As soon as we got up this morning, the airwaves were full of the news that at exactly 10.00am this morning, the Supreme Court was due to deliver its verdict on the legality of the government’s scheme to export migrants adjudged to be illegal to Rwanda. So we got ourselves up and breakfasted and then seated before the TV so that we could witness the live judgement of the Court. As the judgement was being delivered, it slowly became apparent what the judgement was likely to be. The Supreme Court took very seriously the opinions of the UNCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) which it looked as though lower courts have either ignored or downplayed. When the judgement came, it was a crystal clear 3-0 defeat for the government appeal so, in the short term at least, no flights will take off to Rwanda as the government scheme is now offically judged to be illegal. Throughout the day, there has been a lot of huffing and puffing about drafting a new treaty with Rwanda but there are various parts of the judgement over which the UK has little control. For example, can the UK insist to the legal authorities in Rwanda that all appellants will have adequate legal representation of their own choice (one of the sticking points) The flights to Rwanda policy on the one hand is being doubled up with the ‘Stop the Boats’ policy but the relationship between them is tenuous. The absolutely ultimate weapon that the UK goverment is urged to deploy (naturally by the Right of the Tory party) is to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights (which predates the EU by the way as the UK ratified it as far back as 1951) over the issue of asylum seekers. Were this to happen, then the UK would be judged to be similar to countries such as Russia and Belarus who are the only two European non-signers of the Convention.This would trash the UK’s standing in the world as a whole as a society that respects the ‘rule of law’ and the damage to the international reputation of the UK is almost incalculable. After we got the excitement of watching this judgement and seen the immediate political reactions to it, we set off for the Methodist Centre coffee bar which is becoming one of our regular morning haunts. Once there, we sat with one of our Waitrose circle who goes to the Methodist Centre for some gentle exercise and treats herself to a coffee beforehands. We chatted with one of her friends and neighbours who, as it turned out, knew Pickering quite well. Pickering was the town nearest to the little village of Levisham on the North York Moors where I lived from birth until about the age of 3-4. I think my sister used to go to her primary school in Pickering so the next time I am in contact with her, I must ask her whether she made that journey by train or by bus.
Later in the morning, we paid a visit to the AgeUK furniture shop and I found what I think is called a classic, possibly vintage, bentwood occasional chair with a beautiful upholstery and a pleasing inlay design on its back. It is not exactly what I was looking for but I made an offer for 80% of the asking price which was accepted and I managed to get it onto the back seat of the car. An initial examination and polish of it is that it is pretty good condition but tomorrow in the daylight, I will give it my ‘0000’ steel wool and beeswax treatment and see what the result is likely to be. I think the wood is walnut and although not completely consistent with the other furniture I have in the Music Room, I think it will serve the purpose well for what I have in mind for it. We had a fairly conventional lunch using up the remains of the beef from the weekend but we wanted to be all washed up and ready to go before a meeting with a couple of parishioners from our church that we have met in the AgeUK club which we attend monthly. We arranged to meet in the foyer of Webbs but after about 10 minutes or so, our friends were not in evidence. But we did run across two other ex-Waitrose friends that we used to see and FaceTime quite regularly in the height of the pandemic but as circumsances have changed, we see less of them now. We exchanged news of how we had been faring over the past few months and then decided to walk towards the cafeteria part of Webbs hoping that our church friends would have made their way there. As we were being shown to a table, we did run across them and there had been a certain amnount of confusion not to mention ambiguity whether we meant to meet in the main foyer or the entrance to the cafeteria part of Webbs. We ordered a pot of tea and indulged in some scones and then exchanged our various bits of news. Neither of us had much to report to the other, although in our case all we could and did recount was the couple of funerals of friends and relatives that we would have liked to have attended but could not for reasons related to distance or bad weather. Our friends did not want to stay too long and we were quite happy to point the car homewards and to get home before it got completely dark. Wednesday is the day when the dustbins have to be pulled to the end of our access road ready for emptying in the morning and I like to get this job done when it is not absolutely black outside.