When I got up this morning, I noticed with a certain degree of dismay a show shower that evidently been blown over Bromsgrove. I had a quick look outside and was somewhat relieved to see that I think the shower could be described as light snow and as always the grassed areas of our garden had received their full share but the roadways did not seem so badly affected which meant that vehicles (ie the carers) can gain access to us without too much difficulty. However, the precipitation that we did have looked as though it could probably turn to ice which would make things treacherous. I quickly looked at the local BBC weather forecast that indicated ‘sleet’ but I suspect that we are going to have 2-3 unpleasant days before milder air takes over. The weather forecasters are saying that this is the type of weather to be expected in mid winter and not in late Autumn and therefore this amount if snowfall in mid November is rather unusual. We have had a few years with hardly any snow so this does come as a bit of a shock to the system but, of course, in the past I could transport Meg to places by car but now that she can only be moved in a wheelchair, the actual weather conditions have become a lot more critical for us. The snow shower seems to have abated by 7.00am so I am earnestly hoping it will stay that way. The snow actually petered out to a slight sleet for most of the morning when Meg and I stayed in – however, I did manage a quick dash in the car and back (whilst Meg was dozing and listening to some soothing music) to collect our copy of the newspaper from down the road.
The day has continued to be a very strange one, in lots of ways. Evidently, we had to stay in because of the inclement weather but I managed to snatch a few minutes whilst Meg was dozing to pay a lightning visit to Waitrose. One of our favourite carers came in the middle of the day to do the Tuesday ‘sit’ and we spent a lot of time exploring our respective attitudes to religion (the young carer being brought up as a Muslim but not really a believer as such) Then in the middle of the day, we received a most welcome telephone call to tell us that the special Riser-Recliner chair had been supplied by the manufacturer to the relevant depot and we needed to settle upon a delivery date. The first available to them was a week on Thursday but although it is normally my ‘shopping’ day, I did not want to put them off as I hope that the chair will be worth its weight in gold when we get it into use. Then we had the hairdresser arrive by appointment and although I had my haircut, Meg was not sitting in her wheelchair by this stage so we had to give it a miss. But our hairdresser is very understanding and we gave Meg’s hair a miss on this occasion but she will have it done just before Christmas.
In the middle part of the afternoon, Meg and I settled down to watch the second of two programmes on immigration broadcast on BBC1 on Monday nights. These were two excellent programmes and explored how politicians on both sides of the political divide (but mainly the Tories) coped or rather did not cope with immigration. We knew that the Home Office had instituted a policy of a ‘hostile environment’ to try to sweep up illegal migration but we ended with the Kafka-esqe scenario in which people who had been here for decades were classified as illegal an subject to deportation. Many people who arrived from the Caribbean as children had not kept their parent’s passports (which were issued to them as British citizens with an indefinite right to remain) but the children of those who arrived on the ‘WindRush’ in 1949 and their descendants could not necessarily ‘prove’ they were British. So we had the massive injustice that some people who had worked and lived in this country for decades and paid taxes all. of this time were now swept up under the ‘hostile environment’ policy and were access to jobs, houses and social security benefits. It took the Home Office a long time to very belatedly recognise what a pig’s ear it had made of the whole of this policy and the programme reported that only about 17% have to date received the compensation that they were promised. But I remember the closing days of the ‘Brexit’ debate quite clearly and practically all of the arguments were about levels of immigration and not about European issues ‘per se’ Nigel Farage realised that immigration was a wonderful way in which to weaponise the debates promulgated by UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party)that uncontrolled migration from Europe (and those countries that might enter the EC) were poised to enter the UK under the ‘Mobility of Labour’ provisions. At one time it was argued that the entire population of Bulgaria and Romania had the right to enter Britain and, on another occasion and the subject of a scurrilous poster entitled ‘Breaking Point’ the entire population of Turkey could enter. The fact that these were the most evident of misrepresentations (in other words, downright lies) did not really matter because although it was pointed out that the numbers it was claimed who could enter was greater than the populations of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey respectively, the argument had a powerful emotive force for many and the damage was done. It reminds one of the expression well known in political circles that ‘a lie gets half around the world before truth has a chance to pull its pants on’) On the programme, Nigel Farage was frank that they key to winning the whole of the Brexit debate lay in raising the emotive subject of immigration and the slogan ‘Take Back Control’
The day was rounded off by three pleasant events.First I had a FaceTime call from my son whose deep seated bronchitis is now being treated with steroids which I hope will have the appropriate impact. We watched a rendition of Mozart Piano Concerto No 23 on YouTube after an episode of a classic Alf Garnett. Finally, Meg was put by bed by the two young male carers with whom Meg always has a laugh and a joke and ensures that she goes bed in a relaxed state which is good to see.