Trying not to despair!

Well, the weathermen were right. Change was on the way. Today I ran in the rain - not real, pouring down rain, more drizzly rain, but still rain. By mid morning it was falling steadily. But at least we didn’t have the promised thunderstorms overnight. Or if we did they did not wake me.

There might be metaphorical thunderstorms about to take place. Breaking news from the BBC (and other sources) :-

 “The Queen will be asked by the government to suspend Parliament just days after MPs return to work in September - and only a few weeks before the Brexit deadline.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says it will make way for Boris Johnson's new administration to hold a Queen's Speech - laying out the government's plans - on 14 October. But it means MPs are unlikely to have time to pass any laws that could stop the prime minister taking the UK out of the EU without a deal on 31 October.

A No 10 source said: "It's time a new government and new PM set out a plan for the country after we leave the EU." The idea of shutting down Parliament - known as prorogation - has caused controversy, with critics saying it would stop MPs being able to play their democratic part in the Brexit process.

Laura Kuenssberg said only a small number of government ministers knew about the plan before its announcement and it would inevitably cause a huge row. She said the government would argue it was "a bog standard Queen's Speech process", despite all of the surrounding noise.

 Utterly scandalous'
Mr Johnson says he wants to leave the EU on 31 October with a deal, but it is "do or die" and he is willing to leave without one rather than miss the deadline. That position has prompted a number of opposition MPs to come together to try to block a possible no deal, and on Tuesday they announced that they intended to use parliamentary process to do so.

But if Parliament is suspended on 10 September, as is suggested, it will only give them a few days next week to push for their changes. Labour deputy leader Tom Watson tweeted that the move was an "utterly scandalous affront to our democracy". Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said MPs must come together to stop the plan next week, or "today will go down in history as a dark one indeed for UK democracy". But Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly defended the plan as what "all governments do".”

Once again, Brexit prevents other stuff being debated or decided upon. How many more years must we have only Brexit on the agenda? Please can we stop it now! Surely the government needs to be working.

Maybe we need some more junior activists. We’ve heard a lot about young Greta and her campaigns to save the world. This morning I read about an “education activist” called Marley Dias. She is 14 and has been busy since she was 10 getting indignant and active about books in schools and the fact that most books have white boys as their protagonists.

 “We live in an unfair world and we have to fight,” she says and explains her aim to “motivate young girls, regardless of their race or their experience, to get out there and do the things you love and that will help other people”. So she set about seeking books with black girls as protagonists. Wonderful! 

Goodness! When I was fourteen I was nowhere neat as aware or confident as that. I suspect that this is one pf the offshoots of the world of information that youngsters are now immersed in.

There’s a lot wrong with the modern world but it just may be that some things are going the right way!