Sighing is about the size of it. A General Election on 8 June….. It is still freakishly dry, and the garden is like concrete. But, to lighten the mood, some wild life pictures from Rye Harbour
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| Avocet at Rye Harbour |
So, what’s to be done about this utterly wretched political situation? The Tory Government is running riot, slashing and cutting everything in sight, but have a huge majority predicted to enable them to do even worse things. The Labour opposition is in disarray. Brexit looms horribly. The BBC still insists on giving the odious Farage air time on the telly, even though, hopefully, UKIP will collapse.
In Hastings, we don’t yet have a Labour candidate to stand up against Amber Rudd, who now has a substantial majority. Since becoming Home Secretary has transformed herself from relatively easy-goin’ ex-media luvvie to, albeit pale and strained-looking, hatchet-faced Tory yes-woman. Our previous candidate, Sarah Owen, is not standing again – who can blame her. The latest news is that our current Mayor, Judy Rogers has put herself forward. Bless her for that, and she would be excellent.
On Facebook, in common with several others, I asked the local Labour group for news about our candidate. The answer, from the Branch Secretary, was that a message outlining the selection process had been sent to branch officials, but that the complete text was available on something called ‘Sqwawkbox’. I’d never heard of that, but I looked it up, and so can you by clicking on the link above. It is a place of resort for rabidly fanatic Corbynistas. Yes, you can read the piece slagging off Yvette Cooper. So useful for party unity. Yes, they print stuff from a Twitter account called ‘We are His Media’…. oh, purleeze…. Do I want our local branch pointing me in that direction? No.
In common with many millions of liberal persons in Britain, Battleaxe currently finds herself in the position of not identifying with either of the main parties. The Conservatives are moving way, way too far to the right. I’m one of the 48%, an anti-Brexit ‘Remoaner’, a ‘Saboteur’. Despite being a Labour voter all my life, to the ruling Corbynites I am ‘Tory-lite Scum’, a ‘Red Tory’ and quite probably a ‘Blairite’ to boot.
It totally beats me that Labour had not done more to prepare themselves for an early election. Why had they not got a pool of candidates ready? Why no draft Manifesto? Common management sense would dictate that an early election would happen, never mind what May said, and that their primary task was to ready themselves as best they could. Then, given that they were not ready, why on earth did Corbyn agree so readily to the election? Grrr.
Now, here’s a thing. I saw somewhere that 8 June is the anniversary of the death of suffragette Emily Davison, who died in 1913 of injuries after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse in the Derby. I put a post to that effect on Facebook, and urged women to use their hard-won vote. To date, it has been liked eight thousand times, and been shared twenty-three thousand five hundred times. If it even encourages a few women to vote it will be good, but on the other hand, I read that women are more likely to vote for Theresa May…..
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| Emily Davison |
I guess liberals like me, Philosopher and most of our social group have their backs to the wall across the world. Think Trump’s America. Think Turkey. Who knows what will happen in France….
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| Rye Harbour. Pretty mauve patch….. |
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| Old lichened bush and blossom…. |
Ah well. Let’s change the subject. We went to Rye Harbour the other morning. Saw some wild life. There is an avocet up at the top of the post, a slightly indistinct skylark, and some really rather horrible Brown Tail Moth caterpillars in a spider’s webby shelter on a bush. It still has not rained…. apparently the early nesting Black-Headed Gulls at Rye Harbour have failed to hatch their chicks – the ground is so dry they can’t get any worms to eat, so they are too weak, and the eggs have all been taken by predatory herring gulls. How sad is that.
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| Skylark…. way up above, singing its socks off |
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| Nasty caterpillars |
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| More….. |
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| They grow big and hairy – a bit stinging, I gather…. |
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