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CLLR MHB BLOG

Blog 33 – ‘You are arresting the conscience of England’ – Oh Big Blue – Planning & Climate Change – Counting birds on the Taw and butterflies in the garden

Aug 10, 2025

I was in London yesterday (9 August) to march for an end to the genocidal starvation of Palestinians by Israel. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign say that 200,000 took part in the march. However, as usual, the huge event was not reported by the BBC or any of the newspapers I see, so that number has not been independently verified. The march featured on Al Jazeera News as preface to a longer report on the gathering held in Parliament Square in protest at the designation of Palestine Action (PA) as a terrorist organisation by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. Cooper claimed yesterday that PA is responsible for ‘significant injuries’ but that’s surely wrong: PA members damage property not people. The proscription of PA by this government is as wrong, on a smaller scale, as Blair joining George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Looking at the seated protesters with their hand-inscribed placards, I saw the kind of people I admire – the ones who make me proud to be English. They are the ones who keep our towns and villages going, plus our educational system, churches and the NHS – ‘the conscience of England’, as one said (quoted in John Simpson’s report for today’s Observer). These people are exposing terrorist behaviour by the Israeli government because our government won’t impose serious, severe, sanctions. Two North Devon stalwarts were arrested, as was – I’ve heard – the distinguished and most honourable poet Alice Oswald. I believe all were charged and bailed. Thank you, valiant friends. But the genocidal starvation of the innocent continues. Sanctions are needed now, including freezing all Israeli assets held by British banks.

This book was put together by Alice Oswald and her husband Peter. I read from it at our weekly Vigil for Gaza in Barnstaple High Street last Wednesday (45 took part). A passerby shouted ‘White power’ and another ‘Brainwashed’. I reflected on the latter – yes, I have willingly dipped my brain into many sources of information about Palestine and the state of Israel. I think I’ve washed my brain effectively in history, politics, poetry and novels. As it happened, a Holocaust survivor spoke at the London march yesterday of brainwashing and fear as enablers of that catastrophe. I feel I know enough to play my part in support of a people to whom a great injustice has been done and which is now suffering starvation so severe that children in Gaza can no longer cry because ‘they’re so exhausted, so sick’ (Rachael Cummings of Save the Children, speaking last week and reported in Haaretz).

My council work last week included a meeting on Planning and Climate Change. Despite the looming upheaval of Local Government Reorganisation, North Devon and Torridge district councils are continuing to work on our joint local development plan. Despite its many flaws, the Labour government is at least serious about addressing climate change – the Tories and Reform have opted for the Trump approach of grabbing money from the fossil fuel industries and pretending climate change isn’t a problem. A Future Homes Standard is a really important idea, including energy efficiency and carbon reduction through eg air source heat pumps. We would like to see mandatory photovoltaic panels too. I also attended an informative meeting of the Anti Social Behaviour group of local police and other officers plus councillors. The situation is, I’m glad to say, improving in our towns and is much less of a problem in the villages. I’m pursuing the problem, raised by a resident, of damaged steps down to the main road in Bishops Tawton. Highways have looked at the dangerous steps and scheduled repair work – but we want to know when it will be done.

Early on Sunday morning (10 August) I counted wading birds on the Taw at Bishops Tawton. I saw four Grey Herons, three of which were roosting in a stand of limes – I hope you can spot them in the photo above. The limes are also a favoured roost for Cormorants – nine there this morning. I also saw four rapid flying Common Sandpipers and, as I left, a Kingfisher. The river looked glorious but the oxygen in the water is so depleted that the local angling association has closed its beats: the fish are too stressed. Climate change in action: excessive heat and low rainfall = oxygen depletion. Unpredictable weather also stresses our farmers. On a brighter note, the butterflies have had a much better summer. My contribution to the Big Butterfly Count – counted in 15 minutes in our garden last week – featured 1 Meadow Brown, 1 Gatekeeper, 4 Large Whites, 6 Red Admirals. To end, my portrait (below) of valiant Brian Garman, who photographs our XR and PSC events so well. Thank you for reading.