No snow. Celebrating. Demonstrating. Doing a little job on the side.

The forecast snow wasn’t waiting for me this morning. No icy pavements even. I’m not complaining. When the sun came out, intermittently but still out, it was even pleasantly warm. Maybe other places got the snow. Here they are promising us “mostly cloudy with sunny spells” for the rest of the day. That’ll do!

We managed a rather chilly walk to the millpond yesterday to feed the ducks and geese (but no swans this time so we hope they have not decided to move on) to celebrate the 18th birthday of our second granddaughter. Then we sang Happy Birthday, quietly somas not to attract a lot of attention,  and ate cake by the garden gate. She seemed quite pleased to have any kind of celebration given current circumstances. From Monday we will be able to have drinks and biscuits and cakes and such in the back garden again. Time to dust off the garden furniture, keep our fingers crossed for some decent weather, and see how things go!

Last night in the television 10 o’ clock news they reported demonstrations again in Bristol, protesting against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which would give police greater powers to restrict protests. It all looked quite peaceful, people walking (marching?) down the street, police looking on quietly. No arrests had been made, said the newsman. I remarked on how it looked as though the police had decided to take a lowkey approach. Reports say it initially attracted around 300 people and then grew to more than 1,000, which usually means there were more than that. 

This morning there are reports of violent clashes with the police: “Avon and Somerset police said glass bottles, bricks and eggs were thrown at officers. Fireworks were also launched at its mounted division, the force claimed, with one horse being daubed with paint. Ten people were arrested, three of whom had also been detained at similar demonstrations last Sunday.” 

Boris Johnson tweeted this morning. 

“Last night saw disgraceful attacks against police officers in Bristol. 

Our officers should not have to face having bricks, bottles and fireworks being thrown at them by a mob intent on violence and causing damage to property.

The police and the city have my full support.”

It must all have “kicked off”, as they say, in the late evening. Video clips accompanying the newspaper reports are timed as being after midnight. Well, it can’t have been demonstrators popping into pubs and getting fired up with alcohol; the pubs aren’t open yet. Were the demonstrators just getting fed up and wanted to liven things up? Did the police get fed up and start to push things a little? Was the demonstration infiltrated by “troublemakers”? You know, the ones who supposedly travel round the country looking for demonstrations to disrupt? 

I doubt we’ll ever know the truth of it. But it’s a pity it didn’t stay peaceful as it just gives further ammunition to those who want to stop all demonstrations.

It’s curious that it seems all right to make laws banning demonstrations here but it’s unjust if the Chinese or others do the same thing. Now, I wonder why that is!

I read a report that says the MPs earned almost £5m from second jobs and side hustles during the first year of the pandemic. My goodness! Some gave paid advice to businesses on Covid policy. Others took jobs with firms that won test-and-trace contracts - and we know how well some of those worked! Did the MPs not work hard enough?

The standard MP salary is apparently £82,000, which some might say is fairly small for working in London but which others - teachers, nurses, bus drivers, supermarket workers - would be happy to receive without needing to supplement it. 

The highest earner was Theresa May, who received £616,000 in speaking fees over the past 12 months – including more than £130,000 for three speeches delivered on video calls. That’s quite a lot of money speeches made when she didn’t even need to get her bottom half smartly dressed or put on her kitten heels. What did she talk about? I wonder. 

She’s not alone of course. In August, onetime chancellor Sajid Javid took a £150,000-a-year job as an adviser to JP Morgan, which involves 80-96 hours of work per year. Now, didn’t I hear recently of young people working in banking and finance and the like protesting about being expected to work 80 hours a week? I bet they don’t get £150k a year!

I could go on but I won’t bother. 

It might be a bit naive of me to think this, but it would seem some of our MPs don’t work hard enough on their day job if they have so much time to spare for secondary employment. And they are extremely greedy. But I suppose their exalted life-style demands a much greater income than mine does. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!