A long winter. . .
Our first snowdrops of 2022
It feels like a lifetime since I posted anything on this blog, although I have tried to keep the photos coming! We have come a long way in only a few months and it has not been a quiet winter for anyone.
We have seen the last vestiges of any Covid restrictions lifted here in England, alongside several European countries which must mean we can’t keep calling it a pandemic. Some of you might be wondering whether we will see Covid return with any of a number of variants, the end of mandatory Covid testing in the UK makes this unlikely if not impossible. Testing has been the one key mechanism for keeping everyone’s attention on Covid, without testing our focus will move on. It has not been as calm or as pleasant a change of direction everywhere though.
Let us turn back the clock to the Canadian freedom convoy, the first clear statement of intent from any population voicing its distrust of their government and the actions taken during the pandemic and the removal of citizens rights. This all played out on the global stage and what became clear is how many of our rights were removed a long time ago, way back in the era of global terrorism. From a government standpoint, any level of significant resistance to the preferred narrative is dealt with under the umbrella terms of terrorism - and citizens not trusting their government lost their civil rights and their rights as citizens, with the government using their powers to do everything from arresting them without cause to freezing their bank accounts leaving them unable to maintain any semblance of normality. A few years ago this would have been impossible under a democratic government, what we are now seeing is that many of us clearly don’t live in a democratic society. Has this been a dangerous road for any government to tread? Absolutely, they have played most of their cards sooner than they probably needed. We have learnt a lot about the systems we work with when our governments feel threatened. The banks can’t be trusted, the idea that we own anything is not true and that the rules and laws we thought governed society only govern the people and not the rulers.
Here in the UK we have the farcical ordeal of a serving prime minister having broken his own laws along with several of his ministers, refusing to accept that he has been caught and simply repeating his view of the value his government delivers as an excuse. Watch him in parliament, louder and louder he shouts about the benefits of his political party hoping the question will be dropped, much like a child who puts his fingers in his ears and yells because he doesn’t like what he is hearing. One of our world leaders apparently.
Moving on, spring is here and with it great change, a sense of awakening from a slumber for many people, a realization of what has been done and that many people resisted and pushed us back into a place of sanity and not fear. Hope has returned along with a sense of will and drive to get on with life. I intend to get on with mine, to see more of the world where I can and to not bother with the news or our government - there are far more important things in life.
