Getting back to some kind of normal. What’s in a name? A bit of commentary. Hidden artistic talents.,

 t’s Tuesday but it feels like Monday as the week is really only just beginning in any kind of normal fashion. Children are back in school and politicians are going about their business. 

Someone on Campaign to Rejoin the EU has taken to calling Liz Truss "Trussolini":-

“Trussolini has said that Great Britain will probably not strike a trade deal with the USA for years as she flies off to New York to meet Biden at the UN leaving behind the shambles the UK is in. Don't worry you will not be PM for that long.  

In a move likely to disappoint Brexiters, she downplayed expectations that any trade agreement was imminent amid concerns that overpromising but then failing to get talks off the ground would damage her nascent administration.

On the plane to the US, Truss admitted to reporters: “There aren’t currently any negotiations taking place with the US and I don’t have any expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.””

It’s rather a pity we don’t have better relations with our European neighbours, isn’t it?

I wonder if the name Trussolini will stick as well as John Crace’s dubbing Boris Johnson “The Convict”. 

John Crace’s column in the Guardian seems to be back to normal this week. Maybe I just didn’t see it last week. Today’s column has some fairly restrained commentary about the events of yesterday:

“Leaders from around the world were gathering at Westminster Abbey to pay their respects to our late queen in an unrivalled ceremony of pomp and pageantry. We could tell ourselves that no one else could have given their head of state a better send off. We were the centre of attention. We were a superpower. We could be proud. Delusional, maybe. But proud. Just for one day.”

There was acknowledgement of but no comment on headgear:

“The guests started to arrive at the abbey shortly after 8am. One of the first was a top-hatted Jacob Rees-Mogg.” 

(By the way, I read somewhere yesterday that one of the top milliners in London produced, and presumably sold, almost nothing but black hats in the last week.)

He wondered about the wearing of medals: 

“The minor royals took their places – James Severn, the son of Prince Edward, is only 14 but has still managed to accrue a couple of medals –“.

 

And he was predictably rude about our new prime minister:

‘Liz Truss predictably murdered the second lesson from St John. Speaking aloud is not her strong point and she has yet to realise that punctuation is there to help you make sense of the text. Still her deathly monotone wasn’t entirely out of place at a funeral and the Queen would have been pleased it was anyone but Boris reading it.”

And that’s that. The pomp and ceremony is over for a while.

They say that each one of us has a book inside us, just not yet written, or a secret artistic talent. Here’s a link to an article about a certain Ron Gittins from Birkenhead who spent decades elaborately decorating the interior of his rented flat. 

He was known in his neighbourhood for his quiet and sometimes eccentric protests against the wrongs of the world. He died in 2019 and his executors are trying to preserve the flat in its curious state. As a rented flat, it would no doubt be redecorated by or for a new tenant and so a campaign, supported by Jarvis Cocker, is underway to save it. Fundraising events will be taking place. 

“The plan is for Ron’s Place to become a community resource, inspiring and stimulating creativity. Supporters see it as part of the wider cultural regeneration of the Wirral town.”

Another secret artist is Brad Pitt whose sculptures are being displayed in an art gallery in Finland. Who knew he had this hidden talent. Maybe it’s time I started to display my own paintings!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!