Peter Neville

Kite Aerial Photographer. Making log hives and rewilding honey bees.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@Jules56525 Took mother to our local Remembrance Day wearing her medals. Challenged by a young ex-serviceman. She was polite, he soon realised his mistake, very red faced. Served ATS radar operator, then joined 5th Line of Comms with Canadians, followed the front to Schleswig-Holstein.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@afneil 12 million pensioners helping to fund this crap by loosing their Winter Fuel Payment at the same time making the carbon stats look good by not being able to spend the allowance on fossil fuels!

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@NavyLookout Don't know much about the current RN status but couldn't the RNVR be encouraged to crew these vessels?

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@dragonjones @StevenBartlett My girlfriend has just suggested "Socks with Soul" as a strapline.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@afneil Was agreeing with you as you spoke! Could well be no more hostages left to negotiate with, now there's a thought.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@DrHelenFry This is the man that was very poorly portrayed in Mark Griffin's film "Lawrence, After Arabia", who found TEL to be a nuisance and ultimately "arranged" TEL's demise. All supposition as far as I can see but based on the statement of Cpl Catchpole at the inquest.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@KirstieMAllsopp Well at least Phil took his shoes off!!

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Another masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.

Again I believe that his words are so important and so rare among Western leaders today, that I decided to translate it in full (the bold parts are emphasis Villepin himself made when speaking):

"The Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed on October 7th and failed doubly. Firstly, in its ability to ensure the protection of the Israeli people by allowing massacres that are an abomination to occur. He bears direct responsibility for what happened. And his second failure is having encouraged a policy of occupation and colonization, which continues at this moment in the West Bank and constitutes another threat to Israel if a second front in the West Bank were to open.

Force does not ensure the security of a people! This is what all Israelis must understand today. And what is important is that since October 7th, the Israeli government's choice has been to escalate the use of force. You know, neither force nor vengeance ensures peace and security. What ensures peace and security is justice! And justice is not being served today.

The rationale of the Israeli government for the bombings happening today is flawed, and the whole international community can see it. The principle is: "we target terrorists, and unfortunately, there are also civilian populations," what is euphemistically called in military language "collateral damage." It must be understood that this collateral damage is not accidental. That is to say, it is perfectly predictable and fully accepted.

[Host: "But once again, the responsibility is not solely Israeli."]

But once more, let's stop asking about responsibility; let's look at the reality of what's happening on the ground! Assigning fault, allow me to tell you, we will leave to historians. What we want is to stop this violence, to stop these massacres. Israel is putting itself in danger, even more today, with this type of warfare and these types of strikes.

We are essentially dealing with a policy of vengeance from the Netanyahu government. Israel has the right to self-defense, but self-defense does not give an indiscriminate right to kill civilian populations. When you target an ambulance, you can always imagine that there was a terrorist in one of the ambulances, or not. But the result is that there are children, women who die. Every child, every woman killed, that's more terrorists. Therefore, Israel's objective, what Israel achieves, is exactly the opposite of what they wish. So, it is essential today to change this logic and return to a strategy that is sound.

Hostages, everything must be done to secure their release. But let's not forget: the Palestinian people are also taken hostage, by Hamas and by Israel. And Hamas, we all know, cares little for the Palestinian people. So telling Hamas: "we will not lift the siege, we will not have a humanitarian truce until the hostages are released," is a dialogue of the deaf.

Benjamin Netanyahu is waging a war to do everything so that the political solution does not come to the table. And this is where the international community, Europe, the United States, must tell Benjamin Netanyahu that this war is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because it leads us directly [to escalation] - because we can see it well, from Hamas we will move to Iran, from Iran we will move to other targets, and we then enter into the logic of a clash of civilizations. When Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu says that on one side there is the people of light and on the other the people of darkness, we can see the kind of spiral we are getting into.

All the wars that have been going on for the past twenty years are wars that begin and do not end. These are frozen conflicts. We know how to start a war; we do not know how to end it. And Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu could control Gaza, it would change nothing. There will continue to be terrorist attacks, Israelis will continue to live in fear. We must get out of this. The second reason why this is yesterday's war is that the war against terrorism has never been won anywhere. Force is not the answer, once again. Vengeance is not the answer. The answer is justice, and that is what all the peoples of the world, all those who today watch what is happening, call for justice.

Today the direction we must follow is to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing his suicidal logic that will make Israel a besieged state. They can besiege Gaza, but they will be besieged. And do not think that tomorrow we will again have a pacified discourse with Saudi Arabia, with the Arab states that will normalize the situation: no! The wounds of history are awakening.

Israel's interest is to have a responsible state at its side. And this responsible state, let's stop splitting hairs, must clearly be the West Bank, all of the West Bank. It must be Gaza, with access between the two territories, and East Jerusalem. The problem, and this is the whole point of Benjamin Netanyahu's escalation, is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not want it. And the policy of separation must be dignified. That is, it must confer to the Palestinians a state where they can live, a viable state, a true state, which can build itself and which will be all the more at peace...

[Host: "Does that mean that the settlements in the West Bank have to be removed?"]

Well, when we left Algeria, there were a million French who left Algeria. Today there are 500,000 Israelis colonizing the West Bank, and there are 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

[Host: "They must leave the West Bank?"]

Yes. Yes, that is history, that is responsibility, that is the price! I tell you solemnly, it is the price of security for Israel! And all those who today consider that it will never be enough are pursuing the worst policy."

Credit to @caissesdegreve who took these extracts from the original interview which can be found here: https://t.co/hRuGw6CbuA

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@WestApproaches Spoke too soon the blockage has just been notified. It was worth a try. Bunch of tarts.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@WestApproaches I've just posted a RM version from the Cenotaph 2021. Not been taken down yet.......... It does however start with artillery fire and seagulls in the background! I do like a challenge. Please record the sound and use if you want.
https://t.co/k5iiUnQQKI

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@BowenBBC 8th Nov 1917. Cavalry charge at Huj near Sderot. Last full sword drawn charge by British Army. Germans, Austrians & Turks routed. Painted by Lady Butler. Exact co-ords https://t.co/UfY3ctn1vf

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@grantshapps @thetimes We need professional people in such posts, come back Ben!

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@mi_intel I would be very cautious and wear the appropriate PPE when handling that phial, considering where it came from. It may well be innocent but leaving booby traps in all guises was a trademark.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@BWallaceMP Sad that you've gone, you've been an excellent & worthy occupant of your post. Thank you. Enjoy the new horizons!

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@afneil Wagner withdrew from the eastern front and ended up in Belarus, reportedly 100kms/miles? from Kiev without any action taking place. Make it look like conflict between Prigozhin & Putin and remove both Wagner leaders, only to have them reappear to lead men on Kiev. Just sayin.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@afneil I wouldn't like to go exploring in one. cartoon © Roger Murray,

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@martin_0401 The other interesting feature is Shooters Brook from Piccadilly Appr. to the Medlock, also canal basin in Piccadilly Gardens. I spent hours over this map great fun,

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@martin_0401 In 2018/19 I played around with the William Green map of 1794. I geo-referenced the map over the Bing satellite data. On the 1794 map faint pink corridors are the preposed routes. Use the slider to fade map to show satellite data. https://t.co/3PRPS6NHhX

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@Gerashchenko_en Saw the X for the first time tonight. I agree it looks like a Fascist symbol. Sad reminds me of a tom cat marking his territory.

[Peter Neville @PopsPad]

@DrHelenFry @jessicabmanor Operation Salam (Salaam) which became Operation Condor.