Classic tale of Gove and take
NHS WOES CAN BE CURED BY A DOSE OF POLITICAL COURAGE
I DO not yet know whether Boris can deliver a proper Brexit and I am suspending judgment until the outcome is truly known (the May deal minus the backstop is NOT a real Brexit) but at least he is making all the right noises, as he also is when it comes to law and order.
The shame of it is that the Tories could have had all that three years ago if they had chosen BoJo instead of Theresa.
That they didn’t was due to one man: Michael Gove. He stabbed Boris in the back at the last moment and the rest is miserable history.
Gove is clever and able but he dealt his party the biggest disaster in 70 years.
MANY congratulations to Kayley Cookson and Joe Tilson who put on a wedding feast provided entirely from surplus food destined for landfill, because restaurants had overordered or the food had reached its theoretical sell-by date. We are rightly now focused on plastic but waste in general is a scourge on the planet and too much of it is just unnecessary. The generation which remembers rationing is passing so most people now take our throwaway habits for granted.
It is one of the most significant changes from the world in which I grew up but it has crept in gradually as prosperity has become taken for granted. My mother darned socks, turned frayed cuffs and patched sheets. We were not poor, merely not wasteful and that was the norm.
Faulty electrical goods were repaired and there were shops aplenty offering that service. Old stockings, socks and jerseys were used to stuff cushions. Surplus veg was turned into stock. School pencils were worn down to the nub and school uniform was bought much too big and worn until it was much too small. Jumble sales were hugely popular.
Now we have reached a point where perfectly good food and medicines are thrown away by the ton and plastic clogs the oceans. Electrical goods are replaced not repaired, technology demands frequent changes of phones and computers while mending clothes is all but a lost art. Where once we took the bottles back, we now chuck them in the recycling boxes.
The scraps which used to feed the household pets or neighbours’ hens are now binned. Meals once made from scratch come ready-to-eat in packaging which adds to the mountain. Meanwhile children in the Third World starve or die of treatable diseases and the planet groans under the weight of rubbish.
Kayley and Joe are genuine heroes of the planet, unlike celebrities who fly thousands of miles in gas-guzzling jets to attend conferences on climate change and I rather hope their wedding catering sets a trend.
THE by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire was called after Chris Davies was convicted of an expenses offence which involved no personal gain. His party selected him to stand again and he lost by only a very narrow margin. In this vengeful era of Twitter storms and personal destruction, that example of mercy and proportionality shines like a beacon in the dark.