The monster that we fight

The other day when I should have been getting into bed I wrote a poem.

It was inspired by a moment of clarity I’d had about the nature of the fight we’re in, the fight when we campaign for active travel and safe, healthy streets. I suddenly glimpsed the enemy.

A campaigner’s day off

I was technically on holiday last week. We hadn’t gone anywhere as we had a couple of family visitors, and anyway we’re a bit broke after renovating the bathroom, and anyway we’re lazy and like just doing nothing at home.

Time’s up for cruel councils

Another precious young life was lost in London late last year – and her death may well have been avoided, if not for the irresponsible actions of one local authority. Christina Kong was killed on Wood Lane, part of a route where safety measures for cycling were rejected by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council in 2019.

Seismic

Hello, long abandoned blog…

There’s a good reason I haven’t been blogging. Pretty much the whole time the world has been gripped by the pandemic I’ve been conducting my own personal shipwreck.

The end of a year of lament

Tomorrow sees the end of the strangest, and in many ways the saddest, year of my life (and I imagine I’m not alone in that). Reading God and the Pandemic has just given me the vocabulary to describe it: it has been a year of lament. Here are the thoughts that crystallised for me as I read this short book.*

Teenagers, the crucifixion and Covid-19

Until recently I haven’t found the coronavirus crisis traumatic. It’s mainly been fascinating, like living through the opening sequences of a sci fi film. It’s been about adjusting to the new world of empty streets, queues outside supermarkets, ‘closed’ benches in parks; and the new online camaraderie of lockdown, with my neighbours on WhatsApp, family on Skype, work and church on Zoom – and PE with Joe Wickes on YouTube (with 300,000 of his closest friends).

Christmas carols and traffic sewers

I had an interesting week in early December (okay, it was probably only interesting for me).

Church, we need to wake up to the climate crisis

You always take a risk with the weather at the New Wine summer conference. About 10,000 of us gather for a week of Christian worship and teaching on a borrowed agricultural showground, most of us sleeping under canvas and pretty much at the mercy of the elements.

Giving up the day job

Hello, long-forgotten blog…

I’ve made this excuse before – but when life is at its most bloggable, blogging is exactly what I don’t have time for. My life has entered an unexpectedly rich and exciting phase over the last few months and that’s why I’ve gone quiet. I’ll try to condense it into a post that isn’t too long.

Farewell to a quiet eco hero

In happier times: my sister Fiona on the left, Adrian in the centre and me on the right. Image: Phil Rogers

We spent Christmas in France, on the farm that belongs to my sister Fiona’s partner, Adrian.