osteo arthritis

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The Rise of the Deplorables: Part 1

On Saturday, September 13th, in London, up to a 150,000 people responded to Tommy Robinson’s call for a mass protest against immigration, the Labour government, the censorship of free speech and condemnation of “the great replacement”, the belief that migrants outside of Europe are in the acendency and are being given resources, privileges and preferment over indigenous white people, particularly Muslims. Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) is a well known extreme right figure who is widely described by media, charities, campaign groups and courts in civil findings as anti-Muslim and Islamaphobic and as having spread racist adjacent rhetoric. He has served time in prison for mortgage fraud and possession of a false identity document with improper use. He has numerous convictions for violent assault and contempt of court. In 2024 he was sentenced to 18 months for contempt of court. Robinson was one of the founders of the English Defence League, a far right street protest movement, notorious for anti-Islam demonstrations.

Most of those marching will reject the accusation of racism or xenophobia and will wave thousands of Union Jack and England flags to indicate their patrotism and commitment to British values. They will not appreciate that their march has been organised and coordinated by a convicted thug and career racist. They will not be able to articulate what they mean by describing themselves as patriots other than by acting because they feel their community is threatened. Threatened by foreigners with whom they feel no sympathy and designate a physical menace.

The baleful influence of Trump, Putin, Netanyahu and other hardline Nationalist leaders and their enablers has normalised hate speech and encouraged blatant prejudice. Social media has promoted and intensified aggessive feelings, hostility against groups and individuals, encouraged conspiracy theories, and given widespread dissemination to misinformation and disinformation. This very disappointing UK Labour government has capitulated to the Brexit mentality and right wing populism and generally runs scared of calling out right wing rhetoric, fearing political backlash .

Why are large swathes of populations so susceptible to extreme views and charismatic, seemingly convincing politicians? Why do people believe so easily and uncritically? Why do evidence and fact often lose out in debate? In recent months, the UK media has focused on illegal small boat immigration from France, crossing the English Channel and landing on the UK coast. The UK has a backlog of asylum applications and many of the asylum seekers are housed in small hotels across the country. In some areas this has caused friction and has been the focus of protests. One such incident occured in Epping, Essex, following reports of an asylum seeker being accused of approaching a 14 year old girl and trying to kiss her. The hotel was beseiged by protesters, many from outside the local area, demanding the hotel be closed down. Following a court case, it was ruled the hotel should be closed and a number of local authorities also made similar applications. The ruling was later defeated on appeal. The media continues to concentrate on illegal immigration organised by gangs across the Channel.

Interviewed protesters cited they were worried about the safety of children and women and strongly felt asylum seekers should not be accommodated in hotels in the general community. They were concerned about possible criminality, the proximity of the hotel to several schools and a care home, that residents in the hotel are not vetted and stated local residents did not feel safe. There were clashes with the police.

The asylum seekers were regarded as an existential threat to the local people and a drain on housing, the NHS and other resources which they felt should be directed to the local community. There was no expression of concern, compassion or charity for people who have gone through dreadful experiences. They singled out an incident that involved an asylum seeker but were oblivious to the several hundred reported cases of violence and sexual offences, in the Epping and Ongar area, in April and May 2025, as shown in published data.

Despite their protestations and self serving explanations, I believe that the vast majority joining in the Unite the Kingdom march and shouting outside immigrant accommodation hotels are racist and xenophobic. Large numbers also espouse fascist views. It’s a moot point to suggest, in mitigation, they have been manipulated and inflamed by far right media. At best they are dangerously credulous. Flags in the UK, depending on the context, are now synonymous with racism and far right values, not a love of one’s own country. These flag wavers are not patriots. They bring British values into disrepute.

How is my running going? Quite well. I’ve kept free of any further episodes of atrial fibrillation and I’m injury free at present. Currently running around 25k weekly, sometimes more, and regularly doing 5k parkruns. I’m massaging my knee, calves, foot and toes each day and my legs feel much better for it. Occasionally I try to do a few plyometric exercises but I am wary of my right knee suddenly snapping into a hundred pieces, I exaggerate, of course, but arthritic changes have made it feel stiff and weak. I can still run up to 16k easily enough but plyometric exercises may be a demand too much unless I go carefully.

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Covid for the credulous? Take your pick: Tory daily media briefing or Johnson speaking at the Select Committee on the Impact and Science of Coronavirus

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This handsome fellow wanders about in the fields behind our cottage, in nearby gardens and recently into the road, luckily depleted of traffic. He’s very self composed, curious and doesn’t alarm easily. You can come across him anywhere. I’m thinking of dressing up as a pea hen so he fans his tail feathers.

And so to running. I’ve managed to consistently run 8.3k every other day for five weeks. My dodgy knee has held up (just). It remains swollen and stiff and unfortunately this really hasn’t changed much in the last year. I had an video assessment by the musculo-skeletal clinic and the physiotherapist took me through my knee x-ray. He showed me areas of mild to moderate age related arthritic changes which would account for the problems I’m experiencing. He suggested strengthening exercises, rest, cross training, cycling and perhaps a steroid injection in the future. I’m still hopeful the swelling and weakness will subside and I will try to expand my excercise regime as suggested. Update: I’ve had a rest from running and did a bit of cycling instead, one 18k and one 31k. I could still feel my knee but less so. I went for an 8.4k run this morning and it felt much better. Who could possibly have guessed that a rest and some cross training might be helpful?

Due to the covid lockdown the roads are relatively traffic free and a lot more people are running and, particularly, cycling and walking. Being required to essentially stay at home except to exercise and forgo work and a social and cultural life forces a change of perspective. The sudden  drop in pace has given an opportunity to think about how we conduct our lives and prompts us to think more critically. It can help us to appreciate what we hitherto took for granted or take up activities to express our creative potential. That’s on the positive side, of course.

Unfortunately the pandemic has shown  how precarious our lives and livelihoods can be, how quickly we can fall into a financial crisis and how dependent we are on economic stability and on strong government to plan for and manage in a time of crisis.

This Tory government, brought to us by Brexit supporters, is truly the government they deserve. Inept, short sighted, mean spirited, intoxicated by spin and slick presentation. The daily Covid updates are a masterclass in political embroidery, designed to give a confident presentation of the government response to the crisis followed by an equally confident question and answer session wherein the right questions are posed only to receive answers to a soft questions the politician wish they had been asked.

These briefings are clearly intended to convince the credulous and the critically unthinking, that is, the Brexit demographic. The litany of statistics is not particularly enlightening to most people and the emphasis on so many millions of personal protective equipment (PPE) provided by government, in the face of so many reports of shortages, in the early weeks, was shocking.

The government clearly left the care homes to their own devices. They received little assistance with PPE and hospitals discharged care home residents back without testing for covid infection or didn’t admit them in the first place. For weeks the daily number of covid deaths did not include those from care homes or outside hospitals.

The government was recently shamed into dropping the National Health Immigration Health Care surcharge, currently at £400 per person annually, rising to £624 in October. Boris Johnson defended this surcharge at Prime Minister’s Question Time, despite the thousands of frontline health workers working in the NHS and dying in their work.

The goverment dropped testing and tracking in March. They failed to heed the findings of the Operation Cygnus simulation exercise carried out in October 2016 which showed a pandemic would cause the health system to collapse from lack of resources.

They delayed a comprehensive lockdown.

Their emphasis on “following the scientific advice” has more resonance if we read it as “following the political science”.

As for Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser, and  high profile breaker of lockdown rules, I can’t really get too incensed. What else would you expect from this amoral, self serving government.

Johnson at the Select Committee. More waffle, more bromides.

And to top it all, my good crop of gooseberries have got powdery mildew.

 

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Manchester trip, Cambridge Pride and a proper running injury

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We ran into an Extinction Rebellion children’s march in Manchester a couple of months ago. It was heartening to see young children and teenagers taking to the streets and making themselves heard. I think their parents should br very proud.

We went to the first Cambridge Pride event. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great and the attendance should have been higher but we felt it was successful. Very friendly and relaxing. Hopefully it will be bigger next year and they are able to secure sufficient funding.

Did I say in my previous blog my running is going well at present? Unfortunately it went downhill a short while after and became very uphill. So uphill, I’ve stopped running altogether for the past eight weeks. Previous to that I had been having problems to my right knee

and an ill advised hard training run with Cambridge and Coleridge AC in May resulted in a substantial injury. Oh dear! I thought I might have arthritic wear and tear but an x-ray didn’t suggest this. A physio assessment pointed to a minscus injury and I’m awaiting further investigation. In the meanwhile my knee is feeling better but not running better. Tomorrow I’ll do Cambridge parkrun and walk most of it. The above pic is me a month ago walking parkrun although I may have broken into a little trot at this point. I didn’t do myself any favours.

Trump’s attack on the four Democratic congresswomen at a rally in North Carolina branding them as “hate filled extremists” and a follow up to his tweets earlier in the week advising them to “go back” to other countries (based on their skin colour), is a shockingly good example of contemporary fascism. Successful fascists are highly adept at inciting large crowds by employing mockery and humour and outrageous lies. The cruel, unfeeling bigots lapped it up. God save America, pretty please.

Boris Johnson is apparently set to become the UK’s next Prime Minister and his head is all ready up Trump’s large colon. The Eton educated Tory chancer and full time stand up comedian is greatly loved by those who can’t distinguish entertainment from politics and don’t really care anyway.

Note to God : save America first and then help out the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Running, races, interesting injuries, recovery and Brexit sadness

Here I am, running to partial victory (I would have won if I had succeeded in getting ahead of the several hundred people in front of me). This is the Cambourne 10k, just outside Cambridge. It was overcast and cold but good running weather for most. I should have worn gloves. More importantly my right knee and hip held up well. At the beginning of March I ran the Cambridge half marathon, a hard road surface and about ten days later my right knee and a right finger became swollen. I self diagnosed osteo arthritis. I was advised not to take ibruprofen because of my cardiac medication but I could take Voltarol (diclofenac diethylammonium,a topical gel, which I did. Result? Both knee and finger swelling quickly reduced. Like a lot of people of a certain age I get occasional arthritic local flareups particularly in my hands and they often disappear. But my swollen knee ACTUALLY STOPPED ME RUNNING!

I’m now back to running fairly normally and regaining lost form. I also took the decision to rejoin Cambridge and Coleridge Athletics Club (C&C) and went training with them this week. I gave up C&C nearly three years ago because I thought I was getting too slow to do the type of training I wanted to do with them, mainly road running. I’m still the slowest in the group but I’ll see how it goes. Some sessions will be more suitable than others and I’ve always got the option of doing track sessions instead.

 

Two running chums. Both beat me in the Cambourne 10k. I eat my banana, place the skin on the edge of the pond, my pal steps on it, skids and falls in. It doesn’t happen.

Brexit. It’s a Pandora’s box. Mostly we gravitate towards people whose views are similar to our own, if we know or suspect them. A lot of the time we don’t know people’s views and they may not know mine but because little clues suggest they might be substantially different, we avoid argument or friction. We get along by not challenging each other we don’t fall out because certain issues are avoided.  Brexit has sidestepped this pragmatic arrangement and frequently lays bare a range of beliefs, attitudes and values which are shocking.

I’d find it more than acceptable if the arguments for staying or leaving the EU revolved around economic or business considerations but I believe the majority of the peope who voted to leave Europe did so for racist and xenophobic reasons, underpinned by their anger at the  bewildering pace and changes of modern life and aided and abetted by the  fascist Daily Mail.

To put it mildly, it’s utterly dismaying to hear people rubbishing Europe, wanting to leave at any cost, desperately fearful of immigration and the loss of “Englishness” and feeling we are helpless under the weight of crazy European laws usurping our British (superior) sovereignty. The Little Britain mentality of most Brexiteers are in extreme contrast with the the humanity and common sense emmanating from the Europeans. Bring on a second referendum