CLLR MHB BLOG
Blog 41 - To march or not? - learning from Denmark - councillor news - wildlife
My iCloud allowance is almost at capacity so I have been going through thousands of photos and videos on my phone, deleting as many as I can. Unneeded files also waste energy, of course. I’ve found long-forgotten images like the one above, taken on a coach heading to London from Barnstaple soon after dawn some years back. The coach was full of North Devonian campaigners against Brexit. I was reminded of the cameraderie engendered by protest marches and demos by the many opinions offered in the past few days by politicians, religious leaders and commentators on whether Gaza Ceasefire marches should go ahead after the murders that took place at a Manchester synagogue. Two comments in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on 3 October caught my attention. First an editorial: ‘Outside a Manchester synagogue, the Gaza war woke up the “light sleeper” of violent antisemitism’. The very regrettable rise in anti-semitism around the world has been entirely predictable due to the horrific brutality and lawlessness of the current Israeli regime (and, unfortunately, its predecessors). Second, an article in Haaretz stated: ‘No matter what the context or motive, Jews should be safe to flourish as Jews, to fast and to pray and to play and to gather, in Jerusalem, Washington D.C., Boulder, Manchester, or wherever they choose.’ Yes, of course, but shouldn’t the same apply to Palestinians, especially in their homeland? A Jewish woman called Sharon was asked on BBCR4’s Broadcasting House this Sunday morning ‘would she go on a Gaza Ceasefire march?’ Yes, she would she said - but as the BBC never reports them she obviously had no idea they regularly take place. The next is in Central London on Saturday 11 October starting at 12 noon: info from the websites or social media of Defend Our Juries, Stop the War Coalition and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I will be marching and bearing witness with my comrades, Jews included, until the genocide ends.
I was in Denmark last week visiting family and friends - my mother was from Copenhagen. As you can see, the capital is still a low-rise city. The churches, civic buildings and palaces stand out - they’re not dwarfed or obscured by tower blocks as happened in London thanks to mayors like Livingstone and Johnson. Copenhagen is also a city, like Amsterdam, of mass-cycling, with safe routes separated from roads, ample space for bikes on trains and secure lock-ups at stations. I’d love to have one of those at Barnstaple station, so I could leave my e-bike safely overnight if I need to. We need many more safe cycling routes too. Denmark isn’t perfect, of course: I was shocked to find that restaurants don’t serve tapwater with meals. You can only buy water in bottles. That’s environmentally barbaric.
I have a Google alert for my own name and last week it alerted me to an announcement by North Devon Council about next year’s Flourishing Culture Awards - I was quoted enthusing about them in my role as a councillor leading on cultural matters. The inaugural awards last March brought recognition to many really worthwhile and talented organisations and individuals - I’m sure next year’s will too. We will all get the opportunity to make nominations. Other council news: the newly enlarged Bishop’s Tawton roundabout, discussed in last week’s blog, will be looked at by a Highways/police team. A much-objected to planning application for a housing development close to the roundabout has been rejected by NDC, rightly in my view. I will be sitting on a new joint planning committee - representing NDC alongside our neighbour, Torridge District Council - to consider a large solar farm which straddles our two districts.
Wildlife roundup: the photo above, of Eider ducks at Slimbridge Wetland Centre, taken in January 2019, is from my backlist. I show it because sightings of Eider ducks (male and female, as above) was a highlight of my Danish trip. I saw then in an area known as Fjordet (the Fjord), where I also saw plenty of Cormorants, plus several Kestrels. In Copenhagen itself I was startled to see that crocuses were already out in one of the many public parks. Thank you for reading.