This has been quite an interesting day so far. Meg and I slept in a little later than we normally both have liked but the carers came and got Meg up, washed, dressed and into her ‘going out’ wheelchair. After we had breakfasted, we made an excursion to the park, made easier by the fact that I had made a lightning visit just after breakfast to collect my newspaper. It was a pleasant day and we exchanged pleasantries with the normal cohort of dog walkers whilst we were sitting on our bench overlooking the pond. A few days ago, I found some sunglasses which had evidently dropped off a pram or a buggy and had been placed on a wall near Waitrose. So I gave these a clean up and asked Meg if she would like to try them did, which she did imitating the Sophia Loren look (who, I believe, use to wear large sun glasses before it became fashionable to do so) Last night, after Meg was in bed, I watched the first of the televised debates between Sunak and Starmer hosted by ITV. In this debate, Sunak was adjudged to be the narrow winner and it was not hard to see why. From somewhere, Sunak produced a figure that an incoming Labour government would tax each family £2,000 and when Starmer did not immediately deny this, the point was pressed over and over again. Naturally, all of the Conservative leaning newspapers (which is most of them) repeated this claim over and over again and it is probably the case that most people, hearing the claim repeated over and over again and not immediately denied, would tend to believe it. But in the cold light of day, analysts have started to examine this claim and have found it as near to a lie as it is possible to be. It looks as though some policy advisers to the Conservative party had some, but not all of the Labour spending plans ‘verified’ by some Treasury officials and then did some totting up and dividing by the total number of households to arrive at the £2,000 figure over a Parliament. But this morning the Labour Party have been quick to denounce this figure as an absolute lie whilst the Treasury itself produced a letter which had indicated to the Tory policy advisers that this computed figure had not been produced by civil servants and the data they produce should not be quoted in any party political broadcasts. So having produced a ‘dodgy dossier’ the Labour party has produced its own dodgy dossier and the Tories have responded with their own dodgy dossier Mark 2 arguing that the initial estimates of £2,000 per family were too conservative an estimate. So what we are left with is the two large political parties, both arguing about dodgy numbers and statistics and with nobody any the wiser until much after the original claim has been made and the damage done. One is reminded of the EU referendum bus campaign in which the amount that the UK sent to the EU each year was painted on the side of a campaign bus. Like other examples of this type, there is always some sleight of hand involved in these types of debates. If I remember rightly, the sum painted on the side of the bus indicating what the UK paid too the EU each year took no account of the subsequent rebate which arrived later so the impression was given, deliberately, that the ‘sent to EU’ figures was the same as ‘contribution to the UK’ which it was not. To bring this row up to date, we now know that Office for Statistics Regulation is ‘looking into Rishi Sunak’s claim over Labour tax costs. It comes after the prime minister alleged repeatedly that Labour have a £38bn black hole in their financial plans, which will cost households £2,000 each. Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News today that Mr Sunak had resorted to ‘desperate lies’ with the allegation. In response, the Conservatives insisted their claim was based on ‘clear Labour policies, their own costings or official HMT [His Majesty’s Treasury] costings using the lowest assumptions’. However, doubt was also cast on Sunak’s claim by a senior Treasury civil servant, who wrote to Labour to warn them that the Tory assessment of their tax plans ‘should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service’. The OSR watchdog said it was looking into the claim but stopped short of saying it was launching a full-on investigation. One is tempted to quote the saying attributed to Churchill that ‘a lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on’ but the spirit of this observation may indeed go back to the Roman author, Vergil centuries beforehand. When all is said and done, I am rather saddened by all of this. Politics is always a bit of a dirty game but when standards of integrity starts to slip so that one party feels that it is obliged to lie as much as the other side then an enormous cynicism comes over the electorate who tend to opine ‘that they are all the same’ If this view prevails, then the political process as a whole gets so demeaned that any kind of more progressive politics becomes more and more difficult to attain. I do get the feeling these days that we need a reset of our political process and although in the past I have not been enamoured of proportional representation, I am beginning to feel that the case for this is becoming stronger by the day. But of course, one has to ensure that in any new voting systems, one does not give power to extremely small parties for whom hardly anyone has voted but who can hold the balance of power in tight elections.

Meanwhile, the news from the other side of the Atlantic continues to dismay. There are new reports that Jo Biden’s cognitive decline is rapidly accelerating which does not bode well for the presidential elections in November. But there are equally prominent reports that Donald Trumps bizarre behaviour and frequent rants are a sign of his mental instability. So we have the bizarre situation in which the two front runners for president of the United States leaves one to doubt whether either one of them has the cognitive and emotional capabilities that one might expect in a leader of the ‘free world’ It is probably too late in the day but one wonders whether even at this incredibly late stage two candidates might emerge either of whom would ultimately be a ‘safer’ choice as president.

Today started off as quite an overcast day so it was no surprise to us when the rain hit us a little later in the day. The carers were scheduled for three quarters of an hour after their normal start time and were themselves late so we had to have a quick breakfast before it was time for our trip down the hill to Waitrose. We got there at just about the appointed time to discover that their coffee machines had failed again so all they could offer was tea and cold drinks. Nonetheless, the normal five of us were there to chat and gossip with each other and I think it is true that we all make the effort each Tuesday morning unless the weather is absolutely dire. I consulted with our friends as some of the partners in the store and so I bought a collection of little titbits ready for Thursday afternoon when we anticipate that some of our ex-University of Winchester colleagues will be breaking their journey to the North of England and are popping in to see us. On the journey back we had to cope with some drizzle rather than an absolute downpour but it made the journey not particularly pleasant for the pair of us. As soon as we got in, I prepared a mug of packet chicken soup for the two of us and this helped us to come round a little. I think the worst thing about these rainy conditions is evidently that the wheelchair wheels seem to pick up more grit and kerbside debris and consequently the cleaning process takes so much longer as soon as we get into the house. Meg stays still in the wheelchair and I clean up the wheels with a combination of paper and cloths to try to ensure that our carpets are not dirtied by the transit of the wheelchair wheels. But my contretemps with our GP practice resumed this morning. I had received a text from them suggesting that I contact them. Of course I was No. 9 in the queue when I first telephoned and so it took about a quarter of an hour only to be offered a telephone appointment with a Physician Associate and that not today but tomorrow. I protested about this and asked that a fully qualified GP with the relevant degree of experience of working with patients with advancing dementia be more appropriate. I got the feeling that this request was eventually granted but I felt that I was being ‘punished’ a little and now had to wait for two days to have a telephone consultation with a doctor who has treated Meg in the past. So I have a couple of urgent questions to put to the doctor when I eventually get into contact in two days time, the first of these being the progression and treatment of the DVT and oedema in Meg’s left leg and the second the ongoing saga of the reference to the Wheelchair service where I suspect that we are not already at first base. Today is the day when I receive a sitting service for Meg so that, in theory, I can off and do my Pilates. However today, when the carers came mid morning we had quite a complicated scenario with which we had to face and to cut a long story short, we had to make extensive use of the washing machine and I suspect that the two carers had not managed to handle things very well. But the carer who came along for the sitting session was, as the Spanish say ‘muy simpatica’ and she actually had to be called in to help the other two carers. Eventually, we got some lunch cooked and the sympathetic carer helped to give some food and drink to Meg whilst I ate my own dinner which relieved the strain somewhat. I am always desperately anxious that Meg gets some daytime rest, particularly after we have had some lunch. Meg appeared a little sleepy just before lunch but my efforts to induce post-prandial naps (closing the curtains, playing gentle music whilst I attempt to sit quietly and read the newspaper) all seem doomed to failure these days. But I regard it as a relative success if Meg is not having an anxiety attack and is constantly calling out for attention in these after lunch periods even if actual sleep does elude her.

There is news this afternoon of a massive cyber attack affecting the IT systems of several London major hospitals., It seems that pathology results as well as blood transfusions are the services worst affected. This has led to several major operations being cancelled at almost the last moment and the results of the disruption to pathology services means that certain results may take ‘weeks rather than days’ to resolve. Given the interdependence of multiple hospital IT systems, the severity and impact of these cyber attacks is not to be underestimated. Whilst we are often informed that a cyber attack has taken place, we are not really informed whether this is just the result of individual cyber criminals hoping (but never receiving) any ransom monies or whether there is a more sinister and concerted state action which lies behind these attacks on our infrastructure. Of course the two are not mutually exclusive and it remains that the possibility that rogue states can use ‘freelance’ cyber criminals to do their dirty work for them.

The results of the large and complex opinion YouGov poll giving the Labour Party a bigger majority than even that enjoyed by Tony Blair is sending shock waves through the Tories at the moment. What is particular interest, or concern, is the number of prominent cabinet members (perhaps up to a dozen) who are projected to lose their seats. Even Rishi Sunak himself may have a hard fight on his hands in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Normally Cabinet members are sitting on quite large and safe majorities and if they are having to fight hard to save their own seats, then this makes them less available to lend their support to other MP’s who have a bigger fight on their hands. Also, there is now talk which is probably premature of a Tory ‘wipeout’ and if the scale of defeat is what is being predicted, then some of the political heavyweights of the party are being cut off in their prime. Normally, even if opposition parties are in the ascendancy, then the polls start to narrow somewhat as polling day approaches. But July 4th is still some way off and, if anything, the Tories are losing rather than gaining support at the moment.

Today, Monday, the weather started off reasonably bright but it was to cloud over in the mid morning and we expected one of those rather gloomy,indeterminate sort of days. Immediately breakfast was over, I made a lightning trip down the road to get my copy of the newspaper and managed to get there and back within about 7-8 minutes which was practically a record. There was some forward planning in this strategy as once I had obtained a copy of the newspaper, I thought that Meg and I could make a trip to the park which shortens the journey down the hill and back again by about a third in each direction. So having prepared a flask of coffee and some biscuits, we set forth but by a happy chance, our Italian friend was out in her front garden as I was pushing Meg down the road. Although Meg in her wheelchair cannot be lifted over the threshold of her house, our friend brought out some chairs and a little table and we had a very enjoyable coffee and biscuits whilst catching up on the news. It seems incredible but it is now nine years since her husband died and those years seem to have absolutely flown by. So we spent a pleasant hour and then our friend was joined by her gentleman friend so we progressed a short distance back up the hill, only just getting back to the house some 3-4 minutes before the next scheduled visits of the carers. After the carers had made Meg comfortable, I then pressed ahead with making lunch for Meg and myself which consisted of searing some chicken thighs, cooking in the oven in a lasagne type sauce and serving with a baked potato and broccoli. This morning, I had tried to get through to the ‘Wheelchair, Posture and Mobility Service’ to investigate the possibilities of a wheelchair for Meg better suited to coping with the pretty terrible pavements that I have to contend with when I take Meg out for trips. This particular service requires a reference from one’s GP and I had requested some thirteen days ago that such a reference be made. However, when my telephone message from earlier this morning was returned, it was evident that the GP had not made any such referral. So the Wheelchair service suggested that I make contact with the GP (or as they quaintly said, the GP’s secretary) so I got onto the GP practice this afternoon. The admin staff at the other end requested that I supply them with the web addresses that they should contact at which I ‘blew my lid’ explaining to them that it was their responsibility to make an onward reference, they ought to be in possession of the relevant forms and it was not for me as the carer of a patient to be supplying them with contact information which it was their responsibility. They mentioned something about requesting further information from me in a text message which I do not recall having received. As I know from the days when I use to teach ‘Quality Management’, wherever there are failures in service delivery it is nearly always the case when services have to interact with other that problems occur. In other and slightly more academic terms, it is nearly always the interface between services when quality failings are manifest. Such was the case in my dealings with aspect of the health and welfare services as I have detailed above.

A fascinating political development has surfaced this afternoon. Nigel Farage, an honorary president of the ‘Reform’ party (previously ‘Brexit’ and previously ‘UKIP’) had previously announced his intention not to stand for Parliament again (what may be a seventh or even an eighth occasion) and was going to act as a roving agent to help Reform candidates who are putting forward candidates, so they say, in practically every constituency in the country. But Farage has now decided to put himself forward as a candidate for Clackton sometimes known as ‘Brexit-on-sea’ Whether this is the result of private polling which indicates a likely win or whether there is another strategy at work may get revealed in the days ahead. But the intention of the Reform party is to try their hardest to break the present Conservative party and try to ensure that whilst they themselves might not gain any seats, that they draw sufficient votes away from the Conservative vote to ensure that they lose the seat. The intention then is to effect a radical transformation of the Right in this country and for ‘Reform’ to practically take over the present Tory party. Another part of this strategy is to press with other smaller parties (Greens and so on) for a form of proportional representation which is the only way that Reform could ever actually get into government in any shape or form. In case this sounds utterly fantastical, Farage is making common cause with Trump and in the US, the Trump movement have completely taken over the Republican party which helps to explain why Trump will almost gain the Republication party nomination for president. So if Farage manages to emulate what Trump has achieved on he other side of the pond, then perhaps the Reform strategy is not as far fetched as it sounds. One wonders as well, what the impact of AI, fake news and the social media might be on the fortunes of the Reform party. At the moment, Reform are, I believe, ahead of the Liberal Democrats in the polls. An important poll is to be published on Sky News in the late afternoon and this indicates that projects a Tory wipeout in large parts of the country, a Lib Dem surge and the Scottish National Party losing over half its seats in Scotland, if the election were being held right now. The poll has Labour on 422 seats, up 221 compared to the 2019 results based on new constituency boundaries. This is the highest number of Labour seats on record, and a much bigger majority than anything else since the Second World War.

As it is a Sunday morning, we swing into the appropriate routines. The carers call earlier on a Sunday but today only half and hour compared with the hour earlier which has been the pattern for the last couple of weeks. I texted our University of Birmingham friend and we agreed to meet in the park at about 11.00am and then we set off down the hill, on quite a beautiful day, to get our copy of the Sunday newspaper. Then we made our way to the park and I had taken with me a variety of biscuits, some coffee in a flask and a ‘smoothie’ for Meg. She quite enjoyed the smoothies which I must admit is nicer on a warm day than a flask of coffee. Our friend turned up and we chatted about this and that. Just before we left, we bumped into one of our ‘park friends’ that we used to see almost every day when we were in full COVID mode and walking down to the park every single day. This gentleman has a wonderful looking dog which is actually a cream coloured labradoodle but the log looks incredibly sheeplike (and our friend tried to pass it off as a sheep when he entered one location where dogs were not permitted) Our friend is a natural wit and told me of a story of his youth. He had gone into a chemist and enquired whether or not they sold a potty for babies. The shop assistant said ‘Have you tried Boots?’ whereupon our friend replied that he had but this was not very satisfactory because everything keep leaking through the lace holes. The point of the story was that the shop assistant had no idea what he was talking about and failed to grasp the point. So then, Meg and I started our journey up the hill but we soon stopped outside a friend’s house who was busy in her garden. These church friends have had to remove a row of conifers bordering their property as the roots were effecting the foundations (I always thought that conifers had a ball shaped route and therefore did not threaten foundations in the way that other trees could do) I think it is said that a tree’s roots can extend laterally as much distance as the tree is tall but I may be wrong about this. Quite shortly, they were having to have some remedial work done on their house which involved propping up various rooms with steel beams and goodness knows what else. The disruption was going to be tremendous and they were not looking forward to it one little bit but I told them they could always escape and come round and spend an afternoon with us. Then we made our up the hill and started to think about our Sunday lunch. I seared off some skinless chicken thighs and then popped them into the oven with half a jar of a lasagne type white source. Then I baked a potato and prepared some leeks which got parboiled to be put into the oven to accompany the chicken. I also made some onion sauce of which I was pleased to see that I had one or two packets in stock. On Sundays, Meg treat ourselves to the next episode along of ‘Pilgrimage’, the first series centering on Portugal and the second on North Wales. This third series was a journey though the Scottish highlands with the ultimate destination of Iona and the Ionian community there. The ‘pilgrims’ are always selected to have a diverse series of faiths and none – represented in the current series was a Sikh (the cricketer Monty Panesar), a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, a pagan and I forget the rest. But the interesting thing about this series is that the participants are evidently undertaken a physical journey and for some an emotional and spiritual journey as well. At the end of the pilgrimage, they have all discovered something about themselves and felt the whole pilgrimage was worthwhile.

In the mid afternoon, our son popped round and this is always nice because it helps to divert Meg and to break up the day. But today, what with one thing or another, I have not even had time to glance at the Sunday newspaper headlines as these days, despite my best efforts, I do not seem able to induce Meg to have a nap in the middle of the day as I used to do. For a few weeks, we had a routine that Meg would sit on our little two-seater settee and then I would darken the room and play some ClassicFM quietly in the background and this seemed to do the trick but now it does not seem to work at all. In the election campaign, news is reported this afternoon of a Tory candidate who is being investigated by the police for possible election fraud. Police are reviewing a Conservative candidate’s campaign adverts after receiving allegations of election fraud. Robert Largan, who is fighting to keep his High Peak seat, has published a number of campaign materials in the colours of Labour and Reform UK. His election materials are designed to suggest that the Labour Party is supporting his campaign and of course stealing the colours of a rival party can be seen as problematic. When Andy Street was fighting to be the mayor of the West Midlands, he managed to largely keep ‘Conservative party’ out of his election materials but he was still pipped to the post by the Labour candidate. Investigations by the police in matters such as this rarely amount to anything but it is a sign of the times, and the desperation of some candidates, who know that hey have a very tough fight on their hands. Insofar as we can tell at this stage, the opinion polls if they are moving in any direction, it is in favour of the Labour Party and against the Tories. But the opinion polls do not actually tell us what is happening at the constituency level which is often where the real excitement happens to be.

We had a slightly disturbed night last night as Meg woke up at about the time that I was coming to bed. I hoped that we were not going to have a disturbed night but I gave Meg a beaker of a ‘smoothie’ which I had to hand and then we both settled down to a night’s sleep. This morning was a beautiful bright day and although Meg was a little sleepy first thing this morning, she came round a bit after breakfast. We had got Meg hoisted into her ‘going out’ wheelchair and had no hesitation in setting out to meet with our Saturday friends at a little after 10.00am in the morning. We had a full complement of five of us altogether this morning and, fortunately, I had with me the remnants of my chocolate birthday cake which I was saving for one of our friends but the combination of myself, our friend and cake had not managed to coincide until today. It transpired that the same friend was an avid Radio4 listener so we spent a merry few minutes testing out our memories of the various Archer’s characters. I asked our friend if she could remember the names of Dan Archer’s very first dog and this must be in an archive somewhere. My own researches only indicate that Dan trained a dog during his own retirement and the dog was called ‘Nell’ but I have not managed to find the names of Dan Archer’s first dog. I was amazed to discover on the internet, though, that there is an archive with details of all of the animals, and their owners and their eventual demise that appeared in the Archer’s scripts over the years.

As I was preparing the vegetables for lunch today, we looked at what might be offered on the BBC i-Player. In the run up to ‘D’ day which is to commemorated on 6th June as it is the 80th anniversary, there were various films about the planning for, and the operation, of ‘D’ day itself. As I was busy preparing lunch, I only got snatches of the programmes themselves but in one of them, some of the now very old soldiers were mourning the loss not only of their fellow soldiers in arms but also their profound regrets at the loss to French life which was the collateral damage at the time. The other thing that I learned was that after the disaster of an attempted invasion at Dieppe two years earlier, the Allies realised that planning for ‘D’ day itself had to be extremely thorough and meticulous. Extensive use was made of Spitfires flying at incredibly low levels across the beaches to build up an aerial reconnaissance of the myriad of defences that the Germans had been busily constructing. As it turned out, ‘D’ day was to be the biggest amphibious landing in World history. The casualty rate was both high and difficult to calculate. While casualty figures are notoriously difficult to verify—not all wounded soldiers are counted, for example—the accepted estimate is that the Allies suffered 10,000 total casualties on D-Day itself. The highest casualties occurred on Omaha beach, where 2,000 U.S. troops were killed, wounded or went missing; at Sword Beach and Gold Beach, where 2,000 British troops were killed, wounded or went missing; and at Juno beach, where 340 Canadian soldiers were killed and another 574 wounded. The military commanders knew at the time that the cost in human lives was going to be enormous but there was a realisation that a land based invasion was the only way in which the war could be ended.

The general election campaign is trundling along and although I am committed to the political process, I am starting to wonder whether the campaign is already scheduled for too long. I refreshed my memory and confirmed that there was an election that was called and done and dusted within three weeks whereas we are having five weeks. Most of the academic studies reveal that opinion polls do not move much during the course of a campaign. This could be because the electorate has made up its mind weeks or months ago – or it could be that there are an equal number of ‘switchers’ on both sides. I still think that the most interesting thing about this election is not who is actually going to ‘win’ as such but what the results of individual contests turns out to be. Yet another Tory MP has left the fight, even though he was campaigning for a Tory victory only a matter of days ago. In their heart of hearts, even the most ardent Tory MP must realise that the party is going to get a bashing and a long period in opposition beckons. The Tory party is used to be in power and I wonder how many MPs will dedicate themselves to the arduous task of opposition. Once the Tory party has ‘lost’ the election, there will be doubt be a change of party leader and then a period of blood letting whilst the battle for the soul of the Conservative party will continue. It never ceases to amuse me that members of political parties always seem to think that they were not successful in their individual contests because they had failed to be sufficiently ‘radical’ to either the left (in the case of the Labour party) or the right in the case of the Tory party. When a party is far ahead in the polls as the Labour party is at the moment, there is a temptation to adopt the ‘Ming vase’ position. This refers to the observation that anxious not to make the slightest mistake, the leader approaches his task as he is carrying a priceless Ming vase across a polished floor. Another facet of electoral behaviour that occurs in an increasing use of ‘ad hominem’ arguments (i.e. attacking the personal characteristics and political stance of one’s political opponent) if one side feels they are losing badly. So far, Keir Starmer seems to be the target of many political attacks but the same cannot be said of Rishi Sunak. One of the attack lines, but not in an election campaign came from Harold Wilson, the Labour politician and one tine Prime Minister. His telling observation was ‘I will make them (the Tories) this offer, and they can consider it next week. If they stop telling lies about us, we will stop telling the truth about them.’ This was Wilson at the best of the form he reached when he was Leader of the Opposition. However, Wilson was not completely original because I think the sentiments of the quote came originally from some American politicians. However, the master of political rhetoric was the veteran Labour politician, Nye (Aneurin) Bevan fondly remembered as the ‘father’ of the NHS. I am surprised that modern Labour politicians do not read up on some of his famous attack lines and either use them or adapt them.

Last night, I was just preparing to get myself to bed when news started to filter through of the conviction of Donald Trump on each of the 34 counts for which he had been charged. The American court system always seems to make this a long and prolonged affair and there was no ‘live’ feed from the courtroom but the news was tremendous when it broke. Sentencing is not due to take place until July 11th, some days before the Republican national congress and no doubt there will appeals to a higher court and ultimately, perhaps, to the Supreme Court stuffed as it is with Trump nominees. The media have gone mad with the this news and evidently there is a lot of speculation as to what happens next but in the short term it looks as though he verdict will help in Trump’s fundraising activities. Yesterday, I had purchased a single duvet from my local supermarket and had also ordered some single duvet covers from the web but I thought it would be a shame to deprive myself of the duvet last night, So I hunted a double duvet cover that we had and I thought that this would serve until the actual single duvet covers arrived. But the duvet cover stayed on me all night and was neither too hot nor too cold so I was delighted to be able to make use of this last night. This morning dawned as a bright and cheerful summer day and so after our Eucharistic minister has called around from church, I thought that Meg and I would venture out down the hill. I texted our University of Birmingham friend to inform him that we would be down in the cafeteria in the late morning and I am delighted that he would be able to meet us then. What with one thing or another, we have not managed to meet for a couple of weeks so this makes our eventual meeting so much more pleasant. Incidentally, my son is due to meet later on today one of his life-long friends who was his best man at his wedding and they have not managed to meet for the last five years so I know that he too is looking forward to his lunch date.The carers were scheduled to arrive at 8.40am this morning so the start to our day was somewhat delayed compared with our normal rising time.

After we had the weekly visit from our Eucharistic minister this morning, we got ourselves ready to make the trip down the road to our Waitrose cafeteria. It was a beautiful day and we bumped briefly into our Irish friend from down the road as we progressed down the hill. Then we met with our University of Birmingham friend and spent well over an hour and a quarter in the kinds of conversations (often with ex university staff experience in mind) that we enjoy so much. Then it was time to get up the hill once again and we managed to make it with just five minutes to spare before our late morning carers were due to call. After they had made Meg comfortable and helped to get her into her comfortable armchair, I then started to prepare our Friday lunch which was a (bought) haddock pie eaten with some broccoli. After lunch, Meg did not feel particularly sleepy so we decided to watch the BBC catch-up of last night’s ‘Question Time‘ which we found particularly entertaining. Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan, each incredibly self opinionated were striking sparks of each other together with a Tory minister, the Labour shadow health minister and the Bishop of Dover. There is apparently an organisation called ‘FullFact.org’ which is an independent fact checking organisation and has taken last night’s ‘Question Time‘ as well as presumably lots of other broadcasts and subjected the claims made in them by independent fact-checking. This was news to me but I think I must certainly put it on my list of ‘sites that must be regularly viewed’. As I am writing, I am half listening to a Donald Trump post trial news conference which would keep an army of fact checkers busy for weeks. For example, one claim was that the population of all of Venezuela’s gaols had been emptied and their previous inmates ‘dumped’ or had made their way into the United States. When I consulted the web I discovered the following. Apparently as Trump started reeling off lies, many US channels cut away. A number of lies were told by Donald Trump throughout the news conference, prompting some US networks to cut away before it ended US correspondent Mark Stone notes lies such as a claim that criminals have been released from jail in the Republic of Congo and sent to the US. While TV networks in the US are partial, and some always repeat his statements, others threw back to the studio on this occasion.’The likes of CNN and others came off his speech before the end. They have got to be able to present what he is saying but also counter the lies.’ This is actually quite interesting because if the media channels as a whole start to tire of the Trump tirades and refuse the ‘oxygen of publicity’ in a phrase beloved of Margaret Thatcher, then this might be the start of a gradual disillusion with the Trump agenda. The USA is such a divided society at the moment that the Trump message is received avidly by his own supporters almost whatever he had to say. But the bit that remains pf ‘middle’ America is not convinced by the Trump message even though Trump appears to be marginally ahead in several key battle ground states. How this is to be played out by the Democrats is an interesting dilemma of political strategy. Evidently, the Democrats will wish to capitalise on the fact that Trump is now a convicted felon but too overt and concentrated an attack might actually drive some of the uncommitted into the Trump camp and the Trump agenda if it looks as though he is a political martyr.

Today being a Thursday, we put out our green bins (paper) and brown bins (garden waste) last night for collection very early on Thursday morning. I was delighted whilst I was getting the bins out to remove several large growing but easily removable weeds from the kerb verges to our roadways which were rapidly becoming an eyesore. I did most of the job whilst the bins were being put out and, fortunately, Meg seemed to fall asleep fairly readily last night which gave me a further opportunity to pop outside the to finish off the job. I have to seize my moments to do this if Meg is not having a nap but it was a source of some satisfaction to get this little job done. This morning was one when a care agency sitter comes round to sit with Meg giving me some space to shoot off and do my shopping. This all went to plan and I was delighted to see that my little Aldi store was stocking some single size duvets which is exactly what I felt I had in mind to have as a bed covering under my newly revised sleeping arrangements. I did feel, though, that I had better not use the duvet straight away tempted as I was so I got onto Amazon and ordered a couple of single duvet covers (one to be used, another for the wash) which all being well should arrive tomorrow. So this might mean that after tonight, I do not have to endure waking up in the middle of the night with blankets on the floor. The fairly young carer detailed to sit with Meg is a pleasant Psychology graduate with a very easy and engaging personality so once I got back from my shopping, she was a source of great assistance in getting my shopping unpacked and put away. Before she left, the District nurse called around and had a look at the dressing on Meg’s leg. After a combined effort, we eventually got the wound dressing removed and we were both delighted that the small blister type wound on Meg’s leg had completely healed and no further dressings were required. This was good news and the nurse gave me a telephone number so that I could contact the nurses directly instead of a web-based form going to the surgery which was very useful to have. I prepared one of those types of lunches where I cook together some onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and cubed meat remains supplemented by some diced apple, sultanas and a spoonful of demarara sugar served on a microwaved rice and with a topping of yogurt. Sometimes I add some curry powder to the mixture but I neglected to do this today as the mixture I had prepared was quite tasty enough as it was.

Yesterday, Meg and I actually watched some enthralling daytime TV which was the examination of another witness in the Post Office scandal public enquiry. The live stream today was examining a Post Office employee who had responsibility and oversight of Post Office branches and seemed to be the nearest thing to a ‘smoking gun’ of damning evidence that we have seen in the live streams so far. In the case of presumed malfeasance, this senior manager prepared an audit report which contained within it a collection of items in a ‘tick box’ detailing some failings which might have been discovered e.g. the safe being left unlocked, travellers cheques not properly stored and so on. When a postmaster was suspended, this took place very quickly and the full audit was often completed at a later date. But this audit report noted that one of the accused postmasters had detailed the observation that the postmaster himself expressed delight at seeing an auditor and indicated that he had been in contact with help desks and other agencies to help to resolve some balancing issues. The senior manager then had to complete a witness statement which was presented as Post Office evidence to the High Court when the sub postmaster came to trial. The witness statement, though, actually contained the complete checklist of presumed malfeasance as though every item had been ticked (although in practice none of them were) as was a largely a cut-and-paste copy of the audit report. The upshot of all of this was that information helpful to the defence of the sub postmaster (delight in seeing the auditors) was left out of the witness statement whereas the complete list of presumed deficiencies actually was included. In other words, the High Court had been presented with evidence by the Post Office which was either demonstrably untrue or severely lacking in evidence that might exonerate the sub postmaster. It is no wonder that a conviction followed in the face of this evidence which must have constituted a perjury. The senior manager when subjected to detailed questioning by the KC for the Enquiry and asked to explain the discrepancies could only lamely say that she could not remember why there should be this discrepancy. When the Counsel for the enquiry asked the witness if she had felt under pressure from the Post Office to produce a witness statement in any particular way, she replied that she had not felt any pressure from which one can only draw the inference that the decision to produce the witness statement in the form that it took was her responsibility alone and this must therefore be considered as an outright perjury. Whether this Post Office manager will ever be charged will be a long way down the line as the Enquiry needs to complete and then to report before the police can consider whether any individuals should be prosecuted. All of the omens from similar cases when it is shown that persons have been convicted on the evidence of clear perjury (Hillsborough, Miners dispute) is that such individuals never get prosecuted despite their perjury and I would expect that exactly the same would happen in this case.

The Labour Party is busy shooting itself in the foot as I write as the leader seems desperate to avoid Dianne Abbott, the UK’s first black woman MP to be allowed as a candidate in the forthcoming election despite having the Labour Whip restored. Dianne Abbott has apologised, undergoing an ‘Anti-Semitic training programme’ and showed signs of repentance but Keir Starmer seems determined to get rid of every single trace of Corbinism. But the sensible thing to do is to let Dianne Abbott stand for Parliament and let the campaign roll on instead of this issue dogging every single news conference from now on until the end of the election.

Today being a Wednesday is always a day to which we look forward as it is the day when our domestic help calls around and it is always good to have a chat. We had no real plans to go out today because it was the day when our hairdresser was scheduled to call around. Yesterday morning, we had ensured that Meg’s hair was washed and this was to make life easier for our hairdresser when she called. She arrived late morning and did Meg’s hair in a slightly different style which we think will make it easier to keep tidy in the future and after Meg has been processed, then it is my turn as well. We have had the same hairdresser for at least fifteen years by now and we started talking to her about some of her oldest clients. One old lady whose hair she still attended to was aged about 104 and I asked our hairdresser whether she chatted to her to her about things long past. There was one occasion where they were talking about wartime reminiscences and our hairdresser slowly realised that her client was talking about the WW1 rather than WW2. I wonder whether people of such a very great age such as this, provided they are still ‘compos mentis’ should be regarded by society at large as a huge cultural resource because they will have first hand knowledge of all kinds of things which memories will pass away with them upon their demise. I wondered aloud whether there were any local or oral history projects attached to universities or other historical societies who might be interested in these very aged people as a massive data resource. On a similar but related theme, I seem to remember that there were a couple called, I believe Iona and Peter Opie who went around the country children’s rhymes (e.g. skipping rhymes) To refresh my memory, I popped some search terms and discovered the following very informative publisher’s blurb from a book which is still available on Amazon:’In the 1960s, Iona and Peter Opie observed that although many books had been written about how children should play, none had been written about how they actually played. To fill the gap they carried out an exhaustive survey, through the decade, of the games that children in fact play when aged roughly between six and twelve years of age, and when outdoors — and usually when out of sight. The result was their classic work <i>Childrens Games in Street and Playground</i>. It records games played in streets, parks, playgrounds and wastelands by more than 10,000 children from the Shetland Isles to the Channel Islands, although the majority of the information comes from children living in big cities such as London, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow.’ This sounded to me so interesting that I almost wondered whether the book was worth purchasing but unfortunately, I would not have the time available to read it. But the whole point is that the Opies sensed, quite rightly, that such traditional games and past-times were in great danger of being swept away. Electronic games were only to appear a decade later so the Opies correctly judged that they had better collect what data they could before these traditional games, chants and songs disappeared for ever. There is one game that I remember playing which was really, really simple. It required you to have two sticks, one sharpened to a point or ‘nose’ and the game was called ‘piggy’. All one had to do was to hit the ‘piggy’ stick on its nose so that it flew up into the air, hit it as far as one could with the other stick and then hop on one leg to the point where the piggy landed. The other game which I think all boys and girls loved playing was hopscotch. This was quite an easy game for me to play because at the age of ten the family moved to a small village in Yorkshire called Beckwithshaw and we were granted the tenancy of the one-bedroomed school mistress’s flat adjacent to the school. Hence there was always a school playground in which we could play at the weekends and hence we could chalk out the hopscotch figure on the school playground. Later on, these squares got painted permanently into the playgrounds of some schools but in our day, we had to draw the figures themselves. The rules were essentially very simple – ‘Toss the marker into the first square. The marker has to land and stay in the square. If you miss the square, you lose your turn. If you get it in the square, you move on to the next step. Hop on all the squares that dont have the marker in them. For single squares (1,2,3,6,9), use one foot.’ Not having grandchildren, I do not know if this game still exists or is played but essentially the game has been around a very long and in a great variety of cultures.

Our domestic help very kindly provided Meg and I with a portion of ‘Boeuf à la Bourguignonne’ which has always remained one of our favourites and one that we used to cook for honoured guests when we had the time and it was a special occasion. This was absolutely delicious and after we had lunched I took the opportunity to dash out and get the front lawns cut. I think it was about ten days ago since the days were last cut and I did not want the grass to run away with me so I was delighted to get this done but I would have ideally liked Meg to have had a nap whilst I was busy doing this but, sadly, this was not to be. This means that I generally have to cut the lawns in 10 minute stretches and then have to pop into see Meg to check she is not becoming agitated which is often the case if I am not physically present in the room. In the background I am passively listening to the witnesses giving evidence to the Post Office scandal enquiry and whilst I am appalled by the absence of memory or recall of witness to events of 10 years or longer ago, I have to wonder how i would fare if I had to cope with detailed questioning from a QC about events in my professional life that occurred a decade or so ago. The Post Office itself seems to be in the habit of suddenly finding caches of documents that might be relevant to the enquiry but very often at the very last moment and when the enquiry team have not had time to trawl through them for relevant information

Today started off fairly gloomy and overcast with the promise of rain to come but at least Meg and I had spent a fairly quiet night last night as opposed to the night before. I had a note on the calendar to ask the carers to wash Meg’s hair as our hairdresser is due to visit tomorrow and the last time she called, we worked out between us what would make life easier all around if Meg had her hair washed the day before. The carers were scheduled for a little later time this morning so as soon as they had Meg installed, it was time for us to make a trip down the road. Admittedly the weather was not particularly good but I decided under the circumstances that a walk in the slight drizzle would not do us any harm and there was always the prospect that the showers might blow over. But first thing this morning, as soon as our GP practice website opened, I made an urgent request for more blood thinners medication for Meg because we had been eking out supplies and we were down to our very last pill with more needed today. The community pharmacist phoned back an hour or so later and understood the situation perfectly, making sure that a prescription (which is due to change slightly) would be on the electronic system and ready for collection later on in the day. So this seemed very good news and I thought that I would utilise a period when one of the carers was doing a sit with Meg to get hold of the prescription. We arrived at Waitrose through the drizzle rather than out and out rain but because of the weather, no doubt, none of our usual friends were there. We started back up the hill and I have to rather navigate the rougher areas of tarmac is this possible and seeking out the smooth so that Meg does not get jolted around too much. I espied on the pavement something that looked familiar and it was one of the stretch ties that I use to ‘tape’ Meg’s ankles to the uprights of the footsteps so that her feet do not slip off and onto the ground. This particular tie must have dropped off on the way down the hill and all the time we were having our coffee, I had not noticed its absence. So I felt incredibly fortunate that I had indeed found it again (even though I did not know it was lost) as the ties are worth their weight in gold in terms of their usefulness. When the carer called in the middle of the day, I shot off down into town and because I found a convenient parking place made a quick trip into Asda to pick up a pair of those specialist batteries that fit inside smoke alarms. The smoke alarm in our kitchen has started to make those irritating chirping sounds that emanate from it when the battery is nearing exhaustion but at least I now have a battery ready for replacement plus a spare. Then I made my way to the pharmacy only to discover to my considerable annoyance that as the pharmacy has changed hands. It now has a policy of being closed for lunch each day between 1.00pm-2.00pm. So I returned home, chatted a little bit with the carer who we know well and had been with us first thing this morning and arrived at the pharmacy one minute before the re-opening time. I was in a queue of five and the pharmacy was late in opening but I was delighted to get Meg’s medication and then get back before the end of the carer’s shift.

In the General Election campaign, the shadow chancellor is at pains to show that any forthcoming Labour government would be a model of financial probity. But this creates all kinds of problems for any new Labour government. The dilemma is that if they get into power, do they squeeze public services for five years using the plans developed by Jeremy Hunt – and risk disappointing voters and an expectation the party will fund public services more – or do they borrow more, and risk breaking newly announced and eye wateringly severe fiscal rules? Or do they do what voters have long associated with Labour, and turn to tax rises? In the past Tory governments have been known, as Ken Clarke did as Chancellor, lay down a series of financial policies which they know that they themselves cannot possibly implement but which they know that an incoming Labour government may well have to follow if only to establish the confidence of the markets. But today, theLabour Party has received a fillip in that Greater Manchester police have decided not to proceed with a prosecution against Angela Raynor, the Deputy Leader of the Labour party for financial irregularities concerning the correct amount of capital gains to be paid on the sale of a house. Reading through the facts of the case, I think that in all probability Raynor was probably somewhat culpable for the financial transactions that took place before she was even elected to Parliament. but the total amount on money involved (possibly £1,000 or so) pales into insignificance compared with the millions that were squirrelled away fraudulently by firms who made money out of COVID contracts when the Tories were splashing out all kinds of cash to to their friends and associates when the country was desperate for supplies of PPE (Personal and protective Equipment).

I have been in email correspondence with an ex-University of Winchester colleague who is going to pay us a quick visit a week on Thursday when he is breaking his journey from Hampshire to the North. I have not seen this friend for over a year or so now but he very kindly offered us the use of his flat on the South Coast, an offer which we needed sadly to decline as we did not think that Meg was quite up to the journey and the upheaval. Nonetheless, we have a lot to catch up on and I sent him a quick update so that he is well appraised of Meg’s condition these days.

Last night, or rather yesterday evening, was pretty calamitous and one that I would rather forget. Meg had not had a sleep during the day despite my best endeavours to induce her to have a nap after lunch but all of this was to no avail. The carers put her to bed at 7.30pm and then left but Meg failed to settle. I had my newly loaned ‘Z’ bed alongside Meg’s hospital bed but Meg was exceptionally agitated and refused to settle until 10.15 which was two and three quarters of an hour later. I had no particular things that I could do apart from the self-evident to encourage her to sleep and how she kept awake all during the evening having not slept during the day is beyond me. So I was not the happiest of bunnies when the carers called around this morning but at least my new sleeping arrangements meant that the blankets did not fall off me during the night which was a bonus of sorts. This morning, I had the carers use the hoist to put her into her ‘going out’ wheelchair and we ensured that she had ankles well and truly taped to the leg rest uprights before we made a venture out this morning.It was quite a bright and sunny day and I pushed Meg down the hill without difficulty, making a call into Waitrose in order to pick up a copy of my daily newspaper. Then we made our way to a bench in the park where we consumed our coffee and had some biscuits although Meg opined that she did not want to make a journey to the park again. I suspect this is because there are sections of pavements that are rather rough and jolting and I have to hunt out the smoother pieces of tarmac where ever I can which is not always easy. As we were just about to leave the park, we bumped into one of my Pilates class mates who said I was being missed at our regular sessions held each Tuesday. We had a pleasant chat for a few minutes and after she had gone on her way, we encountered a couple more park acquaintances whom we recognised from the days when we used to walk down to the park on a daily basis and I needed to explain how Meg’s deteriorating condition meant that she now had to be pushed to the park in a wheelchair as even getting her into a car was no longer possible. Once we got up the hill and into our home, we thought we would catch up on the last episode of the ‘Pilgrimage’ programme which as following a group of individuals of diverse faiths and callings on an ancient pilgrimage path that wends its way through North Wales with the eventual destination of Bardsey island. En route the group visits many ancient churches and shrines typically devoted to Celtic saints and each member of the group, whatever their original faith (or none) seems to find the whole experience of pilgrimage rewarding. As well as being quite interesting to see how the various group members react to their pilgrimage experience, some of the views across the North Wales countryside are stunning.

The recently announced Tory ‘big idea’ to introduce a form of National Service were they to win the next election is coming under detailed scrutiny, I am pleased to see. One ex-Army chief has already denounced the whole venture as ‘barmy’ and some of the interviews that I have heard this morning are excruciating. For example, one minister was asked where the new recruits were going to be housed given that existing members of the armed services are in the most atrocious accommodation subject recently to a very adverse report about which the government have done nothing. Other questions that have been raised are concerned with the fate of youngsters who are already themselves the carers of other members of their families. Will they be made to abandon their existing role of carer in order to fulfil the new requirement to be part of the new government scheme under the risk of sanctions if they fail to comply? Upon close questioning, it is evident that the details of the scheme have not been thought through at all and the whole idea seems to have been thought up on the back of the proverbial envelope with no detailed thought as to planning, implementation or costings. One Tory vice chairman questioned closely on this and argued that the whole scheme was part of the ‘levelling up’ process which meant that this would supply the necessary funding, thus taking it away from the other communities for which the levelling up funding was intended.

I am personally looking forward to the end of the Bank Holiday as I have all sorts of things that are hanging in the air until the Bank Holiday is over.But one of the madder things to happen on this particular Bank Holiday is the annual cheese-rolling event in which competitors hurl themselves to roll down a steep sided, 180 metre, hill in Gloucestershire. This year the police are worried that there might be mass casualties and certainly last year there were a series of accidents in which some of the participants had to be stretchered away from the event. Of course all of this is in the name of tradition and one wonders whether the police have the powers to prevent people doing silly things, particularly if it is ‘traditional’. But we have other ‘traditional’ events not least in the form of fox-hunting which, in theory, is banned but in which many of the major hunts seem to have found their way around the law. I think I am right in saying that a hunt can pursue a fox if they happen to encounter one by accident whilst out on their traditional meets. I was quite shocked to learn a few years that some hunts even made sure that they had an adequate supply of foxes. One report from as far as 2002 claimed that hunts across the country were breeding foxes in specially made dens to ensure an adequate supply of the animals, undermining claims that they are killed only in the name of pest control. In the great fox hunting debate, it is a little known fact that many in the country people were themselves quite opposed to the hunt, particularly when they smashed down their fences and gates and otherwise made a mess of their land, even though the so-called ‘hunt servants’ were meant to come around and repair the damage in the days afterwards.