After the recent quasi-assassination attempt on Trump in the USA and the impending visit of our King and Queen, the inevitable question arises about their safety and the probity of the visit. I happen to think that allowing the visit to go ahead is probably a wise course of action for a variety of reasons, not least that the King is in a unique position to help the repair the bad state of relationships into which we have fallen with the USA. I keep saying to myself that the Trump era is surely limited if only because of the state of Trump’s health but, there again, a post-Trump regime in the USA might be almost as unfriendly as the current one, particularly if J D Vance takes over. Trump is already turning the shooting into what he hopes is a massive political advantage by saying that this shooting would never have happened if the venue had been his ‘big and beautiful’ (i.e. hideously garish) huge new ballroom he is intent on building in the White House. There are some voices in the States who are arguing that the whole thing was stage-managed and, although I would not go that far, there are some curious aspects of the whole affair. Normally, the American security services would have shot a potential assassin dead on the spot but the gunman appeared to be completely uninjured. As with so much in the current political scene in the USA, there is more here than meets the eye. I am pretty sure that our King and Queen should be safe enough in the USA and security may well have been tightened even further but who knows? The week ahead is going to be a quiet one but the week after that promises to be rather frantic with a Spanish conversation class, a ‘Curry Club’ meeting and then a trip at the weekend to South Oxfordshire. In the meanwhile, I am trying to get on with bits of gardening but not sufficient to wreck myself which is quite possible at this time of year. I have started to think a little more about breakfasts in a desire to start off the day healthily. If I am a little pushed for time, I have an avocado with some Thousand Island dressing in the hollow created by the removal of the (large) stone. More recently, I have started to mix together some maple syrup (of which I just happened to have some but now exhausted), Greek yogurt, full cream milk and then finally some porridge oats all the ingredients being mixed up well and then placed in the fridge overnight for the various ingredients to blend with each other. Although it is only the start of the week, I realise that there are several things that I am running out of so I probably need to make a lightning visit to the supermarket later on today. Now that that the weather has turned sunny, some ice-cream becomes a necessity rather than a luxury- I try and buy better ice-cream but I do realise that the cheaper brands are probably full of junk ingredients these days.
Language is the meat-and-drink of politics and this is why a few ill chosen words can end a political career. I was reminded of this on the James O’Brien LBC show when he reminded us of the gaffe made by Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary, which probably ended his political career – or certainly destroyed his credibility, In a surprising admission, the Brexit Secretary said he had not realised how essential it was in getting food and medicine into the UK. Speaking at a technology conference, Mr Raab also admitted that the range of goods in British shops could be scaled back if a frictionless trade deal with the EU is not struck in time for Brexit. He indicates that we want a bespoke arrangement that recognises the peculiar, frankly, geographic economic entity that is the United Kingdom. ‘We are, and I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing, and that is one of the reasons why, and there has been a lot of controversy on this, that is one of the reasons why we’ve wanted to make sure we have a specific and very proximate relationship with the EU to ensure frictionless trade at the border’. MPs and pro-EU campaigners said his comments were proof the Government cannot be trusted to handle Brexit. Labour’s Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman asked how are we meant to trust this government to deliver a good deal for this country when we have a Brexit Secretary who doesn’t even understand the very basics of Brexit? Jo Stevens, a Labour MP and supporter of the Best for Britain campaign, said: ‘We finally have an admission of what we have known all along – that the Brexiteers had not really thought through any of the impacts of leaving the EU. British jobs, supplies and services rely on key border crossings like the Dover strait and the fact that the Brexit Secretary is only just realising this is a serious cause for concern’ Another political gaffe was that made by the Agriculture junior minister, Edwina Currie, who opined ‘Most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella’ and this, whilst being quite true, sank her without trace. This statement caused a massive public outcry, a 60% drop in egg sales, the slaughter of 4 million hens, and led to her resignation. That provoked James O’Brien’s recollection of the Dominic Raab gaffe was the statement by the American White House Press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, that the Straits of Hormuz lay adjacent to the coastline of Iran so it is hardly any wonder that they now control them. I am reminded of the tart remark made to the effect that ‘War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography’ and indeed American lack of knowledge of this traditional academic discipline is legendary. In the morning, our domestic help called around a day earlier than usual and, after a chat, I shot into town to get some provisions. On Thursday, it is our domestic help’s 30th wedding anniversary which is also known as the ‘pearl’ anniversary. Then a really extraordinary thing happened because our domestic help, in retrieving a roll of kitchen paper knocked behind a cupboard found a plastic bag containing some of Meg’s pearl jewellery (probably cultivated or river pearls) Delighted by this find, I evidently was delighted to make a gift of them to our domestic help to help her celebrate her anniversary in style and I also bought a bottle of rosé Prosecco and a card with which to celebrate the day. In the afternoon, after a salad lunch, I cut our back lawns which is not too big a job and then, after a bowl of ice-cream spent another ¾ hour de-mossing he patio at the rear of the house. I think this process is about two thirds completed and means that I will not be ashamed to sit out at the back once I have finished the ‘clearance’ part of the job, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
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