Dead Men Tell tales...

 

I have spent much time avoiding the sun, head down over the laptop searching for dead men.  There are plenty around, in fact they are all over the place, we never appear to run out of them.  I am reminded of one wit who, in a creepy tone  reminded his listeners that the dead outnumber the living, what is worse it that their numbers are growing all the time.   When you consider that in the twentieth century, which seems so long ago now, it was customary to identify and bury the war dead we forget that for centuries before this often a less organised system operated.  The winning side may have dug one grave and marked this for their men while being less caring for the opposition.  Each culture followed their own ideas.  Only the other day I read of a grave in Poland of dead Russian solders killed in action and buried reasonably well in the circumstances but with little marking it appears.  In hot countries it was the thing to strip bodies and reuse material and later gather the bones together, many just left them for the dogs of course.

Sometimes I wonder if we treat the war dead in those large cemeteries better than we do the men who survived?  After the war men were sent home with a few pounds as a 'gratuity' and thanks for coming and left to their own devices, today there is some help at 'debriefing' but I winder if it is enough and do men take it?  I doubt our government cares, caring costs too much!

Tomorrow I will leave aside the dead and work on something a bit more cheery.

The end of the Hot Spots in sight.  Up north rain has teemed down and I have enjoyed sending pics such as this to my friends.  Well they were friends before I sent the pics.  Today clouds hung about for a while and normal temps appear.  I might be able to go out properly now!   This is a shame as I was enjoying watching the half naked women  young children playing in the sun, they were so happy running around the park.  

The heat changes the way we look at life.  Our outlook is affected by the climate and geography in which we grow.  Peoples living high up in mountain regions do appear to have a tough outlook on life, Australians in the 'Bush' also develop this and like to show a droll humour to go with it, something lacking maybe in those in the mountains?  What does that make city dwellers raised in comfort and ease?  Those raised in a land where it rains, clouds go gray easily, and cold winds find openings you never knew about have their own individual outlook on life... 

A Hard Day's Work in the Heat!

Wearing nothing but a pair of aged shorts and tying a notice reading "Please give water or beer" round my neck I made my way to the museum.
I was sent home!
Venturing forth dressed in a manner considered more worthy by my snooty superiors I returned not caring to mention the large fan blowing a gale in their office while no such apparatus was made available to me.  Referring to the shop as the 'Gobi Desert' brought no relief in spite of the doors being wide open until Peggy my hard working colleague (she reads this!) arrived.  As we downed our first gallon of tea/coffee/water and fanned ourselves with handy brochures that lie about we awaited the hordes of people barging through the door.
None came.
So I wandered off to chat up discuss important issues with the curator as she made enough coffee for herself to fill a MacDonalds outlet for a day.  I know she needs to keep awake but really!
Work arrived and my friend was ordered out into the searing heat (I had to mind the shop you see) to deliver posters and leaflets of the upcoming exhibition to shops that would display them for us.  I handled the crowds that came when she had gone.  
Both young ladies who arrived were very competent and pleasant, most are when I chat to them.
On returning it was found more leaflets required delivering, naturally I offered but was refused permission to do so by her indoors.  Poor Peggy had to once more bear the heat of the day though I noticed she managed to take her time and do her shopping while delivering. 
I therefore was left alone to deal with a bus load that came on a visit elsewhere in town and dozens of old women lassies arrived to wander throught the exhibition.  Each offered a £5 note for a £3 entrance with no consideration to our lack of £1 coins!!!!  Not that I am one to complain but wimmen...!

It is difficult at 4a.m. to get a decent pic of the moon when looking through a wndow at a tight angle....
Tomorrow is the Longest Day of the year and from then on the nights close in, innit it a horrible thought!  Half way through the year already.  Christmas adverts will start appearing soon!

However it remains like Aussieland here, I'm off to stand beside the fridge....

Sweltering!

I was forced to walk, at noon, in the 82% heat today on my way to St P's.  That's 27% to you foreign folks out there and it is not something we are used to.  It was remarked when I arrived, tired and weary, that only 'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.'  "You," they said in unison, "Are not English!" Much hilarity ensued!  
Three days running this heat has hit us and in the south we will get a bit more tomorrow.  Up north it is wet of course, but that is what they are there for, to catch the weather falling over the Atlantic!  
I confess I prefer this heat to the usual rain though an ideal temp of somewhere in the 70's would be more workable.  Even typing is hard when great drops of sweat keep landing on the keyboard. 
I'm sure I saw a Duck Billed Platypus walking past as I made my way home.

 
Last night the folks who endured the fire in the tower saw the beginning of the end of the 24 hour news coverage of their story.  This was because a right wing nutjob took it upon himself to copy the Islamist type attacks and late last night drive his white van into a crowd of Muslims leaving a mosque where they had been attending Ramadan prayers.  He crashed into a group who were busy aiding an aged chap who had collapsed.  The driver hit them and killed one and seriously injured several others. While trying to escape he was caught by the crowd and rescued from them by the Imam from the mosque and handed over to the police.  
Today Theresa May desperately trying to look human rushed to the mosque muttering about ending 'right wing extremism.'  I am left wondering if she would include the 'Daily Express' in her 'right wing extremist' list, or the 'Daily Mail' and naturally Rupert Murdoch's 'Sun?'  All these as well as the 'Telegraph' another extreme right wing paper that has gone downhill to make money have blamed Muslims and immigrants in general for every wrong and for many years, this is now the result.
Genuine questions regarding immigrants exist, genuine questions regarding some mosques and their imams need investigating, the media, and these papers in general have not done this!  Instead they play in the fears of the 'white working class' in general and the population altogether with half truths and deliberate distortions, that is how they make their money.  By such usage Rupert Murdoch and others have a control over the country they ought not to have in a democracy.  I am unaware of any cash Murdoch might invest in the Tory Party but his influence is clear, Michael Gove, removed by Theresa the minute she got the job has been returned as 'Environment Secretary,' a job he is singularly unfit for with his opinions totally at variance with environemntal reality. 
The media can be useful, the newspapers can inform, educate, build up, however what sells is sensation so news is replaced by sex stories and 'shock horror' tales, individuals are attacked or sentimentalised with no concern for the reality, they are used and abused with no control over the media possible, this is because the Conservative Party need the papers to get votes!
There are more right wing nutjobs out there, almost as many as there are Islamist nutjobs, extreme propaganda from either side must be opposed by truth, we do not have the media able or willing to do this.

 

Too Hot

Too hot to write....

 

Sunny Sat

I spent some fifteen or so minutes sitting in the park watching the clouds above change shape and twist and turn as they passed by.  Clouds, as you know, fascinate me.  They are such huge great monstrosities that we take for granted.  Some reach thousands of feet into the air, other cover whole continents, many are dark and foreboding while today most were of the large fluffy type.  This was the nearest to a rain cloud we saw today.  
I was led to wondering what is actually in them?  Water vapour we know but what else fills these Goliaths in the sky?  Reading today about a man visiting Antarctica and learning of the huge icebergs that contain pockets, if that is the right word, of the air, the atmosphere from five to fifteen thousand years ago.  An air breathed by the Sumerians before they learnt to write, an air early man knew as he spread out about the earth.  How different it is today.  How long will we be able to breathe such air as daily it changes content and each change brings more pollution.  Maybe we will require workers to open the old icebergs and release fresh air!

    
With the weather reaching 80% today and nothing in the news bar the Tower aftermath we run out of things to say.  My tired mind has spent much time looking through the village census for 1911 seeking any link to men I cannot trace.  The facts noted are however interesting.  People in their 70's and 80's still claim to be 'Agricultural labourers' a few being pensioners, the over 70's were granted five shillings by Lloyd George in 1909 and this caused Margaret Thatchers father to leave Lloyd Georges Liberal Party and join the Conservatives.  He did not agree with dole to the unemployed nor pensions to the old, this tells us something.  One poor woman had been married twelve years, had given birth to nine children and only two were surviving.  I noted that neither child was listed at home, only an adult Boarder, and wondered about her state of health and mind and where would the children be living?  I never found my lost men but did get an insight into village living in 1911.

      

Charity Begins at Home...?

I was impressed by the screaming headlines in the press this morning concerning the tower block fire yesterday.  All called for someones head, all yelled about safety, all demanded something ought to be done.
Where were they several years ago when the tenants of this block demanded changes?  Where was the press opposition when the Labour Party attempted to ensure landlords made their properties safe for tenants?  They were nowhere as these were not important stories for the daily press, sex, scandal, political intrigue and immigrants sells papers not dangerous housing, especially among the lower orders.  Especially when some 71 Conservative MPs who voted against the Labour bill demanding landlords took action were and still are landlords themselves!  The Tory press would not mention this.
Out of some 400 or so tenants less than half have been identified, I feel for the foremen who have to clear the building once it is made safe.
When these buildings arose in the 1950's they were an answer to a desperate housing problem.  It was not long before the dehumanising aspect of the style of building came to the fore, and indeed the misbehaviour of the people living in such blocks.  Lack of authoritative control, ignorant tenants and soon these places were wastelands.  Only once done up and sold off to paying owners with porters, sorry 'Concierge' at the door could such places work.  It is not just the building but the people that ruin such creations.  Of course many were badly designed, many have been destroyed and more human housing produced but in the end the people decide whether a housing development works or not.
I liked the idea of being high up, great views, wonderful skies, but if the lift breaks you are trapped.  We know know, and ought to have known long ago, that fire is a hazard to be avoided.  No block of flats ought to go over four stories in my view, this enables most firemen to gain access to you.  It was very difficult to watch the pictures of the trapped high above, or listen to the tales of the survivors.  This made worse by endless speculation and repetition of survivors stories over and over again to no-ones advantage.  
Of course the £62 million or so taken from the Fire Service has to play a part, closing fire stations, and I read somewhere that yesterday the government sold all the fire engines and equipment to a private company on the very day this fire erupted.  That requires checking but sounds just like this government.  I was intrigued to find a link on Twitter to an item in the London Evening Standard blaming cuts to services as one factor responsible for the fire, the Evening Standard the paper now 'edited' by one George Osborne the failed chancellor of the Exchequer who brought in the 'austerity' that gave us the cuts and decimated the Fire Service, the Police, the Ambulance crews, the NHS and everything else!   I wonder if George read that item?

When I met one of my women today we discussed, among other important topics, the response to the tragedy.  People were collecting items to send, food, clothes, blankets and the other daily requirements that the folks from the tower have lost.  I noticed some wished to do so round her, others as far away as Fife were offering items and then I began to think something was not right here.  For a start this disaster occurred in London, relatively close to the centre of the city and with seven or eight million people and a good number there willing to help there is no real need for people at a distance offering such aid.  A friend of mine is in close contact with the Latymer Church which is close to the tower and had things been desperate I suspect a call would have gone out for items.  

So what makes people respond this way?  When I was fifteen the Aberfan disaster occurred.  This was a mining village in Wales where an unsteady coal bing, the residue of coal waste that towered above the village gave way and fell across the village destroying the primary school and killing around one hundred and fifty young children.  Far away in Edinburgh watching this unfold on our rented Black and White TV I was gripped with a desire to go and dig out the kids.  An absurd idea as if miners and police could not save the I certainly would not.  
Years later while working for a charitable organisation I came across a wise item in a magazine where the author asked about those helping at Aberfan, they would come for miles to help he said but would they care about the man next door having a breakdown?  It is easy to rush to a disaster, it is hard to cope with daily stress of individual or local group disasters, no less real but not so spectacular.   Is rushing to a disaster such as this from far away the right thing to do, is it really 'loving your neighbour?'

  
Another man who has had a personal disaster is Tim Farron the Lib-Dem leader.  His party did not have an great success during the election, it did however grow from I think 8 seats to 12 so it wasn't all bad, but he himself was hounded by the media not on his policies but because he follows Jesus.
When interviewed there were few policy questions merely constant queries regarding whether he thought as a Christian homosexuality was a sin.  This was the constant refrain and sadly he failed to cope with this.  Instead of loudly brazing it out and saying "Yes it is!" he attempted to compromise out of 'consideration' for others opinions.  This was wrong!  The other day a senior Liberal in the House of Lords resigned because he objected to the biblical position offered by Tim, this has forced Tim Farron into resigning his position as leader.  A mistake in my view.  This Lord ought to have been castigated for his intolerance, his prejudice and his religious discrimination and thrown out of the party!  It is the Liberal Party after all so why has he now allowance for liberty?
Underneath all this lies the clear anti-Christian forces that dominate the media, that through the gay lobby harass those who stick to Christian principles (the Muslims are however never attacked as they might fight back) and white, middle class socialists, who have never done a proper days work in their lives, dominate the world.  We must obey their commands and accept homosexuality and all the other apparently new found behaviours as normal even if they are not.  From primary schools now children are indoctrinated to believe such behaviour is normal, instead of accepting people who behave thus, a very big difference!  The gay lobby leads the attack on the church as that is the truth that the power behind them hates, Christians such as Tim Farron ought to be given support to take his stand and not attacked constantly because of this.

We are right to wonder if there would have been a Lord grumbling if Tim won a lot of seats, we are right to wonder if all would be different then?  Possibly the Lord was only one man involved in a coup and we will soon know if his friend the new leader, whoever he may be, invites him to be a spokesman for something in the Lords.

I was forced out into the sunshine thrice today.  Not only did I have to visit two supermarkets to obtain cheap supplies but the brutes at the bird feeders broke one of the feeders and later I had to walk in the heat wearing dark glasses and bumping into things just to buy another.  Naturally the young girls at the counter were impressed with my 'James Bond' approach, I could tell by the way they looked at me, one of them even woke up long enough to almost smile.  I could see she was finding it tough having spend many years in school learning about many things and discovering work was in fact boring!  Having gained umpteen 'O' and 'A' levels and been interviewed as if she was applying for work as a rocket scientist she finds herself at a check out in a far too warm and stuffy store dealing with the public!  Poor lass, I hope something better arrives soon.  I always like to cheer such as her up by reminding them they can leave at 65 or 70 and enjoy retirement but they always look so glum when I do.  
It's a giggle mind! 

Tuesday Twitter

A flower for the DUP

The museum was quiet again today. Three visitors, one of whom I knew from the Braintree Facebook Page with his delightful wife and a Scandinavian lass who came last year with her children, this time with a niece.  My chocolate, freely offered, appeared to be the best part of the day for her!  The handful of events thereafter allowed me time to browse our book selection and save money inform myself of the history around us.  This kept me awake.

Two of my women were off again ensuring I had to make my own tea and sit alone bereft when as visitors appeared.  No superior bothered to check whether I was alive or dead, no offers of tea, no offers of work either, so it was not all bad.  This is such a hard life at times, however men who have been in war zones often indicate life can be tougher than this, I doubt that!

Getting out in the morning is such hard work.

Once upon a time we would meet together, two, three or four of us, staying up late and often until near one in the morning.  Next day we were at work at 8 or nine o'clock and felt it none!  Once I rose at 3:30 am and left by 4:30 am for work, now I must be out by 9:25 am and I feel it is too early!  On Sunday I leave at 10 am yet that feels to early and next day getting there by noon means a struggle to get things done.

All I need do is wash, breakfast and dress yet it takes sooo looong to do in such a short time!  How come when young we could stay up past midnight yet now nine in the evening is cocoa time?  Am I working too hard?  According to my two women today the answer was not a positive one so that's not responsible!  It may be I lack exercise, proper food, and get up and go, though I had that once and it got up and left.  

I had suggested to myself that making the tea, burning the toast the night before might make it quicker in the morning but that did not work out well.  The porridge was not a success this way either.  I avoided washing but the women objected for some reason, placing all the fancy soaps we then stocked in my pockets was going a bit far I thought.  I could of course avoid reading the news online but them I would know nothing wouldn't I?  What do you mean what's the difference?  Anyway as I am off tomorrow, no suggestion of being called in unsuspectingly later, and nothing important to do either I will naturally rise around four in the morning and be unable to sleep!!!  Bah!

The other day I posted a green abstract work and indicated I did not understand it.  Today I looked at the blurb alongside and still don't  It was one of three such works all concerning the artists family, weddings, moving on, as far as I could make out.  Only a woman artist would understand. 

However those who understand can pop into the shop and acquire some small token regarding the works on offer.  Individual hand made items, even cards and postcards for those who wish to just put that on the wall are available at a reasonable price!  

The three adults and one kid who entered today bought nothing!  Not even a pencil!  Not even a book I ostentatiously proffered!  Ah well in a week or so we begin the summer exhibition aimed at the kids.  That will mean a million brats running around screaming, bashing and vomiting for weeks on end. 

I'm looking forward to this....

    

 

Life is a Bit Blurred Today

My eyes have worn out from yesterday's efforts in the sunshine.  Nothing has been done today, a situation made worse by the TV and radio news constantly going over and over the nothing news that we heard yesterday.  With nothing to say, nothing new, nothing interesting they have been producing unknowns from here there and everywhere to fill time and repeat what we already know.  How they get paid for this I don't know.
Certainly some new news has arrived with a cabinet reshuffle as Theresa May tries to hold off all those who might stab her in the back and places between them and herself her chosen few.  The power grab is on and she is toast.  
Theresa's decision to work with the Northern Irish DUP has not gone down well.  Most object to their opposition to homosexuality, gay marriage and abortions.  I see nothing wrong with that straight forward godly view.  However few indeed bother to mention the DUPs relationship with terrorism and the recent murder in Northern Ireland.  
The only objections are to their Christian stance and that speaks volumes for people today.  I say again this nation is under judgement and possibly Theresa is one aspect of that.  She cannot be considered a gift to the nation!

Luckily there is nothing more to say so here is a picture from the exhibition.
No, I have no idea what it represents either...

Carnival 2017

 

Awake!

I awoke at three thirty and somewhat foolishly turned on the BBC to listen to the election gossip.  I was somewhat surprised to hear Theresa May speaking about carrying on the work and I wondered if she had indeed won a victory.  It soon became clear she had not, indeed her campaign was a miserable failure.  Today we have a winning PM who has lost and a losing Labour Party leader who has won hands down!  The gamble of forcing through the A50 act without a proper mandate from a divided nation added to her misreading of Corbyn's popularity led her into a second daft act of calling an election she did not require.  She has lost and lost disastrously and there is no way she can be allowed to continue to occupy her position and negotiate Brexit when she cannot negotiate in her own party.
However while the result in England saw an end to the threat to the NHS and the attacks on the weak it also led to a disaster in Scotland.  Brexit, media lies and foolhardiness has let the Tories win seats no decent Scot would allow.  Not only has Alex Salmond been replaced by a Tory but Angus Robertson, the next leader of the SNP I thought, has also been removed!  Two big effective men removed from office, a big loss to the SNP and Scottish representation in the House of Commons.
The failure of the Tories in England contrasts with their slight advance in Scotland and those few seats may well keep them in power in what is now a 'Hung Parliament.'  A 'Hung Parliament' is something many of us would like to introduce but in a different fashion I suggest! 

The result in Scotland unsettled me somewhat and I could not get back to sleep so at 4:15 I rose and had breakfast while perusing the lack of emails that failed to arrive in my inbox on every email account!  This took a while as I watched the TV gloat over Scotland's suffering and gloat over the big names everywhere falling.  Nick Clegg the one time Lib-Dem leader the biggest name to fall while elsewhere some seats were won by a small majority.  After four recounts the West Fife seat was won by the SNP by TWO votes!  How close is that?   Sad to say here in Blue Land the sitting man increased his vote from 27 thousand to over 32 thousand, a sad indication that little englanders care not if the NHS and the poor suffer.  It also indicates how many elderly people live in East Anglia!

While the folks in the million pound houses in the villages sleep easy in their beds I found myself unable to sleep so I looked up the details of one of the Finchingfield men.  I then ironed four shirts, cleaned the loo and kitchen,  and hoovered the floor all by 9:30.  Lunch has been taken by 10:30!
I strongly suspect I will pay for this later in the day!  Now I will return to the several items awaiting my mistakes, the war memorial, the Lyon, the houses, the stuff I have forgotten and I can imagine the minute I start the sleep will descend.  

Breaking news confirms that the failure that is Theresa May will visit the queen and demand to be allowed to make a new government.  What a cheek!  The English queen will of course accept this disgraceful act as this is her party and she cares little for the people, so we can expect an almighty row to begin any time soon.

So, the two old women have decided May stays as PM and she wishes to provide 'certainty!'  One thing she has shown throughout the feeble campaign is her lack of 'certainty.'  To enable her to govern she had gained support from the DUP, a party based in Northern Ireland who will make enormous demands on her to gain support, and that support will be on a one by one basis.  This does not make for good government, nor indeed for her chances during the Brexit negotiations which she will now front being 'strong and stable.'  The many EU negotiators are laughing into their bank accounts as we speak.
One other reason for her success was the Scottish Labour Party.  These desperate Unionist souls flocked to the polls yesterday in various Scots areas and voted for the Conservative Party!  Imagine!  Scots Labour people voting deliberately for the Tories, their mortal enemies, to stop the SNP winning a chance of a second referendum!  The result?  By voting in Conservative MPs in Scotland while the English Labour Party voted out Conservative MPs the Scots Labour folk have given success to Theresa May by ensuring she has enough seats to stave of Jeremy Corbyn who might now be Prime Minister in a government the Scots Labour Party wish for but they have ensured will not happen!
The brains of the Labour Party in Scotland has long ago dried up.

   
To getaway from it all I wandered in the gardens idly kicking loose toddlers into the bushes to tidy the place up while enjoying a surprisingly warm sun and the singing of the birds.  While I mused on the day and listened to the birds, not easy as so many young mothers were running about screaming for some reason, I considered we just have to 'get on with it' and not worry about the stupidity of Scots who vote Tory in spite of the attempt to kill the NHS, steal from the poor and take all off Scotland's oil profits south! 

It's Over!

It's over!  The great transaction's done!
I have wasted my vote by placing my cross next to a candidate that will lose.  The one party state in which I live allows no other choice.  Last time out the man determined to find himself a ministerial post as soon as possible led by a mere 17,000 or so votes.  I am interested to see the result today.  Will the Tories sick of May's failure stay at home?  Will the UKIP vote add to his majority?  Certainly the people that care about the NHS, pensions, old folks care and the sick will have voted for another failing candidate.  But which way will the Tories here go?  Do they really care for more austerity?  No!  What they care for s 'Brexit!'  Leaving the EU is more important for the little englanders as they have sufficient cash, and lots of it really, to survive the next few years, what happens to those that don't they really will not bother about.  So a sizable majority for the 'Nasty Party' and shortly after this independence for Scotland and then a descent into economic decline for England.
I must write off for my Scots passport later today... 

A Day of Rest? Ha!

The sleep was fitful last night, not for the first time, rest was required after yesterdays excessive hard work, so when I awoke for the last time just after eight this morning I decided to have an easy day.
I sat at the laptop watching through half closed bleary eyes as words crossed the screen, my mind unheeding most of them.  I fed myself on the leftover stale bread and refilled once again the feeders for the greedy Starling family that consider me their main feeder, and attempted work on a war memorial.  This was hard, the details hard to find, the old laptop slowly driving me crazy by its slow response and then just as I was burning something for lunch the phone screamed.

Her indoors called to tell me her on at one pm had not arrived and no message had come through.  As she was holding the fort by herself, the morning staff had gone home, I was required.  Naturally I lied, claiming Morag wished me to stay, this lie worked once before but failed this time as she realises Morag does not exist. So I rushed my slow work, gobbled my dinner, looked for the 'Andrews Liver Salts' dug out another clean shirt, this means lots of ironing tomorrow, and slumped off to fill the gap.

    
Naturally this conniving woman, something women are good at, forgot to mention the 102 children in Victorian dress in the shop when I arrived.  This had 'slipped her mind' and did not 'seem important to mention.'  Never trust a woman!  
The kids and the teachers I spoke to, were very good in fact.  Dressed as Victorians and having suffered under a strict Victorian teacher, even one of the teachers got told off, the kids loved it.  They loved shopping in the shop (where else?) taking as long as possible to spend money, naturally few bothered to count up how much things cost and the younger ones had no idea how much change they ought to receive!  We always strive to teach them how to shop but it is not always possible with the excited crowd.    

The excitement passed I sat back to sip my tea and digest my hurried lunch.  Many other work opportunities were available but I managed to dodge them as my knees wobbled and my hulk needed its siesta that it was sorely missing.  Little sympathy ensued as she poor lass was in the same boat.  However as the computers are down she could hide in the office and close her eyes while I faced the world.
Shortly afterwards the world arrived.
Several ladies of uncertain ages arrived for a get together of some sort.  This included surveying the museum and going for coffee and gossip.  Most were members of the 'Friends of the Museum' and get free admission and I knew them all anyway, but one, who gave much information re the Great War exhibition cleverly indicated a fault.
Her relative, who fell at the Battle of Loos, is described on the blurb as having died and his body never recovered.  This however stands in direct competition with a picture of his tombstone!  No body, n tombstone, and we have a tombstone!  Later I checked this out and realised the mistake.  Of course I have not informed the lady that I wrote all the blurbs and therefore...anyway lets move on...

Home soon after work, via Tesco for bread to replace the stale stuff, and now exhausted I find I am too tired to sleep.  Tomorrow I return to the museum as in our hall the Election Vote takes place and our boss runs the Polling Station.  It will be busier than the last one....    

 

Rainy Tuesday

The rain teemed down from early this morning until late this afternoon.  This meant that nobody was going to venture outside unless they really had to and only one visitor braved the rain and two others attended an arranged meeting with one of our girls.  The crowds did not appear and the nearby cafe closed before noon as not one person was making their way inside, even the taxi drivers were unwilling to cross the road for coffee!  They have never closed that early before, good job I wasn't hungry.

So quiet was it that while my back was turned my assistant ran off home leaving all the work to me.
The term 'work' regarding today's situation is of course misleading.
After she left I went into the office because I was beginning to feel lonely!  
A quieter day would be hard to imagine.

The weather system that passed over brought high force winds.  This must have pleased many as this meant those people plodding around the streets begging for votes could not make their way through the streets because of the rain.  It is unlikely the public would take pity on them!

However Theresa was still 'meeting the public' although as one man pointed out they ought to have taken the blue rosettes off first before taking the picture.  She then went back into a box surrounded by loyal supporters holding up placards and cheering sullenly.
These photo opportunities political candidates go in for fool nobody so why do they do them?  Surely it must be possible to arrange something that does not make the candidate look very uncomfortable or have them shown up by a six year old.  I realise that for some meeting people is fraught with danger, remember John Prescott being punched by a Tory thug, the press outcry blamed him for retaliating but that was the correct thing for an ex-boxer to do!  There was no press outcry in Sheffield when the Labour MP at the time had a fridge dropped on him, and miss, from four floors above however.  In that district that was not uncommon!  
It was quite late in Victorian days before the secret ballot was adopted, until then candidates shouted from a rostrum unto their hearers knowing that as the big man of the area had chosen him the voters, then few in number, would vote for him, or else.  Those close contested affairs resulted in violent punch-ups and riots could easily occur.   Similar events, without actual riots, were not uncommon even in the late 1960's when speaking to an audience brought opposition crowds along to oppose.  This suited the type of orator who knew how to browbeat an audience, but not all could do this and few of today's lads and lassies would cope with an open objective audience questioning their opinions.  That is why so many debates do not occur, and even then the audience is controlled both personally and by those arranging the debate.
What a shame we have no Gladstones, no Lloyd Georges, no powerful speakers or major politicians today.  Not that I liked Lloyd George, he was a lying we nyaff who made Tony Blair appear honest!  Today the politicians are small men, Corbyn, Boris, May and the rest may be competent in one sense but the big men from the past would shove them aside if they returned.

The last day tomorrow, then we vote on Thursday, praise the Lord for that!