We’ve just been for a lovely long walk in soggy Friston Forest with an excited Callie. Whilst donning wellies and other cold and wet prevention equipment, the car next to us in the car park lay dormant, save for an idling diesel engine. The driver’s door was open, with no sign of a driver. Standing behind an open tailgate a young mother was holding her small child, smiling in a friendly fashion, no doubt waiting for hubby/the driver to return. Both she and the child were cunningly located so that the incredibly nasty diesel exhaust fumes would have been going straight into their lungs and depositing dangerous particles deep down inside that will probably be there forever; bad enough for a young mum, but criminal for a helpless child that knows no better. You could almost hear the surrounding beech trees moaning at such stupidity and thoughtlessness, as the pure woodland air was polluted by one man’s criminal lack of awareness. It happens not infrequently that parents waiting to pick up their daughters from School sit outside the House with their engines running, sometimes for many minutes. It does make you wonder…..
There’s a new TV series out on Netflix, called Brigerton. You may have read about it. It’s a fairly mindless piece of costume drama about Regency London, debutantes “coming out” and the frivolous machinations of the aristocracy. To me, the whole thing is rendered unwatchable with the Queen of England being played by a black woman, as well as the Duke of Hastings and his family all being black. This is political correctness, racial equality, gender neutrality etc etc all gone completely mad. For those that know no better, we’ve never had a black queen nor have members of the aristocracy been jet black. How would the world react if a story about African tribes saw one of the tribal chieftains played by a white man? There would be justifiable outrage. Where will this lunacy end? It sits alongside the claims for slave trade reparations. It’s right that the wrongs of two or three centuries ago should be acknowledged, but at the same time let’s remember that those were very brutal times. Serving in the Army or Royal Navy was fiendishly tough. Life for the poor and downtrodden was hideous. More recently, during the industrial Revolution our own kith and kin were treated abominably, working in the mills in the North of England for uncaring and often cruel taskmasters. It simply doesn’t work trying to make a judgemental comparison of life in different centuries. Incidentally, for the record, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement had previously been found guilty of trading young girls, a modern day slave trade.
One of my recent pleasures has been playing tennis with a new group of friends who all play to a good standard, albeit, like me, their promising future is behind them. Most of us much prefer playing doubles but under the new Tier 4 regulations we are now restricted to singles. Could somebody a lot more intelligent than me please explain why singles is permissible but doubles isn’t? My doubles partner and I rarely get within four metres of each other, let alone two. We don’t bear hug, or kiss (certainly not on the lips) or even high five. Unless the new “highly contagious mutant” can be passed by touching rackets at arms length, we are in significantly less danger than going shopping, to work, on the tube or talking on Zoom. (Bad for the mental health!) We’re out playing in the fresh air, which serves to maintain a healthy mind and body and we are all incredibly conscious of the sensible coronavirus protocols, as none of us is keen on catching Covid. I fancy the majority of citizens want to play by the rules, but when the law is an ass don’t be surprised when people kick back.
ADayInTheStrifeOf 