{"id":2400,"date":"2021-05-20T19:27:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T19:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2021-05-20T19:27:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T19:27:23","slug":"thursday-20th-may-2021-day-430","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2021\/05\/20\/thursday-20th-may-2021-day-430\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, 20th May, 2021 [Day 430]"},"content":{"rendered":"

We knew from the weather forecasts that today was going to be a rainy and a blustery day all day so we made our plans accordingly. \u00a0Earlier in the morning, I had telephoned one of our\u00a0<\/span>favourite restaurants in Droitwich, just down the road, in order to make a booking for lunch. This was accepted with alacrity – I imagined that this popular \u00a0cafe and restaurant might be bursting at the seams but it is\u00a0difficult to tell in these immediate post-lockdown days. We went by car to collect our newspapers and then made our way to Droitwich where we managed to park in our usual spot. We had\u00a0intended to make a little shopping trip around Boots and also Wilko (a popular hardware store in the\u00a0Midlands) but as we walked up through the town we were diverted \u00a0into one of the\u00a0charity shops that has now reopened. I treated myself to a box set\u00a0of National Trust coasters (can one ever have too many?)\u00a0and Meg espied a high-quality\u00a0skirt,lined and made\u00a0with a\u00a0brocade fabric which seemed to be just about the right size. \u00a0Once we got to the cafe, just about at our allotted booked time, the cafe was almost deserted. I suppose the weather might not have helped. Meg and I had a delicious meal of\u00a0home-made salmon fishcakes which we consumed with\u00a0salad and some baked\u00a0potatoes (which we ask to be substituted for the chips that were on offer) So we had an enjoyable meal and then slowly sauntered back to our car, popping into the local\u00a0Waitrose<\/em>\u00a0to buy one or two things that I knew we were short of and had missed the update of the order which I did yesterday. We knew that when we got home, our Waitrose<\/em> order would be\u00a0delivered in the next hour after we had got\u00a0home. Fortunately, we\u00a0coincided for a few minutes with our domestic help (and style guru) who admired Meg’s recently purchased skirt and suggested some colours and styles of tops to go with it. The dress was an\u00a0absolute perfect\u00a0fit, by the way, which is a bonus when you don’t have any fitting rooms. As it was so windy this afternoon, one of the plants pots on my tall display stand outside my\u00a0study window had blown over but nothing was\u00a0damaged. So I availed myself of quite a heavy brick which, when placed in a strategic position, may forestall any more plant pot adventures.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Late on this afternoon, I went down to the end of our\u00a0access drive to rescue my ‘green bin’ which has to be placed near to\u00a0the main road for the convenience of the refuse men. After being emptied, the bins are left by the side of the road so I rescued ours and the one belonging to my neighbour who I bumped into as the bin was being delivered. My neighbour told me the good news that he had recently had a medical procedure which had helped alleviate the blood vessels near his heart and this had improved his health considerably. So that was good news for us to share. He also told us that he was planning quite a large birthday party for his wife’s 70th and this would involve\u00a0marquees and the like in the garden and all of us were invited. Naturally,\u00a0I offered to help with anything that might be needed e.g,. spare outdoor chairs but we are both hoping that the weather might be fine for us on that particular day.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the\u00a0national front, I am actually getting\u00a0interested in the fact that Boris\u00a0<\/span>Johnson wants to give the Australians a zero-tariff trade deal but apparently the cabinet is split down the middle on the issue. If the Australian deal goes ahead as Boris would like then both the Scottish and the Welsh beef and lamb trade\u00a0would be massively impacted. There is no way we can compete on cost with the Australians for whom land (and pasture) is plentiful and whose welfare standards do not match our own. The cabinet dilemma is this. If the ‘free market’ solution is adopted, then this would be at the expense of our domestic industries that would be decimated. If, on the other hand, we protect our own markets somewhat, then the rest of the world will not find trade deals with the UK so\u00a0attractive if the UK industries are going to get a measure of protection. So the Brexit slogan of ‘take back control’ means that we lose\u00a0control of our businesses which cannot compete, or do we keep control of our own industries to the detriment of any prospective trade deals? Is this what is called a ‘wicked problem’? and can the circle be squared? The ardent Brexitreers in the\u00a0cabinet are conscious that the rest of the world is watching this\u00a0deal with the Australians and ‘where the ball lands’ may well provide the pattern for trade deals (or the absence of them) with\u00a0the rest of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We knew from the weather forecasts that today was going to be a rainy and a blustery day all day so we made our plans accordingly. \u00a0Earlier in the morning, I had telephoned one of our\u00a0favourite restaurants in Droitwich, just down the road, in order to make a booking for lunch. This was accepted with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2404,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions\/2404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}