Political differences. Questions of loyalty. Equality matters on the beach!

I’ve not borrowed from Michael Rosen for a while, so here’s a little something:-

“Dear Liz

I awoke to the sound of music and in an instant saw a promotional video in my mind of you, Nadine and me striding towards the camera while Joe Cocker and Jennifer Anniston sing their hit 'Lift us up where we belong...'. Seize the day, Liz!

Carpet diem 

Boris”

I look forward to finding out what Michael Rosen will invent for whoever succeeds Mr Johnson.

Nadine Dorries meanwhile continues to support Mr Johnson and clearly thinks he was hard done by. This is from the Guardian:

“Nadine Dorries has suggested Rishi Sunak was part of a “coup” that brought down Boris Johnson, and said Conservative MPs made a “huge mistake” removing the prime minister.

The culture secretary, who is one of Johnson’s most avid supporters, said he was a “great leader” and she was “very disappointed” he would be stepping down on 5 September.

But Dorries said they had to look to the future and hailed Liz Truss as “somebody who has both integrity and loyalty and is able to pick up the baton using those very important qualities to take the country forward”.

However, the petition that Conservative Party members should be given a vote on the removal of the prime minister seems to be being met with some resistance:

“Senior Conservatives have privately voiced scepticism about a poll demanding party members be given a vote on the removal of aboris Johnson, after the party’s headquarters found fewer than half of a sample of signatories were party members.

The authors of the petition have said addresses and membership numbers provided by the signatories are undergoing stringent checks and that Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) has not yet received the vast majority of the signatories.

The website Conservative Post, which organised the petition, said it was being overseen by a team of experienced professionals.”

We are living in interestingly odd times! 

We have a Labour Party which seems to have forgotten its links with those who labour. Keir Starmer has declared: “The Labour party in opposition needs to be the Labour party in power. And a government doesn’t go on picket lines, a government tries to resolve disputes.” Goodness! John McDonnell points out that ministers, even ministers in government not just in opposition, went on picket lines in the past: 

“I went with our CLP delegation regularly. It was a tough and, at times, violent dispute as the police escorted a bus full of scabs brought in by the company to break the strike and teach the women a lesson.

The Labour and trade union movement came together as one to campaign against the exploitation of these women. Joining the picket lines to show solidarity were some of the most prominent members of the movement, and among those who joined the women’s picket line were Labour cabinet ministers. Not shadow ministers but cabinet ministers actually serving in government at the time, including, famously, Shirley Williams.” 

But now the shadow transport minister has been sacked by Keir Starmer, supposedly not for actually going on a picket line but for agreeing to be interviewed about it and expressing opinions about how much rail workers should earn - the kind of thing you might expect a transport minister, even a shadow transport minister, to have some views on. It seems that you have to toe the party line completely and utterly! Oops!

In Spain politicians appear to be arguing over different matters altogether:

 “Spain’s equality ministry has launched a creative summer campaign encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach, with the slogan: “Summer is ours too.”

The colourful campaign’s promotional image features five women of different body types, ages and ethnicities enjoying a day in the sun. “Summer is ours too,” it says. “Enjoy it how, where and with whomever you want.” The campaign also features a woman who has had a mastectomy topless.

“All bodies are beach bodies,” Ione Belarra, the leader of Podemos who serves as social rights minister in Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government, said, “All bodies are valid and we have the right to enjoy life as we are, without guilt or shame. Summer is for everyone!””

The left wing disagree but “when left-wing leader Cayo Lara said the campaign was absurd and trying to “create a problem where it doesn’t exist”, Podemos hit back in a tweet with: “If bodies bother you, you can stay home tweeting.”

Personally, I am inclined to agree with the leftwing point of view. My experience of Spanish beaches tells me that nobody seems to feel the need to be “beach ready”. Women of all shapes and sizes wear their bikinis or, indeed, go topless, wanting to get as much sunshine as possible as they walk up and down the shoreline. And the men of all shapes and sizes wear their skimpy shorts in similar fashion. Of course, it could be that I have just been to the wrong beaches. Maybe on really trendy beaches, the sort frequented by the really fashionable, that the pressure is on to have a perfect body! So it goes! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!