s17/6/16: I walked home in the rain yesterday evening, after going to the Red Brick Building to see a local EU Referendum debate. It was good to see Theo Simon and Mike Hannis who were speaking on behalf of 'Remain', but I came away feeling quite depressed.

The EU is being characterised as a proto-fascist organisation that is responsible for everything from the war in Ukraine to the flood of migrants coming across the Mediterranean. The Leave campaign is deliberately stirring up fear and prejudice, about migrants in particular, and they might very well be successful.

I said nothing at the meeting – it would have just added to the intellectual sludge that was being generated. But after 30 years in Glastonbury I have seen the traditional community here deprived of its Borough Council, its small farming community, its 'real' High Street shops, and much else besides. All this has been blamed on the in-coming 'hippies' – and on occasions fear and prejudice have been stirred up in a similar way, on a local level.

I remember C.G.Jung writing about Nazism in Germany, in terms of it being the shadow side of the German psyche. I see the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S.A. and I wonder whether the same thing is happening there. And here, with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farrage, and the peculiar current of irrational distress that they are riding on, I now see that the same thing might be happening in this country.

This morning I feel a deep sadness coming up. I can identify it now. It is not just the human irrationality; nor the habitats directive, the birds directive, the water framework directive and all the rest that might well go as a result; it's the natural world that is tramped upon whilst these loud voices of fear and disgust hold sway and insist on being heard above all else. 

My connection with the river, as I sit on the bank and watch fish breaking the surface, listen to birds singing in the reed beds, and thank God for water that is still reasonably clean and fresh, is real. This morning I feel my direction is being confirmed. Over the past few days I have struggled considerably with my writing, but this morning I feel 'un-plugged' and I am glad after all that I went to the Red Brick Building and came away feeling depressed.

Where land has been flooded by the sea, the result is salt marsh; and salt marsh naturally slows down ingress from the sea, thereby preventing further flooding. A natural succession then follows, in which salt marsh gradually becomes freshwater marsh, and then freshwater marsh gradually becomes solid ground. When the Environment Agency set about creating the Steart Marshes, the project was put forward as an alternative to the 'build the levees higher' approach to flood prevention, as well as the creation of new wetland habitat:

'Saltmarsh absorbs wave energy, providing long term natural protection from erosion and new wetland habitats on a massive scale. The developing marsh, with shifting channels and creeks, also provides a vital refuge for wetland wildlife and is an important nursery for fish.'

I visited the Steart Marshes a couple of weeks ago, and I spent a lovely day walking beside the Parrett Estuary and seeing plenty of healthy birdlife that was clearly benefitting from the freshly created habitat. Where a breach has been cut through the sea defences, lagoons have been formed which have rapidly silted up and which have certainly become salt marsh habitat.

However the breach is on the landward side of the peninsula, and exactly how it is going to provide long term natural protection from erosion remains unclear to me. Meanwhile, the natural succession to freshwater marsh appears to be actively prevented by artificially keeping the salt marsh completely separate from nearby fresh water marshes.

Nevertheless it's an interesting experiment, and appears to make the best of the modern requirement that recipients of public money, including nature reserves, have to follow a pre-conceived design and then stay the way they have been designed. This isn't natural, but it is still worth a visit.

Last Friday I gave a talk at the Glastonbury Conservation Society, with the title 'The Brue Valley Since the Second World War': www.unique-publications.co.uk/the-brue-valley-since-ww2. It is since the second world war, and to a significant extent as a result of things that happened during the second world war, that conservation issues on the Somerset Levels have come to the fore.

I was nervous because I knew they were expecting a talk about walking along the river, or its redirection in the middle ages, but I'd decided to talk about its recent history – since the second world war, which is when the conservation issues come in. They are issues that are still live and haven't been resolved, mostly arising from the introduction of modern intensive farming methods; so it's the reduction in bird habitats and the pollution of the river by excessive nutrients from agricultural run-off, that kind of thing.

It went down really well, I think because I was able to give them information that they didn't have before. It was the smallest group I've spoken to, but they bought more books than any of the others. I was really pleased with the way I was received – and I'm happy to do more talks if anyone would like to invite me.