Britain in a changing world.

by Tim Veater

To Ros Anstey: If it wasn't for your enjoyable little moan, I'd have nothing to look at FB for. All the rest is even more miserable.  Our lives are very dull and pointless arn't they? I'm glad you still have family and friend connections in Pensford and a reason to drive there. I bet the countryside is looking beautiful at the moment. I never fail to be impressed with the greenery when I come back. I can understand why Starmer and the present lot set you off again. We are an island with a lot of people on it still trying to come to terms with the loss of empire and being the 'workshop of the world'. Somehow we have adapted and survived but as it is with individuals so it is with the state. We have to survive somehow economically. Which American President said of election success or failure, "It's the economy stupid." The current 'tranactional' American President seems to have got it, however callous and selfish it seems. It is what fires his 'America Great Again' slogan. The thing is 'Little Britain' is stuck between two major trading blocks and needs to charm both. It's called 'diplomacy' and 'soft power' and Britain has been pretty good at it over the years. We have spent a fortune on Europe to wedge the door open and abandoned our principles to keep the US on side. The few raw materials and manufacturing skills that we had have been either abandoned or sold off to the highest bidder. At some point we shall have nothing left worth selling and what then? I've just read an article on how amazingly Enoch Powell still haunts the corridores of power including the Labour Party. Note Starmer's recent reference to 'Strangers in our own country'. But Starmer may have bigger problems approaching from behind with the revelations that it was an Ukrainian 'male model' who set fire to two properties and a car with links to the PM and his mate Lord Alli, the motivations for which can only be imagined! I hope you and everyone have a very enjoyable Tuesday.

On Tuesday 20 May 2025 at 14:22:06 BST, Nigel Glanvill <> wrote:

"further concrete actions "

Like what?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <jayne.kirkham.mp@parliament.uk>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2025, 13:07
Subject: Gaza and the West Bank (Case Ref: JK6695)
To: <>

Dear Nigel Glanvill

I am writing to you again as you have previously written to me to express your deep concern about the situation in Gaza. 

You may already be aware that the Government has issued two statements on the situation today (19 May 2025).

The first statement was a joint statement from the leaders of the UK, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. The statement reads:

’We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable. Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate. We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles. We call on Hamas to release immediately the remaining hostages they have so cruelly held since 7 October 2023.

The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law. We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law. 
Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.

We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.

We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.  We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions. 

We strongly support the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It is a ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and a long-term political solution that offer the best hope of ending the agony of the hostages and their families, alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza, ending Hamas’ control of Gaza and achieving a pathway to a two-state solution, consistent with the goals of the 18 June conference in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France. These negotiations need to succeed, and we must all work towards the implementation of a two-state solution, which is the only way to bring long-lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve, and ensure long-term stability in the region.

We will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority, regional partners, Israel and the United States to finalise consensus on arrangements for Gaza’s future, building on the Arab plan. We affirm the important role of the High-level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim. And we are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.’

The second statement was a joint statement on aid to Gaza and the proposal for a new aid delivery model. The statement reads:

’Whilst we acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid, Israel blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza for over two months. Food, medicines and essential supplies are exhausted. The population faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they desperately need.

Prior to the aid block, the UN and humanitarian NGOs delivered aid into Gaza, working with great courage, at the risk of their lives and in the face of major access challenges imposed by Israel. These organisations subscribe to upholding humanitarian principles, operating independently, with neutrality, impartiality and humanity. They have the logistical capacity, expertise and operational coverage to deliver assistance across Gaza to those who need it most.  

Israel’s security cabinet has reportedly approved a new model for delivering aid into Gaza, which the UN and our humanitarian partners cannot support. They are clear that they will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles. Humanitarian principles matter for every conflict around the world and should be applied consistently in every warzone. The UN has raised concerns that the proposed model cannot deliver aid effectively, at the speed and scale required. It places beneficiaries and aid workers at risk, undermines the role and independence of the UN and our trusted partners, and links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives.  Humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.  

As humanitarian donors, we have two straightforward messages for the Government of Israel: allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity. We remain committed to meeting the acute needs we see in Gaza. We also reiterate our firm message that Hamas must immediately release all remaining hostages and allow humanitarian assistance to be distributed without interference. It is our firm conviction that an immediate return to a ceasefire and working towards the implementation of a two-state solution are the only way to bring peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians and ensure long-term stability for the whole region.’

This statement was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management and the EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean.

I hope this information is of interest to you.

Yours Jayne

Timothy Veater 

From:

To:Nigel Glanvill

Tue, 20 May at 23:03

Thanks for this Nigel  Do you have any objections to me putting it up on my Blog with e-mail details deleted? As to the contents, all very well, but the trouble is neither America or Israel take a blind bit of notice. Nor is it easy to reconcile the words with actions over the last 18 months or more. It is good polemic and that's about it. What these countries continue to display is a tacit acceptance of israel as a bonafide state rather than the fascist, apartheid, vicious one it has proved to be over the last 80 years but on an increasingly evil scale as recent events have proved. The central, nefarious role of the United States is plain to see in providing three times the destructive power of its two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. To this we have to add duplicity, in that it does not even honour its word. It promised the HAMAS negotiator it would pressure Israel to ceasefire and allow aid in, in return for the release of the one remaining American hostage. Of course it reneged on it and no such action emerged. It is tantamount to shooting surrendering people under a white flag as Israel did. Both America and Israel are unscrupulous actors that set the parameters of a one sided conflict that no other country is prepared to actively challenge. And so the misery, suffering and devastation continue. The israeli blockade needs to be challenged. Israel needs to be internationally interdicted and embargoed until like the mad dog it is, either comes to heal or is put down. An autonimous Palestinian state on 1967 boundaries needs to be established, recognised and militarilly defended. Only then will there be a glimmer of hope  for the region and world.  Regards, Tim.

21.5.2025: On the fabricated Oct 7th invasion, misrepresented by the Israeli PR machine, Netanyahu immediately applied the term 'WAR' to the situation, knowing it would be accepted uncritically by the West, giving him cover for the pre-planned attack on Gaza. It was never a 'war'. It has always been an 'invasion' and 'massacre'. As I believe Goebbels coined it (or if he didn't he should have) "The bigger the zionist lie, the more eagerly will the corrupt western establishment swallow it." https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/

New Year - 2020

A poem by Tim Veater.

This time of mine, when I awake

From slumbers deep I overtake

Another night

And claim the time as mine

In twenty twenty vision see

The day emerge

To resonate with all the earth.

For 'nine o'clock' is only here

Elsewhere around this revolving orb

Is other time and restless place

A myriad different views

Lights, weathers, heats

Plunged in deep, dark sleep

Or setting red in angry glows.

Seven billion hopes or fears

Arrive or leave, struggling to survive

Or like me here lie in lost repose

Hardly alert yet wondering

Expectant what new day and year

May fling my way or interpose.

No longer young, the years have slipped away

With this 'Elizabethan Age' in sad decay

Yet every passing, offers something new.

As if to make the point the sun breaks through

A cyclone high the year renews

Bare creamy branches wave against the grey.

I write my lines and sip my tea

Wondering what new day and year may bring

Leaving all those characters in dreams

To face them in reality.

The fountains of the deep are broken up

The rivers run with blood

The skies are red with forest fires

The oceans surge a mighty flood.

Yet all is bathed in morning light

And silence reigns supreme

Black cat sits licking on my lap

Contented and serene.

Whatever spirit lords it all

Of nature or a higher power

Take pity on our mortal state

To rescue us from greed and arrogance.

The evil spirit treating others with disdain

Causing so much anguish, hatred, pain

Bind hands so soaked in blood

And lying tongues that war, whilst speaking peace

The foppish bragging fool

Deliver us and what is more

Reward those with humble heart

And let the meek flourish here

To care and care to make a just inheritance

For those that follow - if they do.

 Africa Cries Out. Is the Pope for or against us?

16.5.2025: It didn't start on Oct. 7th and now they want to do it again. And the BBC News, on a day when another couple of hundred of women and children have been killed by Israeli bombs, leads with a story that Israel will contribute a pop song to Eurovision. See how sunk in ethical mire and zionist bias it is? Shame on journalists, editors and proprietors of British newspapers and news outlets.

18.5.2025: Israel, not content with all the death and destruction, the pain and misery, the mulitations and amputations, the loss of mothers, brothers and children, is now planning a further 'invasion'! Why do the world's countries allow it to do as it wants, even though it breaks every international and humane law on the statute book? How callous, corrupt and ineffective they must all be. Oh and let's get this straight: It is the Israeli Jews who are the 'anti-semites', not those that criticise the obnoxious rascism of the Israeli State, run by an large, by Central European fascist terrorists.

Pope Leo XIV

Ferdinando Caputo

ndpSsrooet01u4gc2mact81h6h08f80gh82i1ltt01h24i0141a6f56050hh  · 

La preghiera-sfida di Traoré a papa Leone XIV…

See more

The prayer-challenge of Traore to Pope Leo XIV

A “liberation counter-homely” from Africa that raises its head

Translation by Leopoldo Salmaso – from: https://byeon.com/ibrahim-traore/

His Holiness Pope Robert Francis

I am not writing them from a palace, nor from the comforts of foreign embassies, but from the soil of my homeland, the land of Burkina Faso, where the dust is mixed with the blood of our martyrs and the echoes of revolution are louder than the buzz of foreign drones over our heads.

I don’t write them as a man looking for approval, nor as someone wrapped in diplomatic conventions. I write them as a son of Africa, bold, wounded, untamed.

Now she is the spiritual father of over a billion souls including millions here in Africa. She inherits not just a church but a mission. And in this moment of transition, while white smoke still lingers on the roofs of the Vatican, I must send this letter across seas and deserts, beyond guards and erased, straight to her heart, because history demands it, because truth demands it, because Africa, wounded and in rebellion, is there watching.

Holiness we african know the power of the cross. We know the hymns, prayers, litans. We have built churches with clumsy hands and we have defended our faith with our blood.

But we also know another truth, a truth that too many have preferred to bury: that the Church sometimes walked alongside colonizers, that while missionaries prayed for our souls, soldiers desecrated our lands, that while you predecessors spoke of heaven, our ancestors were chained on earth.

And even now, in this so-called modern era, we still suffer the chains not of iron, but of silence. Of the indifference of geopolitical games that take place in sacred darkness.

So I ask, in the name of the mothers who pray on the beaten ground floors and the children who attend Sunday school with an empty stomach: will their pap be any different?

Will she be the Pope who sees Africa not as a suburbs but as a prophetic centre? Maybe the Pope doesn’t just visit the barracks for photos, but who dares to speak with anger against the forces that make those barracks permanent?

See, Holiness, I am a man forged by war, not by wealth. I have not been corrupted by western institutions for political use. They didn't teach me diplomacy in Paris. I learned leadership in the trenches, among the people, where pain is teacher and hope is resistance.

I lead a nation that has been marginalized from the world until we refused to be silent. We were told we were too poor to be independent, too weak to be sovereign, too unstable to resist. But I tell them with the thunder of the ancestors in my voice: we have stopped asking for permission to exist.

We’ve stopped begging validation from powers that exploit our minerals while preaching morality. And we have stopped, absolutely stopped, accepting that global spiritual leaders look away from the cries of Africa because politics is uncomfortable.

Holiness, [not] I speak now only for Burkina Faso, but for a continent that has been dominated for too long. Africa is not a continent to pity, we are a continent of prophets. Prophets who were imprisoned, exiled and murdered for daring to challenge the empire.

And she, now that she wears the ring of St. Peter as a symbol, will she follow the path of the prophets? Or will she also be a prisoner of politics?

We don't need any more triviality. We need no more wishes and prayers as the western multinationals extract uranium from Niger, and gold from Congo, under armed stock.

We don't need diplomatic neutrality while young Africans are drowning in the Mediterranean fleeing wars they didn't start, with weapons they didn't manufacture.

We don't need no sublime statements while African sovereignty is auctioned behind closed doors in Brussels, Washington and Geneva.

What we need is a Pope to appoint a modern-day Herod, who thunders against economic empires with the same boldness the Church once thundered against communism.

A Pope blatantly saying it’s a sin for nations to profit off of Africa’s destruction.

She knows the teachings of Christ. He knows He toppled the exchange tables. He knows that He said “Blessed are the peacemakers” but He never said “Blessed are peacemakers”.

So I ask her personally: will she speak out against the silence of France and her secret operations in the Sahel?

Will he condemn arms trafficking that fuel wars for proxy in our deserts and forests? Will it expose the greed that amassed by charity? Diplomacy that masks imperialism with peace talks, because we see it happening, we live it.

Your Holiness, I don't ask you to be African.

I ask you to be human, to be moral, to be brave, because courage, real courage, is not blessing the powerful. Defending the weak while paying the price.

Allow me to speak the truth. The Vatican has unimaginable riches, priceless art, access beyond all borders. But real power isn’t measured in treasures hidden behind marble walls, real power is measured in the courage to face injustice.

Even when he shows up dressed in a tailor-made dress, with diplomatic credentials and smiling despite his sins, His Holiness, the world is on the brink of a precipice and Africa, this martyred and beautiful continent, is not limited to looking down: we are rising.

We are bleeding, we are rising and we dare to ask questions that echo louder than canon law.

Where was the Church when our presidents were overthrown by mercenaries scattered abroad?

Where was the Church when our young people were kidnapped and indoctrinated into wars financed by nations claiming to be forces of peace?

Where was the Church when our currencies collapsed, when the International Monetary Fund suffocated our economies?

When have our leaders been punished for choosing sovereignty over submission?

Don't tell us to forgive while the whip is still in the hands of the butcher.

Don't tell us to pray while our prayers are being answered with drone strikes. Don't talk of peace without naming the profiteers of war.

Because silence, Holiness, is no longer holy and neutrality is no longer noble.

If she must shepherd this global flock, then hear this cry from the dust of Uagadugu.

We also are his sheep. But we don’t graze quietly in the fields, we march on the streets, we die on the front lines.

We rise from the ashes with fire in our bones and scriptures on our tongue.

We don't ask for charity, we demand justice. And justice must begin with truth.

The truth is that Christianity in Africa has been both a balm and a sword. The truth is that the Church has been feeding our spirits without being able to protect our bodies.

The truth is redemption without acknowledgement is half-truth and half-truths have never healed the nations.

Holiness, now she sits in the chair of St. Peter.

Remember, Peter denied Christ three times before the rooster sang. Don't allow History to write that the Church has denied Africa once again.

Let the rooster sing loud and clear in the Vatican. Awaken the consciousness of cardinals and kings.

That echo in the corridors of power, where men in suits and men in uniform trade silence with influence.

May you herald a new dawn, not only for the Church, but for the world.

Because here in Africa we don’t fear the sunrises, we create them.

We are sons and daughters of Sankara, Lumumba, Nkrumah and Biko.

We carry the Scriptures in one hand and honor, the memory of the revolutionaries in the other.

We have learned to pray and protest in the same breath.

And we ask: will his dad walk with us? Will she meet us in our pain, not only in the pews of our churches? Will God recognize in our hunger? Christ in our chaos, the Holy Spirit in our struggles?

Because if this is not the time, it is the time of Judas, and if the Church continues to preach peace ignoring the machine of oppression, in which Good News are we supposed to believe? I am not saying this out of anger, but with great urgency.

We are a people at a crossroads between prophecy and politics, and Africa’s time is not coming, it’s here. We are rewriting the narrative, reshaping the future, reclaiming the dignity that has been denied to us by centuries of foreign domination and spiritual manipulation.

And the Church has to decide which side to stand: with the strong powers here, or with the bleeding people.

I do not write this letter to condemn. I write this to invite you, Holiness, to a deeper solidarity, to a solidarity that walks barefoot with the poor, to dare to tell the truth in Rome with the same boldness that he does in Rwanda, to remember the saints not only for miracles, but for the their commitment to justice.

We wait for your voices, not from balconies, but from trenches and favelas. From refugee camps, from behind bars of political prisons where the truth is imprisoned.

Because only that voice, your voice, can redeem the silence. And if you dare to speak it, not only Africa will listen to you, but the whole world.

Signed: Captain Ibrahim Traoré, transitional president. https://vcomevittoria.it

Burkina Faso, son of Africa, servant o

 

Is the Roman Catholic Church what it purports to be - 

or something more sinister?

The Paul VI Audience Hall

Pope Benedict XVI  sits in front of the sculpture on Nov. 9, 2008. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The following article by Justin McLellan from 

https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/over-popes-shoulder-explosion-spirituality-bronze 

It explains the artist's and Vatican's interpretation of the work.  However to me it bears little sembance to Christian teaching or theology but rather has a sinister and demonic vibe.  Interestingly it is 66 feet wide and 23 feet tall. Looking towards the front, the space has a quite 'spooky' look, rather like an extra-terrestrial with two oval eyes or is my imagination running away with me? Presumably this was all intentional - but far removed from Jesus Christ and his teachings. Rather like the Catholic Church in practice, I have to say - a sentiment embedded in the article above. 

 

Over the pope's shoulder: An 'explosion' of spirituality in bronze by Justin McLellan

"When the popes hold their weekly general audiences indoors, a massive bronze statue looms over them. It gets mixed reviews, but a Rome museum has an exhibit underway explaining the history and meaning of the piece.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Through five pontificates, popes have instructed the faithful at their weekly general audiences, condemned war, called for peace and even celebrated birthdays in the Vatican audience hall under the gaze of a giant bronze sculpture of Jesus.

The massive sculpture, nearly 66 feet wide and 23 feet tall, is the largest project realized by a single artist in the Vatican since Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in the 16th century.

Millions of pilgrims traveling to Rome have seen what Father Timothy Verdon, a prominent art historian, called "the best-known post-conciliar work" in the Vatican, but it solicits mixed reviews.

When a photo of the sculpture was posted in online art forums earlier this year, some commentors responded that the piece looked "creepy" and "demonic." In 2022, a viral tweet depicting the sculpture asked: "Is this a normal thing the pope stands in front of?"

The sculpture, titled "Resurrection," was partially inspired by the violence and chaos of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The artist believed depicting a nuclear explosion would represent a powerful testimony of Christ's victory over even the most extreme forms of death and destruction as well as the moment when the material, through its annihilation, becomes immaterial.

The story of how Pericle Fazzini (Ed. 1913 - 1987) the sculptor, came to create such a striking work is told in an exhibit at Rome's Carlo Bilotti Museum to mark the 110th anniversary of Fazzini's birth.

After the Second World War, Fazzini's work combined his spiritual inclination with a strong sense of civic duty.

"Executed," completed in 1946, represents an Italian resistance fighter killed by a firing squad; the fighter's sinking body evokes that of Jesus in Michelangelo's "Pietà."

"His anti-fascism came from his Catholicism," said Alessandro Masi, an art historian and curator of the Rome exhibit. "He never fought with the resistance, but as an artist he represented (resistance fighters) not as war heroes, but as martyrs killed by the Nazis and fascists, as new Christs."

As his work gained notice, its spiritual dimension was recognized, and the sculptor began producing pieces for the Vatican, such as the tabernacle for the chapel of the Secretariat of State, and a basin for the blessing of holy water in St. Peter's Basilica.

The sculptor eventually developed a "deep friendship "with St. Paul VI, who would invite artists to the Vatican for dinner, Masi told Catholic News Service. The pope was "deeply convinced that that the mission of artists in the modern era was an evangelical one, and that the power of imagery could help in this mission."

That conviction led the pope to search for an artist to build a work for the Vatican audience hall, which he commissioned in 1964. The following year, Fazzini was in talks with the Vatican about creating a large sculpture for the audience hall, although its architect, Pier Luigi Nervi, protested any additions that would alter the space within his building.

It wasn't until the pope personally intervened in 1972 that Fazzini received the commission and began work on the piece. The resulting sculpture, "Resurrection," would become the "synthesis of his life's work," said Masi.

In his personal notes, Fazzini wrote that it was while waiting for a meeting at the Vatican to discuss the sculpture that he had an idea of "resurrecting Christ from a Garden of Gethsemane rocked by a nuclear explosion."

It is precisely that "explosion" and the "decomposition" of substance surrounding the Risen Christ that demonstrates Fazzini's "search for spirit in the material," Masi said.

"To him, the material world is not just material, but God is there," he said, "and the more the material world breaks down and becomes minute, the more one can see God in the particular."

While "Resurrection" attempts to convey Christ embedded in the universe, "it is a universe that is turning into stardust," noted Masi.

St. John XXIII published his encyclical "Pacem in Terris" ("Peace on Earth"), calling for the banning of nuclear weapons, less than 10 years before Fazzini began work on "Resurrection." Fazzini was not making a political statement with the sculpture, Massi said, but chose to depict a nuclear explosion since it is in that moment that the material world "erupts" and "becomes atomized."

"His question was, how to atomize faith? How can I show that faith participates in the material of the universe? Because God is the material of the universe," he said.

The exhibit in Rome showcases early sketches and models of the bronze sculpture that stands today in the Paul VI audience hall, named after the saint who commissioned the hall and the artwork that adorns it. Fazzini's drawings and small busts in the exhibit demonstrate that, for the artist, the main objective of the sculpture was to emphasize Christ's victory over death and God's intertwined relationship with the physical world he created.

The sculpture was inaugurated shortly after St. Paul VI's birthday in 1977.

"Finally," Masi said, Fazzini had a "work that represented his lifelong aspiration of representing Christ."

"And this Christ, who is he? He is part of the universe that decomposes and returns to a more mystic essence that exists before the material world," he said.

Creating a full-sized model of the sculpture to then be fused with bronze was a challenge for Fazzini. Plaster and clay were too heavy for the sculpture's intricate forms and wax was too brittle. So, the artist used polystyrene, a then-experimental plastic which, when heated, sent toxic microplastics into the air.

Creating the model of "Resurrection" gave Fazzini lung poisoning, which led to the artist's death a decade after the sculpture was completed." END.