Frost. Fire. Foolish words? Broken promises.

Just to remind us that it’s actually still only March there was frost on the shed roof this morning. I’m not surprised as it was very clear with a bright, almost full moon last night. Running in the early  morning I found that the sun was still quite warm. By midday the clouds had moved in somewhat but the forecast is favourable.  We’ll see how that goes. 

The fine weather has brought out the pyromaniacs again. Not far from Liverpool they had a patch of marshland set alight, almost certainly deliberately. Closer to home, they had to put out fires at our local beauty spot, Dovestone. I wonder what it is that makes some people feel the need to set things alight!

Although Partygate appears to have disappeared over the horizon, other things are popping up to give us cause to criticise our PM, or indeed for other people to criticise him. Johnson has apparently compared the Ukrainians’ fight for freedom to Britons voting for Brexit. “I know that it’s the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time,” he said in a speech to the Tory Party Conference in Balckpool. “I can give you a couple of famous recent examples. When the British people voted for Brexit, in such large, large numbers, I don’t believe it was because they were remotely hostile to foreigners.” Maybe he thought that what goes on at conference stays at conference - not so. Rishi Sunak and Sakid Javid have both jumped to the defence of their leader, denying that the PM said the two situations were “directly analogous”. Well, no, I would say they are not!

Sajid Javid went even further, telling Nick Robinson on the Today programme:

“[Johnson] was talking about the general desire for people, no matter who they are, where they live, for self determination, and that can be in any setting, in any country. I don’t think at all he was trying to link the specific situation in Ukraine with the UK.”

In response, Robinson pointed out that the PM’s speech specifically did link the two situations. He suggested that the fact that two cabinet ministers have now effectively disowned the connection made by Johnson suggests that No 10 accepts it was a mistake. 

Possibly a case of foot in mouth disease!

And then there are the claims that the Uk is a “world leader” in the fight against Putin. There’s this from The London Economic:

“A former prime minister of Finland has said claims Boris Johnson is leading opposition to Vladimir Putin are “utter rubbish” and an “illusion”.

Alexander Stubb said only in “Brexit la la land” was Johnson seen as having “taken a lead globally”.

“This idea about ‘Global Britain’ is as true as ‘peaceful Russia’,” Stubb said. “Simply utter rubbish, to put it diplomatically. To claim that Boris Johnson ‘has taken a lead globally in standing up to Putin’ is an illusion only possible in Brexit la la land.””

Meanwhile the Brexit “benefits” continue for those with or seeking settled status. Here’s yet another story of a couple  being told that it was okay to travel on the assurance that the husband’s application for settled status was being processed, only to find that he was not allowed onto the plane bringing them back from India. Despite their being married and about to have their first child, he was deemed to have “failed to provide sufficient evidence that he was a “durable partner” of his wife at the time of the application”. Had they lived together before being married, something they did not do as it is against their Islamic beliefs, he would probably be okay! The mind boggles!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!