The breaking news overnight was the resignation from the Labour party of Lord Mandelson in order to ‘save further embarrassment’ In truth, he probably jumped before he was pushed because the latest news, quite apart from the infamous photograph of him crouching over the prone body of a young woman. Bank account transfers are published which show that Mandelson was given $75,000 (about £55,000) by Epstein but for what we know what, apart from the fact that Mandelson was lobbying the Treasury to reduce the top rates of tax levied on bankers. Mandelson denies ever having received the payments, in effect trying to argue that the bank statements were ‘fakes’ but this seems the thinnest of excuses and the Labour party would probably have expelled him forthwith in any case. The evening before yesterday was spent quietly going through a pile of old newspapers to retain significant press-cuttings and I am also re-purposing an old but empty diary-com-day-book by tippex-ing out the out-of-sequence dates so that days/dates align with 2026. Also, I have just been shown how to make a ‘to do’ list for oneself using WhatsApp in a particular way so I will see if I can put this into effect later on in the day. More disturbing news emerged this morning about what you might call ‘sinking’ Britain. The rates for the incidence of measles is soaring and the UK has lost its WHO listing as a country where measles has been all but eliminated. This puts us alongside Austria, Spain and some Eastern European countries such as Uzbekistan. This is important for the UK because vaccination rates have been dropping slowly for years. By September 2025, only 84.3 per cent of children aged five had received both doses of the MMR jab, far below the target of 95 per cent. Because measles is so infectious, doctors often refer to it as a canary in the coal mine for low vaccination rates. It seems as though vaccination rates were declining even before COVID hit us which added a further twist to the downward spiral. Most worrying and not surprisingly, vaccination rates are dropping most in the most deprived areas – and Birmingham is quite badly affected with a rate of only 75.5% of children having received the MMR before their fifth birthday and this is way below the recommended rate of 95% This week has no particular appointments to bear in mind apart from the fact that I have a dental appointment on Thursday and a boiler service on Friday which is hardly earth-shattering. On the other hand, the ‘Six Nations’ rugby season opens on Thursday so this is a treat to which I can look forward. One little thought that I came across recently is this little pearl of wisdom ‘Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.’ We can be our own harshest critics but on the other hand there is such a thing as self-delusion where we try to convince ourselves that we are better than we are at doing particular things. At this time of year, the newspapers are full of advice how to turn one’s life around and these usually focus on diet/exercise. I remember with a wry smile seeing in my local Aldi where they stock up on exercise-related merchandise in January a tea-shirt which read ‘Remember that exercise is not just for January’ which does make one ponder how many good intentions have fallen by the wayside within a month of the start of the year.
The rest of the day developed in an interesting but not unexpected direction. My Droitwich friend phoned me to tell me that after she had dropped her sons off to school she found in the wet and the mud a man’s wallet. Although the contents were absolutely sodden. my friend managed to discern what she thought was a current address and wondered if I could make a trip round to the street, which about a mile away, to tell them that the wallet had been found. We thought the house number was 95a but in the chosen street, the house numbers only went up to 47 so I tried 15a (with no success) and then 5 (with no success), a postman and then a neighbour who lived in the street for ages all without success. When I got home, I phoned 101 (the non emergency contact number for the police) who were not very helpful, suggesting I travel to Worcester some 15 miles away where, if the wallet was unclaimed, they would keep it and then destroy it after 3 months. When I enquired about a more local police station, I was informed that there was one next to the fire station but there was a grey door near to the fire station for the use of the police but no counter service – however, it was possible that a policeman might speak to me if I wanted to hand in a lost wallet. I am amazed that a town the size of Bromsgrove is so under-policed but there we are. But my friend called around in the late afternoon and after I minutely examined the contents we managed to find a more current address and my friend and I delivered it back to its owner. The owner was disabled (blind) but his wife was so relieved and burst into tears of joy. We were so pleased to get it back not the hands of the owner but there were evidently irreplaceable family photos, a driving licence and a variety of cards that might have been almost impossible to replace. Then my friend and I went shopping in Asda for her son’s birthday party and we bought some high quality sausages as a special treat as well as chocolates and cards for the lucky son whose birthday it was. In the evening, I was invited to make up the numbers at a little impromptu birthday party for one of the sons of my friend. We had a jolly time, eating some of the really high quality sausages we had just purchased in the afternoon, indulged in birthday cake and finally opened cards and presents. It was actually an enjoyable experience for the four of us and the fact that my friend and I had successfully restored the lost wallet to its rightful owner filled both of us with a great deal of satisfaction – and something to celebrate as well.