Goodbye to 2020... and good riddance...

The seasonal salutations are unchanging and formulaic. “Happy Christmas and a merry new year" is an unthinkable construction… especially at the end of 2020. In lieu of anything more positive to say about 2021, here’s a picture of some sheep…

 

Lives at risk...

Yesterday set the sort of record that no one wants to see, with 53,135 new cases of the virus in the UK. The hospitals are full, yet, even if the whole country now goes into severe lockdown, the number of admissions will continue to rise. Such is the entirely predictable - and preventable - consequence of allowing people to gather together over Christmas.

I’ve been reading an account by a senior registrar in intensive care medicine: essential reading for anyone who still thinks that the virus is some kind of hoax, or who may be considering a new year’s knees-up.

“Long gone are the days of claps on doorsteps. Things put in place to support NHS staff during the first wave have been taken away at the time they are needed most. Free parking. Access to tea and coffee during the long nights. Mental health support. Let alone the promised pay rise. And now, even as staff continue to put their lives at risk every day that they turn up for work, they find themselves at the back of the queue for a vaccine”…   

Birdoswald...

Christmas, traditionally, is the time of year when I obsess gloomily about my many shortcomings… when I am confronted most starkly with the contrast between the goodness in the world and the badness in me. Not this year, though. It doesn’t mean that I’m becoming a better person, alas; it just means that the world is going to hell in a handcart.

Licensed today: Birdoswald Roman fort, on Hadrian's Wall, near Gilsland, Cumbria… 

Ambleside...

Another place, another time...

 

Change of use...

Just read an interesting article on the Guardian website, by Simon Jenkins. He notes that barely 2% of the nation regularly go to their Church of England parish church, and a third of them are over 70, with only 1% of 18- to 24-year-olds now identifying as Anglican. This decline in Christian observance leaves a lot of churches surplus to requirements. What, he asks, should we do with them? The situation is complicated by the fact that some 70% of England’s churches are listed and undestroyable, including 45% of the country’s Grade 1 historic buildings. Unless they are de-listed, we can’t allow them to crumble into picturesque ruins.

Though it may seem strange for an atheist like me to be concerned about the fate of old churches, atheism is not, in fact, a belief system. Atheists can appreciate religious art, ecclesiastical architecture and the church's place in social history; we’re not the Taliban!

Some churches are being re-purposed, with many currently serving as much-needed food banks. The church in my pic - at Beech Hill, near Reading - doubles up as the village shop. Everything folds away behind screens, when the building is required for services: the counter, displays and even the frozen food cabinets…

 

Flatlands...

Sodden fields, this afternoon...

St George...

Licensed today: a statue of St George killing the dragon, in Alnwick, Northumberland…

 

Royal Armouries Museum...

We have ‘old’ covid, ‘new’ covid, and, now, ‘new new’ covid. If we’re unsure how to respond to today’s restrictions, and need a rationale for scaling down our Christmas get-togethers, we only have to think about the people who work in the NHS - already exhausted - who will nevertheless look after us if we fall ill. While we may not think too highly about the government’s handling of the pandemic, we can at least do our damndest to avoid occupying another hospital bed.

Licensed today: a display in the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds...

Bah humbug...

Oof… my distaste for the festive season has been commodified. Warburtons are producing their sliced loaves with two different designs on the wrapper. Customers can plump for either the ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Bah Humbug’ versions…

 

Goole...

When the town of Goole - and its associated docks and waterways - opened for business in 1826, it must have looked futuristic. Six roads meet where the clock tower now stands, on a roundabout, so this was the centre of the original town. The building with the arched windows is the City and County, a Wetherspoons pub, which used to be a branch of the York City and County Bank. Pic licensed this morning for the best price of a poor month… 

Selby Abbey...

Preparing Selby Abbey for the white supremacists' Christmas pot-luck dinner and dance...

  

Home cooking...

A Michigan man has successfully sued his parents for getting rid of his pornography collection, and can now seek compensation. David Werking said that boxes of films and magazines worth an estimated $29,000 (£21,500) had gone missing, and his parents admitted that they had indeed destroyed the stash. Case closed. I'm searching, in vain, for a moral to this story.

The moral to this story: don't take a phone call while there's a pepperoni pizza in the oven. I've uploaded the image to Alamy, with high hopes of a sale... 

 

Postie...

The local postman gets another airing in a national newspaper...

Santa needs a wee...

We should resist the urge to provide a happy ending for a year as shit as 2020. The year doesn’t stop being shit just because Mariah Carey is top of the charts - finally - with All I Want for Christmas is You. Christmas with family could mean a spell in hospital - or worse - for older family members, and it will be doctors and nurses, not Boris Johnson, who will be charged with clearing up the mess in the new year. Count me out.

The Junction Arts Centre in Goole is closed, much like everything else in the town. But, according to an email I received today, they are still putting on a show. Father Christmas Needs a Wee, based, possibly, on one of Philip Larkin's lesser-known poems, is available online. I might give this a miss too.

Retail multi-tasking in Ulverston, seconds before the shop proprietor came over and threatened to knock me out if I took another photo of his shop. My usual response - "I don't care to be spoken to in that tone of voice" - had the required effect, leaving my good looks intact...

 

Hebden Bridge...

Licenced today: Market Street in Hebden Bridge...

Ruthwell Cross...

Licensed today: the anglo-saxon Ruthwell Cross in Ruthwell Kirk, Dumfries & Galloway…

 

Crosthwaite...

It’s not every day that I’m inspired by a quote from Cher, the seemingly ageless singer and actress. When asked today how Donald Trump has changed the culture of the United States, she replied, “It’s toxic. People who just disagreed with each other before are now enemies”.

Democracy relies on the peaceful transition from one government to the next. If ‘your’ party wins the election, you have every right to punch the air or dance a jig. If ‘your’ party loses, you have every right to show your disappointment. But no one should attempt to undermine the legitimancy of the election itself, by insisting - without any evidence - that it was rigged. It’s hard to see Trump’s baseless lawsuits, since the election, as anything but an attempted coup. He’s encouraged his followers to take to the streets, fully armed. Cher’s right: Trump has sowed discord… and enmity.

Licenced today: the South Lakeland village of Crosthwaite...

 

Brexit...

Brexit celebrations start early in Maryport...

 

Windermere...

Rugby...

There’s a call today for rugby to be banned in schools, because an increasing number of professional rugby players are being diagnosed with early onset dementia. Eight former players, all under the age of 45, are proposing to bring legal proceedings against the game’s governing bodies over what they claim is their failure to protect them from the risks caused by concussions.

The news comes too late for me. I played rugby at school, but only because I had to. I would run up and down the touchline in the hope that the other players might assume I was watching, while spectators might assume I was playing. This ploy worked pretty well until someone was thoughtless enough to pass me the ball.

Licensed today: another shot to illustrate that home delivery is endemic. We used to go shopping; now the shops come to us... 

Dangerous delusions...

A neat summation of post-election chaos by Stephen Collinson of CNN. “Trump’s dangerous delusions about a stolen election represent the most overt attempt in modern history by a president to overthrow the will of the voters. But they have reached the point of no return after the conservative-majority Supreme Court largely crushed what remaining hallucinatory hopes Trump harbored of reversing his defeat. The Court’s devastating first response to the post-election fray sent a clear signal that the top bench disdains frivolous and long-shot cases already witheringly rejected by lower courts. The denial of Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to block the certification of their state’s results, for which there were no noted dissents, was a humiliating repudiation of Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding that three justices that he installed on the Court would swing him a disputed election. It also showed that evidence-free conspiracy theories might thrill the president’s base and his media propagandists, but they don’t cut it in court”.

Hull marina...

Dedham Vale...

Coventry is - for a day - the epicentre of the medical world, as a 90-year-old woman from the city is the first recipient of the Pfizer/BioNTech covid vaccine. Things are likely to get a good deal worse before they get any better, but, hey, it’s a start. When my turn comes, I’ll be there in the queue with my sleeve rolled up.

Licensed today: a pollarded willow tree by the River Stour, Dedham Vale…

 

God's will...

We have to take responsibility for our own health. If we trust in the almighty, rather than wearing a face-mask, we increase the likelihood that we’ll become just another covid-related statistic. According to an article I just read, in the Guardian, a Muslim shopkeeper in Blackburn has this to say about his customers.

“They say, ‘but it’s written by the almighty!’ They think if it’s Allah’s will, he will protect them. But I say to them: ‘Allah also gave you a brain’. It’s suicide not taking Covid seriously”. The fatalism promoted by Islam may account - at least in part - for the disproportionately high incidence of infections in some of our northern towns and cities.

Hull, a couple of days ago...

Shock & awe...

I read a five-star review about Once Upon a Time in Iraq, a series of five BBC documentary films about the Iraq invasion of 2003 and its violent, chaotic aftermath (the “mission accomplished” announcement, a month after the fall of Baghdad, by a smirking George Bush, having been ludicrously premature). I watched the first film… then the other four. That’s how engrossing it was.

The events were described by those who witnessed them: an American marine, a journalist, a photographer and Iraqi civilians who had been caught up in the war (war? As Bill Hicks pointed out, “it’s only a war if two armies are fighting”). Despite their harrowing tales, they all seemed relieved to know that they were finally being listened to. For me it was five hours well spent; I might even watch the films again.

When Hull fishermen haul in their nets for the last time, they have the option of moving into these rather splendid almshouses... 

Elloughton...

A cottage in the village of Elloughton this afternoon...

 

Harnessing the wind...

The USA has 4% of the world’s population but 19% of its deaths from Covid-19. Yesterday 2,879 Americans died from the virus: almost as many as in the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. And what has Donald Trump said? Nothing. He’s too busy trying to overturn the result of an election he clearly lost… 

Licensed today: a kite-surfer and offshore windfarm near Redcar...

 

Books...

Licensed today: one of the many rooms - all equally overcrowded - in Camilla's Bookshop in Eastbourne. I met Camilla, briefly, before she headed out "to buy more books"... 

 

Poundbury...

Licensed today: a row of terraced houses in Poundbury, the vanity project, near Dorchester, dreamed up by Prince Charles...

Christmas...

Whatever we can - or can’t - do over the Christmas holiday, surely we're all aware by now that gathering together, in boozy, multi-generational clusters, is going to create more infections, then more hospitalisations and, finally, more funerals. With vaccines on the way - and not just on the nation’s wish-list - this winter seems like a time for caution, not recklessness. I’ll be keeping my head down; I don't want this to be my last Christmas... and I don't want to be a burden on the NHS.

Licensed today: the Manor Hotel in Moreton-in-Marsh… 

Leaning in...

It’s ironic: we keep each other safe, during a pandemic, by keeping our distance. Now, with vaccines on the way, I’m looking forward to routine interactions that I used to take for granted. I want to greet an old friend with a hug. I want to give someone a slap on the back. I want to punch someone on the arm, to accompany the punchline to a joke. I want to lean in… not lean away.

The last licence of the month: the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus…

 

Wetwang...

Pic licensed today: the road to Wetwang...

Whitby...

The American legal system is standing up, robustly, to Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud. The Philadelphia judge, Stephanos Bibas, summed up the legal response to Trump’s latest lawsuit with clarity and brevity. “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here”.

Licensed yesterday: Whitby harbour...

Thornbury...

A few words from Krishnamurti, which just arrived in my email inbox...

"We have divided the physical world as the East and the West. We have divided religions: the Christian religion and Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist. We have divided the world into nationalities. We have the capitalist and the socialist, the communist and the other people, and so on. We have divided the world; we have divided ourselves as Christians and non-Christians. We have divided ourselves into fragments, opposing each other. Where there is a division there is conflict"

Licenced today: a typical street scene in Thornbury, Gloucestershire...

House to let...

Mundane pix can sell... if they make a point. Licensed today: a house to let in the Cotswold village of Lower Slaughter...

 

River Nene...

They’re at it again. The Bishop of Blackburn is the latest cleric threatening to leave the Church of England if it abandons “orthodox biblical teachings” about sexuality and identity. Though it’s true that the Bible condemns homosexuality, the ‘good book’ also condones slavery. Any man who promotes “orthodox biblical teachings” should, by rights, be advocating the taking of sex-slaves as well.

Licensed today: a narrowboat on the River Nene near Oundle…

 

Dogs...

Just read an article: How can you tell when someone has a dog? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. Everyone in Asselby seems to have a dog - sometimes several - which soon become the sole topic of conversation.

This is the kind of scene I used to encounter in the good old days, when I toured around in the Romahome and visited characterful pubs in the middle of nowhere. Having been sitting on his own, the guy on the right suddenly announced: “Right… I’ll get the dogs from the car”. The couple on the left had been debating how much their house had increased in value between lunch and tea-time, but the dogs (or are they ponies?) quickly monopolised both the conversation and every available inch of floor-space…

Vaccines...

I appreciate that most people are wanting a traditional family Christmas this year, with all the trimmings. However, bringing kids and old folk together in a confined space, with too much food and booze, is going to create, first, a spike in infections, followed by a rise in hospital admissions, and then, as spring approaches, more deaths and funerals. Now that safe and effective vaccines seem just around the corner - and not just wishful thinking - this isn’t a good time to catch the virus. I’m likely to be more cautious, over the coming months, not less.

Licensed this image today, for calendar use. If a mundane pic of a clock tower in the Cambridgeshire town of Chatteris has 'made the cut', it's going to be a pretty boring calendar...  

Morecambe Bay...

Licensed last week: all that's left of Cockersand Abbey, on Morecambe Bay...

Levens Hall...

Donald Trump has been locked into the Oval Office of the White House, with a fifth of bourbon and a pearl-handled revolver, and told to “consider his options”.

Still selling pix of the topiary gardens at Levens Hall...  

 

Isle of Skye...

I make lists of my favourite words, which include nubile, lithe, lissom, mollify, rigmarole, budgerigar, kerfuffle, skullduggery, catamite, termagent, quibble, avuncular, moist, plinth, sashay, demarera, sponge, beaver, doolally. So someone who was nubile, lithe, lissom - and moist - would tick a lot of boxes.

Licensed today: Loch Ainort on the Isle of Skye...

Cardiff Bay...

Licensed today: Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay…

 

Stop press...

Donald Trump declares himself President-for-life, and imposes martial law...

 

Flatford Mill...

Hull, twenty-odd miles from Asselby along the M62, is now the nation’s coronavirus hot-spot. The city managed to avoid the worst of the first wave and went into September with low immunity, but is now seeing what the leader of the city council has called an “astonishing and terrifying” rise in Covid-19 cases, which have jumped ten-fold in just five weeks to become the highest in the country.

Licensed today for use on a calendar: Flatford Mill in Essex... 

Troutbeck...

Donald Trump starting a small war in some “shithole country” represented my worst-case scenario for a demented dictator backed into an electoral corner: a kind of mirthless joke. But today I read that he asked top aides last week about the possibility of striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. The senior officials “dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike”, warning him that an attack could escalate into a broader conflict in the final weeks of his presidency. Trump still has access to the nuclear codes; the sooner he is out of the White House, the safer the world will be.

Licensed today: a display of daffodils in the graveyard of Jesus Church, in Troutbeck, Cumbria...

Crummockwater...

Well, here we are… in the middle of Lockdown 2.0. Everyday life doesn’t seem so very different (from my perspective, at least) to the way things were two weeks ago… which merely shows how far my horizons have contracted. I keep telling myself how lucky I am - roof over my head, food in the fridge, woodburner blazing - but I don’t feel lucky. I feel stuck, stalled, stymied. Writing is hard. I can barely concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, and what I am able to write looks distinctly uninspired. But, hey, another vaccine candidate has been announced this morning. Roll on springtime… 

Licensed today: a VW camper passing Crummockwater...

 

Mob rule...

The crowds have been out in Washington, waving banners, shouting slogans and refusing to accept the results of a free and fair election. The blame lies entirely with Donald Trump. To his already long list of personal failings, we can add another: he’s not just a loser… he’s a bad loser. His claims that the election was rigged are entirely baseless, his lawsuits without merit. If he had conceded defeat, and congratulated Joe Biden on winning the election, then (most of) his followers would have accepted the result too… albeit grudgingly. Instead he is whipping up his followers into a frenzy, and putting democracy at risk, just to give himself an outside chance of a second term as president.

The battle in the USA is no longer between Republicans and Democrats; it’s between democracy and mob rule. People will die as a direct result of Trump’s intransigence. Worse, they’ll die in vain, because his cynical ploys won’t work. Donald Trump will vacate the White House, one way or another, and Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president… 

South Dalton in the Yorkshire Wolds...

Peter Sutcliffe...

I read on the Guardian website about the death of Peter Sutcliffe; just seeing it in print made me jump, as memories flooded back of living in Leeds in the 1970s. Sutcliffe’s first victims were prostitutes. It was obviously easier to target the women working the streets of northern towns, because they needed little persuading to get into his car. The police response was muted initially, with suggestions that the killer was doing the police’s job, by “cleaning up the streets”. Sex workers, it seemed, were dispensible. It wasn’t until Jayne MacDonald, a student at Leeds University, became his fifth victim, that the police investigation was stepped up. She was described by police as the first “innocent” victim, who “didn’t deserve to die”.

The investigation took a wrong turn when a cassette tape was sent to George Oldfield, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. “I’m Jack”, claimed a mocking voice in a Wearside accent. “I see you are still having no luck catching me”. That hoax tape, broadcast continuously to shoppers at the Merrion Centre, distracted the police for 18 months. While they looked for a man from Wearside, three more women were killed. Peter Sutcliffe was interviewed on nine separate occasions by police, and released each time because he had a Yorkshire accent (but if they had searched his garage, they would have found the tools of his grisly trade).

Joy and I were sitting in the Little Park pub in Burley - demolished years ago - when someone burst through the door shouting “They’ve got him!”... and no one needed to be told who “he” was. Peter Sutcliffe murdered 13 women, attacked many more and left 23 children without a mother…

Racial terminology...

Greg Clarke has resigned as Chairman of the Football Association for ill-considered comments he made while being interrogated by MPs. He used the term “coloured” to describe black, Asian and minority ethnic people and suggested that “different career interests” led south Asian people to choose careers in IT over sport. He also described a gay player coming out as a “life choice” and recounted an anecdote about girl footballers being afraid to be hit by the ball.

According to a survey of UK sporting organisations, the term BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethnic) is “insulting” and should be retired. Arun Kang, the CEO of Sporting Equals, is suggesting that “ethnically diverse communities” (or “diverse ethnic communities”) should be used instead. We seem to be running out of inoffensive acronymns and euphemisms. I’m not surprised that Greg Clarke used an anachronistic term; despite his elevated position within the FA - and salary to match - he’s not the sharpest knife in the box. It could even be seen as an honest mistake by a man who failed to keep abreast of current trends in racial terminology.

Ironically, you only have to attend a football match, or watch a game on TV in a febrile pub atmosphere, to hear language unmoderated by any attempt to avoid offence. “A fucking lazy thick nigger” was pundit Ron Atkinson’s verdict on Marcel Desailly after a match, when he thought his microphone had been switched off. I wonder what percentage of the population believe that only white people can genuinely claim to be called English or British. The majority, I suspect.

Licensed today, for TV use: a night scene in Carlisle…

 

Tewkesbury...

Licensed today: a street scene in Tewkesbury, Gloucester...

 

Predatory priests...

The Catholic Church, market leader in the child molestation business, has been criticised, yet again, for being more interested in the church’s reputation than in the welfare of victims. The 162-page report, the result of an independent enquiry, is damning: “The church’s neglect of the physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of children and young people in favour of protecting its reputation was in conflict with its mission of love and care for the innocent and vulnerable”. There will no doubt be another enquiry next year, and the year after that, but nothing much will change. The church will dip into its coffers to pay off some of the more persistent victims, while continuing to faciliate the abuse of children by predatory priests, whose vow of chastity looks like a sick joke. 

Licensed today: Scale Lane Bridge in Hull...

Sexuality...

Dispensing with hell was a hazardous move for the Church of England. Instead of blackmailing people into belief, by threatening them with an eternity of hellfire, church leaders are having to rely on persuasive argument… which puts them at a distinct disadvantage.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is promising that, by 2022, the church will have formalised its stance on sexuality. Currently the church does not allow same-sex marriage, and does not officially bless same-sex civil partnerships. Gay clergy are permitted to be in relationships so long as they remain celibate.

Will it really take two years for the Church of England to do the right thing? And, if they do, will anyone still be listening?

Douglas...

I’ve learned that Douglas, whose portrait hangs on my wall, died back in May, aged 101, having caught coronairus during a visit to hospital. He has been a reassuring presence during lockdown: stoical, serene, wise and non-judgemental…