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…