By Press Release
“Fortune favours the brave,” they say. I certainly used to be impulsive and made instinctive decisions.
Impetuous behaviour can be a good thing, although, over time, I’ve learned to consider the downside before committing to anything particularly important. Now I find myself humming and hawing about trivial things. When I eat out, I worry about picking the wrong thing. It’s not food envy; at my time of life, you never know, this might be my last supper! So, if you spot me pausing at roundabouts or before using the slip road onto the dual carriageway, I apologise.
Choosing what’s annoyed me most each week is usually challenging; this week, it was almost impossible. There were MI5’s dreadful failures in Manchester or Sue Gray’s appointment as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. Both were contenders, but two years ago, while pushing the government’s useless £37-billion Test and Trace app, MP, Bob Seely, drove from Brook to Seaview with his girl-friend. At the time, the law allowed us to meet only one other person, outdoors and at two metres distance. Pitifully, my elderly mum couldn’t visit my severely disabled sister in her care home. Every day at work (I’m a funeral director), I saw people suffering because only six people could attend funerals. Every night, key workers feared we were taking Covid home to our families.
It’s a good 45-minute drive to Seaview, giving Bob ample time to think about what he was doing and change his mind. He did no such thing of course. The unlawful ‘half-a-sausage’ barbecue party was hosted by Freddie Gray, deputy editor of The Spectator magazine. When caught out, Bob grudgingly said he was surprised to see “another couple of people there”, but leaving would be “disproportionate”. What a pity he didn’t think the same about the rules his government were inflicting on the rest of us. Arrogant Bob offered several weasel words of explanation, also claiming he “didn’t stay long”. Bizarrely, somehow, he dodged a fine.
Other DFL party attendees included Reform Party leader, Richard Tice, and Seaview second homeowner, Isabel Oakeshott. Last week, Ms Oakeshott leaked 100,000 of (then) Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s personal WhatsApp messages. She has form for this; previous leaks saw Chris Huhne and his wife, Vicky Price jailed.
It’s possible her latest revelations made Bob sweat a bit. Could she have something on him too? Was it her who leaked his attendance at the party? Thanks to the leaks, we discovered what Bob and his Westminster chums already knew, that those Covid lockdowns were heavy-handed and largely pointless. Why else wheel booze-filled suitcases into Downing Street or attend parties in Seaview, while simultaneously trying to “frighten the pants off everyone”? The only figures they really cared about were their poll and approval ratings! Honestly, how can anyone ever trust the Conservatives again?
My other source of irritation was that ridiculous ‘Transport for the Southeast’ plan. Apparently by 2050 (by which time I’ll be pushing up daisies) the Island could have a new ferry link! Yep, they can’t manage a reliable chain ferry, nor the ruinously expensive Island Line, but they do think we could have a new privately-run summer only ferry service in just 27 years’ time. Whatever this preposterous quango’s report claims, there’s zero chance of any track being laid to Newport, Ventnor or anywhere else. This fantastical plan took five years to dream up and, maddeningly, it seems our council now wants to endorse it. Politicians love kicking problems into the long grass, refusing to acknowledge that today’s £30 return passenger ferry fare for Islanders is unjustifiable. Why can’t they see that demands action now, today, not in 2050?
