Recent Thinking

Recent Observations

Much of my time is spent reading various reports, news items, and analytical pieces, which in turn I may share or comment upon with others.

In between all of that I will produce various short analytical observations which are just too short to turn in to articles, but which you might find of interest.

Here are a few of the most recent ones.

The St Francis Cafe

Now how is this for a fine example of why many religionists just don’t think logically.

There is a Christian bookshop just around the corner from where I live. Outside of it is a oversized A board, which in passing I should mention is both an obstruction and unlicensed. Upon it there is a list of what a cafe in the shop sells. This includes dead pig corpses, which are otherwise known as bacon.

What I don’t understand is how they can do such a thing if they have read or heard about St Francis.

If they had done so then it would be known as the St Francis cafe, and only have vegan food for sale.

Then this on Budget Day

Today’s budget has cut taxes on climate damaging petrol and diesel which fuel extreme energy personal vehicles.

What should of been done is make boots and shoes VAT ( sale tax ) zero rated. That would of encouraged more people to walk more and thus save our environment. has cut taxes on climate damaging petrol and diesel which fuel extreme energy personal vehicles.

The Current and Future wars

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing a lot is reading about the weapon systems now being used in the Ukraine, and which in turn will have a major effect upon the arms trade.

The main points being that there will be a lot more small drone weapons in use, with more missile launchers used, while tanks have become much more vulnerable to attacks.

Some NATO countries such as the Netherlands have already started to move away from the use of tanks.

Longer term I think there will be a lot more 3D printers in use nearer to the fighting.

All of which we do need to keep in mind for future arms trade campaigning.

Think Now In Order To Act Now

No Matter What Your Main Concerns Might Be

No campaigning can be effective in isolation.

That is why we need to think in terms of Joined-up-campaigning.

Joined-up-campaigning requires doing a lot of joined-up-thinking,

It requires having lots of imagination.

It means being able to be very pragmatic, yet very consistent in terms of Ends and Means.

Then applying all of this in the way we act and live our lives.

Never has it been more important to act and think this way.

Land Use & A Vegan World In The Making

On January 26th I Reached 48Plus3.

That is 51 years since turning Vegetarian, and three since becoming Vegan.

Over the last decade I have penned a number of pieces which are on my blog about aspects being vegan, land use, and related issues.

At some stage I should write about all the related issues which I keep banging on about.

They are: –

Using more of the countryside to create forests.

Creating Urban orchards.

Using more urban space of the creation of allotments and for greenhouses.

Producing food at the point of use which can be done by putting up greenhouses on the land at the side of supermarkets which are currently wasted as parking lots.

All of which will link in to a sustainable urban transport system.

Then create vegan food production projects which will negate the need for so many food banks.

But most of all: –

Shrink The Suburbs !

Over The Last Few Months

I’ve been meaning to do an update about just what I have been doing of late, but not been able to do so until now.

So here goes ….

During the year I was interviewed for the 5CaleRoad project.

A part of the interview is now to be found here

The full interview will be archived at the Bishopsgate Institute.

I did spent some time working upon the Liverpool anti arms fare campaign,

as well as the more long term Anti nukiller power campaigning work, even though it is still very difficult to get any protest events organised.

I’ve also been dealing with some of the ongoing spycop issues.

Talking of which it looks like I will be an octogenarian by the time the spycops public inquiry is completed.

Aside from that I have managed some day trips of late to such exciting places at Wigan, Chester, Preston, and Wrexham.

I also got to the Manchester Anarchist Book fare, and the protest march about the Tory Party conference which took place in the town during September.

Just like a lot of other people I do hope it will be possible to do much more over the coming months.

Here’s Hoping.

Liverpool Arms Fair Protests

An Arms Fair on Liverpool City Council Premises.

In June 2014 Clarion Events hosted the annual UDT [Underwater Defence Technology] exhibition at the Liverpool City Council owned Arena and Convention Centre.

There was a small protest outside the event which I was involved in organising.

Here it might be noted that the UDT events take place at different venues each year.

After protests about the UDT event in Glasgow during 2018, the Glasgow City Council decreed that it would no longer support arms fairs in any of the premises it owns.

The Arms Fair Postponed

During 2020 it become known that another arms fair would be taking place at the Arena in Liverpool.

This was the Clarion Events organised AOC Europe 2021 (previously Electronic Warfare Europe) arms fair.

AOC [The Association of Old Crows] is ‘an organisation for individuals who have common interests in Electronic Warfare ‘.

Due to Lockdown this event was postponed.

Following on from an outcry about this event, Mayor Joe Anderson stated that he and the Council would develop a policy to prevent such events taking place in Liverpool in the future. Unfortunately he was unable to pursue this policy, as shortly afterwards a scandal about the way the City Council operated resulted in him resigning his post, while a police investigation in to this matter continues.

Then with the ending of lockdown it was announced that the Electronic Arms Fair would go ahead in October 2021.

Protests during 2021

What happened next was that the Merseyside Pensioners Association

organised a series of lobbying pickets and demonstrations both outside various Council meetings and at the Town Hall.

That culminated with a national Protest March which attracted several thousand people, and finally a rally in the city centre.

Here it might also be noted that a large number of the City Councillors signed a statement calling for the arms fair to be cancelled.

With the announcement that the arms fair would go ahead, the musical group Massive Attack cancelled a concert at the venue in protest.

Yet despite all of these protests the Liverpool City Mayor Joanne Anderson said there was nothing she could or would do to have the arms fair cancelled.

On the day that the Arms Fair started there was a large demonstration outside the Arena.

Campaigning for an ethical policy

There is now a campaign calling for the City Council to instigate an ethical policy, and to change the articles of association of the Arena company in order to prevent any further arms fairs happening in the future.

The next AOC Europe is scheduled to take place in Montpellier, France during May 10th to 12th 2022

Observe And Take Action.

Have You noticed ?

We are now living in a Dystopian nightmare where image is everything, but reality is hard to see.

Time flows in different ways while the booze flows.

For politicians who get drunk on their own self delusions the long term effects of this kind of thinking are very heady stuff, but we all have to suffer from the results.

While we all buy in to some form of referral to brand names, or Kapitalist propaganda, as it is constantly thrown at us via the ‘Mass Media’.

Paid to act for.

Anyone who lives within Brexitland will be very familiar with how politicians are making a nice living as advisers or sit on the board of various companies.

That is on top of the previous Cash for Question scandal of a few years ago, which should be classified with what is otherwise colloquially know as ‘Rent in Kind’.

None of these observations are in anyway new.

Only one thing is new about it all, is just how many of these scandals have, or rather are, coming to light within such a short period of time.

In a just or more egalitarian society all of this would be regarded as absolutely shocking, but the citizens of Brexitland are well used to learning such things about elected politicians.

It all flows in to us developing a very high appreciation of hard bitten satirical humour.

Where our attention should really be focused upon.

Meanwhile in the real world, and away from the Westminster Village, there are other more important issues to deal with. All of which I keep repeating time and time and time and time again.

What is now becoming really obvious is the way in which Greenwash exasperates many of the problems we have.

Moving from extreme energy [ petrol and diesel personal vehicles to battery powered ones is not going to solve the urban mess, or encourage people to walk more.

Neither is spending tax payers money on an infrastructure to support them going to help finance all the tram and train networks which we so desperately need.

While the idea which is currently being flogged that Nukiller power is the solution to stopping climate change can only be described as ill founded.

Nukiller power is a cause of global warming.

Yet again it is a case of not properly focusing upon both the issues and realistic solutions.

Radical Orthodoxy

That is the name for a series of articles which I have in mind to write.

This starts from the perspective that the focus of any radical perspective must come from how we might create a more just, and balanced ecologically sound world.

That must include what is by Its nature radical Orthodoxy.

The first of these is about council tax which came in to being after the struggle to abolish the poll tax. Yet council tax is a grossly inequitable burden upon both single people and pensioners. So should we not be looking at a more just version of the poll tax ?

The 2nd issue is about how we might better move goods by rail rather than by road.

After which we can also start to pull down the motorways. Yippy !

In order to do so we will need to extend the rail network, and better use the existing railways. This includes supporting the building of HS2 and HS3.

I know that both of these ideas will produce a lot of criticism way before the articles are written.

Yet we do need to look at these issues with a lot of fresh critical thinking.

So which radical periodical would like to publish either of those pieces ?

Soviet Afghanistan War Protest

On the 12th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, fellow pacifist activist Albert Beale and myself picketed the embassy of the then USSR about the war.

It being just after Gloom Day no one else was willing to join us with the protest.

Of course the embassy was closed that day, but we did manage to hand in a letter of protest.

It might also be added that for several years such protests had taken place in Denmark.

Given the current situation in Afghanistan, I wonder just how much different things would be right now if more activists had taken up the issue at the time.

Rail Atlas – An Activist Review

S.K.Baker

Rail Atlas    Great Britain & Ireland.

Crecy Publishing Ltd – Manchester

15th edition 2020     First published in 1977

152 Pages               ISBN 978 0 86093 681 7

There is something about maps which we all find fascinating, both as works of art, or as geographical representations.

Yet they are also very important reference works.

The Rail Atlas

Unlike most maps or rail passenger maps, this work includes the following: –

– Private lines and depots.

– Proposed railway lines.

– Heritage Railway lines.

&

– Ferry routes with the names of the shipping lines.

That includes both passenger and freight shipping lines.

It also includes an Electrification Map.

Across the Channel

The Rail and Ferry connections across the English Channel are very detailed.

This includes the following: –

– The Channel Tunnel lines at Ashford and to the north of Folkstone.

– The Various Ferry routes from Ramsgate and Dover.

&

– All the various lines around Calais.

Of Particular interest to Activists

MOD Lines

What many individuals do not realise is just how many MOD [military] railway lines and depots there are.

These include such places as : –

– Ludgershall [ Tidworth ]

– Longtown

&

– Glen Douglas

There are also the better know line in the Devonport dockyard near Plymouth.

Nukiller Waste

Anti nukiller power activists are concerned with the movement of highly radioactive used fuel rods transported by DRS [ Direct Rail Services ] along the main railway lines.

This includes the branch lines which go to the various reactor sites.

There is for example a short line in to Torness, a Goods & Nuclear Waste Terminal to the south of Thurso in North East Scotland, and the Ashford to Dungeness line.

DRS has depots at both Crewe and Carlisle.

Yet the most interesting and least well known line is from Sellafield to the ‘Low lever’ nukiller waste dump at Drigg in Cumbria.

While the Sellafield / Windscale plant has a number of sidings which are shown in the atlas.

Anyone

Anyone who is interested in knowing more about all the various rail lines which could be better used for the carrying of passengers, and goods, should have a copy of this atlas.

At £20 it is extremely good value for money.