Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe reaches the end of her prison sentence today but so far there has been no news of her being released. Correction, I have just heard that she has had her ankle tag removed but must appear in court in a week’s time once again! Her husband almost certainly doesn’t dare to hope. He and their small daughter, who must be about 6 or 7 by now, have been keeping a calendar, counting down the days. Even the little girl has taken on the anxiety and the uncertainty, not knowing if mummy will finally come home. How hard things must have been for that family. When she finally gets home, which we all hope will happen, they will have to set about establishing normal relationships once again.
All the mother and daughter bonding that should have gone in in the last four years will need to start to work again. The daughter of a friend of mine posted her delight the other day when her 2-year-old spontaneously told her, “I love you, Mummy!” Our 41/2-year-old granddaughter will sometimes stop during a walk to tell her mother just that. We might think it hard not to be able to hug our children and grandchildren. How difficult must it be when your child is in another country and you can’t see her or hold or really talk to her with the nonsense of everyday prattle.
Other things fill the newspapers.
For example there is the cost of decorating the prime ministerial residence. I read that when the Camerons were there they had handmade wallpaper, which must have cost rather a lot of money. Granted the Camerons spent some of their own money on that so we shouldn’t be too hard on them. Now, I can understand that when you become PM and you settle into your official home you want to make it your own, put your mark on it, as it were. I think the same happens with the White House when they have a new POTUS. But surely it should be done within reasonable bounds. Surely even the most optimistic politician must know that this is not going to be his, using that twee term some people use, “forever home”. In the case of POTUS it’s going to be a maximum of eight years. Maybe Cameron really did think he would be in the Downing Street flat forever.
Am I being too idealistic when I think that prime ministers and presidents are supposed to be serving the people and should perhaps have their minds on more serious matters than interior decoration? But maybe that’s what wives and girlfriends (First Ladies?) are for. And now we have seen what happens when it’s left to Carrie Symonds. Silly amounts of money are being quoted as the cost of refurbishing the prime ministerial flat!
Similarly large amounts have seemingly been spent of revamping No 9 Downing street as a media centre so that televised press briefings could take place. It was revealed on Friday that the renovation costs have totalled £2,607,767, largely excluding VAT, following a freedom of information request from the Press Association. Have they got gold plated lecterns? It doesn’t look like it when you see them on the TV.
It’s all a matter of priorities, after all.
Our house could do with a bit of refurbishment - I wonder if there’s any spare cash left over from those Downing Street make-overs. Most probably it will all have to wait until I pluck up courage and visit B&Q again. Priorities again
Meanwhile, I read that the young American poet, Amanda Gorman, was followed home by a security guard and then challenged to prove that she lived in the building she was about to enter. Wow! One day you are reading a poem for the President’s inauguration and the next you are a threat to society and need watching! Talking about the over-zealous security man she said, “In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be.”
But it’s okay. Racism is being combatted ... by banning some of the Dr Zeuss children’s books. Well, not banning as such, just the publishers deciding, in a fit of over the top political correctness, not continue publishing certain of his books. “In 2019, a widely cited study by an academic from the University of California, San Diego and the founder of the Conscious Kid Library found that just 2% of Dr Seuss’s human characters are non-white, and the vast majority are portrayed in a way that perpetuates racist stereotypes. The study also found a marked lack of women and girls in the books.”
Oh, boy! Noddy syndrome strikes again!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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