Update 48
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I am grateful to those of you who took the trouble to look at the YouTube clip of my appearance at the Arias including Helen Boaden’s glowing tribute to my career - thank you again Helen. The Blackmore family enjoyed a wonderful evening basking in the warmth of an audience of hundreds of former colleagues many of whom are of course firm friends.
Looking back at Tuesday’s event I was reminded of the first time I received professional recognition. It was in 1994 when (at that time) Sir Jimmy Gordon and I received our Academy fellowships from Academy Chair Michael Green.
Last weekend we enjoyed watching the coronation. It started for us with a documentary about the tailors responsible for the thousands of uniforms that were to be on parade. Have a look on iPlayer for: ‘Coronation tailors’. The day itself was fabulous I just love all those red outfits.
It is now very clear that the Conservative party’s days as the natural party of government are probably over. Although Sunak is vaguely approved of, there is no appetite to link his name with that of his party. Hundreds of local Conservative parties chose to issue leaflets and posters with no mention of the Conservative party. Candidates were named but not their party. This has financial implications because if publications are not promoting national campaigns they have to count against local budgets which are severely restricted.
Apart from Jacob Rees-Mogg, no one seems to have yet found the Brexit dividend. I however do seem to have lost a number of EU dividends: Freedom of movement, free EU healthcare, free and easy movement of goods over European borders, especially for my French and Italian wines. In 2016, the UK economy was 90% of the German but by 2022 had fallen to just 70% and that in spite of the fact that Germany had been subject to the same Covid and the same Ukranian war as the UK. Our unique setback has always been that self inflicted wound of Brexit.
If you still have not consumed enough evidence of Johnson’s total uselessness then ‘Johnson at 10’ by Anthony Seldon and Anthony Newell should get you over the line. I keep reading about Johnson’s great intelligence whilst seeing no evidence of his being able to put it to good use from number 10.
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