This morning was a fairly normal Sunday morning for us as we got up, breakfasted on cereal and then watched the Lorna Kuenssberg Politics program, which turned out to be rather unremarkable. After this, though, we made our way down to Waitrose where we met again with our friend from the University of Birmingham. Here our conversation ranged over the humourous to the serious which is about par for the course and then we made for home so that we could cook Sunday lunch. Before we went out this morning, we had a quick glance to see if there were any films that we might want to watch this afternoon. Channel 5 was showing ‘Ladies in Lavender‘ of which the theme tune receives a fair number of plays on ClassicFM. What particularly intrigued us was the reviewers spoke of two stunning performances by Judy Dench and by Maggie Smith and although the story line was said to be a bit thin, the performances by the UK’s leading ‘grand dames’ of theatre and film was not to be missed. In the event, the story was a poignant one (as you might almost have inferred from the theme music) and Meg and I felt it well worth a watch.

Late last night, I consulted the web to see if any train journeys to Winchester were remotely viable. In particular, I wanted to see if going via Warwick Parkway rather than Birmingham International gave me any more options. But there were no viable trains available to me which did not involve 2 changes (including traversing London by tube) or three changes to get to Winchester by a circuitous route. Although I now have got a refund from the fact that Cross Country trains have decided to miss out Birmingham International, it now looks as though to get a train from the Midlands to Winchester in one hop is going to require booking about a month ahead which is not an option for me. So we are still considering whether to both go by car which would be a journey of 123 miles each way be car and may be somewhat wearing. If we were to go down this route, I think car parking in central Winchester might prove to be a bit of a nightmare but I haven’t completely made up my mind as yet. Tomorrow afternoon, we are having some acquaintances that we met through the club activities that we met about ten days ago,to pop round for some afternoon tea so we are thinking through some of the little ingredients to have. If the weather is fine (which I doubt) we can always have tea in the garden but April is such a variable month so we may have to retreat to the dining room.

The political agenda is dominated this afternoon by the veteran Labour MP, Diane Abbott, apparently saying that Jewish people do not experience racism in the same that black people do and then having to ride the storm of protest from all sides of the political spectrum tht subsequently arose. She immediately retracted all of her remarks and claimed than an ‘early draft’ of her letter to the Observer had been sent ‘in error’ but it strains credibiity to the utmost that anyone should believe that ‘the dog ate my homework’ type of excuse. One wonders what kind of world Dianne Abbott is living to even contemplate remarks as she originally made which only reignites the idea that the far left of the Labour Party are actually anti-Semitic. Abbott has had the Labour whip removed from her (i.e. de facto suspended from the party) and her status is now one as an ‘Independent’ Labour MP, just like Jeremy Corbin. The maverick Tory MP and classics scolar, Enoch Powell, in his famous ‘rivers of blood’ speeach used the phrase ‘those whom the gods seek to destroy, they first make mad’ and the phrase (but not the context in which it was first uttered) seems quite appropriate to the Abbott case.

The Sudan conflict which has flared up as two military leaders are attempting to fight out it out for supremacy recalls to mind a book that Meg and I were encouraged to read within the first week or so of arriving at University. Manchester University had a Department of Social Anthropology which liked to claim world status for itself. So we were encouraged to buy and to read from cover to cover all 690-700 pages of ‘Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic amongst the Azande of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan’ The pedagogic theory behind all of this was that we needed to be shocked out of our eurocentric and western-rationality mode of consciousness by being exposed to the anthropological studies that revealed how other societies had alternative philosophies of causation and social cohesion – hence witchcraft beliefs were involved to try to discover why one’s crops had failed, illness descended upon the family and similar misfortunes. Whether this theory of exposing undergraduates to this literature within a week or so of arriving at University was valid is an interesting point but I can reveal that Meg and I used this very thick tome in order to prop up the low wooden frame of our bedstead which was in imminent daner of collapse so it proved to be useful after all.

This was another wonderful spring day. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and so it proved today. Due to an oversight, I forgot to buy my eggs that we usually poach and have for a light cooked breakfast each day. So today I compromised by frying together an onion, a few, halved plum tomatoes and one largish mushroom. To this I added just a small tounch of a spicy chilli and tomato sauce that I had in stock. The result was absoutely delicious so I intend to try this recipe out for a few days each week to add a little variety to our diet. We received a telephone call from our University of Birmingham friend to confirm our, by now, traditional meeting in Waitrose coffee bar mid morning. Two hours later we were still chatting so we had to break off rapidly to do a little bit of shopping and to race along the High Street to get to the bank before it closed. As it turned out, we need not have bothered because the bank shut at 12.30pm rather than 1.00pm. Given that Banks have quite restrictive opening hours and some people (not us) can only get to the bank on Saturday mornings so these opening, or should I say,closing hours, shows a complete lack of consumer responsiveness. So, with a sigh, I reckoned that I would have to make my bank visit on Monday, should they deign to open for any of its customers. Our friend had brought along some DVDs and a book in which we might be interested before taking his clear-out items to a charity shop. We gratefully accepted, though, receipt of the book in which Meg might be reasonably interested. As we sitting and having our coffee, one of the staff approached our table and as long standing and loyal customers, we each received a bunch of flowers which otherwise were destined for the disposal bin (but they looked fresh enough for us). So we gave our profound thanks and the Waitrose staff will be rewarded by another visit from the three of us as we have arranged to meet again there in the morning. In the afternoon, we watched the England vs. Ireland Womens rugby match. England were the clear favourites and tacked up a hugh score the last time they met. On this occasion, the English team had racked up about four tries (which they were not very good at converting) at half time but the second half was a different game altogether. The Irish really put their act together and half way through the second half, neither team had scored at all. But then the strength and power of the English pack overcame the Irish who failed to score a single point throughout the match. Worringly, though, the English team picked up a couple of injuries which they could well have done without as next weekend is getting to be the ‘shoot it out’ match as England and France, the two outstanding teams in the tournament, meet each other next weekend.

The Dominic Raab row rambles on, as one might expect. The principal attack dog today, as yesterday, was William Rees-Mogg who accused the civil servants as a ‘blizzard of snowflakes’ He also attacked the British Ambassador to Gibraltar who had crossed swords with Raab in the course of a complaint which the author of the report investigating Raab actually upheld. But Rees-Mogg went on to use inflammatory language by opining that he thought Mr Raab’s resignation was ‘unnecessary’ and took aim at an ambassador reportedly involved in the accusations. He suggested the ambassador in question was too soft and said: ‘Is our ambassador a complete wet wipe? You can not intimidate an ambassador and, if you can, then the ambassador is no good. Ambassadors have to have a backbone to represent the country abroad. The main complaint that was upheld relates to an ambassador, an extraordinarily senior figure who was deliberately going against government policy in Gibraltar, an issue of the highest sensitivity. Civil servants can behave appallingly, whereas ministers do something perfectly normal and have to resign. I think this is quite wrong.’ I think it is difficult for us to arbitrate in this dispute and how far this account is justified or subject to dispute. William Rees-Mogg is noted, however, for always adopting a controversial and inevitably far right commentary upon political events so perhaps his comments should be seen in this light. But what be said, however, is there is a very definite balance in the ecology of the relationships between civil servants and ministers. Harking back to ‘Yes, Minister’ TV series (which was one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite programs, by the way) senior civil servants are likely to have achieved much higher academic sucess and to enjoy much more longevity in post than the politicians they serve. On the other hand, they are appointed whereas politicians can claim legitimacy because they were elected. So to wade into this delicate balance with hob-nailed boots (which what I think Rees-Mogg is doing) is likely to upset this sensitive ecology and that is not in the long term interests of having a stable and well functioning government machine. As always, the view of the Sunday newspapers will be fascinating.

So the day has finally arrived when we are to make a visit to Meg’s cousins in Cheltenham, which trip has been planned for a week or so now. But the day did not get off to a particularly good start. Meg had a rather disturbed patch during the night which was unusual as she sleeps pretty well on the whole. Anyway we coped with the disturbed patch with some night time tea and some of Meg’s pills, although I cannot vouch for their effectiveness. Then I was awakened at about 7.30 with cries of help coming from the en-suite bathroom floor as Meg had fallen and evidently could not get up. But as it happened, I had done two things in the last day or so which helped me to cope. Firstly, I had consulted some advice on a specialised website which indicated how to cope with falls of the elderly. This all sounds common sense but it was the first time I had to put the advice to practical use. Firstly, the person who has fallen needs to be rolled over onto their stomach. Then from this position, one should attempt to get into a kneeling position and then from this position to actually stand up. When I went shopping at the supermarket the other day, I spotted in the Aldi ‘middle aisle’ a child’s step stool and I purchased one of these because I thoght it might be a useful aid to get Meg dressed in the morning,not to mention picking herself up from the floor. So a combination of following the website advice and then using the step stool to achieve a kneeling position seemed to work OK and the rest followed fairly quickly. After all of this pallaver, I got myself and Meg up and adressed and then got downstairs to cook some breakfast. I had to improvise here as well becaue I had forgotten to buy some eggs but I substituted some cooked plum tomatoes served with some cheese on toast (for Meg) and rice cake (for me). After breakfast, I needed to access the web to organise a refund of some train tickets. I had already organised and paid for a couple of tickets so that Meg and I could go to an ‘Old Fogies’ (ex-University of Winchester) colleagues for a meal on Tuesday next. But the relevant company, Cross Country trains, sent me a message to the effect that the train we were going to pick up at Birmingham International was not going to stop there on this particular train. So I organised a refund for myself and can now work out what options are open to ne. As Meg seems to be in a pattern of having a fall every other day or so, then I think the journey to Winchester is now probably beyond us. We could go by car but this makes it quite a long day without the benefit of any alcohol at lunchtime. As Meg cannot be left unattended, I have to reluctantly conclude that shall have to give the ‘Old Fogies’ a miss on this occasion and will look forward to the next occasion in about six months time.

We set off for Cheltenham in plenty of time and the car almost knew its own way there from past journeys to Meg’s cousin. We had arranged to meet in Meg’s cousin’s daughter’s house where we could leave the car and then proceed to the restaurant in a couple of cars as car parking is at a premium. It was wonderful to see Meg’s cousins again after a gap of some years (in one case) Unfortunately a severe illness seems to be manifesting itself which was distressing to hear but we are convinced that a positive attitude can make a world of difference. We all had a good meal which in our case was Fish and Chips which is quite a treat as we have some so rarely and they were beautifully cooked and presented. We had plenty of time both before and during lunch to get each other up-to-date on family matters and naturally some political discussion ensued. After we had had our lunch, we all repaired to the cousin’s house for a cup of tea and then we struck off for home, which was quite an easy journey home. We are only about 40 miles distant from one of Megs cousins so we are hoping that they can come and spare some time with us in Bromsgrove if time and other commitments allow. At least we have the prospect of summer unfolding before us which makes these family trips much more manageable.

Of course, the major political news today was Dominic Raab’s resignation just before 10.00am this morning. My predictions of last night were quite wrong, by the way. What is so unusual is that Dominic Raab has resigned with all guns blazing calling the whole enquiry process ‘flawed’ and the narrative that he is trying to construct is that a small cadre of ‘passive-aggressve’ civil servants were hell-bent on bringing him down. But significantly, there are no Tory MP’s arguing that his resignation was unnecessary with the exception of Jacob Rees-Mogg in an interview that dripped vitriol (towards civil servants) in every sentence.

Today dawned, and continued, as the most beautiful and sunny of spring days. Both in our gardens, and the public streets and naturally the parks, flowering trees such as flowering cherry are in full bloom and one really has the feeling that spring has arrived. Thursday is my supermarket shopping day so once this was all done and I was safely back in the house by 9.00, all that remained was to cook the breakfast and unpack the shopping. Meg and I thought that we would take a decision what to do this morning once we were up and breakfasted. We could have gone to the park on a beautiful spring day like today but instead opted for a trip out to Droitwich which is a weekly favourite of ours. Here we have our cappuchino and toasted teacake which is our normal fare and then popped next door into the charity shop whch is a regular haunt of ours. We bought quite a stylish top for Meg in an interestng shade of blue and I also acquired a shirt in my size. I have the impression that prices are creeping up quite a lot, even in the charity shops these days or perhaps it is just the more stylish of items that carry a higher price tag. The we popped into a stationery shop and bought a little hard backed notebook that I need for some record keeping purchases. No visit would be complete without a visit to Wilko where I made a beeline for the stationery department to replenish supplies. Then it was case of getting home and preparing our lunch of quiche and vegetables. At 2.35 in the afternoon, I was poised over my computer making a bid on eBay for a collection of 25 audio books. These were not any old books but some very interesting audio books spanning the worlds of both politics and history. The starting bid was £10.00 and there was one bid in the system. I waited until there was a minute to go in the auction, made my top price £25.50 but was outbid. I was encouraged to raise my bid to £28 but I was outbid at the end by a bid of £29.00 – who knows what the other bidder’s top price actually was. To be honest, I am not sure that Meg would take to the audio books for whose benefit I was making the bid but in the nature of these eBay auctions you win some and you lose some.

One newsworthy item today has been the test firing of the worlds biggest rocket, courtesy of Elon Musk’s SpaceX operation. This flew for about 4 minutes before blowing up. However, only the Americans could have labelled such an event a RUD, which acronym stands for a ‘Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly’. There was something rather bizarre absout seeing a huge meeting space full of rocket technicians actually cheering when the whole contraption blew up. The explanation is that they regarded success as getting the rocket itself off the ground but you would not normally expect to witness a huge crowd of technicians actually cheering when their creation blew up in front of their eyes.

We have been holding ourselves in readiness all day today as the report on the alleged bullying behaviour of Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minsister, was delivered to Rishi Sunak this morning. This report has taken months to compile and follows eight specific complaints from a score of civil servants across three ministries who have all attested to Raab’s bullying behaviour. Initially, we were told that the Prime Minister, having received the quite voluminous report, would announce a decision later on today. But as the afternoon wore on, Downing Street announced that no decision would be taken today so we will have to wait until tomorrow, at the earliest. Tonight the Guardian is reporting that the report is ‘searing’ and ‘stinging’ but this must be conjecture on the Guardian’s part unless there is a mole within Downing Street. The ‘dilemma’ facing Rishi Sunak is as follows. If there is a single damning sentence, then it would have been easy to ask for an immediate resignation. In the absence of this, the Prime Minister will be anxious not to antagonise the right wing of the Tory party or to dispense with the Deputy Prime Minister who has been one of his most vociferous of cheerleaders. On the other hand, he hardly has the option to do nothing given the volume and variety of complaints and his statement when made Prime Minister that he was going to put integrity at the heart of government. I predict a massive fudge is being constructed. I suspect that Sunak will relieve Raab of the Deputy Prime Ministership but not appoint a successor into the role. This might be deemed a ‘punishment’ but Sunak will still keep him in government and even in his present position – until the next reshuffle at least. This ‘fudge’ will serve to keep the disparate parts of the Tory party from fighting each other but the opposition parties will be able to claim, with a degree of justification, that Rishi Sunak is weak, indecisive and a ditherer. Of course all of this is playing out as the local elections on 4th May are looming larger.

Today was an interesting day, what with one thing or another. Last night, I went on the web to ascertain what services might be available locally to help Meg cope with her memory loss disability and I discovered a Day Centre that was relatively close by. So we decided that after breakfast, we would go in search of the centre and see what they had to offer. So having picked up our newspaper, I went in search of the facility which ominously had the number 6B as part of its address. According to Google, it is very near the Stroke Association centre in Bromsgrove and then, together with Meg, went in search of the facility. After a certain degree of roaming about, we did not find it and decided to cut our losses and come home. I did have a telephone number and did manage to phone them but given the scale of charges per hour, came to the conclusion that this was anything but a ‘not-for-profit’ foundation and, reading between the lines after the conversation that I had, I am not at all sure it will provide the type of help and support that I am seeking. I have some other ‘irons in the fire’ as well, so will see if these bear fruit. Incidentally, I have stopped some of Meg’s medication and she seems to be better off without it so it does make one wonder! When we got home, Meg and I had some elevenses watching PMQ (Prime Ministers Questions) which was the usual knockabout stuff. Why I continue to watch it, I don’t know as the ‘attack lines’ are all researched, prepared and rehearsed beforehand and hardly anything of real interest emerges. But I was conscious of the fact that I badly wanted to get the lawns cut as they were already two days overdue. This might not sound very bad but at this time of year, grass practically shoots out of the ground so I was determined to get the job done today whilst the weather was relatively fine. So, in short, I got the lawns done at the cost of just a slightly delayed lunch and was mighty pleased with myself that I had got this job fitted in as I wanted and needed.

The court case between Fox News and Dominion (voting machine manufacturer) very, very nearly cane to court. Dominion had put in a claim for $1.6bn and seemed to determined to have their day in court to salvage their reputation. Fox News, for their part, admitted to the judge that they were telling lies but relied upon the very flimsy case that they were only exercising their rights to ‘free speech’ and they were reporting a story that was widely believed (whether it was true or not) After the jurors were sworn in and Dominion were just about to produce their first prosecution witness (no less than Rupert Murdoch himself, the owner of Fox News but who himself believed that Trump was lying through his teeth). Fox has agreed to pay Dominion $787.5m (£634m) which is about one half of what was claimed. While the payout is large, it means Fox avoids what was billed by some as the defamation trial of the century. However, the network faces a second, similar lawsuit from another election technology firm, Smartmatic. The settlement means that Fox and Dominion can now put the case behind them with both firms being able to claim victory. But the analysis of why Fox settled is fascinating. It seems that Fox thouught that it would a lot of its audience to even more extreme right wing media who were even more unhinged than Fox themselves. Frightened of losing a large slice of their potential audience, Fox dispensed with ‘the facts’ (as they themselves knew them) and pandered to the prejudices of the extreme Trump supporters which is an extraordinary state of affairs for an organisation that is supposedly in the business of reporting news, not peddling propaganda. One now wonders what the impact will be when the other technology firm – Smartmatic – piles into action.

Meg and I are looking forward to our trip out on Friday to meet with offspring of cousins (are they cousins as well?) In the meanwhile, we are meant to be going to Winchester on Tuesday next week and have already bought train tickets. But the train company have already informed us that the advertised train is not now going to stop at Birmingham International and has offered us a refund. We have a bit of a dilemma which is whether to get other tickets which might be a bit of a stretch given Meg’s frail state of health. On the other hand, we might cancel the trip altogether although this would be a great shame not to see long cherished friends after a year. A third possibility is that I go on my own in the car to save time (paradoxically) as I am in control of my own arrival and departure times. I am still evaluating my options in all of this and may make up my mind tomorrow to see if Meg has improved somewhat as she seems to have done today. And just as a postscript, I received a wonderful little comment on last night’s blog from an ex-student of mine who had stumbled across this blog somehow – but remembers us drinking beer together on a student trip to Brussels about 18-20 years ago now.

Tuesday morning is always a day to which we look forward because it is the day when we normally meet up with friends in the Waitrose coffee bar. The day dawned bright and clear, although a trifle cold, but it was enough to lift the spirits after the gloom of yesterday. Sure enough, there was quite a gathering of the clans as there were three of our pre-pandemic friends gathered together in Waitrose together with Meg and myself. I think it is the case that when we gather it is always quite an uproarious occasion because I am generally telling a story or anecdote which is more true than untrue. Today I told a story that was essentially correct but I got some of the details badly wrong. It concerns a conversation with Madame De Gaulle whose command of English was rudimentary. I thought that the whole point of the story came in a BBC interview kept very much under wraps and only revealed on special occasions such as comical outclips played at Christmastime for example. But this is the full story with details I did not know but in many ways it makes it even funnier. I got the whole story from an account of it accessible via Google and here it is.

The Queen’s quick-witted sense of humour once saved her from a potentially awkward situation with an important guest, a royal author revealed. According to Adam Helliker, Her Majesty, 93, was hosting Charles de Gaulle – the former French president – and his wife Madame Yvonne De Gaulle at Buckingham Palace back in April 1960 when the cheeky quip was made. A guest asked Madame de Gaulle what she was most looking forward to in her retirement, which was imminent. With great elaboration (as she didn’t speak much English) she replied: ‘A penis.’ An awkward silence ensued for some time, until the Queen herself came to the rescue, and she said with a broad grin: ‘Ah, happiness.’

Our little group do not just meet for a coffee but we supply a little mutual support to each other. Three of us have partners suffering from dementia, two at home and one in residential care. We exchange little stories and hopefully, some helpful tips with each other but in the main we just enjoy a good laugh with each other. I think we are all agreed that the point in the day when we require most help is late in the day, getting our respective partners to bed and this is precisely the point at which we have to manage on our own and just get on with it. Occasionally some of us meet up on a Friday as well as a Tuesday so that is another day to which to look forward. We then had to do a bit of shopping from the supermarket shelves and then race home so that I could get ready for my Pilates class. It was still a beautiful day in which to walk down and to walk back to town and my Pilates class went well. Then after lunch, as the weather was fine, I intended to get the lawns mowed but it was not to be. Meg had another of her little falls and I found her on the kitchen floor after I had taken our post-prandial coffees into our lounge. After I had hoisted Meg up from the floor (not easy these days as I am a but worried about putting my back out which would be all too easy), I judged that I had better not leave her whilst I did this outside job so I shall just have to squeeze it in at some other time – perhaps tomorrow morning when Meg might be somewhat more stable.

There is a massive political scandal of sorts just waiting in the wings. According to Sky News, hundreds of thousands of people could be denied their right to vote unless new compulsory voter ID rules are delayed, a former Conservative cabinet minister has warned. Raising the alarm about the impact of forcing voters to produce ID in England for the first time at May’s local elections, Tory grandee David Davis urged the government to pause, or risk disenfranchising the poor and elderly. The former cabinet minister told Sky News that the uptake of free photo ID among those who do not already have one – such as a driver’s licence, a blue badge or a passport – was worryingly low. The government’s own data shows just over 48,000 people have registered online in the past two months, compared to estimates of between 925,000 and 3.5 million people without existing ID. ‘The system they put in place to deal with the problem of those with no ID has not worked,’ he said. The government is arguing that photo ID will have to be produced in the local elections due to take place in early May. But this is a ‘solution’ to a problem that does not exist because the amount of fraud associated with ‘personnation’ is incredibly low – at the rate of about 1 or 2 people in each election. But the government has been told repeatedly that there will be a massive detrimental effect upon those who do not have, and have not needed to have, photo ID such as some of the elderly, the poor, the disabled, ethnic minorites and the like. In short, this is rather like the trick that the Republicans in the US used to suppress the effect of the black vote and to swing things their way in tight elections.

Monday dawned as rather a dreary and gloomy day. We were promised a little bit of sunshine but none actually materialised and it stayed gloomy and threatening all day. Meg and I were in two minds what to do after we had breakfasted but eventually, we opted for a walk along Bromsgrove High Street which does not sound terribly exciting. We made our way to the cobblers in Bromgrove who install new batteries into watches and even give a warranty with them. We had a couple of watches, one of my son’s and one of my own, which have needed a new battery in for a week or so now so I was pleased to take this opportunity to get this done. Whilst we were on the road, we passed a cosmetics and toiletries shop and popped in for a few supplies. As our watch batteries were going to take a few minutes to fit, we were encouraged to wander up and down the High Street for a few minutes which we did, taking in some of the Bromsgrove generous collection of charity shops en route. This turned out to be quite productive because we managed to buy a couple of skirts for Meg of a plainish design, which are needed because we have no end of flowery tops to go with them. Whilst we were at it, we bought a new shirt for myself of a good make so that has gone into the wash ready to be worn in a day or so. When we eventually got home, we knew that we were due for a bit of a rush round because our chiropodist was arriving at 1.30 so we had some late elevenses and did some vegetable preparation so that the minute our feet were done, we could press on with our lunch. All of this worked out to plan and then we decided, in view of the weather, that there was no way I felt inclined to go mowing this afternoon. So we had a quietish afternoon and I got Meg settled down in our music room where they were playing some soothing Beethoven piano music whilst I got busy doing a little repair job. Then I got Meg to try on her new skirts and worked out what was going to be our evening viewing schedule.

A fascinating court case is due to be heard in Delaware, USA tomorrow- Fox News vs. Dominion Voting Machines might not sound the most exciting of court cases but the implications of this case cannot be overstated for the Trump case. Fox News had claimed that voting machines manufactured by Dominion containd an algorithm that systematically turned votes for Donald Trump into votes for Joe Biden during the last presidential election in 2020. Fox News just say that they were reporting ‘a story’ but Dominion, who are suing for $1.6bn, say they have incriminating emails which show some of the leading, naturally right wing, anchor men knew the story to be false but reported it gleefully anyway. The case should have been heard today but has been delayed for a day, presumably as the lawyers are fighting out over an out-of-court settlement. If the Dominion case is basically proved, then this proves that ‘The Big Lie’ (that Joe Biden actually lost the election and that Donald Trump won it) is itself the big lie. If Fox News were to win the case, then this might actually prove Trump correct and the consequence for his reselection are horrendous. If the lawyers come to an out-of-court settlement, then perhaps we shall never know wherein the truth lies as each side will no doubt ‘spin’ the lawyers conclusions to put themselves in the best light and we shall never know whether Fox News is sanctioned. The case has tremendous implications for the burgeoning right wing media outlets in the US who have repeated Donald Trump’s claims ‘ad nauseam’ One is reminded of Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist, whose dictum was ‘If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.’

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak is himself under investigation by the parliamentary authorities for not being sufficiently frank over his wife’s shareholding in a childcare firm that benefitted from announcements in the recent budget. Before a Select Committee of MPs, Sunak himself said that he had made all of the necessary declarations in the Director of Ministerial Interests (I think it is called) but this has not been published for more than a year now so how are journalists and MPs meant to check whther Sunak was correct or not? Naturally, the Labour Party are crying ‘Tory sleaze’. This may, or may not, be the case but the point is that none of us in a parliamentary democracy will never know unless these directories of ministerial interests are accurate, comprehensive and then published. It is possible that Rishi Sunak is ‘squeaky clean’ but in a couple who are so wealthy and with so many shareholdings in diverse companies, perhaps it might be the case that there are multiple examples of shareholdings that can be shown to profit from government business. Perhaps we have never had a Prime Minister and his wife who are so incredibly wealthy that a case like this has not seen the light of day before.

It was a bit of a indeterminate day today after the beautiful clear skies and warm sunshine of yesterday. We did not really pay too much attention to the weather as we knew that, after the Laura Kuenssberg politics show, we would go down and meet up again with our University of Birmingham friend. It feels as though this is going to be a regular Sunday morning meeting but we always seem to have so much to talk about. We got home relatively early and started to think about lunch as we had some ham slowly cooking itself in the slow cooker. This was cooked to perfection, as it nearly always does, and we prepared some carrot (sliced into little thin batons and then after parboiling finished off with some oil and honey) We complemented this with some broccoli and had a very tasty meal, enhanced by a little honey mustard which I had bought some time ago but not had the opportunity to use. On consulting my mobile, I discovered two messages, both of which were pleasant to receive. The first one of these was the daughter of Meg’s cousin who we are going to have lunch with in Cheltenham next Friday. We are to be joined by her sister and husband who are journeying over from Derby so we are going to have, in effect, a miniature little family reunion and to repeat again, we have a lot of news to impart and to receive from other family members. The second message was from the daughter of the couple that we met in the club activity organised by Herefordshire and Age Concern during the week and whom we had invited around for a spot of afternoon tea. We have now agreed a date for just over a week’s time and this will be another engagement to which we can look forward. The daughter of the couple we have not met, as yet, but already we have quite a lot in common as she has spent quite a lot of her life both in Spain and also in Mexico. I am anticipating that we will spent a little of the time talking in Spanish with each other but I am sure mine will be somewhat rusty but I am hoping that bits of it will flood back all being well.

This afternoon, we thought we would be entertained by Leicester Tigers vs. Exeter Chiefs in a rugby cup match. For the first twenty minutes or so, they seemed very evenly matched and I thought that Exeter was playing the more adventurous rugby. But Leicester Tigers played incredibly good opportunistic rugby, capitalising on any Exeter handling errors or perceived weakneses. Eventually, Leicester assumed an incredible lead and won the match 62-19. What rather took the steam out of the match was that an Exeter player was issued a yellow card for an intentional knock-on. Later on in the match, in attempting to stop Ashton score a try for Leicester Tigers, he made a dive to prevent an Ashton try but only succeeded in making Ashton’s toe touch the line. This was adjudged to eventually be awarded a penalty try but the Exeter player was then awarded a second yellow, which then became a red and he was sent off for the rest of the match. The referee was applying the letter of the law correctly but to be awarded a red card for two unrelated technical offences might be thought of as being unduly harsh. An extraordinary and very amusing incident occurred towards the end of this rugby match. Chris Ashton of Leicester Tigers scored a hat-trick of tries and this made him one of a select few to have scored 100 tries in the course of his career. Upon scoring the try, he leapt over the barrier at the end of the pitch, seated himself in an empy seat on the front row and then applauded (his own try) by joining in the clapping and applause of the rest of the supporters. When Meg and I lived in Leicester, we never attended a Tiger’s match but we knew that they had a very strong and loyal local following. I arranged for a Spanish PhD student to have a term at De Montfort University because it is part of the ‘training’ progrm for a Spanish PhD that you spend a period of time studyig in a non-Spanish university. The student who came over was a very bright (and good looking) young man and whilst informing him about life in Leicester I said that he ought to go along to a Leicester Tiger’s match to experience a bit of the local culture. Although knowing nothing abour Rugby, he read up on the rules and certainly went to at least one match. But the photo that he sent to me showed him with two fellow female students, one blonde and the other brunette who he had persuaded to accompany him to the match. I sent the photo onto his supervisor (one of our own ex-students and a close family friend) showing her what happened to young Spanish PhD students when they meant to be hard at work in their ‘foreign’ university. I must say, in passing, that the student really enjoyed his stay in Leicester and derived lot of benefit from it, so I was pleased to have a hand in arranging it all.

We awoke to a beautiful and bright day and it looks as though a little spell of fine weather has arrived at last. After we had got ourselves up, showered and breakfasted, we made up a flask of coffee and prepared for a walk in the park. We collected our Saturday edition of ‘The Times‘ and then made our way to the park where there was a slightly cooling wind but nothing to trouble us. When we got to the park, there seemed to be quite a preponderance of really young chidren out on their tricycles. This is the last week of the Easter holidays so I imagine that families are getting a bit of oudoor relaxation time now that the weather has turned a bit more favourable. We lunched on quiche plus some spring greens which I must admit I really enjoyed as they were so fresh. We knew that it was the much anticipated England-Wales Womens International Rugby being broadcast from 2.15 so we determined to get washed up and ready to watch the match and indeed we were ready on time. The match itself proved to be a little of an anticlimax. The Welsh started really well, got three points on the board and were truly ferocious ‘in the breakdown’ But then the English gradually started to wear the Welsh team down and eventually ran in nine tries and beat the Welsh 59-3. Some of the English tries exhibited some brillint runs and performances whilst others just showed the raw power of the English pack. So one finished off feeling a little sorry for the Welsh pack who started of so well but then faded so badly. At one stage, towards the very end of the match, the English team had two players off the pitch as they were ‘yellow carded’ for incidents when a shoulder came into contact with the head of an opposing player but the team of 13 still managed to score a try. Later on today, it is the Grand National which spectacle I generally watch but not this year as the start is very near the time at which we leave for church on a Saturday afternoon. We may, though, be able to pick up a replay of it later if the mood takes us.

On our way to church, we traverse along what is a ‘de facto’ ringroad around the town and every time we travel along the road, we cannot fail to notice a huge new development which is in the process of being built. What used to be a green hillside upon which sheep grazed has now been transormed into a huge, muddy plot upon which they are building nearly 400 houses. If each house has an average of 2 cars and they are each 3 metres of length (or roadspace), then this new development would generate approximtely 2.4 kilometres of cars if they were parked end to end – which is approximately the distance from the new development down to the centre of town and then back again. I think it is quite within the realms of possibility that our town becomes the first in the country to be completely and utterly gridlocked so that each morning, nobody will travel anywhere (unless they decide to walk). I read a very interesting letter in ‘The Times‘ the other day from a local councillor, or it might have been a planning official, who argued that in his experience people were not opposed to new housing. But they were opposed to new housing without the requisite infrastructure of improved roads, footpaths, public transport facilities, schools, doctor’s surgeries, local shops, local community facilities and so on. The planning mode in the UK is that the housing comes first and any other infrastructure a very inadequate second place, if it ever becomes provided at all. I think that in Spain I have seen the reverse process in which local authorities, probably at the regional level, have provided roads, shops and other infrastructure which has been left unused as the building of new housing units has been left to the private sector which often bankrupted itself. In the case of the new development down the road from us, I sometimes wonder as well how much of the newly built housing will actually serve the existing residents of Bromsgrove and how much will be bought by people whose connection with the borough is tenuous.

I think there is now really serious concern that the NHS disputes may start to escalate. The possibility is being raised of ‘cordinated action’ in which both nurses and junior doctors, plus other ancillary staff, may all decide to strike at the same time. The problem is that both sides are now so deeply entrenched. The government regards anything in the region of 30% as being completely unaffordable, whereas the staff have witnessed real term wage cuts for most of the past decade and really feel that they are prepared to tolerate no more. Of course, we have elections looming at the end of the first week in May and possibly a settlement is not possible until the elections have been held and the appropriate lessons drawn. Public opinion may well work against the strikers if it is evident that several deaths are directly attributable to the dispute.

Today has been a very interesting day, alhough it started off dull and gloomy. It was the day when our domestic help calls around and she brought with her a specialist carpet spot cleaner which proved very useful after Meg had a little fall but a cup of coffee was sent flying everywhere. This little unit proved so good that, after a demonstration, I may even feel tempted to purchase one for ourselves in the fullness of time. After we had breakfasted, we knew that we would probably meet up with some of our friends and acquaintances in the Waitrose coffee lounge and so it proved. We met up with our University of Birmingham friend plus another two of our pre-pandemic friends and a jolly time was had by all. I recounted our experiences at the club the other day when we were treated to the renditions of some traditional early 1960’s songs by members of a ukelele band. I even sang (softly) the words of ‘The foggy, foggy Dew’ and one of my friends had heard it before, one denied all knowledge of it and the third was a bit unsure. I have Googled the words (although, confusingly, there are several versions) but I have downloaded the version that most closely accords to my own memory of the ditty so that when I render it next time (if there be a next time), I shall have memorised the words correctly.

This afternoon, I reviewed some of my WhatsApp messages and received a message which is always nice to receive. It was from the daughter of the couple we meet on Wednesday who has spent some of her life in Spain and some in Mexico and seems to try to get back to Hispanic cultures whenever she can. To cut a long story short, Meg and I have issued an invitation to her and her parents to pop around for an afternoon cup of tea and we are finalising some diary dates for this. When we do meet, I am sure it will be fascinating for us to exchange our reminisciences of our experiences of the two Hispanic countries we have in common (Spain itself and Mexico) and we may be able to try out some of our, by now, very rusty Spanish as well. We also sent a quick WhatsApp message to Meg’s cousin in Cheltenham just to confirm that we are still on track for our lunch date next Friday, to which we are looking forward as there is so much news to catch up on when we do meet.

Although today is wet and windy, there is every indication that the weather is going to improve quite markedly in the few days ahead. I am quite keen to get out into the garden and to start what I call my spring maintenance jobs. I know from bitter experience over the years that you more you get the garden basically shipshape during these early growing periods, it saves a lot of time and effort subsequently. I like to work on what I call ‘the gullies’ but basically it means that every border to each flower bed is maintained by cutting the grass short and ensuring that any adjacent and accessible weeds are well and truly dealt with. Over the years, I have evolved a technique to try to ensure that I do not engage in too much bending which can wreak havoc with one’s back. Rather, I lay semi-sideways so I can reach anything within about a two metre radius and thus work my way down the whole length of the garden. As with my other jobs of this nature, some sections always require a great deal of work whereas others allow me to proceed at a much faster pace. This year, though, instead of trying to do the whole of the back garden in a couple of days, I am going to confine myself to little increments of about 20-30 minutes at a time. We used to have a regular gardener to do some of the heavier pruning but in mid-Autumn of last year he was taken quite seriously ill and has to abandon his gardening activities.

There is some quite mixed news on the nurses and ancillary NHS workers in their pay dispute with the government. Members of the Royal College of Nursing are to go on strike again after they voted against the latest government pay offer. This result comes despite a recommendation from union leaders that they accept it and means there will be a round-the-clock 48-hour strike – without exemptions – from 8pm on 30 April to 8pm on 2 May. Meanwhile, members of Unison voted to accept the government’s latest pay deal. As of now, it is a little difficult to predict whether there will be a degree of solidarity to maintain the strike or whether there actually be a split with some going into work and others supporting the strike. Any split on the side of the workers actually plays into the hands of the government in this dispute and, as with doctors whose strike is due to end at 7.00am tomorrow morning, the degree to which public opinion remains supportive of the NHS workers will be a critical factor.