Religious affiliation...

According to the 2021 census, nearly 40% of the population of England and Wales say they have no religious affiliation...

Windermere view...

With concentration poor I spent the morning in Goole library - in the very centre of town, where six roads converge on the old clocktower - hoping that a change of scene might recharge my creative batteries. I took a seat by the window, so I could watch council workmen using a cherry-picker to put up the Christmas lights. From the far corner of the library some kids were singing The Wheels on the Bus. I had three hours of focused and uninterrupted writing in pleasantly warm surroundings. I’ll be back.

Licenced today - five walkers stop to admire the view of Lake Windermere from Loughrigg Fell, near Ambleside - for the best price so far this year…

Islamic values...

Hassan Al-Thawadi, the head of Qatar’s World Cup organising committee, has accused teams who wanted to wear the OneLove armband of sending a “very divisive message” to the Islamic and Arab world. He said he had an “issue” with the armband because he saw it as a protest against Islamic values and an Islamic country hosting such a major event. Well, yes… and yes. From my perspective, I have no problem with the “Arab world”. My misgivings are focused, instead, on some of the more problematic “values” of Islam. Why? Because they date from the 7th century CE, and it’s high time they were brought up to date.

The cry of “Islamophobia” is heard so often that we may fail to notice that there is no obvious mechanism for Muslims to review the tenets of their religion (and that Muslims are not actively looking for one). When was the last time a Muslim spokesman said “You know, you may be right: we need to take a long, hard look at some of the more problematic aspects of Islam”? No, I can’t remember either.

Licenced today: the marketplace in Thirsk...

Skipton...

Licenced today: the Black Horse pub in Skipton…

Bellway homes...

"We have invented God. If God did exist and if he created us, he must be a pretty poor God. We have created him; the image that exists all over the world is the result of thought. Thought is not sacred; it is born of experience, knowledge and memory. There is nothing sacred in that; it is a material proces" (J Krishnamurti).

Licenced today: Imperial Gardens, a new housing estate from Bellway homes, in Howden…

Home delivery...

Licenced today: an Ocado van doing the rounds...

Another mass shooting...

Another week, another mass shooting: this time at a Walmart store in Virginia. Senators and governors trot out the usual platitudes about “thoughts and prayers”, but it’s the Onion headline which really hits the spot. “No Way To Prevent This”, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.

Licenced today: a snowy lane near Storiths in Wharfedale…

Windermere...

Licenced today: a train at Windermere railway station…

Islam unreformed...

We - Britain, Europe or ‘the west’ - have made many mistakes over recent centuries; our own record on human rights is, at best, chequered. Two hundred years ago we were still profiting from the slave trade. But times change, and we no longer buy and sell people like farm equipment. In Britain, until 1861, homosexuality was a crime which could be punishable by the death penalty. It was still a crime - though no longer a capital crime - a century later. Now it's a source of rainbow-hued "pride".

Qatar, as a Muslim country, does not have the same opportunities to instigate societal change. Because there is no tradition, in Islam, of subjecting the tenets of their faith to a critical review, the morals and mores of 7th century Arabia have been imported, unreformed, into the 21st. Muslim attitudes towards women and homosexuals are embedded as securely and non-negotiably into their holy book as the ten commandments in the Bible. These attitudes aren’t going to change any time soon. Why? Because under a theocracy, God’s law is paramount, not man’s. And, by dictating every single word in the Quran, God has already spoken. This is what it means to embrace the “last” religion and to own the “perfect” book… 

"Feeling gay"...

In a rambling and tone-deaf speech this morning, Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, tried to stifle criticism of his Qatari pay-masters. “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker. Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied, because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine. What do you do then? You try to engage, make friends. Don’t start accusing, fighting, insulting, you start engaging. And this is what we should be doing.”

Well, Infantino is obviously not one of the 6,500 migrant workers, because he’s still alive. Truly identifying with migrant workers might require him to work a gruelling 12-hour shift, in torrid heat, for about £1 an hour… and then do the same again tomorrow. He had to be reminded to include women - that’s half the world, right there - in the list of people with whom he found it so easy to identify. Someone will have to tell him that the consequences of having “red hair and freckles” are in no sense comparable to being gay in a country like Qatar. This World Cup is fascinating, rivetting… for all the wrong reasons.

Licenced today… for a fee that wouldn’t buy a set of L-plates…

Worst World Cup...

We are only two days away from the start of what the Guardian calls “the least anticipated World Cup in history”. Qatar has spent about £200bn on building stadia and other infrastructure in a country which, despite its wealth, has next to no sporting history or tradition (compared to the £10bn that Russia spent to host the last World Cup in 2018). The games will take place in eight stadia, seven of them brand new, built with the blood of migrant workers. Talk of Qatar 2022 being “sustainable” is so meaningless as to make the head spin. There is nothing “sustainable” about working young men so hard that they die of heat and exhaustion, and there is no obvious use for these expensive stadia after the closing ceremony has taken place on December 18.

Licenced today: another view of Oundle Mill, Northamptonshire…

Solar power...

 Licenced today: new homes in Kendal, with all houses pre-installed with solar panels…

Cragg Vale...

Licenced today: the gloomy old church in Cragg Vale, Calderdale. While researching (ie Googling) captions for this pic, I discovered a web-page which linked the church with Jimmy Savile. Apparently, “he preached a sermon at the church, dressed in a lurid yellow and acid green hooded gown with a pom-pom brocade trim”. And, according to the Catholic Herald, he presented the BBC programme Songs of Praise, twice, from here. Yes, Jimmy Savile touched people in so many different ways...

Human wrongs...

The Taliban’s supreme leader in Afghanistan, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has ordered judges to enforce every aspect of Islamic law - sharia - which includes public executions, stonings, floggings and the amputation of limbs for thieves. In the past week, the Taliban has also banned women from entering parks, funfairs, gyms and public baths. Despite his hardline stance, Haibatullah Akhundzada looks like a man with a robust sense of humour, who enjoys a good joke…

Human rights...

We will soon discover whether it’s possible to play football with a clouded conscience. Qatar is a country where many basic human rights - as itemised in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights - are denied. It’s illegal to be gay in Quatar, where the punishments for same-sex attraction are severe (and even if the morality police fail to act, a gay person’s family may decide to take the law into their own hands). Qatari women live under the oppressive custody of male guardians; in many areas of life they are not free to make their own choices.

The migrant workers who built the eye-catching stadia are mostly impoverished young men from Asia and Africa. They worked in blistering heat, for minimum wage, and, having had their passports confiscated, they were not free to negotiate better pay and conditions, or even to return home. Since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar, ten years ago, approximately 6,500 of these construction workers have died.

Human rights are abused, to some extent, in every country on the planet. Islam, however, is one of the few organisations which attempts to justify these abuses. FIFA and Qatar should fund a compensation scheme for these migrant workers and their families. Though that won’t ensure a clear conscience for players and spectators at the World Cup, it will at least be a start.

Licenced today: Glass Works Square in Barnsley, South Yorkshire… 

Happy birthday...

 Licenced last week: 18th birthday wishes on the door of number 18...

Springtime in Beccles...

Licenced today: boats moored on the River Waveney in Beccles, Suffolk…

Rural food bank...

Licenced today: a food bank sign at a nearby farm…

KFC? WTF!...

It’s hard to imagine a more misjudged promotion, with the fast food franchise KFC encouraging their German customers to “treat themselves” on the anniversary of Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass - in 1938, when Nazi mobs torched and ransacked synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses across Germany. “Commemoration of Kristallnacht", the message read. "Treat yourself to more soft cheese and crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”.

Dark skies at North Cave Wetlands yesterday...

Traffic...

Licenced today: a lorry negotiates the narrow, cobbled street through the village of Dent in Cumbria…

Stillness in company...

Against all expectations, the village pub is still open. However, unless you want to know the price of red diesel, or the turning circle of a touring caravan, it’s perhaps better to drink elsewhere.

Licenced today: a Quaker meeting at Swarthmoor Meeting House in Cumbria, the only meeting house donated to the movement by George Fox…

Broadway...

 Licenced today: old stone cottages in the Cotswold village of Broadway…

Lyveden New Bield...

Licenced last week: Lyveden New Bield, near Oundle, Northamptonshire. Not a house in ruins, but an Elizabethan summer house built for Sir Thomas Tresham, a fervent Roman Catholic, and left unfinished when he died in 1605. The house, in plan, is strictly symmetrical, based on a Greek cross, featuring many religious symbols…

Oulton Broad...

Licenced today: springtime blossom at Oulton Broad, Norfolk…

Sibsey Trader Mill...

I’m at that age when it’s OK to do some discreet shoplifting: a fifth of Jack Daniels in an inside pocket, or a side of smoked salmon slipped down a trouser leg. If I’m apprehended by a store detective, I’m ready with my response: “I’m a pensioner. I’m on new medication. I don’t know what I’m doing”.

Licenced today: Sibsey Trader Mill in Lincolnshire…

Prestbury...

“Religions the world over have insisted on the torture of self-denial, abstemiousness, control, suppression, and every form of psychological amputation. Surely to find whatever there is to be found, something not the result of your tortured, despairing life, you must have a mind that is untortured, unmutilated, very simple, very clear, without having any particular direction; a quality of mind that is really innocent, though it may have lived a thousand experiences. You must have a certain quality of open, fresh innocence” (Krishnamurti).

Licenced today: the village of Prestbury, in Cheshire… 

Escomb church...

Licenced today: the 7th century Saxon church at Escomb, near Bishop Aukland, County Durham…

World Cup...

According to the Guardian, at least 6,500 migrant workers have died in the ten years since Qatar was awarded the World Cup. A more recent investigation has found that workers employed on World Cup-related projects have had to work 12-hour shifts across 30 days a month to earn the equivalent of about £1 an hour. These are the facts that need to be stated, and re-stated, as the players warm up for a competition in a repressive regime which knows as little about human rights as it does about football.

Licenced today: buses in the town centre, Taunton, Somerset…