Out and about in the rain. USA nonsense. Public toilets. Labour Party stuff.

Today has been one of those days when the weather cannot decide what to do. First thing this morning I ran round the village in reasonably fine weather. By the time I had showered and dressed it was pouring with rain, real bounce-off-the-road stuff. Later again it brightened up, the sun came out and the sky went back to being blue. As I had decided to take the risk and cycle over to check up on my granddaughter and the progress of her garden, naturally it started to rain again. So I waited for a lull in the rain. It was clearly going to be one of those days. I did cycle over. And I did get rained on but not all the time.

In the USA they seem to be continuing to pull down statues, as if having seen the example of Bristol and other places in the UK they have jumped on that bandwagon. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the meantime, says statues in Canterbury cathedral and Westminster Abbey need careful examination to see which need to be removed or renamed. There’s a lot of bandwagon jumping going on.

Here’s a bit of the madness that is the USA:-

 * Vice-president Mike Pence touted the country’s “tremendous progress” against coronavirus, as the US set a single-day record for new infections.
 * Pence declined to offer a federal recommendation on mask usage, instead referring Americans to their state and local officials.
 * Florida and Texas are clamping down on bars as they grapple with the surge in cases. The governor of Texas announced it was shutting down bars, and Florida will no longer allow alcohol sales at bars in order to limit the spread of coronavirus.
 * The Minneapolis city council has unanimously approved a proposal to change the city charter to allow the police department to be dismantled.
 * San Francisco has paused its reopening following a surge in cases in California.
 * Trump signed an executive order “protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues - and combatting recent Criminal Violence”.
 * Most US residents will likely be blocked from traveling to the European Union when travel restarts, due to ongoing concerns about the coronavirus.
 * The US attorney general, William Barr, has announced the formation of a task force on “violent anti-government extremists”, which he said includes “Antifa”.

When everything kicked off at Bournemouth beach the other day, one of the things Priti Patel commented on, with justified disgust, was the number of people who couldn’t be bothered to stand in a queue for public toilets - which were open by the way - but simply went and squatted down behind the toilet block. The mind boggles! Here is a link to a little article about public toilets in the UK https://www.theguardian.com/society/public-sector-cuts

And here is an article about how the Labour Party leader appears to have got nasty with Rebecca Long Bailey. Oh, for an opposition party that was loyal to all its members! And allowed a bit of free speech!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!