This week we are supposed to celebrate the 70 years of the Queens reign. I am no supporter of the Royal family and would not be sorry to see them go. They are not the only Royalty in the world or Europe but they certainly are the most prominent. Britain is unique when it comes to the position of our Queen. They are interwoven with the fabric of our society in a way that no other country has. 

As for celebrating her longevity, I’m afraid as far as I am concerned it is a waste and a distraction. I read that the government has spent £1.1 billion on Jubilee celebrations and arrangements! I am sure you know what I am going to say next, so I shan’t bother! There is an irony that we seem unable to look after the poor in our country but we can celebrate the rich and privileged, which says it all really! The Queen and her family cannot help the accident of their birth or upbringing. 

Many will not agree and see her as a shining example of duty and service. Certainly the newspapers, in this country, would be bereft without the Royal family and their trials and scandals. Like all families they have good and bad members and being in the public eye their whole lives cannot be easy. Having said that with great privilege comes scrutiny and unending interest!

I am not against the Queen herself, I don’t know her and never will, it is the institution she represents, that I object to and that the public purse continues to support a family that has so much wealth already, is unnecessary and that money that could be spent for much more important things.  

I will not be celebrating this week but if you are just take a moments pause to think about what it really represents?

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 And now Bozo wants to bring back Imperial measurements! Can nobody stop this idiotic despot from being in power? Watering down the ministerial code and now this! He has lost the plot, if he ever had the vaguest idea what that was to begin with? He has broken his own laws, floundered and flopped at every turn, made himself an international joke and our country a laughing stock and now he wants to turn the clock back. As if there isn’t enough red tape already since Brexit now they will have to convert to export, which is difficult enough already! I can’t see anyone following this stupidity, though knowing his government they will write it into law! Your child has been at school learning metric and previous generations have been taught metric but no let’s go backwards! Pound shillings and pence, furlongs, pounds and ounces, feet and inches, what next, stove pipe hats, kids cleaning chimneys, black and white TV? Of course Rees-Mog would be in favour. How the fuck did you vote these fuckwits into power? There is a view going round that Bozo’s  constituency petition, to have him stand in a by- election if enough of them sign it, one can only hope they are listening? 

I’m so ashamed to live in a country run by these inept, dangerous fools that my anger cannot be calculated. The most frustrating thing is we are not close enough to an election to rid ourselves of them!

Stay well

 If there is going to be a shooting in Britain could it be in the Cabinet room during a meeting of ministers? 

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 If Boris has not mislead Parliament then the definition of “misleading” is not the way I understand it! No doubt the greased pig will slip through the butchers legs once more and his lying, cheating premiership will continue? It is a sad reflection on this country that this is the man whom many put their trust in and now they watch as democracy (what there was of it) is held to ransom by a ruling party who have no shame, no morals and no direction! If anyone but the powerful rich can claim they are better off under this Tory shambles, then you have been living in darkness. I don’t expect his shameless, cowardly party to remove him and he will never resign willingly. The principle of law, his law, seems to have been forgotten in all the rhetoric. He HAS lied to Parliament, he HAS mislead the House. Any other PM would have resigned long ago, instead he struts(ha ha) about as though he is the leader the world has been waiting for! The hubris of the man is astounding, though not unexpected. The longer he and his weak, vindictive and hopeless government are in power the worse this country will get. It is true that many issues are not within their control but the ones that are, are so badly mismanaged it is doing irrevocable damage to ALL of us!

As for the shootings in America (21 this year) I no longer know where to begin. It has all been said before over many years and nothing, NOTHING has changed. Indeed if you read about the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers their views have become more entrenched and the sales of guns have risen by 600% to 25 million per annum. Just give that some thought, 25 million weapons sold per year!!!! There is little that can be done, so many guns are already out there and although they can stop (if they are allowed to by the constitution supporting lobby) the sale of weapons, it is far, far to late! When you see these tragic massacres and then Republicans saying they will defend their right of the  Second Amendment, when yet more children have lost their lives, it says it all!

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 Each and every day the current news (and past) has been, well horrible. to continue my theme of yesterday as Wendy says, why can’t we we all be nice to each other? Naive, hippy dippy, pathetic, all of the above? To quote Nick Lowe (as i have many times) “What’s wrong with a little peace love and understanding?” Human nature is mercurial, unpredictable, unstable and at times so mesmerisingly incomprehensible, that one wonders whether we are all of the same species? It seems no coincidence, that history shows, time and time again how one MAN tries to shape the world to their plan! I don’t need to list all the dictators who have caused so much death and destruction and I don’t need to cite the fanatics whose ideology, cannot be broken and in the name of their faith they subjugate their people and in particular women! 

It is bad enough that these things are going on and we can thank our lucky stars that we do not live in any of those places. It behoves me to point out that this country is no longer the one we understand or feel comfortable in. I understand that no government can control it all and there are outside forces, over which they have no control at all but this lot have mismanaged just about everything and anything they touch. I need not point out for the 1000th time how they have and continue to behave!

Frankly I am glad I have reached the last quarter of my life (not that there is a choice!) I not sure I would want to live long enough to see all the continued destruction and political upheaval that never seems to stop! I know there are good things going on however small, I know courage and bravery are performed everyday, I know there is goodness and kindness displayed. I can only hope that eventually they are the predominant human traits that prevail?

Stay well

 I have not written for a little while, mainly because I just repeat my deep seated disgust with just about everything. There are good things happening, stories that inspire or revive your faith in human nature but day after day, it seems to be doom and gloom. Like most of us, I have no answers only questions and opinions, they go unheard, unanswered and ignored. I suspect most of us live with a feeling of impending crisis, to add to the many we have already lived through. Okay in reality does it really affect me, no, does it impact my life, to a degree but certainly not to the extent that many are impacted! It is an oblivious and naive thing to write but one wonders why it is so difficult to co-exist in peace. Think how much less effort it takes to try and get on. 

Take Putin for example, we know his motives (well kind of), we understand his deep resentment over the independence of nations he believes should still be part of Russia. We get that he has huge military resources (however badly run they might be), that he is a natural bully, a dictator but (and I say this with my tongue firmly in my cheek) how much easier would it have been if he had just tried to be friends with both Ukraine and the rest  of the West? Putting all the death and atrocities, the Ukrainian exodus, the damage to their country to one side, his own country would not be suffering the punishment the West is imposing (not enough)? Why cause such horror when a friendly word a conciliatory gesture could have made Ukraine, if not allied then at least a good neighbour. Obviously that ship sailed a long time ago once he invaded the Crimea and there was no rolling back. Why is he so afraid of NATO? It isn’t as though they are going to attack him, quite the reverse the West want to operate in the Russian market it is a huge country and there is money to be made. It is more than sad, more than mad, more than horrific, more than a waste, more than senseless and is so often the case it hinged on the whim of one man and it has changed Europe forever!

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 I was going to write yet another rant about, well you know what! It seems pointless !

I am not a man who readily falls into depression or misery at the state of our country but I have come close. I am not for one moment denigrating or minimising anyone who suffers from this state. I have lived with my wife’s depression and it is an insidious, nasty, debilitating disease. It takes courage and patience to keep it at bay and it never truly departs. I do my best to remain on an even keel but the constant litany of bollocks, makes me want to scream. I would, for instance, happily take my 4 iron and shove it up a number of MP’s (Tory) arses!

I am glad in a perverse way (not that I have a choice) that I am coming towards the end of my life because the way we are going this is not a world I want to experience to much more of a future in. Not that I am looking to depart to soon I have every intention of living to a ripe old age, especially as our grandchild will be with us soon.

I read yesterday about a woman who was purchasing a packet of Chicken legs and asked the assistant whether they were front or back legs, the assistant replied she did not know and would ask the manager!

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 What a bunch of tossers the whole Tory front bench is. If this is government then we are all better off leaving and going to the Ukraine 🇺🇦 

As for the Mayor cutting a a ribbon to open a food bank in Dartford, a more insensitive and damning sign of the times we live in could not have been made!

Shambolic, irresponsible, out of touch, uncaring, wealthy, privileged, corrupt, lacking in any integrity, clueless, smarmy, lying and twisted bunch of ministers in the history of parliament. 

Yes it’s easy to complain, insult and generally call them names but with this lot what alternative do we have as from the top down they are rotten to the core and if you do not think so you are living in a different country from me.

Stay well

 You may have noticed that I have written less lately and sparingly about you know who! Frankly the whole sad saga has become so disheartening that that writing about it is painful. One can only say so many times how appalling this government is. 

So we had a very nice weekend, with Sunday being Wendy’s birthday and a walk in fine spring weather around Wickstead Park, occupied the morning and made one smile as we saw the verdant blossoming of nature and the abundant goslings and ducklings following their parents around the lake. There is nothing like being in warm weather , with a cloudless sky and the birds furiously tweeting.

Have a great week.

Stay well

 Yesterday we went to Compton Verney House and had a lovely day wandering about the grounds. The trees are spectacular, old and huge. A more English country house scene you could not imagine, it only needed Mr Darcy emerging from the lake bare chested and it would have been complete!  

The main house is an Art Gallery and that have the most fantastic collection of ancient Chinese figures and bowls etc. The intricate workmanship is phenomenal. Detailed etching of stunning quality and most artefacts were more than 1000 years old. 

One of the attractions, which we only found out after booking the tickets, was the exhibit of, most, of the last few years Portrait of Artist paintings and drawings. We have watched the last few series and until you get see them for real you cannot know how good they are. How they produce the programme portraits in just four hours is remarkable. One or two I would definitely hang on my wall. It made me want to take a class to learn how to at least attempt to produce realistic drawings and I will be investigating.

The restaurant was pleasant and the food good, if the service was a little slow. It seemed they had insufficient staff. 

If you want a pleasant day out amongst nature and like art, then go. It was a refreshing change from everyday normality. We had to laugh, as you might expect there were a lot of “older” people wandering about and much as everyone does not wish to admit it, we realised we are now part of that group! Tempus fugit!

Stay well

Can it get any worse? As the evidence piles up how unfit this government is, they still cling desperately to power blaming everyone and anyone for all the chaos they have caused, all the sleaze and corruption they are mired in and all the laws they have broken, worst of all the many many lies that have told. If this is the government you want then you are as culpable as they are for the many ills that beset our country and are just as responsible for the demise of decent democracy. If honesty and decency have any meaning anymore, then we must shout from the rooftops our disdain for this bunch! No one is without blame even those Tories who might still be honourable and upright, who persist in supporting a cabinet with no morality or direction. Whilst I suspect there are many Conservative MP’s who have had enough, their desire to be in the majority seems to out way their outrage. No politician wants to be on the loosing side but there comes a point when the evidence before you is so overwhelming, it can no longer be ignored or pushed aside. Turning a blind eye is one thing and surely no government is without fault but this ignorant denial that their PM is without conscience or a shred of decency is tantamount to criminal negligence!

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 So are you struggling to pay your bills? Has your weekly shop outlay risen by several pounds? We have a cost of living “crisis” and if your wondering why then you have not been paying attention. You may remember that in 2016 this country voted to leave the EU. Since then we have had an unprecedented pandemic, war in Ukraine and the worst government ever elected. Many of the causes are beyond our control but those that were within it have been handled so badly, it has exacerbated an already worsening situation. Everyday more an more critics sight this government for it’s individual and collective failures and an tsunami of scandal that has engulfed them right from day one and yet there they sit, still in power and with no sign of resignation or remorse, for me and many like me it is depressingly normal! If you read my Twitter feed you would think this government is doomed and tottering on the brink of mass collapse? Yet I am sure there is a Twitter feed, for others, that will equally praise and inform you how well they are doing? One of my biggest disappointments is the lack of major blows the Labour Party has landed, even though we have the worse government ever. Never has politics been so divisive and bitter. Being an MP is not for the faint hearted, especially if you are a woman. It appears it can give you advantages and privileges that are not available to us and there are many who exploit them to the fullest extent. As for the Conservative watching porn in the House, well what can you say, other than you are not surprised! The behaviour of mainly Conservative MP’s during this Parliament has been disgusting, they are not alone, shady behaviour is not confined to just their party. they keep saying that the vast majority of MP’s stand because they wish to serve their community and do their best but unfortunately a minority keep bringing the place into disrepute and tarring them all! It appears they are as powerless to do something about it, as we are!

Stay well