In our Italian conversation class yesterday my Italian friend expressed her amazement at how seriously we are taking “partygate”! Corruption and lying are, she maintained, such ingrained aspects of Italian politics that nobody really gets shocked and surprised by it any longer. Surely, she went on, parliament should be occupying itself with governing the country. These parties are all in the past, she said, and it’s just a very British obsession to keep on raking over past events.
Maybe she’s right, certainly as regards getting on with the business of running the country. Yesterday Boris Johnson had a scheduled phone call with Vladimir Putin. No, that should read, Boris Johnson had a phone call scheduled. He cancelled it. The news reports say he was “forced “ to cancel it so he could make a statement to MPs in Parliament over Downing Street parties during lockdown. And the MPs had turned out to hear it and to have their say on the matter if possible. I’ve seen the House almost empty when huge international problems were being discussed but his had everyone worked up,
And maybe Johnson should have had his phone call with Putin. On the international stage it must look as if the call was cancelled for a rather frothy bit of scandal, even though the frothy bit of scandal could potentially bring down the Prime Minister. It was hoped that the call would be rescheduled for today but Putin’s not having any. Some suggest he’s now just being awkward but if he’s feeling snubbed, then I expect he’ll decide he can snub back in return.
And today Jonson has gone to Kiev (or is that Kyiv?) offering the Ukraine government £88m to fight corruption, part of a British show of solidarity with the country in its threatened confrontation with Russia.
Hmm! Fighting corruption all over the place it seems.
And the fact remains that most of us obeyed the rules and guidance, some people missing significant family events as a result!
Meanwhile my eldest granddaughter and her friend/housemate are still insisting on isolating while they wait for results of a Covid test on her housemate. This is what happens when obsessively anxious (my granddaughter) lives with mildly autistic (the housemate). This morning it led to a curious set of messages between my granddaughter and me.
It began with a protest that Asda had substituted her usual loo roll in her online shop. I could almost hear the wail as she told us that she is running low on loo roll (the housemate is using copious amounts to blow her nose because of her cold that might be Covid!) but she wants to reject the substitute as it’s not one of her usual preferred brands. Suggestions that she should just accept the substitute this once - after all, it’s just loo roll! - were rejected outright. Accepting it would mean having a month’s supply of inferior loo roll. Good grief!
So why does she not pop to the corner shop to see if they have Andrex or some other “suitable” loo roll? Well, the housemate is unwell. But surely she can cope for 10 minutes? That’s not the issue; until they know whether she has Covid it would be irresponsible for either of them to leave the house and possible spread it. No parties for those two!
The conversation finished with my granddaughter appealing to her mother (we have a three-way messaging thing going) to buy her some loo roll and pop in on her way home from work. To which my daughter responded, when she joined in during her lunch our, with: Why can’t you just use the Asda loo roll? No doubt the arguments she gave me will be reiterated. I hardly dare look to see if the conversation is continuing. I am calling the whole episode “The Princess and the Pee.”
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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