Rebel

In a week Bertie will have his eighteenth birthday, in months. It’s hard to choose presents for humans let alone a beagle but I hope he will be pleased with my gift.

Buck’s Club was founded in 1919 and is still going strong but neither women nor beagles are admitted as members. In the same year a pack of beagles was started and is still going: the Old Berkeley Beagles that hunt in Buckinghamshire. The season is about to start and Bertie is sponsoring Rebel. I’m not being very generous as Bertie’s food bill for a week exceeds Rebel’s sponsorship for a year. I dread to think what Rebel eats, although he looks lean and healthy.

It is unlikely that they will meet. It would be intolerable for Bertie to see, hear and smell a pack of beagles in hot pursuit of a drag. Bertie likes to participate, he is not a bystander.

When my brother was a little younger he represented Ireland in triathlons: clay pigeon shooting, fly fishing and show jumping. One year his team was not selected to represent Ireland but they went anyway, calling themselves Hons and Rebels – appropriate as the competition was at Chatsworth; Debo was amused. Teams representing British counties were much better but he did have the satisfaction of beating the official Irish entry.

Meanwhile The New York Times has noticed that Hammersmith Bridge is falling down and deplores London’s decaying infrastructure and opposition to the proposed tower is growing.

“• At 23 storeys, 842 rooms, it would be the tallest building in LBHF, looming directly over residential & conservation areas, churches, schools, public areas, etc.

•  Visible above all other buildings from every direction making it the defacto architectural symbol of LBHF – without consultation with residents.

• Ruins the skyline and dominates the view from residents windows and streets 360 degrees around the site (pictures upon request), from the historic St Paul Studios, to the riverside, Colett gardens to Nazareth House, to St Augustine’s Church and Barons Court CONSERVATION area;

“• In conflict with local planning policies and London Plan;

• Important traffic, congestion & access issues unresolved in an area plagued by traffic jams;

• No environmental impact analysis for all hotels combined;

• Fails to match the vision for the regeneration of central Hammersmith.”

We are not doing well in Hammersmith and Fulham on another front: 28 positive Covid tests per 100,000 in a week. Why aren’t we in Portugal or Spain with similar infection rates but more sun and sangria?