I was a tad angry yesterday ...

11 January 2012

I had a look at my Flickr page and uploaded a few photos and then I noticed I had a private message.  On opening it I read, "I really do hate all your photos."  That really annoyed me.  It's OK to dislike someone's images, there are some others I don't like but I believe it is out of order to make such comments as I received yesterday.  The result was that I was in fit state to do much of anything yesterday.  Anyway, a complaint has been made and is being investigated.

The major issue in the News this morning is that one our ex-mayors is in trouble for refusing to judge a Halloween pumpkin carving completion during his year as mayor.  I know the man concerned very well and I have to say that I agree with what he said at the time.  He is an active member of a Christian church in here and in Dorktown and he is reported as saying something about Halloween being a pagan celebration of evil and as such he would not take part.  The man concerned has been censored over it banned for taking his seat in the council chamber for 2 months.  Like I said, I know the man and I know he does have a very strong Christian faith.  If it had been a Muslim who had said, would there have been so much fuss and bother?  I very much doubt it!

Myself and the ex-mayor are on opposite side when it comes to politics; indeed when he resigned from the Tory Party I sat singing to myself, "The mayor has seen the light; the mayor has seen the light".  Sadly he didn't go the whole hog and join one of the other parties.  Be that as it may, I stand fully behind him on this issue and I hope he fights it tooth and nail!

So what else has happened?  Oh yes, that train line they want to build.  I wonder if anyone has sat and worked out the amount of useable land will be taken up by this new line?  I would but my maths are not up to it.  But leave that a minute, all the pro side keep saying, "It could do this; it could do that; it could do the other ..."  There's nothing clearly positive in any of it.  There are number clear negatives though; like the number of people who will lose their homes because they will be demolished to make way for it; like the village that will be in a triangle of noise and chaos being surround by the M6, M6 Toll and now this huge rail line; like the number of SSSI's that will be ploughed under because of it - for god's sake don't believe Daft Dave when he says it won't happen!  And lastly, back to the amount of land it will swallow up. 

It is claimed that the whole region will benefit for it.  Will it?  How will it benefit Dorktown which isn't on the route?  How will it benefit Coventry, which isn't on the route?  Same for the whole of Warwickshire.  And all for what?  To save 30 minutes in the travel time from London to Brum?  Then what happens ... Brum is traffic choked and the saving is lost in high density city traffic.  No, the only people who will benefit are the shareholders of the businesses who build the damned thing.                 

On a lighter note ... I have posted a report from our day's birding on me t'ther blog if you're interested.  And here's a couple of picis from today ...