The day before yesterday was an interesting one, as starting in the mid afternoon. I decided to make a start on my Christmas card list, which although I have address labels in a file ready to be printed off is still quite a venture. First I located my file and had to update it and reorder it somewhat as almost inevitably there have been some deletions to it. Then I printed off 40 address labels on 4-5 sheets and this helps to automate the process somewhat although sometimes there is not an absolute match between the address and the label and the address over runs a little onto the following label. Then it is a case of going through the labels systematically, taking care to choose religiously themes cards for those who would particularly appreciate them, more internationalist type of cards (generally a Dove of Peace) for particular individuals and then all points in between. In the morning I had tramped up and down Bromsgrove High street seeking out the displays of Christmas cards in the charity outlets – at Christmas time, I always want to support a charity in the appropriate way. I wanted in particular some religious cards for those who would appreciate than most highly but found them to be almost non-existent. Altogether, I think I located about 3-4 of ‘sort of’ religiously themed cards out of a total of about 80 but none of classic paintings of the Madonna and Child which is often the subject of Christmas cards and I suppose that if I want these in future years, I am going to have to buy them from some more specialist suppliers. I put an address label in each card before sealing it up and then ensure that I have a sender’s label on the outside in case old contacts have died or moved and the card needs to get returned. I was about a third of the way through this task when my Droitwich friend got into contact and we decided to cook a meal together which we did, collaborating in our usual fashion. Because my friend has spoken of me to her mother in South Africa, I thought I would send her a special little letter to enclose with a Christmas card indicating what firm friends we have become, helping each other with life’s little vicissitudes and I also spent some time locating and making two particular photos one of which is Meg and I and our friend and her aunt taken some four years ago and the other one my friend and I after we had just cooked a big meal together. I got up particularly early (at about 5.00am yesterday) to get the remainder of the cars written and ready to be posted the Post Office later on today which I succeeded in doing in the late morning.. The cards for my Yorkshire family I will take with me when I travel north to Harrogate in a week’s time. It looks as though I have just caught the deadline for cards to be delivered to Spain in time for Christmas as the dates of 11-12 December are mentioned, whereas the date for guaranteed delivery of second class mail here in the UK is December 17th so I have beaten this deadline by some five days. I spent a certain amount of time today making sure that my address file is up-to-date so this is all ready to roll for next year. I must say that I think that I got the cards processed extremely expeditiously this year although, of course, I concentrate upon those that have to catch the mail whilst nearby friends and neighbours can be left until a little later. I must confirm that there was a slight pang for each card that signed which was ‘Mike’ on each card rather than ‘Mike and Meg’ as has been the case for the past 57 years. There were a couple of instances as well where ex-neighbours of ours in Hampshire would not have heard about Meg’s passing in May so this needed an added note of explanation.
A few photographs have been released from the Epstein files in the USA but there is nothing to suggest any illegal or indeed impropriety. But it is being pointed out that these are but a drop in the ocean because there are believed to be over 95,000 images in total and the legislation passed by both Houses of Congress gives the relevant authorities until December 19th, i.e. one week more to release the vast bulk of the material. I would anticipate that when the files are released, some will be held back on the grounds of ‘national security’ and I would not be surprised if an enormous amount of redaction (i.e. blacking out of embarrassing material) will have taken place. Given the litigious nature of America society, there may well be a flurry of court battles lying ahead of us as well. There is a very balanced and well-argued analysis in ‘The Times‘ published the headline ‘Brexit made us poorer and it is getting worse.’ by the economist Emma Duncan. The latest analysis indicates that GDP per head (the best measure of prosperity) is in the range of 6%-8% lower than if Brexit had not happened and that figure is about £3,000 for each of us in the population. The authors of the paper are highly respected and analysts are drawn from Stanford University, the Bank of England, King’s College London, the German central bank and the University of Nottingham. What makes the analysis so powerful though is that the paper utilises a ‘bottom up’ as well as a ‘top down’ approach by looking at the performance of companies that were most exposed to the EU compared with those companies whose exposure to the EU was much less. This, too, mirrors the picture obtained by looking at the macroeconomic data. The article concludes that we shall never make up the ground that we have lost but there is a very strong conclusion that borderless trade with the EU would bring large economic benefits. Those who think that Brexit has been a failure outnumber those who feel it has been a success by 61% to 13% but the politicians seem loathe to grasp this particular nettle and re-establish better trading links with the EU. The Reform party are so far ahead in the polls that the Labour seems like the proverbial ‘rabbit dazzled in the headlights’ and will not dare to make anything except the most tentative (and inconsequential) moves back towards the EU.