The Bewilderness

Unsuccessfully following white posts

The Epping Forest Centenary Walk is one of those paths that curls off the map. Forests are difficult terrain to navigate at the best of times. A route that angles down small paths or veers off into brush does not fill me with the hope of following every twist and turn marked on the map. 

The Centenary Walk is a useful marker for witnessing the gradations of wildness that you pass by on your journey out of the city. From one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse suburbs in Manor Park, you leave a street full of Pakistani shops with Polish subtitles for an invisible cloak of woodland and wildland that allows to proceed by stealth without meeting another Londoner (apart from the ubiquitous dogwalkers).

Whilst this provided me with an opportunity to increase my intimacy of London's green spaces such as the Wanstead Flats or Epping Forest, there is a notable lack of diversity. One finds that the word for London is forest and you begin to feel a hunger for some of the variety for which the city is renowned. Perhaps this is due to the lack of a view on most of the walk. It is one of those rare routes where you do not a vista looking down into the City. There are no famous landmarks here.

It is unfortunate that my time to ponder the route and meander was cut short by train delays and the shortest day of the year. Prevented from following the route "off-piste", I opted for the wider paths and found that they did not follow the marked path. Neverthless, despite never making an accurate trek, I found that this was a sufficient expedition to seek out other paths that may meander across the city. Hopefully they are easier to find than the white posts of Epping.

Have walked the Essex Way

Having commenced the Essex Way at the beginning of the year, I managed to complete it by the end of the calendar on one of the shortest days of 2013. The path meanders through the prettier parts of Central and northern Essex avoiding the conurbations of the Estuary, Chelmsford and Colchester.

The final section of the Essex Way is one of the prettiest parts of the walk and follows the coast of the River Stour's estuary. Starting out at dawn on a winter's day gives wonderful rose-tinted views of the river looking towards the northern shore. Only later on in the walk does the horizon become marred by the ports at Felixstowe and Harwich.

The best villages are the earliest: Manningtree (home of the Witchfinder General: Matthew Hopkins) and Mistley. The winding streets of Manningtree transport you back to the seventeenth century but before you get there, you have to walk through twentieth century housing estates, a railway line and older Victorian rows. It is an exercise in time travel across a mile and a half.

The land rises steeply from the banks of the Stour and you leave Mistley via the Mill, under the railway line and onto a series of muddy fields before entering the next village: Bradfield. And that becomes the walk: villages as milestones. All with their collection of churches and waymarkers: Bradfield, Wrabness, Ramsey and Little Oakley (the last is little more than an estate masking a suburb of Harwich). With such ascents come some good views over the peninsula: Janus with the Stour to the north and Clacton to the south.

What makes the walk is the final variation on the themes of Essex. Once you walk down the hill from Little Oakley you enter a world of marsh and drainage ditches. The path turns north along a dyke towards Harwich. The view south is palette of light and beige in the winter, but the downside is that the view is behind you. I got to see the port and a caravan park, not so wonderful. When you leave the dyke behind, the final stretch is the Promenade alongside Dovercourt. With some bathing huts, one cafe and a (very small) amusement arcade, Harwich manages to claw back a relic of its resort days. But the redoubt is even worse and scores a tad more negatively than Newhaven. Nevertheless, at least the path ends at a tower with a sign rather than at a vandalised derelict railway station (like the Vanguard Way).

Essex is a pretty county to walk around and is recommended for adventures on the flat. This will not be my last long distance walk in that county.

  

Again, Europe doesn't win the pools

The Member States of the European Union, after a messy compromise, managed to agree a banking union. This hotchpotch has been roundly criticised for its inability to achieve its primary goal: avoiding the collapse of banks.

Instead of creating the stated goal of pooling the rescue, the finance ministers have diluted the national responsibility for saving banks by forcing other stakeholders and depositors to pay too. Thus, uncertainty and fear for investors is increased by a complex system that regulates banks at a supranational level and forces national authorities to undertake the rescue. Is that not similar to having a unified central bank and leaving national authorities responsible for dealing with monetary decisions over which they have no control. That worked well!

This system faces a further hurdle. The European Parliament is unlikely to pass the union in its present form. They would wish to see rescues undertaken by the Commission reducing the role of the Member States. A statement of "provide the money and we will take care of the rest". The whole system may yet founder on this rock.

For why are the states unwilling to pool their rescues? Are they aware of the debt lurking within their banks? Perhaps they are unwilling to share the bad debt with the good. Remember, unless you are Greece or Cyprus, there is always someone worse off than yourself.

Trash talking

Thank God for the EU! No, I have not become soft in my old age but the liberal reforms embedded within the single market expose the appalling illiberalism in certain quarters of the Conservative Party. Little did I expect to hear the slogan: "British jobs for people disinclined to do them". Even highly skilled workers would be limited to firm job offers and a period of slavery serving tea before they could avail themselves of the privilege of enjoying British benefits. How long before we hear the howls of backwoodsmen from Left and Right calling for repatriation.

Immigration is not a problem. The development of an ever-tightening dynamic that views all pople from offshore with horror is a problem. It is a danger to the country and to the party. I won't take lessons from a party that won't swiftly condemn the green taxes forcing 'heating or eating' decisions on the poor.

Still No to GMO

The primary reasons for Europe's relative economic decline sometimes come to the fore through events. The General Court of the European Union annulled the decision to allow the planting of a genetically modified potato developed by BASF on the grounds that procedural regulation was not observed by the Commission. Even the Commission was so exasperated by its own convoluted rules that it followed common sense. 

This was decided without considering that the Greens and their allies, having won a victory, cannot countenance any reversal. Hence the court case. Originally, GMOs were banned on the grounds of safety but the level of planting and entry into the food industry have demolished these arguments. Now it is about consumer protection. 

This is an inflection point. Lobbies wish to maintain central control at Commission level so that there can be no backtracking on this Luddite position. Especially as GMO adoption is just the type of decision that should be undertaken at national, even regional level. For these activists, democracy is a value that should only be defended if people vote their way. If not, then their choices must be decided by wiser (Greenpeace) heads. 

All to play for!

MEPs have debated and agreed a bank resolution scheme in the name of insolvency that is applicable to all 28 Member States. Starting from 2016 and achieved in a far shorter time than Solvency 2, the insolvency regime wipes out bondholders before savers. Moral hazard continues and is sliced and diced between debtors and depositholders. Such is the shibboleth of consumer protection.

There was also an exploration on the scenario for Brexit. Surprisingly, it showed greater willingness for repatriation of powers than previously considered as the Eurozone fractures and subsidiarity acquires teeth. Cameron's strategy could become more realistic if stagnation grinds on and poilitical volatility amongst the Member States increases. Of concern is the view of some Member States that this is an opportunity to undermine Britain's advantages and block access to the Single Market. The ploy was French in the scenario but one could consider such a play is the goal of a blocking majority. All to play for!

Anglosphere trumps the Eurosphere

It is a hearty perennial that the European Commission despairs of changing. That would be the blocking majority in the United Kingdom that would always vote in favour of withdrawal from the European Union. The latest poll was conducted only a few day ago.

The results remain the same. A majority wishes to leave and they do not identify with their continental neighbours but with the daughter nations. The Anglosphere trumps the Eurosphere!

 

 

The Greensand Way

The Greensand Way was completed this weekend. This is a long distance walk registered with the LDWA and clocks in at 108 miles, stretching from Ham Street south of Ashford and finishing in a Haslemere alleyway with a 'Limpsfield plaque'. It has taken most of the year to walk across the rolling hills of Kent and Surrey. 

The final section, walked yesterday, joins the Way south of Wonersh and follows the path in its meanderings west across fields and woodland. Surrey is a deceptive county south of the largest town. One assumes that, south of the downs, that the land will flatten. Yet, the path becomes much more undulating and can become difficult to navigate, especially in the Hurt Wood. During these stretches, there are some steep climbs that can tax the walker. Despite the low gradient, they are steep. 

There is a succession of small, delightful villages with an untouched, rural charm seen less as you get nearer to London. Hambledon, Wormley, Witley and Thursley all hold themselves keenly to the eye. 

Only the final part disappoints, when the path turns south on the final descent towards Haslemere through Hindhead Common. The track runs through woodland by Gibbet Hill and passes round the Devil's Punchbowl but omits much of the view or the best walks. They took the Punchbowl away and forest operations have also scarred the landscape at the moment. A pity. 

But another walk completed. 

 

A word used out of place

It is hard to see where Michael Adebolajo is going with his testimony. He denies murder (presumably as a soldier is not a victim). He cites qualities of honour and courage, but ran his victim down and then tried to cut his head off (which he justified as a humane act to end Lee Rigby's pain). This man pleads "Not Guilty".

By his own account, he had no hesitation in killing a soldier and used the Islamic religion as a justification for his action. Yet, if it were not for jihad, would Michael Adebolajo have ever thought that evil actions were justified. He dared compare himself with Lee Rigby, a perverse and reverse Stockholm syndrome where moral equivalence with the murdered victim is sought to salve the crime.

Let those who agree with him (and there are many) open up in public. How can they justify his action? 

 

Treading the Cape of Wrath

If you want to join up all of your walks in these islands, then the Cape Wrath trail is for you. The far north, 200 miles of rough terrain and starts out from Fort William. It follows through some of the most isolated parts of the United Kingdom and (this is teh beauty) cannot join to anywhere else.

Next summer?