I had busied myself the evening before last in preparing the final version of a special ‘Grace Before Meals’ which my good friend in Oxfordshire has asked me to prepare for her own celebrations in a couple of day’s time. She evidently wanted something a little out of the ordinary and tailored to the occasion but I did find a template which I managed to extend and to convey exactly the range of sentiments that I felt were appropriate to the occasion. Then at my friend’s request, I transmitted them to a mutual friend who is going to act as MC for the day and thus has the words in his pocket in case anything delays me. To check out whether I had got the appropriate words and tone, I sent the completed article to my niece who is a stalwart of her local Anglican church and she gave me the reassurance that I sought. I was just on the point of going to bed when I got a rather unwelcome telephone call from my American friend with whom I was going to visit Harvington Hall down the road and then have a birthday dinner. But she was feeling unwell so the two engagements are having to be cancelled or at least put on hold for several days until friend’s health improves. These things happen so I am being philosophical and will probably now engage in a ‘normal’ routine for the end of the week where I see my friends in the ‘Gifts of Love’ horse sanctuary and peregrinate along the High Street. Today is the day when the local election results will continue to pile in during the day as only about one third of the councils were starting their counts yesterday evening. So later on today, I can slump in front of the TV and soak up some of the results as they come through. Last night, the Reform party was doing particularly well as had been anticipated and this was largely at the expense of the Labour Party which is already in the throes of a much extended ‘post-mortem’ analysis. At this hour in the morning, Reform had gained about 350 seats, Labour had lost about 250 and the Tories had lost about 160. The respected Sky political correspondent, Beth Rigby, is telling us to anticipate a ‘rainbow’ coloured set of results across the country as we can now expect some Reform led councils but many going to ‘NOC’ which is ‘No Overall Control’. My plans for the next day or so ahead are now a little fluid but I need to pack an overnight case, ensure that I have all of the photos of Meg and music in place so that I can display them when the opportunity presents itself and I also intend to give the car a good wash at the newly discovered ‘do-it-yourself’ car washing station in my local BP garage. In many ways, I will be more than happy when I get the one year anniversary of Meg’s death well behind me and of course this is fast approaching. But I am so relieved that on this first occasion I will be surrounded by supportive friends.
Later on in the morning after I had digested some of the election results, I received a telephone call from my American friend explaining that she had a doctor’s appointment mid-day. I was able to convey the really good news that having contacted Harvington Hall to cancel our joint booking, they were incredibly sympathetic and offered to give me a visit on the strength of the tickets for which I had already paid at any time in the foreseeable future and so my friend and I were delighted about this. By the morning’s post, I had received an invitation to tax the car using an on line system and thus proved to be an incredibly quick and easy process and must have taken me all of two or three minutes. Then I ran off the very emotional second version of Danny Boy which is often recited at Irish funerals. This I have committed to memory and like to say it in front of Meg’s photo and ashes. It is a remarkable piece of poetry in which the person who has died is calling from the grave to eventually be reunited with the person from whom they have been separated – and I can just about get to the end of the eight line stanza without breaking up emotionally. After I popped into town, I frequented my ‘Gifts of Love’ charity shop and then did the round of some of the other charity shops where I bumped into my Irish friend. As she reads my blog on a daily basis, she was fully up-to-date with all of my planned tooings and froings and we made an arrangement to have a coffee together some time in the forthcoming week.
The afternoon has been dominated by the election results. The most dramatic results have been in Wales where Labour has been relegated to the poorest of third places between Plaid Cymru, (the nationalist party) and Reform in a newly constituted electoral system. It looks as though the Labour Party will now only hold 10 of the 90- seats in the new Welsh Senedd (Senate) and the first Minister of Wales has lost her seat (Eluned Morgan) had lost her seat and has resigned. The results for the Labour Party are being labelled as beyond catastrophic, and it seems hard to think how they can claw their way back into power. In Scotland, though, the SNP (Scottish National Party) has retained power but has now has Reform snapping at his heels in many parts of the country with Labour a poor third and the Conservatives absolutely nowhere. In England, Reform has been sweeping up votes from Labour in the North and from Conservatives in the south. In the broadest of terms, Reform now has won about 1000 seats through England and goodly number of councils whilst Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats are all hovering about the 500-seat mark . Labour has lost power in Birmingham which has now moved to ‘No Overall Control’ We are now moving into a situation in which parties in councils where there is ‘No Overall Control’ have to decide who is going to go into alliance with whom. In many cases, no one will enter an alliance with Reform and sometimes Labour, Greens and Liberals stitch together an alliance to outvote Reform so the position is anything but stable.