Photo: Noem has been sacked, belatedly, since the scene above was staged
President Twerp has unleashed Operation Epstein Distraction aka Operation Civilian Carnage aka Operation Bomb Girls’ School aka Operation Epic Fury. Julian Borger correctly described it in the Guardian last Saturday as ‘an unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American public’. (Barely a quarter of Americans approve of Twerp’s new war). On Friday an article in The Conversation raised a major issue I have not seen highlighted elsewhere: ‘A prolonged disruption at Hormuz would not simply re-price crude; it would test the resilience of the industrial nitrogen cycle on which modern civilisation depends. Oil powers cars. Nitrogen powers crops. If the strait of Hormuz closes, the most consequential price may not be Brent crude but the cost of feeding the world’. On Friday 6 March we had another warning, reported bvy the Guardian: Qatar’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said it could take ‘weeks to months’ for energy exports to return to normal levels even if the war ended immediately, following an Iranian drone strike at the country’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. He warned the conflict in the Middle East could ‘bring down the economies of the world’, as the world’s second-largest producer of LNG was forced to declare what is known as force majeure, when a company is freed from contractual obligations in the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond its control’. Also, Twerp’s new war will surely encourage aggressions by other ‘great powers’.
The Republican-majority Senate should rein in their dangerous president but won’t: they own this latest murderous intervention, which began with the bombing of an elementary school, killing 160 children. The likes of Farage and Badenoch see nothing wrong with this. Zack Polanski was clear on the Green Party position on Bluesky last Monday: ‘The events of the past 48 hours have laid bare Keir Starmer’s utter inability to stand up to Donald Trump - and this weakness could have serious consequences for the safety of British people. We now face being dragged into another illegal war in the Middle East which has now pulled in multiple countries. People in this country do not want this and it must not be allowed to happen. Starmer must withdraw permission for the US to use UK bases to launch airstrikes on Iran and parliament must be given a vote on any UK involvement’.
We only just caught up with Channel Four’s three part docudrama Dirty Business. Brilliant, especially the portrayal of a previous head of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan – now extraordinarily on the board of Welsh Water. Prompted by the series, Surfers Against Sewage have a petition / letter writing campaign: thank you C4 and SAS. I’m sure the stupidity of water privatisation and our campaign to reverse it are among the many reasons for a new poll from Sky TV which showed that the Green Party is the ‘most popular party in all age categories under 50. Some 49% of 18-24 year olds would back the Greens, as well as 27% of 25 to 49-year-olds - the top choice’. Membership has been growing at the rate of 2,000 a day since Hannah Spencer’s victory in Gorton and Denton.
Photo: Brian Garman
We held our 120th weekly vigil for Palestine on Wednesday. The Palestinians in Gaza are being systematically starved once again by the brutal, out-of-control Israeli government. The horrific killing there and in the West Bank continues. Our government remains complicit and apparently unconcerned.
My recent council work has included reporting an abandoned car left in a narrow street in Swimbridge – efficiently removed within a week of my report. Residents have suffered Anti Social Behaviour incidents in the village. Now an arrest has been made and an individual is in prison awaiting trial.
I remain a regular reader and fan of Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, especially when she urges the Labour government to bring in proportional representation so that we don’t stumble into a ‘Reform’ government: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/04/nigel-farage-vote-keir-starmer-politics
On Monday I attended a meeting in the Guildhall about bidding for Barnstaple to be Town of Culture 2028 and have sent in suggestions for ambitious events we could create with the money on offer. The FB page is #BigupBarny. A portrait of our most famous literary son, John (Beggar’s Opera) Gay, hangs in the Guildhall: I’ve always thought that the engaging actor Richard E. Grant bears a strong resemblance to him. Coincidentally, the shortlist of Northern Devon’s Flourishing Culture Awards has just been announced. This is the second year of the awards: they are an excellent way to recognise achievement and make it better known. The awards will be presented at the Barnstaple Hotel on 13 March.
I spent much of last Saturday virtue signalling busy with community tasks, starting with scything and raking the wildflower meadow in Swimbridge Parklands: last autumn we left an area uncut as a wildlife refuge over the winter. Using a scythe rather than a strimmer means one has a better chance of avoiding mouse nests and early flowers such as celandine and dandelion. In the afternoon I litter-picked in our local lanes – there were 18 volunteers out and about around the village. I filled two black bags quite quickly. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon but the tranquillity was broken three times – the first two were the clamouring of foxhounds not far away near Halmpstone; the third was the sound of a hunting horn. Some of my most cherished friends and relations have loved riding to hounds but the sounds made me think only of cornered, terrified, outnumbered prey. Thank you for reading.