Lottsathoughts

The search goes on for a politician of stature and gravitas. Of true integrity, following a call to serve his or her country. There are some but they remain on the back-benches or in minor parties. The ones making all the noise at the front continue to disappoint and enrage. Really though? Can I really find myself so surprised and appalled yet again? After all the nonsense of the last 14 months, surely my eyebrows have stretched so high there is nowhere further to go? Apparently not. Because Jacob Rees-Mogg has announced that the silencing of Big Ben is “the greatest tragedy of our times”. No, sorry. The greatest tragedy of our times is that conniving misogynists like this man are not only thriving in government but are making a realistic play for running the country. How is it that in 2017 a man can proudly proclaim that he is father to six children but has never changed a nappy? That's not funny. It's not old-fashioned in a whimsical way. It is astoundingly...

This week I had the agonising experience of pet-owners everywhere. I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat and ask the vet to facilitate euthanasia. The trauma was huge despite her magnificent age (18) and the fact that she had been poorly for a while. What is it about our pets that has the capacity to move us so deeply? As I sat weeping for her passing, I tried to analyse in a rational way what I would miss, or what I felt I had gained from her presence in my life. Of course there's the immediate comfort of the cuddle and companionship but if that were all, then it would imply our's was a transactional and conditional relationship. And presumably easily fixed by acquiring a new pet, much like replacing any broken inanimate object in one's life – an old torch, armchair or washing-machine. And it really doesn't feel like that. Which leads me to conclude that she was an individual with a soul and a personality. Not that I mean to anthropomorphise her existence, b...

“The death of democracy...will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.” These words of Robert M Hutchins seem rather pertinent to our current situation. Every day I ask myself again whether it's time to “let it go” and accept Brexit. And every time I ask that question, two big issues rise up to block the way. The first is the unbelievably cavalier way in which the individuals most affected by this are being treated – the EU nationals who live in the UK and the UK nationals who live in other EU countries. We have, as the saying goes, thrown them under a bus. And when you consider the stir caused this week by CCTV footage of a London jogger doing exactly that to a woman on the pavement, it brings home what a shocking analogy it is. As long as the politicians insist on playing games of chess with real peoples' lives, there will be millions of us who dig in our heels and say “unacceptable”. The second big stumbling block to accepting the out...