Saturday 30 May
A new school for Swimbridge: this exciting project is now out for public consultation (Planning Application 81658, until 24 June). So glad the funding from DfE came through. There are concerns about access to the school from Liverton Drive and its impact on residents. The Transport Assessment (TA) unfortunately refers to it as Laverton Drive, probably because of Autocorrect (which causes many errors and is very hard to get rid of). A more substantial assessment is still forthcoming from Highways.
Sunday 31 May
Guy Standing coined the term ‘precariat’ and offers an analysis of this deprived group’s role in our politics: https://www.opendemocracy.net/the-precariat-election-ignoring-class-and-insecurity-imperils-labour/?ref=weekly-newsletter
Monday 1 June
I visited the display celebrating the 60th anniversary of Resurgence magazine at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon. Who could resist sitting on a ceramic stool by Sandy Brown to write some comments on the exhibition? I was honoured to have a piece published by Resurgence a few years ago in a round-up of new eco poetry. Congratulations to the magazine and thank you to the Museum.
Tuesday 2 June
It emerges from newly disclosed documents that Lord Mandelson’s response to the anguish of Wes Streeting over mass killings of civilians by the IDF In Gaza was that the then Health Secretary was suffering ‘a mid-life crisis’. The roots of the Labour leadership’s loyalty to the Israeli government, despite all the evidence of genocide, are revealed by Paul Holden in his book The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Labour Together, and the Crisis of British Democracy, published last November.
A wigwam has been created in our Streamside Community Garden in Swimbridge. I watched as children from the Pre-School planted beans to climb up it - a delightful occasion organised by David Netherway with singing led by the Rev Peter Bowers.
I attended Goodleigh parish council in the evening. The small village of Gunn is in my ward but is represented by Goodleigh, which isn’t. I went along because I feel that Gunn risks being neglected because of its anomalous position. Thanks to help from its county cllr, Andrea Davies, Goodleigh has a speed-sign (more technically a Vehicle Activated Sign or VAS). Cllr Karen Smith of Gunn feels that her village needs one too, because of the reckless driving along its main road. I immediately contacted the county cllr for my ward, Ed Tyldesley, about this and he has pledged support. We are hoping that this will be on the agenda of the next Goodleigh pc. A VAS costs around £4k.
Wednesday 3 June
Rage on the streets of Southampton last night and in the Commons at PMQs. I salute those who, like James O’Brien on LBC, remembered and shared the words of the judge in his summing up at the trial of Henry Nowak’s murderer, whose lies he condemned:
Another consequence of those lies is that the attending police officers honestly
believed that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting Henry had
committed an offence and arrested him with the consequence he was
handcuffed for about a minute before his condition further deteriorated and the
arresting officer began CPR. The police were given a convincing but wholly false
narrative of the incident. It was dark and Henry was wearing a dark top. The
entry damage caused by the knife through it, would not have been obvious.
Whilst there was visible blood on Henry, it would not have clearly been seen
coming from that wound and the clearly visible facial wound was not life-
threatening. Henry was complaining that he had been stabbed and was
struggling to breathe but that would not have necessarily told the officers how
serious the situation had become. It is the experience of the criminal courts that
sometimes, someone arrested and handcuffed will feign injury in the hope they
may be released. These police officers were faced with having to make quick
decisions in pressurised circumstances about the best way to act. The genuine
shock to the particular police officer, when he realised that he had been giving
CPR to Henry when he had a serious chest wound tends to show that he was
doing his best in a very difficult situation.
Vigil week 133 - photo by Trina Stevenson
Thursday 4 May
The Today programme featured interviews with Lord Mann and a Jewish doctor on alleged antisemitism in the NHS. Neither interview mentioned the word genocide. It is wrong that a Jewish person should feel uncomfortable about visiting an NHS hospital but not as wrong as Israel deliberately blowing up hospitals, bombing ambulances, murdering or arresting and torturing medical staff and withholding funds due to the Palestinian Authority with catastrophic consequences for the now shattered health service in the West Bank as well as Gaza. I wonder if Lord Mann and the Jewish medic have seen the C4 documentary Doctors Under Attack? The interviews were grotesque, disproportionately portraying Jews as victims while the Jewish state continues with its genocide of Palestinians.
At home, the charger for our first electric car has been installed. Another small step in removing fossil fuels from our lives.
Bridge Hall in Barnstaple is open and at lunchtime I attended my first performance there - by a group of local young actors / directors / writers called Theatre Workhouse. They were splendid. The annual Fringe Theatrefest will be holding events there soon. In the evening I went to St Augustine’s Church, Heanton Punchardon, for a celebration of the poetry and songs of Edward Capern, North Devon’s Victorian Postman Poet. His biographer Liz Shakespeare adroitly set the scene and two of my favourite musicians - Becki Driscoll and Nick Wyke - performed the songs with élan (see photo above). The Capern Festival has been organised by Steve Crowther - many thanks to him - and sponsored by Devon CPRE. Does everyone know what that stands for? Is it the Council for Protecting Rural England or the Council for Preventing Renewable Energy?
Friday 5 June
We have a new Town Cllr in Ilfracombe - our Green candidate Nic Jenner received 396 votes. Mel Turnbull - another fine candidate, standing as an Independent but very Green - received even more votes. Great team effort by the Greens - brava Nic and Mel!
The latest Ethical Consumer magazine arrived today (online). It mainly focuses on AI, assessing the companies using a set of criteria: Climate, Company Ethos, Digital Privacy, Israel-Palestine, Military Links (Tech), Tax Conduct, Workers. The Microsoft and Google brands are at the bottom, ChatGPT is just above them. There is a worldwide boycott of ChatGPT over concerns about militarisation, surveillance and authoritarianism. At the top are Thaura, Lumo and Le Chat. However, the magazine urges us to use AI sparingly as all systems are energy, hardware and water hungry.
Wildlife: I was amused to find that the wildflower patch in the Parklands (see photo above) is referred to in the Transport Assessment for the new school as ‘unmanaged land’. Unmanaged in this context means cordoned off, rotorvated, sown with wildflower seeds, the arisings cut and cleared away in year one, then re-sown, re-cut, and arisings removed (by scythe and mower), in years two and three - all by volunteers (helped by grants from the Tarka Country Trust). The Yellow Rattle is slowly asserting itself and, by parasitising the roots of grasses, making space for more wildflowers. Thank you for reading. A book recommendation is below.
