Today is my birthday which always puts you in a good mood when you wake up. I have rigged up one of the ‘boomboxes’ I bought some months ago in the bedroom and did not like very much the CD disk that I kept in the system. So I changed it for another of the ClassicFM CD collection and was delighted that the second piece along was the Adagio (2nd, slow movement) from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. This, I first heard at the age of 13 when my music teacher/dorm master smuggled in into the dormitory of the attic dormitory where there two or three of us were in bed suffering from the Asian flue epidemic of 1957. We were were none of us very ill, as I remember, but at its height as many as two thirds of the class was off with the flu. This particular piece also has a particular resonance for me as my son won the school’s music prize playing it when it was 13. After that, locomotives, photography and girls (in no particular order) displaced the clarinet and what happened to it remains a mystery. Being a Thursday, I went off to do my regular weekly shop and then got back to do a quick shopping unpack, breakfast preparation and getting ourselves ready for our little trip out today to Waitrose. My sister called to pass on some birthday greetings and as she reads this blog regularly she knows all of my routines. I sympathised with a recent fall she has had in the kitchen (reaching for a high shelf) and passed on what I hope was some useful advice to stop this re-occurring. Once we were in Waitrose, I made straight for the cakes section and although I intended to buy a fruit cake, I was tempted into buying a special chocolate birthday cake. Meg and I were joined by one of our Tuesday friends and we shared the chocolate cake out between the three of us, my Irish friend who had just popped into Waitrose and some other cafe regulars. My Irish friend had bought me a wonderful present of a pack of special beers and a glass with which to drink the same. So, after a pleasat morning and chat, we returned home to finish off the meat balls of which we ate a half yesterday but today complemented with baked potato and some mange-touts. After some quite ferocious rain, the clouds rolled away to quite a bright afternoon and even Miggles,our adopted cat, turned up to give birthday greetings (in exchange for some titbits).

At my request, our son has bought me a birthday present of a very well reviewed book (‘Johnson at 10 – The inside story’) and this arrived by today’s post. As I am half way through another book, I have let Meg have first ‘go’ at this book but I suspect that once I get into it, I will read it with a kind of fascinated horror. According to at least one review of the book which brought it to my attention, Johnson exhbited a pattern of oscillating between the demands of his wife, Carrie on the one hand and Dominic Cummings on the other. It seems that often a policy was announced in the morning which, when the staff were trying to put it into effect during the day, was soon to be reversed and countermanded half way through the afternoon. Incidentally, my son and daughter-in-law gave me a birthday card which is of the best I have received over the years. It shows a young boy about 7 years old (looking quite like my son at that age) with a spanner in his hand. The text reads ‘As a child, their Son had learned loads of things from watching his Dad do D.I.Y. Mainly, words beginning with F and B’

There was a most extraordinary outburst by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament today. It was occasioned by the fact that Kemi Badenoch, The Business Secretary, had announced a significant change in Government policy (not to shred all of the retained EU legislation before the end of the year) in the columns of ‘The Daily Telegraph‘ instead of announcing it first to the House of Commons. Badenoch was summoned to the Commons on Thursday to explain the decision, having confirmed it in an article for this morning’s Daily Telegraph. An angry Hoyle told her it was ‘highly regrettable’ she had announced the move in the press not to MPs. He admonished her saying ‘We are elected to hear it first not to hear it in the Daily Telegraph. Who do you think you are speaking to?… I am not going to be spoken to by a Secretary of State who is absolutely not accepting my ruling’ Over the years, there has been several regrettable lapses of Commons protocol in which policies are pre-announced to the media and the Speaker of the day has got more and more upset about this. But I must say, I have never heard the Speaker use such angry words or give such a strict dressing down to a Government minister before. At the same time, the Brexit wing of the Tory party are furious with Kemi Badenoch because they see the (quite unrealistic) pledge of shredding all of the 4,000 pieces of retained legislation before the end of year as a betrayal of their pure Brexit principles. But the government are worried that some incredibly important environmental and employment legislation might ‘die’ leaving us in a worse situation than before.

Thank goodness we are coming to the end of the gloomy weather that has plagued us for the last day or so. Today dawned fairly bright and clear for which we were well and truly grateful. Today, after breakfast, Meg and I set forth for a little village called Finstall only some three miles distant in which Herefordshire and Worcestershire run a club coffee morning once a month. The village hall is a good location for this gathering becaue it has sufficient parking at the rear and is evidently used as a centre for community activities. It reminds me of the village hall of the small village in which as a 9 year child I was taught how to play badminton and there always seemed to be enough to keep us occupied during the long dark winter evenings. Today we had a general quiz where we were ‘competing’, if that is the right word, against similar gatherings across Worcestershire. Our table, and the group as a whole performed quite well but the last section of the quiz was to supply the missing words of popular (and once popular) pop songs at which we were hopeless. The community activity today was photographs of old Bromsgrove but as a resident for the last sixteen years (only), this was not very meaningful to us. But the organisers are friendly and welcoming and there were about two dozen of us in total which made for a pleasant morning. After that, it was a case of returning home and a lunch of ‘meatballs’. I must admit that meatballs never has good ‘vibes’ for me as I remember that Campbells used to have a meatballs in sauce in a tin which was mainly soy as I remember. But the way that the Spanish make meatbals or ‘albondegas’ is always quite a treat. Typically, they are made from minced beef and pork blended with fried onions, cumin and smokey paprika and shaped into large meatballs with egg and/or rice as a binder that are slowly cooked in a rich tomato sauce made with roasted red peppers and Rioja wine. So if I am offered ‘albondegas’ in what I call a ‘peasant’ type cafe in Spain (good homely cooking) I never turn down the opportunity.

This afternoon, the grass was evidently due for a cut as it is a week now since its last cut and the grass (and buttercups) has well and truly shot out of the ground. The minute I had changed into my gardening clothes ready to do the mowing, a shower opened up overhead. It was one of those occasions where I wondered whether to carry on in the hope (expectation) that it might be a light quick, passing shower. I did carry on mowing the grass and the shower proved heavy enough to make life a little uncomforable but not of the intensity to abandon the mow altogether. I had a particular motive in wanting to get the grass cut today because tomorrow is my birthday and we intend to see some friends in the morning – but then I wanted a more relaxing time in the afternoon. Needless to say, no sooner had I finished the mowing but the clouds rolled away and we had one of those beautiful and glorious late sunny afternoons but of course this can never be predicted. Amusingly, Miggles, our adopted tabby cat came running across the grass to greet me when I was extracting the mower from the garage but the cat sensibly retreated to sit on one of the brick staunchions (which I think they are called) which adorn our porch and meant that the cat could escape the worst of the rain. The cat observed me mowing, had a good wash and then followed me into the rear garden where he/she deigned to sit on my lap and have a stroke whilst I was having my mid-mowing break. I did relent and give the cat a few titbits as a reward for loyalty or patience, I know not which.

The breaking news last night was that Donald Trump had lost a case for sexual harassment taken against him by a New York magazine columnist. The case dates from a decade or so ago but New York has passed some legislation to allow for such cases to be heard. Donald Trump did not turn up to defend himself but his defence was hardly helped by the fact that an audio clip exists of him bragging about grabbing diverse women by the genitals. But a damning feature of this case was that he denied ever having met the woman until he was confronted by some photographic evidence. He then proceeded to argue that the woman bringing the complaint was ‘not his type’ but subsequently mis-identified a photograph of the woman as his first wife. This was a civil case and as such it did not attract a gaol sentence. But the civil damages were put at the best part of $5 million which may almost be back pocket money for Trump. In any case, I am sure that his avid supporters would raise this money in no time at all so the eventual financial pain might be very small. But there are several cases outstanding against Trump including tax fraud and incitement to the invasion of the Capital building two years ago so that it is possible that Trump may suffer a death by a thousand cuts if some or all of these outstanding cases succeed.

Today being a Tuesday, the week reverts to its normal rhythms. I must say that after the excitement of the local election results last Thursday night and all day on Friday, the Coronation on Saturday, our street party on Sunday and a rain-filled tidying up day on Bank Holiday Monday, it is rather reassuring to get back into a more normal routine again this week. The weather today is a fair mixture of sunshine and showers but even so, a lot more pleasant than the totally gloomy day of yesterday. This morning after we had picked up our copy of The Times, we made for Waitrose where we found three of our friends waiting for us – a fairly typical happening on Tuesdays. I told the assembled company a joke in the form of a riddle I had heard a few years ago but had totally forgotten until very recently. This is ‘How does an agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac spend his time?’ to which the answer is, of course, ‘They lie awake all night wondering if there is a Dog’ I admit you have to concentrate little to get the full meaning of this, but there you are. After this, Meg and I go home and I got myself turned out for my normal Pilates class which involves changing into my tracksuit bottoms and then taking down my rolled up Pilates mat and a rucksack with bits of kit inside. The weather on the way down was a little indeterminate but I left five minues earlier to make a slight detour into town to buy a couple of birthday cards. One of these was a week late (which, unfortunately, is maintaining the tradition of the last year or so) whilst the other birthday is tomorrow so I am hoping that putting a first class stamp on it and getting it into the post by 1.00pm is time enough to get it to Oxfordshire by tomorrow. May is quite a heavy month for birthdays because there is a cluster of colleagues from the University of Winchester all of whose birthdays fall in May so I always need to consult my diary in plenty of time to get these cards posted off in time. The two friends to whom I posted off cards today received appropriate cards, one with a ‘cat’ theme and the other with a ‘computing’ theme. However, I must say that many birthday cads these days are very often adorned with glasses of liquor as though on is going to spend the whole of one’s birthday imbibing from morning until night. Although I enjoy a glass as much as anyone, the birthday card writers seem to assume that it is the most important part of one’s day. After I returned from my Pilates class today, Meg and I enjoyed our traditional treat for a Tuesday which is haddock fish cakes and some of those ‘quick cook’ vegetables that only take about three minutes in a microwave. This way, upon my return from Pilates, I get a meal put on the table in just a few minutes.

Tomorrow being the second Wednesday of the month, Meg and I will probably go out to the social event organised by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Age Concern which is held in the village hall of a neighbouring village called Finstall. On our first visit last month, we made the acquaintance of some people who not only worshipped in our church but with whom we shared some common aspects of our biography, both having lived in Manchester for several years as well as having travelled in both Spain and Mexico. We also renewed our acquaintance at the party held down the road on Sunday afternoon but I forgot to ask if they were also going to attend tomorrow. Tomorrow, the theme of the morning is going to be ‘Photographs of old Bromsgrove’ that is not going to be very meaningful to Meg and myself as we have lived here for less than sixteen years but I am sure will be much more meaningful to most of the people there. Who knows what other contacts and potential friends we might make on our visit tomorrow so I think it is a case of ‘nothing venture, nothing gain’

The story of the arrest of those demonstrating against the Coronation continues to unfold. This morning on Radio 4 it was announced that the Met Police had expressed regret at the arrests and an officer had even gone round to the home of the leading light of the ‘Republican’ party to offer an apology. The Met story keeps changing however. At first it was said that the arrests were made under the ‘old’ public order legislation but then it was admitted that the arrests were made under the ‘new’ legislation brought into force a week ago, largely to counteract the efforts of protestors in the ‘Just Stop Oil’ campaign who had been using techniques such as ‘locking themselves’ onto immovable objects to make their point. Later on this afternoon, the story is changing yet again. Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Met, says the arrest of six anti-monarchy protesters was ‘unfortunate’ – but insists his officers were seeking to thwart what he describes as a ‘criminal network’ in which tins of paint were to be thrown in the course of the procession. All six were released without charge. But it is interesting how the story of the arrest, the apology and then the further elaboration keeps changing over time.

Today started wet and gloomy, exactly as the weather forecasters had predicted. Meg and I watched the Coronation Concert broadcast from the grounds of Windsor castle yesterday evening and we rather enjoyed it. One of the opening acts was the choir put together by Gareth Malone from amateur singing groups all over the country who had had only one rehearsal together before they performed live on stage. Having seen a preliminary programme about the formation and instruction of the choir in a programme on Friday evening, it was actually quite exciting how they would perform live in the Coronation Concert itself. They performed magnificently and, in my view, much better than some of the established acts such as Lionel Richie. Bryn Terfel and Andrea Bocelli sang a piece together which to my ears sounded under-rehearsed and did not really come off – so it is interesting when amateurs might be said to out-perform the professionals as it were. Meg and I got ourselves ready and then popped down to ensure that we collected our newspaper before the newsagent closed up later in the morning (as it is a Bank Holiday) We also took the opportunity to pop some ‘thank you’ notes through the doors of those who had expended a lot of effort in making yesterday such a successful and enjoyable coronation party. Being so wet and gloomy, we busied ourselves with some tidying up jobs and took the opportunity to peruse and throw out some newspapers that had been waiting for an occasion such as this.

The Metropolitan police are coming under renewed critiscism this afternoon for what appears to be heavy handed tactics when it came to dealing with those who wished to protest (peacefully) against the Coronation. According to some acconts, the police had already been told by the protestors what they were going to do, how many banners they had and what was written upon them but were were still arrested as the banners were being taken out of the van. They were then detained for up to 16 hours. Some 64 people were arrested on Saturday but only 4 people have been charged. Rather strangely, volunteers who were handing out rape alarms to keep women safe in the early hours of Saturday morning were taken into custody, even though they were part of an operation sanctioned by, and wih the cooperation of, the police. To put the best possible construction upon all of this, it is possible that the potential protesters were speaking to one unit within the police but the actual arrests were made by others so it may be a case of the relevant information not being properly shared within the Met. On the other hand, it does appear that the right to peacefully protest has been effectively denied and apparently, the arrests have taken place under legislation rushed through and only put into effect the week before. One imagines that the Chinese and the Russian police might have acted with the same degree of alacrity (but probably a lot more brutality) It will be interesting to see the attitudes of the courts in these cases. The police are saying that the arrests were necessary ‘in the context of the situation’ and evidently what has to be balanced out are the desires of the vast majority to witness a coronation for the first and perhaps only time in their lifetime, against the time honoured right to protest, lawfully and peacefully, upon such occasions.

Last year about this time, the Eurovision song context was won by Ukraine and that country would normally host the competition this year. But because of the war situation in Ukraine, the competition was awarded to the UK as our song had (surprisingly) come second last year. The City of Liverpool was awarded the competition within the UK after a bidding process and the competetion culminates next Saturday evening, But there are semifinals being held during this week and the British media are giving a lot more attention to Eurovision this year. Of course, it is is impossible not to have the most outrageous of outfits and some of them are being paraded in Liverpool this week. The UK only a year or so back received the dread ‘nul points’ i.e. scored zero and this happened once before just after the Iraq war when the UK was perceived in a very negative light. This year may well be different and perhaps the UK entry will do moderately well rather than extremely well but we shall see next Saturday.

The Government announced todate that some £240 million is being devoted to improve access to a doctor as the difficulty in getting an appointment has been mentioned so much on the doorstep in the recent local elections. The money is to be devoted to better telephone systems with some training for staff but I fail to see how this will help if theere are not enough GP’s or ‘physician associates’ around to cope with the increased flow of appointments which is likely to result. I tell myself that nothing much will change for months and, even then, I would be surprised if there was going to be much help in seeing a GP within a day or so (rather than a week or so) which as been the situation until now.

So today is ‘post Coronation day’ and the weather is said by the weather forecasters to be the finest of the weekend. We have come to expect wet Bank Holidays (which is tomorrow) and, of course, yesterday as Coronation Day was a rainy day but we are hopeful this afternoon which is the day of our communal garden party, the weather will be better. Meg and I got up and breakfasted in front of the Lorna Kuennsberg Politics show held from 9-10 on Sunday mornings. Evidently there were two big events for discussion one of which was the Coronation yesterday and one of which was the dramatically poor local election results for the Tory party but within the one hour allocated, there was not really enough time to have either enormous topic discussed adequately. About the one definite new bit of information to come from Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was a commitment never to prop up what is seen as a failing conservative administration after any General Election held within about 18 months or so from now. A similar commitment was not forthcoming with respect to the Labour Party which means that the Liberal Democrats may give tacit support to a minority Labour administration on a so called ‘Confidence and Supply’ basis. The Labour and the Liberal parties have been here before because we had what was known in the 1970’s as ‘Lib-Lab’ Pact. In this arrangement, the Liberal party did not oppose policies or legislation which were broadly consistent with their own whilst some matters were ones in which the Liberals would definitely vote with the Conservatives. The grey areas in between were to be thrashed out in an Consultative Committee. There are some commentators who have argued that in constitutional terms this worked out quite well and gave the UK a period of stable government and ‘sensible’ policies and legislation. If this has happened once before within recent political memory, there is no reason why it should not work again. Meg and I made our Sunday morning pilgrimage to Waitrose where we met with our University of Birmingham friend and for some of the time we were discussing some practical arrangments where the three of us and another friend could meet up for a lunch time or afternoon repast. After consulting with some of the Waitrose staff, we may avail ourselves of their party platter service where everything is ordered over the internet and Waitrose do the rest.

Meg and I had a light lunch of mussels in a tomato and garlic sauce because we suspected that we were were going to party all afternoon. We got a quick telephone call from our Italian friend down the road who was suffering from some sinus problems and was unsure whether she could make the party or not. So Meg and I walked slowly down the road where we discovered that our friends had already organised a long line of three long trestle type tables all decked out and ready to sit down and socialise. We started drinking our supplies (in our case, Newcastle Brown and some Prosecco) before the grub started to flow- sandwiches, samosas, quiche tartlets and similar party food. This was followed up by scones wih cream and jam,trifle, fresh strawberries and cream followed by some hot beverages. We even found time to toast the new King (and the party organisers) with some fizz at the end of the afternoon. Then we were given a lift home by our friends (Meg was feeling a little tired by this stage) but we had had about four hours of wonderful partifying and lots of chats amongst the 16+ of us present. Half way through the afternoon, our Italian friend (known to nearly all of us) turned up having felt a smidgeon less poorly so we were all pleased to see her and this occasioned even more chats and drinks.

This evening is going to be the large Coronation Concert to be held at Windsor and this is promised to be a real ‘potpouri’ of musical offerings. We know that we are going to have some ballet, Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel and perhaps a surprise appearance of Winnie the Pooh/Paddington as well as lots of ‘popular beat combo’ stars (in the immortal words of Spike Milligan). This goes on most of the evening so may be ‘wallpaper type’ TV in which can doze through some bits and wake up for others.

Evidently, normal politics is suspended for the day. Nonetheless, there is some concern that the police may well have over-reacted in their stated intention to keep yesterday’s Coronation demonstration free. For example, it has been revealed that one of the leading lights of the Republican party was arrested before he could even start to reveal the ‘Not My King’ lettering on his tee-shirt and was then held away from the processions for about 16 hours. There are some who are arguing that the right of Britons to protest peacefully has just been removed (or severely abrogated) so what will the Courts make of all of this if it ever come to Court (which I doubt in some cases) There is always the possibility of suing the Police for unlawful arrest and/or detention but I am not sure what the legal precedents are in this case.

Today is Coronation Day and, true to form, it promised to rain practically all day. On the day of the last Coronation in June, 1953, it rained practically all day long and the same may have been true of the coronation in 1937. I think one has to go back to the coronation of George V for a coronation in which it is not raining. After Meg and I got up, we went quickly down to pick up our copy of the newspaper before proceedings were due to ‘kick off’ at about 10.20. Despite myself, I watched nearly all of the proceedings and those inside the Abbey were particularly interesting. As a sign of changing times, we had a gospel choir complete with energetic body movements but there was a fair mixture of music both traditional and newly commissioned. The service was schedued to last for two hours and although the proceedings were said to be scaled back, all of the traditional ingredients were there and whatever scaling back was done was seen to be apposite. For example, back in 1953, each attending peer (hundreds) had to kneel before their monarch pledging obedience and this must have taken forever and a day. The innovations brought into the service I must say I liked. For example, Bryn Terfel sang the Kyrie in Welsh, which is the first time Welsh had been sung in the Abbey. The modern compositions by Debbie Wiseman and Andrew Lloyd Webber seemed to blend almost seemlessly into the old such as Parry’s ‘I was glad’, Handel’s ‘Zadoc the Priest’, some William Boyce, Orlando Gibbons and two offerings from Byrd. One particular hymn that was sung heartily by everybody was ‘Christ is made the sure foundation’, composed by Purcell and predates the Reformation. Although I do not remember singing this hymn as a boy, it was sung at our own wedding in 1967. When I was recreating this for an archive of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations, I found a video of this hymn known as a ‘processional Hymn’ because of its time structure and this hymn was played when Pope Benedict participated in Ecumenical Celebration at Westminster Abbey, City of Westminster, on 17 September 2010. The text (in Latin) dates from c7th-c8th century so may well be sung by many denominations. I must say that the newly crowned king seemed tired on occasions and even, occasionally, a little frail although he is 4 years younger than I am.

So we came to the procession down from the Abbey to Buckingham Place in the Coronation coach in which Queen Victoria was said to refuse to travel becaus it was so uncomfortable. I must say that when the TV cameras focussed on it it seemed to jolt in every conceivable angle and is apparently unsprung. I would imagine that a ride in any distance would induce something akin to sea sickness so Charles and Camilla were probably sensible to travel to the Abbey Service in a more modern and air conditioned coach so that they did not spend two hours in the Abbey feeling queasy after the ride (although Queen Elizabeth managed it but did say how uncomfortable it was). The by now traditional fly-past ceremony when the royals were parading on the balcony of Buckingham Palace had to be curtailed because of the dangers posed by low cloud. So we had an initial flypast by some helicopters followed, almost immediately, by the Red Arrows and the red, white and blue streamers but the much more ambitious flypast by several other aircraft which constituted the ‘meat in the sandwich’ had to be abandoned because of the weather conditions.

After the disastrous election showing for the Tories, Rishi Sunak must have been counting his lucky stars that we had a Coronation today to delay much forensic examination of the results and then we have Sunday followed by a Bank Holiday in Monday so all of this may delay, or blunt, the effects of any post mortems. The Tories thought they might be quite clever in letting it be known that up to 1,000 seats might be at risk as part of a strategy of ‘expectation mamagement’ and then if only about 700 seats were lost then they claim the results were nowhere near as bad as predicted. But this strategy backfired as the actual results (1,061 seats lost) were even worse than their ‘worst possible’ scenario. The newspaper accounts seemed to confirm what was pretty obvious as the results unfolded that there was an unofficial tactical voting going on on the ground as people seem to be voting in any way that they could to ditch the Tories. This behaviour may well work very well in local elections but will probably not work as well when it comes to a general Election. As a prominent, left-of-centre journalist, Suzie Boniface explained ‘In local elections, you vote with your heart but in general elections, you vote with your head’ She subsequently explained how she often voted ‘Green’ in a local election but would never do so in a General Election because the Green candidate was most unlikely to win the constituency. These local elections cannot be taken as a very good guide to a General Election as people do vote differently when voting in a General Election.

Yesterday was local elections day but, apart from photographing dogs who had been left outside polling stations whilst their owners were inside to vote, there was not too much to capture the attention of the press. Being somethng of an election junkie, I thought I would watch the early results until about 2.00am and then creep off to bed. In practice, it did not not quite work out that way. Suddenly at 2.30am the results started to look a lot more exciting. In particular, interesting things started to happen in Worcester City Council which is evidently the major town to the south of us. There was a persistent rumour that the Conservative leader of the City Council (which was ‘No overall control’) had lost his seat to a Green candidate and had left the count and gone home, abandoning his party colleagues and the rest of the count to lick his wounds in private. In 2022, the Conservatives were the largest single party and had 15 seats with Labour 12, Green 6 and Liberal Democrat 2. But now in 2023 the Conservatives lost 7 of their 15 seats, The Labour party gained 1, the Greens pushed on from 6 to 10 and the Liberal Democrats from 2 to 4. In some ways, this was very representative of the rest of the country as the electorate seemed to be saying ‘Anybody but the Conservatives’ and whilst they lost councillors and seats (and councils) across the country, the other political parties all increased the seats that they held. I suspect that what particularly rankled the ex-Conservative leader in Worcester was the fact that he was beaten by the Green candidate (and in Tory demonology, the Greens are regarded as to the left of the Labour Party) So intrigued by this almost local result, I did creep off to bed at about 3.45 in the morning.

Friday is the day when our domestic help arrives but she arrived arrived early and crept around very quietly so as not to wake us up. In practice, I got up at about 9.00 in the morning and then Meg and I breakfasted and decided, almost on the spur of the moment, to treat ourselves by going to Waitrose. We were glad that we did so because we bumped three of our regulars and our University of Birmingham friend also turned up so we had a jolly time but split over two tables on this occasion. Then Meg and I made for home closely followed by our friend because we had a discussion on the best way to clean patios and I was somewhat wary of a pressure washer in case it lifted the grouting and ruined the whole of it. So I promised that he could have one of my spare patio cleaning tools (wire bristles arranged in a kind of ‘V’ shape and designed to remove weeds from patios) We had a fish pie that we normally have on a Friday and then, after lunch, settled down to watch the election results trickling in through the afternoon. In the early part of the afternoon, we discovered that Bromsgrove, that has had a Tory local authority (and MP) ever since we moved here some fifteen and a half years ago, had moved from Conservative to ‘No overall control’ The Conservative number of seats dropped from 18 to 11, Labour went up 1 from 7 to 8, Independents moved from 5 to 7 and Liberal Democrats gained 5. The Conservatives had run this council for the last 24 years but with this kind of result, it is very unclear who will run the council from now on. The Conservatives only command 11 of the 31 seats and I suppose many of the Independents may ally with them, this is by no means certain. In my local ward, the Conservative councillor was elected with 240 votes but the Labour vote was 175 (not too far behind) and the Liberal Democrats at 90 – so I now live in an area with a anti-Conservative majority. One factor that may have played out locally is that masses of new housing on the edges of the town has been approved and is in the course of construction but planning permission has been forced through with massive opposition from local residents so perhaps this explains some of the anti-Conservative vote.

Tomorrow, of course, is Coronation Day and I expect that I will tune in for some of the music to be played in Westminster Abbey. There is always some traditional music such as ‘Zadoc the Priest’ which has been sung at every coronation since that of George II. But there also be some especially commissioned music and individual performances such as from the South African soprano so I shall look forward to that. The major event of the weekend is the party we have been asked to attend with friends on Sunday afternoon and that will be the highlight of our weekend. I bought some nice wine and a couple of bottles of ‘Newcastle Brown’ to take along and the weather forecast is showing that Sunday may have the best weather of the weekend. In any case, it will be wonderful to have a chat with the people attending the party – of some 15-16 we think we that we know practically all of them so a happy occasion is in prospect.

Today the nation is voting in the local elections but there are many indications that today’s vote may well be a mini general election as so many council seats are up for election in 230 out of 317 councils across the country. As an election junkie, I will stay up for an hour or so until some kind of trend is established but some councils are only starting to count on Friday morning. So many of the more interesting results will probably emerge in the course of tomorrow rather than this evening. Being a Thursday, I got to the supermarket in plenty of time and was home just after 9am leaving Meg in bed and fast asleep whilst I shopped. After Meg and I breakfasted, one of our phone calls from yesterday was returned to us this morning and I needed to get some documentation examined and signed where necessary to hand in to our solicitor this morning. This took us most of the morning, so we enjoyed our elevenses at home and then made ourselves a quickie lunch with some of the leftovers from yesterday which now formed the basis of a curry. Straight after lunch, I made a lightning visit down to the solicitors to hand over some documents together with an explanatory letter and then looked forward to a quiet afternoon marking time, really, until the election results start to unfold this evening.

We are full into the pre-coronation welter of splurge at the moment and the media are full of interviews of people who have been rehearsing, reminisciencies of the coronation of 70 years ago, archive film of the same in 1953, interviews with ladies-in-waiting 70 years later and so on and so on. In some ways, one will be glad when it is all over as we are already in full information overload with all of this. According to newspaper accounts in ‘The Times‘, however, there are going to be several far-out Republican groups who are determined to make their prsence felt but, so far, not to disrupt the proceedings themselves. The Police have been given special powers to immediately smother any kind of protest that might occur and I suppose they will not hesitate to use them at the first sign of any disturbance. One can already discern elements of what the Romans used to call ‘bread and circuses’. Roman society was often threatened with disruption by the have-nots of Roman society (the plebeans) as most of the actual political power was concentrated in the hands of the patrician class. In order to stave off incipient revolts, a policy emerged of ‘bread and circuses’ The ‘bread’, to which the Roman poet and satirist Juvenal refers, was the free monthly grain dole that citizens of the capital city were eligible to collect, and the ‘circuses’ which were violent public spectacles, such as gladiator games in the amphitheatre and chariot races staged in the enormous racetrack called the Circus Maximus. So the term ‘bread and circuses’ means a policy of givng a few handouts on a societal level (a few budget handouts just before a general election) followed by any opportunity for a diverting public display (a royal wedding, funeral or coronation) to keep the population quiescent and leave power in the hands of the traditional rulers. The concept of ‘bread and circuses’ is probably being used, consciously or not, in most political systems and regimes throughout the world.

News has emerged this afternoon from what is sometimes known as ‘the other side of the pond’ or the United States. The former leader of far-right group the Proud Boys has been convicted of orchestrating a plot to attack the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The attack led to members of the group storming the building after Joe Biden was officially confirmed as the next president. The leader of the Proud Boys along with three other members of the group, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy – which is conspiring against the legitimacy of the state. During the election campaign, Donald Trump spoke directly to the Proud Boys, known as a militant, gun-carrying group, telling them to ‘stand back and stand by’. This is quite an important conviction although it is by no means the first. There are still some political commentators in the US who think that another attack on th Capital building is not inconceivable as there is a proliferation of armed, right wing groups who have been enouraged by right wing media outlets such as Fox News to suspect that another attack on the Capitol building cannot be ruled out.

A remininiscence now about elections. My mother, as a local government employee, used to love the opportunity when elections were held to earn a bit of extra money as a poll clerk. As a very young boy, I was instructed, if I wished to make contact with my mother after school, to ask the policeman at the door of the polling station if I could talk with the poll clerk. Instead I asked to speak with the ‘pole cat’ whereupon the policeman burst out laughing (but I could not understand why) My mother insisted on exercising her right to vote even when she was in a residential home but this proved difficult to organise on occasions (but she rightly, insisted that she be allowed to vote)

It was a beautiful spring day but we had things to do so we did not have much time to enjoy it. Last night, after the church meeting (which ran on for half an hour) I dropped my friend back at his house where Meg had been entertained by his wife in my absence. We did succumb, though, to the temptation of some Jamieson’s whisky on ice as a night cap and I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed Jamieson’s (Irish) whisky. When we got home it was twenty minutes to midnight so we must have been chatting for the best part of two hours. Needless to say, it was a case of just dropping into bed the minute we got home. This morning we had a couple of telephone calls to make, after which we set forth along Bromsgrove High Street where we needed to consult with our bank over some financial transactions we are shortly to undertake. The Bank gave us some good advice and it was worth having a chat with them. Then we returned home and set to work making lunch from a series of ‘left-overs’ We were expecting a visit from a pysiotherapist (for Meg) but were slightly unsure about the timing. We are just getting to the end of our meal when the physio turned up and he seemed a presentable young man. He gave Meg a range of balance and some other routine tests, each one of which Meg managed to perform much better than when she is left alone with me. We ended the consultation with the promise of some information sheets with balance exercises on them and the possibility of attending some classes which may assist with some of Meg’s balance problems. One bit of advice which may or may not be useful was to experiment with a trekking pole when she walks outside so we will dredge these out of whereever we have stored them and then give it a go. Frankly, I am a little sceptical but it is worth trying anything once.

This afternoon was beautiful and sunny so it was a good opportunity to get the grass mown, which I did. At this time of year, the grass seems to shoot up in front of your very eyes and each day that it remains uncut, one can see the difference. I am reminded that once you start to cut the grass, the very act of mowing releases a hormone which stimulates further growth. The dandelions received their come uppance but I know that it is quite commom to mistake dandelion for another weed known variously as cat’s ear, flatweed and even false dandelion. The last time I studied the profusion of yellow flowers in the verges which border Kidderminster Road, I came to the view that they were cat’s ear and not dandelions but the ones in my own garden will need further study before I can come to a firm conclusion.

There has been an extraordinary foreign affairs story this afternoon. A couple of drones have attacked the Kremlin but it appears they were intercepted and destroyed before they could do very much damage. This has the hallmarks of an assassination attempt against Putin and the Russian military authorities have immediately blamed the Ukrainians and promised an immedate retatiation. For their part, the Ukrainians have categorically denied that they were responsible. Many analysts are of the view that Russia itself was responsible for staging the attack as it would then enable them to pursue the Ukrainianian leader with a vengeance. Whether the truth will emerge is unclear at this stage but certainly the Russians have plenty of incentive to stage such an attack upon themselves so as to mobilise support for the war, particularly in view of the fact that there is to be large military parade in the next few days to celebrate their victories over fascism ie. the end of World War II.

Tomorrow is Election Day and there is an innovation at play in the election process that is likely to provoke masses of controversy. Voter identification is to be required for all those voting in person at a polling station to combat a scale of voter fraud which is practically a non existent problem (of the order of one or two prosecutions per election) This is really just a case of voter suppression which the Republican party in the US have used to good effect to minimise the effect of the Democratic (largely black) vote. Just 50,000 out of an estimated two million voters without ID have applied for the new ‘free’ voter identification certificate ahead of England’s local elections. To compound the problems, in recent days, government ministers have refused to say whether those denied a vote because they have no ID will be recorded. It could be that the big story tomorrow night/Friday morning as well as the normal counts of gains and losses will be the prospect of thousands and possible hundreds of thousands of people denied the opportunity to vote. We are very unknown territory as things stand at the moment but the possibilty remains that this ‘voter suppression’ may become the really dramatic story on election night. Research commissioned by the government found nine per cent of people did not have ‘in-date and recognisable’ photo ID. And certain groups were less likely to have photo ID, making them more at risk from the new measures. Unemployed people, those with a severely limiting disability, and older people were all found to be less likely to hold a form of photo ID. Tomorrow night, we may find out the worst.

I feel that this whole week is a countdown to much more significant events happening at the end of the week (the local election results, the Coronation, our coronation party) Nonetheless, today was going to be quite a busy day but we started off as we always do with a chat with the couple of old ladies who are our pre-pandemic friends, meeting of course in the Waitrose café. We always have a jolly time and today was no exception. One of the things we discussed was what we were going to wear to whatever social events were being organised in connection with the coronation. Principally, it was a matter whether to be patriotic and to wear something red, white or blue or not to bother at all. In my own case, I was already contemplating whether to wear the batik shirt, I acquired whilst I was teaching for a term in Indonesia whilst I was working for De Montfort University. Batik is a traditional method of fabric dying and by applying wax, waiting for it to harden, and then submerging the fabric in dye, the batik method produces beautiful and unique designs and patterns. If the weather is fine, I shall wear this shirt but if we are forced indoors, I have an alternative which is a completely over-the-top psychedelic tie I just bring out for occasions like these, when it is often a conversation stopper. Before we went out this morning, I received a telephone call from our Italian friend down the road and she informed us that she had been invited to the party on Sunday. As I was passing the house of the organisers, I said that I would pay the small financial contribution we are throwing into the kitty to pay for the costs of the food whilst we are all bringing along our favourite tipple, either for our own consumption or those of friends. On the way back home from Waitrose, I popped off at the house where the party is to be held to hand over our friend’s contributions and find out exactly at what time the junkettings were due to start. Then I went down to my Pilates class and apologised for missing last week’s class at short notice as it was the day that Meg and I seized the opportunity to go and lunch with the ‘Old Fogies’ down in Winchester. Walking back up the hill, I was stopped both by our Italian friend and another acquaintance who is going to be at the party as enquiries were being made of Meg’s state of health. Naturally, we are looking forward to the party and there will be about 15-16 of us, most of whom we already know quite well. As an example of ‘wheels within wheels’ the couple who came to the house for afternoon tea just over a week ago are also going to be at the party so this is a good time for us to extend the chats that we had with them the other day. One must say that as summer beckons, there are more and more opportunities for social events and in particular ‘garden party’ type events that are always so enjoyable as we can generally walk to them so not have to be unduly concerned with drinking and driving conflicts.

This evening, I am scheduled to attend the church committee meeting which takes place every two or three months. These are generally quite business-like events but whilst I am out of the house, I am dropping Meg off with our Irish friend whilst I am out of the house for a couple of hours. One never quite knows how these meetings are going to pan out but generally if agenda seem quite light, then discussion expands to fit the time allocated – but if the agenda is full, then it is similarly curtailed to fit the space available. Tonight we are going to be discussing, inter alia, refurbishment of the Parish community centre which would appear to be a simple matter but, in practice, is surrounded by a thicket of planning applications over issues such as windows.

Almost inevitably, a lot of our thoughts are turning to the Coronation of King Charles on Saturday. One little issue which is quite amusing is the famous ‘Stone of Scone’ which traditionally had been purloined by the English from the Scots in centuries past and was incorporated into the Coronation throne. This was being ‘lent’ by the Scots and is now on its own bed of velvet looking material surrounded by two Scottish guardsmen. This is just as well because the Stone of Scone was stolen from the Coronation throne. On Christmas morning, 1950, the stone was stolen from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalists who took it back to Scotland. Four months later it was recovered and restored to the Abbey. This event hit the news again quite recently as the last of the Scottish Nationalists who had been involved in rescuing the stone for the Scots and getting it back to Scotand again died recently, being in his 90’s. There is a long range forecast for Coronation day next Saturday and it looks as though we may have a lot of rain in the afternoon – seventy years ago, it poured with rain all day long when Queen Elizabeth was crowned.