Well done to Rafa Nadal for winning his 21st title, The Australian Open. I have never been a fan of his, preferring Federer’s all court languid athleticism to Nadal’s brute force and power. You have to admire his tenacity and skill not to mention his determination to recover from his many injuries. Top sportspeople live in a rarified atmosphere focused on their purpose and winning. Yesterday I watched a documentary on the great Shane Warne, the greatest spinner I ever saw. Again not a my favourite but you can take nothing away from his skill and dedication to being the best. 

I have often speculated on what it must take to become the best in a sporting discipline? Apart form a huge amount of natural talent, it must take hours and hours of practice and a dedicated focus that most of us can never understand. The gap between a professional at the top of their chosen sport and us ordinary mortals is enormous, huge, massive! I freely admit that I am not and have never been even remotely good at any sport and certainly don’t have even an ounce of the dedication required to become that good. I play golf off of a high handicap and this is the only sport I play these days (the only one I’m capable of playing). Each week we speculate how we can improve and each week we do nothing about it. We all think we should play better than we do and yet get the same result every week, some better than others! You know what you should do and yet somehow you cannot communicate it to your physically on a consistent basis. Still a single good shot or a particularly good round keeps you returning and you repeat the over and over again. It’s not all about playing well, it’s being out it with your mates and just enjoying the game.

Stay well

I fear I have to revise my assessment of the Ukraine situation. I have this horrible feeling that Putin will give the go ahead to invade as swiftly and efficiently as possible. He knows that for all the posturing of the West they don’t have the will to get into a conflict with Russia? If he does we will moan and complain, throw up our hands in horror but apart from ineffective sanctions we will sit idly by and wring our hands. Now I am not advocating for a war with Russia or for one moment suggesting we start a conflict which nobody can win! Russia have all the cards and he knows he can play them. He is after something, what I don’t know but he see discord and unrest in Europe and knows this is his best chance of taking advantage of it.

Biden says a lot but he has no heart to really get his troops involved especially as Ukraine who are not actually a member of NATO. France is tied up in it’s election, Germany are basically pacifist a and want nothing to do with conflict. The rest of Europe have there own problems and have little or no interest in the events in Ukraine. As for Britain, tell me would you be worried about a country lead by you know who?

Russia wants to establish itself as a “power” again and have greater sphere of influence. I wonder if anyone has actually asked Putin what he wants and what he is afraid of? Maybe we would not get an answer but it’s worth a try? 

This threat is the sole reason that our energy bills are rising and a cynic would say that it gives those Oligarchs the opportunity to make more money. Putin postures and our gas bill goes up.

Putin and Russia may not really want a conflict any more than we do, his citizens are no more keen on bloodshed and loosing there loved ones than we are. He is pushing the boundaries in order to see the strength of will and appetite of the West to stop him? Trouble is, it does not take much to step over that line and if he thinks he can get the Ukraine with little resistance from the West, the temptation to do so may become too strong?

There will be bloodshed if he tries and the Ukraine will fight, it will be to our shame if we stand by a and let a sovereign nation be invaded but you can completely understand the reluctance to get involved militarily.

Stay well

 It is a sham and we are going to be conned once more as the report (which was always going to be held up) has now been compromised by the police. Don’t for one minute tell me this was not planned a diversionary tactic so as Boris can once again slide his way out of more scandal. You have to give it to him when it comes to surviving and refusing to resign this PM is second to none! The delay was inevitable no matter how much “evidence” was looked at or staff interviewed. It will be a whitewash assuming we ever get the full report published, which I sincerely doubt. The police investigation is merely to make sure Boris has little to take the blame for and will probably result in no charges being brought. The simple fact is that we pay his wages and he is the boss and like all bosses the responsibility is his. We all know it happened, we all know he is guilty of breaking his own rules, you don’t apologise for something that did not take place if you truly believe your not guilty. We are in the grip of a leader so out of touch, that he truly does not understand (never has) that the public largely do not trust him and want him gone. I do not know a single person who has any regard for him, thinks he has done a good job and isn’t crooked. 

There is little more to be said. It is a sad situation, that pandemic aside, our country has become a shadow of it’s former self!

These are my last words on the subject frankly I don’t care anymore, it’s become a joke and I need to just get on with life. Let them all rot they deserve it!

Stay well

 It comes as no surprise that the report into No 10 and it’s parties has been delayed and now it seems is being put on hold until a police investigation is completed. Would it be too cynical of me to suggest that this was planned? Even the inquiries smell of corruption and being fixed. We are all fools if we think Boris will be gone soon. He will eventually because like all false edifices, it will eventually come crumbling down around him and end in the ignominy it was always bound to do. As the senior Tories fight for their political lives, knowing that the end however soon is nigh, they come out with more and more ridiculous statements, in a vain attempt to stave off their demise and try to justify their actions. 

It is sad that our country (which was never as great as some would have you believe) has become a laughing stock. A visitor to our shores asked Wendy yesterday and I quote “what the hell has happened to your country?” A question we are all asking? We may not have been the beacon of fairness and hope but we were certainly a vastly better place than we have become under more than ten years of Tory government. I will not bang that drum any further today I am sure all of you who never read my scribbling will know my feelings? 

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 Vladimir Putin has always been a dangerous man. Having been head of the KGB and steeped in pre-independence Soviet culture, he mourns the loss of Russian influence and domination of the region. His annexing of the Crimea was just a prelude to see how far he can push the “west” and his build up of troops on the Ukrainian border more posturing to threaten the sovereignty of an country he considers to be to close to joining NATO. In many ways you can understand his fear that he would have western bases right on his border. Russia have in recent years done many things to de-stabilise the west and have launched a number of cyber attacks. Nobody knows how in other ways that are trying to undermine the fabric of western countries, who they still see as their enemy. Whether he goes a head with a full on invasion of Ukraine is debatable, he would be seen as “losing” face if he withdraws those troops but he may have made his point? Diplomacy seems to have fallen short and as usual al the normal posturing has been repeated. We threaten all sorts of action if he carries it any incursion and yet the truth is that the West has no appetite for a conflict and highly unlikely to mount any military response, if Putin does invade. The Ukraine will defend their country vigorously but the sheer might of the Russian military will overwhelm them. 

Each time we think the world is getting safer and less likely to enter into another conflict, somewhere, somebody, reminds all of us that peace is a fragile mistress and always likely to be diminished. Many conflicts and wars have been running for so long that they almost never get reported any more, Yemen, Syria, etc for a full list https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/?category=us&vm=grid It will shock you how much potential there is for unrest and violence in our world?

We think we live in a peaceful country and yet our current government is passing legislation that curbs our rights as though they are terrified that the population is on the verge of revolution! There must be so much legislation on our statute books that it is impossible whether you would know if you have  transgressed  against a specific rule. Not that our PM care a jot about such rules!

Stay well

There are those who for some unknown reason are starting to believe that the pandemic is over? Johnston lifting restrictions is just a popularised move to deflect from his obvious troubles. Cases may have dropped but not by much. Deaths are still being recorded at an alarming rate and more variants are on the way as this pathogen keeps replicating itself in order to survive. Did you know that so far 1 in 500 people in the UK have been recorded of dying from Covid. Think about that for a moment from a population of 67 million, 1 in 500 people? This virus is far from over and indeed probably never will be? If you think abandoning all precautions is okay then I am afraid you are sadly mistaken! Mask wearing maybe superfluous but I intend to keep mine on in indoor public spaces. 

It is probably a fact that those who have not been persuaded to have the vaccine will now not ever get it. So we go forward living with the consequences of muddled thinking and poor policies and little or no more thought of protection from this embittered government. 

The economy has always been prioritised over the health of the nation and only incontrovertible proof that we had to lock down stopped this government from letting us continue to act normally. Profit once again has trumped social issues and damn the consequences. Let me state clearly that this has little effect on me personally, I know longer work, have a pension and play golf twice most weeks, my welfare has not suffered. The injustice and appalling living standards that many in our country suffer has little to do with me but this does not mean my points are invalid. You may not agree with me, that is your right but I defy you to convince me we are not the right track and all will be well? Unless your living off the “grid” or care little for the state of our country, none of us can deny that the UK is in a sorry state and one that Brexit has only deepened? There are those who still espouse a bright future for Britain as they cling to their entrenched positions and I truly hope they are right but all evidence at this time points to the opposite. 

Stay well

 It has been evident for some time that “first’ pas the post elections are not working. No matter how many calls there are for a radical change to our voting system the “turkey’s” won’t vote for Xmas! If we continue the way we are now we will keep producing politicians of the calibre we have had for the last 20 years or more. Johnson was not an unknown, his obvious faults had been well documented, his behaviour and passing acquaintance with the truth a matter of public record. Yet the Tories chose to allow him to become an elected MP, subsequently Mayor of London and then not only an MP again but allowed and encouraged him to rise to the top office. No matter he had already been an awful Foreign Secretary. They knew how flawed he was but the culture in the Conservatives had allowed so many to be promoted way beyond their capabilities. The party had always had many eccentric and privileged MP’s who views were to say the least dodgy! Boris is not a new phenomenon, he has been around for a long time spreading lies and despair along the way. He may have been one of the architects of Brexit but long before he had spread rumours and outright lies about the EU. He revels in controversy, he enjoys being derided and a figure of divisiveness and as with all men who ego is completely out of control he care not at all what anyone thinks of him or who might be damaged by his behaviour. Unfortunately as PM, we are the victims! 

I have written many times that radical change is needed. If this is period of politics is not absolute proof of that then I don’t know what more we need to see! We cannot go on the way our system is now. Even if Boris goes who will replace him? Is there a single potential replacement, whom you would have any confidence in governing well? Personally I would not trust a single one of the supposed front runners to be the PM we really need and sadly there are very few high profile politicians on all sides who engender much hope of being the PM we need!

This is the state we find in our country of rising prices, shortages, underfunded and crumbling services, food banks, more poor than ever, children in poverty, broken roads, sky high petrol and rail prices and an energy rise that is crippling many. boasting on how well we have had a vaccine rollout and booster is not an excuse or success alongside the mismanagement and the death toll that the UK has suffered and is still suffering. If you have any confidence that our bunch of inept ministers and leaders can resolve all these difficulties then i must assume you believe in fairies and angels!

Stay well

 Two words from Susie today:

SPARPLE To deflect unwanted attention from one thing by making a big deal of another

PERINDINATE To mark time by continually putting something off until tomorrow

There are no longer words to describe the story that is emerging each day out of No 10. I know a lot of words and some real big ones but I have run out! I just don’t know how to write and further description of disgusting without a line of expletives. If you can come up with an explanation that bears some justification why any of the government should continue, I’d love to hear it? Each day as more emerges, I have taken to shaking my head, unable to express my disbelief!

No doubt Boris somehow will survive for the moment but not for much longer surely? There cannot be a single person who is not horrified by the level of wrongness? Unfortunately it overshadows all the political policies that he and his government should rightly resign for. Their governing of this country has been shameful and for far too long. They have to go and should Johnson be finally ousted we must have a general election to rid ourselves of this terrible lot and let the people have their say!

I really don’t want to continue to use my blog to write about Johnson everyday but what alternate is there at this moment?

And while we are at it what Putin is doing is far more dangerous and in many ways more important, let us not forget all the damage that is being done around the world while we are wrapped up in this home scandal!

Stay well

 I did not know they were the rules until somebody told me! Possibly the most pathetic inexcusable excuse ever uttered by any politician and there has been some doozies, not least by Bozo himself! I wrote yesterday that I am not often at a loss for words but when I saw his interview I could not bring myself to speak! I don’t now how ridiculous this has to get? Everyday this man drops himself deeper into the shit and somehow expects to stay in power! What really gets me is the poor sods who continue to defend him some genuinely believing that he is being unfairly targeted but most who do it simply because that have been told to or feel they have to. How can he be defended? Everyone who attended should also resign but ultimately it is and was his responsibility that the way things work when your the  “big dog”! The world must be laughing at us wondering how a man so unsuited to be PM hoodwinked the country into voting him in. If nothing else, Boris has got to be one of the greatest con artist ever on the political scene. What sheep, we are to be so taken in by this fool and the worst of it all is it has made us all look foolish. 

Be careful what you wish for has never been so prescient!

I have tried to be polite, I have tried to be “fair” but as someone just wrote, if he thought it was a party he is a liar, if he didn’t not he is an idiot! It is simple he has to fuck off and it would be good if the rest of his appalling cabinet fucked off with him!

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This is just ridiculous. It’s been days since Boris was outed having attended these parties and yet smokescreen after smokescreen has been blown across the news in a desperate attempt to deflect from his guilt. It was obvious he would never do the decent thing and resign and why anyone thought he would is baffling. You only have to look at the history of the man to understand he would never go willingly, unless, as when he resigned from being Foreign Secretary it was a tactic on his path to become PM. Well now he is and a piss poor job he’s made of it with the exception of delivering an election result. Which frankly with Corbyn as the Labour leader any half decent Tory leader could have done. If we are in the cult of “personality” politics then, we are seriously in big big trouble. Having a personality, no matter how quirky, is no substitute for actually being able to govern! Eccentricity is a British tradition but it is no criteria for being the PM. 

I don’t know about you but ever since he has been in power I have felt nothing but anger and contempt for this man and without exception all those he has appointed. I struggle to understand anyone who supported him, still does or thought for one second he would be a good leader. I am not naive, I am well aware that vested interests are keen for him to be in charge for reasons that have become blindingly obvious since his election victory! 

Is this the country you want to live in? Rising prices, social services failing at every turn, division and disillusionment everywhere and an NHS, pandemic aside, that was underfunded, understaffed and at breaking point anyway? It is hard not to see a bleak future since the double whammy of Brexit, a Conservative Government and a pandemic. Two of which we could have avoided and a third which has been mismanaged by the very people who should be guiding us! Okay the Virus was an unknown and it’s devastation almost impossible to predict or stop but there is no doubt that in this country those in power are culpable of gross mismanagement. 

If proven lying and corruption are okay with you, if breaking their own Covid protocol is unimportant or your fine with mismanagement of the worse kind, underinvestment, contradiction, constant apologies and so much more that could be listed, then you probably won’t mind or even care if Johnson remains. If that is your attitude I don’t want to hear one word of complaint as more and more of your rights  are eroded and the country goes further down the tubes!

I sincerely hope that my ranting on this will come to an end (fat chance!) but it won’t be soon that’s for sure!

Stay well

I have just listened to the “I have a dream “ speech from Martin Luther King. I urge you to listen to it without being emotionally moved. A speech that was made in the sixties and still resonates today almost 60 years later. The equality he dreamed of has still not come to pass, better yes but still not a fulfilled dream.

Yesterday there were protests up and down the country against the proposed bill limiting the ability to do so. Once again I warn you that our basic rights and freedoms are being taken away! You can be arrested and sentenced to prison for even appearing to be causing a public nuisance! If you wonder why this matters, then I feel sorry for you. You may never think of joining a protest but you never know what the future holds or how strongly you might feel about something. Imagine your disappointment when you realise you cannot demonstrate your protest against that one thing because you could be breaking the law! Let me be clear, you can be arrested for even “thinking” of protesting if it is deemed to be a public nuisance. If you think you live in a free democracy, think again!

The elitists privileged few are so out of touch with the public it is frightening. I am sure Boris is wandering around No 10 asking everyone why he has to apologise, unable to understand the furore surrounding him or that he has done anything wrong. He just does not get or why any rules he might impose should apply to him. He simply believes he is above all these things and can do whatever he likes without any need to explain or apologise. I suggest he was almost forced to do so, probably blathering about how he had not done anything wrong and why should he take the blame? Boris is the ultimate example of how privileged behaviour corrupts any sense of of right or wrong. He will never go willingly because he does not acknowledge his mistakes. We are living in a time of the ignorant privileged fools, running the asylum and unless we do something radical about it we are all going to be worse off than we are now!

Stay well

How many parties need to be reported before this entire bunch of tossers are thrown out of office? This was already a serious breech of Covid rules and now as each day goes past more and more is revealed about the blatant ignoring of any restrictions by the very people who imposed them. There have been many reasons why this government should resign which in my view are more serious than “partygate” their policies and corruption should have brought Boris down already but if this is what does it great! How much more are we prepared to take? Wendy has encounter a few people who still maintain Boris is doing a good job! Where are they getting their news from? He has been a lying, corrupt Prime minister from the very beginning and any other politician would have long ago resigned over the many  issues that he has been involved in, all of which have proved that he is and has always been unfit for any office or even being an MP! This applies to many of the Conservative party but he is chief and the buck stops with him. I am no supporter of the privileged Royal family but even my cynical heart was moved by seeing the Queen siting alone at her husbands funeral, as so many have had to do. The callous behaviour of Boris and his staff is beyond belief and not only should he go but every single attendee should also offer their collective resignation. 

The public will only take so much and our threshold was reached some time ago, this is insult to far and if he saves himself and the party allow it this government will have lost the tiny shred of trust that anyone had in them. The pathetic excuses so many of his party have given to try and justify his actions are only adding fuel to an already out of control fire! Those Tories who have condemned him know that he is finished and are whilst a few are genuinely horrified by him they are just distancing themselves from the shit storm! 

My wife cannot visit her mother, in her care home and there have been numerous occasions when they have been in lockdown, while those bastards partied at their “work meetings”!!!

Surely he cannot survive and yet, yet, tell me you would not be surprised! If he does survive there is no hope, not Bob Hope, in fact fuck all hope!!!!!!

Stay well

 We are not surprised are we? We knew it would all end in scandal and controversy? It would certainly never end well! I am laughing and appalled all at the same time. Even if the “party” was a “business meeting” even if the PM was unaware of the event (ha ha ha ha) the buck stops with Johnson, plain and simple. Many have already written about this far better than I can and there is not much more I can add. I told you so is not really enough. One thing we seem not to understand is how badly this reflects on all those who voted for this clowns party, you put him there and you should all be ashamed! 

Of course this man won’t resign he’ll have to be pushed. His whole rotten cabinet should go and whatever happens after happens. The pathetic defence of his actions by those around him is more damning than helpful. The public are not stupid. Have as many inquiries as you like we all know the facts they are indisputable. 

I look forward to only ever mentioning Boris as a figure from the past!

Stay well

I’ve been banging on about him for years and dare one say “I told you so” Surely this is the final nail and he has to resign? Please write to your MP, whether he or she is a Conservative or not and state clearly that he must resign. Thank you.

Stay well

 I was not going to write today but golf was cancelled due to rain. Now how about that for privileged start?

I not sure what there is left to say about Boris? We keep saying he has to go and yet he is still there. Each week he seems to be embroiled in yet more sleaze or rule breaking! It appears that no matter the torrent of calls for him to resign he won’t leave until he is pushed. The Tories are uncertain whether to push him, though the tide does seem to be  turning against him. From what we, the public, know of the man, he was always a car crash waiting to happen. It’s no surprise that he has survived so far, he is Teflon coated but the non-stick surface is peeling away and I confidently predict by the end of this year he’ll be gone.

It’s miserable out there at present both in terms of the weather and the mood of the country. The British can tolerate a lot but I think we have reached a point when our tolerance is at an end and we all know things must change. Brexit has been a disaster and almost three years of a pandemic has taken it’s toll on all of us. I wrote yesterday that none of this really matters and humans are just a blip on the evolutionary history of the Earth but as we are here now it would be nice to have some peace? I am not depressed or even unhappy but there must be many whose equilibrium is not so well balanced and many who have slid into depression, with I suspect, little help to turn to? There is little to cheer us at the moment and even those events which we try to look forward to have the spectre of Covid hanging over them and plans may still have to be changed.  I can offer this somewhat desultory advice, having lived a long time I can bear witness that this to will pass. All things must, as George Harrison once sang!

Stay well

 The other tennis players should actually hope that Novak is actually stuck in Australia to give them a better chance of winning other tournaments this year! What a lot of fuss of nothing, he’s a fucking tennis player! It might have been more of a story if they had highlighted the conditions people are held in if their entry to the country is held up! 

Do you fell powerless? As though nothing you say or do makes any difference and in spite of the majority of people in this world, just wanting a peaceful life, it all seems to be pointless? Well indeed that is the point! There is no point and the sooner you accept that the easier it will be. There is no God, no higher power, no to other place you go to after death. All these religions and spiritual beliefs, might help but they are of no use. We are made of energy and back into the cosmos we go when our time is up. Time itself does not exist and is a man made concept in order to mark the seasons and the weeks. If all this sounds depressing, I assure it is not meant to be, just a frank view of reality. Humans are meaningless pests who are destroying their own habitat as they were bound to do. Our bloated self-importance and desire to believe we are the ultimate evolution is misguided hubris and like dinosaurs we will become nothing but a footnote in Earths history. So enjoy your time and forget about all the other stuff because you never can and never will affect anything. 

Stay well

 Tony Blair, love him or hate him, whether he is knighted or not is hardly important in the great scheme of things, happening at present. I really could not care less, it’s an antiquated title that has little meaning. An honour for a man many believe is a war criminal is hardly going to change your opinion of him. Personally, I am not a fan and he did take our troops needlessly into a conflict under false pretences. The protest is being used to highlight the ongoing assertion of his “crime” and whilst what he did is by no means trivial and caused the loss, unnecessarily of our soldiers lives, since he left office we have had two PM’s who in many ways have damaged our country even more and one who has presided over more deaths than any PM since WW2! 

We are own our own as this PM and his government throw up there hands and fully place the burden of this pandemic on the public shoulders? We have all been responsible from the beginning and our behaviour in many cases has been reprehensible and simply so cavalier that it is no wonder the virus has taken hold in such numbers. Never the less it is a governments duty to govern a country in a sensible measure way in order to protect it’s citizens lives and apart from some financial support this government has taken credit and have not done any of the actual tasks that has been left to those who actually do the jobs! They pontificate at podiums, in speeches and in Parliament but in reality we have been supported by “front line” workers and ourselves.  We now know exactly where we stand and as always it is up to us to manage!

Stay well

 Lie after lie, corruption after corruption, battered from all sides and with support dwindling it’s time I stopped writing this blog and was voted in as the new PM! I claim no understanding of the inner workings of government, so I should be perfect for the job. I am old and out of touch, so from a leaders perspective I am just right! I very adept at wasting money, though I am not to good at fathering children as I had the snip many years ago!  Unfortunately my hairstyle can only be best described as “thinning” but when I remove my hat it does look messy! I have perfected a bumbling sort of matey style, which should go down well with those who think my personality should be the sole reason for supporting me? I am excellent at getting things wrong and my wife will tell you I have selective hearing, which is a real necessity in a top job like PM! I have had all my vaccinations, so I can stand at the podium and spout a holier than you litany of meaningless phrases to try and encourage our nation to have theirs? I often forget what I was going to say and have difficulty remembering some peoples names. I can support many things that I don’t believe in, as long as it allows me to remain in my post! I can look you in the eye and state quite clearly that I did not say something which you have me on record clearly stating and I am fluent in bullshit, nonsense and deception! Indeed I am so well qualified for the top job it is a wonder I have not been plucked from obscurity to serve? I think my finest virtue is my ignorance and snobbery and a particular ability to have no idea how most people go about their daily lives, after all why should I have any regard for the plebes who mostly inhabit this great country of ours? When it comes to flag waving patriotic fist pumping rhetoric, there is no one more qualified to lead the cheering for the UK. After all we have so much to be grateful for, food banks, our homeless, veterans, the cost of living, our ruined NHS and so much more that I could go on about all day and as for Johnny Foreigner, well we don’t need them until of course someone points out we do and then I will welcome them with open arms! So you can see I am absolutely right for the job and expecting a call any day now to replace the current incumbent, whose forthright upstanding moral leadership is can longer be tolerated and is putting the great back into Great Britain far to quickly!

On a lighter note two words from Susie Dent 

QUIDLING (18th century) Paying attention to trivial matters in order to address the important ones!

BAMBLUSTRATE (19th century)to try to deceive or mislead a blend of bamboozle and bluster!

Stay well 

I find it very amusing all this fuss over a tennis player, albeit one of Djokovic standing. he has not said whether he is vaccinated but it is obvious that he is not, otherwise he would say so and all would be well? My bigger point is why do we care? Yes it’s news and yes he is a famous sportsman but really whether he is let in or not (and he should not be under the Australia rules) is of no importance, other to highlight the stupidity on the divide between those who are vaccinated and those who are not! If he chooses not to be vaccinated, his right, then he cannot expect to be let into territory where the rules clearly want proof you are. Frankly a “medical exemption” is pathetic and the fact that they won’t reveal the basis of it, dodgy at best! 

The controversy, between those who are vaccinated and those who are not, taking the medical reasons out of the equation, is further evidence of how easily it is to divide people and condemn those who do not “comply” with all the advice. I have made it clear that I am a strong supporter of being vaccinated but it goes against my liberal nature to impose it or make it mandatory. I would use persuasion and logic to try and persuade those who oppose it and if unable to do so would accept my premise was nor persuasive enough. I get annoyed when in a supermarket, I note that some staff are wearing mask and others are not. I have stop short of asking and it would only be a polite inquiry to satisfy my curiosity? I do not like wearing a mask, I cannot think of a single person who would but I do it out of respect for others and to protect myself. I would be the first to admit I have doubts about the effectiveness of mask wearing, I guess we all do. The mask manufacturers are having a profitable time! 

So whatever your belief is, vaccinated, unvaccinated, we must have respect for each other’s views and for keeping each other safe. Naturally there will are those, who are strongly opposed and very vocal about being anti-vax even violent, there is no such response from those who are vaccinated and that kind of sums up the world today!

Stay well

Todays word from Susie Dent: CURFUGGLE A total mess or state of utter disarray!

I watched PMQ’s yesterday with Labours Deputy Leader Angela Raynor asking the questions, she did a good job. Even without any reference, I knew when the PM was lying, which during his answer he did at least 5 or 6 times culminating in denying he said something of which there is video evidence of him categorically stating! The speaker does not challenge him and nor, it seems, does anyone in Parliament. I know you are not supposed to accuse another MP of lying in the House of Commons but surely the Labour Party should be shouting it from the rooftops and continually pointing out every lie he utters, which is every time he opens his mouth! It is unbelievable that we have a Prime minister who blatantly and constantly denies what he has said in the past or just tells another bare faced lie in full view of the whole nation and he continually gets away with it! Yesterday he claimed that £140 per week was given to those less well off, he said it more than once in his replies, it is per month and that is just one example! We have MP’s and ministers who are suspended or resign because of their poor behaviour and yet Boris is never sanctioned and seems to get away with every investigation or inquiry? It is left to a litany of Twitter, Instagram and FB posts to hold him to account and as powerful as they can be they will never topple this megalomaniac maniac from power! We should collectively be ashamed that so many fell under the spell of this man’s rhetoric. 

I know longer trust a single party or politician, sure there are some MP’s who are doing their best to act what they were elected to but far to many on both sides are happy to ride the gravy train or use their position for unbridled ambition or filling their pockets with extra cash. This is where our political system has brought us and even without the added pressure of an unforeseen (was it!) pandemic it is no longer fit for purpose and needs radical overhauling. We need a different way of voting, more young people and definitely more women in power (although there are some awful examples already there!) A cross party coalition may seem a pathetic compromise but it just might stop the rampant rush to the right that this Conservative party is aiming for.

I don’t claim to know the answer, I have been watching and writing about politics for a very long time and I’m buggered if I know the answer or am any the wiser than I ever have been but I am convinced if we continue to do the same things, we as always, will get the same yo yo results!

Perhaps we should not care anymore and just do our best to look after ourselves and those closest to us Perhaps we have reached a point in history when apathy is the real cause of our demise, I for one have no answers only questions!

Stay well

 This is a subject I have written about previously but I despair sometimes at the state of our populations dress sense or lack of it. I know we have become more casual but there seems to be a complete inability to understand how to dress with any style or pride? I am not suggesting we return to more formal wear but the average Britain seems unable to put a outfit together. We are not all able to afford expensive clothes but that is no excuse for the unmade bed and slovenly appearance of most of the people I see either have no personal pride or a mirror!

And while I am on the subject and sounding like the old foggie, that I am, I like a tasteful tattoo as well as the next person but this obsession with covering yourself, arms, necks and especially legs has gone too far and for me is deeply unattractive. I have considered getting a small tasteful one, so I have no objection to tattoos in general but in moderation. 

Style is a very personal thing and having grown up through the 60’s and once considered myself a “mod” though it morphed into a sort hybrid mod hippy as the 70’s arrived, I like to think I have some idea how to put an outfit together and try to look well dressed. I do not own a any kind of leisure suit and would never go out in public in one if I did. I freely admit that I am a snob but then that was self evident!

Perhaps if we took more pride in the way we present ourselves, then our society might just be a little better. When the man at the top looks like he has no idea how to dress himself and often looks dishevelled, then what example is that to the country? This may seem trivial or even cruel but a little smartness of at least co-ordinated style is not too much to ask is it?

Stay well 

 As we roll gently into 2022 I ask this simple question. What will you do this year to improve someone’s life? We know all our lives would be improved by Boris stepping down and leaving the political life but what can we do as individuals. We all know that a reversal of the idiocy of Brexit might be an improvement (though that ship has sailed) but can we help another and make their life better? There is a wonderful feeling of happiness that comes over you when giving to another. Of course that is not the reason to do it but it is a bonus. I have taken to giving money to the homeless or as I did the other day a veteran, something in the past I would never do, thinking we were being conned or it was undignified to beg in the street. The state of our country has changed my mind, there are more people than ever in need  and we must do what we can to help. This is a very personal action and it is your choice. I am not rich or wealthy but I am far better off than those who are struggling to live above the poverty line. If we cannot help those who are worse off then what is the point? It maybe a couple of coins or a fiver but it can make a difference to whether someone eats that day. Yes there is always the danger that it will be spent on drugs but having briefly volunteered in a homeless shelter, I can tell you the vast majority of homeless were just one pay check away from losing it all or had abusive parents and could no longer stay at home, they just want to live like everyone else. When your at rock bottom, help is needed.

It is a cliche but even a little helps. So I urge you this year don't pass by that person on the street who needs help, if you can spare it give them some change, even a hot coffee is a bonus.

We live in a country that has always had a generosity of spirit and accepted people from all over the world, we may have lost a little of it but if we all try it might just make us all better!

Stay well

If as he claims (ho ho ho) Prince Andrew is innocent of any wrong doing, why does he not go to court and clear his name? By all accounts he is a nasty perverted man and there are many who have said so. The longer he tries to delay the more guilty he looks (personally I have no doubt he is!) If he is innocent then a court ruling would exonerate him and it would all be over?

The governments immigration policy (utterly misguided in the first place) is in tatters as that have slowly realised that without overseas workers there are many jobs they just can’t be fulfilled or get done! So they relax the rules and try to entice people to come over. Maybe some will but tell me would you come to a country that previously stopped you based on stupid criteria? Britain is hardly a place where many of it’s own population wants to live anymore, so why would you want to come here voluntarily? Yet another consequence of Brexit which has like so much else, backfired and made our country poorer!

Changing the subject completely, VAR in football. Good? Bad? Personally no matter how much technology you have there is one common denominator that governs it’s use, human beings. Some of the decisions made by VAR have been riddled with inconsistencies but this is a consequence of the person looking at the footage. Football is always going to have contentious decisions, it’s part of what makes it exciting. VAR will get it wrong just like the on field referee does. It is still only the second season with it and like many last year I was highly critical of it but it is slowly beginning to get it right, so let’s see how it progresses. The players, managers and pundits complain about consistency or the lack of it but in football it has always been so and whilst controlled by people will always be so!

Stay well

 As we move into 2022 we all wan to believe that this new year will be better than the last. We want the pandemic to end and to return what think of as our cherished “normality”? I would like to tell you that it will end and that normal service will resume but simply put it won’t! The population of the world needs to be vaccinated in every place and in every country. We need to close down completely and do nothing for at least two months. Isolation is the only way to minimise the effects of this virus. It is the only practical way to get a grip on the numbers of infections and the needless deaths. It won’t happen and it can’t happen but there is no alternative solution that can give us some measure of control. The UK would go mad if such a thing was even discussed let alone implemented! So if we are going to continue the way we are then exactly what is happening will continue to happen. Inoculation is all very well but is not total protection and who knows (I’m sure someone could tell us) when herd immunity will kick in? Our population is going to continue to be infected in large numbers and there will be many who will die. Our NHS, already working beyond it’s limits will be put under further strain and may collapse. It is no good appealing to people, from the the evidence I have witnessed locally there are always those who will continue to risk their and others health by congregating. The “it won’t happen to me” attitude will prevail and the virus will spread. It is a wonder we have not all had it, maybe some of us have and not even noticed? 

I apologise if the stark picture I paint is depressing but this is the reality as I see it and as this is my blog I can write whatever I like!

Happy new year

A word to finish on a happy note from Susie Dent RESPAIR (16th century) Fresh hope and a recovery from despair 

Stay well