As I woke yesterday morning just after 6.00am it was still quite dark outside so I allowed myself the luxury of an extra half an in bed although I do like to be all up, showered and with my Pilates exercises undertaken before the Politics programmes start at 8.30am. I knew that yesterday was going to be some of the women’s rugby quarter finals and the first match I saw was South Africa vs New Zealand, known as the ‘Black Ferns’ and the South Africans through sheer power and strength were holding New Zealand to a 10:10 draw at half time. But then, at half time, the Black Ferns evidently decided to play a much more fee-running game and at the start of the second half scored, I think, three tries in about eight minutes, after which the outcome of the game was never to be going to be in doubt. In the other game, Canada completely swept aside Australia so now we await two more quarter finals to be played later in the day.
Last night was the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ and this, for me, always symbolises the end of summer – I was amazed it had come around so quickly. In past years, I have not always enjoyed this and cannot stand the overt nationalism and jingoism that is manifest, even though it is a traditional institution by now. But I surprised myself by really enjoying last night’s concert. I think the BBC and the concert organisers had done a magnificent job in allowing he expression of national sentiments without the excessive and vulgar nationalism which had been displayed in the past. Some of the pieces chosen were interesting such as a medley of songs from ‘My Fair Lady’ as well as harking back to bygone decades with a landmark performance of Queen’s iconic Bohemian Rhapsody to mark the song’s 50th anniversary, featuring band members Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor. There was a rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ with the words displayed on the screen. But in the year of Meg’s death, this was poignant in the extreme and I did have a silent weep. I reproduce some of the sentiments below:
But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
Ye’ll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Ave there for me;
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!
In practice most of the flags displayed were small square EU flags adorned with the circle of stars but one did see the occasional Union Flag as well. I gather that a campaign group appalled by Brexit is responsible for this display of flags but to my mind, I thought the BBC had navigated its way through the culture wars pretty well and I found the whole concert proved to be both tasteful and moving. But on the streets of London yesterday there was a huge nationalist demonstration called ‘Save the Kingdom’ in which well over 100,000 marched and,together with counter protesters, the estimate is that 150,000 took to the streets of London yesterday. Evidently the far right was delighted and some of their more thuggish elements made their presence felt and 26 police officers were injured, some of them quite seriously. There was a great mixture of motivations amongst the marchers but undoubtedly there was a huge anti-immigration feeling manifest and both legal and illegal migrants were lumped together in this display of nationalistic feeling (which I must say is somewhat reminiscent of what conditions must have been like when the Nazis swept to power, legally, in 1930’s Germany) After I had watched the politics programmes broadcast on Sunday morning, I walked down into town to pick up the copy of my Sunday newspaper and had a coffee on Waitrose. I bumped into a couple of dog-walking acquaintances on the way down and then came home to prepare myself some lunch, which was a curry to suit a cold day. Then I watched the Ireland-France rugby match which was exciting in the extreme and to use an old sporting cliché it was a game pf of two halves with the Irish dominating the first half but the French gradually overhauled the Irish in the second. But for a mistake, the Irish could have scored a try in the closing seconds of the game to secure a victory, the game was so close. In the afternoon my daughter-in-law came round by prior arrangement and as the weather was cold and windy outside were quite content to watch the last rugby quarter final which was England vs. Scotland. My son came to join us in the late afternoon and we watched England overwhelm Scotland, although Scotland did manage to score a consolation try at the very end of the game. We now have some exciting semi-finals set up for next weekend as well.
The next week is going to be an interesting one politically. President Trump is due to make a scheduled visit to the UK next week and one wonders whether the British media will ask him constant questions about the non-release of the Epstein files. I am sure the UK will try their hardest to ensure that this does not happen. At the same time, there is quite a deal of speculation over the state of Trump’s health and he does appear to have noticeably slowed down in the course of the last week. It could well be that the whole of the Starmer premiership is under increased scrutiny followed the revelation of emails detailing the friendship of Mandelson with the convicted paedophile, Epstein so it will be an interesting week, politically. As the one-time Labour Prime Minister opined decades ago ‘a week can be a long time in politics’ and one can only speculate what the next week will bring. But we do know that Autumn storms are now well and truly upon is and most of England is covered by storm warnings for the next few days. Today when I walked into town, I was glad of my leather jacket and suspect that I will need a warm waterproof for the next few days ahead as well.