I forgot to make a blogpost yesterday. Feeling restless, I went down to "The Banner" just before eleven to order my special medicine - three pints of Tetley's bitter. Outside, I met up with Tesco Pete and Claire the civil servant and before I knew it midnight had passed by and we were into September 3rd.
It takes five minutes to trudge home along quiet side streets. Our street is on a hill and sometimes I stop to take a breath. Up ahead, I saw the unmistakable silhouette of a badger scurrying across the pavement (American: sidewalk).
In any case, what would I have blogged about yesterday? There was nothing I felt an urge to report and nothing else I really wanted to say. You get days like that.
Since the war in Ukraine began, I have been suspicious of our departing prime minister's overtures of support for that beleaguered country. He has visited Ukraine three times this year, courting Volodymyr Zelenskyy and always attired as he has appeared in The House of Commons - white shirt, dark suit, black shoes and light blue tie. I couldn't help thinking that he was using these visits cynically to distract from his political troubles at home and to boost his flagging popularity by trying to look like an international statesman. Other western leaders have appeared more circumspect with regard to Ukraine.
I came across this cartoon from Peter Brookes in "The Times" that seemed to back up my point. It was created in late April:-
Anyway, Johnson will be gone very soon but just like Trump in America he has egotistical visions of a triumphant return.
For the time being, it seems that Johnson will be replaced by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary. Her impending coronation has apparently caused her parents considerable angst. Both seventy five years old, John and Priscilla Truss subscribe to the country's liberal-socialist tradition so their daughter's political allegiance has long been a source of embarrassment rather than pride.
I am sure that as our next prime minister, Liz Truss will be about as effective as a chocolate fireguard.
At this point this blogpost's creation was interrupted by a phone call from my brother Robin in France. Now I must get a shower before proceeding with further efforts to get rid of that bloody white van. Why can't things be simple?
Could the van just get taken to a scrapyard?
ReplyDeleteEh? It is a decent van worth between five and six thousand quid.
ReplyDeleteOr effective as an ashtray on a motorbike or a chocolate teapot?
ReplyDelete...or Harry and Meghan at a royal knees-up party.
DeleteShame that you have to admit to it being a van, even if it is a Mercedes.
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze exactly how egotistical some politicians are - and I doubt Trump or Boris are the only ones. Sadly, there seems to be no way to find out exactly how bad things are until they are voted in, and it's too late!
I am surprised that Truss did not look closely at herself in the mirror before concluding, "I am not up to the job."
DeleteShe was too busy asking the mirror "Who is the fairest of them all"!
DeleteThat cartoon fits all we've ever heard about Boris over here.
ReplyDeleteThe word "oaf" springs to mind.
DeletePeople are desperate for used vehicles in Canada and I'm pretty sure you're having the same issues on your side of the ocean. Could you bring it to your house where you could advertise it with a "for sale" sign in the back window or an ad in the local paper? Maybe the issue of car insurance makes this idea impossible though.
ReplyDeleteI would like to avoid face-to-face contact with potential buyers.
DeleteOn first reading, I thought this said the three of you had been drinking Tetley's bitter at midnight in the street outside Tesco, and it didn't surprise me.
ReplyDeleteShoulda gone to Specsavers!
DeleteCan't you drive the van back to your home and deal with it from there? Are there legalities keeping you from doing this?
ReplyDeleteIt may have to come to that. Currently the van is not taxed or insured and I was hoping to avoid that expenditure.
DeleteThat cartoon seems apt, sadly. How ironic that you are set to become the new Prime Minister and your parents are embarrassed by you. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteAs for the van, thank you to Simon, you'll have to bring it home to sell it. So thoughtful of him to make sure that his affairs were in order.
Why do you want to avoid face to face meetings with potential buyers?
Because I don't want any repercussions should the van break down etc..
DeleteI feel like we're NEVER going to be rid of Boris. He just keeps hanging around.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool that you saw a badger. I've never seen one. But then, I'm never out after midnight!
Johnson is like dandruff. It never really goes away even if you do use "Head and Shoulders". I am sure that this analogy is one you can easily relate to Steve.
DeleteCould you get someone to tow it on a trailer it wouldn't need the insurance or mot for that and it might be worth the money to deal with the stress.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I don't mix in those circles Jessica.
DeleteHope this will be the weekend for the van sale, Neil, so you don't have to worry about it anymore!
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely going to lap over into next week Ellen and maybe beyond that.
DeleteAs Andrew Marr said in The New Statesman, the Radical Right are back.
ReplyDeleteThey are stupid, vicious, and desperate.
We are facing the gravest economic crisis since the 1930s.
Capitalism is in meltdown.
Money will be as valueless as it was in Germany before the Nazis came to power. Street riots will begin once people are cold & hungry.
Keir Starmer is so worried that he made a speech from his home with the Union Jack in the background, and he forbids Labour MPs from attending picket lines.
The Right Wing privatised our railways, but more public money goes to the companies which run the railways (incompetent spivs) than British Rail ever received.
Short-termism has been our curse, and it is the way the Right do business.
A social & economic nightmare lies ahead, and we don't have any politicians with the competence of Harold Wilson, Denis Healey, Barbara Castle, Richard Crossman, Jim Callaghan ...
Haggerty
I wish it was not the case but I cannot disagree with this analysis.
DeleteOh heck! Perhaps that van is an appreciating asset.
DeleteWhen you read the memoirs of Denis Healey, or the diaries of Dick Crossman and Barbara Castle, you see that they would never have let our country slide into corruption, poverty, division and despair.
DeleteThey were one-nation social democrats (as Harold Macmillan was a one-nation Conservative) and their patriotism did not require flaunting the Union Jack.
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, like so many once great British Streets, is fast becoming a wasteland. Beggars, empty shop units, litter, speeding pavement cyclists, office staff still working from home, retail jobs dying while Amazon profits soared to £204 million last year.
I hope I am wrong about money becoming worthless which is what happened when the murderous Nazis seized power after the Reichstag was burned down in February 27 1933, the moment Hitler had been waiting for.
We need to vote Liz Truss and her nasty extremists out of power through the ballot box, but we also need peaceful street protests, and a new mass movement to prevent further social collapse.
J.H.
Stage direction - Johnson exits stage right still chanting " Get Brexit Done! Get Brexit Done!". Truss enters stage left sniping "No more hand-outs! No more hand -outs!" The play is a re-imagining of "Hard Times" by Priti Patel.
DeleteAh, Hard Times. The Master's political fable.
DeleteCissy Jupe belongs to Sleary's horse-riders, but she freezes when Gradgrind asks her to define a horse, which Bitzer describes as a gramnivorous quadruped with 40 teeth.
Ms Truss and her cabinet of Little Horrors are gramnivorous Gradgrinds, who will rip apart what little social civility remains in our land.
Truss Team have teeth like sharks.
They will let the international financial criminals asset strip the last of Broken Britain.
Haggerty
That van is an albatross right now. I hope you're soon free of it! I wish a great number of our politicians would disappear off the face of the earth.
ReplyDeleteWe are lions led by donkeys.
DeleteI always use the term ' chocolate teapot' maybe you use fire guard because its colder up north, lol
ReplyDeleteAye lass we are tough buggers up 'ere tha knows!
DeleteIf things were simple life would be dull and boring. Enjoy the ups and downs while you can.
ReplyDelete