Lifting the mood

I thought of trying to write something about the increasingly authoritative nature of government; the compulsion to impose more and more control over what we do, what we say, what we think - to straight-jacket us into never dissenting, never questioning. Obviously, it reflects fear and insecurity; knowing that you have no legitimate way to justify your policies; nothing to offer that will inspire support and consent; a hollow crown. That enough; it's too dispiriting

A day in Birmingham: children and shopping and lunch outside and garden tidying. The very opposite of dispiriting. The poppies appeared, unbidden, as poppies are prone to do. We laughed, a little nervously, at the idea that we might be arrested

Driving home, by chance, we started a podcast series about the opium wars - when Britain went to war with China to force them to permit us to trade opium into their country. This began what China calls "the century of humiliation", which is its context for its current geo-politics. Hopefully, I will understand more by the end of the series. What curious things our leaders go to war for, not always foreseeing the consequences