Martin Field

Unimaginable horror. The scenes of devastation from Turkey and Syria. People have lost everything.

This morning I find myself on a train speeding northwards to attend a family funeral.

Two days to go... Everything ready?

Asylum seekers are in the news again; record numbers crossing the channel; the government vowing to do everything in its power to stop them.

July 19? Let's hope we don't live to regret it.

Be the Light in the Darkness

IN THE face of a common enemy, coronavirus, the country united.

The sense of national unity and common purpose with which we entered lockdown has evaporated. Not surprising; the Government had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming while the rest of Europe seized the initiative and, as a consequence, is now emerging more quickly and with considerably less damage.

Lockdown is now beginning to affect Barney the Beagle and Pebbles the cat. Never the best of friends, Barney would ignore Pebbles as long as she stayed still or moved slowly, if she made a dash for it or appeared unexpectedly through her cat clap then he would give chase. For all his speed and fury, he is a beast of very little brain; she invariably escapes. But now to relieve the monotony of my being at home, they are working as a team.

I AM learning to appreciate our constitutional monarchy; a head of state, above and beyond politics. The carnage currently being wrought in America, where national leadership has degenerated into partisan point scoring, politics and big business self-interest, lies is a stark contrast to the Queen’s Friday night message to the country.