So, this week in the UK has been dominated by the electioneering of the various parties, and the pause in the proceedings for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of ‘D-Day’, when the allied forces landed on the French beaches in Normandy to begin the invasion of the European mainland.
That would have seen them push forward to the unconditional surrender of the German forces that would then mark the end of the war in Europe, with the war in the Pacific ending soon after, with the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans.
During all that commemorating, highlighted largely by the reminiscing of centenarians re-visiting Normandy, I close my eyes and grit my teeth, knowing that I am overwhelmingly in the minority who thinks of it, not as commemoration so much as glorifying war, something which seems to have become a national pastime by the huge shipments of armaments to Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia, accompanied by a lot of sabre-rattling and trying to draft youngsters into the armed forces by the back door, calling it ‘National Service’ and ‘Volunteering’ (for now) for an imaginary, seemingly hoped-for’ war with Russia.
Other news dominating the headlines this week have focused on Nigel Farage trying, for the eight time, to become an MP, this time for the ‘Reform’ (formerly ‘Brexit’) party that he leads. Yet again, he (and his party) seem to have a lot of support, but it remains to be seen how that translates in voting share or number of seats (hopefully none) in the new parliament, taking shape from 4 July onwards.
The first televised debate by the leaders of the 2 largest parties – Sir Keir Starmer, for the Labour party, challenging the incumbent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, for the conservative party (also known as the ‘Tories’), took place this week. The exit poll scored 51% for Rishi Sunak and 49% for Keir Starmer, despite the huge lead in the polls by Labour.
This seemed to be related to the constantly repeated claim by Rishi Sunak that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 for each family in the UK, a claim that was denied by Keir Starmer, accusing Rishi Sunak of “blatantly lying”.
So, the gloves are off in the electioneering, and it results in the commentators jumping up and down whilst gesticulating wildly and raising the volume in their vociferations, whilst the rest of us yawn, knowing that all the good promises will rapidly disappear after the voting has taken place, whilst all the hints of possible bad times to come will turn-out to have been grossly under-represented.
In the meantime, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, is pictured falling into a lake and hurtling down a water slide, with some wondering what the message is, but most of us not caring, as we already know that we won’t be voting for them to then form a coalition with the Tories, as they did a mere 14 years ago. Give it another 200 years, and perhaps people will have forgotten by then.
In the meantime, I managed to comfortably pass my second assignment on my course, so we will see what the next academic year brings, apart from twice as much work as in the first year.
I don’t actually have another teaching block until November, but I have a huge, huge, huge amount of reading, note-taking and analysing to do before then. I am my own glutton for punishment, with doing this, and giving politicians time out of my day, but of course, both seem to bring an element of joy, too.
Also, this week, we were told of Vaughn Gething losing a vote of confidence. It relates to having received a donation from someone during his leadership campaign, now being investigated over financial criminality. Vaughn Gething has been leader of the Welsh devolved assembly for less than 3 months. He has vowed to carry-on despite the no-confidence motion. He only lost because of the ‘mysterious’ illnesses of two of his colleagues who were absent on the day, both of whom had previously fallen-out with Gethin. It seems unlikely that they will be promoted for some time, given his decision to carry-on in post.
In the meantime, we hear little or nothing in the English news about the election hopes in Scotland and Northern Ireland, beyond Labour hopes for large gains in Scotland, against a weakened Scottish National Party (SNP), and no seat contested in Northern Ireland by either Labour or the Tories.
Just to add to all the other ‘sabre-rattling’, the outgoing head of the army proclaims that Britain should be better prepared for a third world-war. The plans the country’s leaders have for us are being fed to us in larger spoonfuls.
General Sir Patrick Sanders goes on to suggest that the next war could be so large that it could kill tens of millions of people – not likely to be solved by Tory plans (forlorn hopes) to recruit 34,000 18-year-olds into the army through their draft (daft) idea of voluntary so-called national service.
The real question is whether Starmer and the Labour party will eventually adopt this plan from the Tories – as they have adopted so many others. Not during election promises, for sure, but in the longer term? I wouldn’t bet on them not doing so.
So, then we had the great abandonment of veterans by the prime minister half-way through D-day commemorative events. Everything suddenly became “disgraceful”, “shocking”, “disgusting” etc; and it soon became the biggest political football to be kicking around, especially by Nigel Farage, ensuring that the media were stirred-up to a frenzy.
Don’t get me wrong, I take great delight in the Tory prime minister falling flat on his face, and everyone else (including his own party) stomping all over him, but this really is a storm in a teacup compared to the dreadful damage inflicted on the ordinary people in the country by a succession of outrageous Tory administrations over the last 14 years.
Next up was a TV debate amongst the representatives of seven of the parties taking part in the election. Angela Rayner (Labour) and Penny Mordaunt (Tories) got into an argument that degenerated to the level of a street brawl, Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrats) expressed her complete disgust of Rishi Sunak, egged-on by Nigel Farage, howling about that and his usual rant about immigration.
Thus, the only people who gave a good account of themselves were the three remaining from the minor parties: Carla Denyer (Green Party), Rhun Ap Iorwerth (Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalists)) and Stephen Flynn (SNP), all of them expressing progressive policies, and Stephen Flynn, doing so knowledgeably and eloquently.
Things died down at the weekend, politically, with the main participants doubtless exhausted and weighing-up how good or bad the week had been for them, the rest of us just heaving a sigh of relief at the political silence.
In the meantime, as we went into the weekend, there was still no news of Dr Michael Mosley, who went missing on Wednesday on the Greek island of Symi. Unfortunately, the searches came to an end later in the weekend, when a body was found, and a mysterious tragedy is the outcome as I write this. Dr Michael Mosley will be remembered with great fondness and respect in the UK, as he spent much of his career explaining and demonstrating better health choices for the people of the UK, many people in particular finding weight-loss success with the 5:2 diet which he championed.
Away from the drama and sniping of politics and the tragic news about Dr Mosley, there was the so-called ‘Bridgerton’ episode of ‘Doctor Who’, where Ncuti Gatwa, as the doctor, and Jonathan Groff, as ‘Rogue’, engaged in the first, mutual same-sex kiss in the 60-year history of ‘Doctor Who’ (Sci-Fi, time traveller, TV series). “About time”, says I, although there will doubtless be many other comments that will not be saying that.
So, lots of drama in our little country for one week, so it will be interesting to see how things go next week, although not so interesting to be back at work, but I am entering into the final mile of eight more weeks containing employment days, before being finally done with that.
In the meantime, it is one week at a time. Out with one, and then, start again tomorrow.
Ho-Hum!
Fraser
June 2024