A Whitehall Farce!

Wednesday. 10.40 p.m. Scenes of total chaos in Parliament today. Well, that is what I have discovered, having watched the BBC Ten O'clock News. It looks as if the whole democratic process is in crisis and the Premiership of Liz Truss is crumbling. How long will this situation last? Will she be booted out? Who will replace her? How will the next Prime Minister be chosen, and can we expect around three months to be spent on the Conservative party electing a new leader?

I went into the main shopping centre to get my hair cut at Central Barbers. I had booked via their website earlier so it was just a case of turning up at 2 p.m. That was the easy bit. Even parking in my usual place, near the very dilapidated Point, was straightforward. Even the RingGo app worked and I had sufficient one-pound coins with me, just in case the app didn't work, as it has done on several occasions in the past. I drove home and then came across several diversions because sections of the grid road network were being resurfaced and they don't give you advance warning, so I had to make a more circuitous route around to get into Oldbrook. 

Thursday. 8.15 a.m. Oh, dear! I didn't wake up until 7.30 this morning. It's just not like me, because I'm usually awake early and take Alfie out around 6 o'clock. But oversleeping is not normal for me. I had to force myself out of bed and then get dressed and stagger out with his nibs. 

11.55 a.m. It's pouring with rain as I write this! I've been to The Oaktree Centre and helped with setting up the playgroup, although, by the time I got there the work had been done. The traffic was nose-to-tail all the way along Chaffron Way. It's certainly not the sort of journey I would contemplate having to make every day and I don't know how people put up with it. I think, if local businesses were to stagger their starting and finishing times, then this might be prevented, but as people almost insist on a '9-to-5' working day, then they have to endure this. It's also not helped by the current road works going on around Milton Keynes with resurfacing work going on.

4.00 p.m. So, Liz Truss has resigned. It seemed she had no choice. But was she pushed or did she jump? The question is, what happens regarding her replacement? They are saying that a new Prime Minister will be in place by 'Friday week', so how on earth is that going to be achieved, considering there was a three-month process whilst the Conservative Party had to go through its convoluted election process. Her Premiership will go down in history as possibly the shortest on record. As Shakespeare put it 'some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.' I don't, in all honesty, think this applies to Liz Truss. 

It's A Lovely Day Today!

Saturday. 9.50 a.m. I've been constructing a bookshelf, which I bought on Amazon. I ordered it earlier in the week and was expecting it to arrive next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday. I got back from the doctor's appointment yesterday and there was this large parcel left outside my front door, so I left it unopened until around 7.30 this morning and have been working on putting it together. It is now finished and it's in the kitchen, but it will eventually be put in my walk-in cupboard, which will then contain all the cooking ingredients which are still awaiting a home since before the kitchen was ungraded.

12.35 p.m.  Amoxicillin is making me feel very sleepy. I was told to stop taking the Piriton, which I have done, and the remainder of the packet is now stored in my medication drawer. Well, I presume it's the new medication making me sleepy.

So, we have a new Prime Minister in Liz Truss. Well, I use the term 'Prime Minister' lightly. She's only been in office barely a month, and it seems the wheels are falling off the wagon. She's made more U-turns than a learner driver in a cul-de-sac. Seems likely she's going to have the shortest Premiership in history. It can't be long before there's a vote of no confidence, and we have a General Election. If you thought Boris Johnson was a disaster as PM, then Trussy takes the biscuit. She has the authority of an inept primary school teacher who can't get her class to behave. If she is forced out, which seems likely, does it mean we'll have to go through the ridiculous circus which is the Tory party system of voting for it's leader, which took around two months last time. Who would replace her? There can't be many candidates left.

A great deal seems to have happened in only a few days, but, as someone said so succinctly, 'A week is a long time in politics.' How true. Apparently attributed to Harold Wilson, former Labour Prime Minister.

Kwasi Kwarteng must have had the shortest time in office as Chancellor of The Exchequer and is now replaced by Jeremy Hunt. The contents of the disastrous 'mini budget' have been more or less totally replaced by new tax rates and goodness knows what else. They should install and revolving door to Number 11 Downing Street. How many Chancellors have we had in the last year? 

It seems the Conservative Party has been responsible for several disasters. So many splits within it's membership regarding the EU ('Euro Sceptics, I think the term is.) which led to the craziness of Brexit,  and now splits regarding the former Chancellor's 'Mini Budget' is likely to bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. Meanwhile, we have had two years of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now a war in Ukraine. Has nobody thought that closing down the economy for two years and paying people to sit at home doing nothing, would lead to soaring inflation, which is exactly what we have at the moment? Then, attempting to get people to go back to work, usually those in offices, when they've been told to 'stay at home and protect the N.H.S., and using scare tactics to prevent people from meeting up, and not understanding that you can't expect things to return to any sort of normal when people have been filled with this sort of stuff.

Monday. 8.05 a.m. My cough is certainly showing signs of disappearing. The medication must be working. 

4.45 p.m. I've done a considerable amount more writing. What I have created has already been word processed and there is far more. Things in that department are going surprisingly well.

Death of Our Queen

 I wasn't sure whether I would make any mention of events which have been unfolding over the last few days, most regarding the death of our monarch, HM Elizabeth II, but is such a momentous event that it's really not something I can ignore. The media made us aware that Her Majesty was seriously ill in her favourite place, Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was announced on Monday, and she had to go to Balmoral to meet the Queen and be invited to form a government. It was Thursday evening when we eventually learnt that Her Majesty had passed away. Television programme schedules were quickly reorganized as the news came through. I had been watching the game show 'Pointless' which under normal circumstances would be on BBC1 at 5.15, but as news of the Queen's health had come through, BBC1 went over to continuous feed on that information and the normal programmes that were usually on BBC1 were moved onto BBC2, which is where I watched 'Pointless' as I ate my evening meal. It was when that ended that I returned to BBC1 and the news of the Queen's death was announced.

They were interviewing people who had met the Queen, under a variety of circumstances. I can't say I ever met the Queen, but there were a couple of times when I saw her in person. I was an A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970s (as I'm sure I have mentioned elsewhere in these posts.) Her Majesty visited Liverpool to open the new Mersey Tunnel. We were doing an Alan Ayckbourn play 'Relatively Speaking' on which I was responsible for the 'book.' They were going to put on a variety show (of sorts) at one of the other theatres in Liverpool, the Empire I think, although it might have been another local theatre. It wasn't considered appropriate for the Queen to see 'Relatively Speaking', the idea being that the show at the Empire would be extracts of plays, performed by actors who were connected to the Playhouse (I believe Rex Harrison, best known for playing Higgins in the stage and film versions of the musical 'My Fair Lady,' was such an actor, who had performed at the Liverpool Empire earlier in his acting career.) It was decided that an extract from another play which had been in the season should be included in the show, this show was called 'The Lancashire Twins', based on Goldoni's 'Servant of Two Masters.' As a result, a part of the set for that show was taken to the Empire Theatre and I was part of the crew which took it in a lorry and unloaded it in the scene dock at this theatre. It must be one of the largest theatres in Great Britain, with a very large stage and an audience which must have been able to accommodate around 2,500 people.

Her Majesty did a walk-about either before or after opening the tunnel and I was amongst the crowd on one of the Liverpool streets and when she appeared I was surprised at what a tiny figure she was, certainly a lot shorter than I expected.

More recently, she came to Milton Keynes, and she had several engagements in the city, one of which was to declare The Hub open. The morning she came, I went down the road and waited near the entrance to The Hub to be able to see her arrival, which she did, in the official black limousine, no doubt a Rolls-Royce. But you couldn't see her inside the car, as, I think, the windows were dark, and the car went into The Hub, so quickly it was over in a very few seconds.  She was only in Milton Keynes for perhaps two hours, and then she was taken to Stowe Landscape Garden for some other official engagement, but I'm not sure exactly what it was for.

New Prime Minister

Monday. 6.45 a.m. I awoke in the night to the distant sound of thunder. At first I wasn't entirely sure whether it was thunder, but then it broke and there was a torrential rainfall storm. It seemed to go on for a while, but then it came to an end. When I went out with Alfie around 6 a.m. there was virtually no sign of any rain. The ground looked dry, although the air was heavy with moisture.

Tuesday. 6.35 a.m. It's a good deal cooler this morning. I am waking later and later each day.

So, Liz Truss had been selected as Britain's new Prime Minister, replacing Boris Johnson. She will be going to Balmoral to see The Queen and officially transfer power between the two leaders. As I write this, I have BBC Breakfast on television, and they are reporting from Downing Street as Boris Johnson will come out and give his final speech as Prime Minister. 

9.30 a.m. Boris Johnson's speech was short and sweet, and as usual, there was a certain amount of levity in it. I know he made many mistakes and told a few lies (well, to be honest, more than a few, but don't all politicians bend the truth?) All his MPs stood on the pavement to listen to him, and then he and his wife, Carrie, drove off in a Range Rover. I can't think where, but if he and Liz Truss have to go to Balmoral, which is somewhere to the north. in the depths of Scotland and close to Aberdeen, they would need to leave soon as I imagine it would take seven or eight hours by car and probably less if they went by train. Possibly a private plane? Well, the Queen is head of state and she can choose where they meet, for Boris to resign and Liz Trust to get the keys to Number 10. Usually, this takes place at Buckingham Palace, but her majesty didn't intend to return to London, to break her holiday. Well, she isn't in the best of health and, considering her great age, late 90s, who can blame her?

Cincinnatus was mentioned in Boris's speech. I had to do a Google search, to discover he was a Roman statesman. It passed me by so quickly, but unless you have a grounding in the classics (which Boris obviously does, but I don't.) it would take the likes of Mary Beard to explain more about this Roman figure.

1.30 p.m. I took Alfie to The Groom Room within Pets At Home in Bletchley for his 11.30 appointment. He is now home and looks a good deal neater than he was when he went in. His nails are trimmed, his teeth brushed, his face is tidy, and you can see his eyes properly.

I had to fill in 90 minutes whilst Alfie was being groomed. I had a salad roll, Danish pastry and tea in Greggs, which is a few doors along from Pets At Home. Then, a browse in T.K. Maax. There's always lots to see there, but I didn't buy anything, but I was tempted. I looked in Sports Direct and have seen a couple of pairs of trainers which I am determined to buy, which have leather uppers and look quite smart compared with other styles of trainers and at a reasonable price.

Liz Truss came back from Balmoral where she had met the Queen to be officially installed as Prime Minister. It made me think, surely she would have had to travel all the way to the north of Scotland. How would she get there? It couldn't possibly be by car or train, because she was expected back in Downing Street to give a speech to the nation. It transpired that she had gone by private jet. The plane came back and landed at RAF Northolt and then she had a drive into central London as part of a convoy of what would have been security people. Then the weather changed, it began to rain, and I was somewhat amused to see the podium which was put out in front of Number 10 by staff and, as the rain fell, the microphones on it were covered with a black bin bag. The rain became heavier and the podium was moved indoors and it wasn't clear where Liz Truss's speech would be given. Indoors? In the room where all those press conferences were given by Boris Johnson during the pandemic? Then the rain came to an end and the podium came back out! 

We saw the convoy of vehicles driving through the streets as it approached Downing Street and it eventually arrived outside Number 10 Liz Trust got out of the Range Rover she had travelled in and immediately went to the podium to give her address. To me, it seemed amazing that she arrived in Downing Street and was delivering that address within minutes of arriving.