So the night after the party, I enjoyed a beer with one of my University of Winchester colleagues who, like me, was resident in the gastro-pub and then we retired to our respective rooms. These were very small but were well appointed with an en-suite and were of course just designed for one-night stayers for people like us. Perhaps because the mattress was too soft or it was a strange bed or I was a trifle cold despite extra blankets but it took me an enormously long time to settle down to sleep. I tuned the TV to a very low volume ClassicFM to play in the background and eventually got off to sleep. In the morning, my University of Winchester friend and I met up at a breakfast table and struggled to get our respective laptops to connect to the internet. We both kept getting the message that we were connected to the network but had no accessto the internet which sounds bizarre. We both succeeded, eventually using our own iphones as HotSpots and then we were joined by yesterday’s birthday girl and another guest to make up the foursome for breakfast (which was my treat) So we enjoyed our Eggs Benedict and lots of good and interesting conversation. When this was concluded I had brought along my laptop and managed to show the sequences of 67 photos that illustrated the stages of Meg’s life after which we bid each other fond farewells and started off home on our respective journeys. I decided to return home by a slightly different route but which meant that I proceeded along the M4 for a few miles and then picked up the A34 dual carriage way towards the M42 and hence home. I know this route very well with my journeys from the Midlands down to Winchester and although it was some 15 miles longer the roads were much faster so I made the journey home, without a stop and pretty quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had a quietish afternoon, but my son texted me to say that he would be over in the early evening bearing a gift of lasagne and salad for a sort of birthday tea. We both had a lot to chatter about as he has had his school reunion up in York whilst, of course, I had been away in Berkshire. Needless to say, we both wanted to share the good times we had both had with friends and I explained how I both recited the ‘Grace before meals’ (especially composed for the occasion) as well as the second verse of ‘Danny Boy’ to commemorate Meg’s anniversary. Now that these special events are successfully completed, I have my trip out to Derbyshire with the U3A group to which to look forward in just over a week’s time. Meanwhile, I am catching up with the global news and it looks as though the USA\/Iran peace deal is practically dead, or at least on life support. Trump is due to make a visit to China shortly and the Chinese have been tacitly supporting Iran. But China has spent the past few months adopting that old maxim attributed to Napoleon: ‘Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake’. The Chinese know that Trump’s Iran adventure has clearly been a self-inflicted wound and must secretly be laughing up their sleeves at the Americans for having got embroiled in the Middle East in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As my son and daughter-in-law arrived late in the afternoon, they brought in with a fairly large parcel which had been left on my doorstep by my Irish friends as a birthday gift. This contained six cans of low alcohol lager which is particularly welcome now that the summer months are approaching and two large bars of that absolutely delicious high grade dark chocolate. This is a pleasure that will unwind over the days ahead but I must be careful to limit my chocolate consumption to a maximum of four squares per day. I also received a birthday card from my Leicestershire friends of yesteryear so I really must make some efforts to arrange a meal within the next week or so as they indicated that they had some news to impart. So particularly after the winter is over and Easter well behind us, my social life seems to have intensified which is surely a good thing but I have to remind myself that I also have a house and garden to keep maintained and should not be spending too much on these excursions and social activities and I need to keep a balance in all things. But I am equally conscious that it is a good thing to be engaged with the world and not to withdraw from social contact which some do after a bereavement. The rest of the week is clear of U3A engagements for me but the following week appears to be a lot busier. The number of MP’s calling for an end to the Starmer premiership is now 70+ and four ministerial aides are reported to have resigned. It may well be that even the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood are among those urging Starmer to go. Of course, Starmer could instantly sack her on the spot for such a gross act of disloyalty but these would trigger his own downfall even more quickly. Once the figure of dissident MPs arise to 81 then a call to remove the PM can fall within the rules. Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister made reference to these great changes of mood with parliamentary parties and his graphic words are still remembered to this day. Boris Johnson, in his resignation speech on July 7, 2022, said: ‘As we’ve seen at Westminster the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves’ This phrase explained his forced resignation, blaming the rapid loss of party support for making his position untenable. It seems that as I write this situation is occurring this evening and Parliament is not even in session at the moment. MPs return to the Chamber on Wednesday ready for the King’s speech (government announcements of their legislative agenda for the next session of Parliament) and this is followed by six days of debate. But I imagine that a ‘putsch’ of some sort will emerge in the next day or so. In order to get Andy Burnham back into the Commons (and there is no vacant seat just yet) I imagine that Keir Starmer will be forced to agree to a point when he will step down and, in the meantime, there will be severe impacts upon the business of government until a new Prime Minister is in post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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