There is a huge domestic political row going on at the moment, centering around Nigel Farage the Reform party leader. He was a pupil at Dulwich College in London some 49 years ago and several former pupils and masters have all testified to the claim that Farage engaged in antisemitic and racist attitudes whilst he was a pupil aged 16-18 years. These allegations have been rumbling around for a long time but have recently been resurrected and amplified by a recent article in ‘The Guardian‘ Farage and other Reform members have hit back strongly and Farage himself is claiming that there was a certain amount of schoolboy banter but no malicious intent. Farage is directing his anger against the BBC but the allegations have received prominence in all of the media, including Sky News against whom Farage does not direct any anger. There is an evident problem in raising allegations of behaviour and conduct made whilst still a teenager about half a century earlier. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the large number of allegations are all made up or the result of a false memory syndrome – as it is possible that Farage could become our next Prime Minister, then it is natural that his background receives this level of scrutiny. One suspects that this story will only run and run and with the Reform party surging in the polls, there is an evident desire from both the Tory and the Labour party to puncture the mystique that Farage has built around himself. Later on today, I need to hit the road to do some shopping for party food for tomorrow’s party and will see what stores like Lidl have to offer. Listening to ClassicFM this story, there as a rendition of ‘O Tannenbaum’, which literally translates to ‘Oh! fir tree’ from the original German but this tune is popularly known as ‘Oh! Christmas tree’ It just so happens that this this tune is also used as the musical accompaniment to the left-wing campaigning song ‘The Red Flag’ the opening lines of which are ‘The peoples flag is deepest red, It shrouded oft our martyred dead, And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.’ Now when I was transporting my son around to his various nursery schools before he attended his primary school in Leicestershire, I used to sing to him in the car and this was one of the songs to which he was exposed. I can only imagine the horror on the face of the primary school headmaster when the tune was played and my son started singing ‘The Red Flag’ The headmaster hastened to correct him that this was the tune to ‘Oh! Christmas tree’ but, of course, each was correct in his own way. Sometimes, as a family joke, I tell people about the words of the first popular song to which I was exposed was ‘Giddy Up a ding dong, Giddy up’ and a video of this being played is still available on YouTube and I think the recording was made in 1956. It is incredibly funny to think this was once part of popular culture but well worth a watch for a giggle. Mind you, I still remember ‘Que será, que sera’ (‘What will be, will be’) from that era because in 1956 our family were due to be split up whilst my mother trained to be a teacher in Newcastle, I was lodged in a boarding school in Bolton, Lancashire and my sister went to school in York whilst my grandmother stayed behind in Harrogate – so none of us knew at that time what the future held in store for us.
In the morning, I texted my nonogerian ex-chorister friend to see if she was available for coffee as we had missed each other during the week. She informed me that she had been in hospital and was now having to weeks of respite care in, I imagine, our local community hospital. Naturally, I wished her well and gave her my best wishes for her very fullest recovery, hopefully in time to enjoy the Christmas festivities. I was on the point of going out to coincide (hopefully) with acquaintances in another coffee establishment when my Droitwich friend phoned from a hotel bedroom in Milton Keynes. She had been staying there overnight after visiting work colleagues in London and then was then expecting a lift back to Birmingham International where she had left her car. We chatted about all kinds of things, some of them health related others being family related (having some little sadnesses to share with each other) and after this long and uplifting chat, I set out onto the road I what was to prove to be a very long morning. First I popped into Wetherspoons and made a hurried contact with ‘Seasoned World Traveller’ who I thought might be there but he was busy on his laptop and I was on a 30 minute car parking ticket so neither of us could tarry. Then I went to Lidl to do a major ‘party food’ shop in time for the carers’ party the next day. I rather imagined that at this time of year, there might have been a special ‘party organisers’ section of the store complete with the appropriate food but I finished off just buying bits and pieces from the various parts of the store. I have a selection of savoury items some sweet things to finish off and a selection of beers, wines, ciders and soft drinks. As last year, I may have bought too much but I am sure that over the festive season, it will all get consumed. Then I popped into a neighbouring store in order to buy some tinsel but was amazed to be told that it had all sold out apart from one blue strand which I nonetheless purchased. Then I visited yet another neighbouring store, still in search of tinsel and did end up buying some more coffee and ‘CoffeeMate’ (powdered milk powder) which is always useful. In the second store along, I did buy some of these long thin calendars which I keep in the kitchen and the bedroom to keep forthcoming dates on view. When I returned home, pretty exhausted by now, I was delighted to see someone (and I really do not know who, but it must be a church friend) had come along in my absence and affixed a couple of Christmas wreathes to the relevant nails in our porch. This was so good of them but I must find out who had committed the good deed and, indeed, pay for them.