The world may be going to the dogs but we keep on celebrating things.
High temperatures in Sicily don’t seem to be stopping my Italian friend celebrating her wedding anniversary (30+ years) there. Mind you things seem to be looking rather fierce in the south of Europe. And now there are reports of the Gulf Stream being likely to collapse within a couple of years. I’ve no knowledge of what the implications of that are for climate change but I suspect they will be serious. I was always told that it was the Gulf Stream drift that prevents the Uk from having the kind of winters they have in Canada and gives the Irish Sea a pleasant temperature to swim in - provided nowadays that therek is not too much sewage in it. It really seems that the world is falling apart around our ears!
In the meantime, here is an article about yet another long-standing Labour Party member - forty years a member and brought up in a Labpur supporting family - threatened with expulsion because of tweeting something two years ago; apparently he had praised an example of cooperation between the Lib Dems and the Green Party, saying: “This is what grown-up politics looks like.” Hardly the most damning thing a person could say.
I’m not happy with a world where people … and computer programmes … trawl through stuff we wrote or said years ago and hold it against us now. Also a world where “apologies” are supposed to make everything right for some people, even when we know they are just words.
And here’s a little more on that royal pay rise.
Here are a couple of cartoons sent to me by friends.
I’ve also been reading about on-the-spot fines issued by councils for what have been dubbed “busybody offences”. These offences include activities such as feeding birds, swearing and napping in public. While I admit to sometimes being tempted to ask people please not to swear such a lot in public, I don’t know that it merits an on-the-spot fine. Presumably “napping in public” does not mean respectable old gentlemen having forty winks on a park bench but homeless people sleeping in doorways. Sleeping in a vehicle has also incurred wrath and fines. So those who have lost their homes and are living out of their cars, showering at the gym and so on, should be careful always to park in pit of the way places. An increase in such fines has been reported from 10,412 in 2019 to 13,433 in 2022. Such is modern life!
Out and about in Manchester today I passed numerous rough sleepers and was approached by at least three not-too-disreputable-looking characters asking for a small contribution so they could pay for a night in a shelter. Rather a contrast to the beautiful people I saw earlier in the day, all decked out in academic robes and mortar boards, on their way to Manchester Metropolitan University’s graduation ceremony at the Bridgewater Hall. Most were accompanied by well-dressed friends and family, carrying flowers and gifts and selecting good picturesque places for photo-memorabilia. Good luck to them all! I hope they find jobs to match their new qualifications.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment