SIR GUESTLING THORN

I am not innocent of writing an insulting or vitriolic barb on social media, indeed I have written at least two this very morning on Twitter. I have noticed that this social media platform has become petty, full of bile and outright hatred. Perhaps it is a sign of the times we live in, that our frustration and outright disbelief, of the way of the world and particularly our country is running? The public are disenchanted with just about everything and who can blame them! An NHS under siege and falling apart at the seams. Strikes by disenchanted workers who have had enough of the way they are treated and the re numeration they get for doing their job. Not being able to afford to live is a reality. People homeless and on the streets is a reality that we all witness every day, well certainly in Kettering! Food banks are a reality. What have we come to when Ministers openly shout about opening more of them ? I do not claim to know the solution to these and the many many other problems that our country faces. The problem is that those we have elected on both sides of the divide don’t know how to either? They are just as guilty of petty insults and hatred as the rest of society! Whether they are a reflection of us or we are a reflection of them is a mute point! Never in my 70 years have we had such pathetic, inept MP’s as we have at present. There is not a states-person worthy of the name! I have bleated on many times about the endemic corruption that seems to pervade public life and there have been so many examples of it, that we have lost count and just shrug our shoulders, as though it is expected and is normal behaviour! 

My granddaughter Hannah is already 6 months old and we adore her, as you would expect but I despair at the world my generation is leaving her and the nation she will grow up in! I know she will have the values of our family instilled in her. We can be sarcastic, insulting and swear a lot but we also are fair, accepting, kind, generous , loving and at the risk of being superior, intelligent. I can only hope that the cyclic nature of the world will come around and there will be a period of peace and prosperity and the dire state we find ourselves in will improve? 

People often ask the perfectly understandable question “ what is the point of our existence?” My answer is simple, there is no point and that is the point! The sooner we come to accept that we are nothing significant or special, that there is no life beyond death and all we can do is live to the best of our ability, the better off we will be! We have to cope with all the tragedies and hiccups that life throws at us. If this sounds like some new age philosophical mumbo jumbo, well so be it, it is no less true for that!

Stay well