Dear Sir, I see you are receiving all sorts of medical advice regarding your sight problems. As a private clinician of over 30 years experience, and a strong eye for research in areas of interest, I want to just say that the biliary colic you mentioned, along with the cataract can both develop as a result of a diet bot too high in carbohydrates AND too low in saturated fats. If, for example, you've been generally following the much repeated advice to keep saturated fats down due to vague cardiovascular risks, then this has, in all likelihood, resulted in a diet higher in carbs than is healthful. It is Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) that cause cataracts. These are the direct result of repeated episodes (e.g. thrice daily) of raised blood glucose, which is what dietary carbohydrates are. STARCH (root veg and cereal grains) is chains of glucose, and SUGARS which are, technically, pairs of 'sugars' i.e. disaccharides, and they all get turned in to glucose (i.e. sucrose = glucose and fructose; lactose = galactose and glucose; maltose = glucose and glucose etc) and the glucose from all sources binds to proteins throughout the body (which is what we are made of, so they are literally everywhere) and prevent them from functioning properly. The most vulnerable are the finest proteins, such as the lens, the smallest capillaries, e.g. in the kidneys, retinae, and in the toes etc, and it is due to this that diabetics, with their generally excessive blood glucose, get clobbered in the kidneys, eyes and feet first with subsequent issues of sight loss, amputations and dialysis.
I should add that GLUTEN is a dastardly player in human health, and indeed in human history, as it can play havoc with our immune systems. This can manifest in virtually any tissue damage you can to name, including liver and gall bladder inflammation.
So, if I may be so bold, I suggest you drastically lower your carbohydrate intake (that includes fruit by the way, it's sweet you see, i.e. has sugars in) and in doing so ensure that the gluten is removed, as gluten is but a small part of cereal grains, the rest of which is mostly starch, i.e. glucose. Oh, and do not for a minute think that oats are a safe grain. They are just as bad for humans as are wheat, rye and barley when it comes to both gluten and glucose. Rice and corn are really just high in carbs/glucose. Their gluten is very much less reactive in humans than the type in wheat, oats, rye and barley.
I expect that you are fully aware of all this, but in case you were not, I am happy to offer you my suggestions to enable you to regain your health.
I too home educated, so I am a great supporter of others who do the same, and who free their beloved children from the arseholery of state education.
Re meibomian dysfunction, I have recently come across a case whereby the cause for the swollen eyelids was found to be cashew nuts. She stopped eating them and the eyes recovered, despite being told she had 'pouting' meibomian glands and therefore blepharitis. Nope - it was a food reaction. Not saying yours is the same, but be aware, individual reactions to foods are extremely complex and hard to work out. Listen to Tammy Peterson talking about her process of discovery and recovery from lifelong mysterious food reactions with an English vicar, Helen something, quite recently.
Good luck and thank you for your excellent work. Much appreciated.
I am one of the few people you will meet who follows a more traditional diet. I believe that there are things that our bodies have learned to digest (and have, for want of a better term, genetic memory for) such as meat and animal fats like butter. There are also foods that have been 'created' that our bodies often don't truly know what to do with (or that are so foreign as to be toxic) such as canola/rapeseed, palm and other seed oils (and their 'margarines') which should be entirely avoided. I also agree that there is far too much carb in the modern diet. Whenever we do eat bread we make it ourselves using a 5-ingredient recipe and none of the palm/rapeseed or preservatives of supermarket fare (my stepfather was a baker who taught me much of traditional baking). While my son has grown up eating a better diet, I am sad that it took me until well into my adulthood to wake up to the toxic fake food we were being sold in supermarkets.
What is safe to consume 🤷♀️ sounds like everything I eat. 🤔 Interesting observation regarding nuts, I myself have just started to suffer swollen sore eyes and never thought about an allergic reaction, put it down to hormones. Thanks for the info.
Essentially I find it simplest if I consider what I am made of. Mostly water (drink water); protein (eat first class protein, e.g. meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, shellfish - tons to choose from); fat (I'm an animal, so ideally, animal fats, which most come naturally attached to the protein!); minerals (these are in pretty high amounts in the proteins mentioned, especially the cheese, but also the meat, but they also are provided by the above-ground vegetables, which are all far lower in carbs than the root veg. Herbs and spices offer phytonutrients, and simple berries, not the great big commercial sweet fruits but the wild fruits like bilberries, blackberries, crabapples, damsons and even sloes, and alpine strawberries... these are stunning in their flavour, and nutrient provision); nuts can be very useful too, but they are quite common culprits for reactions, and things like olives and very dark chocolate make wonderful 'treats' if one still needs a treat after the great meals one can make with the high quality stuff above.
Goodness what is not happening you!. The eyes matter most so you have to give them kindness and rest. I am hoping you are going to do a Lucy Letby book. Its hard getting a bomb site for a house, but you do seem to have a gift for turning wastelands of the mind into beautiful premises, so I think you can do the same with your house!
its interesting you say you are homeschooling your child, I am sure many people would love to take their kids out of the madness and give them what they were originally sent to school for, a real education.
Noted the bit of vandalism of the painting with dismay.
I did actually coming home one evening get caught in a Palestine march, that was because we were all put off the tube at Victoria and I had to walk to Vauxhall. it was a huge crowd , and I did see one poster which had three pigs heads on it decapitated with blood drops underneath, so I think there was obviously an element of that in the crowds. it was a massive number of people.
great newsletter thank you. I'll buy your Lucy book when its out. But care of the eyes, first.
Still suggest that melatonin may benefit your eyesight. It's good for macular degeneration. I have been taking 20 mg per night for a different issue over the last 5 years and have not had to see a doctor in that time.
Sigh. Yet another Substack writer I will have to unsubscribe from because of their ill-informed views on Israel. No people and no country has the right to murder 30,000 people, mainly women and children, for the sake of their security.
Can I ask... since I am so ill-informed, is it fair to tarnish people who have lived in England all their lives because of their religion? That is what is happening here. Jewish people like the professor who supervised my PhD who have lived first in Scotland, and later (and for the rest of his life) in England, and one of the third-year midwifery students I provide tutor/pastoral support for (and who has never, to the best of my knowledge, left England at all) are being abused because of things that are happening thousands of miles away in a place far removed from their home here and a place totally out of their control?
How is that fair or right?
Fairness, equality and freedom has to be available for all of us equally, lest it be available to none of us at all. If these people haven't hurt anyone, they should be no more attacked for their religion than my research colleague's wife who is Korean (and grew up in NZ) should be blamed for the things done by Kim Jong Un. True?
Exactly. Criticism of Israel and Zionist machinations is not anti-Jewish. The fact that so many have hijacked the term “anti-Semite” is just another example of the madness
Has it ever occurred to you that the Israeli government repeatedly lies? They said in October that in Gaza there would be “no food, no water, no electricity, no fuel, no medicine.” Was that a lie? They blame Hamas for not allowing aid in or stealing the aid when it does get in, even though they explicitly said they would not allow aid in. So which is it? They said they didn’t shoot starving male civilians when they stormed the few aid trucks that came in two weeks ago. Or were they Hamas fighters coming to steal the flour? Then when the evidence was incontrovertible, ie the dead and injured were riddled with bullets, they said that they did shoot them because they were a security risk. They said Hamas beheaded 40 babies on 7 Oct. Was that true?
The aerial bombing and shelling has been relentless - one only has to see the aerial photos. By all accounts, over 65,000 bombs have rained down on Gaza, a very small geographical area and densely populated. The bombs used are powerful and indiscriminate, the best bombs money can buy all the way from America. There must be more than the 12,000 civilian deaths you have calculated from the bombing and shelling alone since there are no air raid shelters in Gaza.
It’s worth remembering that Jewish extremists of Eastern European descent had their own terrorist groups, created in in the early 1940s: the Irgun, the Stern Gang. Or were they freedom fighters? They blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing many civilians. They also assassinated a British foreign office minister in Palestine. They allegedly plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin, then foreign minister, because he didn’t agree with the creation of an ethnic Jewish state. They also plotted to assassinate Winston Churchill. Or is this a British lie? Why would the early Zionists need terror groups if Palestine, prior to 1917, was a land without people for a people without a land? Why is it not ok for Palestinians to feel resentment about the injustices that have been inflicted upon them for 75 years for a crime they did not commit (ie the Russian pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, a millennia of Western European antisemitism and the Nazi death camps)?
These are the questions the pro-Palestinian marches in London ask. I’m well acquainted with the history because I am of Eastern European descent on the maternal side, my grandparents were exiles in London. Our people suffered horror when we were occupied by a brutal terrorist regime for 50 years from 1945. We had terrorist groups too. Or freedom fighters as we prefer to call them. Most of them rounded up and sent to the camps, along with innocent men, women and children. But there aren’t any Hollywood films about them.
I think all politicians lie, QED all government's lie... but do you know who lies worst of all? Criminals and terrorists. While politicians might lie about the reason for some policy or what they did with those campaign funds, terrorists pretty much always lie about the reasons why they are committing acts of terrorism.
So while you might struggle to accept some of the things Netenyahu and his politicians say about their involvement in this military weapons transaction or that foreign policy decision, that's still a long way from blindly accepting as true anything that is said by a terrorist organisation who hides behind and under civilians, hospitals and self-proclaimed aid organisations like Hamas does
Brittanica definition of terrorism: the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and police.
1. I do not “blindly accept as true anything a terrorist organisation says”. My brain isn’t soaked in propaganda. As per the definition above, terrorist group leaders are in essence politicians, eg Menachem Begin, Itzak Shamir, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar.
2. I don’t know when you moved to this country (I think you’re Australian) but I remember very clearly the IRA terror campaign in the 70s/80s. It was a lot worse in Northern Ireland than in England. I doubt you ever visited Belfast or Lisburn in the 80s - it resembled a war zone when I visited in 1988. I don’t doubt some of the more extremist elements in the British government would have been able to justify the firebombing of the Republic of Ireland for harbouring terrorists. English people lived under the spectre of being bombed while drinking a pint in a pub. I’ve lost count how many times I was involved in a bomb scare as a child in London. There were no rubbish bins in all of London for years and Irish people living here were routinely arrested and locked up, ie internment (imprisoned without trial). The English have experience of living under terror, as do the Israelis. My friends in Jerusalem have never opened their door after 9pm. Even when they lived here they never opened the door after dark. It was similar in Northern Ireland. Our civil servants were skilled negotiators and they managed to get a peace deal.
3. The 35 year terror campaign by the IRA worked. Sinn Fein now head the Northern Ireland Assembly and a united Ireland will follow within a decade. Rightly so in my view considering all that the Irish suffered under British occupation.
4. This will explain why Arlene Foster of the Unionists supports Israel and the Taoiseach and the Irish in general do not.
5. I’m tired of the trope, “Hamas hide behind civilians”. Where else are they supposed to hide in such a small space that is surrounded by a razor wire perimeter fence with machine guns pointed inside the Gaza Strip?
6. As I understand it, Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank are very well educated, it is a cultural thing to hothouse the children.
7. Given their education level, I would assume that Gazans are well aware that Hamas would have to use them as human shields. Since they voted for Hamas one can assume they accepted the risk, that they are not being used, at least not unbeknown to them, as pawns in a geopolitical game.
8. If they have accepted this risk, then their lives must have been intolerable and they saw no other way out. I’m just speculating here, this may not be the case.
9. Using your logic, it would seem beneficial for Hamas to downplay, ie lie about the civilian deaths to improve morale among the population. Not increase the numbers.
10. You don’t have to be a Zionist to care about the safety of Jews in a hostile environment. There are many Jews who are anti-Zionists, eg Gideon Levy, Primo Levi (deceased), Ilan Pape, Avi Shlaim, Israel Shahak (deceased), Gore Vidal (deceased) my friends in Jerusalem.
Do not misconstrue this as support for Hamas. I’m relatively neutral, I just do not like what I perceive as a clear case of injustice against the Palestinians over 75 years. Terrorists emerge when a political situation is intolerable for the general population. A political solution is necessary not carpet bombing. This is going to end very badly for Israel.
I hear and even agree with some of what you say. My biggest concern is making sure that we don't unfairly malign Israel for the wrong reasons - and at the moment that certainly seems to be what is happening in the mainstream. I would take the 30,000 claim of Hamas with a pinch of salt (and don't forget there are hours of video made and released by the Hamas soldiers themselves showing Hamas soldiers shooting, kidnapping, torturing and raping the jewish israelis they encountered along the way and very little honest video to support the claims Hamas are making in retaliation). And sadly, this idea that Jews moved into Israel and stole land from the Palestinians seems to be a gross mis-statement of historic fact. I am not Jewish, Israeli nor Palestinian. I have no skin in the game and no great affinity for any of the parties... but when I see so-called activists committing acts of wanton destruction because they are either misunderstanding, exaggerating or completely misconstruing a historical figure long-dead's involvement in something that mostly happened after his death, then my concern is for the fact that whether you agree or disagree with what he said 100 years ago (ish), destroying public or even private property thinking that will endear you to people who don't agree with you is pathetic and small-minded. If anything, it should (and for some of us does) invalidate your (meaning her - the girl who did it) entire position on the topic. Two wrongs never make a right. It doesn't matter whether this country poked that country first, or what evil you think justifies a destructive response. Committing further acts of evil (and yes, I think destruction of an irreplaceable portrait, statue or other historic artwork is an act of domestic terrorism and 110% wrong) in no way makes her or the organisation who 'took credit' for her wrong-doing 'right'. If we can't agree that her actions in destroying the portrait were wrong, then something is definitely wrong with the world.
Heh please read Mark Sloan's book on Red Light therapy - I just have, and as a result I have today started using the red light therapy lamp that I've had in the cupboard for the last two years. I got it to improve my eyesight (as recommended by a natural eyesight specialist) but used it today for the sciatica in my hip and was blown away by how much it improved my condition. Sloan's book mentions its use for glaucoma and macular degeneration. I think it mught help you. Worth a read.
Hi Scott, Our love and thoughts are with you. It sounds like you are really fighting against the wind right now. The home Ed journey is one I took for 8 years too, and despite now being completely impoverished I don't regret one day of it. When the First and Second choice university offers come, and you overhear excited conversations about what is going to be cooked for friends, within the future visions of endless dinner parties, making music, joining the gym, and having fun, a huge sigh of relief comes.
Back to Lucy, and nurses everywhere. We don't know what her defence will have to offer at her appeal but let's hope they can pull it together for her properly this time. I notice time has been allocated over 3 days to hear the Appeal at the same time, if it's granted.
Did you see The House of Lords Debate about the State of Maternity Services? There was heartfelt concern and a call for a full National Enquiry with more than half of services considered by The Care Quality Commission to be Inadequate or Needing Improvement. Maternal deaths, Neonatal deaths and still births, recruitment and retention issues, loss of experienced midwives and doctors and more were out there for all to see. A New Start was called for by the quite wonderful, esteemed Baroness Cumberlege.
I need to send you a message quite urgently, which is the best way xx
Sadly, we have seen a sharp rise in the incidence of miscarriage, stillbirth, antenatal, peripartum and post-partum haemorrhage (APH and PPH) and incompetent placenta that started rising in mid-late 2021 and 'they don't know what is causing it'.
I say, consider what changed in March/April 2021 for maternal care, and study that first. And before people jump on Covid as the cause, the data from several countries (some of which I graphed in a previous substack) shows that during 2020 and up until March 2021 stillbirth and other negative pregnancy outcomes had actually dropped... that shows Covid wasn't causing issues, but potentially (and this is my hypothesis for that period) the reduction in interventionalist medicine (i.e. obstetricians focing caesarean sections so they could get to their golf game/the gym/the opera) seemed to have had a positive benefit for pregnant mums and their bubs.
Hi Scott, our love and thoughts are with you. It sounds like you are really fighting against the wind right now. The home Ed journey is one I took for 8 years too, and despite now being completely impoverished I don't regret one day of it. When the First and Second choice university offers come, and you overhear excited conversations about what is going to be cooked for friends, within the future visions of endless dinner parties, making music, joining the gym, and having fun, a huge sigh of relief comes.
Back to Lucy, and nurses everywhere. We don't know what her defence will have to offer at her appeal but let's hope they can pull it together for her properly this time. I notice time has been allocated over 3 days to hear the Appeal at the same time, if it's granted.
Did you see The House of Lords Debate about the State of Maternity Services? There was heartfelt concern and a call for a full National Enquiry with more than half of services considered by The Care Quality Commission to be Inadequate or Needing Improvement. Maternal deaths, Neonatal deaths and still births, recruitment and retention issues, loss of experienced midwives and doctors and more were out there for all to see. A New Start was called for by the quite wonderful, esteemed Baroness Cumberlege.
I need to send you a message quite urgently, which is the best way xx
Dear Sir, I see you are receiving all sorts of medical advice regarding your sight problems. As a private clinician of over 30 years experience, and a strong eye for research in areas of interest, I want to just say that the biliary colic you mentioned, along with the cataract can both develop as a result of a diet bot too high in carbohydrates AND too low in saturated fats. If, for example, you've been generally following the much repeated advice to keep saturated fats down due to vague cardiovascular risks, then this has, in all likelihood, resulted in a diet higher in carbs than is healthful. It is Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) that cause cataracts. These are the direct result of repeated episodes (e.g. thrice daily) of raised blood glucose, which is what dietary carbohydrates are. STARCH (root veg and cereal grains) is chains of glucose, and SUGARS which are, technically, pairs of 'sugars' i.e. disaccharides, and they all get turned in to glucose (i.e. sucrose = glucose and fructose; lactose = galactose and glucose; maltose = glucose and glucose etc) and the glucose from all sources binds to proteins throughout the body (which is what we are made of, so they are literally everywhere) and prevent them from functioning properly. The most vulnerable are the finest proteins, such as the lens, the smallest capillaries, e.g. in the kidneys, retinae, and in the toes etc, and it is due to this that diabetics, with their generally excessive blood glucose, get clobbered in the kidneys, eyes and feet first with subsequent issues of sight loss, amputations and dialysis.
I should add that GLUTEN is a dastardly player in human health, and indeed in human history, as it can play havoc with our immune systems. This can manifest in virtually any tissue damage you can to name, including liver and gall bladder inflammation.
So, if I may be so bold, I suggest you drastically lower your carbohydrate intake (that includes fruit by the way, it's sweet you see, i.e. has sugars in) and in doing so ensure that the gluten is removed, as gluten is but a small part of cereal grains, the rest of which is mostly starch, i.e. glucose. Oh, and do not for a minute think that oats are a safe grain. They are just as bad for humans as are wheat, rye and barley when it comes to both gluten and glucose. Rice and corn are really just high in carbs/glucose. Their gluten is very much less reactive in humans than the type in wheat, oats, rye and barley.
I expect that you are fully aware of all this, but in case you were not, I am happy to offer you my suggestions to enable you to regain your health.
I too home educated, so I am a great supporter of others who do the same, and who free their beloved children from the arseholery of state education.
Re meibomian dysfunction, I have recently come across a case whereby the cause for the swollen eyelids was found to be cashew nuts. She stopped eating them and the eyes recovered, despite being told she had 'pouting' meibomian glands and therefore blepharitis. Nope - it was a food reaction. Not saying yours is the same, but be aware, individual reactions to foods are extremely complex and hard to work out. Listen to Tammy Peterson talking about her process of discovery and recovery from lifelong mysterious food reactions with an English vicar, Helen something, quite recently.
Good luck and thank you for your excellent work. Much appreciated.
I am one of the few people you will meet who follows a more traditional diet. I believe that there are things that our bodies have learned to digest (and have, for want of a better term, genetic memory for) such as meat and animal fats like butter. There are also foods that have been 'created' that our bodies often don't truly know what to do with (or that are so foreign as to be toxic) such as canola/rapeseed, palm and other seed oils (and their 'margarines') which should be entirely avoided. I also agree that there is far too much carb in the modern diet. Whenever we do eat bread we make it ourselves using a 5-ingredient recipe and none of the palm/rapeseed or preservatives of supermarket fare (my stepfather was a baker who taught me much of traditional baking). While my son has grown up eating a better diet, I am sad that it took me until well into my adulthood to wake up to the toxic fake food we were being sold in supermarkets.
What is safe to consume 🤷♀️ sounds like everything I eat. 🤔 Interesting observation regarding nuts, I myself have just started to suffer swollen sore eyes and never thought about an allergic reaction, put it down to hormones. Thanks for the info.
Essentially I find it simplest if I consider what I am made of. Mostly water (drink water); protein (eat first class protein, e.g. meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, shellfish - tons to choose from); fat (I'm an animal, so ideally, animal fats, which most come naturally attached to the protein!); minerals (these are in pretty high amounts in the proteins mentioned, especially the cheese, but also the meat, but they also are provided by the above-ground vegetables, which are all far lower in carbs than the root veg. Herbs and spices offer phytonutrients, and simple berries, not the great big commercial sweet fruits but the wild fruits like bilberries, blackberries, crabapples, damsons and even sloes, and alpine strawberries... these are stunning in their flavour, and nutrient provision); nuts can be very useful too, but they are quite common culprits for reactions, and things like olives and very dark chocolate make wonderful 'treats' if one still needs a treat after the great meals one can make with the high quality stuff above.
You're welcome.
Thank you!
Cell membranes are phospholipids, so fats should likely go before even proteins
Goodness what is not happening you!. The eyes matter most so you have to give them kindness and rest. I am hoping you are going to do a Lucy Letby book. Its hard getting a bomb site for a house, but you do seem to have a gift for turning wastelands of the mind into beautiful premises, so I think you can do the same with your house!
its interesting you say you are homeschooling your child, I am sure many people would love to take their kids out of the madness and give them what they were originally sent to school for, a real education.
Noted the bit of vandalism of the painting with dismay.
I did actually coming home one evening get caught in a Palestine march, that was because we were all put off the tube at Victoria and I had to walk to Vauxhall. it was a huge crowd , and I did see one poster which had three pigs heads on it decapitated with blood drops underneath, so I think there was obviously an element of that in the crowds. it was a massive number of people.
great newsletter thank you. I'll buy your Lucy book when its out. But care of the eyes, first.
Enjoyed your newsletter.
Thank you for the update 👍
Still suggest that melatonin may benefit your eyesight. It's good for macular degeneration. I have been taking 20 mg per night for a different issue over the last 5 years and have not had to see a doctor in that time.
Sigh. Yet another Substack writer I will have to unsubscribe from because of their ill-informed views on Israel. No people and no country has the right to murder 30,000 people, mainly women and children, for the sake of their security.
Can I ask... since I am so ill-informed, is it fair to tarnish people who have lived in England all their lives because of their religion? That is what is happening here. Jewish people like the professor who supervised my PhD who have lived first in Scotland, and later (and for the rest of his life) in England, and one of the third-year midwifery students I provide tutor/pastoral support for (and who has never, to the best of my knowledge, left England at all) are being abused because of things that are happening thousands of miles away in a place far removed from their home here and a place totally out of their control?
How is that fair or right?
Fairness, equality and freedom has to be available for all of us equally, lest it be available to none of us at all. If these people haven't hurt anyone, they should be no more attacked for their religion than my research colleague's wife who is Korean (and grew up in NZ) should be blamed for the things done by Kim Jong Un. True?
Agreed.
Exactly. Criticism of Israel and Zionist machinations is not anti-Jewish. The fact that so many have hijacked the term “anti-Semite” is just another example of the madness
Has it ever occured to you that the ill-informed person here is the numbskull who believes the Hamas lie that Israel has 'murdered' this number of 'mainly women and children'. See https://www.normanfenton.com/post/analysis-shows-gaza-fatality-number-faked-but-misses-key-point-which-makes-the-numbers-even-more-l
Has it ever occurred to you that the Israeli government repeatedly lies? They said in October that in Gaza there would be “no food, no water, no electricity, no fuel, no medicine.” Was that a lie? They blame Hamas for not allowing aid in or stealing the aid when it does get in, even though they explicitly said they would not allow aid in. So which is it? They said they didn’t shoot starving male civilians when they stormed the few aid trucks that came in two weeks ago. Or were they Hamas fighters coming to steal the flour? Then when the evidence was incontrovertible, ie the dead and injured were riddled with bullets, they said that they did shoot them because they were a security risk. They said Hamas beheaded 40 babies on 7 Oct. Was that true?
The aerial bombing and shelling has been relentless - one only has to see the aerial photos. By all accounts, over 65,000 bombs have rained down on Gaza, a very small geographical area and densely populated. The bombs used are powerful and indiscriminate, the best bombs money can buy all the way from America. There must be more than the 12,000 civilian deaths you have calculated from the bombing and shelling alone since there are no air raid shelters in Gaza.
It’s worth remembering that Jewish extremists of Eastern European descent had their own terrorist groups, created in in the early 1940s: the Irgun, the Stern Gang. Or were they freedom fighters? They blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing many civilians. They also assassinated a British foreign office minister in Palestine. They allegedly plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin, then foreign minister, because he didn’t agree with the creation of an ethnic Jewish state. They also plotted to assassinate Winston Churchill. Or is this a British lie? Why would the early Zionists need terror groups if Palestine, prior to 1917, was a land without people for a people without a land? Why is it not ok for Palestinians to feel resentment about the injustices that have been inflicted upon them for 75 years for a crime they did not commit (ie the Russian pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, a millennia of Western European antisemitism and the Nazi death camps)?
These are the questions the pro-Palestinian marches in London ask. I’m well acquainted with the history because I am of Eastern European descent on the maternal side, my grandparents were exiles in London. Our people suffered horror when we were occupied by a brutal terrorist regime for 50 years from 1945. We had terrorist groups too. Or freedom fighters as we prefer to call them. Most of them rounded up and sent to the camps, along with innocent men, women and children. But there aren’t any Hollywood films about them.
I think all politicians lie, QED all government's lie... but do you know who lies worst of all? Criminals and terrorists. While politicians might lie about the reason for some policy or what they did with those campaign funds, terrorists pretty much always lie about the reasons why they are committing acts of terrorism.
So while you might struggle to accept some of the things Netenyahu and his politicians say about their involvement in this military weapons transaction or that foreign policy decision, that's still a long way from blindly accepting as true anything that is said by a terrorist organisation who hides behind and under civilians, hospitals and self-proclaimed aid organisations like Hamas does
Brittanica definition of terrorism: the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and police.
1. I do not “blindly accept as true anything a terrorist organisation says”. My brain isn’t soaked in propaganda. As per the definition above, terrorist group leaders are in essence politicians, eg Menachem Begin, Itzak Shamir, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar.
2. I don’t know when you moved to this country (I think you’re Australian) but I remember very clearly the IRA terror campaign in the 70s/80s. It was a lot worse in Northern Ireland than in England. I doubt you ever visited Belfast or Lisburn in the 80s - it resembled a war zone when I visited in 1988. I don’t doubt some of the more extremist elements in the British government would have been able to justify the firebombing of the Republic of Ireland for harbouring terrorists. English people lived under the spectre of being bombed while drinking a pint in a pub. I’ve lost count how many times I was involved in a bomb scare as a child in London. There were no rubbish bins in all of London for years and Irish people living here were routinely arrested and locked up, ie internment (imprisoned without trial). The English have experience of living under terror, as do the Israelis. My friends in Jerusalem have never opened their door after 9pm. Even when they lived here they never opened the door after dark. It was similar in Northern Ireland. Our civil servants were skilled negotiators and they managed to get a peace deal.
3. The 35 year terror campaign by the IRA worked. Sinn Fein now head the Northern Ireland Assembly and a united Ireland will follow within a decade. Rightly so in my view considering all that the Irish suffered under British occupation.
4. This will explain why Arlene Foster of the Unionists supports Israel and the Taoiseach and the Irish in general do not.
5. I’m tired of the trope, “Hamas hide behind civilians”. Where else are they supposed to hide in such a small space that is surrounded by a razor wire perimeter fence with machine guns pointed inside the Gaza Strip?
6. As I understand it, Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank are very well educated, it is a cultural thing to hothouse the children.
7. Given their education level, I would assume that Gazans are well aware that Hamas would have to use them as human shields. Since they voted for Hamas one can assume they accepted the risk, that they are not being used, at least not unbeknown to them, as pawns in a geopolitical game.
8. If they have accepted this risk, then their lives must have been intolerable and they saw no other way out. I’m just speculating here, this may not be the case.
9. Using your logic, it would seem beneficial for Hamas to downplay, ie lie about the civilian deaths to improve morale among the population. Not increase the numbers.
10. You don’t have to be a Zionist to care about the safety of Jews in a hostile environment. There are many Jews who are anti-Zionists, eg Gideon Levy, Primo Levi (deceased), Ilan Pape, Avi Shlaim, Israel Shahak (deceased), Gore Vidal (deceased) my friends in Jerusalem.
Do not misconstrue this as support for Hamas. I’m relatively neutral, I just do not like what I perceive as a clear case of injustice against the Palestinians over 75 years. Terrorists emerge when a political situation is intolerable for the general population. A political solution is necessary not carpet bombing. This is going to end very badly for Israel.
I hear and even agree with some of what you say. My biggest concern is making sure that we don't unfairly malign Israel for the wrong reasons - and at the moment that certainly seems to be what is happening in the mainstream. I would take the 30,000 claim of Hamas with a pinch of salt (and don't forget there are hours of video made and released by the Hamas soldiers themselves showing Hamas soldiers shooting, kidnapping, torturing and raping the jewish israelis they encountered along the way and very little honest video to support the claims Hamas are making in retaliation). And sadly, this idea that Jews moved into Israel and stole land from the Palestinians seems to be a gross mis-statement of historic fact. I am not Jewish, Israeli nor Palestinian. I have no skin in the game and no great affinity for any of the parties... but when I see so-called activists committing acts of wanton destruction because they are either misunderstanding, exaggerating or completely misconstruing a historical figure long-dead's involvement in something that mostly happened after his death, then my concern is for the fact that whether you agree or disagree with what he said 100 years ago (ish), destroying public or even private property thinking that will endear you to people who don't agree with you is pathetic and small-minded. If anything, it should (and for some of us does) invalidate your (meaning her - the girl who did it) entire position on the topic. Two wrongs never make a right. It doesn't matter whether this country poked that country first, or what evil you think justifies a destructive response. Committing further acts of evil (and yes, I think destruction of an irreplaceable portrait, statue or other historic artwork is an act of domestic terrorism and 110% wrong) in no way makes her or the organisation who 'took credit' for her wrong-doing 'right'. If we can't agree that her actions in destroying the portrait were wrong, then something is definitely wrong with the world.
Heh please read Mark Sloan's book on Red Light therapy - I just have, and as a result I have today started using the red light therapy lamp that I've had in the cupboard for the last two years. I got it to improve my eyesight (as recommended by a natural eyesight specialist) but used it today for the sciatica in my hip and was blown away by how much it improved my condition. Sloan's book mentions its use for glaucoma and macular degeneration. I think it mught help you. Worth a read.
I've read everything you've written on the Lucy Letby case and I completely agree that it doesn't add up properly. I'd love to read a book about this
Hi Scott, Our love and thoughts are with you. It sounds like you are really fighting against the wind right now. The home Ed journey is one I took for 8 years too, and despite now being completely impoverished I don't regret one day of it. When the First and Second choice university offers come, and you overhear excited conversations about what is going to be cooked for friends, within the future visions of endless dinner parties, making music, joining the gym, and having fun, a huge sigh of relief comes.
Back to Lucy, and nurses everywhere. We don't know what her defence will have to offer at her appeal but let's hope they can pull it together for her properly this time. I notice time has been allocated over 3 days to hear the Appeal at the same time, if it's granted.
Did you see The House of Lords Debate about the State of Maternity Services? There was heartfelt concern and a call for a full National Enquiry with more than half of services considered by The Care Quality Commission to be Inadequate or Needing Improvement. Maternal deaths, Neonatal deaths and still births, recruitment and retention issues, loss of experienced midwives and doctors and more were out there for all to see. A New Start was called for by the quite wonderful, esteemed Baroness Cumberlege.
I need to send you a message quite urgently, which is the best way xx
Sadly, we have seen a sharp rise in the incidence of miscarriage, stillbirth, antenatal, peripartum and post-partum haemorrhage (APH and PPH) and incompetent placenta that started rising in mid-late 2021 and 'they don't know what is causing it'.
I say, consider what changed in March/April 2021 for maternal care, and study that first. And before people jump on Covid as the cause, the data from several countries (some of which I graphed in a previous substack) shows that during 2020 and up until March 2021 stillbirth and other negative pregnancy outcomes had actually dropped... that shows Covid wasn't causing issues, but potentially (and this is my hypothesis for that period) the reduction in interventionalist medicine (i.e. obstetricians focing caesarean sections so they could get to their golf game/the gym/the opera) seemed to have had a positive benefit for pregnant mums and their bubs.
Hi Scott, our love and thoughts are with you. It sounds like you are really fighting against the wind right now. The home Ed journey is one I took for 8 years too, and despite now being completely impoverished I don't regret one day of it. When the First and Second choice university offers come, and you overhear excited conversations about what is going to be cooked for friends, within the future visions of endless dinner parties, making music, joining the gym, and having fun, a huge sigh of relief comes.
Back to Lucy, and nurses everywhere. We don't know what her defence will have to offer at her appeal but let's hope they can pull it together for her properly this time. I notice time has been allocated over 3 days to hear the Appeal at the same time, if it's granted.
Did you see The House of Lords Debate about the State of Maternity Services? There was heartfelt concern and a call for a full National Enquiry with more than half of services considered by The Care Quality Commission to be Inadequate or Needing Improvement. Maternal deaths, Neonatal deaths and still births, recruitment and retention issues, loss of experienced midwives and doctors and more were out there for all to see. A New Start was called for by the quite wonderful, esteemed Baroness Cumberlege.
I need to send you a message quite urgently, which is the best way xx