Accommodating small people in the plans. And further reflections on recent events.

The plan for today was that my daughter would call round after her small person’s playgroup, in other words early lunchtime, and we would go shopping for my Christmas present to her. She duly came round and she had a cup of coffee. The baby was fed. The small person was given an early lunch. I set about constructing an envelope for a birthday card which I had somehow managed to buy without an envelope. The small person’s willingness/desire to help me led to an impromptu craft session with lots of coloured paper, small size scissors and a glue stick.

Oh, and I forget to mention the imaginative game involving the small plaster Christmas crib figures bought long ago in a Spanish market. Aided and abetted by a snowman and a Santa from a Christmas cake from years ago and a small Spanish dancer, baby Jesus kept floating off and hiding, necessitating a rescue mission on Santa’s sleigh, aka the lid of the shoe box the figures came in.

Thus did time go past. The day had turned into a bright, clear-blue-sky winter’s day and we weighed up the options: trail round a shopping centre looking for a pair of boots (the present) or go for a walk down the canal path to feed the ducks. The latter option won. We had a fine walk, singing Rudolf, the Red-nosed Reindeer as we walked. Then back to my house for a cup of tea and mince pies. Shopping for boots can wait! A fine afternoon was had by all!

Here are some odds and ends I spotted going through stuff online prior to the small people invasion.

It is reported that Downing Street is threatening the future of the BBC by insisting it is seriously considering decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, while boycotting Radio 4’s Today programme over the broadcaster’s supposed anti-Tory bias.

And there I was suspecting the BBC of having something of a Conservative party bias.

The Daily Squat is a satirical news site founded in 2015, a site that declares, “None of the stories or quotes found within this site should be taken as anything more than an ‘alternative fact’.” It seems to agree with me. Here is a fragment of something posted on their news site:

“POSTED BY: DAVID MARRS DECEMBER 10, 2019

The Conservative Party today named Laura Kuenssberg as the Secretary of State for Government Propaganda in recognition of her years of service.

The BBC News political editor was promoted to her new title of Secretary of State for Government Propaganda after reporting a rumour that a Labour activist had punched a member of Conservative MP Matt Hancock’s team. Video footage that emerged later clearly showed the team member walking into the outstretched arm of the Labour activist, something that is only considered a punch in Floyd Mayweather fights. Laura apologised for the error but by then the report had already been picked up by several news outlets and was plastered all over Google News whenever anyone searched for ‘Labour’.

‘The secret is to apologise for the “mistake” while making sure these “mistakes” only favour the side you want to win,’ Laura told us, in hushed tones.

While Laura’s job title has changed, her duties and position within BBC News will remain the same.”

Hmm!

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been writing in the Big Issue about his fears concerning increasing inequality in our society and the fact that minorities have a “much harder time”. He also wrote that the past nine years have hit vulnerable people hardest. Maybe he should have though about that before backing up the rabbi who more or less advised people to vote Conservative!

The campaign to stop Brexit having failed, a new group has sprung up: “The Campaign to rejoin the EU”. A lot of positive stuff has been posted but inevitably there has been some blame-casting and some age stereotyping. A friend of mine posted this:

“Some of the divisive and ageist comments being posted here are extremely disturbing. I am 71, my political views haven’t significantly changed as I’ve got older, indeed the more injustice I see in the world the more determined I am to fight it in any way I can. I am immensely grateful for being of the generation that got free higher education and affordable housing , I was the first in my family to go to university and buy a house.
I naively assumed my children would have at least the same opportunities but successive governments denied them those. Please don’t assume that all us oldies have the same opinions, and I won’t assume that all young people are snowflakes, a term I despise. Let’s see the big picture here and show some unity instead of fighting amongst ourselves.”

 All true, but we can’t actually argue with the figures. An awful lot of people in our age group voted to leave the EU and voted for Boris Johnson and his cronies. However, it must not be forgotten that there are still a lot of us who are young and European at heart.