Frankly wearing masks in shops and on public transport is so laughable it almost beggars belief. Having said that Wendy and I have been wearing them anyway and have never stopped. Are we going to ban sporting event crowds, stop children going to school and restrict the many thousands of other human activities that happen every day? A mask is a precaution but the virus transmits in other ways. What a crock of shit! They knew about this new strain but let the planes from those countries in anyway and as usual we are reacting after the horse has bolted! I understand the pressures that we are all under to live as normal a life as we can, obviously nobody wants any restriction but it is a virulent pathogen, which will not and cannot be controlled without strict measures. There will be many more strains of the virus mutating for years to come, we need to come to terms with that reality and it seems that no one wants to acknowledge what is an inevitability. 

We still have huge daily numbers of infection and far to many deaths, it will continue while we have such a muddled attitude towards the  pandemic, which basically is one of “I won’t catch it so everything is okay”! This government has proved time and time again that it’s management of the pandemic is hopeless  at best and incompetent at worse and no amount of stating how wonderful our vaccine rollout has been will disguise their ineptitude in the first place! It is now about personal responsibility and doing what we each must in order to protect ourselves. If this means sacrifice to remain healthy then so be it, it wont do you any good if your no longer here! These are unpalatable times for many reasons and there is little we can do about many of the issues affecting our lives but we can be sensible and protect ourselves against a known but unseen enemy?

We can’t stop the bad guys at the moment, all over the world they seem to winning and short of war there is no way to stop them! It is to our credit that we do stop short of such action most of the time but still there are to many conflicts going on in the world. Power and money corrupts and there is no doubt that those who want it, want to keep it and want to have more of it. This is no conspiracy, countries support each other in a myriad of ways that we know nothing about and can only look on while they commit crimes against international law. Now days if a dictator wishes to stay in power then they can, there are plenty of others happy to support them and they have no compunction in hurting their own people. If you for one moment think there is fairness, honesty, integrity and the rule of international law working in this world then you are sadly mistaken and lets be brutally honest most of you don’t care, you have enough problems of your own to deal with!

There that’s Monday sorted and I have sent you off into the week with happy thoughts

Stay well and Happy Hanukkah 

So we have a new variant! You can’t stop a virus you can only protect against it. The measures just announced are a waste of time, to many inconsistencies! Get vaccinated and take your own precautions, do what you have to to protect you and yours and others. You can have no confidence in anything the government says they have been complicit in the mismanagement of the pandemic from day one.  Trust the scientific and medical advice and research it for yourself. We have a long unending road ahead and many more variants to come!

Wendy has just commented that if we don't provide a safe route for the people trying to get here from France and if we do not, we are complicit in their deaths. I don’t care what the reasons are that they wish come here, you cannot allow desperate people exploited by trafficking to drown in the channel and if you do then shame on all of us! Are they going to prosecute the RNLI for assisting, which according to the latest legislation, is against the law? I don’t care what the figures are, how many people have come to this country or what the current waiting time is to get processed (far too long) these are people who need help it is as simple as that. If we let them in and there happens to be the odd bad one well so be it! Besides what disruptive migrant or potential terrorist would subject themselves to such deprivation simple to commit atrocities in the UK, with little chance of getting here and such danger in doing so? No radical would choose this way of getting here, it is just rhetoric to make us scared! 

I went for my first therapy session yesterday with a very nice woman. She gave me a long explanation of how the brain functions which was interesting. Here is the outstanding takeaway, if you lose your temper or are in a fight or flight situation it takes at least twenty minutes for the chemicals your brain shoots into your system for you to calm down. I will report further on my progress.

Stay well

My darling wife has said that Boris’s apparent inability to deliver his speech and go on about Pepper Pig, is a diversionary tactic to get everyone talking about him and not the policies that are being implemented, like the health bill? I personally can’t credit him with that much subtle intelligence but if it is then I have seriously underestimated him! He has form and has grabbed the headlines with weird behaviour, in the past in order to mask other more devious stuff, he has been involved in and the story has been put on the back burner.  The fact that he is weird seems to have been his unique selling point but I think that is an act you can only sustain for so long, before it just becomes tiresome and ineffective. 

This is a government and a PM who have divided the country more than any other in living memory and I include Thatcher! Boris bleats on about how much they have invested in all sorts of areas and yet I think it’s safe to say that none of us have seen any improvement in our lives and we are certainly paying more for everyday items. We are being ripped off over fuel, which has remained overpriced since the “fuel crisis” is another example of profiteering. To a degree the public only has themselves to blame, a stupid reaction to a problem that really did not exist! Prices always rise that is the nature of a capitalist system but since Brexit there is no doubt that ours have been inflated by the stupidity of leaving the biggest trading block in the world! I am not suggesting we should live under a different regime to control the market but radical change is necessary?

On a different subject, 27 migrants did not die, 27 human beings desperate for a better life in a country that used to welcome, people died! We want to bring in the best and the brightest and nobody wants to come here, we are no longer in the EU, why would you come here? We have helped people in the past but now we want to pick and chose and reject those who need help. We used to encourage immigrants ( admittedly for all the wrong reasons and then treated them appallingly) What fools we are to think we can survive without sharing and allowing people to find a better life in our country. And to those who say we have no room or we cant afford it, just put yourself in those refugees place and think how you would feel cut off from a life you once knew and with little hope or prospect? Yes the human smugglers need to be dealt with and eradicated but if we were treating people with basic human kindness there would be no need for the desperate measures they take and the illegal business that fuel their desperation! I will guarantee you that part of our reluctance to accept these “migrants” is as much to do with their racial and ethnic background as the fact that they are homeless!

Stay well

Wednesday and the week has started well. Yesterday I shot my best golf score of the year and for more importantly my son and daughter in law confirmed we will become grandparents in July, happy days! 

I have mentioned before that Wendy and I have only ever been parents, we have no nieces or nephews, we are the only members of our small family to have children. This will be our first and only grandchild and if it is a girl our family name will be gone (though she might keep it regardless) I have no complaint I could care less, once I’m gone, whether my family name continues! People are far to invested in their legacy? As long as I am remembered reasonably fondly I really have no interest, once your gone your gone! Memories are funny things and distance does lend a rosy glow that sometimes obscures reality. I always claim that I did not get on with or love my mother but the truth is I cant actually remember? I don't even remember her being a difficult woman. I think I have used her as a convenient excuse for my own independent rebellion? My father did confirm that we did not have the greatest relationship and certainly she was resistant to my marriage. Memories are strange things. Mine are blurred and intermittent, in fact there are many, many memories that are just a blank to me. Wendy often reminds me about things we did as a family when the boys were young and I nod and say I remember but most of the time it is very vague! 

Much cleverer people than me can explain it but I have no idea,  it’s just the way my brain works? I do remember stuff but more of a feeling than necessarily a firm scene of the past. When people say they can remember something like it was yesterday, I wonder if that is really true? I rather like making my past what I would have liked it to be in order to reinforce my present. 

Please don’t  misunderstand I do remember a lot very clearly and can recall exactly the part of my past or can I?

Stay well

Whilst this could have been just a joke, I read a statement that proposes if you have the vaccine it will mess with your spirit and therefore you will not be reincarnated or get into heaven because God will not be able to recognise you! Now while the nonsense of that statement is blindingly obvious, it seems to that if you have a omnipotent being who sees and hears everything, god would have accepted the vaccine and know all about its “changing”properties? Every time anyone uses god as an viewpoint or argument, it is a waste of time, you cant have an all forgiving being who does not forgive? You cant have a omnipresent being whose knows some things but not others, it is a fundamental flaw in any argument that invokes the use of a god! 

My views on religion are no secret, a total waste of time and meaningless. If you believe in god, fair enough but you cant have it both ways that a god is all forgiving and knowing but if you displease god or do something not acceptable god will reject you! Naturally I do not think for one moment there is a god, not least because there is no imperial facts that support the existence of such a being but also because simple logic instinctively informs me that it is impossible. It is a wonderful fantasy and perfectly understandable after all who would not wish for some all embracing magical creator, who sees and hears everything and has a place for you after death? It is a natural human reaction to all we have around us, particularly for those in the ancient world who did not yet have all the technology and modern advantages we have. How else would people explain the wonders of nature. Why would you not wish to believe there is a “life” after death? In the 21st century religion no longer has such a strong hold on human existence and yet the belief persists and religions trundle along unable to give up their futile existence and ancient teaching which no longer have any meaning. If you search the logic of your mind you will know there is no god, never has been, never will be, some good tales though!

Stay well

 I often write how our current leadership is about as much use as chocolate teapot. Actually I suspect a chocolate teapot is actually less likely melt than all the promises  they make! If it was not so serious you would have to laugh at the madness of it all. Nobody wants to live in a country that has an embarrassment of riches in politicians who bring our parliament into disrepute. One of the mysteries for me is how these Tory MP’s get educated and grow up with these ideas? Is there some kind of system that turns out representatives who say things that reinforces our perception of the Conservatives or do they truly believe what they say? Do they secretly want to give another point of view but are programmed to spout insensitive nonsense? Surely there must be times when defending their party and PM’s stance becomes a burden almost impossible to justify? It must be why so many of them stumble over answers or just give ones that are are so crass, even they must cringe at what they just said? Boris is Boris he is an exception, a man so uncontrolled and inexcusable that he is beyond the any kind of normal behaviour but surely there must be members of his party who shake their head in disbelief and shuffle out of the chamber wondering what kind of party they now belong too? Do they truly support all the shit they are drowning in? There has been some recent evidence that his support is waiting or at least being questioned. Nobody’s grip on a party lasts forever, look what happened to Maggie Thatcher! It is not surprising that when you have a PM like Boris, the other prominent minsters are bound to be as awful! 

Keri Starmer is not the best of replacements, his lack of real attack has proved to be disappointing. At a time when Labour (I am not a Labour supporter) should be shouting how appalling this government is they are almost missing in action, though I suspect the media has so much to say about the corruption and poor governance that they can’t get a look in! It’s difficult to command the news when you have a PM who is reported each day for some further gaff or lie! 

Anyway as I said to begin it is all rather funny ha ha ha!

Stay well

 Not a day goes by when our leaders do not perpetrate yet another misguided rule of law or another scandal. What I find difficult to understand is why there is not a majority of us screaming how unfit they all are to be in charge. It mystifies me that we are not all taking to the streets to show our displeasure with the behaviour, corruption, lies, mistakes, abuse of public funds and the many other misguided policies and laws thats are committing everyday? These are very strange times, the strangest I personally have lived through? It is frightening and disturbing how we are complicit in the way our country has been guided and lead. What has happened to us? We have never been as fair minded and tolerant as is often cited but neither have we been so apathetic and seemingly incapable of howling our displeasure against a government whose ineptitude has made us the laughing stock of the world!

There is no doubt that Boris wants to rip up even the appalling agreement he made with EU over Brexit and blame everyone and anyone else for its flaws! The worse of are getting shafted while the rich are fine. It has always been this way but never quite so overtly as it is at present. If you have a Tory government then you should expect them to look after their core voting base, what party wouldn’t if they want to remain in power. If only once they would turn round and say they made a mistake or things changed and their initial assessment had to alter, we might be a little more understanding? Everything is spin or denial and even the fact that there is video evidence of actual statements, makes no difference, denials will be made and even if the video is shown they will either ignore it or blatantly state they never said that! I can’t  speak for you but I am furious and in despair over the state of the United Kingdom, which in itself is a joke, never have we been more disunited! Covid aside, the UK is in parlours state and becoming as close to a dictatorship, as any time in our history, with the possible exception of Cromwell! Yet we put up with this, day after day with no hint of rebellion (peaceful). If we choose to go to the barricades and express our displeasure than I am with you. 

Stay well