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