This And That

[poliphilo]

Today's the day I lay aside the fleece-lined winter shirts. It looks like it's going to be glorious- "cracking the flags", as Ailz would say.

The Health Secretary got himself manoeuvred into a position where he could be reported as saying that sunbathing was against the rules. I don't think that's quite what he meant; he was answering a question about the people who've been gathering in groups to bliss out in the London parks, but the media are always looking to wring a little drama out of the soapy dishcloth of public utterance.

Keir Starmer finally got himself elected as leader of the Labour Party. You want drama? He doesn't seem to be the person to supply it.

The Queen will go on telly today and deliver a speech with echoes of Churchill and Henry V. (Now there's drama for you!) She speaks to and for her generation- of whom there are not many left. I could wish the media would stop pretending that she's relevant.

They say one of the outcomes of the epidemic is that we're going to stop shaking hands- which is fine by me. What will we do instead- bump fists, bow with steepled hands? I think the bumping of elbows- which was what we were encouraged to do when the epidemic was new- has already died the death; it was just too silly.

Comments

[cmcmck]

And Hancock is threatening to ban any sort of outdoor exercise- to keep us all in because a minority won't behave..

Oh joy.

The damage caused by the so called 'protection' is going to be way greater long term than the disease itself.

With a police state to add to the pleasures..........

[poliphilo]

The police are already overstretched- especially in rural areas. You might be able to enforce a strict lockdown in the big cities- but even then....

[cmcmck]

We are wondering where all the police we are seeing are coming from.
The local force is West Mercia who have a pretty hopeless reputation and you don't usually see a copper from one months's end to the next, even when one might be useful.

Presumably they're usually in a back office filling in forms and drinking tea?

[poliphilo]

We're going out once a week- to get shopping in- but I haven't seen a single copper on our jaunts. I think areas like ours- semi-rural but not particularly attractive to holiday-makers- are well below the radar.

[shewhomust]

If I were the Queen, I'd be pretty fed up that my speech had been so widely reported in advance that the broadcast itself will be an anticlimax. This is trivial, but right now, trivia is all we can control ...

[poliphilo]

But this always happens. It happens with the Christmas message too. I think the Palace releases the text in advance.

[shewhomust]

Things don't get any less annoying just because they always happenL on the contrary.

But yes, clearly the palace is complicit in this -

[poliphilo]

A solution would be for her to speak live or even without a script- but I don't think she has ever done that.