Strandlife

Assorted social media posts . . .

My parents always voted Conservative, but that was over 50 years ago, and the Conservative Party was an altogether different organisation back then. The current Conservative Party is the successor to those who marched the streets in black shirts.

This in reply to various ill informed and distinctly uncaring posts about the King’s prostate treatment . . .

“Yes. Because prostate cancer is still not taken seriously except by those of us who have had it. I hope this publicity may help to save the lives of some men.”

Peter Howard. “Good point Ian – I had mine removed some years ago and am cancer free now thank God. And like you I would encourage men to get checked out.”

Getting a bit outspoken about the awful Boris. “An out and out rotter” as my Mum would have said . . .

“Boris Johnson is a narcissistic, serial liar and adulterer – but he is also dangerous because as with Trump, Hitler, Mussolini and other populist leaders, he has a following. His problem is that he would like to lead but does not have the ability to do so.”

On various comments such as “not my Country” or “not my King” in reply to the possible necessity of introducing conscription because of the activities of Putin in Ukraine and elsewhere . . .

In 1933 at an Oxford Union debate the motion that “This House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country” was passed 275 to 153. Six years later they were doing just the opposite. Gen Z will no doubt do the same if/when the crunch comes. Just like August 1914.

Some thoughts on the awfulness that is the current Government – if it can be called that . . .

I do not think the UK can produce a person (male or female) willing and suitable for the Office of PM. I think suitable, talented, people exist, but they sensibly steer clear of our tainted politics and put their abilities to good use elsewhere.

The introduction of long delayed Brexit legislation provisions may impede the import of certain fruit and vegetables . . .

Given the amount of fruit and veg stuff that we buy currently that comes from outside this country (sometimes very far outside !) I foresee yet more empty shelves, possible real food shortages and rationing for some items. The latter already happens when we submit our Tesco delivery order.

 
Hi,

This is a bit different to what I’d normally send.

For a start, I’m writing something that’s inevitably going to be longer than I’d usually aim for. And it’s also the first of two emails I want to share on this subject.

That’s because I’m going to update you on our work in the Middle East and Ukraine – which I suspect you’d agree is too important to cut short.

I know it’s been a while since we shared what’s happening. It’s not that our partners haven’t been working night and day – but the truth is, in any ongoing conflict, there comes a time where we worry about the impact of sending daily or weekly updates. We’d run the risk of overwhelming you or contributing to any sense of crisis fatigue.

And the information we get can be difficult and distressing to hear about, so we need to get that balance right.

But faced with some pretty bleak milestones – more than 100 days of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and nearly two years since the conflict escalated in Ukraine – we wanted to bring you up to speed.

So I’m going to share what we’ve been doing recently (and by ‘we’ I mean various Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and members globally).

And I’m going to start with what’s happening in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Over the last three months we’ve witnessed death, destruction and displacement on a staggering level – it’s an unbearable human tragedy. These are just some of our most pressing concerns in Gaza:
 

1.7 million people have no home. They're living in makeshift shelters, cars or even out in the open. It’s freezing, so hypothermia is a real threat.
Most families barely eat one meal a day. Severe food insecurity is affecting 80% of the population – a number that’s only going to rise.
Disease outbreak is a very real risk. Largely driven by poor sanitation and an acute lack of clean drinking water.
Hospitals can’t run. There's no fuel. Hundreds of thousands of people no longer have access to healthcare.
Over 100 people taken from Israel are still being held captive. Very little is known about the conditions they’re in. Families are left tormented, imagining the worst.

It’s clear that it’s an incredibly volatile, dangerous situation. And you’ve probably seen that some of our colleagues from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Magen David Adom in Israel (MDA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tragically lost their lives while trying to save others.

Despite the risks, these teams along with the Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ECRS) continue to work tirelessly to help those affected by the conflict and alleviate suffering where they can. Here’s a few headlines on their response:
 

Providing emergency medical care and psychosocial support. Over 15,500 people in Gaza and over 3,800 in the West Bank have received emergency medical care. More than 38,100 people have been given psychosocial help.
Getting vital humanitarian aid across the border. The ERCS is playing a key role in getting items like food, water, milk, blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits and medicines over the Rafah crossing. Over 5,900 trucks have been delivered so far.
Setting up shelters. PRCS has set up 300 tents in Khan Younis and welcomed 190 families there, with the hope of expanding capacity to 1,000 tents, enough for 6,000 people.
Constructing a new field hospital. In collaboration with the Qatari Red Crescent, the PRCS is setting up a hospital in Rafah with 50 beds, an ICU and an operating room.
Continuing to call for hostage release. The ICRC continues to call for the immediate release of all hostages, and for access to them. They’ll do this until the hostages are safely home.

There’s no question that the last 110 days have been extremely challenging, upsetting and divisive.

But it’s also shown why our principles of impartiality and neutrality are so important and why the Red Cross is vital in a crisis like this. We’re not here to take sides – we’re here to help people who are suffering.

I appreciate there’s a lot to take in here, but I hope it’s been a helpful summary. My next email will focus on Ukraine and will be landing in your inbox soon.

Until then, take care and thank you.

Katie

Katie Johnson
British Red Cross

Some hae meat an canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang ‘s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut ye up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll make it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Good luck to you and your honest, plump face,
Great chieftain of the sausage race!
Above them all you take your place,
Stomach, tripe, or intestines:
Well are you worthy of a grace
As long as my arm.

The groaning trencher there you fill,
Your buttocks like a distant hill,
Your pin would help to mend a mill
In time of need,
While through your pores the dews distill
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour wipe,
And cut you up with ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like any ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm steaming, rich!

Then spoon for spoon, the stretch and strive:
Devil take the hindmost, on they drive,
Till all their well swollen bellies by-and-by
Are bent like drums;
Then old head of the table, most like to burst,
‘The grace!’ hums.

Is there that over his French ragout,
Or olio that would sicken a sow,
Or fricassee would make her vomit
With perfect disgust,
Looks down with sneering, scornful view
On such a dinner?

Poor devil! see him over his trash,
As feeble as a withered rush,
His thin legs a good whip-lash,
His fist a nut;
Through bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit.

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his ample fist a blade,
He’ll make it whistle;
And legs, and arms, and heads will cut off
Like the heads of thistles.

You powers, who make mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill of fare,
Old Scotland wants no watery stuff,
That splashes in small wooden dishes;
But if you wish her grateful prayer,
Give her [Scotland] a Haggis!

My response . . .

“A meaningless promise. What are they going to do with the sewage, put it in their back gardens ? The solution requires every premises to have two separate drainage systems. One for waste water and sewage and another for rain run off. This will take years and require big spending.”

Where we used to live in the NE of England new housing estates were beginning to have rainwater catchment ponds for run off which would presumably slowly drain into the surrounding soil. But these would be a very small remedy in a long established area of many houses, commercial premises and industry.

My response . . .

“We get our groceries weekly by the Tesco delivery. We have a local butcher that does deliveries – there is also a fish and vegetable van. The Pharmacy also delivers prescriptions but not purchases, and the window cleaner comes round too. And the wheelie bin truck !
I wish the Coop would deliver too.”

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/days-like-these-an-alternative-guide-to-the-year-in-366-poems-brian-bilston/7445776?ean=9781035001668

A brief summary of each day of the year, and Brian Bilston’s thoughts on the matter.

Members of our family are currently heading north west across the Atlantic Ocean on their way to San Francisco – in the little red aeroplane at the top left of this image. But look at the air traffic shown in this small screenshot ! I am no fan of Rishi Sunak, but when he goes somewhere by private jet the media go mad about his extravagance and disregard of the emissions his aircraft is making. Meanwhile larger and bigger emission makers are operating day and night, every day, every week, all year round. But no media outlet known to me castigates all these travellers.

Daft, innit ?

The image above is the world view of the air traffic situation as at 12.11 hrs on 1st January 2024.

Just a gentle reminder that you don’t really need an enormous vehicle for your transport needs. “Four wheels and an engine” is all you need, and small is good.

I came across Angela Thirkell a long time ago, I cannot remember when or associate her with any particular place where we have lived – and they are many. All are set in the county of Barsetshire – the Barsetshire invented by Trollope. She does not plagiarise Trollope in any way – but if you have read Trollope it is interesting to find occasionally that Trollope’s character’s descendants are still in residence. The books are not long, you might call them extended short stories. She paints character extremely well, and you know instinctively that she has met and known well real life people who have provided the material for her imagination. She has a good sense of humour and can and does send up people and organisations, but gently and without malice. The BBC comes in for criticism these days so it is interesting to read her BBC employee’s remarks in “Wild Strawberries” published in 1934, and to feel Mrs Thirkell’s sense of the ridiculous and the pretentiousness behind them. “High Rising”, illustrated above, is book No. 1 and there are 28 more to keep you going.

I find her descriptions of life during WW2 very accurate. Rationing affects everybody, and there are kind shopkeepers who keep things back under the counter because they know that there is going to be a child’s Baptism or some other special occasion and produce the goods at the right moment. She does not go anywhere near battlefields, the battlefield is definitely the local home front, but she catches the constant, nagging, worry of the women keeping things going at home and in the village as husbands and sons disappear into HM Forces and news of them is hard to come by. In one book a man who has been a prisoner of war in the Far East is located by a man who has government ‘connections’ as being still alive, and eventually returns. Another returns with a lump of metal inside him, says little, never complains, until at some later date he has to be whizzed off to the local hospital where the Surgeon has to do some tricky work to get this thing out without killing or paralysing the patient.

This I have now finished. Irene and Alan Taylor have been through many diaries and journals and some of the diarists discuss with themselves just what those words actually mean. The oldest entries are from John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys and they range through recent history as far as 1997, and the book was published in 2000.. It is a very thick book and is not deigned to be read at a sitting. I read it from the beginning , a few entries a a time, just before going to bed. But another way would be to start at the day when you first open the book and read each day’s observations as their author’s penned them. There are 170 diarists here, so a lot of work has gone into this.

When I was a small boy, just turned six a few days before, King George VI made his usual Christmas broadcast in Christmas Day – a tradition which, I am glad to say, continues. The war had been going since 3 September. The Norway Campaign had come and gone, none too successfully, and it was pretty obvious even to a small but that we had to improve a great deal in order to meet the Germans on an even footing. Thus, the Kings’s quotation struck a chord with most people we knew, and it was subsequently available in printed form, with I think, the King’s signature and picture, and my parents had it framed and hanging in the hall for many years, during the war and after.

When my Father retired, after 40 years in the City of London, their house (and their neighbours houses) became subject to a compulsory purchase order*, and using the compensation they took themselves off to Ferring in Sussex, where they ended their lives. Presumably about then, the framed quotation got lost, or perhaps when their house at Ferring was subsequently sold after their deaths. Who can say ? But the quotation impressed me mightily as a boy growing up and I am sorry it disappeared after I had long since left home.

My Father started work in 1918 with ‘The Employers Limited Liability Assurance Corporation’ which eventually merged with he Commercial Union. There is very little about it on the web, but I found this under the Aviva Insurance Company listing legacy companies that have subsumed . . .

The Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation was incorporated in October 1880 to offer employers’ liability and general accident insurance in the UK. It was the first company established to offer the former. Its chairman, Lord Claud Hamilton MP, insisted that they made employers work to prevent accidents by refusing to insure those it did not consider to be taking proper precautions. The company merged with the Northern Assurance Company in 1960 under a new holding company, the Northern and Employers Assurance Company Ltd. This was acquired by Commercial Union in 1968.

And, apropos of nothing in Particular, the Great Eastern Railway had a locomotive named “Lord Claude Hamilton“.

• : The replacement for the demolished houses can be seen on Google Maps below . . .

A Pot made by our Granddaughter,who has only recently started pottery. A very “special” pot.