I could have called this post Continuity and Change but I didn’t. Instead, having slowly baked in the warm Suffolk sun, I’m really not a sun person, I went with this title. It is also apt for the election as well. Both images capture impressive edifices created by very powerful and wealthy individuals or institutions that today no longer have the power nor wealth they once had. In this case the Marquis of Bristol, the former owners of Ickworth House.

The second was the Church, either Catholic or Anglican. Bury St. Edmunds was built around the abbey which itself was built upon the wealth generated by pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Edmund, who died at the hands of the ‘Heathen Hordes’ in the 9th century. Then came the original Brexit, Henry the eighth’s break with the church in Roman which in turn lead to the destruction of the Abbey. The subsequent Church of England that took its place was also very powerful in its time, the cathedral was most rebuilt in the 19th century. However, nowadays the church is a pale show of its former glory with fewer and fewer regular worshipers. In the next few months they may well lose their last claim to secular power, if you don’t count the Monarch who is both Head of States and head of the Church, as the bishops are removed from the House of Lords – assuming a) Labour wins and b) they reform the House of Lords – you decide the odds of each.

Yet the world keeps turning and Bury St. Edmunds is still a pleasant enough town to visit, which strangely gives me hope for the future.

One final thing. In the grounds of the cathedral is a memorial to the Protestant martyrs burnt by Queen Mary, Bloody Mary. She was, of course, very much a remainer, that is remaining with the Catholic church, and had people burnt to death who didn’t agree with her. Apparently, God is Love and what better way of showing that your version of Love is the correct version of Love than burning people to death who disagreed. Thankfully, we have come a long way since then otherwise Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage might have something to worry about with the much more euro friendly Starmer as Prime Minister, probably with a very large majority.

P.S. The Labour candidate caught up in the betting scandal was standing in the Suffolk constituency but a neighbour – isn’t life strange.