Christmas poster from Down Under

This poster is set to ruffle some feathers in New Zealand!

The hard-hitting climate change advert.

I did see this on TV once, but there was a fuss about it being too frightening and that it'd be banned. I don't know what happened in the end, but it's pretty powerful, isn't it?



You could argue that the add is trying put the onus on us, the consumers, to act, rather than the government making hard decisions. But I think this add prepares the ground for the hard decisions.

PS, I know this is old news. Sorry, this Blog's never going to be up-to-the-minute!

Posting from my mobile via email

It is possible but is it worth bothering?

Kit Kats, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance

Does Nestlé's annoucement that Kit Kat is going fairtrade mean I can start eating Kit Kats again? Boycotting Nestle has been second-nature for decades (because of their appalling record promoting formula milk to mothers in poor communities - see http://www.babymilkaction.org/)

The thing is, it sounds like they are going for the real thing: proper Fairtrade certified fairtrade, not the fairtrade-lite that is the fashionable Rainforest Alliance certification. So it sort of makes Nestle an ally in the RFA-Fairtrade debate.

I don't know, I can't help being suspicious and it's not convinced the Boycott Nestle people. I'll stick to fairbreaks or chocolate from the co-op where possible.

Added later - some people think it brings fairtrade into disrepute.

Britain leads the world...

... in tax havens (or rather, Crown Dependencies do).From Tax Research UK.
Which means Crown Dependencies lead the world in helping the rich stay rich at the expense of the poor. Christian Aid says tax dodging denies the poorer countries of the world £160 Billion.

Cycling and the car culture

See this excellent blog post about cycling and the car culture by Martin Porter, a barrister from London. Says it all. Read the whole post, but here's a taster:

The main tenets of this car culture can be summarised as follows:

1. The inevitable attrition is a price well worth paying (by unknown others) in return for individual autonomy and convenience (often now described as necessary to the way in which we live our lives).

2. Every physically competent adult has a right to drive, removable only as a punishment for serious or repeated criminal offending and, even then, only temporarily.

3. Conduct which might be regarded as dangerous in any other walk of life is, in a motorist, merely careless and that which would otherwise be careless is excusable. This tenet is coloured by a sense of ‘There but for the grace of God, go I’ in the mind of the individual scrutinising the conduct in question.

4. Road safety efforts should be focussed upon segregating the vulnerable road user from motorised traffic (at the expense of ensuring the safe sharing of road space) and upon encouraging, or even mandating, personal protection to ameliorate the consequences of the collisions which are accepted as inevitable.

5. A myopic view of the fundamental laws of physics which permits motorists to argue that their responsibilities and actions in controlling 1,000+ kgs at up to 70mph should be judged in a similar manner to those controlling less than 100kgs at up to about 20mph. It is not necessary to be an apologist for red light jumping or pavement riding cyclists to point out that the risks they pose are many orders of magnitude less than the risks to pedestrians and cyclists from poorly controlled motor vehicles

Why beauty matters

Watching Roger Scruton on BBC2:

Philosopher Roger Scruton presents a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives.

In the 20th century, Scruton argues, art, architecture and music turned their backs on beauty, making a cult of ugliness and leading us into a spiritual desert.

Using the thoughts of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and by talking to artists Michael Craig-Martin and Alexander Stoddart, Scruton analyses where art went wrong and presents his own impassioned case for restoring beauty to its traditional position at the centre of our civilisation.

BBC2 28/11/09

Some notes from the prog below. Seems to me he's missing the point that an idea can be beautiful (though Alexandar Stoddart - who Scruton approves of - says precisely that), and there is beauty in understanding something. If an 'ugly' work of art helps us understand the world better, that is beauty, surely?

I do have sympathy with his comments on architecture, though.

Someone else "Enables people to see the world they live in in a different way"

Scruton: "To see the ideal in the every day, to transfigure it."

Scruton: "We need useless things [like beauty] as much as useful"

(Oscar Wilde: All art is absolutely useless)

"Beauty is assailed from two sides: the cult of ugliness; and the cult of utility"

"The greatest crime against the beauty the world has yet seen. The crime of modern architecture"

"If you consider only utility, soon the things you will build will be useless" (Example of Reading town centre)

Beauty is to fill the God-shaped hole created by the loss of religion.

Moments we understand as sacred - experience of being in love, the presence of a dead body.

"A denial of love" "determined to portray the world as un loveable"

"There is all the difference in the world by something which aims to transform the everyday, and something which just shares the untidiness of the everyday"

Alexander Stoddart. People in any sphere, such as lawyers and politicians, can have a beautiful idea but it isn't art. Conceptual art is completed in the descrption "a calf cut in half and put in formaldehyde" - you don't need to actually see it.

My emphasis - precisely, so likewise conceptual art can be beautiful.

Only eat animals you know

Years ago I had friend from a farming background who said he'd only eat animals he knew personally. When I first heard of this I did a double take: it sounded barbaric and yet I knew him to be gentle and compassionate. But when it was explained that it was because he would only eat animals that he knew had had a happy life, it made perfect sense.

Up until now this wasn't something I could copy - I don't know that many farm animals - but Milton Keynes Parks Trust are launching a scheme to sell meat from parkland animals. I see some of these animals each day when I cycle to work - I've rescued one them from a cattle grid many years back - and I can vouch for the fact that they look happy, most of the time anyway. If it is bit expensive, so be it: meat should be expensive. We should eat less of it:

Less meat, more veg … and we won’t eat the planet

Joanna Blythman Herald Scotland

[...]

Eating The Planet?, a joint report from Compassion In World Farming, the impeccably well-informed and thoughtful animal welfare organisation, and Friends Of The Earth, our foremost environmental group, argues that we don’t need to go veggie to feed a booming world population and save the planet from climate change and forest destruction. It says that we can indeed produce enough food for everyone in the world, but only if we are prepared to ditch factory farming for more natural and humane farming methods

Recalibrating our livestock production away from factory-style processes and back to humane and ecologically sustainable farming methods will reduce the quantity of animal foods we produce and make them more expensive. That is a good thing. Intensive farming has provided us with previously unheard of quantities of “cheap” protein, but it can only be considered so if you put no price on animal suffering and turn a blind eye to the environmental degradation it leaves in its wake.

The absurd last-century idea that eating limitless piles of cheap, low-grade meat and dairy was some sort of democratic entitlement needs to be looked upon as an aberration in world history. We have to reverse the meat-and-two veg expectations of the last half-century. A correction is long overdue. Eating lower down the food chain and making the bulk of our diets more herbivorous and plant-centric is definitely where it’s at.

Thérèse de Lisieux

According to an item on today's BBC breakfast news, something like 3/4 of the population of Ireland visited the relics of Thérèse de Lisieux when they were taken around the Island. They are now in England - currently in Liverpool Metropoliton Cathedral.

There's lots in Catholic doctrine and practice that I really, really, do not go along with - but there's nothing wrong with veneration of the relics of a saint. Or there needn't be anyway. We need things to help us focus outside ourselves - or maybe I mean focus inside ourselves - think about 'deeper' concerns anyway. It's like viewing an original rather than reproduction of a painting, or standing among the stones of stonehenge, or visiting the site of a famous battle; there's something in the 'physical' presence that makes a difference. Or that we think makes a difference, and if we think it does then it does - like placebos.

Of course it could be used, manipulated by the unscrupulous, but then most things can.

Suffering, and Darwin's loss of faith

Alerted by a tweet from Richard Dawkins, I read this is the Guardian:

Darwin's complex loss of faith

It wasn't evolution that led Darwin away from religion, but nor was it simply the loss of his beloved daughter

[...]

In reality, Darwin's loss of faith was, as he recognised, gradual and complex. The reasons were not new – suffering always has been and always will be most serious challenge to Christianity – but they were newly focused. Plenty of Darwin's scientific contemporaries, men like John Stevens Henslow, Charles Lyell, Asa Gray, George Wright, Alexander Winchell, and James Dana, could accommodate their Christian beliefs with the new theory. Indeed, as historian James Moore has remarked "with but few exceptions the leading Christian thinkers in Great Britain and America came to terms quite readily with Darwinism and evolution."

But Darwin, brought up on William Paley's harmonious, self-satisfied vision of creation, could not.

(My emphasis.) I'd go along with that, but also note that suffering is at the heart of Christianity in Christ's suffering on the cross. Sort of obvious, and yet somehow it gets forgotten.

Susan Blackmore on Peter Singer

Susan Blackmore in her Blog in the Guardian, says Peter Singer is wrong

Singer is right to point out the psychological differences in how we respond to the toddler in the pond as opposed to the distant starving child, but wrong if he concludes that we ought to be as generous to one as the other.

There are lots of reasons for not giving money to try to save the life of someone you have never met, in a country you have never visited, and in a culture you do not understand

It sounds like an excuse to me.

(My thoughts on what Peter Singer is saying.)

Isaiah Berlin, and difference

From Adam Phillips' review of Isaiah Berlin, Enlightening: Letters 1946-60 in the London Review of Books:

All of Berlin's writing is an attempt to pesuade people not to talk on other people's behalf.

This links, in my mind anyway, to arguing that geography is not history. It is about acknowledging differences.

Updated my personal webpage

I get a little pleasure from poking around in a most amateur way with my personal webpage.

Today I used a nifty facility, the Google AJAX Feed API to put in feeds from my blogs.

One thing that was almost spookily neat, was that on the AJAX Feed page it was sufficient to type 'intropy' and 'nutshell truths' for the wizard to find the URLs for my two blogs.

Armed forces day

Yesterday was armed forces day. I was wondering why we should have a day for the armed forces but not, say, social workers*, medical workers, police, or whatever.

Maybe it is because the armed forces risk their lives for their country? But so do others - albeit to a lesser extent. Police certainly do at times, and don't underestimate the risk faced by medical staff or even social workers.

And of course we already have a day to remember all people killed in armed conflict - remembrance day.

The unique thing about the armed forces is that we ask them to kill for their country. That's a pretty big thing to ask of someone, so maybe it is right that we have special day for it. But maybe we need to be clear that that's what this day is about.

* I mention social workers especially because I happen to think they do a particularly thankless task. They are poorly paid, they get all the flack when something goes wrong and precious little appreciation for the good they achieve.

Humans prefer cockiness to expertise

From the New Scientist:

Humans prefer cockiness to expertise

EVER wondered why the pundits who failed to predict the current economic crisis are still being paid for their opinions? It's a consequence of the way human psychology works in a free market, according to a study of how people's self-confidence affects the way others respond to their advice.

This is one of those things that rings true. There are a few people I could point to...

Peter Singer

About Peter Singer in the Guardian 23/5/09:

Singer's argument, as first laid out in an essay in 1971, isn't hard to follow. "If it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it ... If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing." As he added, however, the "uncontroversial appearance" of this argument is deceptive. Considerations of distance, or of how many potential rescuers there might be, are irrelevant to Singer: the child you see dying of malnutrition or a preventable disease on the foreign news has as much of a claim on you as the child in the pond. Spending your surplus income on consumer treats rather than efforts to end extreme poverty, he concludes, isn't greatly different morally from leaving the toddler to drown.

[...]

Needless to say, this is a challenging position - "almost impossible to argue with", as the political theorist David Runciman once wrote, "but also very difficult to accept."

[...]

Singer's own approach to ethics, a version of utilitarianism, has deep roots in the English-language tradition, but it's scarcely uncontroversial. One famous criticism, associated with Williams, is that it's implausibly demanding, making people as responsible for the things they fail to do as the things they bring about. Williams's ultimate point was highly technical; Singer, in discussing it, soon brings the argument back to practical outcomes. "I think we can set standards that limit our responsibilities to help people. But I wouldn't want to say, therefore we're only responsible for our acts and not for our omissions.

If we want to be moral, I can't see any way out of this other than, for me, Christian forgiveness. It's another reason why I remain in the church while not, in any straightforward sense anyway, 'believing in God'. Things they fail to do has strong echos for those of us brought up in the C of E:

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done,
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done,
And there is no health in us:
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders
Book of Common Prayer

I don't know you'd find much support for that expression ('miserable offenders') nowadays - within the church or without - but, there you go, the money I spend on, say, going to watch the MK Dons, could have saved lives. How can that make me anything other than a miserable offender?

But, back to Singer in the Guardian, on why you have to include 'things undone':

If you draw a hard line there, you end up saying that really quite trivial things are wrong because they're violations of my positive responsibility not to cheat or whatever ..." He casts about for an example. "Well, we have it all over the tabloids, don't we: I charged the government £5 for watching porn movies, right? I had the opportunity to save a child's life, either by ruining my shoes in the pond or by giving some spare money I had to Oxfam, but somehow that's not as important to assessing whether I'm a decent person or not as whether I cheated the government out of £5 to watch a porn movie. And I think that's the wrong set of priorities, that sends the wrong sort of message."

This leads into issues of moral equivalence (I don't think that's quite the right term, but it'll do for the moment), and I'd like to explore, for example, fiddling expense against the death of hundreds of thousands. Shame Hazel Blears is implicated in both! But thats for another time.

MP's expenses

Everyone has a view on it. We can easily agree, no-one is going to defend the ducks island. But, I'm wondering if its Parkinson's Law of Triviality (more time spent on discussing the colour of the bike shed than decisions on a nuclear power plant because everyone can understand the bike shed).

I'm not defending the duck's island either, or the fiddling around with the second homes and the like. But, maybe the hours spent on it - dominating the news for weeks - is out of proportion? Maybe, I don't know, global warming, poverty, injustice, maybe some of these are more important?

It'd be intesting to explore whether there is any correlation between the behaviour of MPs over expenses and how they vote. I was pleased to hear that Hilary Benn was clean over expenses - claimed a total of £140 last year, if I remember correctly. That sort of fits with my simple view of the goodies and baddies. Tony Benn is a goodie, and so to, it seems, is his son.

Play-off semi finals: Scunthorpe

Away: 1 - 1
Home 0 - 0, then lost 7-6 on penalties.

A went to the away leg with 3 friends from uni. V & I watched at David Lloyd leisure.

J came with V and me to the home leg. J's conclusion: I don't want to come to anything like that again!

Heartbreak. Jude had the chance to win it for us in the 'sudden death'. It should have been glorious, the player who more than any loves to be loved by the fans. But instead it was agony - saved easily. I'm sure that moment will haunt him for years to come.

Earlier Puncheon had his saved, much to the disgust of V.

Gueret took one - a good strike that went in.

But in the end it was Flo who missed, to end all hope.

Got a sympathetic email from C in Stockholm.

Season all went wrong this weekend. Livepool's chance of winning the premiership disappeared on Saturday with ManU picking up the point they needed from Arsenal. Then by losing to Liverpool The Baggies were relegated on Sunday. The one time I wanted Liverpool to lose - what would it matter - and they win 2 - 0.

God has to justify his (her) existence?

(One of what might be a series of half-formed, half-baked, thoughts that need developing.)

I read things that talk as though God is a 'given' and we can work-down from God to understand the world. I'm thinking that God has to justify his existence.

Susan Boyle and the resurrection

The story of Susan Boyle was used in a sermon a couple of weeks back. The preacher spoke of the sacrifice that Susan had made. Earlier in her life she had chosen not to pursue her singing ambitions, instead looking after her mother and doing voluntary work, visiting the elderly members of her church congregation. A parallel was drawn with the resurrection: from 'nobody' to global fame in the space of a few days. Her sacrifices were rewarded.

Yes, but.

Susan was not a nobody before her fame. She was the same person before and after. She could sing beautifully, whether or not anyone could hear. Her value does not reside in the recognition that the world gives to her. Her glory was not in her discovery, it was there all along. (Her glory doesn't even reside in her ability to sing so well - though that is a wonderful thing. God values each and every one of us because we are human beings. Full stop. That's the point of God. Human life would be intolerable otherwise. But that's a different story. Let's run with her singing for the moment.)

This is one of the problems I have with the resurrection - or with the way the resurrection is sometimes portrayed. If the resurrection is a happy ending, then how do we cope with events that don't have a happy ending? Because we can't pretend things do always have a happy ending. Unless of course it is 'pie in the sky when you die'. But that doesn't work for me.

No, the glory of Susan's triumph was the way it revealed to us what she had always been and would have been whether or not she'd been discovered. So too the resurrection has to be about life before death, whether or not Jesus was raised from the dead.

But again.

You start writing and the words flow. 'Resurrection has to be about life before death'. Maybe it has to be, and those are the right words for Christian Aid Week, but that's hard, isn't it.

Hereford away, 2nd May 09

Last match on the season, before the play-offs. Won 1-0.

And so we should, since Hereford were bottom and already relegated and we were third. Interesting stadium. We were high up, like in the balcony of a theatre, almost alongside the centre line. Excellent view, except when close to our side of the pitch when in disappears from view. J commented that it was much more entertaining watching football when you've got such a good view, but that is was a shame the match was so boring...

We all went - J, A, V and me. Time for a snack in the cathedral coffee bar before the match, and J and I had a walk alongside the river while A & V went on to savour the pre-match atmosphere.

After the match we went on to a B&B near Barry in South Wales. Two nights there, and eplored the coast the next day.

"...and that's a tragedy"

I've never (well, hardly ever) subscribed to the 'they're all rogues, out to look after their own interests' line on politicians. I really do think that most politicians embark on a life in politics out of a desire to do something worthwhile.

And this interview of Hazel Blears by George Monbiot doesn't change my views. I think that Ms Blears believes she and her fellow Labour MPs are 'decent people' out to do good for the world.

But, how can anyone say this:

... despite, you know, that hundreds of thousands of people have died, and that is a tragedy, I still believe that is was the right thing to do...

so jauntily?

I don't know what I'm expecting. But "and that is a tragedy" is somehow not enough coming after "hundreds of thousands of people have died". Shouldn't anyone who has been party to a decision that has resulted in hundred of thousands of deaths show some sort of stress?

Is she really so sure that the right decision was made? I know I worry too much about things I've done. And I know a politician is making what are in effect life-or-death decisions every day, so their jobs would be impossible if they agonised over every one. But, again, you know, hundreds of thousands of people have died.

Northampton away, 28th April

Won 1 - 0

Went with V, and also MR, who lives close to the stadium. Is not a football person, but was interested to see a match since he lives so close.

When we got the tickets I expected it be a real hum-dinger, reckoning that it would be crucial both for us and the cobblers, as it was of course it was not such a big deal for us, but for the cobblers a draw would have been enough to secure survival. We were in control the first half, I thought, playing with confidence. But second half they came at us with some desperation, forcing defensive - sometimes also desperate - play from us. But we held out.

Not sure it will have convinced MR to become a regular. Cobblers fans invaded the pitch at the end, though I can't think why! Dons all just left of course, and so I was a little bemused to hear the tannoy ask the Dons fans to leave the ground... what did he think we were doing?

Forgot how long it would take to get out of the car park (we'd driven, since it is so close), so it was daft that I'd turned down an invitation to have a cup of tea with MR - we just spent half an hour in the car instead.

Walsall home, 25th April

Lost 1 - 0, and since Peteborough won, we can no longer get automatic promotion!

It felt like 'going out with a whimper', though of course we are still in the play-offs - guaranteed a place in the play-offs. The trouble is, the last two, away, league games are now of limited significance, all they can do is determine who we'll play in the play-off semis.

Most memorable feature of the match was the antics of two pigeons. One, a white Dove of a pigeon, was on the pitch from the start. He/she was joined by another, more pigeon-like (ie plumage of a rock-dove) pigeon, towards the end of the first half. The two of them seemed oblivious to the game going on around them, or the 12,049 spectators. They calmly grazed on the pitch for the whole match.

Scunthorpe away 18th April

Won 1 - 0

We took a detour to have fish and chips on Cleethorpes sea front. Short walk on the beach, watched turnstones, wasted some money on the slot machines...

Walk from Scunthorpe station to the stadium was unexpectedly pleasant.

Good attacking play from both sides.

Memories of a Morris Traveller

A post by John Naughton has prompted others to reminisce about their Moggies.

I, too, had a Morris Traveller. Or, rather, my better half did. Her grandfather had worked for Morris Commercial in Birmingham, and got a Traveller when he retired. We had it until about ten years ago, when we were told it needed about £7000 of repairs to keep it going long term. Reluctantly we decided that was not a priority in our lives and sold it. It went - slightly indirectly - to a firm that hired out wedding cars, and the owner told us (somewhat apologetically) that they were going to paint it white for the wedding business. (It was previously Rose Taupe, AKA dull grey.) The firm was local, so we've been keeping an eye out for it ever since, but without success to date. Please let me know if you see a Morris registration no. FUY 663C.

Nicci French talked about the stir a traveller caused in Sweden, and we had a similar experience in Brittany. One of the times that it broke down on a holiday over there (... yes, that was one of the reasons we got rid of it in the end... boring modern cars do tend to be a little more reliable) it was repaired by a local garage and clearly provided some excitement for the mechanics. They said that it was rare to find old cars in France because they don't enforce the annual MOT in the same way as in the UK, with the result that cars were not maintained as well and don't last as long.

By contrast, when it broke down on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides the island's mechanic took it in his stride. Cars of that vintage were nothing special out there.

Bristol Rovers home, Easter Monday 13th April

Won 2 - 1

I missed the build up to the first goal because I was reading the words on the flags the Rovers fans had brought with them (like "we all hate city"). I suddenly realised that everyone was getting excited and looked back just in time to see Gerba score. Apparently he'd just robbed a defender and done it all himself. Actually this is not an uncommon experience for me. I usually need my sons to tell me what has happened in the run-up when there's been a goal or some other event.

Reading the flags had set me remembering what I think was the first competitive top-flight football match I went to see, back in 1977 or sometime around then. It was in Bristol and involved Everton. From memory I'd thought it was against Rovers, but Rovers weren't in the top division, so it must have been City. Prior to that, the only professional match I'd seen was a friendly between Liverpool and Hertha BSC (as they were described in those days) in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. My main memory of that match was the pickled-gerkin sellers who extracted the gerkins from a bucket using wooden tongs.

Easter at the Cornerstone, reflections on Mary Magdalene

David Tatem's Easter sermon at The Cornerstone, was on the theme of 'The God of Surprises', and included a comment that the resurrection narratives contained a 'time bomb' that has only being going off in the last few decades: that the first apostle was a woman, Mary Magdalene.

Meanwhile, in the foyer of the Church is David Moore's latest sculpture, on the theme of Mary Magdalene and how she has been mis-represented by the Church over the centuries. He (David Moore) introduced his sculpture and carried the same theme into the prayers.

'A' commented on the fact that the two Davids (especially Moore) were so outspoken about the treatment of women by the Church, wondering if it was potentially confrontational with the Roman Catholics (and maybe inappropriate for an Ecumenical Church). Of course the Catholics hardly have a monopoly on the oppression of women within the Church... Anyway, it seems to me that David Moore has never flinched from saying things that some people might find uncomfortable, without ever being needlessly confrontational. But then I don't recall disagreeing with anything he has said from the pulpit, so I'm not really in a position to judge whether anyone else would be offended.

For myself, the role of women in the Church is not an issue that I feel the need to grapple with. I don't see the issue: there is no justification for discrimination. That might seen dismissive, but we can't all take on all issues equally. This does not feel like my battle.

Southend away: Good Friday 11 April 09

Won 2 - 0

V & I went by train. A got a lift with friend B.

Bah! The car drivers got there way before us. We'd set off early to have a chance to see the mile-long pier before the match. Just as well, as it meant we got there just in time for kick off. There'd been a fatality on the line at Wolverton, so in the end there was a replacement bus service to Watford, where we could only get the 'London Overground' to Euston (18 stops!). Then to add further difficulties engineering works on the underground meant we ended up walking - running part of the way - from Bank to Fenchurch Street (didn't know that station existed outside Monopoly), arriving just in time to catch the 11.40 to Southend. Would have got a taxi at Southend if there'd been any outside the station, but there weren't so walked the mile to the ground. I was determined to go down to the beach, so we delayed our return journey a little (it was 1 pm kick off so the natch was over by 3) to have an ice cream, skim some stones on the sea and gamble some 2p pieces in the amusement arcade. V would probably want me to confess to my faults that meant we missed an earlier train home from Euston... vis, forgetting where I'd put the tickets then when we'd gone through the barrier getting on the train on platform 11, when he'd already told me we wanted the one on platform 10. So we saw the one on platform 10 leave without us..

Great day out, though. Two excellent goals from Mark Wright. Well made goals too: not the scramble over the line types. Wright gets a lot of stick from some of our fans. Don't really know why, but 'what do I know' (actually I really don't know much when it comes to football....) Couple of brilliant saves from Gueret, and Southend helpfully missed some easy chances. They should have won, but we'll take the 3 points. (Especially since Peterborough could only draw with bottom-club Cheltenham and Millwall lost to Yeovil!. Maybe automatic promotion isn't out of the question after all.

Madelaine Bunting on the New Atheists

Real debates about faith are drowned by the New Atheists' foghorn voices. Guardian 7 April 2009.

They [philosopher John Gray and historian of religion Karen Armstrong] see the New Atheists mirroring a particular strain of fundamentalist Christianity with no knowledge of the vast variety of other forms of religious faith. In common with their Christian opponents, they share "the inner glow of complete certainty" [...]

Armstrong and Gray converge again on where they pinpoint the key mistake. Belief came to be understood in western Christianity as a proposition at which you arrive intellectually, but Armstrong argues that this has been a profound misunderstanding that, in recent decades, has also infected other faiths. What "belief" used to mean, and still does in some traditions, is the idea of "love", "commitment", "loyalty": saying you believe in Jesus or God or Allah is a statement of commitment. Faith is not supposed to be about signing up to a set of propositions but practising a set of principles. Faith is something you do, and you learn by practice not by studying a manual, argues Armstrong.[...]

The author Mark Vernon [...] argues that the most interesting conversations about faith are among those just outside religious traditions and those just inside - along the borders of belief, if you like.

I've long felt that those on both extremes can't abide those of us on the boundaries. Our lack of dogmatism is seen as not legitimate.

Palm Sunday and G20 New World Order

Mary Cotes sermon at the Cornerstone on Palm Sunday made an interesting link between the adulation of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and the claims of a 'New World Order' emerging from the G20 summit.

My interpretation of her starting point was a parallel:

G20 "New world order",
What it ought to be:
A new world with justice for the poorer nations
What crowds want it to be:
Recovery of a comfortable lifestyle in the rich countries

Jesus riding into Jerusalem:
What Jesus means:
A new world based on justice and love
What crowds want it to be:
The end of the Roman occupation and Israel back on top

Brighton Home 4 April

Won 2 - 0

Brighton are looking at relegation, so this should have been easy. We were much better than them, but after going 2 up by half time we again didn't really take control of the game, and it took a couple of top-class saves from Willy to keep us on top.

Mark Wright played for the first time for months. I don't know why he's not been used, I think he's good and indeed he got the assist for the first goal.

There was a special offer of £5 tickets - some promotion with the local paper - and we got more than 15,000*, so it was good to win in front of lots of new people. They did an attempt on the world record for the most people hugging each other at one, before kick off. V, A and I did a 3-way hug. Quite glad I had family there to hug, I'm not really in to hugging strange men.

*Compare 15,000 for a league 1 football match with 35,000 at the London Rally.

The Kingdom of Heaven

What were the Churches and Christian charities doing among the socialists, the unions and the anarchists at the G20 rally ... marching through central London, surrounded by the police and standing alongside people calling for the death of neo-liberal capitalism?

1) Well, to get started, how can we tolerate such injustice in the world? How can we go on leaving people to starve to death, when there's so much wealth? How can we consume, consume, consume, when we know what climate change is doing? (If you believe the scientists, of course... but we do, you know, most of us Christians, whatever Richard Dawkins would like to think)

The world has enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.

We've all heard it before, so we can move on and think about something else? But that doesn't make it OK. The world is NOT OK. It's in a bad way. And its our fault (us human beings).

2) I expect most of us, Christians or not, know about that (what a bloody mess we've made of the world), and know that it's wrong. But maybe Christians are more inclined to think it is worth trying to do something about it? Because of our limitations, we will always get it wrong, but we believe in 'forgiveness', and that frees us up to have a go. And of course there's just the fact that if we go to Church we keep hearing people talking about these things - those 2000 verses (see snippet no 3) in the bible about poverty and justice.

3) For me, I guess, it is sort of what remains of my faith. You might say I don't believe in God*, but whatever I do believe in leaves me thinking that we can't just accept the way the world is. Quite often I'm embarrassed to 'be a Christian' - when I see and hear what is done and said in the name of Christianity - but in London last Saturday it seemed right.

*One day I'll explain a bit more about what God I don't believe in

Snippets from the Put People First G20 rally.

"On 28th March 2009, 35,000 marched through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their summit on the global financial crisis.

Even before the banking collapse, the world suffered poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. The world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fuelled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental.

Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.

There can be no going back to business as usual."

From www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk

I was one of the 35,000. Here's some snippets from my day

1. Crowd of Socialist Workers outside Embankment tube station. Selling the paper, handing out leaflets and offering placards. (I wish I could recall what each of the different organisation's placards said!) The first of many contingents of various flavours of socialists, all with own newspapers.


2. Service in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Not full, but I was on balcony and there must have been well over 1000 all told. Can't say Andy Flanagan and Band's electric music was quite to my taste... but the speakers were worth listening to.


3. Peter Meadows of the Bible Society spoke of the 'Poverty and Justice Bible'. Apparently there are over 2000 verses refering to poverty or justice in the bible, and if you remove all the pages containing them, there's not much of the Bible left. Someone had done it and he showed us the resulting slim volume.


4. Father Joe Komakoma from Zambia talked about the reality of the combined consequences of the financial crisis, climate change, and the pre-existing inequalities on people in Zambia. Over half the population don't get a proper meal each day, for example.


5. Christine Elliot of the Methodist Church had us doing one of those little things that I'm not sure I'm too keen on, but I have to admit was effective. Alternate members of the congregation asked to stand up: we were the poor. Then everyone else invited to stand up 'in solidarity' with us. Then they sat down again. "How do we feel?" "How do they feel?" "What do we want to say to each other?" etc.


6. Several more speakers... Revd Joel Edwards of Micah Challenge stood out for me. (I later learned that Joel is of the Evangelical Alliance - a very long way from my theology!)


7. I've not listened to it again, but the whole service is here


8. Left the Hall in groups to join the main march. Selection of placards to choose from on the way out... I ended up with a CAFOD one "Kick the carbon habit'


9. Carnival atmosphere on the march. Most of the bystanders seems friendly (strangly, more so, it seemed to me, than those in Coventry for 'Countdown to Copenhagen' march a few weeks back.) Never seen so much photography going on - the media, people on the march, and the 'general public'. (No photos from me, sorry. My phone's just a phone.)


10. Lots of foreign unions present, gave extra colour to the march. They tended to be more vocal.


11. "The-workers. United. Will-never-be-defeated". It's a long time since I've heard that!


12. Lots of fun fancy dress. A curious green creature was sat on top of one of the bus-shelters.


13. Seemed rather an unnecessary density of policemen along the route near Hyde Park.


14. More newspapers for sale: Socialist Worker (again), Socialist, Morning Star and The Respect Paper.


15. Events in Hyde Park hosted by Tony Robinson: always good value! A range of speakers from across the world: environmentalists and union leaders. eg:


16. "We were all backing Obama (sounds from the crowd, most in support, some dissent), but we now need him to deliver, We were all asked to chant: 'yes we can; yes we must; yes we will'"


17. "We own RBS now, so they should do what we want"


18. Tony Juniper quotes Gandhi about the difference between what we are capable of and what we actually do


19. Lots of famous people. Eg Susan George, a very famous name. Trouble is I can't now recall what she said.


20. Mark Thomas doesn't mince his words. "Neo-liberal capitalism is on it's knees and we must kill it off."


21. Mark Thomas again (I think). There was an average of less than one council house built per council last year.


22. Some thoughts on being a Christian at the rally

Leeds Away 28th March

Lost 2 - 0

I missed this one because I was putting people first.

The rest of the family went. I reckon I had the better day, apart from when I got the updates by txt.

Crewe home: 24th March 2009

2 - 2

2 - 0 up after 20 minutes and we were comfortable - although we were lucky with the goals (one big deflection off a defender up over the keeper, and the other the keeper seemed to fumble) - but we seemed to think we'd won it and didn't bother playing after that. Crewe were clueless at that stage, but their confidence grew and the inevitable happened. The second was a penalty foolishly and needlessly conceded by Gueret.

Even I didn't applaud at the end.

Yeovil Away 21st March

0 - 0

Gueret saved penalty.

We could find no way through: Yeovil defended with skill and with Baldock still off, had no other ideas. Some of our fans were calling for Jude. I would have liked that - since we were just not getting anywhere, why not give him 15 mins up front?

The four of us travelled down to Weymouth Friday evening - via Clapham Junction so we got a 'not via London' cheap ticket. Glorious spring day Saturday, so J and I paddled in the sea - very cold! Then the three of us went up to Yeovil by train while J took in some coast. We all travelled home from Yeovil after the match, ariving MK 23:30. (Encountered lots of drunk English rugby fans in Clapham - England having beaten Scotland in the 6 nations.)

Relaxed, friendly atmosphere - helped by spring sunshine. Chatted with Town fan as we walked to the agreed picking-up point for our taxi. If we couldn't have the 3 points, almost wish we'd lost to help Yeovil stay up. I said 'almost'.

Yeovil Town website gives NO guidance on getting to the ground by public transport.

Millwall Home, 17th March

Lost 1 - 0

No Baldock - hamstring problem, and we missed him!

Oldham home 14th March

Won 6 - 2

A came home for the weekend - via London - and met us at the stadium. 2 -2 at HT Dons having come from behind twice, then Oldham sort of collapsed in the second half. Good match for A to come back for!

Baldock was back on form. I think that what was happening was that we were playing to his strengths - using him correctly. Recently he hadn't seem to have much impact, but I think that was less to do with him and more to do with the team not making best use of his particular abilities.

Tuesday 10th March Huddersfield home

1 - 1 again.

Disappointing. After we scored we stopped playing and wasted time instead. It seemed inevitable that Huddersfield would get an equaliser - annoying but I couldn't begrudge them it.

V and I went after V's piano lesson. His lesson finishes 7.30 so we're off in the car, park in the industrial estate and dash down to the stadium. Arrive just after kick-off so I have to be searched. For some reason the moment the whistle goes, anyone entering has to be searched. Slight extra delay this time as when we were walking to the ground I noticed V was still carrying his piano music!

Swindon Away 7 March

1 - 1

...and Dean Lewington was sent off for a 2nd yellow card

V and I went by train. Have to go via London so not very efficient.

Dons were lucky not to lose, as Swindon contrived to miss three of four easy chances, hitting the woodwork or skying the shots. (Willy, once again, was crucial too - some exceptional reaction saves.) Dons fans were in fine voice again, singing pretty much throughout the match - unlike the home fans who only got going towards the end.

We were high up in the stadium, on the side, more or less in line with the goal. Views out of the stadium over the rooftops of the surrounding houses. Stadium is in a residential area but close to the town centre and the train station. Went to MacDs after the match (V had burger - I got a much healthier 'meal-deal' from the nearby Boots), and had friendly chat with the lad serving, who was a 'Town' supporter. Said he was not surprised Town failed to take their chances, that they often do that. But that is the sort thing fans often say about their team - one of the 'standard' beliefs about your team.

Northampton Away 3rd March

Abandoned due to waterlogged pitch at half time with the score 0 - 0

Went with V on the coach. Cold and wet... waste of time and money... Lightened a little by the humour of the Dons chants, such as something about 'backstroke' when one of the cobblers players was on his back in a puddle.

Leicester home 28th February

2 - 2

Cracking match. Leicester equalised in the 96th minute, though there was only supposed to be 5 mnutes added time. Still, we easily matched them, and it was Championship football. In keeping with the tradition, Ex-Don Lloyd Dyer got a standing ovation from the home fans when substituted. We're a friendly crowd (sometimes!)

Tranmere Away 21st Feb

Drew 1 - 1

Another complicated family w/e!

We were all up in York for a big family reunion. V and A travelled to Tranmere, I heroically remained in York. A kept me in touch with goals by text. I was in the theatre at the time, with my phone on vibrate, surreptitiously keeping an eye on things.

Hartlepool home 14th Feb

Won 3 - 1.

It was comfortable in the end, but we had to come from behind and it took some late goals. At the time I was surprised by our substitutions, but it obviously worked.

Cheltenham Away 31st Jan

Won 5-3.

J, V and I went by train to Cheltenham. J went on to Newport and did a bit of coast by bus, while V and I went to the match. Another great day out! We were cruising, but Cheltenham didn't give up, and by the end we were glad of the final whistle - sort of, I mean we were enjoying the entertainment, but just getting a little bit anxious. We remembered Carlisle.

I like these small lower-league grounds, despite what our fans were saying about garden-sheds!

Leyton Orient home 27th Jan

Lost 2-1.

Oh dear, I can't at the moment recall much about it. We certainly ought to have won.

Peterborough away, 20th Jan

0 - 0 draw - but a pretty entertaining match for all that.

I suppose the fact that my memory of the match is of Gueret's brilliant saves suggests Posh were on top. I'm not sure that it was very one-sided though.

Tuesday evening match that V and I went to on the coach.

Carlisle away 17th January

Winning 2 - 0 at half time. And lost 3 - 2. How could it happen?

J, V and I travelled up by train Friday, staying Friday and Saturday night in Lancaster. Travelled all the way around the Cumbrian coast Saturday morning, up to Carlisle. A travelled up from York Sat morning and joined us V and me in Carlisle. Meanwhile J, together with L and friends got off the train at Maryport (?) and did a bit of walking. Then we all met in Carlisle after the match for dinner. Us four, V, A, J and I, returned to Lancaster for Saturday night. Confusing? This was, of course, a method for J to clock up lots more coastline.

Apart from the result... it was overall a very pleasant w/e. Except for the journey up. Didn't arrive in Lancaster 'till midnight, due to chaos in the trains following a fatality on the line south of MK. Mind you, we'd got really cheap advance tickets - something like £25 for the three of us return to Lancaster - so couldn't really complain.

[Reading this later it sound callous - cheap tickets and inconvenience alongside a fatality. That needs thinking about.]

Friendly Carlisle supporter chatted with V and me, while we waited for A before the match.

Colchester home, 12th Jan

Draw 1-1

Ex don Clive Platt scored for Colchester. Even so, when he was subbed late on the home fans gave him a standing ovation. That's nice, that is.

It helps that he's said nice things about us since he left.

Southend home 28th Dec

Won 2 - 0

Another match I now have no recollection of, though I know I was there.

Bristol Rovers away, 26th Dec

The first league match I missed this season! But I was in Edinburgh. Eating a late pub-lunch when A's friend texted him the result. My haggis tasted the better for knowing that the dons could still win even without me there to support them.

Leeds home, 20th Dec

Won 3 - 1

17 000 attendance, and the away support was the real thing: seriously impressive singing, as you'd expect from a recently-premiership side. But this resulted in a strange mis-match with what their team was up to on the pitch. The team was a pretty average league one side. It just didn't seem right, support like that really deserves better.

Brighton away 12th December

(Friday evening) Won 4 - 2

V, J and I had a w/e down there. Terrible stadium - or rather terrible for the away fans, so far from the pitch because of the running track. As always, though, great atmosphere among us away fans - shared misery in the cold, turning to shared delight as we won. Truly magical goal from Puncheon at the end: totally bamboozled the defenders.

J clocked up more of her coast travel on Sat ahd Sunday. Our landlord for the B&B on Saturday night was a Millwall supporter, and was impressed that V&I had been to the away match there - and warned us to be careful when we play them at home. He was supposedly being kind - warning us of the unpleasantness of his fellow Millwall fans - but I guess it is still part of the Millwall identity "we're the hard men".

Sunday morning, ice cream at Beachy head in sub-zero temperatures... now thats being 'hard'!

Scunthorpe home 6th December

Lost 0 - 2

Can't recall much about this, but A reckons Scunthorpe played defensively they caught us on the break

Hereford home, 25th Nov

Won 3 - 0.

I was there, honestly, but at the moment I've no memory of the match. I'll come back and edit this, if any memories come back

Walsall Away 15th November

Won 3 - 0.

V and I went on the coach. I don't like coach travel, but its made much more acceptable now I've got an mp3 player. Not for music, I soon bore of music, but radio 4 podcasts are great, plus a selection of poetry.

Hartlepool away 15th November

Won 3 - 1.

We had a weekend away, taking the opportunity to meet up with A, who came from York. Surprisingly enjoyable w/e, in addition to the match. We had some pleasant walks on te beach.

On the Friday evening I was surprised by the friendly 'hellos' I got from a few people. 'I don't know anyone up here', I thought, 'yet they seem to be genuine'. It was only later I twigged that they must have been fellow Dons fans up for the w/e who might recognise me from other away matches! Doh, I can be slow sometimes...

I'm, writing this months after the match, so can't honestly remember a huge amount about the game.