The importance of checking the date of your passport. Some Brexit stuff. Accepting responsibility for Gaza.

I spoke to my son last night. We don’t speak often enough as he lives in Buckinghamshire and is very busy and we live in outer Manchester and are not quite as busy as he is but still find lots of things to occupy us. I thought it would be an idea to speak to him before we head off for Portugal at the start of next week. I texted him to ask him to call when it was convenient. So he chose a quiet moment while his wife and his good friend were coordinating sleeping arrangements for three ten year old girls.

His good friend Chris and the good friend’s daughter were at his house for the evening. In fact the daughter was going to stay the night, as was another friend of my granddaughter. A brave pair, my son and his wife, accepting to have three ten undoubtedly excited year old girls sleeping in their house. His good friend should have been on a skiing holiday with his wife and children but at the last moment they had realised that the ten year old daughter’s passport was on the point of expiring. So his wife and eight year old son have gone skiing and he has remained at home with his daughter! Oops! The best laid plans and all that sort of thing!

We checked out passports recently, having heard some horror stories of people being turned away at security in the airport because of confusion over passport issue and expiry dates. Ours are fine. We won’t be refused right to travel … not this time anyway. 

I keep hearing reports of European passport holders with settled status here in the UK having passport problems when they travel to their country of origin to visit family and in particular when their passports are due for renewal. Just a little Brexit problem! 

And now there are things to do with costs of bringing food stuffs into this country. We’ll be back to British beef andYorkshire pudding! No more exotic un-British ingredients! 

Here’s another bit of Brexit stuff, from a source I have forgotten:

“It’s not often you get a really good laugh on the daily BBC Politics Show but there was one today. Following a discussion about the UK Farmers protest, Headmaster, historian and author Sir Anthony Seldon asked the other three panellists, (Tory, Labour & LibDem) “What benefits have been forthcoming due to leaving the EU” i.e. Brexit. To be fair the LibDem lady said there were none. The Tory and the Labour MPs gave an excruciating example of a certain logic which explained no advantages of Brexit into stating how good it was. In other words there are no benefits at all from Brexit but we will continue to pretend that there are.”

So it goes.

Now for something more serious. From Media Lens, there is this:

“Five British prime ministers have stopped arms to Israel in the past, including Margaret Thatcher when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, and Tony Blair who stopped the export of UK weapons that could be used to suppress Palestinians during the Second Intifada in 2002. But not Rishi Sunak, so far, in 2024.”

(Who would have thought I might praise Mrs Thatcher?)

Media Lens points out that we are all complicit in what is going on in Gaza. Well, not you and I, not so much the man in the street, not personally, but our governments and our media. 

“British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who spent over a month treating patients at Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals in Gaza, told Amy Goodman in a Democracy Now! interview:

‘I blame the Western journalists, who perpetuated the narrative that militarized the [Al-Shifa] hospital as a justifiable and an acceptable target to the Israelis. These genocide enablers, these Western journalists, from the very beginning, peddled these stories that the Israelis were feeding them about Shifa being on top of this massive complex of a command-and-control center. And their job was to enable the genocide to take place. And the genocide can only take place if the health system is destroyed.’”

They point protective Israel-defensive headlines, such as this from the New York Times after thenWorld Central Kitchen vehicles were attacked:

‘Founder of World Central Kitchen says several workers killed in Gaza airstrike’

No mention of Israel. Middle East historian Assal Rad said:

‘Covering up Israel’s crimes enables them to commit more, name the attacker.’

Headlines such as “Deaths of Gazans desperate for food prompt fresh call for ceasefire” and ‘Gaza could face a famine by May’ make it appear that this is some kind of naturally-occurring disaster, on a par with earthquakes and tsunamis. 

We need to accept responsibility. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

Thoughts for Thursday.

Today began cloudy but has turned a little brighter - not what you would call sunny but the clouds have become thinner. It is quite nice to be able to run round the village without getting rained on. 

Now, time for a selection of stuff I’ve seen online, 

From today’s Guardian;

“Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

Exclusive: More than 600 prominent lawyers sign letter that calls for end to exports as a ‘measure to prevent’ genocide

Three former supreme court justices, including the court’s former president Lady Hale, are among more than 600 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges warning that the UK government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

In a letter to the prime minister, the signatories, who also include former court of appeal judges and more than 60 KCs, say that the present situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and that given the international court of justice (ICJ) finding that there is a plausible risk of genocide being committed, the UK is legally obliged to act to prevent it.”

Back in December 2023, Zarah Sultana said this:

“Israel’s war on Gaza is not the first time British-made weapons have been used for war crimes, but it must be the last.”

From March 27th 2024 - in the Jewish Chronicle

“The United Kingdom could be closer to halting arms exports to Israel over the war in Gaza after more than 130 parliamentarians signed a letter urging Whitehall to cut off weapons sales.

A letter sent to Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch says that the scale of violence committed by Israel is "vastly more deadly" than previous conflicts in 2009 and 2014.

British defence exports to Israel totalled £42 million ($53 million) in 2022, according to Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.

Labour Party MP Zarah Sultana co-ordinated the letter, which was signed by 107 MPs and 27 peers.”

A friend posted this from Richard Burgon Labour Party MP cor Leeds East:

“Today I spoke at the national demonstration for Gaza. 

I said our Government must take urgent action against the Israeli Government's refusal to respect the UN ceasefire vote and the International Court's rulings. 

It should start by ending arms sales to Israel.

Ceasefire Now!”

Yesterday Zarah Sultana MP posted this:

“Gaza starved & a convoy of international aid workers killed, incl 3 British citizens. 

Ak Shifa hospital destroyed & doctors executed. 

32,000 people slaughtered & a “plausible” case  of genocide at the ICJ.

What will it take for our government to act and ban arms sales to Israel?}

 But not all Labour MPs feel that way. I can’t remember where I  found this:

“Shadow minister Pat McFadden is clear - Israel is an ally, Labour aren't calling for a ban on arms sales to them, & if Labour win the next election they'll continue selling arms to them.”

Ah well, we should console ourselves that we will soon be able to do a tour of Balmoral castle … for a mere £150! Where does the money go to.

I also heard this

“Each summer Buckingham Palace opens to tourists, offering a glimpse into the lives and work of royals past and present. And this year, for the first time, visitors will be able to get a behind-the-scenes-view of those iconic balcony appearances.

Buckingham Palace’s East Wing will be open to the public for special guided tours during July and August. The tours will include the Centre Room, which leads out on to the balcony and, as such, is where the family gathers before and after balcony appearances. Tourists will not, however, be able to stand on the balcony itself.”

Surely the whole point for selfie-loving loyal royalists would be to snap a selfie waving from the balcony!

That’ll do for now.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

Slow Wednesday. Chats with random folk. Allotment life.,

 

I was going to say that today got off to a slow start but, considering that I got out of bed almost immediately the alarm rang for the second time, that’s not really the case. However, time has gone past and here we are in the afternoon. Maybe it’s just me going slow. 

For weeks and weeks now, every Tuesday evening, usually quite late when he remembers, Phil gives my bike the once-over - well, he checks brakes and tyres - prepping it for my departure to the Uppermill Wednesday market. And Wednesday morning has come around with rain and wind, making this fair-weather cyclist reluctant to go out on two wheels. Okay, on two of those Wednesdays I had appointments with the optician and had no plan to cycle anywhere but there have been a prodigious number of rainy Wednesday mornings. 

So this morning I looked out, saw that it appeared to be fine and got myself organised to cycle. Of course I did get rained on, or rather drizzled on, but not enough to be a real nuisance. The bridle paths I ride on were extremely puddly after last night’s rain, which was heavy, and It was probably easier to be on a bike and ride through the puddles slowly, if rather splashily, than to be on foot and have to circumnavigate them. 

On all the bridle paths at the moment there seem to be wide “trample zones” where walkers have gone off the path to avoid the puddle. This is not good for the local environment; a all path-side plants don’t grow and plant diversity is reduced. That’s the end of the eco-rant!

Maybe I cycled slowly or maybe it’s the fact that I seemed  to find a fair number of people to stop and chat to but it was late morning by:the time I returned home. In my defence, I did cycle on to Greenfield Tesco in my hunt for a few items that neither the coop nor the market sell.

One of my stop ’n’ chats was with the Don Zapato, or whatever his name is, who has the shoe and slipper stall on the market. Somehow a simple “good morning” led to comments on the weather which led to discussion ef Easter processions cancelled because of rain and wind which led to visits to Spain. He confessed that he voted in favour of Brexit but would now vote to stay in the EU if we were to have another referendum. Fat chance of that!

He was persuaded by Nigel Farage’s rhetoric about taking back control and such like but since then has reached a point in his life where he wants to spend more time in Spain, or even go and live there. Like many people he has realised that life was simpler without Brexit restrictions. Too late, mate.

I also had a quite random chat about allotments with a chap who was taking photos of land by the canal in Uppermill. The photos related to a project to turn more canal-side land into allotments, as has been done successfully closer to Uppermill centre. He turned out to be someone important in Uppermill Spiritualist Church (who knew it still had regular events and organisers?) as well as being president of Delph Allotment Society. We talked about the satisfaction of growing your own vegetables, the second such conversation I have had this week. The first was yesterday with the chap on the industrial estate who runs a workshop for fixing, cleaning and polishing expensive cars. He lives at New Barn, close to Slackcote, where we lived some 30, almost 40, years ago and grew our own potatoes. The New Barn resident keeps pigs and chickens and thinks we live in the best place in the world.

Today’s allotment man revealed that five people have been asked to leave their Delph allotments, for failure to maintain them properly and actually grow stuff. They have been snatched up by people on the waiting list. I have often contemplated applying for one of the plots but maybe I have grown lazy as I have grown older. Would I be ejected for neglecting the plot? I think that nowadays I would be as much a fair-weather gardener as I am a fair-weather cyclist. Use it or lose it!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Water shortages. Too much rain for processions. Ongoing aid distribution problems in Gaza.

In a television news broadcast last night I saw a report about Mexico city running short of water. Just to check that I hadn’t misheard I looked for information on the Internet and found this:

“Mexico City, one of the world's most populous cities could be just months away from running out of water. It's been brought on by a combination of geography, mushrooming growth, and leaky infrastructure all compounded by the effects of climate change.

Emily Green is a journalist based in Mexico City who's covered the story for NPR (National Public Radio, an American non-profit media organization).
“There are restrictions on water use. I think it very much depends where you live in the city. And that is maybe like the entire world, you know, if you have more money, and you're going to feel the impact of the water shortage, much less.
That said, I think what's unique right now is that it is being felt city wide. And I'll just use myself as an example. I live in one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Mexico City. And while reporting the story, the water stopped flowing from the top, I'm going to had a sink full of dishes, zero water coming.
For me, it was a little shocking. I haven't had that happen in a while. But that is actually a daily reality for many people in Mexico City.

I would say that there is two major factors. One is extremely old infrastructure in terms of the water pipes. So the city loses around 40 percent of the water recedes because of leaks in the pipes. And that's been a long standing problem.

But on top of that compounding that is climate change. And that is really what's happening right here, you have this very volatile combination of old infrastructure, combined with climate change, which means there have been years of much less rainfall than normal. This is the level of the reservoir that provide the water to Mexico City, the very low. And so that's what's happening now this kind of volatile combination.”

How strange that a city originally built on a group of islands in a lake (Lake Texcoco, to be precise, where the city of Tenochtitlan was built in 1325 by the original inhabitants, well before the arrival of the Spanish in 1492) should be running out of water. 

Meanwhile here in the UK there are warnings that we too might face a summer water shortage (assuming it ever stops raining and we actually get a summer)  because we’ve not built new reservoirs - n por presumably maintained the ones we already have - for decades. That sounds about right. After all, we’ve known since forever that the sewage treatment system needs updating but now we have raw sewage going into our rivers. Hey! Ho!

On the subject of rain, here’s a link to some photos of what happened to Spain’s Easter processions this year because of bad weather. The ancient statues which are usually carried through he streets during Holy Week are too precious to be exposed to the rain but it’s interesting to see how they still manage to cover some of them in plastic and try to go ahead. 

Elsewhere, among the latest developments and setbacks in aid-distribution in Gaza comes the news that World Central Kitchen, the organisation that has been trying to coordinate the distribution of the inadequate* air-dropped aid, has had to suspend its activities there because their lorries have been subject to rocket attacks. 

(* “Critics say the airdrops by the UK, US, France, Spain, Jordan and other countries are “inefficient, dangerous and expensive” and primarily aimed at diverting public anger as international powers fail to convince Israel to allow more aid to reach Gaza.” So say news reports.)

Quite how a government can claim to be involved in peace talks while still attacking aid convoys just beggars belief. But then so does the idea that they needed to destroy the Al Shifa hospital because 200 Hamas activists were sheltering there. 

Wikipedia tells me “Al-Shifa Hospital was the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza Strip, located in the neighborhood of northern Rimal in Gaza City. The hospital was first established by the government of Mandatory Palestine in 1946, and expanded during the Egyptian and later Israeli occupations. During the Gaza War, much of the media coverage came from correspondents reporting from the hospital”. 

Maybe it’s the reporting they had to get rid of. 

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!

Oversleeping. April Fools’ Day. Meal deals. Minor problems!

 My alarm rang this morning. I “snoozed” it. It rang for a second time. I “snoozed” it again and woke up a good hour later. Presumably I switched it off by mistake and then was lulled back to sleep by he sound of rain on the skylight windows. My body played an April Fools’ Day joke on me. Today is the First of April, after all.

Origins of April Fools' Day

Some historians speculate that April Fools' Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. 

People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

I once tricked a whole A-Level French class into believing they were having a surprise test. They grumbled and moaned but, being basically a nice set of teenagers, they set about answering the questions with a will. And then I went a put a paper fish on every table! Teachers have to get light relief somewhere! 

There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.

History of April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people's derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.

There have been some famous April Fool jokes, such as the ‘documentary’ about the spaghetti trees. Spaghetti that didn’t come in tins in little hoops drowned in sweet tomato sauce was still a rare and exotic thing back then. We wouldn’t be fooled now. Although there are still people who break dried spaghetti so it will fit in the pan of boiling water, or so I am told. 

There’s a thing going round on social media (a meme?) saying that April

Fools’ Day has been cancelled because no-one can think of pranks worse than what is happening in real life. I don’t seem to have found any spoof news items in today’s papers. It’s too late now anyway - if you play a trick after midday you are the April Fool.

Enough of that.

i read an article about meal deals the other day. Part of it was in praise of the concept of meal deals - a “main course” (if a sandwich or a pot noodle counts as a main course), a drink and a snack for a reasonable price, cheaper than buying all three items separately on different occasions. Boots the Chemists do it, although quite why a pharmacy sells food is a different matter altogether. Marks and Spencer food hall does it. The major supermarkets do it, especially in their small city-centre high street manifestations. It’s very popular with workers who can’t be bothered or don’t have time to take a packed lunch to work with them. 

According to the writer it’s a singularly British thing. She’s not found an equivalent in New York. I think that in Spain and Portugal and possible France and Italy there are still plenty of small restaurants offering a “menú del día”, probably slightly more expensive than a supermarket meal deal but infinitely more satisfying to sit down at a table and maybe even have a glass of wine! 

The writer went on to moan about the fact that Sainsbury’s have changed the classification of at least one item in their meal deal. A yogurt used to be considered a “snack” but now it’s a “main”, much less satisfying when the writer tried the combination. Besides she had difficulty choosing a “snack” that wasn’t a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate.. And by four o’clock in the afternoon she was hungry again!

A very British problem. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!