There seems to have been a bit of chaos in Parliament yesterday. Zarah Sultana MP had this to say about it:
“When Parliament needed to rise to the moment, it instead descended into farce. My constituents, the British public, and of course the Palestinian people, bombed and besieged in Gaza, desperately want an immediate ceasefire.
That’s what all MPs should be demanding.”
She talks sense, that Zarah Sultana.
Analysis of yesterday’s parliamentary stuff seems to be that rather than really discussing how to demand a ceasefire (without, of course, offending anyone, being accused of all kinds of bias, and upsetting arms manufacturers and exporters!!) what was happening was an exercise in scoring political points against the other parties. And the vote seems not to have taken place. And now lots of MPs are expressing their lack of confidence in the Speaker, while at the same time saying what a nice bloke he is.
Meanwhile, people are still dying, if not from bombs and missiles then from starvation as aid is not getting through. Seeing tv coverage of bags of flour spilt on the ground and people scrabbling to pick it up and carry it away is heartbreaking - young boys filling their pockets for lack of any other way to carry it.
Here’s some more related lack discussion, from the Guardian:
“Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Wed 21 Feb 2024 12.58 GMT
Last modified on Wed 21 Feb 2024 13.18 GMT
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, cancelled plans to meet the Bethlehem-based Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac, saying he could not meet him if he shared a platform with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestinian rally, the pastor has said.
Isaac, the pastor of the Christmas Evangelical Lutheran church in Bethlehem, who has been highly critical of Israel of in Gaza, saw his Christmas sermon go viral when he said if Jesus Christ was born today it would have been under the rubble.
He spoke at a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign rally at the weekend where Corbyn was also a speaker after being invited by the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot.”
Somehow the archbishop of Canterbury’s version of Christianity does not seem all-embracing.
Elsewhere the Russia - Ukraine business continues. It’s taken a bit of a back seat later but it’s still there.
And all I have to worry about personally is whether the rain is going to stop or not! So here’s something else.
Years and years ago, 1968 to be precise, four of us, Modern Languages students from Leeds University, set off together to spend a term at the University of Murcia in Spain. As this was well before the advent of EasyJet and RyanAir, we travelled by train: a train to London from the North West of England, what we used to call the “boat train” from London to Paris, train from Paris to Port Bou, where we had to change trains again as the Spanish railways had a different gauge, and a final stage of a train with wooden seats.
It’s the early stage of our travel that I want to reminisce on. We arrived in London late at night, with the “boat train” leaving early next morning. So we stowed our luggage in the left luggage office (do they still exist?) and went walkabout in London. One of the highlights of our wanderings was the Post Office Tower, only a couple of years old at that point and probably the tallest thing we had ever seen! Its revolving reataurant at the top was a famous novelty. Now it’s being sold to a hotel chain and will be open to the public again, or at least to those who can afford it.
The Guardian asked for readers’ memories of the Post Office Tower. Here’s one of them:
More than half a century on, Annabel Brown, 71, remembers visiting the BT Tower’s restaurant with her father in 1970 as a young student. “I was new to London and it was breathtaking. My father was someone who really embraced new things, and it was the place to go then. It was totally awe-inspiring because you moved all the time.”
She went on: “The BT Tower was modern, very eye-catching, and dominating because it was the biggest thing around. Now it’s dwarfed by other buildings, but then it was really special.”
Here you go!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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