After ‘Moppy’ had done her work; the Guardian
Quick Crossword had been completed; my blend of Earl Grey and English Breakfast
tea drunk, it was time for my walk, accompanied by the comforting fatuousness
of ‘Saturday Live’ on BBC Radio 4. I
also had a purpose other than gentle exercise.
I was looking for raw material to serve as ‘illustration’ for my PIHW
Chapbook, Coasts of Memory.
As I have often bewailed in the past, I
have little technical ability in drawing or painting and so I have to rely on
photography to get me out of illustrative predicaments. The situation is made somewhat worse because
of the lockdown that obviously restricts my range of subject matter. I have therefore taken the ‘pleasure in small
things’ approach and told myself that I am perfectly capable of finding variety
in restriction: from the terrace on the third floor to the far wall of the
communal swimming pool, my area of activity might be limited, but it is (I tell
myself) rich in illustrative possibilities.
I have therefore taken photos and they await my ruthless editing!
The
one shining light of Trump’s ‘Presidency’ is that he is terrified of being a
‘one term’ holder of that office; every other thinking person’s terror is that
he should be anything else, after all it is going to be difficult enough to
sort out the human, reputational, financial, moral, institutional, legislative,
aesthetic and political morass that he will have left after a single term, let
alone the horror of his being allowed to play with the USA for an extra four
years!
It is obvious that Trump has decided to
stop at absolutely nothing in his aim to retain power and the latest horrific
indication of the depths to which he is prepared to sink is evidenced by his
encouraging demonstrations against some states’ lockdown restrictions.
Trump’s base ‘base’ is essentially rural
rather than urban and with his encouragement of the grouping of extreme right
sets opposing health and science predicated lockdown, he is hoping for a
conflict that he thinks might show him to be the champion of the voice of
freedom against those (Democratic) governors who are seeking to repress the
true liberties of right thinking Americans to court death and carry guns – and
you can scatter as many quotation marks around in that last sentence as your
liberal sensibilities dictate!
That in a time of a catastrophic pandemic
the Presidential Egoist can think of fostering something like Civil
Disobedience if not Civil War would be unbelievable if it were not Trump.
On an incidental note: if (please god)
Trump is a one-term President, can you see him attending the inauguration of
the new Democratic President? Can you
see him visibly handing over power? What
excuse will he make not to attend? How
will he even be able to get through the transition period when he should meet
his successor? If you think back to the
intensely embarrassing meetings with Obama when he looked like a naughty
schoolboy with a stupidly long tie, what are the ones going to be like with the
person who beat him? My mind finds it
difficult to place Trump in any meetings that emphasise his failure to hold on
to office. How can anyone as thinly
narcissistic as he bare it? The thought
is something that keeps me warm at nights!
Talking of narcissists, how long is it
going to be that our airwaves are going to be free of the bumbling banter of
the virus courter? He has signally
failed to resign because of his dereliction of duty in wilfully becoming
infected and I dread to think of the fawning adulation of the gutter press when
he bumbles into view, bravely leading our country to destitution and ignominy,
after the searing affliction of his virtually self-inflicted illness.
Meanwhile we have the political chancer,
Matt Beckett, the ethic-free (give us a job!) pitiful holder of the Secretary
of State for Health portfolio refusing to give straight answers to the almost
criminal shortages of PPE for our front line health workers, or indeed anything
else of crucial interest to the remaining virus free part of the population of
the UK. I wonder how he is going to
convince us that there are 100K tests by the end of the month? We can dispense with truth, that has never
bothered him in the past as he has changed his principles as often as his
underwear, so how is he going to square the circle so that he can keep his
comfy job. His past record shows that he
is capable of the most egregious U-turns, so I await his contortions. Resignation will never come easy to one who
has swallowed so many of his scruples to get where he is at present. In some ways it could almost be funny to
watch his antics, but people will die because of his incompetence, so smiles
will be inappropriate. Perhaps they
might be allowed as long as they are sardonic!
After
a fairly glum start to the day there are brief periods now when sunshine is
squeezing out from behind the clouds.
There are distinct patches of blue and that bodes well for a sunny later
afternoon. I live in hope.
The
PPE situation now seems desperate in the UK.
The weekend is the time when certain medical institutions will run
out. This is an utter disgrace and if it
does happen then the Health Minister must resign immediately and the rest of
the tossers in the so-called bloody government.
And the fact that worthless trash like IDS and the unutterable David
Davis are pontificating about the present crisis after their assiduous
cheerleading into the last one over Brexit is more than depressing.
I am very well aware that trying to get
anything like efficiency and normality in a crisis situation is difficult and
there has to be leeway for the unexpected, but the necessity for basic supplies
is fundamental and that is where this so-called government has failed so
signally. Why are our deaths so
high? Why did we wait so long before
instituting the lockdown? Why are basic
materials in short supply? So many
questions to which our political leaders have no real answers.
Why
do we tolerate them?
