An Unexpected Journey

A Conservative Donor waiting for a peerage

 Over the last few weeks I've found it harder and harder to read the paper or watch the news as they've both been full of Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, Russia all with an undercurrent of China and Trump. As ever, those that suffer are the innocents and one can only look on and wonder at the bravery of the relief workers and medical teams operating in incredibly difficult situations.

Meanwhile, at home, my country waits with baited breath for an election to be held to remove a government which seems bereft of ideas, and to remove as well, some, if not all, of the 18 MPs of various parties who have had the whip removed due to various misdemeanours. For those who don't understand the terminology of British politics, it basically means they've been sent to the sin bin. They are still MPs but have been, possibly permanently, suspended from the party which they used to represent.

My own MP, Mark Menzies, is the latest of this bunch. For details follow this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68841840

All of this makes for fairly depressing reading over the cornflakes, so I've done what I find helps me. I've gone back to J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm currently approaching the end of The Hobbit and will then launch into The Lord of the Rings. I don't know how many times I've read these books, but the thought of a story where, ultimately, good triumphs over evil is strangely attractive at present. Heather tells me I should try The New Testament, but I find this works for me.

The other thing which cheered me up hugely this week was my second walk with The Ramblers. Heather joined me and 7 of us walked at Leighton Moss near Silverdale in the sunshine. A lovely day with good company which ended with a chippy tea!

Leighton House with Grange over Sands in the distance

If at some point our illustrious government decide to hold an election (Spoiler: they have to hold an election before January 2025) you will need to register to vote if you haven't already done so.

Register Here: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

You will need photo ID as well. If you don't have any (passport, driving license) you can get a FREE voter ID card at: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

If you know anyone who hasn't registered or doesn't have photo ID, please pass on these links. My grandson is bored witless with me telling him to make sure he is registered to vote, but, tough, he'll be more bored in the months to come.

Raindrops kept Falling on Me 'Ead

Martin Mere - Mere Sands Wood

One of (the only?) problems with moving has been that I have struggled a bit to find a group of people to "hang out" with, as the youngsters say. In Southport we were both very attached to our church and had a group of friends there who we saw on a pretty regular basis. Leyland Road Methodist was great because there were a group of guys of a similar age and we did stuff together. I'm still loosely attached and allowed to join in the walking group ( see my post 'Last of the Summer Wine..... almost').

I do a bit of work with the food bank in St. Annes but there isn't any social aspect to it and I go along as the +1 to social stuff connected to Heather's art club. Unfortunately I don't find our local church particularly inspiring. Heather and I do a cafe church thing once a month which is OK but, because it draws people from a quite wide area, its difficult to make anything social out of it. So, on Wednesday, I did my first walk with The Ramblers (route above)

Anybody in the Southport area will recognise the walk. I've done versions of it quite a number of times. Also anyone in the Southport area will know what the weather was like on April 10th. Very wet, windy, cold and miserable. Ground underfoot incredibly muddy and route flooded in places. Full waterproof gear weather in fact.

Guess what...... really enjoyed it. It was lovely to meet up with some new people with a shared interest and I'm really looking forward to the next one.

We managed to avoid politics as a conversational topic, which was probably wise given some of the stuff in the news recently. I've really been enjoying watching the legal teams at the Post Office enquiry making the upper management of the organisation squirm. If some of this lot don't end up in jail (particularly the Vennells woman) I'll eat my hat!

Paula Vennells

 

There is a ridiculously long list of 'ordinary' people who have been stitched up by this government and a similarly long list of wealthy people who have been enriched by this government. A commitment from Keir Starmer to pay outstanding compensation claims from the Post Office, Windrush and Contaminated Blood scandals in a specific, short, timeframe would, I think, show the difference between the current government and an incoming Labour government. A further commitment to stop doling honours out to party donors and to legislate to prevent this ever happening again might also help. Actually almost any radical proposal that doesn't get overturned 10 minutes after it's announcement might be good!