#MentalHealthUK the UK self inflicted "mental health" pandemic.

It is early morning between Christmas and the New Year. I have just returned from an earlier - and freezing bike ride. It always feels like such a positive thing to do. On my return and against my best advice I tuned into Radio 5 Live and listened to a phone in focusing on the new wave of covid, its effect on the NHS and the people working in it and life in general at this covid time. 

There were some good calls - objective, considered - real. Undoubtedly many people are having a draining experience. Many have and continue to give so much. Many are worthy of praise. Certainly some things could have been better prepared or done differently. (although I have to say hindsight is a wonderful thing).

However one theme - one phrase reoccurred time and again - like a pandemic in itself. "mental health". It is beginning to sound like mass hysteria. It is beginning to sound like you must reference "mental health" as a matter of course - to be cool - to be on message - to be politically correct. It is doing our nation no favours - it is doing many individuals no favours - it is a negative development - it is potentially destructive.

It is true of course, as I have acknowledged, that many people are struggling at the present time. Covid is creating or exacerbating problems both in personal, domestic and business life. Covid restrictions are hard to live with - financial pressures are real - jobs have been lost - lives have been lost. Things are indeed could be gloomy in many ways. Things - circumstances - could easily be described as depressing. It is little suprise many people are downbeat - even depressed - certainly stressed.

However my point is this is life if you let it. Life will rarely be straightforward. There will always be potential ups and downs - stresses - periods of unhappiness - challenges. In many ways this is normal - to coin a horrible phrase "shit happens". 

So if this is normal (or at least not as abnormal as some profess)  how best do we deal with these challenges? 

In my life's experience that very often the worst thing you can do in these circumstances is to indulge weakness - to encourage and support negative thinking - to foster a victim mentality - to give an impression someone else can solve your problems. It is no good trying to motivate a marathon runner by saying poor thing - never mind - you are feeling tired ! What is needed is a positive mental attitude. My mantra when I set out to do something hard - challenging - is "the only thing that keeps you going is deciding not to stop". (If you give yourself an excuse to stop means you will stop.) Right from the beginning of the covid lockdown it was obvious it was going to be a challenge to get through it. As a family we agreed we would somehow make it an opportunity and turn it into a positive experience.

So the opposite could be true and I feel it is. Life can be a battle - stress to a degree is normal - setbacks are to be expected. It is up to us as individuals to accept personal responsibility - it is for us as individuals to battle through - to think positive - to keep going - to strive. The wonderful thing is that by emphasising and adopting this attitude self esteem builds - negativity becomes positivity and the whole thing becomes sustainable and fulfilling.

I think it is a very big mistake both for our nation collectively and for our individual citizens - to in effect be led - pressured into the type of thinking that it is the governments responsibility to ensure we are happy - to solve our problems for us. For some years now there has been a burgeoning industry developing in the UK - mental health advisers and councellors. Their vested interest is to promote their importance and how essential it is the tax payer invests in them and (most have only done short term courses.) They thrive / feast on us "sharing" our mental health norms ! They genuinely believe they are helping. It is manna heaven for the needy - for the victim.

It is old fashioned to talk about a wartime spirit - a stiff upper lip - but actually that is what is needed to get us through this - to get through modern life. We are fast heading to a reverse position where it is a badge of honour to be banging on about your mental health. (Almost to celebrate mental health issues as normal and expected!)

Can I just say I am not stupid enough not to know that there are people with accute mental health issues - clinical depression, bipolar disorders etc. Of course these people need specialist help and I fully support NHS provision in these areas. These are real mental health issues and should not be stigmatised in any way.

But this is not a catch all. Mental health issues is being extended in some peoples terms to feeling not a lot more than "cheesed off". Pandering to - indulging in - this sort of negativity is a big mistake in my opinion and will not achieve its well meaning objectives - but have the opposite effect and will be a waste of valuable national resources.  

I have previously posted two other blogs on Mental Health issues and a similar theme :-

October 2014 David Shoulder - Isle of Wight: #MentalHealth and the NHS (davidshoulder60onwards.blogspot.com)

May 2019 David Shoulder - Isle of Wight: #MentalHeath Manufacturing anxiety How the mental-health panic is messing up the next generation. By Frank Furedi’s How Fear Works: the Culture of Fear in the 21st Century is published by Bloomsbury Press. (davidshoulder60onwards.blogspot.com)

#UNICEF Rees-Mogg - Unicef's donation of thousands of pounds to tackle hunger in Britain is a shallow political gesture.

UNICEF - United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund - does wonderful work for children - so why wouldn't you support them with your charitable donations? 

Here is possibly why - because instead of using their considerable donations in the most effective way s possible they choose to play misdirected political games at a real cost.

Here is a summary from Wikipedia regarding a recent row in the UK :-

 Funding of UK food charities

In December 2020 UNICEF made funding available to feed children in UK for first time as part of its Food Power for Generation Covid initiative. Tory MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons, accused UNICEF of "playing politics." UNICEF pledged £25,000 to School Food Matters a south London charity, to help feed children over the Christmas holidays. A partnership of Devon charities had also been given £24,000 to help feed 120 families over the winter of 2020. UNICEF said it was helping children in the UK because of an increase in food poverty in Britain, caused by the Corvid-19 pandemic. It estimates there are children going hungry in a fifth of households. Anna Kettley, from UNICEF said "We are one of the richest countries in the world and we should not have to be relying on food banks or food aid." Labour MP Zarah Sultana in the House of Commons said, "For the first time ever, UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children, is having to feed working-class kids in the UK but while children go hungry, a wealthy few enjoy obscene riches." Responding to this, Rees-Mogg said, "I think it is a real scandal that UNICEF should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived, countries of the world where people are starving, where there are famines and where there are civil wars, and they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, 25,000 to one council. It is a political stunt of the lowest order. UNICEF should be ashamed of itself." Chris Forster, from Transforming Plymouth Together, one of the Devon charities to benefit from UNICEF donations, said, "We had one family as part of the deliveries last week literally in tears with gratitude because their cupboard was bare." One unidentified Plymouth mum-of-three said: "I obviously would never see my children go without so there have been two or three days where I just haven't eaten at all. Rees-Mogg called the funding of UK charities, "A political stunt of the lowest order." The Scottish National Party MP, Tommy Sheppard said, “It is astonishing that these comments are coming from the same government that had to be publicly shamed into following Scotland’s lead and providing free school meals for children over the holidays.” LBC reported that the UN humanitarian aid agency are providing over £700,000 to feed hungry children in the UK.

Here is an article written by Andrew Roberts in The Telegraph in response to UNICEF's donations in the UK and Rees-Mogg's reaction to it in parliament.

We need more Rees-Moggs, to tell the truth about shameless Leftist posturing

Unicef's donation of thousands of pounds to tackle hunger in Britain is a shallow political gesture

Jacob Rees-Mogg has done it again, this time attacking the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) for having included Britain on its roster of countries where it needs to help children who are going hungry. “They make cheap political points of this kind,” he said. “It is a political stunt of the lowest order,” before adding that Unicef should “be ashamed of itself”.

Rees-Mogg really cannot go on being so truthful about organisations that have been accorded sainthood status by the Left. It simply isn’t done. Unicef, an organisation that has been institutionally anti-capitalist and anti-Western for many years now, must have thought its little wheeze was going to show how evil the Johnson government was. Instead, with Rees-Mogg’s intervention, the spotlight has fallen on itself.

So the £25,000 Unicef has given to Southwark Council to fight supposed food deprivation in the borough (where child obesity is a serious issue, but child starvation simply is not) is now being seen in terms of the hundreds of millions the NGO received in 2019 (in part from British taxpayers). In all, Unicef is spending £700,000 on this stunt, yet if it were really concerned about children suffering from malnutrition in Britain, why is it only putting such a tiny percentage of its budget towards alleviating this apparent humanitarian disaster?

Is it not concerned with the other aspects of health that come with the mass-starvation that Unicef deals with in genuine crisis areas like Chad, Ethiopia and Sudan? Has it directed its doctors to deal with the surely-expected outbreaks of beri-beri and dysentery in Southwark, indeed probably across the whole of the SE1 postcode? Or is it – as Rees-Mogg has spotted and bravely pointed out – just yet another politically-inspired jape from a Leftist NGO to try to put the British Government in a bad light?

As well as the miserliness of the Unicef contribution, the other way that we can tell that this is a political gesture are the words used by Anna Kettley, Unicef's head of operations in the UK, to justify the donation. “We believe that every child is important and deserves to survive and thrive, no matter where they were born,” she said.

There you have a classic example of the Political Opposite Statement Test. “If no-one on earth can possibly disagree with a statement,” the Test states, “then the statement itself is utterly worthless, and possibly moronic.” Kettley’s statement utterly fails the test. By making it, she appears to imply that this Tory Government does not believe that every child is important and that some deserve not to survive and thrive, and that it does matter where they were born.

It is a political trick as old as time – used with particular skill by the likes of Tony Blair and Barack Obama. But when literally no-one short of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin (and possibly not even the latter) would fail to subscribe to Kettley’s statement, its triteness is starkly revealed. An avowal of principle in politics only means something if someone, somewhere, might disagree with it.

As a UN official, Ms Kettley is meant to be apolitical, yet instead she writes articles for the Independent demanding Government support for her pet projects, such as special winter relief, little realising how much it damages the Unicef brand in the UK to be quite so closely aligned to Labour Party policy. Her claim that one in five households in the UK are struggling to find food this Christmas – i.e. households containing 13.2 million of us – is demonstrably untrue. And if it were true, why is Unicef dedicating a mere 5.28p to each person to deal with the issue?

A much more reasonable use of Unicef’s time than inventing scare stories and suggesting that Tories want to starve children might be for the NGO to tell us what it is doing to prevent future Guardian headlines such as that of 2018: “Unicef admits failings with child victims of alleged sex abuse by peacekeepers.” Or whether it has finally got over its positively Corbynesque bias against Israel and its work with dictatorships. For years, Unicef provided funding for Palestinian “summer camps” which have been accused of encouraging children to become suicide bombers. One was even named after Wafa Idris, a female suicide bomber. In the late 1990s, meanwhile, Unicef and the Saddam Hussein government collaborated on a report stating that hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq died because of the sanctions regime. More recent analysis has found that these figures were completely untrue.

Unicef appears to believe that the major cause of child poverty in the world is the free market, despite the fact that countries that adopt free enterprise have vastly lower levels of child poverty than do the corrupt statist economies that Unicef occasionally praises in its reports. It was not so long ago that Unicef reported of the North Korean dictatorship that “the particular strength of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s policy framework lies in its comprehensiveness, integration and consistency in addressing the interests of children and women ... The government has proactively broadened and updated its laws and policies on an ongoing basis, also making an effort to harmonise with international innovations and standards”. Would that Boris’s government ever received such praise as meted out to the Kim family.

Standing against all that is Rees-Mogg, who joins the all too small list of MPs who still consider the truth to be an excuse for saying something important, and who almost never indulge in the meaningless kumbaya political bromides of the “Kiddies mustn’t be forced to starve” variety. It was he who pointed out the obvious truth that, despite what local government officials are telling you, if you are in a burning building like Grenfell Tower you should obey your instincts and do everything to try to get out. It fell precisely into the category of a statement that everyone knew was true, but for which he got castigated just the same.

When the House of Commons was full of people who entered politics out of a sense of public service, and who had achieved things outside politics beforehand, there were plenty of MPs who were willing to say things because they were true, regardless of whether people wanted to hear them. Parliamentarians of the kind of William Plimsoll, Keith Speed, Peter Shore, Eric Forth, Robin Cook, Sarah Champion and Frank Field are fewer and farer between, and British politics is the weaker for it. The very fact that you might not even have heard of all of them is testament to the way that they were willing to put their principles before their careers.

The deluge of ad hominem criticism of Rees-Mogg for daring to criticise Unicef will scare off politicians in the future, inevitably emboldening the Left and its network of supporters to conduct further stunts of this kind. The saddest thing of all, however, is that there are genuinely starving children in Chad and Somalia and Yemen at this time of year who are now going without £700,000 worth of desperately needed food. But at least Unicef will have made its egregious political statement.

Andrew Roberts is the author of ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’ (Allen Lane)

Just to be clear I share Andrew Roberts view. I am with Rees-Mogg's assessment on this issue.

#CovidVaccination - PT2

There continues to be some minority but significant resistance to taking a covid vaccine dose - with much nonsense pedalled by some on social media. I have made my thoughts clear about those people in my earlier blog.

However there are some genuinely concerned regarding the efficacy of the covid vaccines. Last night a Panorama was screened which documented the development of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine (which looks like it will be licenced soon). To those that have concerns I commend the documentary to you. It should go a long way to reassure you if you are objective.

BBC iPlayer - Panorama - The Race for a Vaccine

While writing this short blog I cannot resist pointing further ridicule and condemnation at the arm chair "experts" who make fools of themselves by promoting such nonsense as covid vaccinations change our DNA - or even dafter that they contain a Bill Gates microchip etc!

The really sad (and totally irresponsible) thing about these people is they of course will be the first to run to the hospital if they get ill. In the event they (or loved ones) are unlucky enough to contract a bad bout of covid the doctors and nurses (the only ones with any chance of saving them) that will attempt to save them by use of their well researched and practised science based expertise are telling us to take the vaccine now if available (based on their well researched and science based expertise). The irony and hypocrisy is standout - to the point I feel embarrassed for these pseudo experts. They are in effect saying to doctors and nurses they are more expert on the efficacy of the vaccine than the doctors and nurses are - and then when they get ill they run to those very same doctors and nurses to save them (or more pointedly - their loved ones.) In my view they would have blood on their hands if they have played any role in discouraging people not to take a vaccine and any of those people subsequently contract a bad dose of covid 19. They should think about that before they utter their irresponsible opinions (based on what exactly?).

 

 

#Covidvaccination "my body is a temple" Irony? Hypocrisy?

On my early morning bike ride this morning I was thinking about the coronavirus and dragged up in my mind a cartoon from years ago that made me chuckle again. It came from the "mad cow" time - was two young mums smoking - looking into a butchers shop window saying "you won't catch me eating beef ! ".

In the same way there is masses on social media from people claiming they will not take a corona virus vaccination - because it cannot be trusted or it may not be safe. It is their right to do so - nothing in this life can be a 100% guaranteed.

However there is some irony - some hypocrisy - some objective nonsense being pedalled here by many?

People are "concerned" about their health,

But :

ILLICIT DRUGS - pills, substances, etc produced by criminals. Those that buy them and take them have no effective control over what is in those pills or substances. There is no regulation. They take it all on chance!

• NHS report 2019 - 18000 hospital admissions from poisoning from drug misuse. 2917 deaths.
• 9.4% of adults use illicit drugs. 20.3% of young adults use illicit drugs.

MY BODY IS A TEMPLE! - England - 67% of men are overweight and 60% of women. 26% of men are obese and 29% of women.

 

SMOKING - NHS report 2019 - 489300 hospital admissions and 77800 deaths directly related to smoking!

ALCOHOL - 24% of adults regularly drink over the prescribed limits. England - over 750k dependent drinkers. 2018/19 1.26 million hospital admissions directly related to alcohol. England 2018 - 24700 alcohol deaths.

CORONA VIRUS VACCINE - it has been produced quickly - true. Why/how? There is a very urgent need. (Corona virus is paralysing our way of life. An irony here is that NICE (or whatever it is called now) are regularly critiscised for being slow to approve drugs.) The kitchen sink has been thrown at it. It is a massive priority. True there is a profit motive but there is vigourous independent testing under controlled conditions. Every vaccine that is offered will have been reputedly sourced and its contents fully documented. Contrast that with the illicit drugs so many - particularly young people are prepared to ingest!

Obviously it will be down to each individual to decide if they want to take an offered covid vaccine or not. Rightly so. However those not taking the vaccine will benefit from those that do. It will perhaps be a step too far to prioritise hospital treatment for those that take the vaccine over those that don't but I think it would be quite reasonable to require a vaccination certificate in certain circumstances. It is likely to be a travel requirement almost certainly unless you are prepared to enter self isolation.

One thing that is annoying about these anti vax people is their me me me focus. (why should I take a vaccine when I am healthy?) They do not seem to have considered there is another reason to be vaccinated - to stop the virus spreading to those that are more vulnerable. They are ok - but what about their elderly parents or grandmother?

A quick point regarding the hapless conspiracy theorists typical of today's social media.They have almost certainly had Polio, Whooping Cough and Tetanus jabs because their parents had the good sense to take the opportunity to protect both them and our wider society. I expect some time in their life they have taken penicillin. Can you imagine the nonsense they would be spouting now if these (wonderfully beneficial) vaccines/drugs had only just been discovered !? 

And of course the sad irony - those that are medically unfit through illicit drug use, excess weight, excess drinking or smoking are often the ones most vulnerable to covid complications and death.  (I have no tangible proof but suspect there is a correlation with many keyboard warriors). They are the ones more likely to need an ICU bed. They are the ones likely to place most strain on the NHS. They are the ones that if they had any sense would be pressing to join the queue to grab the chance of a covid vaccination that could save their life and be grateful for it. It would be the decent and sensible thing to do - but alas too many are caught up in pedalling silly irresponsible conspiracy theories. 

#Conspiracytheorists

Covid has been the perfect subject for conspiracy theorists to latch on to.

I have been prompted to write this short blog about conspiracy theorists by three news items/blogs/podcasts that have come to me around the same time (and by coincidence).

The first was Twitter's announcement that they have permanently banned arch conspiracy theorist David Icke. Icke lives on the Isle of Wight so it is local news. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/twitter-permanently-bans-conspiracy-theorist-david-ickes-account (about David Icke)

The second was an interview of Sebastian Shemirani who talks about his mother conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani.( Marianna Spring Specialist disinformation reporter, BBC News) 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-54738471

The final one was was a BBC Live Wire podcast about the rising phenomenen of conspiracy theorists.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08wxtb3

My dilemma is I fully support the principal of free speech and I am very reluctant to ban anyone from saying anything. It is clearly much better to engage with their opinions and counter them with science based evidence. (if you can be bothered).

The trouble is conspiracy theories - certainly the covid ones for instance can be dangerous - can actually cause harm both to indivduals and the wider community. It certainly can be very destructive regarding personal relationships. (Marianna Spring talks about individuals disappearing down a rabbit hole and to be lost). 

My own experience of people who puport conspiracy theories coincides with research. Most often individuals are not successful in life - they need something to blame for their failure. They are a victim of a grand plan to do them down! It is often about attention seeking. It is a way of bolstering poor self esteem - giving a warped sense of self importance - they are clever - they have a brilliant insight that most other people have missed or have been duped. 

The saddest thing is once someone has adopted a conspiracy theorist mentality they start seeing everything in those terms. (nothing is what it seems - and every cock up is some machivellian plan being played out by the all powerful to keep us ordinary people in our place!) You cannot counter their theories with science based and objective research. Their stock response is either you have been duped or you are part of the conspiracy ! The development of social media platforms gives them an outlet and the inadequate and the needy are sucked in and feed off the misinformation to create more misinformation however crackpot.

If it wasn't so sad it would be funny but actually a pointless / irrational paranoia is ruining lives, breaking up families and causing harm to our wider society. What can be done about it I am not sure. Sadly removing their social media platforms such as Twitter might be the only practical response.

 

#MarcusRashford the case against "his" school meals plan

Anyone who has read my blogs will know I believe "socialism" doesn't work and worse than that - it actually hinders those it puports to help. In my view the only sustainable way to help people improve their lives is to empower them and at the same time emphasise personal responsibility. Socialisim does the opposite. Of course I believe in the "welfare state" as originally conceived in the Beveridge days - as a short term safety net for those in real need and I support that principal to my core. 

However I am deeply disturbed and very worried about the increasing grip social media has over our society and the momentum that those for instance - using Marcus Rashford are able to generate.

Virtue signalling is endemic - a like or a tick or a tweet. The ludicrous diatribe against fat cat Tories who apparently don't care about starving children - is that - ludicrous. It reflects a shallow ignorance. It is conveniently disingenuous. Of course people like me care. It is just simply an issue of how best to help the needy and also an awareness/acknowledgement of the underlying economic reality and how to generate sustainable tax revenues to pay for it all. (something socialists have always failed to do.)

The big issue here and it is a recoccuring issue - is what is the impact (for instance) of parents in effect no longer being seen/required to be primarily responsible for feeding their children. Some people want it to be the governments. This is highly dangerous.

I have copied and pasted a well written article by Jill Kirby. It is a serious article and represents my real concerns.  

The conservative case against Marcus Rashford's school meals plan

JILL KIRBY

28 October 2020

Ministers are failing to make the principled argument for individual responsibility and self-sufficiency

Who should bear responsibility for feeding the nation’s children: parents or the state? Facing down a Twitter storm based on the premise that children are starving, the Government has struggled to find a coherent answer. Yet an answer is urgently required, and it has to be more than just another climbdown. As the economic damage wrought by lockdown claims the livelihoods of more young families, the social media campaigns look set to become unstoppable, with the risk of creating a damaging new culture of welfare entitlement.

For the past decade, Conservative policies towards welfare have been based on the sound principle that individuals should be encouraged to achieve self-sufficiency, even if they might need temporary help during difficult periods. This was the logic behind the introduction of Universal Credit, “a hand up rather than a handout”, which saw different benefits merged under one roof in order to incentivise work, and more control put into the hands of individuals and families.

There were other changes designed to encourage individual responsibility, too. By scrapping the old system under which housing benefit was paid directly to landlords from the Government, tenants were instead required to transfer the money themselves. The idea behind it was not a cruel one, as some alleged, but that if you deny people responsibility for too long, they will never be able to stand on their own two feet.

Yet in the midst of the pandemic, when the Government has pledged to “put its arms around us”, there is now a danger that, in surrendering to government intervention across all aspects of life, people will gradually lose the ability to think and act for themselves. Ministers are also failing to mount a principled defence against an insatiable demand for new entitlements. Nowhere is this more true than in Marcus Rashford’s campaign to expand the Free School Meal Voucher programme.

There is a Conservative case against Rashford’s proposals, and it starts with a simple question: why should parents suddenly no longer be responsible for feeding their children during the holidays? This is not a straightforward matter of starving children too poor to afford food, as much of social media might have it. It is a complex area that covers not only children who are fed too little, but also the countless others eating too much of the wrong thing. Too many parents seem to have no idea of what constitutes healthy eating. Isn’t the danger that further stripping them of responsibility will make that problem worse?

What’s more, many will ask why expanding food vouchers is the answer when Rishi Sunak had already temporarily increased Universal Credit payments at the start of the pandemic, reflecting the disproportionate impact of lockdown on the finances of the poorest in society. The Chancellor was right to do so, but that is money that we ought to trust parents to spend – whether on food or on other essentials. To do anything different is again infantilising.

Some Conservatives have shown that they understand this, among them the backbench MP and former Downing Street adviser Danny Kruger. He argues that turning schools into “permanent welfare providers” not only usurps the role of parents but also the part played by local communities and voluntary organisations. Having set up and led a charity working with prisoners and their families, he speaks from experience in applying conservative principles to solving social problems.

It is positive that the Government has been groping towards the idea that businesses and the voluntary sector might combine to provide support via holiday clubs where children would not just receive a healthy meal but also some catch-up teaching. But such schemes should be designed to involve parents and, if necessary, help them to budget for family meals.

“Bootstrap cook” Jack Monroe made a career by showing parents how to feed a family on a fiver a week. There are many parents in even the poorest families who practise such skills and who do not look to schools to stand in their place. We need more parents like that, not fewer. The Conservative Party shouldn’t be afraid to say so.

#JOGLE Final round up.

A few days have now elapsed now since we finished JOGLE. It was 25th September. We started out on 3rd - riding every day.

While I could write exhaustively about our 22 day journey I have decided I am going to limit is to two bullet point sections. The first section will cover our thoughts and tips learned about how we approached JOGLE. The second section will be some thoughts about the Great Britain we passed through in our journey from top to bottom - or is it end to end? 

I have set out below our route/stops.

In the main we followed the Sutrans route. However while we faithfully followed it through Scotland and most of England when we got into the West Country we chose to go down the middle so to speak - instead of following the suggested route which hugged the north coast and appeared to us to be a bit of an unessesary detour.

SECTION ONE - HOW WE APPROACHED JOGLE AND TIPS FOR ANYONE PLANNING TO DO IT. 

• Please see my previous JOGLE blogs re planning and rationalle behind choice of route.
• While LEJOG is the more popular route I previously gave my reasons for choosing to do it the other way around - start at John O Groats rather than finish there. I think we made the right decision for us although it could have been different if the prevailing wind had been more consistent and stronger. Reasons 1) while we faced with a strong prevailing wind at times (and it did make cycling much harder - particularly in Scotland) in my view it did not in itself justify LEJOG over JOGLE. 2) One arguement for JOGLE is it prepares you better for the challenge of the Devon & Cornwall hills ie you are cycle fitter at the end than the beginning. For us and particularly for Mike this was very much the case. 3) I think it also helped us psychologically to be cycling south towards home - a small point - but a more significant point 4) is it was much easier for us to be picked up with our finish at Land's End than John O' Groats. We knew our set off date but could not be precise until the last couple of days when our finish time would be. Being closer to home made making arrangements much easier than if the journey to the pick up was close to a 1000 miles. At the end of the day all of this comes to weighing up the factors that might affect you most.
• We chose to do the Sutrans route. I bought the GPX coordinates from the Sutrans shop and Mike loaded them onto his phone using Kamoot. This with the NCR signposts, and the Sustrans LEJOG book (which personally I found very useful) was our principal means of navigation.
• Our philosophy. We were 2 older guys - not seasoned or experienced cyclists - who bought secondhand bikes and the gear we thought we needed to attempt this blue riband challenge. Why did we want to do it? Of course for the challenge but more than that. We wanted to see Great Britain. This is why we chose the longer more convoluted Sustrans route. We allowed 3 weeks - when it can be done in 10 days or less on racing bikes and with pre arranged overnights. The down side is the fast routes are the ones used by the most traffic. Sutrans does offer routes with very limited or often no traffic and we were camping - carrying a lot more gear than the racing bikers. We were also not sure about how far we could get each day so we had no prearranged accommodation bookings. I think when you chose to take on LEJOG/JOGLE you should be clear in your mind why you are doing it and what you want out of it.
• What bike? I was concerned about the tracks we were likely to encounter. Someone on the NCN Facebook page said the Sutrans route is not rough. He was right. The roughest tracks were often tow paths but I think you definitely need more than a racing bike.
• When I was doing research I read - best advice - travel light. When I set off from JOG the weight of my panniers was too much. I boxed up some stuff at Pitlochry and sent it home. We jettisoned some more when my brother Rob picked up more excess gear from Mike and I at Taunton - to help for the onslaught of the Devon & Cornwall hills. I think the excess weight was basically stuff I took for contingencies. My advice is pack - repack and pack again!
• Panniers. I made the mistake of not having fully waterproof panniers so had to add rainproof covers. This was fiddly. I have now bought a set of waterproof roll top ones!
• Use of a cape! Again as a novice cycling tourer I made pre enquiries on the NCN FB page - to the mirth of some - but others recommended it. I ended up buying a proper one produced by Carradice. I found it a good bit of kit to have. Excellent in heavy showers because you can get it on and off so quickly.
• We bought a midge head net for Scotland. We only used it once but boy did we need it.
• The weather presents major challenges - how do you stay reasonably dry and not get too cold. Of course you can generate a lot of body heat when you are pedalling hard. Base layers can get damp and cold can set in. My regime - good quality base layers. I wore a PRO V Reflex 36 running jacket a lot. I wore shorts everyday. My most flexible kit which I love to use is a Berghaus Paclite Gortex rain jacket and waterproof trousers. As it says on the can - they are very light to carry (and wear). They keep the rain out but they keep the wind out too. 
• How to keep phones charged? We used charging blocks - but they are heavy. Following extensive subsequent research I am pretty sure the way to go is a front wheel in hub dynamo.
• Which tent? I have raised the point of travelling light above. There are a miriad of tents on offer - ultra lightweight - up to 4 seasons - specialist ones for cycling - and of course many come at a cost. We met a couple on a tandem. They had all the gear. I spotted a slim package on their rear rack and asked them about their tent. It was a Big Agnes. They said it was great but they are expensive (and I think a bit complex). My brother Mike bought a Terra Nova - not one of their most expensive 4 season ones - but it was half the weight of mine and he was very happy with it. For myself I had several options. In the end I took a Vango Blade 200. My rationale was it is the simplest tent to put up and take down - because it has just one pole. (a virtue at the end of a tiring day or when you want to get off quick in the morning.) While I have concerns about its ability to stand very rough weather - it is a 2/3 season tent - it is fine in heavy rain & there is usually somewhere you can find in the lee. The 200 is of course a two man tent - and this is where I am out of step with my own advice. Personally (it is a personal thing) I am prepared to carry some more weight for the extra space. We were often in our tents from 6.30pm to daybreak - often sorting wet gear - and cooking of course. I enjoyed the extra space. If I was cycling in fair weather or for a shorter period I would probably take the Vango Blade 100. 
• Last thing on gear. What to cook on? Mike now has a Jetboil cooker. They are super efficient and lightweight and not as scary as the petrol ones. He is very impressed with it. For myself I continue to use a tiny ultralightweight titanium burner which is fuelled by meths. The reason I like it is its total simplicity. There is nothing to break. Nothing to go wrong. It works for me.
• Most of the time the Sutrans route was either adequately or well sign posted. Where we had grief and wasted a lot of time was traversing urban areas. It happened in Inverness for instance. The route took us around the back of housing and through industrial estates it what seemed to be contorted and unnessary complication. There might be a case for following a ring road!
• Wild camping. We found some good spots but it is not easy. Sensitivities to covid made it trickier and we choose not to set up on privately owned land as a point of principle.
• We did camp on 12 nights however and we really enjoyed it. Leg power cycling and a small tent cooking on a little meths stove is back to nature - simple and lovely.
• One small observation - we passed through many villages looking forward to a convenience store for something to eat etc. So many villages no longer have shops.
• How far can you go in a day? On the face of it you think you will be able to do most on a flat surface. However it is more complicated. Flat and narrow tow paths and bridleways can be slow progress. A hilly route gives a quick gain going down the otherside. Road surface makes a huge difference as of course does wind direction. Towns are the slowest.
• Pretty much without exception we got a warm reception from everyone - even motorists. I think what fosters sympathy (admiration - lol) is stuffed panniers. I think many people guessed what we were up to and they were supportive and complimentary.
• I have done a lot of trekking on steep terrain. You take the incline out by zig zagging. It works on a bike providing there isn't a tractor coming down the hill lol! I think the longest hill we went up was 13 miles long.
• Beware any place with "bridge" in the name! It almost always means you are running down hill to a river crossing with the inevitable - a steep climb out again! 
• A personal approach to hills. I took on every hill as a personal challenge - me and the hill. My mantra with anything hard has always been "the only thing that keeps you going is not stopping".
• Finally - 22 days - cycling every day. About 1150 miles carrying quite a lot of gear. How hard was it? It is a mental challenge. It can be tough. But cycling is not running. Running you get physically drained. I never got to that state on any day although of course you can get exhausted for a short time on individual hills and very tired overall - very much looking forward to time out of the saddle. A bummer is not knowing where you can stop when you are ready to overnight. (eventually we started planning further ahead as we started to understand the distances we were capable of covering - and would book a campsite the day before if possible).
• On planning ahead - we spent a fair bit of time trying to find campsites actually on route. The last thing you want to do is to cycle off route and have to retrace the next day. I think we could have done some prior research but covid made it more difficult because many campsites were either not available or restricted.  
• JOGLE was a fantastic achievement in many ways and will be a memory that will last for ever. It is not easy - it is a test of character - you just have to keep going - so the challenge is clear cut and simple really. It was very satisfying indeed to get safely to the finish. 

SECTION TWO - THOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS ABOUT GREAT BRITAIN

• Previously I had not been north of Inverness or the Western Isles. There is an awful lot of Scotland north of Inverness! It is wild, beautiful and largely uninhabited. We spent 3 or 4 days cycling in the Highlands. Much of that we were on our own - for long periods I was cycling in my own little world. I speculated about living in such an out of the way isolated place - out of the rat race - away from covid. It has its attractions - but at the end of the day I think you might go stir crazy. 
• On this subject there are grumbles in the Highlands about extra interest in property from southerners wanting to escape covid. They have had a major issue with second home owners too. As in so many areas the claim is young locals are priced out. I happened to chat to a lovely lady - probably in her 80's - been farming on the same farm all her life. Scottish accent so broad it sounded like a different language. She said young people do not want to stay - life is tough and they want more. She also made the observation - the glass boxes you see are the newcomers coming in with their posh cars. Typically they stand it for 6 years and then sell up and move back to where they came from!
• Interestingly she was very much against Scottish Nationalism. She said Scotland is too small to make it on its own. Certainly it is easy to see much of the Highlands has no agriculteral use. Settlements are sparce and gradually becoming depopulated.
• The Scots are big on fish and chip shops. They love their pies and their haggis and black pudding. We loved them too but we felt we needed to replace the calories lol! 
• Much of lowland Scotland and the borders - was wonderful too. Greener - softer - farming estates - beautiful rivers - wildlife - fly fishing. A privilege to be in the landscape. 
• Having said that if you are a purest - time and again I stopped to gaze at a landscape and been irked by the intrusion of pylons, wind turbines or telegraph poles.
• It took us a week to get out of Scotland. We experienced real weather. We experienced fantastic quiet. I mentioned the owls in a previous blog. A precious  week. I think September is a great time to be in Scotland. Memories for life.
• And we get to Gretna - and then we are suddenly back in England. It felt significant. We are going ok. We can do this! (it happened to be one of the wettest days.) A lorry driver we met at a burger stand (a haven for us) put us onto The Metal Bridge Inn just over the border in England. They do camping - but in the end we took a room and dried out. What a good stay that was!
• Thoughts of England - thoughts of my country. There is much beauty. Cumbria, N Lancs moors - and every leg of our daily route onwards offered something special. Agriculture is still massive in the UK - huge swathes of land that is still green. We are very lucky.
• On agriculture - we were going through the land when grass was being cut for silage making. Even in the remotest areas we often seen massive modern tractors and wagons operating. Goodness knows what they cost. It is easy to see why the small scale farmers are being squeezed out.
• But there are concerns - negatives too. Much of our urban landscape is horrible. Scruffy. No pride. One clear observation. So many urban shops and particularly pubs closed with premises up for sale - a sad scene. (Cannabis smell often evident!)
• A general observation it is increasingly hard to find true natural silence. Road noise is so obtrusive and can carry for miles. 
• Rivers and canals can cut a lovely scene. People are drawn to water. There is not enough time to do everything but narrowboating is a lovely way of spending peaceful times although we went past some very busy locks and basins.
• It is not easy to wild camp in England.
• Us southerners can easy have the view the north is industrial and bleak. Of course much of it is not. It is the opposite.
• Have you heard of Elephant Grass? Mike and I both commented on this very tall crop being commonly grown by our farmers. What is it? How is it used. I asked one farm hand. He was grumpy about it. He said they burn it! He said locals hate it. I was puzzled what he meant? Burn it? It is used as a biomass fuel.
• While doing JOGLE is a fantastic way of seeing Great Britain - even at our modest pace we were going too fast. There is so much to see - to explore and delve into - simply to enjoy. As I said before every Sutrans leg offers a lot. I have pencilled in a couple of local ones to go back to. Gloucester to Bristol was lovely and Bristol to Taunton - over the Mendips, Wells and then across the absolutely special Somerset Levels. I could go on - Devon what a county - those deep narrow quiet lanes! We camped near Nomansland. Have you been there lol?
• I cannot do our island justice by description. All I can do is recommend a bike ride as a very good way of seeing it. xxxx 

SOME THANK YOU's & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS :

I would like to thank :

• Sutrans - a charity that have done fantastic work opening up bike friendly routes all over the country.
• The NCN facebook page for their advice (and humour!)
• Mike and I were helped by 2 different bike repairers on route. Arragons - Penrith. Fantastic service late on Saturday. Sorted out my busted spokes in no time. The other was Mark of One More Bicycle - Nantwich. Mark is a real expert. He tuned our gears and smoothed our way in no time. Highly recommended.
• I have listed the places we stayed above. I would recommend them all without hesitation. 
• I want to thank friends and family for their support and encouragement. All my offspring were wonderful as usual. 
• I especially want to thank my son George of course. He drove Mike and I to John O Groats - a huge undertaking. But not only that - George insisted on picking us up from Lands End. It was a fantastic warm gesture. It means so much of course.
• Finally I have to thank my kid brother Mike for his great company and massive role in our success. Mike navigated us all the way down. We have done a lot of testing things together over the years. Mike is unflappable - stalwart - he just gets things done with no fuss and common sense. Mike understands moaning changes nothing. You have to just get on with it. As a team we just chat things through and make a balanced decision - and that is priceless.   

Here are a few photos. In the end up I virtually stopped taking them. The main reason - there was a photo around every corner and rarely can you capture what you actually see. I am left with a kaleidoscope in my mind - regretfully impossible to share - but available to view to anyone - especially on a bike xxxx (Sorry the photos are all over the place - not always in chronological or route order but you will get the idea!)

We are off from John O' Groats 3/9/20

Mike's bike. 2nd hand built by Jakes of Bristol.

mine - an overloaded Dawes Super Galaxy bought a month ago.

the first few miles

first over night. Wild camp - Armadale Bay. Very windy.

Views as we go. I eventually gave up on the photos. Just too many to take and landscapes are so hard to capture. Better to commit to memory maybe!?

Sorry the photos are all over the place - not in chronological or route order but you will get the idea!

Add caption

the Culloden battle site

A great moment but we were very tired and wet after a hard day.

Drying out Metal Bridge Inn

Devon famous red soil

a night in a pod. Camping not allowed. Covid!

Scenes from the finish at Land's End. Took 22 days. A great moment indeed.

Posing at Land's End. The real lands end - overlooking Longships Lighthouse. The signpost photo cost £12 but mainly we couldn't be bothered lol!

George and Rich know what we want to celebrate!

Rich not sure how his old dad made it!

George - naturally understated - but he really feels it. Amazing support as always. Priceless.

#JOGLE Pt 6 Lowland (Southern) Scotland

I am writing this minimal blog from my tent. It is pitched at Kendal rugby club. It is great to be here - now warm and dry and fed after a shocking ride over the Shap summit today. The wind and rain made cycling impossible at times but it is done now and we are basically over the wild lump that is the Lake District.

Here is our route over the last few days :-

Mon 7 arrived Pitlochry and stayed at the SYA.

Tues 8 to Strathyre via Killin. 52 miles. Wild camped.

Wed 9 to Glasgow via Callander and Balloch. 64 miles. Stayed hotel.

Thurs 10 to Lesmahagow. 36 miles. Wild camped.

Fri 10th to Gretna via Abington . Crossed the border into England to stay at The Metal Bridge Inn after camping washed out. 63 miles.

The Sutrans guide book says the southern Scotland route totals 214 miles. So with 255 in The Highlands it makes 469 miles.

We have cycled top to bottom of Scotland. I cannot add descriptive thoughts or photos now. However just leave to say it has been memorable  - often hard yes - but often wonderful. I am so glad we took it on. Mike has been great.

Ps we are now 75 miles further down the road at Kendal.

Tomorrow we head for Whalley wit Manchester to follow the day after hopefully. xxxx