paramedics wait up patients in car parks for hours our chronic decline
~
n.b. All very well spending £ billions of the public‘s taxed money on an aircraft carrier which broke on sea trials, PPE that was useless and never used, bureaucracy to leave the EU, (our biggest trading partner), but nothing invested in hospitals for those very taxpayers.
Meanwhile, tax dodging (avoidance and evasion) of the highest orderpersists by those actually in the highest executive positions of power.
Tax the richest harder. No such thing as trickle down economics, as the rich get richer and the gap widens between the excess of haves and the poverty of have nots.
The UK is a shambolic mess. How not to run a country.
Chilly sunbeams caught the trees with such intensity that the bark shone. In Chapelfield Gardens this mighty specimen’s complex skeleton is revealed.
Although the temperature was barely above freezing, the first crocuses were pushing though to join dangling snow drops and daffodil shoots. What will trigger the opening of the daffodils? Will it be warmth or light that they respond to? There has been the rain to ensure the earth is soft and will separate at their insistence. We wait for the fanfare of silent yellow trumpets to confirm our progress.
Magnolia buds, sticky to touch are fattening, their pinched tips speared with pink.
All the trees are beginning to show some suggestion of colour now as leaves start to form. The townhouses have just a few more weeks to enjoy unscreened sunsets.
There is little traffic today, except that squeezed into the hours at the start and end of the commercial day. I head out to complete a couple of minor errands. The biggest danger is pedestrians stepping into the street without looking for cyclists as they considerately make space for each other.
When I cut through the perimeter of Eaton Park I notice the car park is full and the footpaths busy. In the line of trees running by Southside Avenue starlings are agitating to fly before the onset of evening. Their squabbling is a terrific noise.
I note that infection rates and related deaths are beginning to fall across the United Kingdom. We must hold our discipline and see this through. On the Isle of Man, once a stronghold for Vikings between Ireland and Britain, the pubs are open and a normal life has resumed as there are no known cases in its population of 82,000.
The other local difficulty has taken a worrying turn as Loyalist extremists in Northern Ireland have begun a campaign of intimidation against the local government workers who have the job of processing paperwork on goods moving between the six counties and Britain as a result of Johnson’s farcical Brexit deal.
n.b. Alexander Johnson wants freedom of movement for the British within the EU borders. Eh? I thought this was what you wanted to end? A wait of over 60 minutes for the British when queuing to pass into EU countries is just one more inconvenience that we can look forward to following the lies and deception and corruption and Russian sponsorship of the “winning” Brexit campaign. I have to laugh, otherwise I would weep.
n.b. In the EU the shifting of clocks back an hour in autumn and forward in winter was going to end in 2021 following an agreement between national parliaments.
Who knows what will happen in the UK?
The Conservative government may have promised to play along for as long as it takes for dew on the lawn to evaporate on a summer’s morning.
Slogans reiterating that the current Prime Minister is untrustworthy have appeared all over Norwich. It wasn’t me, officer. Honest.
However, now it seems I am behind the times. The end of clock changes in the EU has been postponed, but why waste a good bit of copy?
n.b. The old English game of twisting signposts around, or even removing them in case any odd foreign types think of invading, continues. I think some of us are beginning to realise that the reason these islands have not been invaded for such a long time, at least not overtly since the Welsh Tudors took over with the help of the French in CE 1485, is that nobody can be bothered with us…except Alexander Johnson’s Russian exile backers.
There will be some sadness as the EU waves the UK au revoir, but I am sure they have bigger fish to fry. They’ll get over it soon enough. It was a bitter-sweet affair from the start. Stuff happens; move on.
n.b. The beer industry may have to turn to farmers in Europe for grain, but OH! the UK has left the EU and talks are not going well.
Noses missing from faces!Not a good look. Another good reason to wear a face-mask, boys (for it is manly, private school boys who pushed for this isolation from our nearest and soon to be dearest, trading partners).
By the way chaps, where is the report on Russian interference in British politics? It awaits publication. Chop, chop!
Do look up Brewer’s Droop online if it is a new phrase to you. First I had heard of the phenomenon too 😇
n.b. It is claimed by some that breaking away from the EU will free the UK up to exploit commercial opportunities further afield.
Take a look at the map and tell me where these opportunities lie?
When you note that the richest part of the UK is the corner closest to Europe, it is clear that working as closely as possible with the EU would be a good idea. Perhaps even better if efforts were genuinely made to distribute some of that wealth more evenly – as the EU is committed to doing through its regional aid grants.
Whatever happens from here will only lead to more tenuous connections with the UK’s closest and most significant trading partners in mainland Europe – unless departure from the EU is binned.
Voyage des Mots 