Musical Chairs, an Adventure and a Cup

Hi Everyone

It was probably a few decades ago when we laughed at Italy as they seemed to change their political leaders every few months. Now it seems that we have inherited the same disease. Some people think that we are becoming ungovernable, and with the evidence of a lawless social media,  and news outlets pushing their own agenda, it is becoming a persuasive argument. Now our latest Prime Minister has been pushed out of office mainly by his own party. Now it is apparent that nobody agrees about anything so with that in mind, here are my thoughts without any political bias. I saw him as a man of integrity, a man who tried to serve his country rather than his own personal ambitions. On the international front, he continued to support Ukraine, stood up to Trump by refusing to join his misguided war, built international friendships within NATO, and acknowledged the need to spend more money on defence. At home, he recognised that our welfare bill is rising at an unsustainable rate, bearing in mind that we must protect the most vulnerable in our society. Unfortunately, he allowed the left of his party to be the tail that wagged the dog, resulting in more welfare costs. Of course, he made mistakes, who doesn’t? Then he was accused of U turns. Is that better than being blinkered in this rapidly changing world? What I find disturbing is social media comments using words like hated, and, on far too many occasions, much worse. Now, apparently, the next man in the queue is already receiving abuse even before he has the keys to the door. He will inherit exactly the same problems as the last one, with the same restrictions placed on him by international events and members of his own party, and that is just for a start. Let's see how long his popularity lasts.

Remember when we were kids during those long, hot summer days during the school holidays. Our gang would be armed with bottles of water, a jam sandwich, a fishing net and a jar to put the small fish in. One member of our gang was about three years older than the rest of us, so he was the leader as we went on our expeditions to the local woods, hills and streams.

We would be gone for hours without anyone worrying where we were. This week, we have had another one of those hot sunny spells of weather. Now, as I approach middle age, the only thing that now remains from those wonderful days is the bottle of water as we are told to close the curtains as we endure a day of doing nothing while being bombarded on what seems like an hourly basis that we must stay safe as we remember those days as children. Sadly, most of today’s children are sitting next to us with a bottle of water and a mobile phone instead of enjoying the inquisitive freedom that we enjoyed. 

Even if you are not a football fan, you will probably know that the football World Cup is taking place in Mexico, Canada and the US. What impressed me is that the huge stadiums are filled to capacity with people from Australia to the Cape Verde Islands, amongst many other nations, both large and small. Everywhere, there is no segregation between the rival fans, with no doubt many new friendships made. Scotland’s 30,000 tartan army left a really positive impression in Boston and Miami. One game in particular that caught my attention was between Germany and Ecuador. In the 80,000 plus crowd were at least 30,000 Ecuadorians, creating a wonderful atmosphere. Obviously, many of them had not flown in from South America but were already living permanently in the US, with the vast majority contributing to the country's economy. A similar statistic could also apply to many of the other countries represented at the World Cup, so my message to Trump is to celebrate the vast majority of their immigrants, and if there are problems, solve them yourselves while keeping your nose out of any problems that we may have.    

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Just a Thought:

Being Prime Minister is a bit like playing musical chairs. The music stops and he is the only one without a chair.

A childs definition of an adventure is just walking slightly our of your line of sight.

What do the English fans do immediately after winning the World Cup? Turn off their PlayStation