Sunday 11th December

Life is full of contradictions.  On the surface things seem to be getting uglier; the anti-immigrant rhetoric has been allowed to become respectable – and yet on a personal level people have never been kinder.  Many Tories are still fulminating about gay marriage, but teenage kids are far more accepting than we ever were.  We are concerned and cry at images of children plucked from the sea as they desperately seek refuge across the Mediterranean, but we bristle at the suggestion that Britain should accept asylum seekers who have crossed so many borders and are trying to get across our tiny channel.  We say the Russians are committing war crimes (and they may well be) in clearing Alleppo of rebels, but the news bulletins tell us little of what our so-called friends, the Saudis are doing in the Yemen.  And so it goes on…

And on a personal level, we bewail the fact that our Grandchildren will not be able to afford houses of their own, but are secretly excited at the inflated values of our own cheaply got properties.  We are concerned at the lack of funding of our health service – but go to any Doctor’s Surgery and it is full of people with minor ailments that would almost certainly clear up if left alone.  We complain that we are all being pushed down the Internet road, but log on to ebay or Amazon for the latest bargains.  And so it goes on…

But what else can we do?  The recent upsets of Brexit and Trump may well be down to this feeling of helplessness in the face of the contradictions in Life today.  And like most commentators, I don’t have the answers either.  I too despair of the news, and yet look forward to another evening of music and wine….but what else, short of a Revolution can we do.  Oh, and if anyone out there is thinking of starting one, let me know…I will happily man the barricades, or more likely duck down behind it and hedge my bets by checking the exchange rates and buying euros…..hahaha