Yesterday was going to quite a different day as normally I do my weekly shop-up on this day but as I shall be away for three nights over the weekend, there is no point stocking up food I will not eat. So I am just contemplating whether it is worth going shopping anyway to stock up on some non-food items or whether to give the whole trip a miss. Yesterday I was wondering why my long-established Pilates ‘pal’ had not replied to a text I had sent her earlier but all became plain in her reply. She had a terrible problem with her eye which necessitated an emergency visit to our local treatment centre but fortunately they had managed to resolve the problem much to her relief. In the meanwhile, she was having to self-administer antibiotic drops into her eye which I admit can be tricky but it did make me count my blessings and appreciate that other friends have their problems that assail them out of the blue as it were. About once a day I tune in to some of the (liberal) American political podcasts who spend a lot of their time obsessing about how mad Donald Trump is actually turning out to be. But one other topic engaging their attention is to understand the zeal with which some of the American states are redrawing their political constituency boundaries in such a way to minimise the influence of the Democrat, and usually poor black, vote. I heard the following ‘justification’ for their activities and it ran like this. ‘If we allow too many poor black voters access to the vote they will vote for the Democrats who will promise roads, clinics, schools and the like. This will have to be paid for using the tax dollars of (us) richer white Americans and is akin to socialism. So we have to resist this at all costs to try to ensure that the Republicans always stay in power but whatever means are at their disposal’ Of course, this analysis is simplistic in the extreme but I would comment that the American republicans do not really have a concept of ‘the common good’ or ‘fair play’ My mind goes back to the time when the Victorians realised that contaminated wells were the source of cholera outbreaks which threatened rich and poor alike. So the solution was to provide a pure water supply which benefitted all parts of the society, rich and poor alike, and some of this philosophy (although not much of it) still is an influence upon British political culture.

The American political headlines these past few weeks have focused on the National Guard deployed by the American president to the streets of Washington DC. With combat rifles and armoured vehicles, they are an effective visual for Donald Trump. They neatly project his power but they are a distraction as well. While the troops may, for his supporters, represent hard presidential power in a Democrat-run city perceived to be out of control, they are not actually fighting crime (nor are they the right tool to do that) and they are not focused on the nation’s immigration challenges. This week, they were spotted collecting litter in downtown DC. Yet Trump’s law, order, and crime agenda has many strands which represent an unprecedented extension of presidential authority. Two weeks ago, at the White House, he told America what to expect. Some of the American political commentators are allowing themselves to use the use ‘fascism’ because of the evident parallels with the rise of the Nazi party in 1930’s Germany. But although eschewing the actual use of the term ‘fascism’, there is an almost universal agreement that we are witnessing the growth of a creeping authoritarianism. This is manifest particularly in the ways in which undocumented migrants who may have lived in the USA in the States and contributed their tax dollars are being hunted down by unidentified, masked agents of ‘ICE’ (Immigration and Customs Control) or their sub-contracted gangs ready for immediate deportation. Just to reinforce this point, Sky News had a videoclip which documented this operation in action and some of the local community were trying to fight back – not easy when your opponents are burley, masked, armed to the teeth and have no visible ID.

I decided to take the opportunity to go shopping and I knew it was going to be very light week but I stocked up on fruit. I took the opportunity to buy a beautiful little 16″ lidded saucepan made from recycled aluminium but there is no way that you would know this. I used it to heat up half a packet of quinoa which I used to accompany the other half of the large curry I made for myself yesterday. Also, I could not resist the temptation to buy a little integral dustpan and brush set which I shall use in the bedroom when little bits drop off my socks.  I spent some of the afternoon getting the basics packed in the little suitcase for my Yorkshire trip when I shall depart by train late in the afternoon. It has been rather a rainy afternoon but that has not bothered me as I have had enough to occupy myself during the course of the afternoon.

Nigel Farage recently unveiled his plans for the immediate deportation of all migrants who make it to these shores on dinghies and, when pressed on this answer, indicated that the policy would apply to women and children and it was not his problem if the migrants were subject to public beatings and worse upon their return. Only today, The Times has an account of how a woman in Afghanistan went put in public without a male escort and although not sentenced to death, did receive a public lashing of 39 strokes before being allowed back in to prison for one more day to recover from her injuries and then released. But Farage has immediately rowed back on his announcement of the previous day indicating that his main priority would be send back young, undocumented males whilst the case of women and children would no doubt prove to be more complicated. All of this is pure grandstanding of course because although the Reform party is ahead in the polls, even if they were to win an absolute majority and pass legislation through the Commons, then the House of Lords would never accept leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, dismantling the Good Friday agreement and sending women back to Afghanistan to be tortured or worse.

The evening before yesterday, I started to make some preliminary preparations for my forthcoming trip up to Yorkshire at the weekend, to which I am looking forward. I had already purchased the relevant train tickets so I ensured that I had the QR codes on my phone and also in a little wallet as a backup. I also had my hotel booking copied into my ‘travel’ file and just as I had completed these tasks, I got a text from a niece indicating what the arrangements would be for the weekend. The last time when Meg was sufficiently fit to travel, we found a delightful little Italian cafe in Harrogate which we frequented on our way to the station. My niece and I arranged to meet for a coffee somewhere and although I had forgotten the name of the coffee shop, an internet search jogged my memory and it was just on the same street as the opticians she was attending on Saturday morning so nothing could be more convenient. I need some time on Saturday morning to buy a suitable present for my sister but I have some things in mind and Harrogate can be relied upon to be stuffed full of shops where I can buy something suitable. I still need to circulate the other members of the family, though, so that I can touch base with them during my brief visit as well.  The financial news this morning has brought a warning that a well-known addition to out High Street, Poundland, may well go under if it does not receive a financial restructuring within the next few days. Poundland seems to have taken the place of the old Woolworths in providing a place on the High Street here you can just pop into buy a low cost item and indeed, here in Bromsgrove, I believe that Poundland occupied the premises vacated by Woolworths but that was slightly before I moved here. I am always reminded of the fact that almost everything in Poundland is plastics-based (anything metallic apart from a few Chinese tools could not be sold at such a low price) and is a sign of how dependent we are upon an oil-based economy. In the past I used to visit Poundland for the odd item but I have found recently that it never seems to stock anything that I really want or need so it is quite easy to pass it by. The High Street in Bromsgrove is replete with charity shops (at least seven at the last count) and coffee shops and precious little else but, as such, is probably typical of many main shopping streets in UK towns. However, a huge new building with an interesting semi-circular frontage is being erected in the centre of town – although opinion amongst my friends seems to be divided about it, I think in appearance that it will look distinctive. This, too, is promising a coffee area but I doubt it can be at all competitive with the multiplicity of coffee shops in the area. For example, when I visit Wetherspoons twice  a week, I spent £2.39 on an egg-and-bacon breakfast muffin which also gives me an endless supply of coffee/hot chocolate  thrown I as part of the price, all of which has eased the transition from the now closed Waitrose cafe in which my friends and I used to meet. I anticipate that today is the day when our domestic help is due to call and, apart from her normal tasks, she has taken it upon herself to remove articles of Meg’s clothing piece by piece which is very helpful to me. In fact, near relatives of a departed one often find that they need another relative or family friend to assist them in this task. After some three and a half months, the financial consequences of the loss of Meg’s income stream are starting to stabilise but this is quite a complicated business, not least because I have inherited a stub of Meg’s Teachers pension but now pay tax on it so my own pension is according reduced. Naturally, all of this is spreadsheeted to keep a track upon things but I suspect that it will take at least another month before things are absolutely on an even keel again.
 
Once I had learned via text that our domestic help was going to call around this Frida rather than Wednesday, I contemplated going into Droitwich where there one or two purchases I intended to make.  But when I thought it through, I reasoned with myself that I could get everything I needed here in Bromsgrove and was more likely to bump into people that I knew and so I revised my plans. First, I visited the local Morrison’s store, not to buy food but I had in mind to replace some of our kitchen knives used for food preparation. We have used ‘kitchen devils’ practically since their introduction in the 1960’s and of the three that I had, only one remains (one having been broken and the other perhaps inadvertently thrown away) I think that the kitchen devils I am using may be at least 20 years old so I bought a three knife set of a chef’s knife, a utility knife and a paring knife. Once I got them home, they all have protective plastic sleeves and are incredibly sharp so I shall need be particularly careful I do not slice my finger tips off before I get used to them. I find it hard to assess their quality but if they last ten years (half the life of my present set) I shall be happy with this. I also bought some Pierre Cardin socks (reduced, they said, by 50%) and some more underpants (called ‘trunks’ nowadays) Then I went to Waitrose,  had a coffee and collected my newspaper and set off along the High Street on a mission. I wanted to buy some jewelery more for a ‘chunky’ chain to put on Meg’s medallion before I pass it on. I located two pieces that I thought would do but of quite different designs so I can offer my niece a choice. When I got home, I spent quite a lot of time adapting one of the chains so that it would fasten correctly and then pressed on prparing a curry for myself, preparing enough both for my lunch today (which I found delicious, by the way) and the other portion for tomorrow. In the mid-afternoon I put up a clothes line (the other being rotten) ready for my clothing purchases once they emerge from the washing machine.

I awoke yesterday morning to the strains of a Braham’s symphony, courtesy of ClassicFM and a sound which turned out to be rain. When I was well and truly up, I opened the front door to ascertain that we had, indeed, just had a welcome shower but for how long it lasted, I cannot say. However, it was prescient of me to get my critical bit of weeding done yesterday which seems to have been done just in the nick of time. But I suspect there are many dormant weed seeds just waiting for the rain and the sunshine only to sprout again. I have my own home-made weed killer solution which I have deployed to good effect and is particularly effective at those small pesky weeds that can be difficult to handle. It is ridiculously simple and just consists of white vinegar (usually of the kind used for pickling) and a liberal dose of washing up liquid. The whole concoction is usually enhanced with some common household salt which has the effect of intensifying the desiccating effect of the vinegar but this can be somewhat more harmful to the soil and neighbouring plants. However, if the weeds are on a gravel bed (which many of mine happen to be) then you can use the salt with impunity. This mixture is best sprayed onto the weeds quite early in the day when you know it is going to be sunny later on in the day. If the sun is sufficiently hot, then this home-made solution can be effective within hours and, indeed, as well as being super cheap and environment-friendly, often works faster than its commercial counterparts. It is true that this home-made solution does not attack the roots as such but with the green top destroyed these often wither away as well. I must admit I have not tried this home-made remedy for about a year now and I do prefer hand weeding and getting rid of weeds by the roots if this is possible and they are large enough but, in the meantime, I have found this works very well. 

When the history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is finally written; it will certainly feature attack drones as the weapons of choice. These can be manufactured cheaply by their thousands by both sides and it has proved invaluable to the Ukrainians. But Russia is advancing fast in this technology and developing (with the assistance of the Chinese for their supply lines) a drone guided by a thin fibre optic cable which is less likely to be detected and shot down, The use of drone technology is probably changing the nature of modern warfare and has been given a massive impetus by this conflict. The drones can be manufactured and hand assembled in their thousands quite easily and cheaply so it is easy to move production from place to place making the factories that produce them hard to identify and thus to destroy. The latest information I have on this subject reads as follows. So far, drones have helped Ukraine to hold the line against Russia’s invasion. But holding is not winning. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is catching up. Indeed, rapidly growing domestic production of ‘Shaheds’ and un-jammable fibre optic drones have recently allowed Russia to seize the initiative from Ukraine in the drone war. In order to reverse this trend and open up a pathway toward ending Russia’s invasion, Kyiv’s Western partners must help Ukraine dramatically scale up drone production. This year, Ukraine aims to produce around four million drones of all types, more than double last year’s total. Partner countries also plan to expand deliveries. A twenty-nation Drone Coalition co-chaired by Latvia and the UK has pledged €2.75 billion to supply an additional one million drones in 2025. However, progress has been slow as members rely on their own limited drone production capabilities. The so-called Danish model of military aid offers a faster and more cost-effective alternative. Under this approach, Copenhagen pools donor funds, including windfall interest from frozen Russian assets, to procure drones and other military equipment directly from Ukrainian manufacturers. Total disbursements via this streamlined pipeline are expected to reach €1.5 billion in 2025.

After I made my journey down to town, I collected my newspaper and then communed with two separate groups of friends in Wetherspoons. Then I made my up the hill, checking that one of my friends was still on holiday, and then set about preparing myself some lunch which was very easy as it was a couple of mackerel fillets on a bed of salad so only took minutes to prepare. Then I dozed a little after lunch which is my wont and then we were treated to a burst of sunshine. I thought that this would be an opportune time to complete a weeding job in between the stones that mark the transition from the public to the private driveway. I thought I would only complete one half of the job and leave the rest until later but then my neighbour turned up in his car (we often have to utilise some of our neighbour’s space to get our cars pointing in the right direction) We had a good chat as we often do on the madness of American politics and then I felt emboldened to finish off my weeding and threw in some pesky weeds in front of the garage door for good measure. Before I went out to weed, I indulged in some of the liberal websites on ‘YouTube‘ which are all of the same opinion that President Trump is completely deranged. However, here are dark forces all around him to ensure that some of the vestiges of American democracy are quietly dismantled. Several Republican states are redrawing of the political districts in their respective states so as to maximise Republican support and minimise that of the Democrats, a process well known to the Americans as ‘gerrymandering’ It is thought that these practices should give the Republicans 10 extra seats in the next Congressional elections which may well prove critical for them. Another contentious move is to send in the National Guard into cities such as Washington DC and Detroit, in theory to quell a ‘crime wave’ (which has actually reduced since last year) but with guns pointing in their faces this may be a reminder to the black populations of those cities not to get too ‘uppity’ and to know their place. The Civil War has not really ever ended in America but is taking on new and pernicious forms.

The highlight of the evening before yesterday was the Women’s Rugby Match in the World Cup in which the relative newcomers to the competition, Spain, were pitted against the World Cup holders, the New Zealanders (known as the ‘Black Ferns’) There was no way in which the Spanish could ever hope to win this match and you have thought they would have been completely outplayed. Although they lost by a thumping margin, the Spanish nonetheless played their hearts out and competed as though their lives depended on it. They did force the Black Ferns into a series of errors after which the Spanish were awarded a penalty kick and this helped to keep them in the game. In the dying seconds of the game and after a lot of sustained pressure, the Spanish actually scored a try to wild celebrations in the crowd. You would have thought that after a mis-match like this, the game would lack entertainment value but actually some pretty good rugby was played on both sides. Afterwards the Spanish coach summed up the game thus: ‘We are really happy with the performance. We know New Zealand are a really good team. We came here trying to get the girls in Spain to be inspired by us. So, we are really happy with the way we played. I think we have some things to work on. But I think we have confidence to work and face the Ireland game with passion.’ This is undoubtedly true and it is probably the case that the Spanish team can learn quite a lot from playing such high-quality opposition.

I awoke yesterday to a day in which the sky appeared a kind of murky grey-yellow but apparently there is going to be one last burst of sunshine before the remnants of a storm, and perhaps some rain, sweep over us the following day. As Monday is a Bank Holiday but unlike the Bank Holidays at Christmas and Easter, tThere is always a degree of uncertainty as to whether the food stores will be open and whether or not newspapers are published and available. This week is always to seem a little strange as my Pilates class is cancelled because my trainer is away on a quick break and all of my family and friends are away as well. But my chiropodist is due to call round at some time today (she does not adhere to Bank Holidays) and then I have to work out how to spend the day. The front of the house probably needs some weeding to get done but it is difficult to look forward to this task with a great deal of enthusiasm. The one bonus from the really hot dry spell that we have endured during the summer is that the grass in the absence of rain has not grown at all and is now a yellowy-brown which reminds one of the conditions of the lawns in the long hot summer in 1975 which was, of course, half a century ago now but still remembered.

I walked down into town this morning and picked up my copy of the newspaper, before availing myself of the free coffee made available to Waitrose cardholders, I knew that I needed to get back by 11.00am because my planning board indicated to me that the chiropodist was due to call around at this morning which indeed she did. We shared various bits of news with each other and she needed to update her records as she is becoming a completely independent practitioner. After she had left and before the heat of the day got too intense, I thought I would go outside and do a spot of weeding. I confined myself to only doing a task like this for about half an hour at a time as the last thing I need at the moment is a bad back and gardening can wreak havoc with you unless confined to really small doses. Then I indulged in one those programmes readily available on YouTube that discuss Donald Trump and his increasingly bizarre actions. The source I looked at illustrated with numerous clips what they interpreted as increasing signs of Trump’s dementia. Consulting the web further, I also found the following. Some psychiatrists and reporters have speculated that Trump may have mental health impairments, such as dementia (which runs in his family) or narcissistic personality disorder. Such claims have prompted discussion about ethics and applicability of the Goldwater rule which prohibits mental health professionals from publicly diagnosing or discussing the diagnosis of public figures without their consent and direct examination. However, if you put a search term into Google such as ‘Does Trump have dementia?’ you will find several eminent psychiatrists who argue that this is, in fact, the case and the media have largely chosen to ignore the all too evident signs.

I finished the afternoon by doing another half hour of weeding to make the front of the house look a little respectable. The roots of the weeds seemed to be a lot deeper than on other occasions and I am speculating whether the long hot summer has encouraged the weed rootstock grow longer and longer in search of water. But this is one task well accomplished on an otherwise unremarkable Bank Holiday. Later on in the day, my son gave me a video call which was very welcome and helped to bring some social contact into the day. The domestic political agenda seems to be dominated by the ‘hotel accommodation for asylum seekers’ row which is causing a reaction (and a counter reaction) across the country. The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been setting out his party’s new plans to address illegal migration in an interview with a newspaper with a set of policies, and a use of language, which would surely have been seen as extreme just a few years ago. These include mass deportations, prison camps and quitting the Refugee Convention and the UN Convention on Torture. Only last autumn the Reform leader repeatedly shied away from the concept of ‘mass deportations’, describing the idea as ‘a political impossibility’ but now he has embraced Trump-style immigration rhetoric. The whole problem concerning asylum seekers plays into the hands of right-wing politicians who found that they themselves could do precious little when they were in power. The Labour government is trying to speed up the process of processing the claims of asylum seekers but the backlog is so huge that dramatic results will certainly not be seen overnight.

Yesterday evening, I attended Church as part of my routine but I knew that it would be the last time I say the priest as he is leaving at the end of the month and next weekend, all being well, I shall be up with my family in Yorkshire. Thinking what to say to him, I hit upon the Spanish word ‘Adios’ which literally means ‘to God’ or more figuratively ‘Go with God’ which seemed an appropriate farewell for a priest. Actually, the origin of our farewell greeting ‘Goodbye’ is quite similar because it is actually a contraction of the phrase ‘God be with ye’ which is a very similar sentiment. As I was leaving the church, an old lady had missed a step and had fallen although I do not think she has badly hurt herself.  The rest of the congregation were making her comfortable as I left but the whole little incident reminded me how aged our little congregation has actually become. This weekend, followed by a Bank Holiday (to which  increasingly I do not look forward), is going to be quite an isolated one. I did a quick run through in my mind of the eight people, including family and friends but excluding immediate neighbours who I might expect to see for some extended social contact. But all of them are away, one half on holiday, another two preoccupied with moving house and the final two with their own family associations. So I am having to think quite hard what to do to keep myself connected with the world and, for a start, I will walk down the hill and hope that a newspaper is both published and available although things are a little ‘iffy’ on a Bank Holiday weekend. But there is a rugby match in the late morning and then a good film ‘Chariots of Fire’ is being broadcast this afternoon and although I have seen it at least 2-3 times before, it might be worth yet another watch. I know that Bank Holidays are important to people when their own holiday entitlement is limited but they are a little bit of an anachronism in these days when so people work 24:7. Incidentally, one of my introductions to Hispanic culture occurred when I was fortunate enough to be invited to give a paper to a conference organised by a computer firm and our guide around Mexico City was a young post-graduate student. It was about 3.30 on a Wednesday afternoon and the traffic was horrendous, even for Mexico City. Our postgraduate guide explained that the following day was a national holiday but I rather naively said ‘But then what about Friday?’ Our guide laughed and explained that Friday was a ‘puente’ (literally a bridge) and nobody returned to work on a Friday. So by having a national holiday on a Thursday, people could start to disappear late on Wednesday afternoon (which was evidently the case late on the Wednesday in question in Mexico City) and not return to work until Monday morning this creating a mini-vacation. For a similar reason, many people in the UK will try to get off on the Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday the following Monday in order to make a long weekend for themselves but, of course, without the extra day of a ‘puente’ (although many people will take a day’s leave to extend their miniature vacation).

As the absolutely horrific news continues to flow out of Gaza, we hear the news that The United Nations have officially declared that famine exists in Gaza and that the population is being starved to death. For the sake of balance, I have to point out that Israel denies that any starvation or food shortages exist in Gaza and any ‘evidence’ is just lies perpetrated by Hamas and adopted by the western media. I wondered whether the support from America was just as strong in the face of these revelations and did a bit of internet research. From this two things emerged. The first I vaguely already knew and this was that America as well as arming Israel to the teeth also is the way in which arms manufacturers can test out their own weaponry and much of this is funded directly by the US government. The second thing I discovered was the existence of a billionaire-funded group known as ‘AIPAC’ (America-Israel Public Affairs Committee) which channels funds towards both political parties in the USA. The fact that the Republican party is funded is no great surprise but what I had not realised was the huge amount of money (about $100k in the last year) to intervene in campaigns held within the Democrats to ensure that only Israel-friendly politicians get elected and that any voice within the Democrats even vaguely critical of Israel will have massively funded campaigns directed against them. To British ears, this seems like gross interference in the political process but of course it is part of the American political system in which these flows of campaign funds are deemed to be quite legitimate. I suppose I ought to neither surprised nor shocked by these discoveries on my part but, of course, they do impact upon the British political system as well. The UK government is always carried along on the coat-tails of American foreign policy but the demonstrations across the country supporting Palestine (and not Israel) in the current conflict shows out of touch our own (Labour) party is with an important strand of opinion within the country.

The day today, as anticipated, has not been a bundle of joy. I walked down to Waitrose and add a coffee and then walked to the park to sit on my usual bench.  But I did not meet any of my acquaintances and so walked home to regaled myself with the Japan vs. Ireland Rugby match. This was reasonably entertaining and the Irish won fairly easily. Then I made myself a ‘meat and two veg’ type of lunch but to be truthful was not particularly hungry. I did succeed, though, in solving a ‘fiendish’ Sudoku after which I made myself wash the car which was particularly dirty after the dust thrown up by the building contractors who are building on every side of us had done its worst. As tomorrow is a Bank Holiday, I expect that the day will be much like today but I did ascertain that the Waitrose store would be open for business in the morning.

Yesterday, I awoke just before 6.00am which is my preferred waking time and stayed in bed long enough to hear the news and a selection from the Mozart clarinet concerto before getting up just after six. The news contained details of one of the most corrupt practices and abuse of presidential power in the US it is it possible to imagine. The transcript of an interview between US Department of Justice’s second-in-command Todd Blanche and Ghislaine Maxwell was made public for the first time on Friday. Maxwell has been serving a 20-year jail term for child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, also a convicted sex offender. According to the released transcript, Maxwell she had never seen President Trump ‘in any inappropriate setting in any way’. The current president ‘seemed friendly’ with Epstein, she said, but added she only recalled seeing the pair together in ‘social settings’ and not in ‘private settings’. Now Maxwell had every incentive to lie through her teeth because within days of her interview, she was moved from a fairly harsh penitential regime to one that was as soft as possible and almost the equivalent of house arrest. The British equivalent would be the deputy Director of Public Prosecutions interviewing a prisoner who was then transferred to an open prison and would be unimaginable in the British context. It is for this reason that British (and formerly American) democracies have the doctrine of the ‘separation of powers’. The doctrine of the separation of powers. This divides governmental authority into three distinct branches, the  legislative (lawmaking),  executive (law-implementing), and judicial  (law-interpreting)—to prevent the concentration of power, safeguard citizens’ liberties, and guard against tyranny and abuse of power. The doctrine was first enunciated by Montesquieu and posits that these functions should be assigned to separate institutions with no single person holding power across multiple branches.

Last night was some really enjoyable sport on TV. It was the opening match of the Women’s World Cup and England were playing the USA. The England team known as the ‘Red Roses’ actually trashed the United States team by 69:7 scoring try after try in front of a crowd of 42,723 which was the largest at any Women’s Rugby World Cup anywhere, including the last final. It was not that that the US team played badly, as such, but they were completely overwhelmed in the strength and power of the English pack, particularly in the Scrum where the American team were nearly always out scrummaged leading to an inevitable penalty when the American scrum collapsed. There is more rugby over the weekend for me to enjoy as Scotland are due to play Wales. Neither team has particularly good form in this competition and so the result is a little hard to predict. Last night, just before I settled down to watch the rugby, the doorbell rang and it was my neighbour who very kindly was letting me have a supply of runner beans direct from his allotment. When we had a very large garden in Leicestershire, we used to  parboil the runner beans and then finish them, as I remember, in a white sauce enhanced by either dry vermouth or a drop of Pernod but I think I have run out of both in my drinks cabinet (and I suspect that both beverages are not in accordance with today’s tastes) I have just looked at a video showing how to cook/bake green beans together with potatoes and as I have plenty of both, courtesy of my neighbour and some time on my hands this morning, I may well try out this quite innovative recipe. The whole is enhanced with a bit of mustard, an egg and some grated cheese so I think I will give it a try later on in the day.

Later in the morning, I walked down into town and was joined in my walk by a lady who enquired after Meg. This is always a slightly upsetting experience but I go into my well-worn spiel about how Meg had a peaceful death at home surrounded by family and friends. More often than not, as was in the case of this particular acquaintance, the story I tell is quite a familiar one and this lady had been to the funeral of her brother-in-law only last week.  I then met up with my usual Saturday crowd in Wetherspoons and was joined by my University of Birmingham friend who I have not seen for the best part of a fortnight. Delighted though I was to see him,  I would have liked to have spent tomorrow morning in his company but he is likely to be otherwise engaged on Sunday mornings so this makes Sundays quite an isolated day for me this weekend compounded by the fact that Monday is a Bank Holiday and none of the shops are open. Today, after I left my coffee friends, I made for the nearby Asda because I wanted to buy some ingredients for the bake I intended to cook in the middle of the day. This worked out pretty well, really, and was probably quite close to the original recipe but the quantities in the recipe were probably for family of four so I only ended up eating a quarter of it. The rest will no doubt keep but it means I will probably be eating it up for the rest of the week. In the afternoon and before attending church on Saturday evening, I watched the Scotland v Wales Women’s Rugby match and, as predicted, the Scots turned out to be much the batter team so I did not bother watching it until the bitter end. Nothing of any real interest strikes me on the TV this evening so I may engage in some catch-up TV. The series I have followed this far is the Dan Snow account of life in Pompeii before the eruption of the volcano of Vesuvius so I will see if I can get this on Channel 5. When all else fails, there are generally some repeats of the 1970’s comedy ‘Rising Damp’ which are still reasonably amusing as well as episodes of ‘The Good Life’. Also, I tend to tune in quite often to the podcasts given by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stuart (on ‘YouTube‘) with very sharp observations on American and international politics and their contributions are always worthy of a good listen.

Yesterday, I woke up having just experienced a nightmare from which waking up was actually a blessed relief. Meg and I were trying to make a rail journey as a day return from I do not know where but although the railway station was full of places where people were eating, there seemed to be nowhere to buy tickets. Eventually we were rescued by a kindly station employee who started to walk us several hundred metres down a strange road where he thought the booking office might be. In any case, he informed us we would to buy a ticket to get to a small intermediate station which might, although he did not know, be able to sell us the required tickets. In the course of this foot journey, I lost a shoe but had to press on regardless. Needless to say, we did not complete even the foot journey and I woke up promptly at 6.00am just relieved, in the few seconds that I had been awake, that what I had just experienced was just a bad dream. I think that occasionally I had a bad dream like this when I was at work but I cannot recall the last time I had a dream like this. They always seemed to involve travelling but not actually arriving and the maximum amount of frustration ‘en route’. Later on in the morning, I am hopeful that our domestic help might arrive and we can exchange all of our news, such as it is and then the only ‘real’ appointment that I have later on in the day is with a physiotherapist who is doing some massages on my back to help to restore it to a better condition. So far it is early days yet but he seems to think I am doing all right so far. I am doing about 20 minutes of Pilates exercises every morning but none of these are particularly energetic as they mainly involve stretches and the like. But I discovered something the other day which I found quite interesting. I was lying flat on my back doing leg circles which is a common Pilates exercise. I had to put my hands somewhere so I placed them on my lower abdomen and when I performed the leg exercises, I could feel various deep abdominal muscles evidently at work, I had not thought about this as I had vaguely imagined that leg muscles work the legs but when you think about the bio-mechanics of moving your own leg in a circle there has got to be other muscles involved if your hip is actually the point around which your leg pivots. To a trainer, perhaps all of this is self-evident but I was intrigued that I was finding a way of building up the core strength in my abdomen without realising it.

In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the rest of Europe are slowly waking up to what might actually unfold. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up not land but its nuclear arsenal, inherited from the Soviet Union, in return for security assurances from Russia and other powers. They know how that ended up to their enormous cost. Putin reneged on Russia’s side of the bargain, with his invasion of Crimea in 2014 and once again with his full-scale attack three and a half years ago. The Ukrainian diplomat Yuri Kostenko helped to lead the Budapest Memorandum negotiations, He says there is a danger the world makes the same mistake and trusts Vladimir Putin when he says he wants to stop the killing, something Mr Trump said he now believes. So fundamentally, we have a situation in which there has got to be a basic trust that each side will stick to its side of the bargain. But without a real ‘boots on the ground’ operation, it seems there is nothing that will stop Putin leading a new invasion in a few years time given that he has believed for years that his role is to recreate a ‘Greater Russia’ as he is of the view that the dissolution of the former USSR was one of the gravest mistakes of the 20th century. The same lack of trust is found, of course, in the Gaza conflict. I saw an Israeli general who refused to believe that there was any starvation in Gaza and when confronted with the image of a starving child on a mobile phone accused the interviewer of playing ‘psychological games’ and refused to look at the image of the dying child.

In the morning after a good long chat with our domestic help and with my son who paid us a visit, I enlisted the aid of our domestic help to witness some signatures on our two Enduring Power of Attorney documents. Then I made my way into town and ensured that I got these posted off, clutching tight onto my ‘Certificate of Posting’ receipt as evidence that or documents were into the system. Then I re-parked the car and paid a visit to the Donkey Sanctuary cafe which has just reopened. There I was treated to a coffee and some chocolate cake and got into conversation with one of the helpers who had actually just spent some time recently in Madrid with friends, Then I followed a tip from our domestic help and went to one of the charity shops where I was fortunate enough to buy a new 15½ size shirt of a recognised brand (Taylor and Wright) and as this was the only one in the store and I have been looking for this size collar for some time, I was pleased to acquire it. Then it was practically time for my physiotherapy session, postponed from last week so I went and had another session of back massage and some tips how to keep my neck and shoulders in a reasonable condition. When I actually returned home it was past 2.00pm so  made myself a ‘quickie’ lunch of some mackerel fillets on a slice of toasted sourdough bread, made tastier with some ‘Thousand Island’ dressing. The weekend is front of me is not a particularly exciting prospect as my son will be away ‘dog sitting’ for his mother-in-law whilst other family members are taking her on holiday and most of my local friends seem to be away on holiday as well.  A slight consolation with the Women’s Rugby World `cup matches of which the first is to be broadcast this evening on BBC1 as well.

My thoughts keep drifting back this morning to the magnificent lunch that we had with cousins from Cheltenham at which my son and daughter-in-law discovered that they had a shared interest in certain classic cars. They had both in their respective youth had an exemplar of the Morris Minor which they both knew fairly intimately as they were used to servicing the cars themselves and, in the case of my cousin, practically stripping the car to zero and rebuilding it. I was not party to all of the technical details of their conversation but I am pretty sure that my cousin had performed an engine swap on his Morris Minor making it into at least a twin carb model. My son and daughter-in-law used to belong to a Morris Minor owners’ club and used to make regular trips to Bath, I believe. After we repaired to our house, I gave my cousins some raspberries, ice-cream and coffee and then they made it safely home with precious few diversions for roadworks. But I received a text from my cousin who had left her much loved cardigan behind in our dining room so I have parcelled it up and will pop it into the post for her when I off on an errand on the High Street later on in the morning.

Various parts of the media are rejoicing in a local judgement after a Conservative-run council in Essex won an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants being accommodated at a local hotel. Several other councils are now exploring the possibility of exploring similar options because it appears that whenever migrants are accommodated in a local hotel, a rent-a-crowd or local massive opposition manifests itself. Some of this is undoubtedly sincerely felt that social media and the language used to report the evens is anything but balanced. For example, it was reported that a young Afghan male had been found guilty of a serious sexual assault but the facts of the case was that the young boy had attempted to plant a kiss on the cheek of a 14-year-old girl. Whilst this was undoubtedly an unwanted advance, there must be a world of difference between an attempted kiss (I am tempted to say which one of us has not attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl) and a more serious offence such as a rape. But a certain amount of phobia is being whipped up and directed against migrants in what can only be described as classic cases of scapegoating. The government has a real problem in many of these legal challenges succeed because the alternatives to hotels may be even worse. One is to house migrants in cheap flats in HMO’s (Houses in Multiple Occupation) but this might intensity the severity of local housing shortages as well as increasing the possibility of social discord. Another possibility is to house migrants in ex-military accommodation such as army barracks but detention of migrants without a trial is probably not legal and is not the simple solution that it might, at first sight, appear. The only real solution is to massively increase the rate at which migrants’ claim for asylum are processed but this will require many more staff for which the Home Office does not have the budget (and which, no doubt, the Treasury would not be willing to fund) In the meanwhile, community tensions which are undoubtedly real are being fanned by a variety of right wing groups from the Conservatives rightwards and the local right wing fringe groups, typically clothes in a Union Jack or the flag of St George always seem to be prominent with slogans that emphasise ‘keeping our communities safe’ and ‘protecting our children’ In the meanwhile, even Worcestershire County Council which has a very ambivalent attitude towards the recent spate of flag affixing activities as now declared that painting a red cross on the white background typically used in mini-roundabouts is an act of vandalism and perpetrators, if found and caught in the act are to be prosecuted. I personally doubt if anyone will actually be caught and prosecuted because the act of painting a red cross could be done within a minute or so and before the police have a chance to arrive on the scene.

I got my shopping sone in plenty of time because once I had hot it home and everything unpacked, I needed to go into town for a couple of things. First, I called in at the Post Office and got my cousin’s cardigan despatched back to her – she had left it behind yesterday and as it was one of her favourite pieces of clothing, I had no hesitation in posting it back to her. Then as I had plenty of time, I called in and bought some cosmetics and finally turned up at the branch of my bank in order to review my account. She was a very helpful young manager and by the time we had reviewed various options, it seems that the present product that I have is the best of the three that they have on offer. The manager displayed the comparisons on the screen side by side and I think we were both a little surprised that my current selection actually gives me more interest than the two alternatives. So we decided to leave things as they are but I may go back in January by which time I am hopeful that I might be able to use savings to clear off my mortgage and then we can review things all over again. After I returned home, I cooked myself a fairly conventional ‘meat and two veg’ type lunch which I do not seem to have had for a few days now.

There was an interesting case study reported by Sky News. They report that the non-British born population of Bournemouth – a town that relies heavily upon migrant labour to staff its tourist industry – has risen by about 50% in the decade before the last census i.e. 2011-2021. But whereas just before Brexit, much of the town’s hospitality industry was staffed by Eastern Europeans, they have largely returned home only to be replaced my migrants from Asia. So Bournemouth now presents a post-Brexit face to the world which is less white European and is now much more cosmopolitan. I remember well that the last week or so of the Brexit campaign was dominated by the issue of immigration rather than any European issues which should have been the whole focus of the debate. The irony of all of this is those who voted Brexit were probably voting to attempt to recreate an idealised 1950’s style of non-cosmopolitan UK but have now got the exact reverse. Of course, if a referendum were to be held today, the Brexit result would undoubtedly be reversed but a move like this is not on the political agenda in the short term.

The night before yesterday, I received a text message with the not very welcome news that one of Meg’s cousins who we due to meet for lunch yesterday was now not able to make the lunch date as he had just had experienced a recent health scare which involved a night in hospital so evidently he needed to recover safely at home. Whilst I was disappointed to receive the news, I could evidently understand and perhaps another occasion will arise in which I can make the journey to Derby (or to the other cousin in Cheltenham) for a family meal. I reported the other day that when I was out in the car going to a meeting of U3A (University of the Third Age), I counted a rash of St George’s flags, seventeen at least, which were affixed in profusion to the lamp posts in the town centre. I now see from the local news that this is part of a wider cultural movement. Consulting the web I discovered the following. A recent movement has seen the St. George’s flag displayed prominently in Worcestershire, particularly in Bromsgrove and Worcester, with flags appearing on lamp posts and even painted on roundabouts. This has sparked both support and controversy, with some residents organising the displays as a show of patriotism and others raising concerns about safety and potential division. Worcestershire County Council has stated that while they recognise the desire to express views, they are also responsible for maintaining infrastructure and may remove unauthorised attachments to council-owned structures. But if I were a social geographer and were to map the distribution of these flags, there would be a very high coincidence between the flag erecting activities and the the poor, white working class areas in which the Reform movement is now sweeping the board. Here in Bromsgrove and also in Worcestershire, Reform made sweeping gains in the last local elections, Reform won an unprecedented number of seats on the county council but fell two short of an overall majority. The party enjoyed election success across Worcestershire, winning 27 of the 57 seats up for grabs and were only two short of an absolute majority. The reaction of the local authorities to whose lamp posts these flags are affixed is interesting. In Labour controlled Birmingham, the local authority has not hesitated to remove them on ‘health and safety’ grounds. But here, locally and elsewhere in Worcestershire, the reaction has been much more muted and even ambiguous. I have seen video clips on the local news of gangs of enthusiasts armed with aluminium ladders going from lamp post to lamp post attaching the flags with those black cable ties which makes the task of erection both easy and rapid. From what I can gather, the respondents on social media are enthusiastically in favour of this social movement with a common sentiment being expressed that ‘we are taking our country back’ and the movement was trying to spread the celebration of ‘being English’ by their activities. The interesting thing about all of this is that in cultural terms, the English are not a great flag waving nation quite unlike the Americans. I read that in the United States, while many public schools schedule a daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, it is not mandatory for all students to participate, The Supreme Court has ruled that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, and many states offer exemptions or allow students to opt out with parental permission. Here in England, a great deal of flag waving is manifest upon sporting occasions and national festivals involving royalty but is it is not (yet) part pf the warp and weft of every day special life. I must admit to feelings of great unease whenever I see demonstrations of excessive nationalism from whatever quarter although I am somewhat more tolerant when it comes to expressions pf national identity for those in Scotland and Wales who have been subject to English hegemony for centuries. One little thing that stimulates my distaste for this cultural phenomenon is that the flag makers are now writing the words ‘England’ across the middle of the flag as though uninformed members of the public needed educating about the significance of St George’s flag.  I just have the sinking feeling that once the genie of excessive nationalism is let out of the bottle, as it were, it is very difficult to contain it and community tensions may well eventually be exacerbated by this cultural movement.

There is a fact of recent history which ought to be receiving a great deal of prominence but unfortunately this is not the case. Ukraine did give up its inherited Soviet nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the US, UK, and Russia, formalised in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. This agreement included pledges to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and existing borders, as well as to refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine. This security assurance has evidently been completed ignored by Russia which could hardly be said to be respecting Ukraine’s independence when they invaded and waged war against the Ukraine in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea only some twenty years later. In a similar vein, both the USA and the UK did not respect Ukrainian boundaries and all of this demonstrates that words might be utterly meaningless unless backed up with the means of enforcing the security protocols. So, in the present conflict with Putin, given that he has broke assurances before, how can the Ukraine be assured that history will not repeat itself a few years down the line?  

In the morning, I walked down to Waitrose and bought some cake, raspberries and coffee to offer our guests after the meal we were to have in the middle of the day. So our two cousins plus myself, son and daughter-in-law all had a magnificent meal and, despite the fact that the restaurant was so fully booked, were served with some delicious food with serves to sustain the good reputation of the gastro-pub in the area. Then my son and daughter-in-law had to shoot off but my cousins came round and we enjoyed some raspberries, ice-cream and coffee before they,too, had to depart. I intimated to them that I might have plans to have a brief holiday in Spain but the bookings and some final arrangements have yet to be made.

There seems to be something approaching a real breakthrough in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Ukrainian leader, Zelenskyy was joined by a large contingent of European leaders who had turned up at the White House to show support for the Ukraine. The Russians have long maintained that one of their ‘red’ lines was that Ukraine should not be allowed to join Nato and in this way ‘threaten’ Russia. But under the impact of the European leaders, Trump has agreed that the USA will assist in making sure that there are guarantees  of support, similar to Nato but actually outside of it, that will ensure that if the Ukraine were to be invaded or threatened again, other countries including the European countries and the USA would lend their support to prevent this happening. One of the fears of Ukraine and one reason why they would hate to lose Donest to the Russians is that their last defensive line of cities would be gone and there would be nothing to prevent a future Russian invasion. The latest development is to be a tripartite meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump in a week or so’s time when he final details of a peace deal could be thrashed out. The meeting went much better for Zelenskyy this time around in sharp contrast to the ‘mugging’ that he received at the hands of Vance, the American vice-president, last February. Zelenskyy himself has learnt the art of flattery which is so important for the American president whilst he himself was flattered that so many European political leaders turned up at such incredibly short notice to the White House meeting. In practice, the presence of so many European political leaders in a ‘coalition of the willing’ was a strong signal to Trump that the security of Europe was at stake and guarantees had to be put in place that Putin be curbed in his desire to recreate a greater Russia starting with Russia and perhaps ending with other Baltic states that had formerly been part of the USSR. It is said of Trump that he always agrees with the last set of people surrounding him and one must fear that once the European leaders have departed, he surrounds himself with his coterie that secretly admires the ‘string man’ that Putin is portrayed to be.  A popular expression is that ‘the devil is in the detail’ and there are a lot of details to be worked through but the European leaders have now get Trump on camera as pledging support or at least security guarantees for Ukraine. I very much doubt that this would be ‘boots on the ground’ but the Americans can offer a lot of logistical support in air defence systems, allowing the sale of up-to-date weapons to the Ukrainians, satellite surveillance and the like. To turn our attention to other matters, it now looks as wild fires are sweeping Galicia in north west Spain and some 2000 troops have been drafted in to assist the normal firefighters. Some towns that Meg and I knew and have visited are under threat and part of the famous ‘Camino de Santiago’ pilgrimage route has had to be closed. Only a good steady downpour of rain will assist in the long term but none of this appears to be on the horizon and, we too, good do with some good torrential thunderstorms to replenish our depleted water supplies.

My son popped around after his swim this morning and we breakfasted together. I gave him the file containing the Enduring Power of Attorney documents for he and his wife to sign after which they can be despatched to the Office of the Public Guardian) which happens to be here in Birmingham) We also made some final arrangements that we are going to have tomorrow when two lots of Meg’s cousins are meeting with my son, daughter-in-law and myself in a local gastropub after which I envisage that we shall pop back to our house for cakes and coffee, After that, a fairly conventional Tuesday ensued as I collected my newspaper and then made my way to have a coffee and a chat with a set of friends where we meet in Wetherspoons. When this little party broke up, I made my way to the back of the pub where I chat with another frind that I tend to see quite regularly on Tuesdays and Saturdays. On my way home, I bumped into couple of acquaintances that I know live down the Kidderminster Road and received a hug from the wife after she had learnt from her husband of Meg’s death (this sequence of events is quite common, actually). Then it was a case of attending my Pilates class and as last week I had been teased by my classmates for not turning up in shorts, I threw discretion to the wind and turned up in my shorts today. I displayed my operation scar (sustained after being run over by a car over fifty years ago now) and my not very knobbly knees were much appreciated. I only mention this because one of my fellow class members always turns up in shorts as does our instructor so we had our normal jolly time whilst doing our exercises. Next weekend is the Bank Holiday weekend so I have put a reminder on the planning board that there is no Pilates class next week.

Often at this time of day in the late afternoon, I contemplate having a quiet read although the other day I was tempted to do a ‘fiendish’ level Sudoku which I managed to complete fairly easily. One book I have pulled off my bookshelves is a Michael Moseley book detailing the techniques of ‘intermittent fasting’ or at least a 16:8 approach (all food consumed within an 8 hour ‘window’ and fasting for the other sixteen) This approach is not entirely nw to me and I did try it or at least a variant of it where I tried to have my last on a Sunday evening and hardly eating again until Tuesday morning (the theory being your gut has a chance to rest and your blood to purify itself) I think I may re-read the book slowly and then work out whether I feel I the right frame of mind to start an experiment. In these quiet periods, I generally have ‘ClassicFM‘ on in the background and it sometimes occurs that I can work out the identity of the piece being played after hearing only a few opening notes. But I have been listening to ClassicFM since its inception which I think was about thirty-two years ago now on 1992.