What is My Stance?

In Scotland a bus stop is known as a ‘bus stance’ which I’ve always found amusing, as though a bus could strike a pose or take up a political position. Scotland is most definitely another country; they do things differently there (as we speak I’m drinking sage tea, a precautionary measure as OH has had a sore throat and cough for a few days. This has not improved the snoring, which has increased to volcanic levels; something horrendous on the Richter scale.) So, should Scotland get independence? What is my stance? On the whole I’m in favour; they are a historic nation and for much of history were separate from England and Wales. They have their own culture, language and practices (two languages actually if you count Scots as well as Gallic – I feel a long rant from OH coming on at this point) and politically the country feels very different from England. If it wasn’t for England we’d have no Tory governments at all; and the way Westminster tends to ignore anything North of Milton Keynes or West of Bath is nothing short of a scandal. Take the HS2 fiasco; if they’d started building it in the North, as they should, it would be a totally different story. But no; everything starts in London, and more often than not it ends there too.

But sadly the independence movement is on the back foot now. Every politician, no matter how good, has an Achilles heel and although I had a lot of respect for Nicola Sturgeon – she was down-to-earth and spoke a lot of sense – she has been brought down by her Achilles’ heel – her husband. At least she did the decent thing and resigned; how many Tories still in government have done similar or worse things? I know corruption isn’t confined to the Conservatives but they do seem to have a particular gift for it.

It’s quite dispiriting that independence should be so much on the back foot. When we first thought of moving to Scotland it looked possible; a long journey, sure, but there seemed to be the political will for it. Mind you, I can see plenty of problems if it did go ahead. There would have to be some sort of border with England which would cause all sorts of difficulties but where there’s a political will there’s usually a way.

As far as the current election goes I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground. I know what the polls say and they do seem fairly incontrovertible (no shy Tories this time around, I think*) but it’s also interesting to hear what people are saying. Someone I bumped into last weekend said they usually voted Tory but wouldn’t this time; and last night I watched some of Question Time to see which way the wind was blowing. Mark Harper, the government bod, did a very poor job of defending Rishi Sunak lying about Labour’s tax plans and the audience clearly weren’t buying it; an attempt to tar Labour with the same brush did not seem to land, although I suppose anyone who already thinks ‘they’re all as bad as each other’ might have their opinion confirmed. I can understand political confusion, I can understand hopelessness and political homelessness, but what really gets to me is indifference; people who say ‘I can’t be bothered voting’ or worse still, just give a shrug. I find this very depressing – if someone is vehemently opposed to you at least they’re involved, but you can’t argue with apathy.

Anyway, I’m ranting a bit. I have to close now as I have a nurse’s appointment for an asthma check-up, but I will just add that yesterday I read Richard E Gran’t memoir A Pocketful of Happiness. This account of his life mostly focuses on the dying and death of his beloved wife Joan from cancer. It’s clear they were devoted to each other and although twee in parts and a bit luvvie in others and suffering from terrible verbs (‘——- friendlied over’) it’s a very touching story. REG comes across as a truly genuine and appreciative guy and even though he has some stories of terrible behaviour he resolutely refuses to name the offenders, though everyone who behaves well is named and thanked. That’s how to write a memoir.

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/richard-e-grant/pocketful-of-happiness/9781398519503?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw34qzBhBmEiwAOUQcFzZSz-wp56iZh6BvrT293uh71vS4r7qV8XlAlo1IVMkxfEPYRpjXoBoCPjQQAvD_BwE#GOR013071001

Kirk out

* this absolutely infuriated me in 1992; the polls were wrong because lots of people not only voted for the *****s but didn’t even have the guts to say they would do so

I am not Gruntled

It’s twelve degrees here, in what we are pleased to call the East Midlands. Twelve! I am not happy. It’s cloudy and chilly and threatening rain, and not even my yoga practice of sun salutations and sun piercing breath can make it sunny in my heart. I’ve even dug the heater out because I’m sitting here in t-shirt, thin jumper, waistcoat, shirt and cardigan and I’m still cold.

So, finally Sunak has called an election and like everything else he’s done, he’s called it in the wrong way and at the wrong time. July is a very strange time to have an election; he’d have done better to wait until the autumn but I expect he was afraid that even more policy failures would come home to roost. There’s talk of the Tories being out of power for a generation and god, I do hope so. They really deserve to be. But what possessed Sunak to stand in the rain letting what must have been an expensive suit get soaking wet? Was there no-one available to hold an umbrella? Or did he think that would make him look weak? There doesn’t seem to be much discussion about this in the media and I suppose it is a minor point, but I do think it’s weird, not to say self-defeating. But then pretty much everything he’s done has been weird and self-defeating. There’s a lovely meme doing the rounds about it:

(Are you the Prime Minister? Shut up, Withnail, of course he’s the fucking Prime Minister!)

It’s a shame really – it ought to be a landmark, having the first Hindu Prime Minister but just like the first woman Prime Minister you think, did it really have to be that woman, that Hindu? But I guess wealth and privilege make colour and gender invisible.

So it looks like in six weeks we will have a Labour government. Not that it’s a done deal but it looks pretty certain; I just hope they manage to get the postal vote out in Scotland because in typically ignorant fashion, Sunak has managed to call an election during the Scottish school holidays. What we don’t want is to get more Tories by default, just as we’re moving up there. That would not be good. I myself will be voting Labour. I’d much rather vote Green but right now I think the priority is to get this bunch of ***********s out, and Labour are a close second in my constituency.

In other news, Paula Vennells, the former CEO of the Post Office, is giving evidence at the Horizon enquiry and claiming she knew nothing about it. I don’t believe this for a moment and even if it is true, she was the CEO for god’s sake! The buck stops with her. The fact that she was ever a Church of England priest says a lot about where the C of E is at the moment. Watch the sitcom Rev; it is not a work of fiction.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0178fhq/rev

This just in: my short story ‘The Queue’ will be published soon in Stand magazine. It’s a dystopian, Black Mirror-ish look at a future where the economy has been destroyed by climate change and the government forces unemployed people to stand in a queue for the chance to win big on a talent show. I’ll post a link when it’s published.

That’s all for now folks. Make sure you have a vote. Apply for a postal vote now if you need it; go to http://www.gov.uk and (I’m saying this between gritted teeth because it really annoys me) make sure you have photo ID.

Happy Thursday.

Kirk out