Yesterday was the day in which I travelled up to Yorkshire to see my sister ready for a ‘birthday bash’ on Sunday. I am going up by train utilising my Senior RailCard which I have just renewed for a three-year period and my University of Birmingham friend is going to drop me at the station ready to catch a train in the late afternoon. The evening before my Droitwich friend (who used to live around the corner from us) and I finally touched base so I made a flying visit to her new home in Droitwich after she had returned from a business trip to London. Of course, Sod’s Law came into operation and I ran into the most enormous traffic jam on the way there, which I assumed to be a huge accident as I saw an ambulance coming in the opposite direction but it turned out to be nothing more pedestrian than some road works that seemed to be causing havoc but only in the direction I was in which I was travelling) We had a pleasant evening in the company of her two teenage sons who happen to be keen cricketeers so I managed to tell them my Gary Sobers/Frank Worrell stories but as their cultural heroes were Asian cricketers rather than West Indian my story did not make quite the impact on them that I had fondly imagined that it might. My friend introduced me to some of the delights of biltong of which I had heard but never actually tasted. Biltong is a type of air-dried, cured meat traditionally made from lean cuts of beef, but it can also be made from game meats like venison or ostrich, or even other meats like pork or turkey in some variations. The meat is marinated in a mixture of vinegar, salt, and spices, then air-dried for several days, which differentiates it from beef jerky that is typically cooked with heat. My contribution to this light repast was a Waitrose chocolate cake which we all enjoyed. The day is going to be punctuated by showers nearly all day which makes it a little difficult to work out both what to wear and also whether to make my journey into Bromsgrove on foot or by car. I shall probably ‘chicken out’ and go by car because I do not want to get soaked to the skin before I make my journey later on in the day.
The illegal migrants stories continue to donate the local domestic political agenda and Sky News has gone out to interview the protesters to see what motivates them. What is a bit scary is that none of them seems to trust any of what is called MSM (the Main Street Media) which include BBC, ITV and organisations such as Sky News) which they believe to be in intrinsically biased, Instead, they seem to think that the ‘real truth’ lies in the social media where anyone can publish almost anything and so wild and completely untrue rumours get currency. Meanwhile the Main Street Media which is staffed by journalists who have to check facts before publication is ignored. So, in this febrile atmosphere, many of the protestors are of the view that illegal migrants are constituting an invasion of the country. The truth is, of course, much less dramatic and prosaic. The proportion of immigrants who come illegally is a complex question, but in the UK, around 5% of the nearly one million immigrants who arrived between July 2024 and June 2025 came illegally (approx. 49,000 people). In contrast, about 375,000 were asylum seekers arriving in the UK for the year ending June 2024, which are legal routes, though many asylum seekers arrive through irregular means and are counted as part of the irregular arrivals data. However, a significant number of people already in the UK without permission do not arrive in this way; they overstay visas or have failed asylum claims.
In the morning. I collected my newspaper and then walked along the High Street to the ‘Horse and Donkey’ charity shop which I am making part of my regular routine on Friday mornings. Here I had a chat with the two staff as they had no other customers apart from somebody trying to sell them things. Then I returned home and had a long chat with our domestic help about family matters and then carried on finishing the packing arrangements for my journey. I am going to make a lightning trip into town to pick up some sandwiches and will eat them by way of dinner once I arrive in my hotel room at about 9.00pm in the evening. Evidently, My laptop has to be packed up and taken with me but this worked like a treat the last time I visited Harrogate immediately after Meg’s funeral so I am not anticipating any problems on that score. As I expected, the government has won its appeal in the High Court over the eviction from a hotel of asylum seekers – if the existing situation was allowed to stand, then the alternatives available to the government were far less palatable and would have involved things like detention (probably illegal) in ex army barracks or using a stock of ‘Multi Occupation Housing’ units in various parts of the country which might have made the situation far worse. On my long train journey up North, I shall be able to able to engage in some reading time, will be able to read ‘The Times’ from cover to cover and may well engage in a ‘fiendish’ level Sudoku as well. After I have been so bereft of good company this past week, I shall particularly look forward to some good conversations with family members and this little trip to Yorkshire may help to recharge my batteries as it were. I am not sure how family members I will see tomorrow but on Sunday, I am hopeful that there will be a ‘gathering pf the clans’ and I can see a lot of my family including the younger members who I scarcely had the chance to meet when I last went up to Yorkshire. I texted one of my nephews whilst I was on the train and he very kindly agreed to pick me up the station and convey me to the hotel. Then we had a couple of magnificent beers in the excellent hostelry across the road from the hotel and had a really satisfying ‘catch up’ session with each other which I really appreciated.