ocean…

I went along to the Watershed tonight to see David Attenborough’s new film 'Ocean' (unsurprisingly, it’s about the oceans!) – released on this 99^th birthday and providing a backdrop to his remarkable career and to how much we’ve learnt during his long lifetime.
After watching so many of his nature programmes on the BBC, I somehow felt it was important for ME to see this film as my personal acknowledgement/appreciation of his lifetime’s work (yes, I know that sounds a bit pompous!)… and a recognition that he’s unlikely to be with us for very much longer.
The film didn’t disappoint.
As you might imagine, the film is an array of stunning cinematography but it’s much, much more than that. It’s a breathtaking journey showing that there is nowhere more vital for our survival than the ocean. The film bluntly exposes the harsh realities and challenges facing our oceans - from destructive fishing techniques to mass coral reef bleaching. The footage of large ‘fishing factory’ boats scraping huge areas of the ocean floor was truly sickening… and yet, these boats were fishing legally and, in many cases, with the full support of key nations. The percentage of oceans that have protection orders is currently absolutely tiny (something like 3%); apparently, there’s a resolution at the forthcoming UN World Oceans Day pressing for this cover to be increased to approximately 30%.
Despite the horrors, the film’s story is also one of optimism - with Attenborough pointing to inspirational stories from around the world, providing a lens of hope. It’s been shown that the ocean has the amazing ability to recover and indeed flourish.
Attenborough’s leadership in these matters has been (and remains) utterly inspirational. It would be a fitting legacy to know that we heeded his wise counsel before it’s too late.
A brilliant, depressing and yet encouraging film that governments across the world should be compelled to watch… and act on urgently. 
You need to see it too!
Note: UN’s World Oceans Day on 8 June.

chasing the sun…

I went along to the Watershed last night (together with great friends Sarah and Dave) to watch a film about cycling. Nothing to do with the Tour de France or professional bike racing… this was simply a documentary film about lots of cyclists endeavouring to ride 205 miles coast-to-coast (UK South event: Thames Estuary to Weston-super-Mare) in a day – the longest/summer solstice day.
It’s NOT about speed or being first across the line. It’s about how much of a land it’s possible to see, to feel, by bicycle in a single day (in 1973 an American university professor set out to discover the most energy efficient creature on earth… and he concluded that it was a human being on a bicycle!).
It’s now an annual event – and there are other similar coast-to-coast rides organised on the same day in Italy, Scotland and Ireland (with others being planned elsewhere). Ollie Moore (the person who first came up with the idea) views the event as giving people an opportunity to get away from their screens and daily clutter and creating a “space for thinking” and re-attuning the senses to being surrounded by nature and allowing individuals to see things they wouldn't normally see. Moore was inspired by Richard Long, the English sculptor/land artist – who attended last night’s film (Long would document his walks through nature by opening up his senses, drinking in the sights, sounds and sensations he was feeling on his bike or his walks). It’s also about the environment and ‘saving the planet’.
The film has interviews with people who have discovered (or re-discovered) the health and environmental benefits of cycling in their own cities, towns or villages… and many who are passionate advocates for ensuring greater provision of dedicated cycling space on our heavily-trafficked streets.
The film includes rather wonderful footage of (and conversations with) a couple of cyclists participating in the coast-to-coast ride – a woman who had never previously contemplated cycling any such sort of distance and a man who talked about how cycling had massively helped his mental health.
It’s a passionate, joyful film and I hugely enjoyed it.  

living with nature and uncertainty…

Somewhat ridiculously, I watched two television documentaries a couple of days ago, back-to-back (I know… some people have to go to work!).
If you didn’t get a chance to see the BBC’s “The Great Mountain Sheep Gather” programme (first shown in 2020), it’s currently back on iPlayer and well worth watching. It’s a 100minute documentary about sheep farming on Scafell Pike, England’s tallest mountain. Every summer, half a dozen shepherds and perhaps 20 sheepdogs gather a flock of 500 native Hardwick sheep from some 1,200 acres(?) and bring them down the mountain to the farm for shearing. It’s an event that has taken place in the Lake District for over a thousand years. It’s a humbling account, seen through the eyes of Lakeland shepherd Andrew Harrison – the knowledge of the dogs, farmers and sheep passed down from generation to generation for centuries, the challenges of life in the fells, and the conflict posed by visitors and the 21st century… Some of the smaller farms have been sold and the farmhouses converted to holiday homes. There are less and less experienced farmers and shepherds remaining to pass on knowledge acquired over generations. Harrison talks movingly of the pride and respect he holds for the land and the privilege of doing what he does.
It’s absolutely mesmerising and quite, quite brilliant.
The second documentary was the first episode of Simon Reeve’s “Wilderness” programme - a journey into the Congo Basin (it’s taken me a long to get down to watching the series)… with its exotic wildlife, awe-inspiring landscapes, and terrifying rise of deforestation. It’s a powerful tale of the importance of conservation. Reeve and his ranger/conservationist guide
canoe along the Motaba River, before trudging through thick vegetation to meet the nomadic Baka (an indigenous people with very limited interaction with the western world). Reeve and his guide are warmly welcomed and the women of the village immediately proceed to construct impressive, elaborate huts to accommodate their overnight guests.
In the morning, they’re taken by the men in the village to gather honey. Like every Baka hunting haul, the treasure is, instinctively, equally shared. A telling remark from Reeve’s guide (“They take what they need, not what they want”) stayed with me long after the programme had ended.
Another hugely impressive insight into another world.
Of course, the two documentaries are very different – about lives on different continents and in very different circumstances – but there was something of a humbling connection between them… about how people live off the land with skills and knowledge passed down from generation to generation… and yet both with uncertainty about what the future had in store for the generations to come.

the great mountain sheep gather…

This programme was first shown on BBC4 in April 2020. I missed it the first time, but just watched it on iPlayer.

It’s a 100minute documentary about sheep farming on Scafell Pike, England’s tallest mountain, and so you’re probably not interested in watching it… BUT I really think you should.
Every summer, half a dozen shepherds and perhaps 20 sheepdogs gather a flock of 500 native Hardwick sheep from some 1,200 acres(?) and bring them down the mountain to the farm for shearing. It’s an event that has taken place in the Lake District for over a thousand years.
The Great Mountain Sheep Gather charts this journey across the fells with epic bird’s-eye view photography descending into the valley below. The gathering commences at dawn (in thick mist) and takes some 7 hours to complete – over foggy peaks, crags and incredibly rough terrain (no electric quad bikes here!).
As the fog lifts to expose the breathtaking landscape, and the small pockets of sheep merge into one big group, the voice of Lakeland shepherd Andrew Harrison allows us to see this unique world through his eyes – the knowledge of the dogs, farmers and sheep passed down from generation to generation for centuries, the challenges of life in the fells, and the conflict posed by visitors and the 21st century. Harrison explains that some of the smaller farms have been sold and the farmhouses converted to holiday homes. There are less and less experienced farmers and shepherds remaining to pass on knowledge acquired over generations. Harrison talks movingly of the pride and respect he holds for the land and the privilege of doing what he does
The documentary is beautifully put together – with the shepherd’s insights, poetry (written by Mark Pajak), bleats, barks and birdsong echoing down the valley creating an evocative natural soundtrack (no background is required!).
And, of course, once the flock has assembled at the farm, five hundred sheep now have to be sheared! It’s a shepherd’s life…
It’s a quite, quite wonderful and a hugely humbling account of the challenges, skill, knowledge and bravery needed to care for a flock in this rugged land.
PS: I’ve previously read the wonderful James Rebanks’ books ‘English Pastoral’ and ‘The Shepherd’s Life’ - about the Rebanks’ family having been sheep farmers in the fells of the Lake District for several generations and, like Harrison, about his love and pride for the land he farms; for his family; for the knowledge that has been passed down to him (and that he, in turn, will pass on to others); for the way of life (and duty, obligation, continuity, respect…).
PPS: I read an excellent interview with Rebanks’ wife Helen in last Sunday’s ‘Observer Review’… she’s written a book of her own – shining a light on small-scale farming and the pressures of Brexit and the women who frequently hold things together. It’s on my booklist!
PPPS: Will environment minister Thérèse Coffey have a clue about the lives of sheep farmers like Andrew Harrison and James+Helen Rebanks? I suspect not (she’s SO keen on sorting out the state of our rivers, obviously!).

august 2022 books…

Wilding (Isabela Tree): This is our Bloke’s Books next book and tells the story of Charlie Burrell+Isabella Tree’s ‘leap of faith’ in handing their 3,500 acres of West Sussex farmland back to nature. The project started in 2000, when the couple were forced to accept that intensive farming of the heavy clay soils of their farm (Knepp Castle Estate) was driving them close to bankruptcy. Their project has since become a leading light for conservation in the UK – demonstrating how letting nature take over can restore both the land and its wildlife. It’s a passionate, articulate book and an inspiring story – well-researched and full of detail based on their own experiences, both the positives and negatives. It talks about how intensive farming has badly damaged the condition of our soil – resulting in the increased dependence of fertilisers and chemicals (which, in turn, fail to replenish micronutrients etc and eventually reduce crop yields) – and how re-wilding has reversed such declines. Sometimes, I found her enthusiasm somewhat off-putting but, overall, I found it a very impressive book (I learnt a lot) – although I think I’d avoid getting into a discussion with her at a party (What? Me, going to a party? Dream on!), as I could imagine her enthusiasm being a little too evangelical for me to take!
Falling Upward (Richard Rohr): I continue to struggle in my spiritual wilderness and a lovely friend lent me this book (“A spirituality for the two halves of life”) for reflection. Rohr is clearly a very intelligent, wise man (he’s a Franciscan priest) and his writings are full of astute insights… and many of my friends find him a huge support/encouragement on their own spiritual journeys. Somewhat embarrassingly, I’m afraid, I struggle with his books. I’ve previously read 2 or 3 of them and, each time, have found that they don’t really ‘speak to me’ in the way I’d hoped they would. On the face of it, I thought that this book (focusing on the ‘second half of life’) would provide a helpful roadmap on my own ‘journey’ and, while it did provide useful insights into what he described as the “mature spirituality” of growing old as a Christian, it didn’t tackle the important matter, for me, of ‘self-doubt’ (and, to be fair, the book never pretended that this was its prime objective). I think I probably need to read Brian McLaren’s book “Do I Stay Christian?”!  
Red Sauce Brown Sauce (Felicity Cloake): Cloake is (among other things) a food columnist on The Guardian newspaper and I read this book after Moira had said how much she’d enjoyed it. It’s essentially a travelogue of her cycle tour of the UK (plus the various train connections) to ‘investigate and celebrate the legendary Great British Breakfast’ – and in the process gauge the merits/popularity/preferences of brown sauce versus ketchup. I must say, she’s a very funny and entertaining writer and the book is full of her adventures, anecdotes, culinary details and amusing greed(!). Strangely, although it’s a really easy-to-read book, it took me quite a long time to finish it (it’s some 370 pages)… a very enjoyable read nevertheless.   
The Help (Kathryn Stockett): This is our next Storysmith bookgroup book… and, this month, it’s with a difference – we’re combining our get together with a viewing of the film at ‘20^th Century Flicks’. First published in 2009, the novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s at the peak of racial segregation. The book is narrated by three very different women: a black maid who, despite her excellent cooking skills, frequently loses her job for ‘answering back’; another black maid who is raising her 'seventeenth white child'; and, in sharp contrast, a white woman who wants to be a writer (who was herself brought up by black maids). The ‘help’ are the black community who spend their lives bringing up the children of upper-class white families - with their own children being looked after by someone else. The privileged whites are shockingly discriminating and demand continuing segregation of the black and white communities. It’s long book (some 450 pages) and, I thought, quite an onerous challenge for our monthly bookgroup… but I found it an utterly compelling, unforgettable account and managed to read it within 3 days (the final 250 pages in a late night/early morning stint!!). The author (who herself grew up in the ‘deep south’) writes quite brilliantly - informative, shocking, saddening, amusing and uplifting. A wonderful novel… which will almost certainly be one of my ‘books of the year’.
Glucose Revolution (Jessie Inchauspé): I’m really not into reading books about food(!) and blame my great mate Jez for recommending* this one to me (* he was verging on the evangelical!). It’s essentially a book about balancing one’s blood sugar (I have no real knowledge of my own blood sugar characteristics, but hey). It seems that 90% of us suffer from too much glucose in our system – although most of us don’t know it – and this book describes ways in which we can ‘flatten our glucose spikes’. Inchauspé (@glucosegoddess) has a science/mathematics/biochemistry background and writes in a simple, but very accessible, way about factors which she maintains can transform a person’s health. Fortunately (from my perspective), it’s NOT a calorie-counting food book but one in which she provides a series of science-based ‘hacks’/tips, such as: how eating foods in the right order can also aid losing weight; adding a green starter to every meal; walking/exercising for 10 minutes after a meal; reaching for vinegar (I know!) before you eat… and much, much more. The book contains LOTS of sustainable, accessible, practical guidance and, although I’m not very good at taking advice(!), I will endeavour to take some of them on board. I’m hoping to persuade Moira to read the book too – in the knowledge that as our ‘principal cook’ (and therefore the reason I eat as ‘sensibly’ as I do)(obviously, that’s MY assessment!), she’ll be implementing and encouraging me to take on board some additional ‘new eating habits’. 

vested interests…

Every now and then, I read about/listen to/watch articles/podcasts/documentaries that, on the face of it, seem to have only tenuous connections but which, coming across them within a few days of each other, resonate and leave me ‘pondering’.
Here are three recent examples:
UK GOVERNMENT:
The Tory government continues to depress me (understatement). Mr Johnson’s recent ‘resignation’ shenanigans (with ministers and MPs being offered various ‘incentives’ in order to back him) followed by the farce of the leadership ‘contest’ – with similar inducements and tax-cutting promises (when, of course, I would advocate higher taxes in order to properly fund the NHS, mental health, education, environmental measures etc) – while, at the same time noting such incidental matters as ‘the Tories can do whatever they want because they’ve got a huge majority’ (and a rubbish electoral system); an ineffective Opposition Party; and rumours that Mr Johnson will use his departure to announce the ‘elevation’ of several dozen Tory-backing individuals to the House of Lords (in many cases, rewards for being ‘generous donors’ to the Tory Party). I could write at length on this matter but, of course, my voice doesn’t count.
It’s all about vested interests, power politics, lobbying and greed.
BIG OIL v THE WORLD (Documentary, BBC iPlayer, 2022):
Arguably, this is the most important, depressing story of our time – about what the fossil fuel industry knew about climate change more than FOUR DECADES ago. Scientists who worked for the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon, revealing the warnings they sounded in the 1970s and early 1980s about how fossil fuels would cause climate change – with potentially catastrophic effects. Drawing on thousands of newly discovered documents, the film goes on to chart in revelatory and forensic detail how the oil industry went on to mount a campaign to sow doubt about the science of climate change, the consequences of which we are living through today. And then, how the 2010s became another lost decade in the fight against climate change – as the move to natural gas delayed a transition to more renewable sources of energy – with ‘fracking’ (technique for extracting gas and oil from shale rock) being promoted by powerful corporations as a cleaner energy source, but subsequently realising natural gas (releasing large quantities of methane into the atmosphere) could be even worse for climate change than coal and oil. Meanwhile, in the UK, last week’s newspapers reported that Shell and Centrica had posted profits totalling £11bn as households struggle with bills… and that British Gas had reinstated dividends for its shareholders after operating profits of £1.3bn; and that Shell had reported a £10bn profit between April and June; and that BP reported its biggest quarterly profit for 14 years.
It’s all about vested interests… power politics, lobbying and greed.
ISABELLA TREE’S BOOK WILDING:
The modern farmer was supposed to rationalise, intensify, diversify… get rid of small fields and hedgerows in the interests of getting the best use out of massive prairie-style machines and industrial farming techniques in order to maximise profits. Well, this inspiring book describes an attempt to renew the ecosystem, after decades of intensive agriculture of some 1,400 hectares owned by Tree’s husband Charlie Burrell at Knepp in West Sussex. The project, which began in 2001, is perhaps unique in England, and the results have been spectacular. In what has become a glorious ‘mess’, the animals live out in the open all year round and give birth unassisted by humans. Formerly common plants – but also rare ones – have returned in profusion, together with insects, bats and other organisms. Scrubland, wetland and other habitats are gradually rewiring themselves as herbicides and pesticides disappear. The increase in the variety and abundance of birds has been particularly astonishing. At a time when we’re ‘hammering the environment’, it’s a compelling and hugely encouraging, hopeful account about restoring what we have lost.
It DOESN’T all have to be about vested interests… power politics, lobbying and greed.
 
Somehow, we need to introduce an urgent sense of hope and fairness into the way we run this country. Sadly, at the present time, it seems all about self-interest, powerful corporations and banks, lobbyists… and a government on the side of the privileged and the well-off and where disrespectful/dishonest actions and attitudes go unpunished. Climate Change and Global Warming should be at the very HEART of our government’s agenda… but, at present, it pays only lip-service to an issue that threatens the very future of the planet.
Hamilton Nolan, writing in today’s ‘Guardian’, sums it up thus: “Capitalism is not designed to look several generations down the road. It is not designed to sacrifice for the greater good. It is designed to maximize profits. To pump every last barrel of oil on Earth, sell it, take the money and build a luxurious space ship to leave the planet that has been destroyed by burning all of that gas is a perfectly rational course of action according to the logic of capitalism. As long as there is a trillion dollars a year to be made, the fossil fuel industry will take the money. It is enough money to build a nice villa far, far away from the wars and droughts and floods and wildfires that fossil fuels are causing”. 

anthropcene: the human epoch + a short film about ice…

I went to the Watershed for the first time in 18 months (I know)!
The first film (2018, directed by Nicholas de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky) focused on how human activities have made significant lasting and potentially irreversible changes to the Earth… from the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia, to the concrete seawalls that cover 60 percent of mainland China's coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia's Ural Mountains, to surreal lithium evaporation ponds in the Atacama Desert. From the harsh industrial landscapes of Siberia, to the towering white mountains of marble in Carrara, Italy, to the uneven plastic peaks of Dandora Landfill in Kenya, watch the aggressive extraction of the planet’s resources in astonishing scale and devastating beauty. Six continents and stunning (and sometimes quite chilling) images chronicling the catastrophic path travelled by our species over the last century.
Following 10 years of research, the Anthropocene Working Group now argue that we are now in a new geologic phase (the Anthropocene epoch) - a time when humans now change the Earth (in significant lasting and potentially irreversible ways) more than all the planet’s natural processes combined.
My gut feeling was that perhaps the film could have been broken down somewhat differently in terms of subject matter/’chapters’ but, nevertheless, it’s an impressive and powerful film.
The other film (directed by Hannah+Felix’s friend Adam Laity) was rather lovely – beautiful (and frequently devastating) images of fragile landscapes set alongside poetry and literary extracts.
PS: I have to say that I’d been feeling somewhat apprehensive about returning to my regular cinema venue as we begin to emerge from the pandemic (fingers crossed). The Watershed people had put in place a number of sensible safety measures... and these all worked well – apart from the people in the audience who weren’t wearing face-masks (“We will continue to expect everyone to wear a face covering whilst in the cinemas”). There were only some 25 people in the audience but at least half-a-dozen were mask-less. It made me feel very uncomfortable… and, yes, a bit vulnerable.

brexit (my last words, promise)…

The UK is no longer a member of the EU… and, although I’ve found the whole process hugely depressing and extremely difficult to come to terms with, I now have to accept this and move on.
As you well know, the outcome of the EU Referendum was 51%: 49% in favour of Leave… but it’s interesting to note that, on 22 June 2016, these were MPs’ declared voting intentions ahead of the imminent Referendum: Tories 185 Remain/138 Leave; Labour 218 Remain/10 Leave; SNP 54 Remain/0 Leave; Liberal Democrats 9 Remain/0 Leave.
Depressingly, we call it Democracy.
(It saddens me to think how little the Labour leadership did in the run-up to the Referendum to positively endorse the Remain cause. If only…).
 
And so began the embarrassing four-and-a-half year process of our government painfully trying to work out what an exit ‘deal’ might be. Throughout the process, the EU negotiators seemed to be organised and knowledgeable, while their UK counterparts appeared to struggle to understand their ‘brief’ or their specific objectives.
I found the whole process both embarrassing and depressing… BUT (clutching at straws), I’m hugely relieved that the UK and the EU have at least (and at last) ‘agreed a deal’ (the alternative would have been unthinkable)… or, as Michael Heseltine puts it: “We must welcome the news that Brexit does not end in the chaos of no deal, but only with the sense of relief of a condemned man informed that his execution has been commuted to a life sentence”. 

To my mind, Brexit has been the biggest UK political disaster of my lifetime.
How many of the 51% who voted to leave, still think it was a really wonderful idea?
How many of them had any clue as to how much the process would cost the UK financially (and that’s just up to the end of 2020)?
How many of them have any clue of how the rest of the world now regards the UK?
How many of them knew what on earth they were voting for?
It seems to me to have been all about ‘immigration’… what a narrow-minded, bigoted nation we’ve become.

So, more than 40 years of cooperation for peace and prosperity has been reversed and Britain’s destiny has been re-shaped for a generation. It will be much harder for Britain to sell services to EU countries, where we were once advantaged (Britain will now be outside the world’s largest single market). We will lose the right to freely travel, work and settle in other European countries. Britain will be throwing up new barriers to trade with our closest neighbours. The Institute for Fiscal Studies reckons it will reduce the economy by 2% and add 3.5% inflation.
 
To my mind, AA Gill got it absolutely right in an article he wrote for ‘The Sunday Times’ (12 June 2016) just prior to the Referendum… and his own death:
“We all know what ‘getting our country back’ means. It’s snorting a line of the most pernicious and debilitating Little English drug, nostalgia. The warm, crumbly, honey-coloured, collective ‘yesterday’ with its fond belief that everything was better back then, that Britain (England, really) is a worse place now than it was at some foggy point in the past where we achieved peak Blighty…
“Culture works and grows through the constant warp and weft of creators, producers, consumers, intellectuals and instinctive lovers. You can’t dictate or legislate for it, you can just make a place that encourages it and you can truncate it.
You can make it harder and more grudging, you can put up barriers and you can build walls, but why on earth would you?
This collective culture, this golden civilisation grown on this continent over thousands of years, has made everything we have and everything we are, why would you not want to be part of it”.
Amen to that. 

bill bryson: the body

I love Bill Bryson’s writing! I’ve just finished his excellent book ‘The Body: A Guide for Occupants’. It’s absolutely packed with fascinating observations and detail. In the penultimate chapter (‘Medicine Good and Bad’), for example, here are just a FEW extracts about health in the US (note: by quoting this stuff, I’m not ‘having a go’ at the US – I’m merely aware that, eventually it seems to me, the UK follows America’s ‘lead’ in virtually everything!):

• “With regard to life expectancy… it is not a good idea to be an American”.
• “For every 400 middle-aged Americans who die each year, just 220 die in Australia, 230 in Britain, 290 in Germany and 300 in France”.
• “America spends more on health care than any other nation – two and a half times more per person than the average for all the other developed countries”.
• “Yet despite the generous spending, and the undoubted high quality of American hospitals and health care generally, the US comes just 31^st in global rankings, behind Cyprus, Costa Rica and Chile, and just ahead of Cuba and Albania. How to explain such a paradox? Well, to begin with, and most inescapably, Americans lead more unhealthy lifestyles than most other people... As Allan S Detsky observed in the ‘New Yorker’, ‘Even wealthy Americans are not isolated from a lifestyle filled with oversized food portions, physical inactivity, and stress.’ The average Dutch or Swedish citizen consumes about 20% fewer calories than the average American, for instance.”

Although Bryson (who was born in Iowa, but a British resident for most of his adult life) is enthusiastic about the UK’s NHS, he points out: “For Britain, cancer survival rates are grim and ought to be a matter of national concern”.  He’s also critical about the UK spending “too little” on health care: “The ‘British Medical Journal’ reported in early 2019 that cuts to health and social care budgets between 2010 and 2017 led to about 120,000 early deaths in the UK, a pretty shocking finding”.

Fascinating (and sobering) stuff.

and this will all end…

“In dreams we remember what was, we think about what is, we imagine what might be, what can be, what will be” (Eva-Jane Gaffney speaks Sarah Coffey’s words in “The Pheonix”). These words are taken from a really beautiful Irish Covid-19-inspired video about love, loss, hope and strength (if you haven’t seen it, I suggest you do so by clicking here).

The video manages to captures many of the emotions we’re all feeling at the present time… the sense of gratitude; the kindness shown by others; the awful suffering; the amazing heroes; the precious lives lost; and the enormous strength shown…

We probably all have our ‘wish lists’ of the things we will treasure when all this ends. Those MANY things that perhaps some of us have taken for granted… those simple pleasures… those things that help to make us who we are.

We will never ever forget it and we will never ever let go again.

And this will all end…

But before we get carried away by it all, it’s VITALLY important that we also never allow the people in power to forget the things that they got SO wrong and at such cost:

• The Prime Minister is very good at putting a ‘positive gloss on things’, but conveniently fails to acknowledge that the death toll in the UK is amongst the highest in the world; that NHS staff and other healthcare workers have not had the protective clothing and equipment they needed and would have expected; that the government could have increased testing, tracking and tracing capacity weeks earlier than the current timetable; and that care homes have been woefully under-protected.
• The Prime Minister skipping five crucial meetings on the virus (as reported by The Sunday Times on 19 April, in its massively-critical assessment); when he did attend in early March, it was almost certainly too late (the virus was already upon us) - failings in February probably cost thousands of lives; calls to order protective gear were ignored and scientists’ warnings fell on deaf ears (check out this week's 'Panorama' programme if you think I'm being unfair).
• The Home Secretary making disparaging remarks about low-skilled workers (when it transpires that the majority of people employed by the sector are low-paid care workers - who are responsible for providing daily help to older and disabled adults in care homes and the community).

Writer Philip Pullman doesn’t hold back in his criticisms of the existing system (in an essay in ‘Perspectives’ for Penguin Books): “It’s all got to change. If we come out of this crisis with all the rickety, fly-blown, worm-eaten old structures still intact, the same vain and indolent public schoolboys in charge, the same hedge fund managers stuffing their overloaded pockets with greasy fingers, our descendants will not forgive us. Nor should they. We must burn out the old corruption and establish a better way of living together… And let’s reform the voting system. At the very least, let’s do that without delay. It’s no wonder that people feel disconnected from politics when most of us live in safe seats, and might as well not vote at all. We must be able to see that our opinions are accurately reflected in the composition of our government, not completely disregarded as they are now. So it might lead to coalitions: excellent. Discussion, compromise, working together are exactly how to run a decent country”.

And when this will all end, you’ll ask me dance.

And I will say, yes, let’s dance.

I desperately hope that we come out of it all determined to make the world a better place.

I desperately hope that we remember the people and the jobs that make our day-to-day lives worth living.

I desperately hope that we truly decide to care for our planet.

I desperately hope that we can move away from the old world of greed and power, of the haves and the have-nots. My fear is that some will have very short memories and revert back (if ever they budged) to lives governed by wealth and influence.

I desperately hope that such individuals and corporations are overwhelmed by the voices of those who know there’s a better way.

We’ve learnt so much from this awful coronavirus experience. Let’s use what we’ve learnt to make the world a better place.

And this WILL all end…

We will cry… oh we will cry!

Photo: Banksey’s ‘Girl With Pierced Eardrum’ gets a Covid-19 facemask.

the people’s government?

Yes, the ‘people’ have spoken. Sadly, under the present ridiculous first-past-the-post voting system, this is what constitutes democracy.
But, under such a system, my voice is not heard. It doesn’t count.
Yes, one might say that people whose voices haven’t been listened to in the past, have now had their voices heard. Sadly, I fail to understand how such people believe that Mr Johnson is the answer to their prayers… but what do I know?
Perhaps, at the next General Election, I’ll be part of a group of people who feel passionately that THEIR voices haven’t been listened to… and suddenly, at long last, have their voices heard?
I live in hope.

So, after 9 years of abject Conservative government (my personal view, of course!) and abject Opposition from the Labour Party (ditto), we now find ourselves with the Tories re-elected with their largest majority since 1987.

It was billed by some as the most important election of our lifetime… and I think that’s probably true. The sad fact remains that one in three (yes, a third of the electorate) chose NOT to vote… and, of course, why would any winning Party choose to change a voting system that clearly worked for them?

Despite everything, I’m determined to try to be positive:

a) Who knows, this election might really be the time when one-nation conservatism genuinely comes to the fore and the Party reveals a compassionate side?
b) Who knows, this election might really be the time when Momentum ceases to have such decisive influence on Labour Party policies… and that a wise, charismatic Labour Leader emerges to take the Party forward.
c) Who knows, this election might really be the time when individual MPs from all Parties come together in an urgent ‘Green Alliance’ for the sake of the environment (and other stuff) for the common good?

I desperately longed for a ‘hung parliament’ in the perhaps naïve hope that all political Parties would finally realise that they needed to work together (I was opposed to a General Election in the first place). I desperately didn’t want Brexit to happen, but now it seems that I’ll just have to accept the inevitable (even though there were more people who voted for pro-Remain Parties than who voted for the Tory and Brexit Parties)…

So, yes, today I’m feeling close despair.
I’m feeling very sad.
Tomorrow is another day and bitterness is a debilitating and ugly force.
But it’s difficult.

despairing of politics…

Look, at my age*, I know that my voice counts for nothing (oh, how I wish the same could have been said of all those other ‘old’ people who were allowed to significantly influence the outcome of the 2016 Referendum!).
I no longer matter (well, at least that’s how I feel)… in 10 years’ time I may no longer be around.
But, in 10 years’ time, all my six grandchildren will be eligible to vote.
Sadly, I fear for what our nation might have become by 2030.
Actually, it’s more than fear…
It’s despair.

We have become a nation dominated by bitterness and division (surely the most divided in my lifetime) – largely as a result of the farcical (in my view) decision to hold an ill-defined referendum on EU membership (to placate Mr Cameron's divided Conservative Party). Home Office figures show there has been a sharp increase in racially and religiously motivated hate crime since the 2016 EU referendum. Where the UK used to be regarded as a beacon for stability, we have now become something of a laughing stock around the world.

Two days from now, the UK electorate will have cast their votes and, as things stand (if you believe opinion polls – but, these days, who does?), it would appear that the Tories will be forming the next government with a parliamentary majority of perhaps anything from 20-70 seats?

They will be introducing (virtually unopposed) measures that will include a speedy no-deal Brexit (after going through vague motions of trying to negotiate a last-minute deal with the EU and, of course, failing) together with lots of policies that will benefit the ‘haves’ against the ‘have-nots’. The pre-election ‘promises’ will no doubt be ‘clarified’, but are unlikely to prevent the ongoing privatisation of the NHS, the continuing deterioration of public services and the like.
In Scotland, the SNP is likely to see that the only way for them to remain in the EU is to opt for independence. The Tory UK government will publicly wring its hands at such a prospect, but privately punch the air in celebration (because it will serve only to increase their own power in Westminster).

After nearly a decade in Opposition (and at a time when it should have been only too easy to win arguments against a succession of weak Tory governments), the Labour Party has abjectly failed in its task. There are lots of intelligent, gifted politicians (of all parties) who have the experience and desire to change things for the ‘common good’, but their voices are lost behind Political Party smokescreens. They count for nothing.

Sadly, our political system does not work. Democracy is something of a farce. As things stand, given our ridiculous first-past-the-post electoral process (and where I happen to live), my vote doesn’t count. And, of course, any Party in power certainly won’t want to change a system that ‘works for them’!
Sadly, there seems very little prospect of things changing over the next 5 (or even 10) years.

Even if my vote did count, any chance that my own MP would be able to influence her Party’s political stance on individual issues is something of a pipedream, so what chance do I have? At the same time, we have right-wing biased newspapers/media in this country (and, sadly, I now also feel unable to trust the impartiality of the BBC).

So, like many people, I’m left feeling utterly isolated… and as if I live in a separate ‘virtual’ world where 95% of all my friends have similar views to my own… and yet, there’s clearly another virtual world out there that thinks completely differently… and, frustratingly, that’s the one that counts.

So, at a time when the Climate Change Crisis should be at the very TOP of its agenda, we’re likely to have a new Tory government who will frankly be paying little more than ‘lip service’ to the environment and are far more focussed on cutting taxes (at a time, in my view, when we need to increase taxes to help pay for the NHS, education, mental health, welfare and other ailing public services). I could give you a long list of lies and concerns relating to statements from Tory ministers (although other Parties are hardly innocent bystanders)… but I won’t bother (unless pressed to do so!).

In a recent article in the New York Times (entitled “Britain’s Dirty Election”), one voter admitted that she “was voting for Boris Johnson precisely because he is a proven liar. It shows, she said, ‘he’s human’”.
THERE ARE NO WORDS.

So, yes, I despair. I despair for my lovely, intelligent, articulate children… and I despair for their children (and their children). In 10 years’ time, when my grandchildren can vote (some of them will actually be able to vote within the next 5 years… and who knows, the voting age might have even been reduced to 16 before then?), they will find that their opportunity to influence a world that they love and feel passionately about is in fact absolutely tiny. I can only hope that they will be able to find and encourage others who have similar passions and beliefs…

I live in hope. x
Photo: from Antony Gormley’s “Blind Light” exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, 2007.
PS: * I must stress that I have a number of very lovely friends who are ‘somewhat older than me’… and who remain VERY active and resourceful and who contribute brilliantly to making all our lives worth living… so apologies for the rather negative ‘spin’ regarding my own ‘aged’ status! They’ll probably never forgive me! 

a letter to my MP about the climate crisis…

Dear Karin Smyth
You’re clearly a conscientious MP who works hard for her constituents and, despite not being a Labour voter, I sincerely thank you for that.
I appreciate it’s a pretty tumultuous (and depressing) time in British politics at present and that, after the Supreme Court’s ruling today, I suspect that things will continue to be both complicated and unpredictable (although I suspect there’ll be a General Election before the end of the year). Sadly, despite the awful mess the present government has created over recent years, The Labour Party has been an incredibly disappointing Opposition party – so many lost opportunities and own goals, so much muddled thinking and lack of leadership – in my view.
I’m an ardent Remainer when it comes to UK politics and am pinning my hopes on there being a second Referendum in due course (and look for the Labour Party to press for this).

However, I think the most crucial subject on the political agenda HAS to be Climate Change.

I don’t know if you attended the strike/rally/march on College Green last Friday? I didn’t see you but, if you did, I thank you for being there… and if you didn’t, why on earth not (it had been arranged a long time in advance)? You are in parliament representing people like me who feel they have very little influence both in this country and across the world. You, as my MP, provide one of the very few outlets I have to make my voice heard… and so it’s VITAL that you do so for me and for all your constituents.
Yes, Rebecca Long-Bailey had some positive things to say in her conference speech this week (Green New deal; targeting 2030 for zero carbon emissions; more charging points for electric cars etc), but it’s relatively easy to make such resolutions and to talk-the-talk (meanwhile, of course, Mr Johnson has been highlighting his own 'new' policies on bio-diversity; protecting wildlife etc).

The trouble is, as far as I’m concerned, that whilst many of these measures are welcomed, the electorate has become sick and tired of politicians (from all parties) simply paying lip service to the environment. No doubt, last week, you saw all the marchers from around the world protesting about the lack of urgency on the Climate Crisis. Millions of young people who frankly don’t trust people in your position.

What a sad, depressing state of affairs.

You will be only too aware of what Great Thunberg said at the UN Climate Summit on Monday:

“You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal… You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words… The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this… All you can talk about is money and fairy tale of external economic growth... How dare you! Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”

That’s very tough Karin, I know, but as far as we, your constituents, are concerned YOU are one of the few people who can speak for us… and we’re depending on YOU to do this on our behalf.

Every day.
Never easing off.

I wish you well in your efforts… and thank you.

Yours sincerely
Steve Broadway

PS: Please don’t send me a standard press release from the Shadow Environment Secretary giving me your Party’s position. We need much more than that.

youth climate strike…

Moira, Ruth, Felix and I (plus lots of friends we bumped into) joined Iris and her schoolfriends at College Green, Bristol at today’s Youth Climate Strike (and I know that Hannah+Ursa took part in a demonstration at Ursa’s school).
It was probably the biggest demonstration I’ve attended in our city (10,000, according to YouthStrike4Climate).
It was a global day of protest. It had been publicised weeks in advance… and, by the look of the television/newspaper/social media pictures I’ve seen, an amazing number of people from almost 150 countries turned out to make a stand and to demand urgent action from politicians before it’s too late.
It was an important, impressive, humbling day of protest.
My own generation are the guilty ones. Some of the guilt comes from lack of awareness, but much can be put down to people’s selfishness and greed.
Saying sorry isn’t enough. Obviously.

The frightening, depressing thing is that, even today (when we know so much more about climate change and its causes), some corporations, some politicians and some individuals are STILL turning a blind eye to the stark realities of the climate crisis… and putting off making crucial decisions on the basis of “promising to deal with the problem, once we’ve done X or Y”… or “it’ll be another politician’s job when I move on so, for time being, I’m not going to put the my head above the parapet (and, in the meantime, just feather my nest)”.

Clearly, some politicians feel passionately about climate change but, in all honesty, it seems that those in power (including Environment Secretaries) are simply prepared to pay lip service to the problem.

In a strange way, for some, today’s protest in Bristol was something of a metaphor for the Climate Crisis… “Climate Crisis? What Climate Crisis?” and perhaps “It’s not really going to affect me in my lifetime… I can’t do anything to change it, so I’ll ignore it”.
Three examples:
1.  We were walking into Bristol this morning with our banners/placards and a very pleasant young lady approached us to ask “what’s going on?”. “We’re going to the Youth Climate demonstration in town” we replied. The woman clearly didn’t know what we were talking about. “Have you heard of the 16 year-old Swedish environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg?” we asked. Completely blank response. “Climate Change?” Still nothing. She smiled and wished us well and we continued on our way (somewhat perplexed).
2.  Maybe I live in a bubble, but people had been talking about today’s demonstration for ‘some time’ (and especially over the past week). Surely, it would have been obvious to anyone who knew our city that there would be a large demonstration. It would have been talked about/referred to relentlessly over recent days on local radio and in local newspapers, social media etc etc. Silly me! Clearly, LOTS of motorists (mainly private cars and vans – although the local bus company obviously just ‘gave up’ until the streets returned to ‘normal’… with passengers abandoning their journeys) hadn’t a clue. Why on earth would you even dream of driving into the city centre at a time to coincide with a MASSIVE demonstration involving thousands of people? Well, let me tell you, they were there in their hundreds (thousands?)… with most of the drivers looking bewildered and frustrated. Ridiculous.
3.  This is somewhat similar to (2). Demonstrators had set off on their march around the city on a pre-planned route. Clearly, as we took to the roads, traffic came to an utter standstill. Some drivers blatantly refused to accept that they would be ‘inconvenienced’ for perhaps half an hour at the very least (there were an awful lot of people!) and kept their engines running. Very bad move… resulting in a long line of marchers chanting “engine off, engine off” as they walked past you. Humiliation. But, hey, I digress… one of these cars just happened to be a taxi… with a passenger (silly man had still to realise it would be quicker to walk)… and the meter still appeared to be running! It felt a bit like an encapsulation of the climate crisis itself – the clock is ticking and it’s now too late to do anything about it.

No doubt, we’ll hear from world leaders (there are always some exceptions… no names!) who will be applauding the enthusiasm and effectiveness of the demonstrators and will be promising to take action to do ‘stuff’. But, of course, we know it’s all hot air… pie-in-the-sky promises. Governments will NOT put their heads together at the Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September and commit themselves to making the huge carbon dioxide reductions that are urgently needed. They’ll agree on something that ‘sounds’ quite positive (for media purposes) but, actually they’ll be saying things: “well, we’d LIKE to do more, but country A doesn’t want to play ball, so neither will we – because we don’t them to have a commercial advantage”.

The scary thing (and there are LOTS of scary things relating to Climate Change) is that, after a day of worldwide demonstrations – which will no doubt earn praise and acknowledgement from national leaders – people will feel a little like Greta Thunberg, when she addressed the Senate Climate Change Task Force earlier this week:
“Please save your praise. We don’t want it. Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.
If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.
I know you are trying, but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
Action, not words… now, not soon.