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Thursday 29 August 2013

UK parliament votes AGAINST military action in Syria

Last night, the UK parliament voted AGAINST military action in Syria. This is excellent news.
This does not mean the UK should take no action. What it signals is that the UK people don't want to meet violence with yet more violence. Instead let us encourage effective diplomacy. Jaw jaw, not war war is, ultimately, the ONLY way. Can anyone really say that our past military action in Afghanistan, Iraq or anywhere in the Middle East has ever done any long term good? No, what it has left is a trail of bitterness.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Syria and chemical warfare

So the UK and USA are considering a response to the use of chemical warfare in Syria. The likely response will be yet more violence in  the form of a clinical attack on something/someone.  Will we NEVER ever learn? What sort of message will that send?

The ONLY solutions to the problems in the Middle East depend on building trust and understanding on all sides. As we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the use of violence to counter violence destroys trust and creates yet more issues.

Jaw jaw, not war war, please.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Cricketing success

So England won the Ashes series after a thrilling day yesterday which saw the Australians thrashed.

The last 12 months have been good ones for UK sport for all the right reasons: a successful and happy Olympic Games last summer, success at Wimbledon for Andy Murray in the tennis and for England in the Tour de France cycling. 

Sport is good when it inspires people to strive for the impossible and succeed, although good sportsmanship is about trying to win and not winning at all costs including cheating, which serves no good.  It is sad that sports are so commercialised these days and that money matters so much.

Moving home - mixed emotions

We have lived in our family home, a modest semi-detached house on the edge of our village, for 37.5 happy years. Tomorrow we move to a bungalow next to our local windmill currently undergoing a large restoration. The new home is lovely: homely and spacious, and with a nice garden and at the end of  a quiet close.

As you can imagine, this evening we are feeling rather mixed emotions: our children grew up in this current home and it has been "our" place, with our stamp on it, for all those years. They have been, almost without exception, very happy years. Tonight the old house is devoid of personality with pictures off the walls and trappings of our life in boxes.

However, the new home is already taking on the feel of our current home with familiar photos and trappings already in place that make a home "our" home. No doubt it will take a few weeks to adjust, but overall we feel it is a good move: a bungalow is easier when one is getting on in years and mobility is likely to become more difficult. Nonetheless we will miss our old home so much.

Thank you home, you have been our friend for a long time and we'll miss you.