly and fairly elected governments whether it be in Israel or the UK?

Even more so, if we fail to act on our conscience and protest at this second holocaust or extermination of Gazans. Do you think I am correct in thinking like that?

Whether others call us abominable names like racists, antisemites, terrorists or Zionists or Nazis or Communists or Capitalists is irrelevant. All we have to do is to fight vigorously against the attempted extermination of mainly the Jews in the 1930s/40s, and the attempts now of our democratic governments and liberal democracies to exterminate the Palestinians since 7.10.23. Is that correct, humane thinking on my part?

Have you, Tony protested to your councillors and MP over our part in this second holocaust? Or done anything else to express your strong displeasure?

Of course, Tony you are correct but that is not surprising. Every nation's population reflects a vast range of different opinions. However, every single citizen has a duty, a responsibility to call their government to BDS Israel when it is so clearly breaking the Geneva Conventions, and daily flouting international and humanitarian law. Especially British citizens when we have been so heavily involved in the Middle East for good and ill (mostly ill) since 1914. I am partly to blame for today's horrors and that drives me to point out what I think needs to be done. Tim

Scandal of Stourbridge sidelined - all Birmingham's fault (very nearly!)

STOURBRIDGE RAILWAY REMAINS FORGOTTEN, as roads clog with traffic.

• The railway runs from Worcester to Derby via Stourbridge and Dudley town for 120 Kms.
• 56 Kms is ready built but is unused or partly used for 56 Kms between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent.
• Freight trains run from Port Talbot to Round Oak Steel, next to the Waterfront, next to Merry Hill.
• Elsewhere, passenger trains and freight trains run on the same track.  Why not our forgotten railway?
• Not even the Metro trams from Dudley town will use that railway into Stourbridge Jct station.
• INSTEAD, the trams will divert off it into Merry Hill when they should remain on the railway into OUR town.
• The wealthy Merry Hill owners are given a £1 billion asset tramway to make them even richer!
• That is the spectacular scandal of taxpayer generosity to the rich.
• This is the stupidity of wasting a total of some 100 Kms of railway in the West Midlands while we all get stuck in traffic jams and the Climate emergency worsens - by 40 years of Metro idiocy.

ACTION suggested to get out of the 44 year old disastrous tram rut paralysis:

1. If work cannot be stopped from taking the tram off the railway onto the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment at Merry Hill, stop it destroying even more nature to accelerate Climate catastrophe.  Therefore, ...
2. Terminate the Dudley Tram at the Merry Hill tram stop at Merry Hill NOT in Cottage Street, Brierley Hill.
3. In fact, far more sensible to keep the tram on the railway from Cinder Bank roundabout to connect it with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.
4. The freight trains will have to run at night.
5. The billions planned for more tram extensions must go to give everyone the totally Fare-Free Public Transport that I have had for the last 17 years.

Two of these trees remain after four felled for the Merry Hill tram stop:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

Their foolish plan shows the scale of the destruction and idiocy:

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

This map shows what is still left for railway TRAINS, not trams to be reinstated:

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

Positive, practical, sensible Climate compliant action here:

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

Some fun at the expense of the bigwigs, here:

 Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

Many thanks

The Epitomy of Incompetence

The idiots in charge put the BCIMO Innovation Centre and VLR test track (now in administration) on the site of the former Dudley Railway Station with its continuously welded track and concrete sleepers.  It was more recently used as the Dudley Freightliner Depot until the 1990s when it closed.

This principal mainline railway between London and Edinburgh via the road congested Black Country, then was to become the Metro tram extension from the first mainline railway converted to tramway.  After nearly 20 years of trying, this first mainline to tramway was finally achieved in 1999 when it opened for trams instead of trains!  This then led to more decades of them trying to put a tram extension on the Black Country Mainline Railway through Dudley instead of trains, would you believe!

After many cock ups, work having to be redone and failures, the Dudley Tram is expected to finally arrive at the VLR Innovation Centre and test track in time for Christmas 2025 - but, after all that, this will still be only for the first half of the 10.7 Kms extension!  The leader of Dudley Council, Cllr Fred Hunt, had told me in the mid 90s, in all seriousness, that the tram would arrive in Dudley by the year 2000!!  He, like all his fellow councillors in 40 years of failure have NEVER wanted trains reinstated, only trams!

What utter and complete idiots.  What a shambles.  Unbelievable stupidity by professional transport experts and politicians.  Taxpayers' money shoved down the drain - never for TRAINS only trams between London and Edinburgh through the Black Country!

BCIMO has failed

See Dave's email to me, below.

This is a major financial and transport scandal and a wicked waste of many tens of millions of pounds.  Quite apart from wrecking the London to Edinburgh mainline railway through the heart of the Black Country.  All because of their foolish obsession with trams on railway lines and taking over or duplicating bus routes!

I suggested, in 2014, that they built their VLR Innovation Centre at the former steel site at Moor Street, Brierley Hill.  They could then have used the 3 Kms track up to Pensnett High Street.  But they knew best and ignored me!!

"Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation, who operate the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley, has fallen into administration."

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: david parsons <dave0861@outlook.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2025 at 16:06
Subject: My prediction has come true.
To: Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com>

Hi Tim.

I thought that would inform you that, the VLR centre at Dudley which was built on the Former BR Freightliner depot and blocking the former South staffs trackbed  from ever being used as a through Rail route from Stourbridge to Lichfield have gone into receivership.

Once promoted by Dudley council leader P Harley & former mayor A Street at a cost of millions as being the future for innovative light rail technology in Dudley has been a white elephant.

Having finished its one and only main contract of development and testing the VLR vehicle for Coventry town centre has currently closed its doors due to lack of orders.

As I have said in my previous emails this was an exercise in throwing money down a drain, it was never needed, there are already other test sites in Britain like at Long Marston for testing and development of light rail infrastructure and vehicles etc.

Most builders of light rail vehicles such as CAF or Stadler have their own research facilities and the point of an independent company to do the same research makes no sense as there is not enough projects to go round that justifies light rail development.

It will now be interesting to see what happens next to this site, most of its test track is in a 949 yard tunnel under Dudley, not really ideal for examination of a vehicle if something goes amiss.

Of course the next waste of money will soon be the arrival of the Metro in Dudley.

This project persistently runs out of financial funds every few miles it's completed & despite funding in the chancellors last fund review, may still not reach that gem of a place to travel to Cottage St Brierley Hill.

Interestingly last Friday, I chose to walk from New st station, to the figure of Eight pub in Broad Street  Birmingham & left my mate outside the station to catch the tram.

I got to the Figure of Eight pub first.

Enough said I think.