The final two … although some would like it still to be three! The length of summer holidays. Rain!

So in the end it’s Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak. The bookies appear to be rooting for Liz Truss. And here’s a post on social media from the Campaign to rejoin the EU:

“Gone, but just not yet ... like one of those turds that just won't flush away ... 🤡

More than 1,800 Conservative party members have written to the Tory party chairman in less than 12 hours to demand that a vote on whether Boris Johnson should carry on as leader.

The members - all of whom have to give their membership numbers when they sign up - are backing a petition organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas  and former Conservative MEP David Campbell-Bannerman

The signatories are invited to support the following statement: "I demand Boris Johnson is added to the ballot as an option for the members to vote upon in the forthcoming election."

Lord Cruddas says under the party's constitution it can add Mr Johnson's name to the ballot

Said "The membership wants the option of voting for Boris on the final ballot.  "We think it is only fair because Boris was the members choice back in 2019 and he has been constructively removed by the Parliamentary Party without referral to the membership.

"By adding Boris to the final ballot to make it a three horse race means that the winner will have the backing of the membership. "There will be no ambiguity around the result and the final choice of leader will have integrity."”

So what has all the nonsense of voting and debates and name-calling and all the rest of it been about? His “departure” from PM’s questions was positively triumphal. Do they really want him back? No, I don’t see that happening - well, not that way but I would not be at all surprised to see him weasel his way back in some time in the future. 

But for now we have to wait another six weeks until the whole thing is properly decided. I still don’t see how the country can shut down for that length of time. A lot can happen in six weeks. What exactly do MPs get up to during this ‘recess’? 

When I was still a working teacher, I spent most of the summer ‘holidays’ preparing for the coming year, not working quite so frenziedly as during the rest of the year but not coming to a complete stop apart from a week or two when we actually went away. Perhaps most MPs do something similar.

I read something the other day about American schools, some of which seem to close for 10 to 12 weeks in the summer time - long enough for the kids to forget all they learnt in the previous year. No wonder parents need to send them off to summer camp, where supposedly they learn a whole different set of skills, if they are lucky. There must be a lot whose parents can’t send them off the summer camp. What happens to them? 

Here we woke up to a fine drizzly rain this morning. It stopped for a while in the late morning so that I was able to take my small grandson out for a walk. In the absence of sunshine he opted not to go to ‘sandy park’. We went looking for ducks instead. By late afternoon the rain was back. So it goes.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!