Photo: the Valentine I received on Friday
My wife has a great gift for creating or finding the soppiest cards to give me on 14 February each year, all of which I treasure.
I gave a talk at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon last Tuesday to its Friends group. My subject was ‘Great Photographs – a closer look’. Nothing I said matched this memorable prefatory announcement: ‘If anyone left a pair of false teeth in the tearoom they are there for collection.’
Photo: Eco homes at Barbrook
The Labour Government’s revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework are already having an effect. The North Devon Council (NDC) Planning Committee invoked the revised Framework when approving a contentious application for a new open market house. We also referred to the Government’s mandatory house-building target as a key factor in reaching our decision. Housing is the subject of a new exhibition at the Museum to celebrate 25 years since the founding of North Devon Homes. I think very highly of the CEO Martyn Gimber, his team, and their inescapable sense of mission. I particularly admire the Eco homes recently built at Barbrook (pictured above).
It is depressing that the UK stands at 20th in the world rankings for corruption. This is a legacy of the Tory government led by Johnson and their fast-track contracts for the well-connected during Covid. The need to avoid corruption explains the very complex procurement regulations in local government. I have been reading these in preparation for helping to assess submissions to the competition for new public art in Barnstaple.
My council work this week has focused on an Unadopted road in Swimbridge. Unadopted means that the district and county councils are not responsible for the road or its street lights. Three of the four lamps have failed. This is dangerous at night for the elderly and infirm. I have invited tenders from two companies to replace the failed lamps with lower energy LEDs. Another resident has water from a leaking pipe flowing into her garden. I have reported the leak to South West Water (SWW). Speaking of SWW, I have written a paper on water quality for Devon Greens to use in the forthcoming election campaign for county councillors (election day is 1 May).
Photo: The Lancet published details of words US scientists may no longer use in research papers
The antics of the US government are appalling – but what did we expect from the American electorate’s irresponsible choices for high office? How bizarre that Vice President Vance should lecture European leaders on ‘the enemy within’ – by which he means ‘censorship’ and by which we mean a respect for truth and a rejection of hate speech in social media.
Among the many newly proscribed words on US government websites are these: health equity, climate change, and environmental justice. Leaders of the free world, eh?
Some positives this week.
The Labour government is pushing ahead with Henry Dimbleby’s sensible plan for a Land Use Framework – a map of the UK showing which land is best for which purpose. The government also announced new funds for Active Travel: almost £300m has been allocated nationally, £3.9m of which will come to Devon.
We desperately need new cycleway/footpaths in our local villages, Landkey and Swimbridge. We’ll hope to make progress on these.
Photo: Gaza march from Whitehall to the US Embassy – crossing Vauxhall Bridge
It’s Sunday afternoon and I just listened to an interview with John Major on the World At One. The former Prime Minister spoke well but I recoiled from his remark about the US abandoning the rules-based order it has protected since World War II. Tell that to Palestinians, subjected to colonial-settler violence by Zionist Israel since 1948 – with the US giving Israel diplomatic protection and economic / military support throughout that time regardless of continuous lawbreaking and violence.
My wife and I took part in a London march with tens of thousands of others on Saturday – all of us appalled by Trump’s latest plan to steal land (in this case Gaza). It was inspiring to march with so many honourable, concerned, ethical people from many parts of the UK. The only news report I saw is in the Independent, the only TV report on Al Jazeeera.
I am shocked that the British media fail to understand the most urgent moral and humanitarian issue of the present time. If there had been violence, the media would have leapt into condemnatory action. As we were peaceful we were ignored. So here are some pictures.
Thanks for Reading
Mark