There’s plenty of bad news around in the UK, EU and globally. Much closer to home, my home, there’s mostly good news.
First, the peregrine falcons have been mating vigorously and frequently. This will be to no avail unless they develop brooding patches. Nathalie reports signs that Tom and Azina are showing brooding patches. Essentially they need to moult a bit so when they sit on their clutch of eggs they have enough body heat for a successful incubation. Without brooding patches their feathers would insulate the eggs from their body heat.
Secondly, Dominvs Group the developer of the skyscraper hotels on the site of the Magistrates’ Court somewhat belatedly realise they have bitten off more than they can chew. They got planning permission to build two high-rise hotels. Premier Inn (not quite The Ritz) has expressed interest in one property. They cannot get financing for the other site and now propose student accommodation and most likely a reduction in height, traded for by a bigger footprint. Why Domivs didn’t mothball their ill-advised project last year is a mystery. Oh no it’s not – their leeches, or professional advisers as they might prefer to be called, have no interest in the project stalling so offer encouragement. It is the same with lawyers especially in divorce cases. They are the cuckoos who destroy the nest.
When the cleaner came on Monday, recovered from Covid, he found the iron wasn’t working. Quick as a flash I ordered a replacement from John Lewis. Then he announced the vacuum cleaner was broken too. Of course a fuse had tripped in the cellar and both started working. Next he told me the washing machine is broken, crying wolf. Unfortunately he is right. John Lewis will remove the old machine and install a new one but I have forebodings and a spare iron.
This is certainly not the first time a British Prime Minister has taken a mistress but it must be the first time she and their illegitimate child have been installed in Downing Street. They are not in tune with the previous incumbent’s taste – John Lewis of course – and want to get an interior decorator in. The tax payers’ allowance is a reasonable £30,000 – enough to repaint the walls and replace frayed carpets. To expect a lavish makeover flies in the face of reason; their tenure is insecure and they don’t pay any rent to the tax payer. The Prime Minister models himself on Churchill; he should remember the Roosevelts.
When the Trumans moved into the White House they “were appalled at what they saw: walls streaked with dust and faded along the outlines of all the pictures that had been taken down, shabby furniture badly in need of upholstering, threadbare carpets that hadn’t been cleaned in years, draperies that were actually rotting. Eleanor had been so busy that she had not paid much attention to the physical condition of the mansion, leaving untouched a $50,000 congressional allocation for upkeep and repair. “Mrs Roosevelt was more concerned about people being swept under the national rug due to injustice than she was about someone finding dirt under the White House rug.“ (No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin)