Today is the eve of Meg’s birthday so we have things planned for later on in the afternoon. But first, I dragged myself out of bed and walked down to pick up my copy of the Sunday Times. After I returned home and made Meg and I some breakfast, I was settling down to watch the Laura Kuennsberg Sunday show into which I tuned at 9.00am as per usual. But it was half way through an interview with Liz Truss and I realised, a little too late, that the programme must have started at 8.30 to take into account the London Marathon. However, I was in time to get a Liz Truss ‘gaff’ in the interview which is already going viral on Twitter and, no doubt, elsewhere. Liz Trus was asked a simple question of who had voted for the present package of measures which is causing so much economic and political chaos. After a few seconds of seeming incomprehension, she replied ‘I do not know what you mean’ whereupon Lura Kuennsberg then repeated exactly the same questions. Liz Truss dared not say it was only Tory members out in the constituencies (who had voted her in) and instead argued that the whole of the population when they voted in a Conservative governmnt in the last election had actually voted for this package of measures. This answer as well as being ridiculous and inaccurate will no doubt be played over and over again in opposition parties campaign broadcasts to expose Liz Truss persuing an agenda with no popular support. After breakfast, Meg and I slowly got our act together although, in truth, neither of us are feeling particulary bright and sparky after the vaccinations we received in each arm yesterday. To make us feel a little better though, we did make contact with our University of Birmingham friend shortly to be joined by Seasoned World Traveller. As always, the conversation turned to politics and Seasoned World Traveller and I made a made a bet with each (in chocolate bars) as to how long Liz Truss could survive as Prime Minister. I was exceedingly rash and thought (and bet) that she might be gone within three weeks. I actually think this is unlikely but quite possible because Tory MPs are apt to panic when they think they are shortly to be wiped out so there will be some feverish days at Westminster once the Tory party conference is over. The Chancellor of the Exchequeur, Kwasi Kwarteng, is not covering himself in glory by immediately the mini-budet statement had been given, attending a champagne cocktail party thrown by wealthy Tory donors, many if not most of whom would benefit enormously from the abolition of the 45% tax rate. At this cocktail party, he was overheard to ‘badmouth’ the present governor of the Bank of England whilst at the same cocktail party one of those assembled referred to Kwasi Kwateng in less than complimemtary terms. Two hedge fund managers at the event reportedly called the chancellor a ‘useful idiot’ and a senior Tory who advises business leaders said the phrase was in widespread circulation. For her part, Liz Truss is already preparing to throw her Chancellor under a passing bus by saying that the abolition of the 45% rate was his idea in the first place. As we sitting chatting, we were overtaken by Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was busy getting his circuits done. As we were leaving, we also chatted with a couple of church friends sitting on the adjacent bench. We explained that we were both still feeling a little rough afer our injections yesterday and our friends told us that quite a number of people known to them had felt the same after the latest virus vaccination. In the past, Meg and I have had the AstroZeneca and Pfizer vaccines but today we had the ‘Moderna’ version which is designed to be effectve against both the original strains of COVID and also the Omicron variant.
After Meg and I returned home, we had a very simple lunch of yesterday’s homemade soup because we knew that we were going to have a meal later on in the day at a local restaurant. We met with our son and daughter-in-law and had an enormous meal that we could not completely finish. We requested a doggy bag from the restaurant which they were happy to supply and got in home in time to watch the Andrew Neil political show which is generally quite penetrating, needless to say, The Prime Minister was invited but knew she would only receive a mauling and so declined, sending the Conservative party chairman along in her stead. By this stage in the day, we are both feeling a little worse for wear so Meg retreated to bed early and I will join her in due course. We managed to get Bach’s tremendous B-Minor Mass playing in the background which is nice if you just want the music to ‘wash over you’ Although tomorrow is Meg’s birthday, we are going to have play things by ear and see how we feel.
© Mike Hart [2022]