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Book launch picture
Paul Arnott asking me about my new book The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at Wednesday’s launch in the Old Picture House. Thanks to all who braved the cold weather for a lively discussion! If you missed it but would like to get the book, it’s still available via the above link for £14 + postage (normal price £19.99) with the code EM30 at checkout.
Book launch this Wednesday 5 pm – all welcome
A reminder – my book launch is this Wednesday at 5 pm in the Old Picture House, Harbour Rd, Seaton. I’ll be in conversation with PAUL ARNOTT about The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which has just been published. The discussion could range far and wide – everything from today’s nuclear politics and Gaza to local protests about Seaton Hospital, as well as the history. Nothing is ruled out!
Come along, listen, and have your say – one or two people who are coming may share their own experiences of CND or other things they were doing back in the day.
A year since the Hospital campaign began – the NHS is still bypassing Seaton Hospital
Twelve months ago (3rd November 2023) we held one of the biggest protest meetings ever in the Seaton area: 400 people gathered to oppose the demolition of a wing of Seaton Hospital.
The campaign continued into the New Year, and our Steering Committee, elected at the Colyford meeting, has been negotiating with NHS Devon and NHS Property Services ever since. They’ve had our business plan to take over the wing for over four months, but the election and the wait for the new government’s Budget has delayed a response.
Meanwhile the empty space is unused. Yet Devon NHS – which complained about the cost of it – is still paying for facilities elsewhere in Seaton to carry out vaccinations that were previously done in the Hospital. We saw the shambles with the vaccination van in the Tesco car park on 7th October, and now it emerges that they are booking space in Marshlands.
It is beyond time that the NHS and Property services got their act together and put services in Seaton and the future of the Hospital on a secure footing.
Key Seaton Museum meeting tomorrow – all welcome
Tomorrow (Wednesday 30th) sees the AGM of the Axe Valley Heritage Association, which runs Seaton Museum. This is the first AGM since the death of the Museum’s founder and curator, Ted Gosling, and so is an important moment in putting the Museum on a secure footing. The meeting is at 2 pm in the United Reform Church Hall, Cross Street.
I will lead tributes to Ted. Our Acting Curator, Laura Hewitt, who the Trustees are proposing should be confirmed as the new Curator, will give a report on her plans for the Museum going forward, and prehistorian Mark Farry will give a short talk on the archaeology of the local area. There will be tea and biscuits.
All are welcome – this is your chance to find out what is going on in your local Museum and decide if you would like to become a member or get involved.
Book launch, Old Picture House, 20 November
This is a rather unusual post. While I was campaigning for Seaton Hospital late last year (a campaign which has still to bear fruit, but we are working on it), I was also writing a book on a protest movement – The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
When our protest last November included the brilliant idea of ringing all the church bells, I thought of all the imaginative and daring ways that antinuclear campaigners used to highlight their issues. And when one of the bellringers joked that we needed to be making Molotov cocktails, I thought, no – but a peaceful obstruction of the bulldozers might be in order. (Non-Violent Direct Action is the technical term.)
Anyway, I am holding a launch event in the Old Picture House, Harbour Road, Seaton, on Wednesday 20th November at 5pm. All welcome!
I’ll be in conversation with Paul Arnott – himself a distinguished author – who will quiz me on why I wrote the book, what its lessons are amidst the growing world gloom, and all questions politics and protest. There will be ample opportunity to ask your own questions, and of course a bar.
If you want to learn more about The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the publishers’ website has all the details and you can buy it with 30% off, using the code ‘EM30’ at checkout. It will also be available for £15 on the night (cash or cheque), but no obligation to buy of course.
I hope to see you on the 20th November – do spread the word!
Vaccination fiasco shows NHS doesn’t understand Seaton
I’ve just had to abandon a Covid/flu vaccination appointment at the Tesco car park after waiting an hour, since I’d have to wait another hour before being done. This is despite having an appointment. The core reason for the fiasco is that the NHS grossly underestimated the walk-in demand in the morning, so that people who had waited hours were ahead of the people with timed appointments (there was also a medical emergency which apparently slowed things a little).
All a striking contrast with the orderly vaccination process in Seaton hospital during the pandemic. The NHS obviously just doesn’t understand that 45 per cent of Seaton’s population are over 65 and therefore eligible. They’re trying to do vaccination on the cheap and they are not taking into account that people are rightly still very concerned about catching Covid.
Big step forward for Seaton Wetlands
Well done, Paul Arnott and EDDC, bringing a new area of marshes into the Wetlands.
www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/24625233.east-devon-acquires-land-seaton-wetlands-expansion/
Seaton Museum – Facebook and JustGiving pages launched, tributes to Ted planned
Seaton Museum now has a Facebook page and also a JustGiving page – the Museum needs your support and all donations will be gratefully received.
The AGM of the Axe Valley Heritage Association, which runs the Museum, is on 30 October at 2pm in the United Reformed Church, Cross Street. The Acting curator, Laura Hewitt, will give a report on the future of the museum and I will be giving a tribute to Ted.
Laura has asked me to edit the Museum’s Newsletter and the first issue will be on the Museum’s history, including a full tribute to Ted. I should be very grateful for any anecdotes or suggestions on points to include.
Hugo Swire, who sabotaged Seaton Hospital, uses new perch in Lords to promote community hospitals
Swire obviously thinks we have forgotten. He is the man who, having been MP for Seaton until boundaries changed in 2005, spoke in Parliament in 2016 to say that if beds were kept anywhere, it should be in Sidmouth – leading the CCG to switch Seaton’s beds, which they had originally planned to keep, to our neighbouring town. A key moment in the Seaton Hospital crisis, whose effects we are still dealing with today.
Richard Foord calls debate on trying Putin for aggression in Ukraine
Richard used his position as MP and Lib Dem spokesman to call a special parliamentary debate on the need for a special international tribunal to try Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression, which is a fundamental breach of the UN Charter. All the specific crimes that Russia has committed, and all the disruption to European and world stability that it has caused, come down to this basic crime.
It’s important that initiatives like this are made. You can watch Richard’s speech here.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 