Addition to the architectural litter bin in town

I see that approval has been given for yet again another unnecessary blot on our landscape - a 16 storey block of flats. ‘Elegant’ is not a word that can by any stretch be applied to this bog-standard block which even the artist’s (or computer generated) image can’t make attractive. A number of councillors clearly don’t like the idea of such a lump being foisted on Ashford - but what the heck, Ashford has been turned into a kind of architectural litter-bin anyway, so one more lump would hardly be noticed but for the fact that it’ll tower over everything else in the neighbourhood. The one advantage to its proposed rooftop restaurant is that diners won’t have to see it.

Can it be true? Did they really buy gold wallpaper at £800 a roll? Did he really say he’d rather see bodies pile high than declare another lockdown?

Whenever he’s been asked a difficult question, he changes the subject to tell us that what we all want to hear is what a fantastic job he’s been doing.

All of this sounds distinctly Trumpian to me. Remember Trump?

He’s the American ex-president who always changed every subject into what a fantastic job he was doing.

I’ve been watching on my laptop a great deal of American news lately (particularly

Rachel Maddow on NBC). Their newsreaders do the job with far more enthusiasm than ours.

Admittedly, they seem unable ever refer to the people who live in America without giving the impression that the American People are a race apart and favoured by every god that has ever been invented.

I wonder to what extent BJ’s latest evasions and dubious statements are likely to affect our local elections. It is, after all, well known that local elections hold a mirror to the way we feel about the government of the time and that we tend to use them to indicate approval - or lack of it - for our masters’ conduct.

‘One more lump would hardly be noticed but for the fact that it’ll tower over everything else in the neighbourhood’