Last rant of 2016

How has it come to this? What curse do we live under that we have to put up with the metric tonnes of what seems to be utter bullshit, fed to us by toxic politicians and an ever more toxic media? When did it become acceptable to hound and hunt people as a political strategy? To ‘claim scalps’ (is that the term?), make their lives and by extension ours, a living nightmare of sound bite statements, cherry picked factoids, half-truths, post-truths, sheer lies, manipulation and misdirection? When did we allow politicians and the media to talk to us in the way that they do? How is it possible for us to become so lazy, so apathetic, so disenfranchised that we allow others to do our thinking for us? To make decisions for us? And when things go wrong, or even when they haven’t, to tell us who to blame?

You’d think we would have learnt by this point, wouldn’t you? After all, politics by sound bite and policy by media forum has worked out so wonderfully well for us. Manipulating and driving the opinion of the masses using dog whistle, short termist strategies and the politics of expediency, nothing has done more to divide our society, break the chains of trust in our public institutions and send levels of societal trust in each other back to the Dark Ages than the freakish love affair between our media and the political class.

We are where we are and like many others I voted against every decision that brought us here. I'm just waiting for the point when the pooh hits the fan in politics, as it will big time over the ongoing cock-up that is Brexit which is shaping up to be the worst bout of political, economic and societal self harm in the UKs recent history.

Putting Brexit to one side and using it as just one example as the malaise of British politics, it's clear that the two-party adversarial parliamentary system is no longer fit for purpose. But where is the need for change being articulated? Certainly not by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo - and I include all parties in this. They are all paying lip service to change but are doing absolutely nothing about it. No discussions, no proposals, nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum so I'll fill it with my thoughts on constitutional change: Parsons Seven Point Plan for Reform, if you will.

1. I would make it compulsory for people to vote in general elections. If you live in a society, that’s part of the deal, along with paying your taxes. Compulsory voting would be conditional, of course, upon there being a box on the ballot paper marked “None of the above.” To require citizens to make the minimal effort of going to a polling station every few years seems to me the least that anyone could be expected to do.

2. I’d put limits on the length of time an MP can represent a constituency. Two terms in parliament is quite enough to see what someone has to offer. They can have a third term, maybe, if they’re a member of the cabinet or shadow cabinet, or chair of an important parliamentary committee. I'd extend the same restriction to other levels of government - county councils, parish councils etc.

3. I'd also bring in the requirement to have had a proper job before going into politics then you might start to see a political class which is representative of the country as a whole. We don’t have that now: the present system requires you to strike an attitude at 18 or 19 and never to deviate as you make your way up the greasy pole. The system rewards cases of arrested development. No thoughtful person can indefinitely justify things they thought when they were a teenager. I want parliament to be made up of representatives who think about things, instead of slavishly obeying the whips.

4. I'd abolish the House of Lords and bring in a fully elected second chamber. Either we are an elective democracy or we are not.

5. While we’re at it, we should turn the Palace of Westminster into a museum/tourist attraction and invent a new parliament, preferably outside London. If we do get to design a new chamber, let's get rid of the across-the-aisle confrontational lay-out. Maybe a circular chamber would encourage more collaborative behaviour?

6. We do not have a written constitution. We should have. If we did, it would make talking about 'British values' much more objective.

7. Oooh, almost forgot. Last but by no means least, it's time for the Royal Family to be consigned to the history books. Let's make Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth the Last.

Gosh, I'm beginning to sound like Mr Angry from Tunbridge Wells. But I don’t think the UK is going to hell in a handcart. It’s still a beautiful and precious place. It’s just that I don't think we have learned how to manage the consequences of capitalism and affluence. Maybe things will be better in 2017 than they might seem at the moment? I travel into the New Year with optimism and whistling this tune...

Beeware, bee very aware

It is well-known that the bee and many other insects are in decline in the UK and elsewhere. In recent decades, we have seen losses affecting over 80% of our butterfly species, crashes in honey bee colonies and the extinction of at least two bumble bee species. So what, some might ask, they are only insects. We can do without them. Oh no, we can't: let's not forget that 80% of plant species in Europe are insect pollinated, including important foodstuff crops, fruit trees and wild plants. The value of pollinators cannot be underestimated or ignored because they play a very important part, indeed an essential part, in our ecosystem; more important than most people will know or believe.

Sadly, it's not often that I can say something positive about Cornwall Council but I'll make an exception now as I've just become aware of a recent initiative of theirs which has resulted in a report about what the Council can do to help the bee. The report lead to a debate at a meeting of the full council and the following recommendations were approved (forgive the 'council speak' as I thought it worth copying verbatim from the council's website):

1. A letter be drafted to express that ‘This Council calls upon the Government to fund extensive research into the hazards of glyphosate and neonicotinoids on human health and the environment’;

2. In a proactive effort to reverse the destruction of the bees and pollinators and to protect human health, Cornwall Council ceases the use of neonicotinoids and ceases the use of glyphosate, as funding becomes available for alternative treatments, on all public access land (to include office, depot, housing surroundings, highways, street scene and natural environment assets) that it owns or manages or is managed by its arm’s length companies, with the exception of use for the control of Schedule 9 plants under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, such as Japanese Knotweed, or where it is used to reduce material risks to asset integrity.  Cornwall Council to review the impacts of this in 2018;

3. Work be undertaken with the Farms Panel and the Housing and Environment and Planning Policy Advisory Committees towards achieving a reduction in usage of neonicotinoids and glyphosates on County Farms through a detailed and ongoing review of good practice and evidence, engaging with the farming sector and its representatives.

4. Cornwall Council ceases the use of neonicotinoids and glyphosate on land developed for capital projects, with the exception of use in the control of Schedule 9 plants under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, such as Japanese Knotweed, or where it is used to reduce material risks to asset integrity;

5. Cornwall Council prepares and implements a Pollinators Action Plan;

It's a good start and I'll be watching progress with interest. Why do I have a problem believing that they will actually follow their fine words with concrete actions? Precedent and past performance, that's why.

But following the Council's example, there are things that I can, and will do, in our garden to help bees and other pollinators. I don't use pesticides (oh, what fun I have picking caterpillars off my brassicas and gooseberries) and I have some 'untamed' areas that are wildlife friendly. Where I think improvements can be made is in the provision of more pollinator friendly flowers. I'm going to give this a little more thought and make it a project for 2017. And that sounds suspiciously like a New Year's Resolution.

I thought I'd finish with a little bee-related music but spurned the most obvious - Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee. Here's two less familiar apiary-themed tunes to enjoy: Arthur Askey doing his Busy Busy Bee routine (oh, how we laughed at him, long ago) and Liberace playing Bumble Boogie. Two mysteries here: how come Arthur Askey could build a very successful career on not being funny and how come Liberace could be as camp as he was and still convince people he was straight? Who cared when he could play the way he did?

Убирайся, Путин

Odd things happening on my blogging platform this week with lots of traffic coming from Russia, as the pageview map below shows. Is Putin one of my regular readers or have I been hacked? In either case, a not-so-seasonal message for them: Убирайся, Путин.

Recently all my good intentions to devote some time to my blogging activities before Christmas seem to have been buried under a pyroclastic flow of wrapping paper, greetings cards and miscellaneous seasonal duties. These good intentions have now been postponed for a while and all that remains is for me to find a glass of something suitably refreshing and raise it, as I wish all my readers (even those in Russia) the very best seasonal greetings. As Mr Punch so eloquently put it; "Bumpers All! To Peace And Goodwill"

My DNA and me

I've been researching my family history for almost 20 years now and, as the above tree shows, I've been able to go back for quite a few generations - to the late 1500s on my paternal grandmother's side, not quite so far with my bloodline. This has given me a pretty good idea of where my forebears came from and nothing I've come across suggests that they've strayed too far from England. In fact my core lines don't seem to have strayed from their home counties of Sussex and Gloucestershire. But knowing all this still leaves certain mysteries. Where, for example, does my natural talent in the Argentinian tango originate? Which branch of the family is responsible for my love of curries? How far back does the familial hypercholesterolemia go? Sadly, no amount of paper chasing can provide answers to these questions. Maybe a look at my DNA could?

With these questions very much at the forefront of my mind, I recently took the Ancestry.com DNA test (prompted, admittedly, by their special offer of £79 a pop). I was intrigued to see my results as I had heard so much about DNA tests and how various people had used them to discover hidden secrets about their family origins. What would I learn? The test kit came promptly and Ancestry.com had my results back to me faster than they had promised, in around three weeks rather than six. I got an email from them telling me that my results were online to view and this is what I saw.

They told me that my DNA was 81% Great Britain, 12% West Europe, 3% Scandinavia, 2% Finland/Northwest Russia and 2% Ireland. I'll admit that I had expected more information and was, at first, rather disappointed. This breakdown didn't tell me very much and was very general. But, having said that, it does fit in with the conclusions from my paper trail: my family have been in the UK for a long time so it's entirely consistent that my DNA reflects that. As there was also the facility to download the raw data, I did that but, apart from being impressed with the sheer volume of it, it really meant nothing to me. Maybe you can make sense of it? There's another 2MBs as a text file if you are interested.

But what you can do with the raw data is to upload them to another gene-matching site (GEDMatch.com) and run them through a battery of other analyses.There are lots of them, each allowing comparison against a different DNA database. Here are just a few I tried before I ran out of interest. All very general and not really adding anything substantive to the overall picture. My lot migrated from continental Europe into what became England a long time ago and I suspect that's as accurate as I'll ever get. I'm happy with that, although I will chase up some of the leads to distant cousins that my subscription to Ancestry has thrown up. Maybe I'll learn something new but it will be confined to relatively recent times. 

One other thing that the DNA analysis programme will allow is a prediction of eye colour. Here's mine and it's not too far out. But so what? I could always look in the mirror to check at any time.

Bodmin, Poldark and a mince pie

Up on Bodmin Moor today for a 6.5 mile circular walk with some bracing rain and lots of mud. A joy to be out and about in it.

Our route (in green) was a figure-of-eight, starting and ending in the main car park at Minions. We walked down to Darite, up the Gonomena Valley to Minions and then out on the moor for a stretch.

Our first stopping point was the Long Stone just outside of Minions. It is thought that the stone was originally Bronze Age but was remodelled when a Celtic cross was carved on the top. More recently, it had a trig point marker carved into its side.

A muddy track down off the moor, probably used by miners and quarry workers.

Just an old culvert to take a stream under the old mineral railway. But a culvert made from impressively carved granite.

Into the mining landscape of the Gonomena Valley, with its chimneys and spoil heaps.

And engine houses, of course.

Swirling in the low clouds, the TV mast on Caradon Hill.

Not another muddy track but a line of granite sleepers on the bed of the old mineral tramway taking minerals and granite off the moor down to the harbour at Looe. This particular stretch is on a steep incline and trucks were manoeuvred up and down via a horse operated ropeway. The date? From the late 1700s.

At one time, as this marker post shows, this railway was called the Liskeard and Caradon Railway.

A detail of one of the granite sleepers with the holes into which the rail baseplates were fixed.

Back onto the moor with the Cheesewring in the distance.

There's always something to see - if you care to look. Here are a few buddles (used in processing tin) dating from, perhaps, the late 1600s. Associated with these is an extensive network of reservoirs and leats proving them with their power source, water.

Look carefully and you can make out a Bronze Age hut circle, with a Neolithic boundary wall leading off it.

A four-way crossroad in the middle of Craddock Moor. It looks familiar?

It should, if you've seen the recent series of Poldark. Use CGI to drop the sea into the background (in reality, it's about 15 miles away), provide a wooden signpost and there you have it. Augmented reality.

As it was Xmas, we ended up at the Cheesewring Hotel for mulled wine and mince pies. A very pleasant way to finish the day. It was nice to be in the warm!

Season of mellow mists...

The view at the back of our house on the morning of our walking group 'Xmas Lunch' walk. Wrong season for mellow mists but there's a lot of them around at the moment as the cold weather from the north mixes with the milder weather coming in from the west.

Our route for the day. A mere three miles, starting and ending at our lunch venue, the Blacksmith's Arms in Lamerton, all the way over the border in Devon. It was misty all the way around but that added to the pleasure. The mist shrouded everything and dampened the sound down to a muffled silence. Up lanes, over fields and along tracks, not a bad way to work up an appetite.

Not a day for panoramas but plenty of interesting contrasts with water dripping off the hedgerows.

More wet twigs.

Wind blown seed heads.

Wet seed pods of a sedum in a wall.

An oak looming in the mist.

A solitary skeletal tree in the middle of a field.

Heading into the mist along a green lane.

I should have said it was a green and muddy lane. But, then, it is December and it is Devon. So, no surprises there.

And the lunch at the end of it all was excellent: freshly cooked and lots of it. We'll be there again next year. To end with, a New Year's ditty. A little early, I know, but it pays to think ahead and it's never the wrong time for a good melody. Enjoy.

On this day in 1916, Private Edwin Philp was killed

Private 19854
EDWIN PHILP

2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

Died age 24
8th December 1916

 

Of all the names researched so far for this series of biographies, that of Edwin Philp is the one whose details are most unsatisfactory. All of the evidence supports what is written below but undisputable validation has not been possible. Further research will either confirm or dispute these findings.

Edwin Philp was born in Tutwell in 1886, one of the sons of William Henry and Elizabeth Anne Philp. William Philp was a farmer and fruit grower and Edwin worked on the family farm until he enlisted in the army at Launceston on 24th April 1915. He was initially assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry with whom he landed in France on 24th August 1915. Nothing is known of his service in France but he was subsequently transferred to the 2nd Battalion, which became part of the British Salonika Force (BSF) to fight in what has been rather disparagingly called, a ‘peripheral campaign’.

In October 1915 the first British troops landed at the Greek port of Salonika (now Thessaloniki) from Gallipoli and France. The BSF fought alongside French, Greek, Italian, Russian and Serbian contingents. British and French colonial troops from the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and Indochina also took part. Of a total allied force of around 600,000 men the BSF numbered 220,000 men at its peak strength. War Office reluctance to support the campaign led to a gradual decline in numbers and, until April 1917, the front was relatively quiet. The major effort came in September 1918 as part of all-encompassing allied offensives, which led to the end of hostilities with Bulgaria on 30th September 1918. As well as battle casualties, the force suffered severely from malaria, there being about 160,000 admissions to hospital in three years, almost equal to the fighting strength of the force. The health of many men was permanently ruined.

The 2nd Battalion DCLI was heavily involved in the actions of the campaign and, in December, took part in an attack on Tumbitza Farm on the Struma Front in Macedonia. At a location called Rabbit Wood, Edwin was killed in action on 8th December 1916. He was the only man killed in action from his battalion that day and his body was never recovered. As well as on our local war memorials, he is commemorated on the Doiran Military Memorial, which is situated in the north of Greece close to the Macedonia border and near the south-east shore of Lake Doiran.

The Doiran Memorial stands roughly in the centre of the line occupied for two years by the Allies in Macedonia, but close to the western end, which was held by Commonwealth forces. It marks the scene of the fierce fighting of 1917-1918, which caused the majority of the Commonwealth battle casualties. The memorial serves the dual purpose of Battle Memorial of the British Salonika Force (for which a large sum of money was subscribed by the officers and men of that force), and place of commemoration for more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in Macedonia and whose graves are not known.

The memorial stands near the Doiran Military Cemetery. The cemetery (originally known as Colonial Hill Cemetery No.2) was formed at the end of 1916 as a cemetery for the Doiran front. The graves are almost entirely those of officers and men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions and largely reflect the fighting of April and May 1917 (the attacks on the Petit-Couronne), and 18-19 September 1918 (the attacks on Pip Ridge and the Grand-Couronne). In October and November 1918, after the final advance, a few burials were added by the 25th Casualty Clearing Station. After the Armistice, graves were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields and from some small burial grounds, the most important of which was Strumnitza British Military Cemetery, north-west of Doiran, made by the 40th Casualty Clearing Station in October and November 1918. The cemetery now contains 1,338 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 449 of them unidentified. There are also 45 Greek and one French war graves.

A circular walk from Golberdon.

If I were writing copy for a touristy piece, I'd be describing where our group walked today as "a forgotten and undiscovered part of Cornwall". And so it may be. But I'd describe it as "a walk on our doorstep" as we started and ended in the village of Golberdon, just 2 miles from Chez Parsons. You don't have to travel far for a good walk.

We started and ended our walk at the Village Hall in Golberdon. Around 5.5 miles, it was off the beaten track and gave us a tranquil meander along quiet lanes, across meadows and alongside the River Lynher.

A cold grey morning with views enhanced by river valley mists and low clouds

Every now and again there'd be shafts of light streaming down through the greyness

Looking towards Caradon Hill on the edge of Bodmin Moor. It's difficult to imagine that 150 years ago the landscape would have been blighted with the smoking chimneys of the mining industry

Pretty much the same view as above but from a different perspective and taken in the early afternoon when the sun was starting to burn off the mists

Mid-morning view of the River Lynher from the bridge near Golberdon

Not the sort of sheep you expect to come across in these parts. This is a rare breed Hebridean Sheep. Funnily enough, in all of our travels on the various islands in the Outer Hebrides, we've never knowingly seen this. Apparently their fleeces are in demand for the quality of the wool and the meat tastes pretty good as well.

Icicles in a small quarry which probably was the source of the building materials for the nearby farm buildings

Lunchtime and the lane was so quiet that sitting in the road was not a problem

A late flowering Periwinkle (Vinca minor)

And an early flowering Camelia

One of the more unusual cottage names we came across. No idea what it means but I'm pretty certain it has nothing to do with Harry Potter as the building has been there for at least a couple of centuries

I never get tired of the challenge of getting decent images of birds in flight. This Grey Heron obliged by flying around in plain sight as I adjusted the settings on my DSLR. This is one of 60 shots I fired off in rapid succession.

One Landrover with horsetrailer stuck in mud. Two men scratching their heads wondering what to do. Enter Mandy from our group who takes charge and tells them what to do. It would have been easier if they had listened to her right away but they got there eventually

Some melted frost on a hawthorn twig. And what's that caught as a reflection?

It was me!