The most simplistic project summary.

 Project. Big Word. Perhaps the problem.

I am a lucky person. I am in my 50s however extremely healthy, and more important to me than anything else bear neither any grudges nor have any chips on my broadish shoulders.

In the title of these online pages i refer to a geographical region.  I only think of regions. Not towns. A small market town in respect of environmental and societal issues is very much part of a wider region around it. Lets say a 5 or 10 mile radius. At the simplest level waste and water issues; bus transport especially for younger people yet to have a car; and especially affordable housing so younger people can stay in the area - now the biggest by far issue as many wealthy Southerners bought up anything on the market summer 2020 and spring 2031 (affordable means a rental or mortgage payments affordable at at local wage rates for those with young families  where only one person may even be in a decent job) .  Etc.  However nothing in here is intended to even point the finger at any particular place or person in that what i have seen and chronicled for years is entirely universal. I know the same falsity and carelessness and lack of decent accountability occurs many other places. If i can tell various stories in an engaging way over the near future they are simply a universal salutary lesson.  Not geographically specific in any way. And i do not any more have any links with any institution or town in the region above. Nor will I ever. My only role is mentoring a few younger people in the wider region who have indicated they wish to in the future take part in civic society - perhaps aim to join a council or have some other similar role in society. And my life, getting outdoors as much as possible,  to enjoy some of the still undamaged further out near wilderness areas we have. 

This write up will be a little discombobulated at first  - until autumn 2021 as i write several other webpages online and am also rather distracted with some minor roles assisting one or two of  the very few organisations in the region i value, one is the superb https://spaceguardcentre.com/ who have had a massive ongoing maintenance revenue abyss for obvious reasons, and thus attempting to encourage some of our younger people in the wider region to assist with their PR - they printed 50,000 expensive new shiny leaflets to attract visitors in February 2020 ...just a few weeks before ....do we need to say. 

In 2002 living a few miles from Hay-on-Wye - however the Hay before London and big sybarite money from elsewhere literally took over and created a theme park from the latter 00s, I wrote something on my notepad: "how to sex up the Green movement?". I often still speak of  that note now in 2020 into 2021. I state it is a trite shorthand way of putting it. But in fact it almost sums up the whole issue that in my opinion needs exploring. It is a completely false and elitist approach to the small p politics of regional environmental matters. 

Or to put it another way a whole range of self serving dilettante characters drifted in to this region from the early 00s - really invading en masse from around 2010, and decided to set themselves up as semi Messiahs on environmental matters. Dilettante as the 'environment'  largely means the land - I say largely as a range of new build in the region which does not comply with the INTENT of environmental law and that issue is often connected to the small towns in the area, and dilettante i think in this setting means the complete inability of almost all invaders to ever take on large scale agriculture and other commercial land use in the region.

To simplify I speak of 'regions'  - in this case a 30 mile radius circle centred on Pembridge West Herefordshire.  That isn't picking on Pembridge, I only use it as it was nearly the first place i moved to 27 years ago. I know no one in Pembridge. No one in Pembridge will be referred to herein.

This ('home') region -  these counties, mattered. Around this region was much reasonably good habitat and a few fairly clean rivers. The land use was quite balanced. West Herefordshire throughout the 20th Century had a reputation as a special county of much quite wondrous nature and old style farming which left many splendid ecosystems fairly intact. 

In 2020  I roamed a little wider than usual and engaged with a range of scientifically minded  - which means FACTS based, characters, not of the 'environmentalist' movement, who simply confirmed all the rivers are as good as dead. The Wye we knew of for years and it was reported as "toxic" April 2020. But I am afraid the same applies to The Arrow, Lugg and probably much of the Teme.

'Environmentalism' is a class issue. It is hard to simply summarise what is meant by that. And before one is thought entirely a 'firestarting'  Nestbeschmutzer  (a  badge of honour in central European literary and philosophical tradition) there is in fact one recent hopeful zeitgeist change i sense. With for example the publicity around the Wye destruction - which started early 00s as i would catalogue then, perhaps the classes may at last recombine with one aim: we failed. But lets get it right now.

Class could be a simple shorthand term for a fair few  fisherman are often a little "upperish class"   - allied with the 'hunting shooting fishing' brigade. The overtly environmental .... ehh i cannot use the word 'activist' as they don't; Posting on Facebook is not 'acting'. Even if it is now i come to think of it. Fake concern to make themselves look good. That is acting of course. And most are from a 'class' background which is fairy archetype: innerish city backgrounds where funny coloured hair was de rigeur from even the early 80s; via one art college or social worker training camp or other, recreating themselves eventually as some homespun goody goody semi retiring to this region. Neglecting to have actually educated themselves that all messiahs are flawed and not thinking of dumping your own hair dye habit which dumps chemical in the environment whilst dumping on everyone else - from a  'safe' distance of some small town,  is a sort of shabby class of ..... well they took up the cudgel. Because they are  unable to assimilate with the true rural inhabitants and thus are lonely. And my they get through a lot of cake in their little town based gatherings.  The former class tend to deride the latter class. A polite way of saying wish they had never set eyes on their silly dyed hair. Or worse.

But just maybe the two tribes could find real common land because it is all worse than especially class 2 can admit. Class 1 tend to be a bit more fact based. Even if class 1's buddies profit from the now most industrially farmed land in the UK.  Class 2 just let it happen. Don't believe one word of their bleating. They are complicit.  and this chronicle will tell why that is so as it became quite apparent to me from even 10 years ago. And then got much worse. 

But before one goes any further the problem with class 2 is they cannot even begin to understand their own not very good poetry http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/ the poem actually quite good,  but its the title! Invitation... all even seditious quip should be invitation - real invitation to meet talk be human, or challenge, to DO BETTER... nope...  class 2 look for every single conceivable reason of why 'you' don't quite fit in their little shabby campfire circle. And actually get rather angry if one issues 'invitations'. 

That i shall come to another day - but it is central to this. The complete inability of the self appointed Messiahs - well i have to be honest 90% sadly are Miss iahs...  to ever invite anyone into their over sensitive often fraudulent little circles.  Some commit actual criminal fraud (i have plenty evidence) so the use of the word 'fraudulent' is multi layered (and i 'respond' to the pandemic of cant and vanity in ONLY ever a wistful poetical lilt as my fingers tinkle the keys) - the figurative, and the actual....  and my how the actual fraud so increased via the crowdfunding sites from early summer 2020. 

("if a young working class lad from Kington had claimed 'charity' [song requiring funding]   in the title of his five grand begging bowl crowdfunder without any registration number or even subsequent info on exactly which charity would benefit, he would be on the front of the local rag as getting six months!.....and thats on top of the fake Portuguese wildfire losses some years back they all headed to the  begging bowls ... when many were claiming tax credits from uk for their children...claiming they were still resident here when out there running their yoga retreats... for big money...i mean there's taking the piss and having it both ways...my only regret is i didn't see any pictures of heat-melted begging bowls alongside the heat melted laptops of, always, their cute looking doeyeyd 3 year olds " )

Soon i shall commence.