So much for all those plans. Today was supposed to be an early rise out amongst the freezing mist – no mist/no sunrise! Next plan: Go to Charnwood Forest and try and capture the hard bleakness of the coming winter as no sun is expected. Great plan unfortunately no one told the weather! I do admire those photographers who have a plan and stick to it. I, on the other hand, hardly ever have a plan and usually wing it and somehow I always come away with something interesting.
A sweeping statement I know and I am sure there are many politicians who would take exception to the implications. However, if this election has been characterised by anything it is politicians of each party making outrageous claims about what they are going to do should they form a government or what the cost of the other side’s plans would be. My favourite at the moment is the Labour free broadband claim. You only have to spend thirty seconds thinking about this to know it makes no sense at all. Even if the BT Openreach network is nationalised (full disclosure I have 200 plus megabit/sec fibre to my house from Virgin Media) how are you going to pay for the roll out of similar service to mine to the rest of the country without charging something? This is all supposed to be paid for by a tax of the Google’s of this world like that is easy to do. Also if we are still in the EU then this could fall foul of anti state aid rules. Finally, what about the cost going forward should the Googles of this world manage to find a way to not pay the tax? It is nonsense, the politicians know that it is nonsense and yet they make great speeches about this.
I am not having a pop at Labour but rather the way we the electorate are treated as idiots by all parties. Get Brexit Done is just an out and out lie. Should we leave by the 31st January 2020 then we will be arguing about Brexit for years because, suprise suprise, the Brexit negotiations don’t stop on the 31st of January but rather they really start to pick up. We will have yet another crises towards the end of July when Parliament will have to vote on whether to leave without a deal or extend the transition period. Such a controversial moment requires a government with a large majority and nothing I have seen nor heard has suggested that this is likely to happen for the Conservatives – majorities of 5 or 10 really won’t do given the vagaries of political life.
I guess the truth as to why politicians lie can be explained by looking into a mirror. They believe we might believe them just a little and in the reality is that the face looking back at us is the reason for all this. We might just do that.
The other day I watched the disappointing Danny Boyle movie of a Richard Curtis script movie Yesterday. Whilst there were many things wrong with the film it still had the strength of the Beatles’ music to support it. Not great but far better than most of the movies I have seen of late.
Anyway, it inspired me to revisit the Beatles’ music again and I came across a song I had never heard before (If I had I had forgotten which I guess is very much the same) Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Having read the Wiki page on this it would seem that this is seen as everything that caused the Beatles to break up. I have no idea whether that is true or not but it has become an earworm for me at the moment. It will pass I know but until then I keep hearing …Bang Bang Maxwell’s Silver Hammer… over and over again. Such is life.
The story writes itself. Unfortunately, as the national newspapers all originate in London this is from the “In Brief” section of today’s Times. The political talking heads, in London, are all chatting about the effect that Nigel Farage’s capitulation will have on the election. All the time large swaths of Yorkshire is slowly disappearing under water.
In normal times this would be a great story for two minutes and then back to stories of more national import. Unfortunately, this is where the election could well be won or lost in the sodden fields of the Don and Ouse floodplain and so it can’t be glossed over and then forgotten. These fields, villages and towns are in the centre of the Red Wall – the patronising description for the seats that the Conservatives have to win from Labour to gain a majority. This is a crises that has the Tories fingerprints all over it – the problem now is that they can’t hide from their cuts to flood protection spending as they have been able to in the past.
Whether this is the metaphor for the collapse of the Tory strategy is far too early to say. However, one thing that Boris Johnson should dwell on as he sits in the Cobra bunker in Whitehall this morning is this…
The North Remembers!
One final thought…it has start to rain again and whilst we are 60 miles to south guess where the water from our floodplain finally drains out to see through.
If you want to understand why the political parties have no control of the election process just look at the current flooding in the Yorkshire area. There are a number of Labour seats in this so called “Red Wall‘ area that the Tories hope to win yet some of these seats are those badly affected by the recent flooding. There are no political strategies nor messaging plans that can really take account of acts of God or the result of man made global warming ( I suspect the former is far more politically neutral than the later). But in a wet November these things will happen and their potential for influencing the outcome of the election could be significant – especially if they happen on Election Day.
4000 holes in Lancashire might have filled the Albert Hall in the 1960’s but what of the torrent of water that cut off Meadowhall? That could easily wash away many political careers.
“…You think the country’s divide now you should have been here during the miners’ strike…”
Gloria De Piero quoting Ken Clarke
I guess the Christmas election has started but I really suspect that few people are paying the any attention. Now that bonfire is out of the way it’s full steam ahead for Christmas. Perhaps the election might get traction sometime in December but not at the moment. Frankly few people could give a damn. Don’t believe any predictions not opinion polls this is far too complex an election to allow any of the old rules to apply. The one thing I would say is that I am not convinced by the argument that the country is divided. Annoyed yes. Pissed off yes. But divided? I’m yet to be convinced.
Almost one week later and there are still large ponds in the park. I think it is safe to say that this is one of the wettest autumns in a while. Still the light was wonderful this afternoon which all photographers need – especially when they are slowly sinking into the sodden turf!
