Everything was delayed yesterday morning as I got up later than normal – at least it was light when I eventually hauled myself out of bed. The evening before, I had engaged in a (very) long video call with a close friend from Hampshire – we often have a long chat about once a month as we always have a lot to say and to share with each other. His wife is very poorly at the moment and although the diagnosis differs, many of the external manifestations of the illness mirror that of Meg who passed away nine months ago now. So we share practical and emotional support for each other as there are things in ‘normal’ life (apart from caring for our respective spouses) that need to be done. One particularly practical issue to be done involves utilisation of the ‘Power of Attorney’ to the full as my friend had not fully appreciated (nor did I at the time) that the ‘Power of Attorney’ is automatically made null and void at the point after which the loved one has passed away. So this is one of the really practical tips I have managed to pass on as I am some months ahead of my friend on what are essentially similar care trajectories. Incredible to relate, my friend and I were actually chatting non-stop for the best of three hours non stop until tiredness overwhelmed us and we had to make for our beds. This morning, I have been sending some texts which has further delayed me. But later in the day, I should have had a hospital appointment but the day before I had received two texts, one saying that the appointment had been cancelled and to expect a new appointment date through the post. The second text reminded me of my appointment time but told me to ignore the text of the appointment had been cancelled in the meantime (which it had). So I just get a feeling it is going to be one of those ‘itsy-bitsy’ types of days where nothing quite falls into place into place the way it had been planned but at least the weather is quite mild and, despite rain in the air and it being a bit gloomy, the temperature is about 8° which is not too bad for this time of year. One can also see the first glimmers of spring vegetation start to appear such as the Forsythia bush which often sports an array of small yellow buds/flowers at this time of year.
Later on in the morning, I went down to the Methodist Centre near the centre of town and was delighted to see one of my old Waitrose coffee drinking pals on her own so naturally I joined her. She was one of the group of originally about eight of us who have now shrunk to about 2 (including myself) but we a pleasant chat today. I As she is a key-holder, it looks as though she will has responsibility for opening up the premises first thing on a Wednesday morning so it now looks as though we might coincide at a regular time each week. Tomorrow is my Tai Chi class which I missed last week so this is worth reconnecting with. I have switched my weekly shopping day to a Wednesday rather than a Thursday and without having to make provision in terms of alcohol or food for any special meals was actually quite delighted to have a shopping bill that was about £20 lighter than has been the norm recently. I have just seen a clip of film in which Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney general was before the House Judiciary committee and was asked to explain why it was that the names of perpetrators of sex crimes were nearly always redacted whilst names (and contact details and n some cases photographs) of victims were not redacted. The Committee was shown unequivocal proof of this in a series of placards held aloft by survivors who were allowed to attend the meeting. Bondi was asked to apologise to the victims present in the court but pointedly refused to do instead claiming that she refused to participate in this political theatre and went off another rant about a completely unrelated matter. The chairman of the Committee is a Republican but when witnesses refuse to answer a question, he just moves on to the next part of the business which makes a farce of the whole proceedings. One cannot imagine the Chair of a Select Committee in the House of Commons letting a key witness not answer or evade a question but, of course, American politics is so divided that none of the normal rules seem to apply. So when members of the Trump administration are asked to account for their actions, they blatantly lie or evade the questions asked, even when presented with incontrovertible evidence, and they are then never subject to any sanctions by the Committee chairman which rather negates the whole purpose of having a committee hearing in the first place.
One of the facets of our political life is the fact that there is a general belief in accountability and that our rulers should answer questions honestly, truthfully and without equivocation. But whenever a question is asked of one of our political leaders either in in government or opposition, it is rare that the question ever gets answered. Even the same set of ‘facts’ can be presented in different ways and I was conscious of this during the time of my academic life when I taught research methods. Let us imagine that in a survey of public opinion, we had a response in which 50% did not know or had no opinion on a topic, 25% were opposed to it and another 25% were in favour of it. Let us say the topic was a ‘road widening scheme’ and given the response pattern given above it would be possible to argue that or that ‘75% were in opposed to the scheme or had no opinion one way of the other’ or that ‘ 75% were in favour of the scheme or had no opinion one way of the other’ Both responses would actually be an accurate reflection of the answers to the question and for this reason I used to counsel that questions avoided a ‘soggy middle’ but forced respondents to chose by using four categories such as, in relation to a hypothetical road widening scheme, ‘very much opposed’, ‘somewhat opposed’, ‘somewhat in favour’ ‘very much in favour’. Questionnaires are often very badly designed, in any case, and may serve a quasi-political purpose rather than a truth-seeking objective.