Yesterday as I awoke, it was one of those yellow-grey murky sorts of days which sent me scurrying towards the weather forecasts to see what kind of day was in prospect. It looks as though there is a 25% chance of cloud, gloom and drizzle throughout the day with the rain intensifying in the afternoon with the possibility of thundery showers. I awoke just about 6.00 and got up as today was one of my ‘early’ days when I go to church and leave the house at 8.00am so I need an early start. I am very conscious that this week a year ago was the last week of Meg’s life and I do look back on this blog and see how things were shaping up a year ago. Meg was evidently semi-comatose and in some pain with her legs being in the same position all night and I recorded that when the two experienced care workers got her up, they actually had tears in their eyes. Somehow or other, we had got Meg into her super new wheelchair and I opined that this might be the last time in which she was taken for a walk out of the house – and so it proved to be. I recorded a minor triumph in that I got Meg to ingest a few spoonfuls of porridge and afterwards not only trundled her down to Wetherspoons but also did a quick flash around a couple of shops. I think that Meg was probably asleep or half asleep the whole of the time but later on in the day, I managed to get a few spoonfuls of a chocolate mousse inside her. It rather reminded me of the experiences that you have when you have a young child and you are encouraging them to take solid food and every spoonful is regarded as a triumph. Although the weather is going to be pretty grim for most of the day, I have my friend coming round so we are going to enjoy ‘La Bohème’ together and then have a traditional meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding whilst my friend has hunted out some of that specially bred kale called ‘Cavolo Nero’ and which according to some of the blurb available on the internet is one of the ‘healthiest’ foods on the planet bursting with minerals and vitamins. The political programmes this morning (which I don’t have time to watch) will, no doubt, be full of prognostications for the forthcoming local elections. Scotland will be voting to select MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) using an a form of proportional representation known as the ‘Additional member’ system and Wales is voting in another form of PR designed to eliminate tactical voting but nobody is quite sure how this is going to turn out. It looks almost certain that the traditional Labour dominance of Wales is due to come to and end and Wales will have to get used to a multiparty system comprised on Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens, Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists) and Conservatives bringing up the rear. No doubt all of this will be fully dissected after the actual voting has taken place next Thursday but next weekend, I shall be away for birthday parties (my own and a friends) but I shall have more pleasant things on my mind.
When I attend the service on a Sunday morning, there is always a news letter which contains details of parish affairs on one side and the liturgy of the day upon the other. It is nearly always the case that the Mass is said to honour the memory of a particular person, and I noted that the Mass next Sunday morning is to be offered for the repose of Meg’s soul. There must be a system where the editor of the newsletter brings this item forward but it certainly brought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. After the service, I chatted with one of the church ‘elders’ and the parish priest makes himself available by having brief chats with his parishioners. He told us that in his last parish in Coventry they often had 2-3 funerals a week and sometimes even more so even as a young priest he had officiated at many funeral celebrations. If time had permitted we could have happily swapped amusing funeral stories but I informed one or two of more acquaintances that evidently would attend the 8.30 Mass next Sunday being the actual anniversary of Meg’s death but would be making haste immediately afterwards to go to Berkshire for my friend’s birthday celebrations (and my own, the day after). After that it was my normal routine where I get some living money out of the ATM and pick up a copy of the newspaper from the garage. When I returned home, I cooked myself a breakfast of a poached egg on a slice of sourdough toast and then got to work processing the beef joint which I had cooking in the slow cooker during the morning when I was out. Turning to the Domestic political agenda, the charismatic leader of the Greens, Zak Polanski who is himself Jewish, has run into a tremendous row with the police. Polanski had re-tweeted a post which appeared to criticise the arrest protest in which the assailant of the two Jewish men in Golders Green was seen lying on the ground having been tasered by the police (presumably legitimate under the circumstance) but being repeatedly kicked by two officers (presumably, not part of the standard police restraint procedures) Polanski has apologised but the sweep of public and media opinion seems to be that we should turn a blind eye to the kicking of a prone suspect by police officers. I suspect that no action will be taken against the police officers but it is disturbing to witness police officers departing from the highest standards of professionalism that we expect of them. If this were America, we would say ‘normal for the USA’ but of course we pride ourselves on higher standards in the UK. We have a real political dilemma how to respond as a society to the recent stabbings and the rise of evidently overt anti-Semitism. The knee jerk response is to say ‘ban all marches in support of Palestine’ but this would be a massive blow to the operation of our rights to freedom of speech and to demonstration. Two facts stand out which the majority of the marchers are completely peaceful and do include some Jewish peoples themselves. But is an unfortunate fact that these large demonstrations are undoubtedly highjacked by forces of both the extreme left and the extreme right and the police themselves are called upon to make a judgement where freedom of expression ends and the expression of antisemitism begins. If I might pose a question (to which I do not know the answer) is a poster proclaiming ‘Free Palestine’ antisemitic? Consulting the AI element of Google, I get the following reasoned argument. Whether a poster proclaiming ‘Free Palestine’ is considered anti-Semitic is a subject of intense debate, largely depending on context, intent, and accompanying slogans. Many interpret ‘Free Palestine’ as a call for human rights, an end to the military occupation of Palestinian territories, and self-determination for the Palestinian people. In this context, it is generally considered political speech rather than anti-Semitism. For many others, the phrase is interpreted as a call for the dissolution of the State of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state. When it implies the removal of Jews from the region or denies their right to self-determination, it is viewed by many, including the ADL, as anti-Semitic. The slogan becomes explicitly anti-Semitic when it is used to harass Jewish individuals, threaten synagogues, or hold Jewish people globally responsible for the actions of the State of Israel. When ‘Free Palestine’ is accompanied by phrases like ‘From the river to the sea,’ it is widely seen as a call for a single Palestinian state covering the entire territory of Israel, implying the destruction of Israel and thus often interpreted as a form of antisemitism. In summary, the slogan itself is not inherently anti-Semitic, but it is frequently used in ways that cross the line into antisemitism by targeting Jewish people or advocating for the destruction of Israel.