Family Holiday

 

Family Holiday

Natalie, Andy and Eilidh came again this summer, for the last week in June and the first in July, driving down from Scotland. Their old VW van made it all the way until the last few kilometres when it threw a wobbly which the local garage managed to fix in time for their return. They stayed, as before, at the gite 100 yards down the road so that they could have a swimming pool. 

 

Eilidh’s priorities for the holiday were the swimmig, seeing Mimi the cat, going to the market in Buis and getting a lollipop at the baker’s ( and seeing Papi of course).

They came to my allotment but there was nothing to take back this year, vegetables being 2-3 weeks behind where they were last year, so Eilidh helped with the watering. As last year, they came to my house each morning and we went to the Bar du Pont for breakfast (and Eilidh’s lollipop). Then itwas just a question of deciding what to do with the day. The weather wasn’t s hot as last year but quite hot and sunny enough so the pool got plenty of use.

 

 

At the Bar du Pont we bumped into Josephine. Josephine contacted me last year offering to help with the English conversation classes I give here (she has an EFL qualification) and was with her husband and two small children, Cecilia and Jay. Cecilia is just a year younger than Eilidh and the two got on like a house on fire so we went to Josephine’s house for extended aperitifs and, later, had a picnic beside the Toulourenc river together. Maybe Eilidh and Cecilia will become pen pals; their friendship certainly enhanced Eilidh’s holiday.

Andy hired an electric bike as usual but didn’t cycle up Mt Ventoux this year. He did though decide that he and Eilidh would cycle to the picnic by the Toulourenc, some 4.5 kms and Eilidh made the ride triumphantly on her bike. We also spent several pleasant evenings at the Bar du Pont eating pizza, mussels and chips and pancakes.

 

Life-long friends Steve nd Jo were on the brink of returning to the UK permanently and so invited us to a meal together at the Bar du Pont (photo below). I shall miss their company and our meals together, particularly in the winter when activities are scarce.

 

So once again we had a great time together doing nothing of particular note but relaxing and enjoying every minute of it.

IMMIGRATION

 

Immigration

It’s time the British grew up about immigration (among other things like nationalism, sovereignty, public ownership and taxes, for instance).

If no politician has the guts to say that Britain needs immigration, badly, let me state the obvious. In common with all developed European nations, Britain has an aging population and declining birth rate among nationals. Britain is in reality in competition with other developed European nations for the most capable of immigrants; it needs to be attractive to those people. So a determined anti-immigration policy is not a great start, is it. Of course, some might object, the most capable can come in but that assumes a queue of them waiting to do that and a screening system to sort the wheat from the chaff and there is no evidence of either. As Sunak himself admitted a year ago, the UK approach to immigration is «broken» (his word).

So what bout the small boats and number of would-be immigrants, of unknown and various capability arriving that way? Well several other European countries with fewer resources receive more, even if they don’t all arrive in small boats, and manage to cope. So what is the big issue?

The answer, in the UK, would seem to be that making that a big issue of small boat arrivals deflects attention from much more important issues that the british are experiencing the effects of, on health care, cost of livig, degraded public services generally and very low economic growth in relation to their peers.

It's time for the British public to wise up and man up. Failure to do so will see the British choosing between unicorns offered by politicians at the next general election, the same unicorns that gave it Brexit. It's time for Britain to discover, accept and face reality