The Bremen Bod Blog

Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis has the prospect of a nuclear war, seemed more likely. Yet, to look at our international peace movement today, you could be forgiven for being unaware of the fact that Putin’s botched invasion of Ukraine has now put us on a terrifying trajectory towards the deployment of nuclear warheads.  Indeed, quite a wee bit of effort is required to find any significant statement of solidarity with the Ukrainian people facing the very real possibility of a nuclear strike or any significant criticism of Russia on the official websites and social media accounts of a few prominent anti-war and anti-nuclear groups.    In fact, a quick scan of some major peace organisations media suggests that we are campaigning on, and talking about, pretty much everything, apart from the prospect of a nuclear strike from Russia. To paraphrase Topol from Fiddler on the Roof: You may ask; where are the mass demonstrations and huge peace marches through our major capital cities? Where

You may have seen the recent statement from a Church spokesperson urging Scottish Catholics to “examine their financial priorities,” noting our financial contributions to the church versus other expenditures, stating “If someone spends more on Netflix subscriptions each month than they donate to their community, then a financial reality check is probably in order”. Personally, I am not a huge fan of Netflix but I do enjoy Disney+ because it contains all the Star Wars movies and every single Star Wars TV series episode. Plus, I’ve always felt Star Wars has something interesting to say about faith and religion.   Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing worse than all those endless lame attempts to make the Star Wars franchise about Catholicism, as a way to make the faith seem cool and appealing to the kids. You know the type of thing; ‘Oh the Jedi knights are just like Franciscans’ or ‘In a way The Force is just like the Holy Spirit’, and so on.   Having said all that, I

‘So wickedly, so devilishly false  is that common objection: They are only poor because they are that idle’ John Wesley   Way back in 2007 I climbed Ben Nevis with my wife’s cousin Chris and her Uncle Samuel (our youngest son is also named Samuel) from South Shields and a great bunch of lads from Newcastle, who were raising money for a local charity.  It was wonderful day out and we had a brilliant laugh. I still recall some of the banter as we were half way up the mountain, with some other lads wearing Sunderland shirts, who appeared out the mist, on their way back down. It was all quite surreal! If you look at the photographs below, you’ll notice I’m the only person wearing actual hiking gear, the Geordie boys just rocked up in the morning wearing t-shirts, Newcastle shirts, shorts and trainers, to climb Brtian’s highest mountain...which still had snow on the summit at that time of the year. Regardless, they all still made it to the top with ease, despite absolutely canning it the ni

  “Society is a partnership of the dead, the living and the unborn.” ―  Edmund Burke   Friends, I’m briefly breaking my Lent social media fast to share the news that my Father has decided not to seek re-election after 15 years as a councillor for Gourock, many thanks to everyone who supported him and voted for him over the years. It goes without saying that the whole family are immensely proud of everything Dad has achieved in that time and also during the many decades beforehand, establishing and running Gourock YAC alongside my Uncle Brian Woods. It’s been a life of service and while Dad will be enjoying his well earned retirement, I’m sure there’s still much to come. My Dad was born just after the war and raised on Shore Street in a part of the town we like to call ‘Old Gourock’ or ‘Gourock Bay’. His own father, grandfather and numerous uncles all worked in Adams Boat Yard just along the road at Adams Street, as did many of their neighbours on Shore Street, a street of