Election day (local)
Off to the shops, hoping to return in time for shock announcements from the palace. Speculation ranged from reduncancies or a pay freeze, through royal stuff like abdications and weddings, to really important possibilities like the first royal Dr Who or..."One did not order those films from Virgin Media and one is certainly not going to pay for them" pic.twitter.com/HH0Urr8jPt— Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman) May 4, 2017
Discussing mothers and anniversaries with the taxi driver. It's 41 years just about to the day since I encountered my first computer, and nearly 40 years since he arrived from Pakistan. He sets a good example - "Will you celebrate?" "I celebrate every day."
The Stockport Express was an impulse buy - I've been picking up a few examples of the dead tree press recently, just to check what you see if you don't get all your news online. And that wrap-round! The only election here today is for the Manchester "metro-"mayor, which doesn't get a mention. Apart from the promoter's message in tiny light grey letters, the word "Conservative" doesn't appear until page 4.
Somehow I didn't get round to voting for HER candidate locally.
On my return I discovered what the royal news is. Somewhere mid-range on the scale I mentioned above, but not at all surprising. A boon to the TV news schedules though, filling hours in which they would have had to explain repeatedly why there's nothing about elections on today. Adam Boulton regaling Sky viewers with observations about the royal black cab hardly excited anyone, but then he has been sounding bored with everything recently.
It's so predictable though, stepping down from public duties to avoid the appalling Trump in October.
Saboteurs department
#MrsME's outpurst yesterday attracted a varety of responses from the other side of the negotiating table. The EU commission's chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said:
"We are not naive. At the moment there’s an election taking place in the UK. People get excited when we have elections. The election in the UK is mainly about Brexit. We here in Brussels are extremely busy with our policy work. We have too much to do on our plate."
In other words... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
EU Council president Donald Tusk, reported to be sombre (he does sombre well), said:
“These negotiations are difficult enough as they are. If we start arguing before they
even begin they will become impossible.
“The stakes are too high to let our emotions get out of hand because at stake are the daily lives and interests of millions of people on both sides of the Channel. We must keep in mind that in order to succeed we need today discretion, moderation, mutual respect and a maximum of goodwill.”
“The stakes are too high to let our emotions get out of hand because at stake are the daily lives and interests of millions of people on both sides of the Channel. We must keep in mind that in order to succeed we need today discretion, moderation, mutual respect and a maximum of goodwill.”
A measure of patronising disappointment then, but the message is definitely "when you've finished messing about with your election, we've got things to do."
This could be why #MrsME is treading less than carefully in her speeches from the middle of Downing St (or it could be that she just wants to ride roughshod over good sense and maximise the size of her One Nation Party to make a One Party Nation), but her placeman Syed Kamall should at least have briefed her on the European People's Party's Brexit redlines.
