THIS IS A BLOGPOST THAT WILL ATTRACT ONLY A SCORE OF READERS - IT'S ABOUT THE SARS-COV-2 VIRUS.

 The disease is called COVID-19. The virus that spreads the disease is known as SARS-CoV-2. There have been a number of variants of this virus (Alpha, Delta, Omicron) and sub-variants of these variants (such as BA.4 and BA.5 that are at present the dominant sub-variants of Omicron). 

The SARS-CoV-2 virus - image used under licence from Getty Images - see Dying to Know - Running through a Pandemic, my latest book.

In explaining all this, I am identifying what has become the elephant in the room. So many of our population of nearly 70 million are following the lead provided by the man who is still in No.10 Downing Street. Back in January this year, he ordered the lifting of all the restrictions that had been imposed to limit the spread of coronavirus. He did so without the support of most of the scientific and medical community. It was essentially a political gesture to secure the support of the hard-core of so-

PLEASE COME TO MY TALK AT THE PENZANCE LITERARY FESTIVAL - THURSDAY 7 JULY 2022, 3-4.30 PM - THE COACH HOUSE, MORRAB GARDENS

 A fortnight to go, and the pulse begins to beat a little more excitedly. This will be the first time in my life when my audience will be paying to hear me speak (don't be too concerned; at a cost of £5 per ticket it's less than the price of a coffee and cake). I shall do my best to make it a worthwhile 90 minutes - and remember the title of my talk is Dying to Know - The Power of Hope. I will be delivering a message shaped by my natural optimism. Here's a link to the online ticket office: press here

Penzance Literary Festival Fringe - Redwing Gallery - summer of 2017

I don't want to give too much away, but the talk is shaped by my latest book that was published at the end of February this year: Dying to Know - Running through a Pandemic. When I first became aware of the threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in January 2020, I was concerned but had no idea of what lay ahead. The consequences of misgovernment in the UK had yet to take shape. Today, as we approach the end of June 2022, around thirty months later, I know that very nearly 200,000 British citizens have died with COVID-19 on their death certificate. That, per head of population, is about the same awful death

TWO ST IVES BOYS CONTINUE THEIR JOURNEY - ON TO THE KENIDJACK VALLEY AND OVER TO CAPE CORNWALL - PART TWO

 Here is a link to Part One that I published yesterday - just in case you missed it.

Having returned from our close encounter with the Crowns, John Toman, my guide, next pointed out the ruins of the late-19th century steam pumping engine house of West Wheal Owles. This ruin, carefully photographed, featured in the TV series 'Poldark'.

West Wheal Owles - steam pumping house 

We took a few steps off the path to the left and behind the engine house lay the memorial to those killed in the Wheal Owles disaster on 11th January 1893. John had told me of this memorial when I shared with him, a few months ago, news of my discovery of articles about this disaster in my digital trawl through Victorian Cornish broadsheets. You will be able to read the fruits of my research in a section of 'Mine to Die' that focuses on the Wheal Owles tragedy. Publication is scheduled for 2024. 

Meanwhile, here is a snapshot of what happened on that awful day taken from Robin Bates & Bill Scolding's admirable guide book 'Nine Walks around St Just & St Ives': 

"On [that day] miners were blasting a new level towards what Richard Boyns, the mine's purser (the paymaster or cashier of the mine) thought would be a rich lode. Shortly after 9 am, the tunnelling miners breached the walls of the flooded 148 fathom (888 feet) level of the neighbouring Wheal Drea workings. The force of the inrushing water created enough air pressure to blow out a crater on the

TWO ST IVES BOYS AT BOTALLACK - A DAY OUT AROUND THE MINE SHAFTS - WITH VIDEO - PART ONE

 I start with a hymn of praise to the drivers who navigate their 'Tinner' open-top double-decker buses through the bends and along the straights of the B3306, the coastal road from St Ives to St Just. They are so skilled. And underpaid, no doubt. 

A fortnight ago, John Toman and I (our combined ages reaching 156 years) explored the mining remains around Geevor and Levant - see this link here for the blogpost that tells the story of that day.  

Botallack mines - the Pumping engine house and the Boscawen diagonal shaft, the means of descent - a view from the sea

Last Tuesday, 7 June 2022, John was my guide when we visited the mining remains around Botallack and then walked on into the Kenidjack valley and from there on to Cape Cornwall. Here is the story, in words and images:

After getting off the bus, we made our way down the lane towards the sea. John, the former chief surveyor at South Crofty, becomes the dream guide. He points knowingly over the hedge to the rubble in the field and explains that he has been keeping an eye on that spot over the last few years. It seems to be

THERE IS A SICKNESS IN THE LAND - AND THE SYMPTOMS CAN BE SEEN ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM - APART FROM THE GREENS

 

Video: Labour, Tories and LibDems join forces to block Real Living Wage in Wirral as only Greens back anti-poverty measure SKWAWKBOX (SW) Jun 9 Councillors from three parties on resources committee vote not even to consider increasing wage to liveable level as committee chair talks over councillor trying to argue for it Labour, Tory and LibDem councillors have voted not even to consider the issue of paying the Real Living Wage to all workers delivering Wirral Council services. Twenty-three local authorities in England pay the 'RLW' to contractors and staff working for outsourced providers too. A living wage should not be controversial in the 6th richest nation in the world But in Wirral borough on Merseyside, two years after all parties agreed to pay the Real Living Wage, more than half of care home providers in the borough don’t pass on the wage to workers - and video of a council committee session show a Green member of the committee, former Labour councillor Jo Bird, being talked over and condescended to by the Labour council leader as she tried to raise the issue for the sake of low-paid staff. The same individual had given the first opportunities to speak to the Tory group leader and Wirral Council's chief executive, who is paid around £180,000 a year: The Real Living Wage of £9.90 per hour is not paid to all workers delivering council services in Wirral, exacerbating poverty at the best of times and causing huge damage to families and communities in the midst of a corporate greed-driven 'cost of living crisis'. At Wirral's Policy and Resources Committee on yesterday, Cllr Bird proposed that a further report be submitted to the Policy & Resources committee on the state of affairs regarding the Real Living Wage being paid to all workers delivering council services, not just those employed directly by the council. In response, several senior Wirral councillors spent a large part of the meeting talking against such a report. Cllr Pat Cleary, leader of Wirral Greens and also on the committee, told other committee members: All that we are asking for, is the report that we were promised, that would detail what the cost to the authority would be, if we were to pay the Real Living Wage to everybody who is employed delivering council services. Its perfectly reasonable. Please treat the Real Living Wage with the respect it deserves. Its an important issue, which is important to highlight. Cleary also took the council leader to task for the tone used against Bird for making 'a perfectly reasonable request' and the double-standard applied when other councillors have actively derailed meetings without receiving anything like the same kind of treatment. The derision shown to Cllr Bird - the borough's only Jewish councillor - continues the shameful treatment meted out to her locally by the Labour party, while the national party expelled her as part of its ongoing purge of left-wing Jews. All Labour, Conservative and LibDem councillors present voted against the amendment for a Real Living Wage report, leaving only Wirral Green councillors apparently concerned enough about the poverty facing many involved in providing the council's services to actually want to address the issue. The toxicity of the Labour right at local government level has long brought disrepute to the party. That has not changed, except that the same arrogance, callousness and condescension is now the norm at national level since Keir Starmer became what currently passes for the party's leader. SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job. If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.   Comment

TWO ST IVES BOYS AT LEVANT - A CHAMPION CORNISH MINE - WITH VIDEO ACCOMPANIMENT

 My title for this blogpost is borrowed from The Trevithick Society's 1992 publication: Levant: A Champion Cornish Mine by John Corin. The book has since been edited and expanded by Peter Joseph. My purchase of a 2013 edition would have happened within a year of arriving as a resident in Cornwall in January of that year. It has proved a most useful read. 

Levant Mine - a National Trust image 

I am one of those 'BOYS' in the title - which is a bit of a cheat because I am not proper Cornish. The other 'BOY' is most certainly a proper Cornish 'boy'. He is John Toman, a former chief surveyor and relief mine captain at South Crofty Mine in Camborne and the father of Belinda, one of our neighbours, up the Stennack in St Ives where we live. John is a very young 83 years and a man of God, an identity I gave him in my latest book, Dying to Know - Running through a Pandemic, published earlier this year. 

John was my guide yesterday, Tuesday 24 May 2022, when we explored the grounds of Levant Mine. Am I a fortunate boy! I can't hope to share all that I learned yesterday - I am still digesting some of the technical detail, such as the geological importance of the 'contact' between the killas and the granite for locating the lodes of tin or copper, and the need to find the 1,000 foot level - but I would like to communicate a measure of the pleasure and pride that John feels for his lifetime in mining, and his

HERE'S HOPING THAT THE LUCK OF THE DEVIL HOLDS

 Ever since the pandemic was allowed to take such a rapid hold in this country back in the first three months of 2020, I have been lamenting the failures of the neoliberal Tory government which has the responsibility for responding to the killer virus in our midst. As we edge closer and closer to the figure of 200,000 UK citizens with coronavirus identified as a cause of their death (as of 10 May 2020, the death toll stood at 193,713), I am relieved that at last the mortality statistics are showing a decline in numbers. 

Vaccination, courtesy of the NHS, saved the day for us - and the Tory government 

Over the past couple of months, the National Office of Statistics (NOS) has been changing the way it presents its figures. They are appearing less often, for a start. The government was closing down the testing stations; the message was clear: the pandemic was nearing its end. When I go shopping in the