Lies, damn lies and the British media

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there’s something deeply wrong with the right wing British nationalist media and it represents a serious threat to the future of democracy in the UK.

Last week we had the wall to wall obsession with a highly paid BBC presenter who had allegedly paid a young person under 18, but over the age of consent, for explicit photos, and blanket coverage of multi-millionaires batting balls about a tennis court. And let's not forget the global heatwave, well, global if you exclude the UK. By Thursday we learned that the unnamed presenter in question was Huw Edwards and that the police had determined that no criminal offence had taken place. The media narrative swiftly pivoted from pearl-clutching faux moral outrage to “poor Huw and his struggle with mental health issues”. What outright hypocrisy.

This story was first reported in deeply moralistic tones by the Sun newspaper. That would be the same Sun newspaper which carried photos of half-naked 16-year-old 'Page 3 girls' from 1970 until 2003. I'm sure that this now means that possession of certain old issues of the Sun a criminal offence. Possessing these old copies of the Sun is literally a crime of indecency. But now the Sun poses as the great champion of moral standards. Excuse me while I throw up.

While the Huw Edwards moral panic was going on, the Conservatives were continuing to trash standards of honesty and decency in public life and all without the media appearing to notice or care. Rishi Sunak – Mr Integrity, Accountability, and Professionalism- managed to take time out of his busy schedule of ignoring the contemptuous antics of his former boss and predecessor to condemn the BBC for its handling of the Huw Edwards affair. Despite being unable so far to utter a single syllable about Boris Johnson being found to have lied to Parliament or about the seven Conservative MPs and peers who had colluded with him in a campaign of intimidation against members of the Commons Privileges Committee who were investigating his many and repeated lies.

Johnson has continued to lie and to treat democratic accountability with contempt, aided and abetted by a right wing media that continues to indulge and enable him. Distracted by Huw Edwards and middle class ball batting, the media scarcely noticed that Johnson missed the deadline for handing over his old mobile phone and WhatsApp messages to the Covid Inquiry. Johnson and the Conservative Government claim that they cannot hand over the data because Johnson has forgotten the password. Allegedly, the combined forces of the British Government are unable to access the data. We are now deep into “the dog ate my homework” territory when it comes to Johnson’s excuses. Mind you it’s not totally implausible that Johnson can’t access the data on his old mobile phone. It’s possible that he was using face recognition and now he can’t remember which of his two faces he originally used.

Meanwhile the right wing press continues to ignore Conservative wrong doing and to shamelessly mislead the public about Brexit. According to the Express on Sunday, the UK’s new planned trade deal with a group of South East Asian and Pacific countries is a Brexit boost worth £12 trillion to the British economy. Yippee, that is good news. However, according to the Conservative Government’s own modelling, over the long term this trade deal could increase UK GDP by just £1.8 billion. That’s 0.015% of the figure in the Express headline, which must surely take the record for the biggest Brexit lie told by the British media since the last one. One Asian financial analyst told Sky News the impact was a “cosmetic” post-Brexit announcement. And absolutely nothing to do with the by-elections this week.

A study by Bloomberg Economics published in January found that Brexit is costing the UK economy £100 billion a year, with the effects spanning everything from business investment to the ability of companies to hire workers. This new trade deal will not make a dent in that figure. The £12 trillion figure is in fact the combined GDPs of all the countries in the trade bloc under question. Joining that bloc certainly does not mean that those countries are going to devote their entire economies to the UK. Or am I underestimating the persuasive powers of our PM?  The combined GDP of the EU is over £16 trillion but the UK walked away from that while the Express cheered, waved union flags and went on about migrants and Meghan and Harry.

The exact same lies, misrepresentation and distraction characterise the British media’s reporting of so many other issues. And this is only going to intensify in the months and weeks before the next General Election. A free press holding power to account, my arse!

Riverside walk at Lerryn

One of our favourite walks, from Lerryn out to St Winnow's church.  Plus the added interest of a side-trip to a 'lost' pleasure garden. And we were lucky with the weather. When you can do this sort of thing, why on earth would anyone bother with mindfulness exercises? Just get out there and enjoy what's around you.

Not a bad message to start a walk with. And off we set, all grinning like loons. Some more loony than others.

A walk we've done several times in the past and it's one that never disappoints, no matter what time of year we do it. The route is simple - follow the waterside path around to St Winnow's church and then come back over the fields. For this one, we added on a short stretch so that we could rediscover the 'lost' Tivoli Pleasure Garden on the south side of the inlet. In total, we walked around 7.25 miles with the weather gods smiling down on us.

Low tide as the River Lerryn widens out into the creek.

Low tide means that we can use the stepping stones to get over to the other side. A little reminiscent of the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road LP? Except that there are more people, no zebra crossing and there was no river in North London. Apart from these minor points, very similar.

A colourful bench in 'pride' of place just over the river.

We were pleased to see quite a few butterflies on our way around. Here's a Red Admiral, looking rather more orangery than red.

The first glimpse we got of St Winnow's church as we walked along the low-tide accessible foreshore path. Why do you like churches so much, you may ask. A few quick thoughts by way of an answer.
They serve two purposes now and always have: as places for Christians to meet and worship and as an entry point to the past, to the history of its location and community. A church is the place in which we traditionally mark life's landmark events: our rites of passage such as births, marriages and deaths. This puts the physical edifice at the heart of the community’s expression of its own story.
A church is also a place in which we remember those who have gone before. It is impossible not to be moved by some of the memorials to people about whom we know no more than it says on their gravestone or tablet, whose names are almost poetry themselves. We know little of Prudence Pengelly, James Bosustow or Mary Tregaddick, but people like them lived, loved and died and are remembered here. They walked down the aisles, sat in the pews and made their contributions to the community of their time. I find myself increasingly wondering what an earth they would think of the state of the world now and how we treat each other. I won't dwell on that as I find it so depressing,
And, thinking more broadly, churches were probably the most expensive building in their villages and are full of interesting architecture reflecting changing attitudes and ideas about Christian worship through the centuries and places where the wealthy could buy ‘attention’ and honour. And finally, searching for them takes us to parts we probably wouldn't otherwise visit and, in this way, helps us to discover new places.

Don’t get too excited: these are modern pastiches of Celtic crosses used as grave markers for various members of the Vivian family. They beg a collective noun: how about a gaggle of Celtic crosses? Or maybe an upright?

 Looking across the nave towards the south aisle. The rood screen survives and, as at many Cornish churches, the rood cross and supporting figures have been reinstated. The screen was renovated by the Pinwill sisters in the early 1900s and I'm a great admirer of their work. I find running my fingers over what they have chiselled to be a very 'grounding' experience.

An unusual monumental plaque with an anagrammatic poem on the name of William Sawle ‘I was ill am well'. Enlarge to read.

The rather lovely carvings on the sixteenth century pulpit.

Some say that the best feature of St Winnow's is its collection of carved bench ends. There are thirty-three in all. Most date from the mid-sixteenth century and expert opinion splits them into two groups carved at slightly different times and in slightly different styles.

One of the two gems amongst the bench ends. This carving of a man drinking from a leather bottle can be dated to around 1530 by the man’s costume - kilts were common in Cornwall then.

 The second gem: a Tudor ship is blown by strong winds represented by the face above and to its left. Four faces of presumably terrified men appear on the decks of the ship. A slight puzzle is the three-stranded projection top right of the crow’s nest - a flag or pennant, perhaps?

An eye-catching headstone with a poignant inscription "See a bee and think of me. In your hearts but flying free". Tragically Scarlett died within days of her birth and there is a photograph of her on the internet. That image will be in my mind every time I walk this way, and there will be other times.

The church is believed to have been named after St Winnoc, who may or may not have built an oratory here around AD670 and who was probably Welsh or may have been Breton. The church itself seems content with this association, although there is a competing claim for St Winwaloe, a fifth century saint. Winwaloe also had Welsh and Breton antecedents. His mother, St Gwen Teirbron, is famous for allegedly having three breasts and unsurprisingly, perhaps, was often associated with fertility. Sometimes I feel that you couldn’t make some of this stuff up. And, perhaps, it was. I have a strong suspicion that some monk got a bit over-excited when he was scratching away in his scriptorium and enjoyed a little literary invention. Who knows? But let’s go with the church’s own assumptions and say ‘hooray to St Winnoc’!

A simple rural scene, just above the church and looking over the River Fowey. And we left the gate as we found it - open.

Another simple scene - looking over the crop and the Fowey, with the white Georgian building of Golant to the left. The big sky and the tranquility are two good reasons for being here.

A Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown butterfly. Can be confused with the Meadow Brown and what distinguishes them easily is the number of white specks within the black eye spots. This one had two such specks.

Look, the tides in and there are no stepping stones. Ian decides not to paddle across.

Now, this is what I call a shed. An object of loveliness and desire. I wonder how many years have been necessary to produce this patina of use.

After we visited the Tivoli Gardens, I read something that describes them as ‘fountains, arches, bandstand and swimming pool, appearing unexpectedly through the trees and undergrowth’ on the edge of a remote Cornish village. I can agree with the undergrowth and the degree of surprise but the plurals are perhaps generous. It was bold to name it after one of the earliest and greatest amusement parks in the world, but ambition should be admired, not mocked. And admire it I did.

Around 1920 a China Clay magnate, Frank Parkyn, who was born in Lerryn in 1850, began work on the park, following a visit to the Danish Tivoli. The scale is very different to its namesake but you can't knock his ambition in such an inaccessible area of Cornwall. Mentally removing the trees, rhododendron and laurel bushes, it is possible to make out a long, relatively level platform about 50 feet above the level of the creek just on the edge of the village.

After a diversion (we weren't lost!), we came across the bandstand and the giant fountain. The band must have been very small for their stand is a small circular structure which has been re-purposed as a garden of some sort.

The Grand Fountain is a rather splendid structure despite the main decorative elements of the central structure being sadly decayed. But you could get the idea of how impressive it must have been when it was flowing in its prime.

The next structure we came across was a plunge pool which would have been about 3 foot deep.Three arches act as a backdrop to the pool and they are very crudely constructed of concrete blocks inset with large lumps of quartz which might have twinkled in the right light, but looked rather naff when we were there. 

From a distance, I could smell something 'creosoty' and this was the source. True to form, I just had to touch to see if it was still wet - and it was. As the notice said it was.

While the Comma was once a rare sight in Britain, it is now the a rare butterfly success story after having a huge increase in the last 40 years. It is believed climate change and the increase in temperatures are the reason this butterfly is thriving.

A walk around the South Hooe Peninsular

 For this walk, we visited the Bere Peninsular just over the Tamar into Devon. Parts of this we have done a few times before, indeed we first walked some of the paths when we lived here between 1972 and 1974. We even walked passed our 'old' bungalow and admired the new wall that someone had built around the garden. A key reason for our return was to check out a new permissive footpath around the peninsular at South Hooe. Read on for details.

We started in the centre of Bere Alston and the walk came in at just over 7 miles, and I put some of that down to a detour to the cafe at the Weir Quay Boatyard. Some but not all! I'd grade it, the walk, at a definite moderate as, typically for this part of the world, there were quite a few ups and downs. 

Our first panoramic view, and there were lots of them on this walk, looking towards Bodmin Moor in the distance with the Tamar just visible on the left.

A shady path, the first of many on this walk. All unique in their way as the leafy canopy filters the light in different ways. And all with a purpose as all these old paths went somewhere. Perhaps to a farm, perhaps to a mine, a church, a hamlet or whatever. Sometimes you'll come across something that will remind you of past travellers - an apple tree growing in a strange place, perhaps coming from a core discarded by someone trudging along to work. Always something to ponder on and, when a reflective mood, to be reminded on your own mortality.

Looking over the Tamar into Cornwall. Directly in front is Bohetherick and, to the right at the top of the meander, is the cluster of buildings that comprise Cotehele Quay

A walking scene - a gate, a dog (Dora), a walking pole and a hat. And, yes, this part was pretty steep but that comes with the territory. Lots of ups and downs. More of the former than the latter.

The very attractive blue flower of Wild Chickory. Presumably part of a wild seed mix used to populate this meadow with wild flowers. For those who like foraging, the flowers, leaves and roots of this plant can be used for culinary and medicinal purposes. 

An impressively complex wild life tower on the South Hooe Cottage Farm Nature Trail. There is provision for bats, owls and kestrels, with various sized holes drilled into the frame for insects. It hasn't been in place for long so it's probably too early to assess how successful it is, over and above impressing me!

Looking across the Tamar again, this time towards Halton Quay, with the old St Indract's Chapel featuring as the white building on the river's edge. The quay has been disused for many years but, once upon a time, was a bustling place. as the local area was important for the soft fruit grown there and the river was the major transport route for the produce. Just to the left of the chapel, there are a couple of old lime kilns. The chapel itself was once the office for the Clerk of Works, who managed all the shipping to and from Plymouth (apparently you could buy a transatlantic ticket here at one time). The ground floor was used to store salmon fishermen's nets. This building, which had become disused, was consecrated as St Indract's Chapel in 1959. A plaque on the chapel wall states that in 689AD St Indract and his sister St Dominica, both of Irish royal blood, landed near this spot. St Dominica gave her name to the nearby village of St Dominick.

Walking through one of the wild flower meadows at the newly established farm walk at South Hooe Cottage. The 2.4 km Trail is part of a wider programme of landscape and habitat improvements, funded by the National Grid’s Landscape Enhancement Initiative. The route provides excellent viewing of the four hectares of new freshwater wetland and pools created on the site in collaboration with the Environment Agency and a further 14 hectares of inter-tidal habitat which is due to be completed in autumn 2023. It's a rather delightful walk and one that deserves return visits at different times of the year. At the moment, it is only open to the public on Saturdays but we had special permission to visit on the Thursday.

The buildings shown here are part of the Pentillie Estate, with the boathouse to the right. The house is featured in the TV series 'Beyond Paradise'. I know they are filming Series 2 and I wondered if the white vans were connected with this. As an aside, the boathouse is a very popular wedding venue, not that I'm in the market.

An eclectic  collection of bits and pieces on the quay at South Hooe. Can you spot the rusty hoe blade?

A tranquil scene now but that belies how busy it would have been in the heydays of the mining in this area. This quay would have serviced the mines and North and South Hooe. Across the way were the mines near Weir Quay, some dating back to the 1300s.

A rather unexpected find: the Tamar Valley Vineyard. It produces a white wine of some repute from the Madeleine Angevine grape, plus a few cider varieties from their apples. 

Interesting wayside signs: Part 1: Houseowners trying to tempt walkers to go around their property rather than stick to the footpath which runs straight through their garden. We elected to follow the footpath because we weren't too sure where the diversion would lead. But, having done it and seen how close it runs to their backdoor, I think we could all see why they wanted a diversion.

The Merganser was being used as a houseboat when we lived in the area in the early 1970s. It's in a very sorry state now and it has a fascinating history which is well worth detailing. And I have a sneaky admiration for John Hall chopping it in half with a chainsaw. A Herculean task.

Merganser was a 68ft long cutter-rigged yacht designed by Benjamin Nicholson and built by the Camper and Nicholsons yard at Gosport in Hampshire in 1887. The yacht was built for Hugh Leyborne Popham of Hungerford and she was registered in Plymouth, he owned the vessel for 33 years and would take part in yacht races and regattas with himself as skipper. Merganser seems to be well-known in the area; in one account of a storm in 1899 she was referred to as 'Mr Popham's yacht Merganser' reporting that she fell over on her side while beached at Mount Batten. Merganser was also registered as a fishing boat as PH37, records show that she was registered as a trawler with a crew of five people from 1887 to 1896 while also registered as a yacht. The cutter rig was altered to a ketch rig in 1906 and provided with a new set of sails by Hoopel in 1908. It has been suggested that her copper sheathing was stripped for munitions during the Great War and never replaced, but fragments of sheathing can still be seen on the foreshore around the hulk so she may have been re-coppered after the war.

Plymouth sailmaker Samuel Boon Harvey bought the yacht in 1920 then Robert Dell bought her in 1924, Dell was listed on the bill of sale as a 'commissioned gunner, Royal Navy', a warrant officer. Dell moved her to her current location and converted Merganser into a houseboat while living at Tamar View in Holes Hole. George Evans, a stove and grate merchant of Plymouth, then bought the yacht in 1930 and his daughter and son-in-law lived aboard for some years. Harry John Hall took ownership in 1947 using her as the family home and only finally leaving in the 1970s. By now the hull was collapsing at the stern on her mud berth and most of her upper fastenings had been removed. The Parish Council ordered the hulk to be demolished but the National Maritime Museum got involved to see if she could be saved but she was considered too unsafe to move.

In 1975, a local craftsman called Charlie Hingston was employed by new owners Eric and Alison Paice to restore Merganser to her former glory. The hull was rebuilt to the original shape but sadly this work was not completed and the half-restored boat was sold to a local resident in 1986. Later, the partly-restored hull was cut in half by John Hall using a chainsaw, and the stern section removed to prevent the yacht being occupied by squatters.

Interesting wayside signs: Part 2: I'm not sure what more I can say about this one. It made us laugh.

A post box from the Victorian era. It was in the wall of a rather isolated cottage and I suspect that, when it was installed, there were a few more people around because of the agricultural and mining activities. I'm not sure how old this one is but roadside wall boxes appeared in 1857 as a cheaper alternative to pillar boxes, especially in rural areas.

Almost our last stretch under the canopy of a green lane, this one leading from Cotts to Furzehill. Probably this track serviced a couple of local mines in the 1800s or was, perhaps, a route down to the river at Weir Quay.

The latest celebrity scandal

The British media is currently engrossed in one of its periodic bouts of mass moralistic hysteria over the story of an unnamed but “well-known” presenter who is alleged to have paid thousands of pounds over a period of some years to a teenager in return for sexually explicit photos. Phillip Schofield must be breathing a huge sigh of relief right now that the media focus has turned to someone even creepier and more distasteful. But all may not be as it was first portrayed and there is, perhaps, going to be some well deserved egg on the faces of some of the press. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I just hope it gets sorted sooner rather than later as there are many other (more) important matters that warrant coverage.

But let's make it clear. Sexual contact between a teenager and a much older adult man (or woman) is abusive and exploitative even when the younger person is over the legal age of consent. What is lawful is not always right. The gross imbalance in experience, income, and power makes the relationship alarmingly problematic and renders the concept of consent moot in a moral, if not legal sense. The older, more powerful, and wealthier the older person is, the more coercive and controlling the relationship is likely to be. However although in this case the young person was reportedly first induced to send explicit photos to the older man when they were 17 and over the age of consent, an offence may still have been committed. Although the age of consent is 16, the minimum age at which people are allowed to send explicit photographs is 18. According to the Observer newspaper: “One key legal issue is whether the young person sent the BBC presenter any pictures when they were 17, which could amount to possession of child sexual abuse images, a serious criminal charge that incurs a minimum of six months’ prison. If explicit photos were exchanged only after they turned 18, it is possible that no law was broken.” But then, not breaking any laws is not the same as behaving appropriately or in a non-abusive manner.

Over the weekend we were informed by various talking heads that the presenter at the centre of these allegations cannot be named because no criminal charges have yet been brought. We were also informed that this restraint was due to how responsible our press was, What utter rubbish and gross hypocrisy. The press would have no compunction about naming names if they thought they could get away with it. In this case, they are obviously afraid of getting it wrong and being sued by someone with the money to take them on.

It is also hugely hypocritical that ministers and MPs are criticising the BBC for not taking sexual misbehaviour seriously. Even Rishi Sunak has weighed in on this as it's safe territory for him with no chance of offending anyone in his own party. Let's not forget what's gone on before. At the last count more than 40 MPs have been investigated for various shades of sexual misbehaviour, two are on bail, two are currently in prison, and there are reports that others are under police investigation. Open Democracy reported recently that a Conservative MP on police bail after being accused of rape, has been given the go-ahead by his local party to stand in the next general election. 

Tamworth MP Chris Pincher has been suspended from Parliament for eight weeks after an investigation was launched when he was alleged to have groped two men at the Conservative Carlton Club. Six further allegations against Pincher later emerged, involving behaviour over a decade.

Neil Parish resigned from his seat in Devon after admitting to watching porn in the Commons on two occasions. More serious was the case of Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan who was jailed for 18 months in May 2022 for groping a 15-year-old boy in 2008.

David Warburton, who represented Somerton and Frome, had the Tory whip removed after he was allegations of cocaine use and sexual harassment emerged. Warburton resigned as an MP in June, admitting to the use of cocaine, but continuing to deny allegations of sexual harassment. Instead he asserted that the Me Too movement had gone “too far.” Because he’s the real victim here, you understand.

Former Conservative minister Andrew Griffiths was found to have raped and physically abused his wife by a family court judge who considered evidence at a private trial in 2021. Griffiths stepped down as an MP prior to the 2019 General Election.

Former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke was jailed for two years in September 2020 after being found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a month-long trial.

Rob Roberts, the MP for Delyn was allowed to rejoin the Conservatives despite an independent investigation finding he had sexually harassed a junior member of staff.

And the list goes on....................

Mhairi Black, in her recent letter announcing that she would not be seeking re-election, denounced the toxic culture of Westminster, she was not wrong. It’s a toxicity which spreads its tentacles into every British institution. They say rot progresses from the head down, and the Westminster Parliament is a toxic putrid cesspit of sleaze, corruption, abuse, dysfunction, and the waste of billions of pounds of public money. I feel better for that bit of hyperbolic language but they really do get up my nose.

Down with sensationalism

 Don't you just get fed up with the state of the modern media, with all the sensational headlines, lurid stories and titillating images designed to get you to follow links to stories that never live up to what they promised? Take me back to the good old days when serious writers, like those writing for the Police News below, upheld the very highest journalistic standards.

A walk from Jamaica Inn

A walk that Mrs P and I reconnoitered a couple of years ago as a possible route for our Thursday Walking Group. And today was the day that we finally managed to repeat it with the group. It did not disappoint.

About 5.5 miles for this one but a very pleasant route. Starting at Jamaica Inn in Bolventor, we took a circular route that visited some fairly isolated places - but all within sight of the A30. Bypassed by most people as they head further west for the likes of Newquay and St Ives.

In the distance was the elongated ridge of Brown Willy. Our recent walk up there from the other side took us up to the highest spot on the right.

Sometimes footpath markers are rather ambiguous. Taken at face value, this one directs you through the clump of gorse. Not a good move.

Looking down the valley at the bottom of which runs the River Fowey.

And here is the River Fowey, from its highest crossing point at Codda. Not a lot of water running down which is no surprise after all the recent dry weather. Until the mid 1800s, Bodmin Moor was known as Fowey Moor, in the same way that Dartmoor and Exmoor were named after their eponymous rivers. Why the change of name? Lost in the mists of time but the first mention of Bodmin Moor seems to have been in the very early 1800s.

Codda farmhouse and shippon. Thought to date from the 17th century but possibly on earlier foundations. It was originally a longhouse. It stopped being a residential farm in the 1980s and, after a period of gradual decline, is now being slowly renovated.

A not particularly good shot of a Mistletoe Thrush. It looks like it was shedding some of its feathers - perhaps getting rid of its breeding plumage?

Looking across Catshole Down towards Brown Willy. Eminently walkable after the dry spell we've had but normally extremely boggy and to be negotiated with care - and waterproof boots. Somewhere over there are the remains of the wreckage of a Halifax bomber that crashed in 1945.

A white-tailed bumblebee feeding on a Rosa Rugosa. Unlike honey bees whose colonies can number 50,000 individuals, the white-tailed bumble bee's colony is much smaller and will house approximately 200 bees. They nest underground. They are easily confused with the buff-tailed bumblebee but this one's tail was definitely white.

The next (ignoring the A30 bridge) downstream crossing of the Fowey at Dryworks. It was, as are all of these such, a ford and was probably used to get access to the moor. The ford is still there but walkers can keep their feet dry by using the nearby wooden bridge.

Heading away from the Dryworks crossing and up a rather steep sunken track. I love this sort of place and they always get me thinking about the days when they were used by various animals, maybe on their way down for water or for grazing on the moor. A hidden part of Bodmin Moor and one that relatively few ever visit - hooray for that.

Just simply a field of very contented cows enjoying the sunshine. A lovely scene.

Ignore the ribbon of the A30, this view shows a large part of our walk. We basically went from left to right, but didn't reach the heights of The Beacon on Hendra Downs.