Sleazy come – Sleazy go. Same old Tory crooks – no change there then!

I’ve been putting this together for a while now – one thing after another has stopped me finishing it off over the course of the last two weeks such as my health, building works and the ever changing and increasing political pandemonium going on back home in the UK.

For months I’ve been asking where the anger and outrage is – and I’ve really got to ask you all again – Johnson’s Cabinet of Cretins now has a new title of Johnson’s Cabinet of Cretins, Crooks and Charlatans.  Rebecca Hendin’s cartoon from today’s Guardian here sums it all up:

 

 

A floating duck house on a pond is one thing but this mob of criminals take theft from the public purse to a new level.  Cameron set the rules that apply at the moment – nicely tweaked to protect him and his alliance with the Lib Dems from proper scrutiny – as Polly Toynbee reveals quite starkly here but where is the opposition to all of this?  Who’s calling Johnson out as the liar he is?  Never mind Parliamentary protocol – Starmer should risk the wrath of Hoyle (Speaker of the House of Commons) otherwise where is the anger and the outrage that all of the above warrants?  I can only hope that now Parliament has reconvened from the Easter break Starmer will prove to have used his little holiday wisely and has learnt how to use the pair he was born with and take the fight to Johnson.  His last outing at PMQ’s would indicate that something is growing within but I remain unconvinced of his political nous.

Meanwhile, back in the real world it’s all systems go here chez Brookes and the news is far from good if truth were really to be told so where to start? 

I suppose even this dyed in the wool Republican can’t really let the passing of Phil the Greek go by without a comment.  He served with distinction during the Second World War and then committed the rest of his life to supporting his wife as she overlooked the dismantling of the Empire and the rebuilding of a war-torn and as good as bankrupt country as its constitutional monarch.  He was a bit of a rough and tumble character who didn’t fit in then societal norms but underneath it all he did his bit as best he could.  The Guardian obituary is here if you’re interested.  Having said that, if all he is remembered for is the Duke of Edinburgh Award then that’s not too shabby a memorial to the man.

Reference to the end of Empire above takes me straight to the Sewell Report and this Governments attempt to downplay, even denying that there is no such thing as institutionalised racism.  The United Kingdom has been beset by racism for centuries and Johnson and his mob are just playing to their chosen audience.  Last week’s Observer got it right in my opinion – and it is time, I believe, for the UK to own up to the evil of the British Empire, the harm it did and the debt we owe.  The racism so apparent in the Home Office – from Priti Patel down – needs to be called out and stopped.  Cramming asylum seekers into crumbling old Army Barracks, knowingly exposing people to Covid-19, is nothing short of racism.  The Windrush scandal, again, is nothing short of institutionally driven racism.  Black Lives Matter – a statement of fact NOT just a slogan – is right to stand up and protest.  The ‘Kill the Bill’ protests are a necessary action, even if the title chosen is clumsy – The ‘Old Bill’ are not the enemy per se – it is this Government which is slowly but surely turning them into their own little neo-Nazi private army that is to blame whilst at the same time attempting to crush or silence any attempt to hold them to account.

The impact of Brexit is getting felt more and more severely in Northern Ireland with senseless violence on an almost nightly basis.  Make no mistake, the issues are driven by the ‘border, what border, there will never be a border’ bollocks Johnson has spouted from the outset.  Back at the very beginning of Brexit I stated quite clearly that the damage it would do to Northern Ireland was, on its own, the single reason why Brexit was a mistake.  Blunders by the Tories, the DUP and I have to say most recently Sinn Fein and the Police Service of Northern Ireland in allowing the funeral of Bobby Storey, a one-time top IRA man, was like pouring petrol on a fire in this fractious post-Brexit Covid-19 times.  Don’t just take it from me, read Jonathan Powell’s article here he was involved deeply with the Good Friday Agreement so if anyone knows he does!

Here in France things continue to flow backwards and forwards for us.

Where to start?  Well the builders are back on the plot, construction continues, Boris still confounds and confuses all of us living in the EU with his ‘as good as no deal’ Brexit, Covid continues unabated whilst the Oxford / Astra Zeneca vaccine has now become a political football.

I’ll get my usual whinge about Johnson and his mob of incompetents out of the way quickly so I can share some good news sooner. 

Brexit left an awful lot of things unresolved, massive things like the impact on the Good Friday agreement that leaving the EU and the Customs arrangements and all the problems being suffered by businesses up and down the land.  There is also the somewhat smaller matter of our driving licenses.  When we came to France we cobbled together all the documents necessary and posted them off to the French DVLA equivalent in Nantes.  This outfit are notorious for the time it takes them to do anything so it was no real surprise that it took them 18 months to respond – and then just to tell us that as we had EU licenses we didn’t need to – and sent us all our paperwork back.  Since then the truth of Brexit has dawned on people and it seems Lord Frost didn’t bother coming to some arrangement providing reciprocity – a thing I would have thought quite simple given how long all EU driving regulations have merged over the years and how driving standards have been equalised up.  So come 31^st December this year our driving licenses become invalid.  This will cause us no end of problems as this article will show but it would seem that things are progressing and a deal is now looking imminent – if this article from ‘The Local’  is to be believed  Watch this space, fingers crossed.

So whilst the French DVLA equivalent are slow we have had some better news with regard to the Prefecture in Gueret.  As a consequence of Brexit we have had to reapply for our Carte de Sejour – our residence permit.  Our first one lasted 12 months and that was replaced by a 5 year card.  When that expired we would have qualified for a life-time permit but as a result of Brexit we have had to reapply.  It’s not really that onerous other than we would have to present ourselves at the Prefecture in Gueret, which is a good hour and a half away, sit there for thirty minutes or so while they did the paperwork and took our fingerprints and then an hour and a half back home.  None of that is too good on my back, shoulders or bum – never mind that its a lot for Karen to cope with on top of our usual daily routine.  The last time our Mayor here in Chard contacted Gueret and did a lot of the work for us.  This time Karen e-mailed them, explaining the difficulties it caused us.  They replied within a couple of days and lo and behold they cancelled our appointment and asked us to send them our current cards and photographs.  That’s a remarkable result and one for which we are extremely thankful.

They also seem to be getting their act together here with rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine.  We had a call off the Mayor a couple or more weeks ago letting us know that I was on their radar because of my pathology and that the process was being planned.  Then we spoke with our GP who advised us of another plan and then we spoke with my Nurses who told us to ignore both and they’d get us sorted out.  True to form yesterday – 1^st April – we rolled down to Merinchal Town Hall – it’s actually a beautiful little chateau – and I got Phizer’d and Karen got Astra Zeneca’d.  They were jabbing all the local oldies and I was included because of my condition.  The Nurses arranged to sneak Karen in but she had to have the AZ vaccine because they only had enough Phizer for the wrinklies and me.  I get my second jab on 29^th April – so four weeks to the day but Karen has to wait until 3^rd June for hers.

 

Apologies for the quality of the scan.

The political gameplay around the Astra Zeneca vaccine hasn’t made any of the politicians who joined in look very smart has it?  You would expect Johnson and his melange of morons to go all ‘Billy Big Bollocks’ about the success of the vaccine roll-out in the UK – well I did any way – but I thought better of the EU people who decided to have a pop.  Astra Zeneca now seems fair game to anyone with an opinion – informed or otherwise – but to see Macron here in France playing to the gallery was almost as bad as seeing Keeves wrapped up in the Union Jack.  Macron has his own problems as Marine Le Pen is holding her own in the opinion polls and the Presidential election is next year so he’s running a bit scared – not surprisingly given the French response to Covid – but jumping on bandwagons isn’t very seemly in supposed mature politicians.  Merkel and Van der Leyen haven’t shown well out of this either.  It is also time for the science around the efficacy and risks of the vaccines to be properly considered.  As with all medicines there are risks but I firmly believe the benefits far outweigh the risks and will be happily queuing up for jab #2.  One thing needs to be considered at all times when reading any adverse press about the Oxford / Astra Zeneca vaccine – AZ is an Anglo / Swedish firm, headed by a Frenchman and selling its vaccine at cost price and compare that last fact with the profit margins other outfits are working to – some are less philanthropic than you would expect given the scale and impact of the pandemic.

As for the construction works on what is now really our very own building site, well, here goes –

The concrete for the piers that will hold up the base for the new conservatory we are building has finally cured – we had to allow 28 days so the work had to stop for a month.  The beams and blocks have now been laid and things are now moving again – have a look here:

 

The door into the new conservatory will be where the window is now from what was the dining room, isw now the store room for various odds, ends, Velux windows and other building bits and pieces.

Work on the carport has also started again as Garry the joiner came free.  All the roof trusses are up and most of the purlins – they’re not in this shot though.  The roofing sheets are on order and should be here in a couple of weeks and then it will just need another couple of days and it will all be completed.

 

 

 

We’ve had to have  a  couple of big old trees chopped up which has distressed us a little as we seem to be joining in with the locals , all of whom seem to be busy stripping out trees left, right and centre for some reason.  In our case it’s as a result of one tree almost getting blown over and in a dangerous state.  The other was dead and again quite dangerous.  If either had come down it could easily of hurt (or worse killed) someone so it back to putting hands in pockets and paying out to get someone in to chop down and cut up.  The upside though is that we now have probably three, or even four years of firewood waiting to be stacked.

Given the deforestation going on around us Karen and I are considering getting some new trees planted in our field.  We’ve got 1.8 hectares – so around 4.5 acres – plenty of space for our own little park and we know a lad who grows and plants native species so I’m keen on adding oak, chestnut, ash and silver birch to the little orchard we planted last year.  I’m thinking of planting mature trees but that will add to the cost – watch this space and I’ll keep you posted.

So I think I’ll call it a draw for now and love you and leave you but I’ll not go without leaving you with a great tune from a man I’ve really only just discovered (to my shame). 

Try this out – Nils Lofgren – ‘Shine Silently’ – a great song and some mega guitar playing.

TTFN

Stay home if you can, stay safe and speak again soon.

Jem