Well, yesterday turned out to be quite an interesting day. I caught a taxi direct from the hotel to my nieces address in Harrogate and remarked to the taxi driver that my sister used to use the services of his taxi firm when she needed to return to her work late each Sunday evening as far back as 1960 which is, of course, 65 years ago. The taxi driver informed me that the firm had been in existence for practically 90 years which must make it one of Harrogate’s longest surviving continuous businesses. My sister arrived soon after 2.00pm and soon we had a room full of excited chatter and many of the younger members of the family as well, the youngest being, I surmise, a great-great nephew aged two years old. Although Meg and I could not attend his christening in, I think, Gateshead in the North East of England, their local church is very switched on technologically and we were able to view the service ‘live’ via a video link directly into the church. But after we had cleaned away the food items from the table, I laid out along the table all of the items of Meg’s jewellery that I had brought with me and invited members of the family to take whatever piece(s) they fancied as a lasting souvenir and memento of Meg. Practically everybody found a piece that they would like to add to their collection and, I supposed we were blessed that there so many female members of the family in attendance. The younger children, and one great niece in particular (six years old), was delighted to acquire a rather pretty blue necklace and as a very well brought up young lady she thanked me profusely for me. Of course, the younger members of the family could not really remember Meg as they would have not have seen her for the last 4-5 years but I showed them the really nice photo of Meg that I have on my iPhone so that they could connect the jewellery with their Great Auntie Meg as I suppose she would have been known to them. Eventually, people had to drift away and my sister returned to her residential home and my niece kindly dropped me back at my hotel in Harrogate town. One little thing emerged in the course of the afternoon which surprised me. The rest of the family were interested to know how I was coping after Meg’s death and so I detailed how I has started to re-attend my Pilates class once per week and did Pilates exercises for about 20 minutes each morning. Those who had attended the funeral over three months ago remarked how much straighter and more upright I was because three months ago, I stood and walked with quite a pronounced ‘lean’ to my gait. Several years of pulling Meg off the floor after she fallen (sometimes as much as 3-4 times a day) and the absence of a regular walk each morning had exacted their toll so at the time of Meg’s death, I was evidently not in the best physical shape but was now in the course of being corrected. Even my Pilates teacher mentioned that she thought my posture and gait had improved over the past three months so the interesting question is whether my physical health was in danger of being permanently damaged in my efforts to look after Meg in the last year or so of her life. As my niece gave me a lift back to my hotel, we took the opportunity to have a long chat about family matters, though, whilst we were in the car and subsequently as we parked near the hotel and I pondered with my niece what my future holiday plans might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sky News<\/em> is reporting tonight that the India leader, Narendra Modi, is seething with fury over the treatment he has received at the hands of Trump. One source of resentment is that fact that Trump has claimed to have brokered a ceasefire in the latest outbreak of fighting between India and Pakistan before a ceasefire was even on place. But by far the biggest source of conflict are the tariffs Trump has imposed upon India. We have the swift punishment of an extra 25% tariff levied on India for buying discounted Russian crude oil, taking the total duties to 50%, one of the highest in the world. The US government justified its actions as a national security concern that is fuelling the war in Ukraine and so applied aggressive economic leverage. Mr Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as ‘Modi’s war’ and said ‘the road to peace runs, at least partly, right through New Delhi\u2026The Big Oil lobby in India has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin. It is really easy. India can get 25% off tomorrow if it stops buying Russian oil,’ he added. Though China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, it has been left untouched. In 2021, Russian crude accounted for just 3% of India’s imports, but this has risen to about 40% in 2024 – making Moscow the country’s largest supplier. In the meanwhile, there has been an important economic summit between Xi (the Chinese leader), Putin and Modi who are evidently setting up an economic block. Of course, Trump with his ‘Bull in a China shop’ approach would deny that his tariff policies have any impact upon the world economic order but it is evident that the RIC part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) bloc are exerting their combined economic muscle, with what effects, we shall all to wait and see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A disturbing domestic story is being reported on Sky News<\/em>. A child may have been affected by synthetic pepper spray as protests inside Canary Wharf shopping centre boiled over into an officer being reportedly punched in the face. Police said a group of masked protesters became aggressive towards police at the shopping complex after an anti-asylum demonstration. A group of people entered the shopping centre around 4.30pm and a small number of masked protesters then became aggressive towards members of the public and police, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Police issued an order to prevent people concealing their identity with masks and a dispersal order was also put in place. Video seen on social media showed young children among the protesters, with some of them wearing England flags. In these protests, the Union Jack and particularly the red and white flag of St George are present in abundance and these must be being manufactured and supplied by someone. The protestors probably do not have a proper appreciation that their protests are actually assisted by, and following the agenda of, extreme right-wing forces. It only took the most casual of Google researches to reveal, as I suspected, that the far-right group ‘Britain First’ claims to have provided many of the flags in the North West. Their leader has stated that ‘Britain First’ has, so far, donated 75% of its flag stock to local teams in Manchester and the West Midlands for \u2018Operation Raise The Colours\u2019. They add that most of the flags that have appeared in video clips are now on lampposts and bridges in Manchester and Birmingham which rather tends to lend credence to the influence and impact of this and other far right groups who are supplying the flags to all and sundry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, yesterday turned out to be quite an interesting day. 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