Saturday 11 January 2020

Extinction Rebellion classed with violent extremists.... UK Terrorism police


The UK terrorist police think I'm a potentially violent extremist despite my white hair, hearing aids, poor eyesight, poorer memory, dodgy knee and the occasional corn on my right foot. Why?...

Because I support the aims and activities of Extinction Rebellion along with many other crumblies and their grand children. Who wouldn't, given the evidence on climate change and government inaction?...

Anti-terrorism police have produced a guide to recognising children and adults with, "anti-establishment" views and philosophy who might be keen to take part in non-violent protests in order to pressure government to introduce effective climate change mitigation measures, it's obviously aimed at XR.

So XR have been included in the secret policeman's handbook along with Neo-nazi and violent islamist organisations. Once you recognise these people you are asked to report them to the appropriate authorities. It looks like the thin end of a very authoritarian wedge.

How could anyone consider me "anti-establishment?  Possibly because I think of our new Prime Minister as a mendacious, indolent, incompetent narcissist but this is a perfectly reasonable assessment and a view held by over half of the population.

A peaceful protester outnumbered by not very secret policemen






The cops haven't kicked my door in yet perhaps because their project has been widely revealed and criticised in today's newspapers.

In a rapid about turn they have said that they do not now regard XR members as violent extremists and their guidebook is to be recalled.



Friday 10 January 2020

National Parks were the best idea the USA ever had.....Why is the Trump administration being allowed to destroy them

I have always been lucky, my mother once told me...." If you fell in the harbour you'd come out dry with your boots full of fish".

Forty years ago I was lucky to be given a Winston Churchill Scholarship to visit the USA to find out about the development of sustainable agriculture. I travelled from coast to coast meeting academics, farmers and environmentalists. I took a small tent and at weekends I camped and hiked in  National Parks from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to Colorado and Californian Sierras.

Half Dome Yosemite NP
The National Parks  were beautiful, well managed, well protected and looking as if John Muir's vision would last forever. However, commercial developments, road building and tourist facilities encroached up to and within park boundaries. It seemed they were in danger of being sacrificed to commercial tourism......outdoor versions of Disneyland. I also formed a lasting impression that without national parks the US might have very little left of conservation value, outside perhaps of Alaska.


Why are you Americans allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the National Park Service, hand political leadership to anti-public land sycophants , natural resources to mining, ranching  and other industries while allowing widespread misuse of the parks during government shutdowns?

Since that first visit in 1983 we took our children camping, canoeing and walking in US national and state parks from S. California to the Boundary Waters, the White Mountains, the Appalachians and upstate New York.

Later without the children we drove south from British Columbia into Washington State from pristine forests, lakes and mountains into a scene of utter devastation south of the border forests had been laid waste and rivers polluted with run off from soil erosion. No one stops there anymore the highway was littered with abandoned gas stations and wrecked vehicles. Don't let this happen within your National Parks. To keep up to date with developments click on the link below.

This land is your land, get regular updates here