To Understand Or Not To Understand

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Everyday, rules on the coronavirus seem to change. They are now discussing closing pubs in September when schools go back. I assume this is with the intention of balancing the dangers posed from both pubs and schools being open and slowing down any potential infection rate. I understand a certain amount of logic in that but it does seem to fly in the face of previous statements on there being no danger to schools opening up. If my memory is right teachers unions were blasted and shamed when they suggested that re-opening schools might increase the risk of infection and endanger teachers. Boris, his media mouthpieces and his puppet Sir Keir all seemed to be in agreement in dismissing the fears of teachers and now in a round about way they seem to be admitting these fears are in fact well founded. I wonder whether they will retract their previous statements.

There really is no way to follow what is going on properly though. There are some parts of the country going into gentle lockdowns, or ‘putting the brakes on’ as Boris suggested. They’re not really just putting the brakes on though if they’re re-introducing elements of lockdown, that suggests they’re also then going in reverse. Does that mean in other parts of the country that are not applying the metaphorical brakes that everything is fine and they can carry on or should they start to gentle apply them to prevent the necessity of slamming the foot down. The thing is I really don’t know. Ultimately I’m not an expert, very few people in this country and around the world genuinely are. That would presumably be ‘the scientists’ who by now have developed mythological status and who once ran the government according to a government trying to deflect criticism of itself and pass on any blame. It becomes hard to accept that decisions made weren’t political when blatantly they were. I want to believe there is no ulterior motive to all of this but it’s hard sometimes.

And then the rumours are that they’ll be expecting another full on lockdown in November and that it’s now not old people in danger but twenty to forty year olds. Why that age range all of a sudden? Does that suggest the virus has morphed slightly into something else, and if so does that mean the vaccine that if I’m not mistaken we’ve pre-ordered a rather large amount of will need to morph too. And if younger people are now in danger from it evolving should they not be discussing this a bit more. Everyday it feels like we hear something new but all that ever happens is we end up with more questions than answers. Nobody has a clue and those in authority on all sides only seem to focus on their own self-interests which frustrates and angers everyone further. No wonder people question and reject what would ordinarily be acceptable ideas. Will we ever get real answer and clarity. Will pigs fly as they say.

Incidentally, I picked out an old scarf I never imagined I would be wearing in the summer and have started tying it around my face in a way I never dreamt possible when going into shops. I’m still slightly sceptical about a few things and confused about others but am I another fool? I doubt I’ve ever not been.

Hello Mr Hedgehog

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Today’s news then is that hedgehogs are officially ‘vulnerable to extinction’. This is down to a variety of factors such habitat destruction, human development, introduced non-native species and the use of chemicals. I remember reading a while back now about hedgehog numbers becoming dangerously low and at the time thinking I hadn’t seen any for a while. They’re not typically animals you would come across as they’re prone to hiding as well as hunting at night I think. I say both of those things without being entirely sure but I think that’s the case.

For the last few months I have been driving a van delivering bread and I am constantly slowing down for rabbits, hares and the occasional deer. There is an entire world going on at night that we’re completely oblivious to. When we sleep it becomes safe for the rest of the animals to run free. But they don’t because the roads seem littered with carcasses which usually disappear by morning, most likely into the belly of a scavenger. What is sad though and why this hedgehog news has caught my eye is that I will easily see at least one dead hedgehog a day on the roads somewhere. While that may not seem like much it adds up and considering that is just what I see and is only road deaths, it comes as no surprise the situation for the hedgehog is starting to look so dire.

It seems mad to imagine such an iconic animal could be in danger of dying out and while it’s unlikely to happen soon because of sanctuaries and the speed these things happen, there is always the danger it’ll get to a tipping point and they’re unable to survive as a species without assistance. These things spiral. The Mammal Society has drawn up a list of forty-seven native mammals in this country and eleven, including the hedgehog, are in serious danger. If it were one species then you could isolate it but when this is happening to so many we must find that common denominator in this and accept our role.

We’ve seen what can happen with the native red squirrel which now only inhabits pockets in England and Wales, and larger areas of Scotland. The grey squirrel is an invasive animal brought across from America. It is larger and more dominant which has in turn pushed out the red squirrel. I remember red squirrels everywhere around my home in the countryside when I was growing up but now it’s nothing but greys. The native wildcat now only inhabits a tiny corner of northern Scotland. Are they destined for the same fate as the Tasmanian tiger. It may be a world away but surely we can learn something from these foreign lands our ancestors plundered and altered immeasurably. If not we’ll just continue to carry on their mistakes. All in the name of progress don’t forget. Roads are supposed to guide us and lead us in certain directions, but it’s starting to become clearer with every passing morning as I witness their devastating potential that they may just have become a symbol of us losing our way. That’s assuming we ever had any direction in the first place.

An Unmasked Scumbag

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It’s confession time. I’ve not been wearing a mask. I’ve been into shops, supermarkets, even the little grocer that demands you use hand sanitiser if you want to come in. Okay the last one I barely took two steps in the shop and the guy just got me what I wanted but still I’ll include it. So far nobody has said anything and I suspect they probably won’t either. When I was in Sainsburys they played some rather conflicting messages which actually weren’t conflicting over the tannoy; “It is mandatory to wear face masks in store” followed by “Please be aware of those whose with conditions which may not be immediately obvious”. I did wonder if I should use that as an excuse were someone to challenge me but I can’t help feel it would be slightly disrespectful to people with genuine reasons for not wearing masks. So far I haven’t actually seen a single person not wearing one. I won’t deny I felt like a total pariah and imagined everyone’s eyes were surely on me, judging me. Like everything people were probably too involved in their own worlds to even notice and for this reason loads of maskless faces probably went past me but I couldn’t stop thinking about my own to notice.

This isn’t some protest. This has nothing to do with civil liberties. In truth I find peoples objections for wearing them on those grounds absurd. We live in an economic system which robs us and subtly enslaves us each and every day, and people take umbrage with having to wear a mask. It’s stupid and if you read between the lines you’ll just discover right wing libertarian propaganda. I on the other hand am forgetful and lazy. I don’t have a mask with me and I refuse to buy those cheap ones which break after five minutes and end up in a landfill. There was talk about six weeks ago of the environmental damage already obvious from one use face masks and PPE but that seems to have been brushed under the already bulging carpet. It always comes down to money, profit and ease but why can’t people just be persuaded to spend the same amount of money on one reusuable mask as they do one pack of ten ultimately disposable ones. We’re unable to use a washing machine and look after ourselves again. And none of that even goes into the socioeconomic arguments of how something deemed mandatory with added stigma should never cost money, even if just three pounds.

I actually have a face mask. A friend gave me an old sleeve of a tshirt and it works perfectly. When I finally remember to take it with me I’ll just use this. At the same time while I appreciate their use I find it frustrating that it has taken us six months to make it some kind of necessity. In those six months the virus was rampant and we start using them once it has died down. There will be reasons for this such as prioritising their use for nurses but with such flip flopping of advice, delays in making decisions and even once a decision was made, not having it come into affect until two weeks later; it is understandable why people are sceptical or just simply confused.

I am an ignorant arsehole for not wearing one despite the fact it makes total sense that they must help slow the spread of this virus. Surely that is undeniable even if it is minuscule. There is also a part of me that continues to feel it a necessity not to do something if the norm is to do it through fear of the wrath of my vigilante peers. It isn’t an attack upon my liberties to have to wear one but it does feel that just ever so slightly if I’m being judged by people, or guiltily imagining I am, by people who a week ago didn’t wear a mask but now do because of some government law that isn’t actually a law, it’s all about the wording with this lot, that I just want to give the finger to them all. At the same time there’s probably an argument for me to just grow up and wear a mask because the rest of this nonsense is all in my head and to wear one may just help protect someone I care about or someone somebody else cares about. It shouldn’t be so difficult really. But it still is, even though I actually don’t care either way whether I wear one or not. Maybe I should just go find that sleeve mask and be done with it. Let’s not have a series of pieces which just devolve into me having an argument with myself and result in nothing bar hypocrisy and flawed rationale on both sides. Let’s be honest, nobodies right and everybody’s wrong.

Burnt Horticulturalism

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Today then is a little horticultural update. An update on my failed venture into horticulturalism to be precise. Interestingly enough too on a side note, horticulturalism doesn’t appear to be a word which surprises me. If a horticulturalist is someone who practices or is learning gardening and plant management lets say, then if they believe in the theory of gardening as some kind of ideology or movement then surely it must be capable of being an ‘ism’. Surely horticulturalism could be a theoretical approach to fighting the slide into a climate catastrophe, a belief that gardening could save the world perhaps. It’s probably not a far fetched as it sounds depending how it’s worded.

I decided to use the power of the internet and there are suggestions it might just be a word. According to dictionary.com there is no such word but wiktionary.org – I know anything beginning with wik should be immediately dismissed but humour me – suggests it is a synonym of horticulturism, which dictionary.com also suggests isn’t a word, not that dictionary.com is necessarily the most respected of dictionary sources, and that it means ‘a small scale agricultural lifestyle’ which sounds about right. Interestingly apparently in psychology it is ‘the idea that people do not need explicit instruction from others in order to develop cognition, but can be nurtured to develop cognition individually’, in other words they can develop cognition in the same way a plant can grow or garden can develop.

I seem to have digressed massively to the point that this entire piece has little to do with the failed attempt at nurturing a few plants I was originally going to share. I have one chilli plant, one red skin pepper which is basically a chilli too and an aubergine plant. They were coming along well enough considering they have been living on the inside of a window ledge and not a garden but recently I discovered they had caught plant lice, more commonly known as aphids. These little fuckers multiplied and I could tell my poor babies were suffering to the point something needed to be done. When my rainbow chilli plant travelling companion in Australia got aphids I simply left it on the roof of my car most of the day and the ladybirds did their ravenous job but inside here is different. I read that you can wipe diluted washing up liquid on the leaves but I decided to attempt another method I read about instead. Apparently if you dilute vinegar you can spray it on the plants and the aphids will leave. It turns out all you do is burn the leaves, kill the flowers, weaken your plant and make your room stink of vinegar. As you can see from the picture it has been a resounding failure. I plan tomorrow to offer them up to my mother who has a garden in the countryside and who can hopefully nurture them back to life with the help of the local ladybirds. It is like the plant version of retreating to the countryside to convalesce. They need nursing. They need recovery. This will certainly be used as an example of something profound when this finds it’s way into the future theory of horiculturalism. Step as Marx and Friedman, there’s a new player in town and he’s armed with compost.

Time To Put The Feet Up

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There are times I write things in this that revolve around myself and my day. I’m wary of making this whole thing just a series of pieces on me and my life, like I’m keeping a very public journal, just as I’m wary of writing about Boris Johnson and Donald Trump every day. Even Covid-19 became a subject I tired of at one point. Variety in life is what keeps us going, or at least it does me. Anyway my point is that I sometimes write about myself because I know I am human like the rest of us and maybe one person out there will read it and be able to relate to it. I assume that is reasonably common practise online but writing about ourselves believing the world revolves around us is equally common practice online. Saying that not everybody has to find something to write about every day and do so by squeezing that into a busy schedule.

Today though hasn’t been busy. I’ve really enjoyed myself. I have though spent large parts of the day procrastinating. Somehow despite having a lot of time today I’m still just squeezing this piece out with about half an hour to spare before I go to work. I have managed to spend the day writing emails and messaging people which is something I’ve struggled to get round to for weeks but even then, to take all day just feels ludicrous. How much procrastinating we do in a day is always hard to tell but considering I’ve had all day and spent large chunks of it not doing what I wanted I can only imagine I’ve allowed myself to become distracted repeatedly instead. Phones are terrible procrastinators. I’m still excited about football so I find myself distracted by what is going on on the transfer front. I’ve read a little. Eaten twice. Chatted with the people downstairs in the bakery. Done a little research on a future endeavour I’ve started working on. Actually that’s not procrastination, that is actually productive work but I don’t feel I did much thankfully. Where does the time go. I planned on doing some yoga and going for a run at one point but there’s no chance of that happening. I’m sure there are a few other things which could have been ticked off my ever increasing to-do list.

Ultimately though it is a lovely feeling to just sit back, do a few things which involved little real effort and spend the day relaxing. It hasn’t been possible for a while and despite complaining about my abilities as a master procrastinator I’m quite pleased I know how to embrace them from time to time. Nobody wants to be too efficient and active when they don’t really need to be, what a boring and sterile life it would become. That’s that then, procrastinators, you are not alone. You can embrace your natural abilities and not feel guilty about them in this puritanical world Martin Luther created and forced us to endure. Work will not set us free, idle minds do create great things. And I’ve still got another fifteen minutes before I need to work, time to put my feet up I say.

The Great Showmen

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What’s going on in the world then. A section of Trump’s infamous border wall with Mexico blew down. Apparently Hurricane Hanna got the better of it. Past wall failures include another section in California being knocked over in January following a strong breeze, smugglers taking minutes to saw, yes saw, through sections of the wall and another incident in San Diego apparently saw them doing this eighteen times in one month. Perhaps a series of the same incident would be more apt. It does suggest he has been making it on the cheap and undoubtedly this does fit in with the type of image of Trump we have. Doing things for show without any substance and grabbing everyone’s attention with another outlandish ‘project’ the moment the old one starts to fall to pieces. Why anyone thought a showman would change his stripes I just don’t know.

The plan wasn’t just to talk about Trump, it was to mention a few things going on in the world but it’s so easy to start with him and get carried away with whatever it is he’s doing now. I think the whole world knows what’s going on, although saying that having just quickly checked the BBC, even on the actual US regional page it doesn’t really mention a lot about how arguably troops, or their equivalent at least, have been deployed on domestic streets and quite violently against peaceful protesters. It’s almost more interesting to see what’s newsworthy and not being reported. The man is gearing up for an election as he tries to get everyone to forget about his handling of Covid-19, as well as the fact he’s still continuing to handle it badly, and focus instead on how good he is or would be at cleaning up the streets. The law and order campaign approach being one usually deployed by a hopeful incoming President criticising the current occupants job, how that quite works with a sitting President suggesting he’ll clean up the streets of not only a country he’s been running for four years but that he’s repeatedly said has “been made great again” is still slightly unclear. I’m sure he’ll all confuse us with his explanation.

What else has been going on then. Well he’s still orange. He’s still the slightly shittier American version of a television series that originated in Britain and revolved around Boris Johnson performing a stage version of A Clockwork Orange. We thought it could never be topped but evidently in the most brash of American ways it has been. I wonder which one will run for longer without being cancelled. I wonder too what the spin-off would be; their best mate Nigel Farage losing all his money and having to hang out with the working men he pretends he’s one of. Or the ultimate twist of fate, through a loophole in the law he gets kicked out of the UK and manages to claim refugee status in Germany with his wife and kids. Now that would be both compulsive and car crash television. Maybe Boris, Don and Nige could be the three men to Dominic Cummings as the baby; probably doing his best version of an early Stewie Griffin when he was his in murder everyone faze. They just don’t make television like they used to. They don’t really make reality what it once was either though. Maybe it’s just those blurred lines confusing us all. Which is which, we just don’t know.

Squeaky Bum Time

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It’s that time of year when (fill in blank). Let’s be honest this year doesn’t count as any normal year. I was expecting to be swanning around in Greece sailing, eating and drinking right now but I’m doing something else. Today though my focus is not on what would probably have been a Euro 2020 match, as I imagine the tournament would still be going. With Covid-19 forcing it’s postponement we’re instead left with the final instalment of a very long English Premier League season. And I’m nervous. We’ve got a massive game against Leicester City today which could have repercussions for years. If we qualify for the Champions League it could be a springboard for what is a young and exciting team to step up and take their game to levels we’ve not seen since the now mythological heady days of Sir Alex Ferguson. If we fail to either win or draw today we spend another year wasting our time in the Europa League, failing yet again. Big clubs need to play in the best tournaments; money and reputation can only get them so far. The best players can make the money in most clubs these days, they want the best tournaments. It has been a long season. Today feels massive. We’re five minutes from kick-off. I’m excited and nervous in painfully equal amounts. I’ll write the second paragraph upon the conclusion of the match. I hope I come back smiling.

Well that was a relief more than anything. We won 2-0 with the first goal being a penalty and the second with virtually the last kick of the match after a mistake by the keeper. It was nervy, no real major chances and wasn’t the goal fest I thought it might be. We’ve been fatigued as a team recently and I thought their game plan would be to hold us tight and hit us as we started flagging in the last fifteen minutes. Had we not got the penalty after seventy minutes that may have happened but it invigorated us enough to hold on for the win and finish third in the league.

I had a feeling before the game that we would win but the longer it went on with us drawing I got nervous. Next season will be interesting. The top two, Liverpool and Manchester City, will probably still be top two but I suspect swapping positions. Chelsea are buying some really quality players already with the likelihood of a few others being really high, Arsenal look like they may become something worth worrying about under Mikel Arteta and Jose Mourinho will turn Spurs into winners one way or another. Wolves and Leicester will improve too and they’re already quality teams. We need to not only improve our first team on the right wing and at centre back but need someone who can fill in at number ten and arguably another centre midfield of the defensive ilk. Let’s see what happens. We’ve been so badly run these last few years that I will resist getting excited but we do look like we’re finally heading in the right direction. Time will tell, but time for a rest now I say.

A Ramble Through Little

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I was doing so well living the life of oblivious bliss. No news for ten days, suddenly the world felt like a beautiful place. When you have no idea what is going on outside of the bubble you live in on a daily basis then things can very easily start to appear relatively calm. It helps that the bubble is a small seaside village and despite peoples best attempts at creating them, there are few genuine regular issues worth being demoralised over. That doesn’t mean things don’t happen but certainly little worthy of national attention let alone global and geopolitical. Saying that in places like this all you have to do is scrape below the surface and you’ll find something worth getting carried away with. It does explain the propensity for gossip in places like this though.

It’s interesting to see how we respond to moments of drama. I know I could live in a small village and life would be relatively stress free, likely it would be safe and although there wouldn’t be many people around I would know enough of them to not experience loneliness. Living in a city is far more exciting, there are things to do, places and people to see and there would be enough action to absorb you attention as required. Life though would probably be more intense and potentially more stressful, also in my experience far more lonely than any small village I’ve ever lived in. I’ve never quite understood that, and suspect the lonely feeling in cities is something born out of not being brought up in one and knowing how really to exist within them.

Perhaps a balance between the two. Always a balance. Always a fence to sit on. A sleepy but interesting and cultured city beside the sea. That’s the dream. I imagine if that existed so many people would have moved there in search of it they would destroy it in the process. It’s like being a tourist and wanting to visit the idyllic spots and being oblivious to the fact your presence helps in destroying any sense of idyllic you once had. We just can win. But we should never give up. What kind of life would that be. Too busy, too noisy but never settle. Or does that just miss the point for acceptance and appreciating what you have. Perhaps that’s for another time when I fancy another little ramble. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again.

Bojo The Wildling

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It appears Bojo came north of the wall today. He mingled with those pesky wildlings he ordinarily has no time for. When I say north of the wall, I mean nearly as far north as possible. He went all the way to the Orkney Islands. One suspects this wasn’t because he loves Scotland so much he wants to see as much of it as possible of course, it’s a lot easier to avoid the baying crowds when they consist of Angus and his dog than what they would be were he to brave Edinburgh, Glasgow or just about any place with a population capable of creating an angry mob.

He finally visited Scotland on the one year anniversary of his still slightly inexplicable rise to power. If that was supposed to fill us with some sense of honour that he would bless us with his presence on such an important day, all it did was remind us it’s taken him so long to come north. It took him one whole year despite the fact there was an actual election midway through the year. Perhaps his no show in that time was down to his love of the Union and the damage his presence would do to it.

Undeniably there is truth in that. The latest polls, and there’s more than one of them, puts support for independence at 54%. Nicola Sturgeon may try and take credit for this but when a country votes in droves for anyone but the man elected as leader yet has this very man foisted upon them it’s quite easy to see why opinion polls are only moving in one direction. When you see a country being dragged out of the European Union despite voting to stay in it, then expecting to be forced to endure an inevitable ‘no deal’ Brexit as the zealots in government return us to Year Zero and the ashes they hope to grow a new and glorious society out of, it’s fair to say the Scottish people want nothing to do with it.

Even the coronavirus has played it’s part. Nicola Sturgeon herself is very divisive, usually down the Independence / Unionist line in all fairness, but compared to Boris’ fumbled mumbled approach in confusing an entire nation on what’s expected of them while not actually doing anything himself, she has looked decisive and strong. She didn’t even have to really do anything, just be clear about what she meant when she did make a statement. Clearly there is something dark going on in the corridors of Whitehall and Number Ten, it’s no surprise more and more Scots are wanting out.

As Sturgeon said;

“I welcome the PM to Scotland today. One of the key arguments for independence is the ability of Scotland to take our own decisions, rather than having our future decided by politicians we didn’t vote for, taking us down a path we haven’t chosen. His presence highlights that“

It says a lot for a man that the opposition openly admit he does them more good than they do themselves. There is no way for sure to say one way or another whether Scotland becoming a free state would work in the short, medium or long term, and while it’s dangerous to suggest or believe that happiness is just waiting around the corner, let’s be honest anything has got to be better than this lot right now.

I remember the day after the independence referendum in 2014, I was in France picking grapes and I barely said a word all morning. I was infinitely disappointed that a people had rejected not the opportunity of independence because what is that really, but that they had rejected the chance to even attempt improving their lot. A people chose fear over hope. But who knows, there may just be light at the end of this tunnel of a horror show after all.

Politics In A Mad World

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Let’s be honest I’ve ballsed up again. Fresh from a lovely nap I picked up my phone and discovered the world is falling apart. The Tories have refused to take the NHS off the negotiating table in the trade deal with the US, despite categorically insisting it wasn’t for sale during the election. Current Labour leader Keir Starmer’s party have paid out a load of money to his cronies / whistleblowers who were part of the Panorama documentary that tried to further paint the anti-racist, anti-apartheid, and pro-Palestinian campaigning former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a racist anti-semite. Machiavelli would be proud. There are even rumours Starmer is going to withdraw the Labour whip from Corbyn and kick him out of the party. This would be remarkable. It would also be the final nail in the coffin for the Labour party and any pretence of a socially conscious respectability. To think they were once the party of the people. Starmer was supported by the media and put in place with one express purpose, to be nothing like Corbyn and he’s doing a fine job, not just in the ways he thinks or hopes.

The fear is that the world is falling apart. The reality is that I really don’t know whether it has always been this bad and we’re just getting more coverage of things if we take time to read independent media. I’m just bemused at how people don’t recognise how self-serving our politicians are. Or they do but see it as part of the job. Perhaps they think most are but not the few they support. That could describe my support for Corbyn and few else of course but the evidence really does suggest otherwise. I look at Boris and wonder how anyone could think he possibly stands for them but if they stand for leaving the European Union, closer ties to America, privatisation and the eradication of the welfare state then he does stand for them. As my friend, who doesn’t like Corbyn, said at the last election, “If I didn’t give a shit about anyone other than myself and my immediate family I would vote Conservative for the benefits it would bring me economically”. I paraphrase slightly but that was the gist. It is very easy to be self-righteous and left wing but that’s simply because the other side make it so easy and hard not to be. It’s just concerning that so many people seem to follow the King Turkey when Christmas is on the agenda. I’m confused because I don’t see why people think like this, the only thing that makes sense is that people genuinely believe they can rise up a ladder and claim some of these promised benefits for themselves. They just don’t notice the big glass ceiling let alone any of the other glass ceilings in between. At least Boris has left them a big sack of fools gold on the bottom rung for them to squabble and be divided over.