Ooh! Aah! Cantona!

Goodness me, another month goes by and I hope all my readers are in good health as is their inner sanctum. The good weaher and some easing of lockdown should help us all in the next few weeks.

We have been continuing with routine tasks, and some not so routine. I had a big ash tree pollarded last week but SWMBO has indicated it went too far so i had to buy some gap fillers yesterday. I think i should have chopped it down ten years ago as the increased daylight and sunshine is just amazing. We do, however, have homeless people rehoused in the hotel over the road who are in residence full time, unlike normal hotel users so SWMBO is nervous about them overlooking us. Hopefully the new screen of trees will sort her concerns out while still allowing her sun tan time.

I am not sure how long they will stay there, some have already been removed due to antisocial behaviour, but the majority are fine. The girls in particular have those magpie type Liverpool screeching accents and probably don't need phones to talk to people several streets away but the lads seem happy tending the garden and doing other maintenance jobs around the place. Hopefully it will give some of them a sense of purpose and the ability to integrate more into society when the time comes for them to fend for themselves again.

They have a variety of deliveries arrive from Wirral council each day including their evening meal, bu the most humorous arrival is a car which draws up a little away from the hotel and always with its radio blasting out. The lady driver then dispenses 'essential medication' before going on her way. The neighbours have come to refer to it as the ice cream van!

Two of our grandchildren start back at school next week although they have been attending as key worker children for a couple of weeks anyway so they should be fine. Golf continues with four people able to play together, and the weather has been scorching so shorts have been the order of the day. Plans to open the terrace for food and drink service continues to be in the hands of the Government so we will see wat Boris has to say on the matter nearer the end of the month.

I have always been keen on Boris, but I have to confess that the Dominic Cummings saga has seen me less able to defend him as I have in the past. I compare it very much to Alex Ferguson defending |Eric Cantona when he judo kicked a Crystal Palace fan in the crowd. Ferguson was always a manager who defended his players in public but gave them the true story behind closed doors, The Cantona incident. however, was a case of defending the indefensible and I believe the Cummings affair was Boris's Cantona moment.

'How can I sack my advisor when he advises me not too!' is the story doing the rounds, but it is interesting that Cummings actions were supported by over 30% of the population who said they would have done the same thing if their child was in a similar position. Clearly a high proportion of people think he broke the lockdown and should have been sacked but he wasn't so we have to move on and see what the next major obstacle the government will need to overcome.

I am still waiting for constructive help and advise from people with either strong Labour allegiances, or Remoaners who still can't accept that that battle is lost albeit the war still rages on for a few more months. We need more positives to balance the 'got that wrong' storylines. Starmer and Burnham must be some pleased they don't have to make any decisions, but must be quite nervous of ever getting into government as the Conservatives have spent all the money a traditional Labour ruling party would have allocated. After new Labour we now have new Conservative.

So roll on the longest day in a few weeks time after which we will see if the virus is prone to escalate as a threat in colder weather. Let's hope  Pfizer are right when they say they might have a vaccine by October. After the Pfizer riser we could have the Corona Pkiller

Hope so!

Damn United

Today Corid-19, the virus, has managed to achieve something that no referenda have been able to and that is to create four separate State's in the United Kingdom. I have much sympathy with the Northern Ireland assembly as they struggle with two neighbouring Countries each with a different approach. They are fortunate that they can focus on their common border colleagues while taking a 'watch and wait' approach to events across the Irish Sea.

I fail to have the same sympathy for The Crankie who is First Minister in Scotland. She spouts parrot fashion how she will not politicise the coronavirus challenge, and then does all she can to undermine the Prime Minister. If she is an intelligent person, then she should get the 'Be Alert' instruction, particularly as it is linked to a terror related status indication system too. If she is playing to the minority social networking trolls who have nothing but negative comments about everything, then she is succeeding. As I see it, her  no change strategy allows her to stand back and see how things go in England.  If it works as planned she can relax lockdown in Scotland and say she was just being cautious, if it goes pear shaped in England she can use the 'told you so' card. She is in a win-win situation and as she and Boris clearly do not get on, maybe even to the extent that they dislike each other with a passion, she can only come out of this smelling of roses, and without having to make any decisions herself.

The Welsh are dragged along in her slipstream somewhat although do seem to be prepared to take some individual decisions in isolation. The leader of the opposition, Kier Stammer just disagrees with most of what the government is doing without offering any alternatives, and must be pleased as punch that Labour lost the election.

The situation regarding children returning to school has also woken up the trade union movement who like nothing better than having a poke at a Conservative government. Press reports at the weekend indicated they were advising teachers not to provide lessons for absent pupil, not to do Zoom type lessons or talk one-to-one which them as it may expose them to pressure inconsistant with that normally experienced in the classroom. What a load of tosh!! They are now campaigning for the correct PPE for teahers when schools do re-conveen, which is right and proper, but there seems little in the way of help and assistance being offered as to how to make the classroom equally a safe and happy place to return to.

Boris has long been an admirer of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill must be thinking how lucky he was to only be confronted by the Nazi's and Lord Haw Haw during the Second World War. He had no social media criticising his every move, he had no television and had total censorship of the press. Boris has none of that. He has a population of  Remainers he has upset  together with Labour, Lib Dem and other opposition party members who are happy to wade in while having no  responsibility for anything important themselves. He has the Press putting their spin on things and a gullible proportion of the population soaking it up as true.

It's a tough time for all of us, but nobody would want to be in Boris's shoe's at the moment, that's for sure. We can all be alert and start to allow the Country to open up a small amount, step too far though and we will all be back where we started and none of us want that.

2d back on the bottle

What a strange weekend just gone. It always seems to be not quite right when the rugby international matches are played on a Sunday, but we embrace the home games anyway. Paris is a dead loss as the whole City seems to shut down on Sundays and as the rugby federation are only tenants in the Stade Francais, they get to play at the ridiculous times the landlords dictate. Rome is a bit better so we have been known to go over there for a Sunday game, but the other venues, forget it. That said we don't go to Cardiff these days fullstop!!

So Twickenham weekend was shifted a day, and numbers were down considerably. Just two of us for the Saturday night pre-match drinks and five for the game itself. I was amazed to read how positiive the reports of the England performance were. Ireland were dreadful  and like Scotland before, they exectuted schoolboy errors to gift England a substancial lead. So in my mind England have played three games and discounting the two pieces of magic from Jonny May late in the game against France, England have created nothing through thier own imagination or ingenuilty. I can't help thinking that The All Blacks would have put 50 points on both sides easily.

Tuilangi disappeared after about 30 minutes, Farrell has no imagination or flair and both scrum halves are on borrowed time. I fear the Welsh will find us out.

The apres match was a very good craic and I have returned home in one piece, but recieved an interesting e-mail from one of our S-Club members who has just had 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. He and his wife have decided to instigate a self imposed 3 week isolation period as they have been near to countries which are part of the Corona virus outbreak. This means he will not be with us for the Wales game for fear of being a carrier. It's a very noble gesture and gets them out of baby sitting duty for a while, so we might try that one ourselves.

So we are now long on wales tickets and hotel rooms, somethoing which has never been heard of before.