Domestic political news seems to be dominating the news headlines as the new day dawns. One of the most important tasks facing the government is to find a way in which the offenders convicted of the manslaughter of a policeman can be removed from the ‘Early Release’ scheme. This was NOT murder (as intent was not proved) as the young policeman was dragged along the road by a car speeding to get away from the interventions of the police but the public campaign to release him is enormous. Andy Burnham has instructed the Justice Secretary to ‘find a way’ to prevent the early release and the legal difficulty is that there is no special offence in law for the killing of an emergency worker. This will no doubt to be remedied in further legislation but this cannot be enacted retrospectively. Last night when I returned from my nightly peregrination in the park with my American friend, I settled down to watch the European athletics competition which is being hosted in Birmingham (but with disappointing crowds so far) There is no doubt that the Norwegians are a dominant force in European athletics at the moment and one of their stars returned from injury to win the 5,000 metres with an astonishing sprint over the last 100 metres. The event to which I was looking forward was the mixed (i.e. men and women) 4 x 400 metres relay race and this was very exciting. The Norwegian quartet won the race but the Brits turned in a very creditable silver and were in contention until the very end. The evening concluded with a brilliant run by a young rising star, Amy Hunt, who won the 100 metres spring final at the very end of the evening. This young athlete has been tipped for great things by those in the know but it was a wonderful sight to see her triumphing on her home soil. One has to feel sorry for the young British shot putter who has come 4th for the fourth time in a major competition. This position, without a medal obviously, is said to be the hardest to bear in all athletics as it is just outside the medals. The weather continues to be hot without even the hint of rain. One of the latest fires to devastate the countryside is in the New Forest where the vegetation is crisp but satellite photos of the UK show that that the whole country has turned from England’s ‘green and pleasant land’ to an orange-brown crisp. I am amazed that we have not yet any disconnections of the water supply because supplies must be running critically low – ironically enough Chopin’s ‘Raindrop Prelude’ is being played on ClassicFM’s play list as I type. Andy Burnham, having returned from a brief holiday, is turning his attention to Britain’s High Streets and is said to be contemplating a crackdown on the vape and betting shops which seem to be the only parts of the urban scene showing a profit at the moment. Labour has crept ahead of Reform by a couple of percentage points with the ‘Burnham bounce’ and we have the interesting by-election on Thursday night in which the principal contenders are Nigel Farage on the one hand and ‘Count BinFace’ on the other. In this farcical election in which there are 34 candidates, BinFace may just garner 20% of the vote but a win seems out of the question.
Having been to Pilates in the middle of the day, I returned and had the lightest of salad lunches because I must leave space for U3A Curry Club dinner this evening which is being held in a village not too distant from here. One my long standing Pilates friends seemed somewhat morose in the class today and I suspected that I knew the reason why because her dog and life companion had been very ill. She had previously sent me wonderful messages of support whilst Meg had been ill so the least I could do was to offer her some similar comfort in her hour of need. Her dog had been in a veterinary hospital for a couple of weeks and will have a blood test in about a week to determine what if any further courses of treatment there are to be. Fearing the worst and knowing that we have no Pilates class next week, I have given my Pilates class mate an open invitation to come and spent an afternoon having tea and/or ice cream with me and my American friend in the garden. Whether she will accept or not I cannot tell but I wanted her to know that she has friends around her and she will not be forgotten. I viewed some of the video footage of the terrible earthquake in Colombia. Sometimes these quakes occur in the middle of the night and can, of curse, strike at any hour of the day or not but normally any video images are of the extensive damage after an earthquake. But many images are circulating of buildings seconds before their collapse and then their subsequent collapse into streets full of terrified and screaming people. The number killed in yesterday’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia, the strongest quake in the South American country in the 21st century, has risen to more than 220 but I fear that it will number in the thousands once the full scale of the destruction becomes known. My energy supplier which is the UK’s biggest energy supplier urges people to use less electricity between 6-8pm tomorrow. Octopus Energy, the country’s biggest household energy supplier, is urging customers to use less electricity during the solar eclipse tomorrow. The window from 6-8pm is expected to have an impact on the electricity grid. Solar generation will be hit as 95% of the sun could be obscured across parts of Britain. Air conditioning, fans and refrigeration are all likely to push electricity use higher. Octopus Energy is incentivising customers to delay using appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers. Those who avoid unnecessary electricity use during the eclipse can earn a free hour of power to use the following weekend. The scheme is known as ‘saving sessions’. Octopus says even a small shift in household demand could help the grid cope with the loss of solar power and reduce the need to bring additional gas-fired power stations online. I am probably going to observe the eclipse on the TV as I do not feel in the least attempted to stare at the sum which, we are being warned, is so very dangerous and can permanently damage one’s sight but there are warnings a-plenty to the population at large.