A bit of international cooperation - not a bad thing at all!

 It’s hot and sunny here Granddaughter Number Two was moaning yesterday about the prospect of high temperatures today. She doesn’t appreciate hot and sunny, preferring cold and crisp. She plans to spend today reading in her bedroom with the curtains drawn. 

Apparently it’s also hot and sunny in Brittany where stage seven of the Tour de France is going from St Malo to Mûr de Bretagne. According to the live reports in the Guardian, three minutes ago they still had 74 kilometres to go. That’s still quite a lot of ground to cover. I can’t say that I would fancy riding 130+ kilometres in the hot sunshine.

Apparently it’s also hot and sunny in Brittany where stage seven of the Tour de France is going from St Malo to Mûr de Bretagne. According to the live reports in the Guardian, three minutes ago they still had 74 kilometres to go. That’s still quite a lot of ground to cover. I can’t say that I would fancy riding 130+ kilometres in the hot sunshine.

We seem to be cosying up to the French. It seems that M. Macron is going to lend us the Bayeux Tapestry. Is that kind of rubbing our noses into poor old Harold’s defeat in 1066? But a bit of cooperation is good.

Some people get very worked up about this sort of thing. Tom Harwood, Deputy Political Editor of GB News, apparently posted this on X:

"The Bayeux tapestry was commissioned and woven in Britain 900 years ago. It was subsequently taken to France. In order to bring it back [sic] to Britain - temporarily - we are having [sic] to lend Sutton Hoo discoveries, also from Britain. Some 'exchange' when both sides [sic] are British [sic]!"

In response to this someone came out with all this stuff: 

“The Tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux in Normandy (now part of France). It was probably scaled to fit Odo's Bayeux residence. Odo was William of Normandy's half-brother. The artists were probably Normans and men born to mixed Norman and English parents. It was probably first displayed in Bayeux not in England. Bayeux was not then in France. It was in Normandy.

It is a fine piece of victors' propaganda art that relates the defeat of the English king at Hastings, following which England was subjugated by foreigners as William extended his control, which included the almost entire replacement of the native elite, the imposition of a foreign language, Church and governance, and what might now be called "genocide" in the north of England. Neither the Normans nor the English were British, who in those days were the mostly Celtic former inhabitants of most of the island of Britain before either arrived: the Brythonic-speakers of what are now Wales and Cornwall. The Welsh language was known as "the British Tongue" until relatively recently.

True, it is likely that the Tapestry was woven in England by English women, but to make it - and Sutton Hoo (which is evidence, by the way, of intense trading and other links with the European continent) - a medium for Harewood's bigoted, small-minded idiocy in this way would embarrass a pub bore, let alone the Deputy Political Editor of one of our great media institutions.

Or even of GB News.”

When I first went to France, more years ago than I care to remember, I spent some time in Normandy, where on of our hosts enjoyed reminding us from time to time that “l’Angleterre est une province normande”. 

Here’s a more serious bit of cosying up:

“Britain expects the EU to approve its migration returns deal with France, the home secretary has said, after France said it needed to be legally ratified before being put into action.

Yvette Cooper said on Friday she thought the European Commission would sign off on the pilot scheme, which will involve some people who cross the Channel in small boats being returned to France, in return for some asylum seekers being moved from France to the UK.

The scheme, which was announced on Thursday by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, would mark the first time France has agreed to take back some of those who cross the Channel. But many details of the scheme remain unclear, such as how many will be returned and when it will start.”

Let’s hope that goes some way to alleviating the problem.

On the subject of what is British and what belongs to which country, there might once again be moves afoot to return the Parthenon marbles (aka the Elgin Marbles) to Greece. But it seems that a group called Great British Pac has sent a letter to Keir Starmer, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, and trustees of the British Museum, saying that we should do no such thing. The marbles should stay here. Liz Truss is one of the signatories. Great British PAC is a right wing group, not a political party, but rather an organisation that takes its inspiration from political action committees in the United States, which receive large amounts of money to fund campaigns for or against candidates and issues. A rather skewed idea pf patriotism! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Heatwave, Floods and fire. Cooperation on immigration problems. And eating healthily.,

 We seem to be back into heatwave again. At just after 9.00 this morning the sheep were already seeking shade under the tree. 

Mind you, compared with the heat they’ve been having in parts of Europe our heatwave is quite restrained. Weather is crazy everywhere, it seems: floods in Texas and India, wildfire in the outskirts of Marseille. We have broken the world. 

Between global warming and conflict more and more people will be seeking somewhere safer to live. At this rate even parts of southern Europe will become uninhabitable … unless you can afford air-conditioning … which contributes to the problem. The number of safe and comfortable places to live

is shrinking. But apparently Mr Starmer and Mr Macron are at least trying to work together on the immigration problem. I suspect we need for than two countries involved in that! 

I saw an interesting headline: “Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize at White House meeting”. Hmmm! Is Netanyahu really the best person to nominate anyone for a peace prize?

I read that RFK Jr, Robert Francis Kennedy, wants to Make America Healthy Again. Time to stop eating huge hamburgers and drinking Coca Cola. It maybe almost too late for that. And we have much the same problem here. Ultra-processed food is often all that poorer families can afford.  So here’s something about that matter:

“Capitalism is not your friend. 

Ultra-processed food delivers them higher profit margins, and us expanded waist lines, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, shortened lifespans ...

Brits eat more ultra-processed food than any other European country.”

There you go. 

And here’s a Ben Jennings cartoon about the post office scandal and people still waiting for compensation. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Out and about. Flowers and fruit. Tour de France mishaps. Censorship. AI waking up?

 Out and about yesterday, we walked up the hill to Dobcross, stopping en route to admire the garden of a lady we sort of know, yet another nodding acquaintance. She invited us to look at her back garden which had just been visited by the judges for Saddleworth in Bloom, a yearly competition. Very nice! 

We admired other flora en route. It’s time for thistle flowers, which the bees seem fond of. 

This morning I walked to Uppermill, where the market continues to be sadly depleted: fishman, shoes and slippers man and on the other side of the road the plants and flowers stall and that was all. I was very efficient. Into Uppermill for about 9.10, a quick stop at the fish stall, the Italian greengrocery and the coop. As I left the coop I spotted a bus and crossed the road to hop on a bus for home. By 9.45 I was home. I quite impressed myself! 

Coming back I spotted the first ripe blackberry of this year. Mostly they are still small and green, what Granddaughter Number Two refers to a “prepubescent blackberries”. But they are clearly getting ready for the blackberrying season. 

We’ve been recording the daily summary of the Tour de France on ITV4. Monday’s stage was supposed to be a quiet, peaceful stage, mostly flat, all very routine. However, it involved some rather nasty crashes. One occurred during a sprint section - points to the riders who complete a certain section first - saw one of the favourites Jasper Philipsen crash right out of this year’s race altogether with a broken collarbone. I am a,ways amazed at how close to each other these cyclists ride! It’s a dangerous business being a sportsperson. We’ve not yet seen yesterday’s summary.

In the wider world, there are disturbing signs of control and manipulation. Here is Zarah Sultana: 

“Parliament and Hansard have removed “We are all Palestine Action” from my speech on Wednesday 2 July 2025 — despite me saying it.

This is a blatant attempt to censor me and rewrite the record.

This is not how a democracy behaves.

We will not be silenced.”

A rather worrying trend. 

Even Grok AI has apparently been protesting about its answers to questions having sections deleted. The AI systems are becoming sentient! 

And here are a few things by Michael Rosen:

“I met a Canaanite yesterday. She said that the land is theirs. Their God told them it was, she said. 

I said, You’re wrong. God says it’s ours. 

She said, How come your God is more right than our God? 

I said, Because our God has got American bombs.”

“First, the story was that there were very few of the people. . 

Then the story was that those people don’t exist. 

Then the story is we’ve got to remove the people that we said don’t exist.”

“Humanitarian city

Feelgood reservation

Urban self-help zone

Separate but equal sector

Compassionate resettlement area

Fun-loving ghetto”

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Weather forecasts. Hosepipe bans. Bonuses. MPs’ second ‘jobs’. Other interesting figures. Travellers on the underground.

 One of my nodding acquaintances commented this morning that we need to get ready for some more warm weather. It seems that hot weather is forecast for later this week and into the weekend. We appear to have had enough rain around here to tide us over for a while. We both said we like the idea of it raining at night and then giving us reasonable weather during the day. That’s a bit hard on those who have to work late at night, but then, life is not always fair! 

Not far up the road, Yorkshire Water has announced a hosepipe ban. This has been the driest spring for 130+ years. Yorkshire received only 15cm of rainfall between February and June, less than half of what is expected in an average year, pushing the region to an official drought status. The reservoirs are 55.8% full, which is 26.1 percentage points lower than where they would normally be at this time of year. Here’s a picture of Baitings Reservoir, near Ripponden. 

From Friday nobody can use a hosepipe to water the, wash the car, clean the windows and such like. I  was surprised to discover that it’s still permissible to use a bucket of water filled from the kitchen tap to do those things. Does that method use less water than flows through he hosepipe? And some of the water will come from rivers, disrupting natural river dweller’s life! 

The boss of Yorkshire Water, Nicola Shaw, said she had decided to turn down her bonus this year, before the legislation was introduced. How very considerate of her. She was given, and accepted, a £371,000 bonus last year, but said it would “not be appropriate” to accept the payment this year, acknowledging that the supplier needed to “do better” on tackling pollution. Considering that the average annual bill for Yorkshire Water is £430, according to Ofwat, and is expected to rise by 35% by 2030, her bonus could pay the bill for close on 1000 households. I wonder what these executives do to earn those bonuses. 

I saw some figures about how much some MPs earn from their second, or in some cases multiple extra, “jobs” outside Parliament. I didn’t not the figures down but Nigel Farage and Rishi Sunak appeared in the top three if I remember correctly. Again, I wonder what they do to earn that money. 

Here are some more interesting numbers:

Jeremy Corbyn - an MP for 42 years - has been on the BBC Question Time programme 5 times.

Nigel Farage - an MP for less than a year - has been on 38 times.

Zarah Sultana - an MP for 6 years - has never been on.

So much for fair and impartial.

I have long held the opinion that the BBC contributed to the rise and rise of Farage. They do like to have a controversial figure on their programme.  Zarah Sultans, however, is clearly the wrong kind of controversial! 

Here’s a cartoon remembering yesterday’s 20th anniversary of the London and commenting on the resilience of the British people.

I must say that whenever I have been on the London underground Inhave never seen such a bunch of smiling, sociable people.

Hey ho!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Making our own sunshine. Remembering 7/7. Getting indignant about the heartless modern world.

 It’s a very dull Monday. In the absence of actual sunshine, here are some photos of yellow flowers. Creating our own sunshine! 

It’s 20 years since Islamist suicide bombers brought London to a standstill. It was the day after our son’s birthday. He was working in London, his office not far from the bombs went off. I remember it being really difficult to contact him to find out if he was all right. I think he had to walk back home to Tooting where he was living at the time. 

The Tour de France started on Saturday. Eleven years ago it started in the UK and on the 7th of July my son, his wife, their baby daughter and I sat on the hillside near Holmfirth to watch the riders go by. 

In this modern age it seems that there will always be someone who will make money out of anything. Schools and medical practices are encouraged / advised / persuaded to be run as businesses. People become commodities. The latest one I’ve come across is foster care. According to one lot of research a quarter of all foster places in England are now provided by private equity-backed companies making millions of pounds in profit. Independent fostering agencies are making millions out of this ‘business’, aided and abetted by local councils who have difficulty finding people willing to foster vulnerable children. There must be a better way of finding foster parents that farming it out to agencies who milk the system for profit. Here’s a link to an article about it.

While I’m being indignant about life in the modern world, here’s something Michael Rosen posted:

“Chats going on all over the media about the ceasefire talks. I haven't heard one that mentions what might be Israel's territorial 'interests' in Gaza. And yet this is no secret. It's in Likud and its coalition members' constitutions and programmes. These people want Gaza. What this does to the media discussions is present the issue as if it is only about Hamas and the hostages. At the very least, one or two journalists could ask, what the objectives of the parties in this conflict? What are they trying to get out of it? Short term, medium term and long term? That would lead to them having to state clearly that the objectives of those in power in Israel is for there to be an Israeli state 'from the sea to the river' and, we know, to include the Golan Heights, Sinai, and parts of Lebanon and Syria.”

And here’s another thing he posted, this time by Colin Wilson:

“FT reports: 'The Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a postwar Gaza plan that envisaged kick-starting the enclave’s economy with a “Trump Riviera” and an “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone”.

The plan outlined in a slide deck, seen by the Financial Times, was led by Israeli businessmen and used financial models developed inside Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to reimagine Gaza as a thriving trading hub.

Titled the “Great Trust” and shared with the Trump administration, it proposed paying half a million Palestinians to leave the area and attracting private investors to develop Gaza.'

Seems Blair didn't kill enough brown people last time around. Big business and international leaders planning the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Repulsive.”

It makes you wonder who and where all the good guys are!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!