HOLIDAY GOSSIP

In August we all try to get away, certainly Boris did (but he was going anyway), probably Biden did too (but who would notice any difference?) and Putin may do us all a favour and do himself away by diving in his macho-fashion, head-first into a deadly radioactive pool at Zaporizhzhia (Yes, Vlad, jump!). Anyhow I feel no guilt being in Greece and finishing a week’s excursion to the enchanted Aegean island of Samos, and am joined at my hotel by a rich variety of sun-seeking Europeans.

                                                        Putin - Nobody’s Pin-Up

Travel has always broadened the mind and flattened the wallet but this year it has been unusually accident-prone. My delightful eldest son sought a celebratory rendezvous with his 80-year-old Dad but was frustrated by a heat-wave, then a flood, then by re-catching Covid and finally by an errant roofer who contrived to put his foot through his 4^th floor roof only to break his fall luckily on a high rafter with his crotch (Ouch!), Of course, at that point the London heavens opened, requiring a massive clear-up, and the attendance of the Fire Brigade. As somebody once said: Stuff Happens!

As for my European fellow-guests here, they are mainly well-behaved German-speakers, Swedes and Poles. I admit to being rather a conservative fellow and do not admire the tattoos on bellies, necks and backs of at least half the females. I can also see how far the obesity pandemic has gone. Once I had thought it was confined to the junk-food guzzling hordes of America, but no, certainly the female Aurochs is alive and well in Europe too, where colossal fatsos abound. I am far from svelte myself, but I am completely outclassed by these lumbering grotesques.

                                                                      The Aurochs

 The Tory leadership and hence prime ministerial contest in the UK has ground on too long but it looks like Liz Truss will win the prize. If she delivers what she promises (a big “if”), she is a good choice, being a no-nonsense Yorkshire woman with a Thatcherite streak. I understand the new government will challenge the entrenched orthodoxies of Whitehall, and not before time. What happened to the Bank of England, whose mission is to control inflation, but who failed to warn us of the inflationary tsunami engulfing us? Once the Governor’s eyebrows were eloquent; now Governor Bailey is all thumbs. Was Lockdown worth the damage it caused to the economy? Boris, and alas, Gove, both swallowed whole all the bad vibes from the now-knighted Patrick Vallance, Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van Tam. Sweden did not lockdown and suffered proportionately less damage. So, did we impoverish ourselves unnecessarily? What was the intellectual process?

The NHS has not performed well in the pandemic and it needs to be re-modelled. The outcome from many illnesses is far worse in the UK than in comparable European or first-world economies. The private sector must be incentivised to invest. Our secondary school system produces many pupils unfit for work in the modern world; this is an emergency – we cannot wait for a solution to “evolve”.

We do not have an embarrassment of talent in UK politics - I would regret Gove’s disappearance and hope Sunak will be given a useful post. I am heartened by the likely return of John Redwood (he has brains) and the mooted retention of Jacob Rees-Mogg, doggedly holding on to the best values of about 1910. No Tory worth his salt should fail to put the clock back! There are excellent people coming through – Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat, Ben Wallace spring to mind and may rise to new challenges.

I have no doubt we face a difficult winter but let that not spoil our high summer. We should face the future with a sprightly confidence, face down our enemies and assure ourselves that the lessons of the past will be well learnt and that all our families and friends will enjoy a glorious and prosperous future.

 

SMD

28.08.22

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2022