Campaigning came to mind after I got an email from publisher saying roughly: as I enjoyed Lissa Evans’ previous book(s), perhaps I’d like to read this one. This one is called Small Bomb at Dimperley, and I’m still dithering. But I wondered what I’d read of hers before.
Old Baggage was my book review on the third Saturday in June 2018. It’s about suffragettes and what became of them, and I was still working out how to link in the #30DaysWild aspect. My final comments made me think about how little has changed in the last 6 years…
#30DaysWild (2018)
Old Baggage made me look at myself and what I was doing in ‘retirement’ from my former championing of environmental issues. I’m walking away from local issues instead of embracing them. Of course, tiredness is one part of it, but that’s when the b******s get you down. Get too tired, stop fighting, and the bad guys with their bank rolls will win.
In fact, doing #30DaysWild is my step towards getting the old enthusiasm back. It may not be what the Wildlife Trusts expect. Yet surely anything that keeps your energy up and inspires you to take action is a good thing. Old Baggage is a book that helped me realise what was important to me. It helped me get going again. Clear out the old baggage, in fact.
#30DaysWild (2024)
Having left Norfolk in the winter of 2019/20, and then lockdown and the rest, I’ve not really got going on environmental issues in Hampshire. I have joined the Hampshire Ornithological Society, and Butterfly Conservation, and the Bat Trust, but I do very little. I meant to go to the HOS Open Day in April, but like a lot of things I mean to do, I find I’d rather stay at home with the guinea pigs.
Somebody asked me what my hobbies were, what I spent my time doing, and I couldn’t think of anything. I could think of things I was no longer doing – writing, blogging, gardening (all restricted by wrist problems). Going out birdwatching ought to be something I can do, even if holding binoculars to my eyes is not as easy as it sounds. I have managed to do my BTO Bird Survey, and the second visit for this year is due this week, weather permitting.
But you know, I don’t think of any of those things as ‘hobbies’. It’s more a way of life. I watch birds as often as breathing. Mostly in my garden at present, where I have scenes from Hitchcock’s The Birds awaiting me every morning. Yesterday’s count as I looked out of the window at 6 am was four rooks, six jackdaws and four pigeons, all sitting on perches around my garden, fluffed up, expecting me to deliver food very soon. It was bizarre.
So I’m not doing 30DaysWild this year, but I am going to post on Mondays through the month, to consider important issues that are upon us.
Voting
What are the parties saying about climate change and the environment? Who do you think will make the most impact, globally, on reducing the potentially runaway climate change that seems to be around the corner if we don’t act now. Really act now. Not just put in toothless policies and wishful thinking.
It seems (as of 2nd June) that the parties are carefully steering away from difficult questions and sticking to facile policies, some of which are so facile that even my teenage great-niece can see straight through them.
But we owe it to the suffragettes (whether for women’s suffrage or the earlier fight for working men to vote) to use our votes as best we can. And help the younger generation to access their votes as well.They may not know who to vote for, but I’m sure they’ve got views of who they don’t want to be elected.
Campaigning
I’m not really campaigning, either, although it’s long time since I campaigned for something in person. I sign online petitions. That’s about it. At the end of this month I’m reviewing Jo Maugham’s book about the Good Law Project, which I’ve supported and keep thinking I should support more. Appeals come into my inbox which I’d like to support – but how to choose between a small amount everywhere and a larger amount to key issues?
If you can support issues you feel strongly about, do. Stand up and be counted.
It’s not just me then, who thinks this election is all about facile soundbites that no one expects to come to anything? They know, we know – and they know we know, but don’t care. I was going to say it’s slightly better in Scotland, but I’m not sure it is. Things are confused here between reserved matters, which are relevant to this election, and devolved matters which are not. A lot of people don’t know the difference and the waters are deliberately muddied by the opposition parties, helped along by the media.
I feel your pain. Last time, the media did a sort of ’assess which party you should vote for’ based on their manifestos. I usually came out for SNP, which is tricky when voting in Norfolk!
I really don’t trust much of anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth, since they are trained well to lie to get votes. Yes, I’ll still vote but I can’t see myself campaigning.
Well, I wouldn’t campaign for a political party, but I’d support climate change, equality, diversity, etc causes. All the things politicians don’t talk about.
I have to say, here in the US we are facing a pretty damn clear decision on a couple of key issues: democracy and climate change. And the choice on those is incredibly clear, and the number of people who don’t seem to think either matters is terrifying. I am not directly campaigning (I live in a state where the conclusion is a foregone matter), but I am writing get-out-the-vote postcards to parts of the country where their votes actually matter. I’m currently reading Bill McKibben’s Falter, and it’s a sobering read.
I’ve just finished Bringing Down Goliath, which is basically one lawyer trying to get the government to obey the law. It’s frightening.