Once again our nasty mean horrible little country shows it true colours as the government can’t relax rules to let war torn citizens into our country Without the rigorous application for Visa’s. All the rhetoric and words of support are meaningless, as usual we won’t put our money where our mouths are, when it comes to actual humanity! As for Liz Truss posing in front of the two flags, this pompous bitch should be dropped into Ukraine without food or water and told to find her own way home or perhaps she can negotiate her way out! Priti needs to go with her so as they can witness what true feminine bravery is. 

We sit in our respective homes, feeling helpless, as we watch, what none of us thought could ever happen again, an aggressor invading a sovereign nation, in Europe, for no other reason than they want to dominate and rule it. It is obvious that Putin has lost the plot and one can only hope that his nation rises up and throws him to the wolves? 

I will help if I can.

We have one leader who was a comedian, acting like a true statesman and refusing to leave his post and we have another who thinks he is the reincarnation of Churchill but is  just a comedic figure of no consequence.

I am generally disgusted with the members of our government, I have made that very clear in many of my posts but they make me ashamed to be British. I understand the reluctance to lend military support and indeed who would want any troops fighting the Russians of foreign soil but if all they are going to do is stand by and watch then we collectively must hit Putin with every method we have at our disposal. All Russians should be sent out of the country regardless of their status or standing, unless they are prepared to stand up and condemn Putin and even then if the have even the slightest link they should be thrown out. Every asset, every penny of Russian money should be seized and given to the effort to support Ukraine. All Russian registered ships and property should be seized and any event, team, sport, entertainment and any other Russian linked activity stopped banned and the participants deported. Russia must become the pariah that it obviously is and be cut off from any interactions with as many countries as possible. The Russians must not have access to anything if it can be stopped. Putin has shown himself to be the dictator we all knew he was and whilst very little seems to deter him, we must squeeze and bleed him dry! This is not the Russian peoples fault but unfortunately they will have to suffer the consequences of a leader who is hellbent on conflict. 

I can only hope that some sense prevails and the Russian soldiers rebel and the people rise up. It will be brutal but eventually it is the only way to stop this madness.

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 There are no words and yet millions will be Tweeted, Facebooked and spouted on every social platform going. There is nothing anyone can say. Condemnation is not enough, 30 years of seething resentment of the fall of the Soviet Union has spilled out of a bitter tyrant and the world watches and can do nothing to stop him short of world war 3. We have been through enough in the last years and now this and it could not be more depressing! We thought this kind of thing could not happen, how wrong we were! 

As with everyone my thoughts are with the people of the Ukraine. They are the ones who will now suffer and for what, nothing, the unbridled aggression of the Russian elite.

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So he’s done it! I hoped he would not and even wrote that I thought it was unlikely but what the hell do I know? This is not the first time since WW2 there has been fighting in Europe and indeed the Ukraine and Russia had not ceased hostilities since the occupation of the Crimea. All the posturing by the West up until now has been ineffective and Putin could care less. He has his own agenda and whether we sanction or not it won’t affect him. He sees the encroachment of NATO as a threat to his country and as a leader steeped in the historical dominance of the former Soviet Union, wants to take back as much territory as he can get away with and damn the consequences or the condemnation of other nations. He knows our reluctance to be drawn into any form of military conflict and as the Ukraine is not a member of NATO we have the perfect excuse to stand on the sidelines and shout about what a bully he is! If he threatens a country that is a member, do we really have the appetite for conflict and the huge consequences that could bring? I seriously doubt it and I think Putin does too?  He knows that China could care less what happens in Europe and unlikely to condemn or interfere.

We will stand by and scream and shout how we are horrified by these actions but nothing will be done and no doubt he will overrun the country and take it under Russian control. By the time it is finished it will be too late and he will have achieved his objective. Years will go by and successive governments will accept that Russia now controls the Ukraine and eventually sanctions will lift and the whole thing will be forgotten. It is a pattern we have seen many times before and it will repeat. Have we continued to condemn or force sanctions on Russia after Putin annexed the Crimea? 

The only thing that will stop this is if Putin dies and a more moderate leader emerges but that is highly unlikely he looks a lot healthier than our lot.

The West are posturing fools who are no longer prepared to fight or do anything to really significant to halt Putin. Let me state quit clearly I am not advocating sending troops to fight Russia indeed it would be abhorrent. We do not have that stomach for it and thats fine. We poked the bear and the bear kept coming.

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 Welcome to 2022! If you thought we might have some respite this year and things would calm down, well think again! If anything things could not be worse and that is a pretty low bar to begin with. I struggle to read the news, it is far to depressing. I’ve said all I can about Boris and his ministers, I have run out of descriptive verbs and could only write a long line of expletives followed by hundreds of exclamation marks! 

I think we have to get with our insignificant lives and do the best we can for ourselves and those we can help if possible. Frankly nothing we do or say has any effect on this regime and whilst we should not stop trying, you do feel as though your banging your head against a brick wall? 

As for the lifting of restrictions, my gast is flabbered! It must be obvious to everyone that we have not “beaten” Covid and we never will. I am not suggesting we stay under strict rules forever but is this really the time to relax them so completely? 

I finally was in the zoom audience for The Great Debate on Monday and I can tell you it was a dull experience. you are muted unless you have been pre-selected to ask a question or tell your “story”. I lasted until the second break and gave up. The discussion itself was dull and lacking in any passion.

I hope for better times to come but it’s not looking likely at present!

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 Two words from Susie today:

SUPERCILIAN: (17th century) A contemptuous/ supercilious individual who considers most people beneath them From the Latin for “raised eyebrow”

SNOODGING: Nestling snugly and hunkering down for the day!

As we move on and Boris portrays himself once more as the man of the people, it seems that no matter what he does he will not resign and no one is going to force him out? It is a very depressing state of affairs when we have a PM who is so unfit for office and yet there is seemingly little we can do? It is true I would be against him even if he had behaved properly but dare one say that I, among many, warned that this is what he would be like and of course the electorate did not listen and were fooled! Before the last election I put my money where my mouth was and went out on the street, encouraging people not to vote for him and his party. It is the first time I had ever done so and a measure of how strong my dislike is. I make no secret of my hatred of this government and I use that word in it’s true meaning but tell me I am wrong to say so? It is easy to say how our country is falling apart after Brexit and this continuing pandemic bad whilst no government is wholly responsible for every bad thing that happens, this one is more culpable than any previous one! I am at a loss to know what to say anymore as Boris rolls on looking every inch the disheveled bumbling leader that he has always been. And if it’s not to paradoxical he is also obviously clever and manipulative and definitely a sociopath! 

I am in despair and get angrier every day that he remains in power. You must make up your own mind but I am clear he is and will remain a blight on this nation and he has to go!

Stay well

So Boris is bouncing around Europe trying to act like a statesman in the very place that 5 years ago he told us we should leave and strike out on our own. A more hypocritical posture you cannot imagine, EU leaders must be laughing up their collective sleeves, watching this blond idiot strut and posture about peace and Russian incursion of Ukraine. Putin must be shaking in his boots! 

I reiterate, in my opinion, I don’t think Putin will invade. He is playing games and pushing the West whose rhetoric has only made the situation worse. He cannot afford a protracted occupation of the Ukraine. It is, after Russia, the second biggest country in the region, this is not a small territory and would be extremely difficult to police, engendering a conflict that would last for years. I don’t understand the aggressive warnings that the Biden and others are spouting, if the situation is as dangerous as they claim than surely more temperate language is needed? Putin is having his moment in world events and milking it for all he can. He wants the West to take him seriously but also understand his fear of NATO getting closer to his borders, although there was no impending likelihood of the Ukraine becoming a member. Ironically his tactics have actually woken up NATO and brought the members closer than they have been for some time, after Trump’s undermining of there purpose and funding. Putin has tried to split them but it has backfired? Do not misunderstand me, Russian aggression is dangerous and provocative and should be met with a a firm response. In the UK we could start with unraveling all the Russian ties in business and with the Conservatives in particular. Money talks and as there were many Oligarchs who had billions of it, we gleefully accepted their cash. 

The public will never know or get the truth. No matter how good the reporting might be, we will never understand what goes on behind closed doors but you can bet that it will not be good news for us. Deals are being made, as they always have been, in secret and we have little say in our future. Like I have said money talks and it always shouts loudest!

Stay well

We have been watching the Figure Skating at the Olympics. The scoring system is slightly confusing and whilst I am no expert, seems a little biased to me. Having said that the athleticism and artistic interpretation is breathtaking. Flying around the ice and then taking off in the various jumps shows a level of skill and courage that only constant training can give you. I suggested to Wendy at our advanced age we should take up ice dancing, she gave me one of those looks, only she can summon and suggested just learning to skate would be unlikely! I have only been on ice skates maybe once or twice and have no memory of my performance but I would imagine it was very bad! 

The training and dedication that must go into becoming that good is astonishing. We watched a documentary on BBC3 called Freeze which portrays the British skaters who aspire to the Elite squad. They are young, dedicated, enthusiastic, committed but from what we saw a million miles off the level that we have just watched competing at the Olympics, even the lower ranked skaters. We have a male figure skater our UK Champion, who does compete at the World level but since Covid seems unable to complete a Triple Sulko and therefore will never get a decent mark. It isn’t that he cant do it he just cant land it and it was painful watching as he constantly hit the ice. Before anyone says so I am aware that we have an Ice Dance couple who are in the top 10 to 15 in the world.

There is some controversy over teenage girls competing and the way they are treated and then discarded, specifically by the Russians. Apparently teenage girls being smaller and with narrower hips are more able to produced quad jumps, which the more “mature” women are not quite so able to do? To clarify quad jumps have a higher tariff and therefore you score is higher. This takes nothing away from their skill and indeed these girls are brilliant skaters.

There is nothing else we watch in the Winter Olympics, frankly the rest of it is of no interest and to my eyes boring but thats just my opinion and no reflection on the competitors skill.

Stay well

I think if Putin was going to invade, he would have done it by now? He has flexed his muscles in order to test the West and got the reaction he was looking for, that in reality there is little they can do except posture and issue pointless weak warnings that will have little or no effect. Does he really want to enter a conflict of his own making with an invasion which would be resisted by the Ukraine, unwelcome by his own people and even if he won quickly would continue as a conflict for many years to come. He has made his point which is to threaten his neighbour about joining NATO and NATO about accepting them. If you were Putin would you want a NATO allies on you border and it is a very large border!

Johnson swans around making out he is this important international leader, when in fact we all know, as does the rest of the world, that he is an joke, with all the importance of a wet paper bag! He is a joke at home and and an even bigger one abroad. I urge you to watch John Bercow assessment of him on Sky’s The Great Debate. I could not have put it better myself. I should have been on that programme but was unable to take part as a member of the Zoom audience. 

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Today I am going to avoid writing about  you know who and try to write about something else.

I am a West Ham fan, have been since I was a kid, I am also a cat lover and have had cats for all of my 42 years of married life. We have two now and although they, like all cats, can be a pain in the arse, we love them. What  Kurt Zouma did is unforgivable and as far as I am concerned he should never play for the club again, no matter how much he has been fined or how good a player he is. The fact that he did what he did is bad enough but to then think it was fun to post it was just madness! There is enough animal cruelty going on, you only have to watch the constant adverts on TV. I’m afraid West Ham have seriously misjudged the mood of the public on this one and probably their own supporters. We are a nation of animal lovers and whilst we have some hypocritical anomalies, we do react well to animals being mistreated! I hope they see sense and terminate his contract, two weeks wages are nothing to a highly paid premier league footballer. Let’s hope charges are brought against him?

I am surprised that enough momentum has not been gathering, by the losing but still very large proportion of voters who were not in favour of exiting the EU, to drum up support for our eventual re-entry? There is no doubt that this was a huge mistake and whatever you think of the EU we were always better within than without. So why are we not campaigning to reverse this stupid decision and start to point out the benefits of rejoining sometime in the future as inevitably we will have to? If you know of any real benefit we have gained from leaving then please let me know because I don’t know of any? We have lost our way and now we are languishing on the periphery of international events, still believing we have influence and that others still listen to what we have to say! Other countries pay lip service to our efforts because naturally they want to continue importing to us or garner support from us. We are a collective bunch of fools lead by idiots and liars!

Stay well

 Two words from Susie Dent:

IQUINATION: The action of polluting, defiling or corrupting

ARSLE: To find yourself going backwards in a task rather then making any progress

Perhaps it’s just me but has the constant pointing out of Russia’s intent to invade the Ukraine, started to sound like they are taunting Putin to do so? All the posturing and threat of sanctions by the West as the apparent keepers of the peace, looks like they are goading him into invading? Not for one moment do I think that NATO would fight Russian troops if the invasion went ahead and frankly for all the talk, there is little we can do to stop him. We never hear the view from the Russian’s without it being couched in terms as the West interprets it. Why is the West always right and Russia always wrong. Ukraine is a sovereign independent democratic country and of course Putin should not invade but this does not mean we are always in the right and they are always in the wrong! Having said that with all the things Russia has been responsible for in the last decade they are definitely not to be trusted.

A question?  How would you feel if Liz Truss turned up and you were told she is the Foreign Secretary of the UK? No wonder we have become an international joke. It’s bad enough that Boris is whipping round Europe but bloody hell, what are we doing? We used to be a bastion of diplomatic strength, even if we cocked stuff up all the time, now we are just a bunch of clowns!

Do you think Boris will wonder whether to answer the Met. Polices questionnaire with either “I got Brexit done” or “Fastest vaccine rollout in Europe” ?

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 I’ve said it many times but you could not make it up. Everyday our government sink deeper in the shit and we stand by as we get soaked by the tidal wave of it enveloping our country. We are a joke on the international stage and now we have the new minister for Brexit Opportunities asking for our help 6 years after we were given a referendum based on lies, deceit and falsehood, while the made to feel in fear of the EU and our future in it. Perhaps we should not complain after all at least they are making a pretence of asking the public for their view? 

I have a question? Why should it be up to the Conservatives to decide whether Boris should remain as PM, short of a general election, why do we the voters, the people, not have the right to ask him to resign if the majority of us think he has broken his own rules, amongst his many other faults?  Surely if enough of us are sick of his leadership we should be able to have the right to ask him to resign. I understand we can and do ask but it is not the same thing as actually having some power to remove him! Democratic elections give us a government, the majority, who voted, have put in power but if they abuse their office and refuse to resign, then should we not democratically have the right to ask them to go, that has some actual action? If we have no confidence in our government should we not have the right to ask for a general election so as we can voice our democratic right to change things?

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So all restrictions will be lifted………….hmmmmmm! I know we will in the fullness of time have to live with Covid and I myself have said clearly in the past this must happen but my inbuilt cynicism spidery sense tells me this is a bid to be popular and try to deflect from the controversy that surrounds Johnson and his government? It seems each time Johnson tries to take our attention away from the many misdemeanours he has committed, more revelations are revealed that firmly put him back in the spotlight. 

I am taking part in a programme on Sky called The Great Debate, its broadcast on Monday sometime between 6 and 8. Next weeks topic is Do we get the leaders we deserve? Well I have written a number of times on this subject and the answer very simply is yes we do. We live in an age of cult personality and i suspect tha is the dominating factor when it comes to elections for who the country thinks should be PM and the party in government? Jeremy Corbin had his faults and certainly his reluctance to stamp anti-semitism in the Labour Party did him no favours but he was a genuine politician whose sole aim was to do his best for the country. Now he may not be your cup of tea ( he wasn’t mine) but he did seem only interested in trying to win on the issues. When you compare his personality to Boris he had no chance. Boris was seen as the cheeky chappie who promised everything and had no intention of delivering any of it. He fooled enough of the public, even though they may well have been aware of his record and his bumbling blustering act, persuaded not only his party but the electorate as well! Be careful what you wish for!

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 I would be very surprised if Boris apologises for the slur he made against Keir Starmer. It’s not in his nature, he has never apologised for any derogatory remark he has ever made and he won’t do so now. In recent weeks he has had to apologise for the “party gate” scandal, probably because he had been told to? I would suggest it took quite a bit of persuasion to get him to even do that and to my ears he never sounded genuine. Once he had he immediately went on to spout his combative nonsense and repeat the usual lies! 

I read this morning that a Tory donor has withdrawn his support. This is the most significant development. If the money dries up from Tory donors then the gig is up. As in all things it is money that talks. The party won’t tolerate a lack of support from the money men, no matter how “popular” Boris is! Politics is about winning elections but if you cannot raise the money to support campaigns then you are in big trouble. We know what donations to the Tory party can buy you. We know that it is the inside track to lobbying the government in favour of your cause, business or industry. 

It is an immutable fact that the British seem to have the ability to be fooled by the Conservative party time after time and I suggest it is still rooted in centuries of our class system. It seems there are still enough of the electorate that actually vote who believe they are our hereditary masters and only that can guide us. Admittedly the opposition has shot themselves in the foot a few times and not helped their cause. No matter how bad the Tories get and surely they have never been as terrible as they are at present, the British continue to support them? It is a subtle distinction and not overt as it has been through the ages but it is definitely still a factor. 

Two of the last three PM’s were educated at Eton. They are both men of privilege and have no clue as to the lives of the average voter in this country. They say the right things in order to make you believe but they have no real understanding of the words they use. They never had any intention of carrying out all of the promises that they make and are not interested in improving our lives. 

I can only hope that we come to our senses. I suspect that the pandemic, has paradoxically,  both disguised the political divide whilst highlighting it at the same time!

We are living through tumultuous times not just in the UK but throughout the world. I have never been so depressed about the state of the UK and fearful of events happening in other countries.

I am trying to retain my optimism and hope we come through all this turmoil. There is an anger inside me which i am struggling to contain and i find myself reacting badly to any hint of dispute.

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 I think we are witnessing the breakdown of our society as we understand it. It’s been slowly happening for many years but in the lead up to Brexit and since the subsequent rise of Johnson there is no doubt it has accelerated. The pandemic has highlighted our divisions and instead of bringing us together as only widened those divisions, that bubbled under the surface barely hidden and now revealed. Yesterdays event involving Keir Starmer (whatever your opinion of the man) brought out in stark relief how a minority of conspiracy idiots can turn a comment made by our PM into something that could well have turned into something far more nasty and possible violent. Johnson is squarely to blame and his deliberate slur and inability, as usual, to understand the consequences of his foul accusation have incited these morons to take action. Not for one moment would yesterday’s “attack” have taken place if not for the PM’s baseless accusation.

I am no Labour voter but I am beginning to have some respect for the dignity and calmness of Starmer. Naturally when compared to Boris any opposition politician would appear reasoned but Starmer does exude a quiet authority, no doubt because he was and is a well trained barrister used to remaining calm under pressure. When your opposing a party of government who have an 80 odd seat majority it cannot be easy to get your policies across, though one must say that Johnson could not be a better or more gaffe prone PM to be the opposition of!

I can only speak for myself, when I say I have recently, felt like a prisoner in my own country and I am sure I am not alone in that? You cannot blame any government for the virus, nature has its own rules and we cannot control it. Many have lost there lives and if the rest of us live through it, just maybe we will cherish our freedom that little bit more?

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I think we have not just lost the plot, we don’t longer know what the plot was in the first place! What is going on? I am fed up, frustrated and angry. It is an immutable fact that if the spectre of Covid was not hanging over us, it may have been easier to deal with all the shenanigans and depression caused by our exit from the EU and the subsequent performance of a government whose behaviour seems worse everyday. Minister after minister defends their PM and become more aggressive and unreasonable while doing it. It’s like a badge of honour that if your in government you defend even when you know that you are lying! Minister after minister quotes incorrect figures, twists statements and try to justify comments that we all know should not have been uttered. Politicians have always been good at bending and spinning the facts to suit their agenda but this lot have made it into an art form! 

The “loan” Sunak is giving via the energy companies is the most stupid scheme yet. That is saying something amongst all the nonsense that has already been perpetrated on the country. Firstly let me say I have written to my energy supplier to ask them not to give the subsidy, I don’t want it, fortunately don’t need it and certainly do not want to pay it back. I have asked they pay it to anyone whose need is greater! There are many who will payback this “loan” who are not eligible for it. And if you don’t Council Tax you won’t get that £150 rebate. If you rent property your rent covers the cost of utilities and the “loan” won’t benefit you. Will your rent increase as landlords pass on the cost of paying it back, will they give you a reduction, of course not. There are those who for one reason or another will end up paying it back even though they never get it. It is an inherently bad scheme. Two last things, how do I know the energy company has given me the loan? They can claim they have but I can’t prove it? How will we know that the energy companies have paid it back to the government, remember this is our money to start with, these are companies who make vast profits why the hell would you give them the money in the first place? The poorest will not benefit from this they never do! Sorry but one last thing, what is the betting that energy companies will claim they need putting up prices even more because of the cost of administering this misguided scheme!

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 How much madder does this have to get before it ends? How did some of these Conservatives become MP’s never mind Ministers of the Crown? The PM is weird but each of his cabinet is weirder than the next. Nadine Dorries who the fuck is she and a clearer example of someone who should never be in politics never mind government. Everybody has the right to remain silent but this lot continue to exercise the opposite and keep digging and digging deeper holes for themselves and their position. If you were a script writer looking to do a political comedy drama, you would be unable to invent characters anywhere as strange or odd as than the ones we actually have! You probably would struggle to invent storylines that had any relation to the events that have engulfed this Conservative government! They have become their own spitting image puppets! If it wasn’t so serious you might be forgiven to want keep them purely for entertainment? Unfortunately this is the lot we have entrusted with governing our country and they have managed to make us look like a the laughing stock of the world. I am sure that other countries deal with them simply because they have no choice. You can hear the chuckle and sighs of resignation when any foreign  power hears they have to deal with Boris or any of his cabinet. Surely no other leader can take him seriously? They must wonder what is going on in Britain when they read or watch all the scandals and vitriol going on in our government. I am sure there are all sorts of scandals and chicanery going on in many governments and all suffer from unpopularity at one time or another but if you have watching ours it is never ending, just one thing after another! Successive governments have been involved in all sorts of scandal and deceit for as long as I have been alive but surely there has never been an administration who have been this corrupt and in spite of the public knowing all the scandal, lies and mismanagement remain in office!

I watched Question Time and on it was a man who claimed to be a philosophy graduate arguing against the vaccines. Now let me say he has every right to do so, no question. On the panel was a professor who is an expert in this subject and he calmly explained why the vaccine is the best protection and that the risks are extremely rare. That’s a debate that has been going on ever since the vaccine became available and I am not going to reiterate it here. I ask this question, I have asked it before and it never seems to be brought up in these discussions. Let’s say your get the virus, you are unvaccinated and get admitted to hospital? Are you going to refuse all the anti-biotics or any treatment that is offered to you? Would you say no I can beat this I did not want the vaccine and I don’t want your help now? When I had leukaemia and was told that chemotherapy was the answer by a specialist medical oncologist, I did not hesitate for a moment and followed the treatment plan because he was the expert. Now I not comparing the two conditions directly, I am just using it as an analogy. If you don’t want the vaccine, fine, that is your right as an individual and I would defend your freedom, with my dying breath but there is a certain hypocrisy involved and I find it very difficult to understand!

Stay well

 It pains me to say I have been a fool and a horrible companion and I would like to apologise publicly for my outrageous and unwarranted behaviour!

Thank you

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 You know the shame is ours! This is the most unsuitable PM we have ever had but the blame lays squarely with us. It is obvious he won’t go voluntarily, if we knew anything about him, we should know that. We have allowed this to happen through sheer ignorance and apathy. We are are reaping the folly of our decisions as a collective nation and this is what has brought us to. Whichever party you support or whomever you vote for, look what we have done? The voting public of the UK spoke and now even though it is to late, we understand the damage we have all allowed to happen to our fragile country. We all knew the problems, we all knew the deficiencies, we all knew the underfunding and yet we continued down and inevitable path towards voting for a man and a party that has proved to be so unsuitable. I will not repeat all the well reported criminal acts and lies, except to say , even in politics, no especially in politics, we love a con man! What fools we are. We now moan and complain and shake our heads in disbelief but we only have ourselves to blame. This government maybe the worst we have ever had but all of us are complicit in their ineptitude!

I have moaned as much if not more than most and yet other than not voting for them what else did I do? I tried to talk to students about tactical voting. I have written to my MP more times than I care to mention and yet in reality none of this was enough or has had even the slightest scintilla of effect! We are sheep and we have been herded and corralled until we no longer even know where the gate is. 

We are to blame, all of us and until all of us decide to actually do something meaningful about it, it will not change.

Stay well