#anExetervisit

 A week or two back I made the regular trip down to Exeter to see my family members who live down there. Those who read my blogs know I am originally from Exeter and despite living away for over 40 years retain strong links and a strong affinity. I am a Devonian - ha!

All I want to do here is make a record - essentially for my own purposes.

When I go down to Exeter I almost always do the school run. This entails walking the mile or so with my two little granddaughters. They chatter away. I love asking them questions. I get a lot of oh grandad but they like it really. It is so special to watch them develop. How can anyone be horrible to children?

My son in law took this one - walking to school on a cold and frosty morning. Simple pleasures.

My daughter has moved into a new area of  nursing having been a ward sister for many years. She has trained as a pain specialist and absolutely loves what she does and is so motivated by it. Pain is such a complex thing. A while ago Vicky sent me an account of a builder who went to hospital in an ambulance in acute pain and distress. A work accident. A fired nail had gone right through his boot toe cap - into his foot and out through the sole. When the boot was eventually removed there was no injury - the nail had missed the toes and gone between them.

On one of the days I did a cycle ride with a friend along some of the Exeter Canal / River Exe as far as Cockwood. It was a lovely cold clear bright still day. I have written before about the Exeter Canal. Here is the blog link David Shoulder - Isle of Wight: #Exeter Canal and where you live. (davidshoulder60onwards.blogspot.com)

The Double Locks pub.

Over a beer we talked about many things - life - ha!. I referred to Darwinism and Maslow and how important they have been to me and my understanding of the world. I was asked "what about Freud ? It was a very good question in the context of what we were talking about -  but I didn't have an answer other than to say I do not know much about Freud! Much ! I know people sometimes refer to a Freudian slip which I understand is revealing something in our subconscious - inadvertently. I also know Freud is the father of psycho-analysis. Anyway my interest was tweaked. A couple of days later I had to go to Exeter centre and took the opportunity of visiting Waterstones. You can get a lot of reading for a tenner! I have started on the preface. There are chapter titles such as "Psychoanalysis and libido theory", "fetishism", "the Psychology of the Grammar School Boy" and "on the introduction of narcissism". The editor states in his introduction that it is inevitable when using the book that a level of personal psychoanalysis is bound to result - ha! 

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include

1. A person's development is determined by often forgotten events in early childhood, rather than by inherited traits alone.
2. Human behaviour and cognition are largely determined by instinctual drives that are rooted in the unconscious.
3. Attempts to bring such drives into awareness triggers resistance in the form of defense mechanisms, particularly repression.
4. Conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental disturbances, such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, and depression.
5. Unconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts, including mannerisms and slips of the tongue.
6. Liberation from the effects of the unconscious is achieved by bringing this material into the conscious mind through therapeutic intervention.
7. The "centerpiece of the psychoanalytic process" is the transference, whereby patients relive their infantile conflicts by projecting onto the analyst feelings of love, dependence and anger.

If I get through it I will report back!

Some light reading

On the third day I had arranged a Dartmoor cycle with my two brothers. Alas Mike was unwell so we cycled near Rob's home. By coincidence this took us to another canal - The Grand Western Canal. Again it was a cracking day - cold still and bright. It was easy cycling along the tow path. I love canals in winter. Canals are generally very quiet and the winter trees show off their skeletons. I copied this from Wikipedia :

The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton in Devon in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel by a canal, bypassing Lands End. An additional purpose of the canal was the supply of limestone and coal to lime kilns along with the removal of the resulting quicklime, which was used as a fertiliser and for building houses. This intended canal-link was never completed as planned, as the coming of the railways removed the need for its existence.^[1]

Construction was in two phases. A level section, from Tiverton to Lowdwells on the Devon/Somerset border, opened in 1814, and was capable of carrying broad-beam barges, carrying up to 40 tons. The Somerset section, suitable for tub boats (which were about 20 feet (6 m) long and capable of carrying eight tons) opened in 1839. It included an inclined plane and seven boat lifts, the earliest lifts to see commercial service in the UK. The lifts predated the Anderton Boat Lift by nearly 40 years.

The 11 miles of Devon section remains open, despite various threats to its future, and is now a designated country park and local nature reserve, and allows navigation. The Somerset section was closed in 1867, and is gradually disappearing from the landscape, although sections are now used as a footpath. It maintains a historical interest and has been subject to some archaeological excavations.

Rob and I cycled on the Devon section - in and around Tiverton. Canals have a fascinating history - most historically went into decline because of changes in need. Many canals have been lost but some have been saved. Not all the Grand Western has - but a good run is now secure. It is a tremendously valuable leisure area (now designated a Country Park) and obviously beneficial to wild life.Wouldn't it be nice to wander along the canal network in a narrowboat. One to do when I am an old man - ha!

Grand Western Canal scenes

#Conservatives or Labour light? Tory internecine warfare. Fraser Nelson

 It is clear some within the Tory party want to get rid of Boris Johnson. Partygate etc is giving them the ammunition. As a general observer of current affairs you have to ask why. The answer is much more in economic/financial doctrinaire than personality and moral compass.

Below I have copied and pasted an article from the Daily Telegraph written by Fraser Nelson the editor of the Spectator. Fraser Nelson is a grown up journalist and I read his stuff a lot. His connections and his analysis usually prove to be rock solid.

Below he sets out the fundamental issue that is causing so many tensions in the Tory party to the point internecine warfare has broken out.

The Tories are traditionally low tax, small government, market orientated, live within our means - as Margaret Thatcher.

Boris in many observers eyes is Labour light - high tax, big government - big spending.

A few months ago I resigned form the Tory Party on this very issue. I did not vote for Labour type policies. I have seen over my life time that the road to ruin is high tax and big government spending. Why? Common-sense. High taxes is a disincentive to hard work and employment especially as civil servants and politicians are absolutely useless at spending money wisely (getting good value for the tax payers money they are spending). Consequently high taxes mean the tax take is always lower than anticipated but tax takes increases overall when businesses and individuals have an incentive to work and be entrepreneurial. Socialists do not like that truth but is the practical reality. Under Boris as I have said we are getting Labour type policies. Connected to this of course is the extent our new freedoms from Brexit have been utilised by freeing up our economy - but to be fair to Boris and his administration Covid 19 has thrown a big spanner in the works.

Boris needs a major rethink. Start with cancelling the National Insurance proposed increases. They also need to get away from the thinking he has allowed to develop that any problem can be solved by government with calls for them to throw more and more money around tax payers money or borrowed money). I support small government because big government does not work.

This is what Fraser Nelson has to say :

A toxic Tory civil war is brewing – and it threatens to leave the party in ruins

The poisonous allegations spread so far are but a taster of the fury likely to follow the fall of Johnson

If Sue Gray’s report is bad enough (or even if it isn’t) there are now at least 54 Tory MPs ready to call a vote of no-confidence in Boris Johnson. His attempts to shore up his position are not going well and exposing the shallowness of his personal support. “If Nadine Dorries is your main cheerleader,” says one minister, “you really are sunk.” But he isn’t: not yet. The would-be mutineers are waiting for a reason. They need to work out not just what would follow, but how bad the fighting would be – and whether the party could survive it.

The old Tory omertà, whereby MPs bury their grievances and differences for the sake of party unity, is already collapsing and the damage has started. Did Gavin Williamson really say he’d refuse to build a school in Bury if its MP didn’t vote with the Government? Did the Tory chief whip really tell Nusrat Ghani that her “Muslimness” had been raised as a problem in Downing Street? These are serious – and grim – allegations that voters may not forget in a hurry.

What Theresa May once called the “nasty party” seems to be making a comeback. Tory whips are being accused of bullying, which may sound like accusing a boxer of fighting. While most governments have whips who represent all wings of the party – using flattery as well as threats – No 10 only chose Johnson loyalists who had a weakness for bluntness. This led to plenty of resentment, much of which may soon come out.

Margaret Thatcher had the wets and dries, Cameron had modernisers and traditionalists, and Johnson had Brexiteers and Remainers. His unusual means of dealing with this was to fire all 21 of them by withdrawing the whip. This pained him, but he’d justify this to colleagues by comparing it to the purges of Augustus Caesar: brutal but bringing years of peace. The flaw in his analogy was that they also meant dictatorship.

Most Tory leaders make a show of party unity in their Cabinet choices, but Johnson has filled his team with those who backed him in the leadership contest. “He never even tried to be the unity candidate,” says one exiled ex-Cabinet member. “He has run a factionalist government, so divisions have grown.”

The Red Wall MPs provided the Tories with their majority and some talk of themselves as a new guard coming in to refresh the old party’s blood, creating a new, genuinely One-Nation conservatism. Liz Truss is generally seen as the champion of the new intake, but her problem may be how she promises low taxes – likely to be her signature theme – while supporting the high-spending policies that Johnson has sold.

This is a common Southern Tory complaint: that the Red Wall MPs like high spending and low taxes, and won’t accept the contradiction. “You talk to these guys and do a double-take,” says one Tory. “They always want more spending. You think: what party do you think you’re in?” They might respond: Boris Johnson’s party, and the mandate he personally won richly entitles him to push through his own blend of higher-tax, high-spend Toryism. One of the many arguments that would be played out in a leadership campaign.

Even among the low-tax Tories there’s a split, embodied in the row between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak over the impending National Insurance increase. In a Cabinet meeting, Truss said the party should honour its manifesto pledge not raise taxes and let borrowing take the strain. This led to quite a fiery response from Sunak, who told her such an approach was fundamentally un-Conservative. This marks a Tory dividing line that runs far deeper than is commonly understood.

One of Sunak’s most strongly held political beliefs is that serious spending commitments must be funded (via tax or cuts) rather than dumped on the next generation via national debt. This is why he’s for the National Insurance rise: he thinks it holds up a mirror to the decision to spend all of the extra money. This model could be taken further, so all extra NHS spending is funded by increasing what would, in effect, become a special NHS tax – thereby focusing Tory minds next time they want to shower the health service with cash.

Should it come down to Truss vs Sunak, this would be a main debating point. She might be joined by Kwasi Kwarteng, Iain Duncan Smith and others offering lower taxes to party members and being relaxed about paying for this with a deeper deficit. It would all work out eventually, they’d argue, because lower taxes tend to mean more growth and, ergo, higher revenue. Sunak and others would argue that this is economic vandalism, more Reaganite than Thatcherite. It’s a very Tory argument, recited in David Davis vs David Cameron in 2005, but passions do run deep.

Then we have the more enthusiastic Brexiteers, dismayed that so little has been done with Brexit powers (David Frost quit the Government over this point) and keen to suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol rather than see more sovereignty eroded. Then Scotland: almost every single Tory in Holyrood has come out against Johnson, and at least some of these rebels have flirted, in the past, with the idea of breaking away from the “London Tories”. Such tension is a 
bad look for the supposed party of 
the union.

So we have a recipe for multi-dimensional Tory wars: high spenders vs the frugal, Scots vs English, Northerners vs Southerners, Brexit radicals vs incrementalists, free traders vs protectionists. All fought, quite plausibly, with a toolkit of dirty tricks. The “Partygate” scandals so far emanate from just one building: 10 Downing Street. Might similar soirées have been held in other government departments? If rule-bending activity in lockdown is enough to end political careers, there may be a few more ministers worried about what may come out.

Perhaps this is why some of Johnson’s allies are saying that his enemies can forget about any smooth transition. That he’d hang on to the last, maximising the agony, then there would probably have to be a snap election. Do they really want all that now? Après moi, le déluge: hardly the most optimistic message to keep his party together. But over the next tense few days, it might be the best he has.

#Newtown Newtown National Nature Reserve & a budding ornithologist

It is the day after New year's Day. I have just been out for my early morning bike ride along the seafront. It is still mild - greyness pervades but not in a heavy way - it is the weather - the elements. It is good to be out. (I am out a bit later today - sidetracked by a xmas present from my daughter - a biography of Don Revie. It is a surprisingly good read. I knew of course he was a top class manager - but I didn't realize his record as a footballer - a former Footballer of the Year and an England international.) There were more people out today - partly I guess because I am out a bit later and it is still a holiday day of course but mainly I think because a lot of people are keeping up with their New Years Resolutions. They are going to get fitter - take up walking and particularly take up jogging! Good luck to them. It is the same every year. Will they keep it up. Most probably won't. I have seen over the years people go hard at it for a while - often over do it and it becomes unsustainable. Anyway I digress!

On New Year's Day after a bit of exercise and a nice breakfast I headed for Newtown Creek which is west of Cowes (entry to the lovely little unspoilt harbour from The Solent.) This was one of my New Year - not so much resolutions but an objectives for 2022 ha! (will I keep it up?) In a nutshell I have plenty of active leisure interests and stuff I do indoors - but I want something in my life that is outdoors but is gentler and realistic and interesting. I have come up with bird watching - ornithology! It sits well with fishing and sailing and of course cycling and walking - but I like the idea of literally sitting down in a nice place and see what I can see. I suppose I have always had a bit of interest in bird watching but I have decided I am going to put a bit more into it. I will not be a "twitcher". I will not carry big long spotting lenses or try to be a photographer but I do want to know more about the birds that are around and particularly the birds that visit our seashores. Last year I cycled the Hebridean Way with my brothers and the Outer Hebrides' was a bird mecca. Mike and I particularly enjoyed stopping and watching the birds on the shore line and it was in my mind then it was something I would like to do more of.

So New Years Day - off to Newtown with a flask of coffee, my binoculars, bird book and camping chair for a couple of hours!

My first encounter was with a couple of curious swans - and I had not even got out of the car :

A bit about Newtown. Newtown is run by the National Trust - this is from their website :

A quiet backwater with a busy Medieval past, now bursting with wildlife and a town hall with no town...

The nature reserve

This is the only National Nature Reserve on the Isle of Wight. It is a beautiful retreat that has something to offer boat owners, walkers, wildlife enthusiasts and historians or just those in search of peace and tranquility. You can wander past flower-rich hay meadows, through ancient woodlands with rare butterflies and red squirrels, and look out over salt marsh and the clear waters of the harbour, bobbing with sailing boats in the summer and alive with birds in the spring and winter. For those on the water it is a beautiful place to explore and a good way to look out for wetland wildlife.

Newtown Harbour was saved in the 1960s from the threat of a nuclear power station being built near the harbour entrance.  The efforts of local people conducting wildlife surveys proved to the authorities how special the place is. The landscape has remained little changed for decades and the pattern of fields reflects Newtown's Medieval origins.

From Wiki :

Newtown is a small village in the civil parish of Calbourne, Newtown and Porchfield, on the Isle of Wight, England. In medieval times it was a thriving borough.

Newtown is located 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Newport on the large natural harbour on the island's north-western coast. It is now mostly a national nature reserve owned and managed by the National Trust.

The Caul Bourne streams through Calbourne, passes Newbridge and Shalfleet and empties into the Solent at Newtown.

The town was originally called Francheville (i.e. 'Freetown'), and only later renamed Newtown. It was probably founded before the Norman Conquest. There is some indication that it was attacked by Danes in 1001.

The earliest known charter was granted by the Bishop-elect of Winchester, Aymer de Valence. He signed it at his ecclesiastical estate of Swainston Manor in 1256. The early hopes for its success are reflected in the names of its streets, such as Gold Street and Silver Street. However, it will have had competition from Yarmouth, Newport and Southampton. In 1284 it was somewhat reluctantly given to Edward I. Apparently there were about 60 families living in Newtown at the start of the 14th century.

By the mid 14th century, Newtown was starting to mature into a thriving commercial centre. In 1344, it was assessed at twice the value of Newport. Its harbour was busy and reputed to be the safest on the island. There was a prosperous saltworks and abundant oyster beds. There was an annual three-day festival on the "eve, the day and the morrow of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen", who was honoured in the name of the local thirteenth-century chapel. Then, the great plague struck, and subsequently a French raid in 1377 destroyed much of the town, from which it never truly recovered.

By the middle of the 16th century, it was a small settlement eclipsed by the more easily defended town of Newport. A survey in 1559 noted that Newtown no longer had a market, and did not have a single good house still standing. Its harbour slowly became clogged with silt and inaccessible to larger vessels.

In 1584 Elizabeth I breathed some life into the town by awarding it two parliamentary seats. A town hall was built in the 17th century. However, these seats ultimately made Newtown borough one of the most notorious of the rotten boroughs, prevalent in the UK before the 19th century reforms. By the time of the 1832 Reform Act that abolished the seats, a survey found that Newtown had just fourteen houses and twenty-three voters, whilst massively larger municipal areas with many more voters had less representation.

The town hall was restored in 1813, and again in the 1930s. It is now open to the public.

The Newtown Arms Inn was closed in 1916. It was in an unusually shaped building referred to locally as "Noah's Ark."

Newtown remained small, but this has preserved its original layout, which is of historical interest. There are two square ponds by the boathouse, which were dug as salterns as part of the former local salt industry. The harbour and salterns have since become a habitat for fish native to the Isle of Wight and its surrounding waters, with large populations of Flathead grey mullet living in both the harbour and the salterns. Although there are a number of private residences still in use and the harbour is still accessible and used by small to medium vessels, Much of the land Newtown is situated on is now under the ownership of the National Trust, with the hamlet being at the centre of a nature reserve built around the old harbour. Newtown is popular with tourists and birdwatchers, as numerous uncommon native species use the salt marshes to nest.

So this is where I headed on New Years day for a while. The tide was up which is not quite such a nice spectacle and not ideal for watching the seabirds that feed on the exposed mud of the salt marshes as the tide drops. But I really enjoyed being there and found a spot away from the occasional walkers and watched mainly Brent Geese as they repeatedly swooped in in numbers and drifted down on the gentle tide.

Key information

The brent goose is a small, dark goose - of similar size to a mallard. It has a black head and neck and grey-brown back, with either a pale or dark belly, depending on the race. Adults have a small white neck patch. It flies in loose flocks along the coast, rather than in tight skeins like grey geese. It is an Amber List species because of the important numbers found at just a few sites.

Brent Geese are the smallest geese to visit Britain. One goose can travel over 135,000 miles in its lifetime between its winter habitat in the UK and its summer habitat, the Artic tundra. Young Brent geese stay with their parents for their first autumn & winter and feed & fly in family groups within the flock.

Here are a few photos I took with my mob camera :

Newtown Old Town Hall

Brent(Brant) Geese - the smallest winter geese visiting the UK

It was a positive start to the New Year. Newtown was a good place to be for a while. Here is to 2022 xxx

#Guernsey

My son James had some holiday to use. Neither of us had been to Guernsey before. There were cheap flights available from Southampton so we went for it for a short break. The flight takes less than 45 (35) minutes depending on the wind strength/direction.

James or I didn't know much about Guernsey. Like many people he wasn't exactly sure where the Channel Islands were and immediately thought as we were flying close to France we were going to a foreign country - passports to the ready! The Isle of Wight is regularly mixed up with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. 

Anyway here is a bit about Guernsey :

• Guernsey is NOT part of the UK (although some aspects like defence and international relations are managed by the UK). It is a British Crown Dependency.
• We refer to the Channel Islands as if they are a constitutional or political unit. They are not. Jersey has its own and separate relationship with the UK.
• The Guernsey Crown Dependency includes the other inhabited channel islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm.
• They are referred to as Bailiwicks.
• The Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are not members of the Commonwealth and surprisingly have never been members of the EU. 

GEOGRAPHY/TOPOGRAPHY

As we live on the Isle of Wight it is natural we draw comparisons with Guernsey.

I have compiled a chart :

SIZE - IOW 150 sq miles - Guernsey 30 sq miles ( Jersey 44 sq miles)

Therefore the IOW is 5 times larger than Guernsey (a surprise to me).

POPULATIONS APPROX - IOW  150K  Guernsey 75K (Jersey 110k)

Therefore while Guernsey has roughly half the population of the IOW they are living on a much smaller Island.

MY IMPRESSIONS

• I hired a car at the airport and as part of the process were advised of some of the quirks of driving on Guernsey. The main one is there is an island wide maximum speed limit of 35 mph and in many places it is less than that. We were told the roads were busy and they operate a box junction system where cars leave alternately.
• The speed limit is not an issue - there is nowhere where you can drive at more than 35 miles an hour. Roads are windey, undulating and narrow. While most roads will take 2 cars wing mirrors are in constant danger! There is no scope to overtake. The roads are very busy - almost always a train of small cars moving around in orderly fashion like they are on rails. Unlike in Jersey there are very few ostentatious powerful cars - there really is no point - and virtually no lorries. Driving is easy and non threatening. There is no scope for the boy racer.
• Surprisingly and I have to say disappointingly Guernsey is built up. Virtually every road has ribbon housing development on both sides with no gaps.
• The houses are nice - well maintained - and often behind high walls. However my over riding feeling of Guernsey is it is claustrophobic. On most roads there is a pedestrian path on one side - but because of the road width and constant traffic it is not a place to walk or choose to ride a bike in my opinion.
• What sets Guernsey apart is it does have a beautiful coastline and much of it remains unspoilt and uncommercialized. There are undoubtedly fine coastal walks with lovely beaches.
• Of the coast - Guernsey experiences some of the biggest tides in the world - up to 33 ft - 10 m. Much of the coast is rocky and tide rips between the small islands can be up to 12 knots. It is therefore a formidable challenge for sailors but as we have heard in news recently - with disputes over fishing rights - the waters are rich particularly for crab and lobster.
• Guernsey is famous for its Guernsey cows - and for horticulture - flowers and tomatoes. However I have to say there was not much evidence of agriculture although of course it exists. The main earners for Guernsey now is financial services and tourism. The large population - much of it retired - inevitably generates jobs for the locals and taxation revenues (which I guess is the whole point of the housing development).
• Like Jersey - Guernsey has attractive tax arrangements in place. However Jersey feels much more wealthy - much bigger grander houses - more ostentatious. Guernsey appears modest - tidy - safe - gentle.
• While I cannot claim to have interacted that much with the locals - the feeling I have that while they are civil enough they largely keep themselves to themselves. Several locals referred to how Guernsey has changed - how it has become overdeveloped - over populated. One house knocked down and 10 built in its place! Obviously and understandably they resent it.
• Guernsey like Jersey - does operate a 2 tier property market. Some properties are designated as only for qualifying locals. They are cheaper than the ones that can be bought by outsiders.
• Like most islands - most goods have to be imported from the mainland - there are additional costs involved and Guernsey is not cheap.

My overall thought is while Guernsey is safe and pleasant, has a beautiful coastline and a favourable climate, it has been over developed and feels claustrophobic. It is a shame. Just about everywhere is under pressure from property developers and population growth. I regularly raise objections to planning applications on the IOW - but Guernsey has gone too far - lets hope it can be avoided here. (it must have some impact on the tourism trade.)

Having said that James and I had a real fun time - a good little winter break. I am glad we went. 

Here are a few mob photos - mainly of the coast - which I enjoyed most.

Alderney left Jersey right

Jersey - massive tides going through there.

It was very windy - especially on the flight home

St Peter Port

The Albion - since 1780 - according to the Guinness Book of records is the closest pub to a church in the British Isles

James having a lunchtime snack

Our favourite pub St Peter Port

A night out at the Doghouse. The Beatles having been hiding away in Guernsey!

For the record xxx

#NazaninZaghari-Ratcliffe & Insulate Britain protests

Like many of you I have recently read about these 2 protests - Richard Ratcliffe's hunger strike and Insulate Britain disruptive blocking behaviour. Both have been highly critical of the British Government and their protests essentially directed at Boris Johnson and his cabinet and calling for their further action. 

This is how I see it :

I suspect Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe is innocent but I do not definitely know she is. Clearly her husband and their supporters believe she is. It is not difficult to believe she is being used by the regime in Tehran to gain political leverage over GB and as such is being very badly treated. I understand she is not the only one.

Insulate Britain is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion. They are focused on "saving the planet" by direct action. They have caused major and costly disruption particularly around London and have ludicrously claimed stopping ambulances getting to hospital is justified.

In my mind both protests suffer from the same fundamental problem. They are protesting against the wrong people.

Clearly in the Ratcliffe case it is not the British Government who are at fault - it is the Iranians. It is the Iranians that have imprisoned her to gain leverage and publicity. Criticism and protest should be directed against them.

With Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion - Britain is and remains one of the most effective and committed nations to working to address climate change. There are many many countries lagging behind - not least China. Why are they not protesting outside the embassies of the nations who are the major polluters and who are dragging their feet in addressing global warming.

The answer :

Because GB is a easy target for them.

GB is tolerant.

We respect freedom of speech and the right to protest.

We are indulgent of protestors. We give them a voice.

Protestors are safe - unlike in most counties our police to not resort to violent behaviour - even in the face of extreme provocation.

The outcome - when people like Richard Ratcliffe or environmental protestors feel they need to do something they typically (and understandably) take the safe option. Have a go at our Government and or the British people. We will take it. We will not react. Our perverse government hating mainstream media will indulge them of course.

With regard Mr Ratcliffe he is well meaning. He is hurt. He is desperate. Every sympathy for him. But the British government are not at fault. They cannot concede to Iran's tactic. They cannot pay a £400m ransom. Where would it end? Mr Ratcliffe is inadvertently playing into Iran's game. He is sadly helping Iran with their cynical and cruel strategies. They will take a win from him trying to embarrass the British government. I understand it is hard for him to risk upsetting Iran for fear of an even more draconian sentence for his wife. But the fact is Iran are the aggressors here not the British government / specifically the Foreign Office. Iran want to make this a big issue and it obviously suits them to see the British government being criticised by their own. Mr Ratcliffe is potentially providing Iran with more leverage to exploit his wife's detention.

I have much less sympathy for the environmental protesters. Unlike Mr Ratcliffe whose protests were peaceful the direct action taken by Insulate Britain / Extinction Rebellion caused a great deal of stress, inconvenience and cost and in some instances they actually caused danger to the general public. They are in reality largely trying to preach to the converted here. They have no exceptional insight. In my view it is more about making themselves feel good - feel significant rather than actually achieving anything useful. In fact what they have achieved is alienation - they have damaged the cause of the environmental lobbyists by their unreasonable behaviour.

As I have said the UK has a green agenda at government level and the people are mainly backing the measures being implemented including insulating homes. If these protesters are committed to saving the planet they should focus on the most significant polluters and it is not the UK. Protest against China for instance - but be prepared for pushback. Protesters know this which why they continue to focus on the likes of a warm and cuddly UK - we will indulge them.

Just a bit of background :    

Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe is an Iranian-British dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since 3 April 2016. In early September 2016, she was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of "plotting to topple the Iranian government". She was temporarily released on 17 March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, while being monitored.

The prosecutor general of Tehran stated in October 2017 that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being held for running "a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran".On  7 March 2021, her original sentence ended, but she was scheduled to face a second set of charges on 14 March. On 26 April, she was found guilty of propaganda activities against the government and sentenced to one year in prison.On 16 October, her appeal was rejected by the Iranian court.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has always denied the spying charges against her, and her husband maintains that his wife "was imprisoned as leverage for a debt owed by the UK over its failure to deliver tanks to Iran in 1979."

Richard Ratcliffe to end hunger strike for wife Nazanin after 21 days

Husband of detained Iranian-British national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ends latest attempt to force UK government to act

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the detained Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is to end his hunger strike after 21 days.

Ratcliffe said he had told his wife he would end the protest on Saturday and that he would later be visiting hospital for a full check-up.

He told his supporters on the Free Nazanin Twitter account: “Today I have promised Nazanin to end the hunger strike. Gabriella needs two parents. Thank you all for your overwhelming care these past three weeks.

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“The last act of the hunger strike will be our patchwork event in front of the Foreign Office at 13.30, then I will be going to the hospital for a full check-up. Thank you for keeping our family in the light.”

Ratcliffe told the PA news agency his job was to “keep going”, adding: “We probably hoped we’d get a breakthrough doing this. We haven’t yet. I didn’t want to go out in an ambulance. I want to walk out with my head held high.” He also criticised Boris Johnson for his “telling” absence in talking to him during the protest.

His strike ended as a patchwork was due to be unveiled, made from all the patches that supporters have been sending throughout his time camped outside the Foreign Office.

Ratcliffe began the demonstration outside the Foreign Office, in central London, last month and endured almost three weeks in his latest attempt to force action from the UK government to bring his wife home.

He was joined at a vigil on Friday by his seven-year-old daughter, Gabriella, and supporters, who gathered in a show of solidarity. But allies had started to raise concerns for his health and expressed fears that he could permanently damage himself.

Earlier on Saturday, the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq called for Johnson to visit her constituent “in solidarity”. She tweeted: “It has been three weeks since Richard Ratcliffe last ate any food. In that time, not a single government minister has visited his camp outside the Foreign Office in solidarity.

“Will the prime minister take five minutes out of his day to visit my constituent today?”

Speaking on Thursday, Ratcliffe said: “I think there’s a basic medical limit on how long you do a hunger strike for. I made a promise to Nazanin, I made a promise to my family, Mum in particular, and to the family doctors, that I won’t take it too far.

“But yeah, I don’t think we walk away head held high feeling like it’s all been sorted.”

The Middle East minister, James Cleverly, met Ratcliffe this week to discuss the current situation regarding his wife’s detention in Iran, where she has been held since 2016 – more than 2,000 days.

After the meeting, Ratcliffe said he had been left feeling “deflated”, adding: “If I’m honest, it felt like, you know, perfectly nice, sincere, caring, everyone in the room was caring. But you know we’re still stuck in the same status quo.

“We’re still stuck in the same problems that led us to end up on hunger strike.”

Throughout his near-three-week protest, he has been calling for the British government to pay a £400m debt to Tehran, dating back to the 1970s. The British debt is acknowledged as a precondition for the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as well as other detainees.

Insulate Britain

A series of protests by the group Insulate Britain involving traffic obstruction began on 13 September 2021.The group has blockaded the M25 and other motorways in the United Kingdom, as well as roads in London and the Port of Dover.

The protesters demand that the government insulate all social housing in the UK by 2025 and retrofit all homes with insulation by 2030. They have drawn condemnation from figures within the government.

Insulate Britain is an environmental activist group, formed by people involved in the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion.The group began hosting both online and in-person events in July 2021, also raising money for direct action. They use civil disobedience as a tactic.

Opinion polling conducted by YouGov from 5–6 October 2021 found that 72% of those surveyed opposed the protesters' actions, with 18% supporting the actions, and 10% that did not know.