Purdah Blog Part 3: A mosiac of local walks

We are just about to enter our fourth week of splendid isolation and, let's be honest, compared to many (the majority?), we've got it very easy. We can get what we need without any problems and, with the weather being the way it is, our time is being spent very pleasantly in the garden, communicating with others through various media and taking a regular walk. We are very lucky in that we can walk from our door and vary where we go and how long we make it. This post will give you a flavour of the variety

The flag is where we live and the various walks we've been taking are shown as the spider's web of lines. The distances vary between 1.5 and 5.5 miles and are mostly on tracks and paths. Some we've done regularly but others have been new to us. I'll show a few photographs to give an idea of the wide variety of scenery we walk through. Not a duff walk amongst them.

Looking over the fields towards Stoke Climsland village, with the tower of the church clearly visible.

Chimney stack and engine house at the Winsor Mine. An extract from the official listing for this says: "The Winsor Lane rotative engine house at the Holmbush Mine survives very well, complete with its adjacent boiler house, loadings and platform. Its largely intact built structure, with little collapse and only minor modifications from unintensive 20th century reuse, owes much to it being one of very few 19th century engine houses to have retained a considerable part of its original roof structure into the 21st century".

Old miners' track down to Wheal Sheba in Sheba Woods, which are the property of the Duchy of Cornwall but with unfettered access to walkers and horse riders.

Looking down the incline at Kit Hill. Walking up this is a good test of fitness. How far can we get before having to take a rest? How many stops between the bottom and the top? The secret is to start off at a very steady, some would say 'slow', pace and not rush it.

An oasis of tranquility at the quarry on Kit Hill. Last worked in the early 1950s, after being in operation for a couple of centuries.

The view from Kit Hill looking west. Keen eyes will make out High Willhays and Yes Tor in the distance. Even keener eyes will spot the church on top of Brent Tor (dedicated to St Michael de Rupe, literally St Michael of the Rock).

On this side of Kit Hill there is an old adit, from which a stream, possibly the only stream on Kit Hill, emerges and forms this attractive pool. The mud around the edge of this bears the imprints of the deer that use this as a watering hole. Thinking about it, Kit Hill is quite a dry hill, which must have posed many logistical problems back in the days when most bits of machinery were driven by water power. These problems were solved by trapping rainwater and distributing it through a network of reservoirs and leats.

The industrial archaeology of Kit Hill covers millenia of activity, ending with the demise of the quarry in the 1950s. It is impossible to walk anywhere on the hill without coming across some remains. Here a sign warns, erroneously, of a shaft. In actual fact, to be pedantic, it refers to an adit.

The ruined stack at Wheal Tom Mine (copper, tin and tungsten), which is probably the least visited mine in these parts.

The information board at Wheal Tom is one of the best I've come across. Although the mine is in ruins (it was worked for just a few years around 1850 and never made a profit), there are enough remains to really use the board to make sense of the lay-out.

Happy days in the greenhouse' Lots of seedlings coming on very nicely - Cavolo Nero, Spinach, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Parsley, Dill, Turnip and Beetroot. Plus Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Runner Beans out of shot.

It's called the Red Moon but it doesn't look that red to me. Pinkish Moon doesn't sound quite right.

The pond that fed the machinery and boiler house at the Winsor Mine. An isolated spot and, by all accounts, the place to go to see Grey Herons. Ooooh look, no Grey Herons.

A patch of Bluebells. Lots of them around but we haven't come across the swathes that produce an ocean of blue. For that we really need to be elsewhere than the Parish.

The engine house and stack at the Holmbush mine complex, that also included the Winsor workings. The main shaft for the mine was Hitchen's Shaft, dating from around 1850, although there has been mining around here since the 16th and 17th centuries. Copper, tin and arsenic were the main minerals sought and the mine ceased operations in the late 1800s when it became uneconomic.

I find the leaves of the Arum Lily (aka Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint) very attractive. Here's a thing that not many people know: the pollen of this plant gives a faint glow at night, hence the folk names of Shiners and Fairy Lamps.

Male Speckled Wood on the track in Sheba Woods. These are quite flighty insects and seldom rest long enough for a reasonable photo.

Looking downstream at Broadgate, at an area 'flattened' by mediaeval tin streaming, which was followed in later centuries by the shaft-centred mines at Wheal Sheba, Wheal Martha, Wheal Tom and Excelsior. Every now and again, a dipper can be spotted here - but not today.

We came across this granite boundary stone in the north east area of Kit Hill. R and L? What do they stand for? A little investigation produces an answer. There are eight of these in total and they were set up in 1815 to delineate an area known as Robinsland. They are the result of a dispute between the Duchy of Cornwall and its own tenants over the right to take stone from the slopes of the hill. The name itself is of mediaeval origin and is derived from Rubandesland.

Local llama looking leisurely.

My first Peacock butterfly of the year.

Looking over Excelsior Woods towards Dartmoor, rather wistfully as we've no idea when we'll be walking there again.

Apple blossom in Helen Dunster's garden.

A stretch of the Tamar Trail path linking Broadgate and Luckett. To the left is an old leat that runs for a mile or so to feed the mine at Luckett.

Roots, just roots. We've walked this path many, many times and this is the first time I've noticed these. Just goes to show that there's always something new to see - if you keep your eyes open.

These are a few of my favourite things.

Elected for Brexit and not for competence

At the beginning of all of this, I really was prepared, and I did try (I did, I did, I really did), to give the government the benefit of the doubt over their handling of the Covid-19 crisis. But as time goes on and more information comes to light, I'm no longer willing to do that. So, to business and another rant. Being in isolation (and up a ladder painting) gives me plenty of time to mull things over.

I'm not alone in thinking that, when the history of this pandemic is written, one of the villains of the story will be our beloved PM. At a time of global emergency, he seems to be living down to the very worst expectations of his critics and was absent from duty (no, not just because of his illness). In a seriously damning article – and moreover one in a traditionally Tory-supporting newspaper – the Sunday Times laid out the evidence for BJ’s disturbing lack of diligence and interest in performing the task which he so eagerly sought. The position of Prime Minister is one which he has lied in order to get and, let's be honest, it should come as no surprise that he is not performing honestly or with honour in a position which he acted so dishonestly and dishonourably to win. No surprise then but, even so, it’s still shocking to see the extent of it laid bare. The article itself is accessible by subscription only, but some kind soul has published an archive version which is free for all to read. If you haven’t already done so, you should read it now. And you should also make sure that everyone you know reads it too, especially those who still have some lingering trust in the good faith of this British government to look after our interests. The link to the full article is HERE.

It has been known for some time that a pandemic was one of the most serious threats that the world faced. Like an earthquake in California, no scientist could say when the big one would strike, they could only warn that it was inevitable that at some point it would. It would be bad enough if the British government was warned that a serious crisis was in the offing and it did nothing. But it's worse than that. Between 2001 and 2010 the UK was a world leader in terms of its preparations and planning for a pandemic. However, when the Conservatives took office, the British government ran down its preparations, defunded them and deliberately neglected them in order to focus on Brexit and austerity. They knew the earthquake was coming, and they deliberately undermined the foundations of the house in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Calls to order PPE fell on deaf ears. Scientific warnings went unheeded.

At the start of February, when it ought to have been clear that a major catastrophe was about to befall us unless immediate action was taken, Boris Johnson gave a speech in London in which he likened the UK to a superhero defying the virus to keep free trade going. It was the crassest example imaginable of delusional British exceptionalism. Boris Johnson was determined to keep the economy running, while other nations went into lockdown. We obviously were made of sterner stuff than the Italians or Chinese. In the words of a senior Downing Street advisor quoted by the Sunday Times article, “We were the envy of the world but pandemic planning became a casualty of the austerity years when there were more pressing needs.” Those more pressing needs were to run down public services and to pursue a no-deal Brexit. People are dying because the British state, the Conservative party, could only handle one idea at a time.

We have learned that, even as the true dangers of this pandemic were coming to light, Boris Johnson couldn’t be bothered to attend the first five Cobra meetings, being too preoccupied with his personal life. He wasn’t interested in chairing meetings. Colleagues were told to keep briefing papers short, because the Prime Minister couldn’t be arsed to read anything longer than a page. And instead of attending and chairing vital meetings to plan the UK’s response to the looming threat of Covid-19, Boris Johnson preferred to spend time relaxing with his girlfriend, and trying to repair the rift his new relationship had created between himself and his children.

Now the UK is on course to be the European state with the highest death toll from this virus, both in absolute terms and per head of population. It’s for good reason that the Conservative government only publishes the statistics for deaths in hospitals, because there are reports that there could already be as many as 7500 additional death in care homes on top of the 15,464 that the UK government’s figures admit to. This is the estimate made by the care home organisation Care England, and it’s several times higher than the estimate of 1500 made by the British government. If this estimate is accurate this would take the true number of deaths from the virus in the UK to around 23000, a death toll which is the same of that of Italy and greater than Spain’s. And we’ve not seen the last yet. The blame for this lies squarely with Boris Johnson and the British government which he leads. Still want to clap for Boris? There are 15,464 people plus God knows how many more who won’t be clapping for anything ever again.

The catalogue of errors and missteps is legion. Far from ensuring that the UK possessed sufficient stockpiles of PPE to see the NHS through a pandemic, in January this year this British government exported hundreds of thousands of items from its stockpile to China. The government initially believed that this epidemic was going to act like the regular outbreaks of flu, and so pursued its disastrous herd immunity strategy. It was only after the realisation dawned that Covid-19 is not like the flu, that as many as 250,000 would have to die before sufficient natural immunity built up within the population was the policy abandoned. Or at least we were told it was abandoned. We are still nowhere near the level of testing required in order to achieve the kind of test, trace, isolate policy which has allowed countries like South Korea or Singapore to contain the epidemic successfully. The Sunday Times tells us, in the final indignity, that the British model of epidemic preparedness was adopted by Singapore, the difference is that Singapore implemented it whereas the UK abandoned it to pursue Brexit and austerity.

We see the UK’s lack of planning and preparedness in the fact that it’s one of the few places in Europe where travellers can fly in without having to go into quarantine. As a consequence the UK is now a magnet for the super rich who are using their private jets to come to the UK to escape more severe restrictions elsewhere.

We’re living in a state where a 99 year old man seems to do more to assist the NHS than the British government. Tom Moore is rightly hailed for his magnificent efforts, but a society only needs to rely on charity when government has failed. It is a scandal that public services have to be funded by the efforts of an elderly man doing a marathon around his garden on a zimmer frame.

Boris Johnson has given abundance evidence to those who said that he merely wanted to win the job of Prime Minister, he didn’t actually want to do it. It was always, and is now, an exercise in entitlement and egoism from a supremely privileged charlatan. As a result of the negligence, lack of preparedness, complacency, and sheer outright British exceptionalist arrogance of the Westminster government which he leads, thousands of British citizens may have died needlessly. We are paying for his entitlement with our lives.
In any other profession, Boris Johnson would be facing charges of negligence. As it is, he will try to ride out this storm, and then deflect criticisms by promising a public enquiry after the crisis is over. This will be a public enquiry in the long tradition of British public enquiries, full of activity, witnesses, and earnest promises which will conclude by telling us that a couple of minor civil servants may have been less than diligent in performing their duties while letting the likes of Boris Johnson off free.

What ought to be written on the political tombstone of this Conservative government are the words of a senior advisor within the Department of Health who told the Sunday Times, “We could have been Germany but instead we were doomed by our incompetence, our hubris and our austerity.”

40 new hospitals was a lie. We are better prepared for a pandemic than anywhere else was a lie. £350M for the NHS when we leave the EU was a lie. 50,000 extra nurses was a lie. There’s plenty of PPE to go round was a lie.  There’s plenty of opportunities awaiting the UK once we leave the EU was a lie. 

Anywhere where there’s a properly functioning democracy, a government would not survive a scandal of this magnitude.  Where incompetence and deceit on such an epic scale has been revealed, the Prime Minister would resign and the government would fall. But this is the UK, not a properly functioning democracy. This is a government which cannot be held to account. And let's remember, Boris and his dysfunctional team were only elected to deliver Brexit, not to give us competent governance.

Good wishes to our PM

Readers of this blog will know that I dislike Boris Johnson intensely. And you'll know that I think he’s a thoroughly contemptible human being. He’s a proven liar, a charlatan, a fraud, and a smirking entitled buffoon who is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is. But I don’t wish death on him. Humiliation and political ruin, sure, but you’d have to be completely immoral to wish a slow agonising death from coronavirus on a person. If we seek to condemn him and his like, we need to have a more nuanced and highly developed sense of morality than, for example, Priti Patel or Michael Gove.

Boris Johnson is currently in intensive care and anyone who is in intensive care right now is seriously, properly, ill. They deserve nothing but our good will and the hope that they make it though this dreadful trial. There but for the grace of the major and minor gods go any one of us. So I’d just like to say that I wish the PM a speedy return to full health. I’d like him to recover, so that he can be held accountable for the screw up that he and his administration have made of handling the epidemic. I hope that he makes a full and rapid recovery so that for the rest of his life we can remind him that karma is spelled H.E.R.D.I.M.M.U.N.I.T.Y. I want Boris him to get better soon so that we can remind him that, when he mouths platitudes like “we’re all in this together”, for once it means him too. And most of all, I’d like him to recover so that he can gaze upon the consequences of his handiwork when we leave the EU.