Saturday 14th June

Some days are just lovely.  Despite the nightmare reports coming out of Iraq; despite politics; despite the country going to the dogs; when the sun is shining all is well with the World.  I am at Walton, which an sometimes be a bit quiet, a bit flat, a bit boring.  The sun is shining and the place is transformed.  The town is heaving with people, all smiling and enjoying the sunshine.  The shops are all open and full.  The Pie and Mash and Fish and Chip shops are bursting at the seams – everyone is looking for food.  Probably because the tide is in and the beach is in places a tiny strip of sand and in others has gone completely.  Not that this has stopped the bathers.  There are more people swimming than I’ve seen in a long time, all bobbing up and down in the greeny-grey sea.

What a difference a bit of sunshine makes.  We are all affected by it.  If I were Cameron I would have cut and run already and declared an election in the middle of the Euro campaign.  He wouldn’t have necessarily won, but the combination of warm weather and a still undefeated England may have just swung it for him.   But he has stupidly given away the gift of choosing the date of the election and made us into a fixed-term Parliament.  Now, like America we face a final year of stagnation, where nothing controversial  is voted on, all parties too interested in preparing for the coming election.  It is actually even worse in America, as they now have a two-year campaign for President.  Anyway banish those thoughts for the moment and let us enjoy an hour or two more in the sun.