VOTES, VOLCANOES AND VIVA LE FERRIES
What a month it has been! “Dear Chief Secretary, there’s no money left”, the message passed over says so much about the mess this country is now in. Who would have thought this time last month that we would now be in a Con – Lib Cam – Clegg Coalition - henceforth to be called the “3C”. We happened to be down in London the weekend before the election and as we were going on the London Eye parked up in the car park at College Green at Westminster. Twice, we passed Jon Craig from Sky News who looked exhausted before the election and I felt for him and the other political correspondents who were so in need of a rest after the election campaign and then had to just carry on until the whole situation was sorted.
One of the highlights of the election for me were going to the meeting of all the local candidates at the Minster School – fascinating to watch the differences between them including the UKIP candidate who managed to get Gordon Brown’s name wrong. It’s the first political meeting I have attended in my adult life but I shall definitely attend one in 5 years time in these new days of fixed parliaments. Watching the body language of the leaders both before and after the campaign was also very interesting – who will forget the matching Morecambe and Wise type simultaneous leg – kicks in one of the television debates; the Gordon head in hands when he discovered the “bigot” comment was recorded and the rose garden togetherness of the new coalition even when Cameron was reminded of his comment about Clegg being his favourite political joke. Next time round, it will be fascinating to watch the repercussions of this in marginal constituencies which will depend so much on how successful they manage to make it work. Both parties have too much to lose if they do not make it work.
Of the decisions taken so far, the decision to halt CCTV and speed cameras and the stopping of the new runway at Heathrow definitely get my support. I have never understood the logic for most of the UK of increasing air traffic over London especially when getting to and parking there is such a pain. If we do build new runways, at least share it around the UK and in a less congested area.
With air travel in mind, who would have thought volcanic ash would cause so much chaos to so many people? The scary issue is that further volcanoes of greater force have historically erupted in Iceland after this one which could have even more devastating effects on travel. Even though it caused chaos, I am pleased such caution was taken by the authorities when safety was involved. As a family, we decided on no flying holidays this year which has turned out to be a good decision with volcanoes and BA strikes. Which leads me to the new star transport for the summer – ferries. I have been a long time fan of ferries – that first glass of wine on the ferry across to France has symbolised the start of so many good holidays. Their popularity has rocketed in the last couple of months but thankfully we booked ours months ago for European breaks. They do represent excellent value and driving on the continent is so much nicer.
Finally, in the next couple of months, going to gigs will be interesting. As a teen, I adored my first teen bands. I would have done anything to see the Bay City Rollers or Osmonds but that was a different planet in expectations at the time. Both are at the Arena soon so I am looking forward to a real blast from the past. In contrast, I am taking my daughters to see Lady Gaga on Thursday – a real generational gap in shared experiences.
Best wishes to you all for a lovely time in the month with the longest light evenings in the year and for plans for the summer months ahead.
Awen |
