JUNE REFLECTIONS

June is of course a dreamily nostalgic month, so proclaimed in dozens of catchy romantic songs:  

-          Fresh and alive and gay and young

June is a love-song, sweetly sung.

June is bustin’ out all over!

-          They say when you marry in June

You’re a bride all your life!

-          Honey moon, keep a-shinin’ in June

Your silvery beams will bring love’s dreams

We’ll be cuddlin’ soon

By the silvery moon!

And then, alas, you rudely wake up, to the sight of the RMT-led rail strikes, prices going through the roof, real suffering for quite a number, much anxiety everywhere, Russian troops devastating Ukraine, politicians running about like headless chickens and our whole world in disarray. That is not the natural order we so desire:

 εἴθε γενοίμην. . . would I were
In Grantchester, in Grantchester! –

Yes, the church clock stands at ten to three

And there is honey still for tea.

                                                ……………………..

Her Majesty had a splendid Platinum Jubilee holiday in June and she made her necessarily rationed appearances with great aplomb. I hope she can quietly pop up to Balmoral as usual or stay snug at Windsor Castle if she prefers. It has been her Jubilee, bless her, but I confess to a spot of Windsor-fatigue now that it is effectively over. The loyalist media have never tired of telling us how smart and dignified is William, how lovely Kate was at Ascot, how beautiful was Sophie’s polka-dot dress in Cyprus, how happy was Beatrice in her horse-drawn coach! It is of course all twaddle and balderdash and grist to the republican mill with the UK divided on this issue as on many others! Please give us  media restraint for a decent period! Charles and Camilla will have a high charm-mountain to climb as it is, let alone cope with pap and over-exposure and unhelpful noises off from Andrew, Harry and Meghan.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown!

                                                     …………………………

The leaders of the West cut unimpressive figures these days. Our Boris, thrashing around to find a much-needed rabbit to pull from his hat, quite simply has no moral compass, a minimum requirement even these days. Joe Biden, it is speculated, wants to run for a second term. Surely the US deserves better than this vain, IRA-loving, decrepit old goat who hardly knows what town he is in currently and can only sink lower. Macron’s popularity in famously ungovernable France (de Gaulle: How can you govern a country with 246 different kinds of cheese?) has plummeted, his Napoleonic mindset deterring voters and disgusting erstwhile allies. Olaf Scholz, with the charisma of a Bockwurst, struggles with Merkel’s legacy of a Germany lethally dependent on Putin’s Russia.

 

There are plenty young radicals knocking at the door but somehow I do not see Angela Rayner in the UK or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the US achieving high office soon, even if both are easier on the eye than the present incumbents.

  

                                        

                                                        

Angela Rayner                                                 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The glittering prizes will go to boring middle-aged men in grey flannel suits, hopefully not the kind that rub the noses of their constituents in the fact of their wealth and privilege compared to their voters’ horribly stretched budgets.

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I have recently returned from 3 weeks in Charlotte, North Carolina, most generously hosted by my youngest son. It gave me a taste of life in a Southern city, far removed from New York or Southern California. Many of my esteemed readers will know the US much better than I do, so I will save on the pontification.

Suffice it to say, I was greatly struck by the size and scale of America and its growth. Charlotte is a magnet for finance and medical companies and its airport hub claims to be the 5^th busiest in the world. Houses are being built at a rapid pace, spreading the city boundaries but there are plenty more dense forests of long-leafed pine to push up against. The 47% white population has a strong Christian Evangelical flavour (a prominent arterial road is Billy Graham Parkway!) while the 35% black population is much in evidence in up-market malls and restaurants, as well as in more modest occupations. I would guess there is more racial Wokery in London (13% black) than in Charlotte, which enjoys a laid-back and relaxed life-style. Long may both prosper!

 

SMD

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Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022