Running injury

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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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Walk, run, think (kindly thoughts)

Ball mobiles are on hold at the moment. I’m currently working on aluminium and brass wires supporting flat aluminium paddles or end pieces, attached by rivets. Like most worthwhile activities, all it takes is time, focus and application. Irritatingly, these tend to elude me. I need to get a grip and create a more disciplined daily schedule. Even so, it’s still difficult to fit in. I’m spending more time running, walking and going to a great gym. My health is good and I can even afford to pickup a calf injury, stopping me running, because of some reckless gym work. Sitting and inactivity are the new smoking equivalents. You gotta move to stay healthy and alive. It’s all about balance, literally.

I’m also spending perhaps too much time thinking and arriving at conclusions, an activity in many countries that is fraught with risk. Many people do this publicly and thanks to the internet and social media we are inundated with information and perspectives which can feel compelling and convincing as well as alarming and anxiety provoking. It’s a minefield. How do we make sense of it all? By what we encounter in our lives. Our experiences, relationships emotions, our upbringing and by persuasion rather than logic, reason and the general public good. Right wingers excel at perceiving threat or condemning. They tend to have a narrow focus on personal liberty, and self and class interest. Left wingers look towards the interest of the larger community and also of minorities within it. Consequently the left is vulnerable to mockery and demonisation when they champion groups whom the right regard as undeserving or illegitimate.. In the UK. as in the USA, the popular politics of emotion and feeling currently garner huge swathes of support, entirely untouched by common humanity or compassion for the vulnerable except for the purposes of lip service. The Christian/Evangelical Right, surely a clear oxymoron, have more in common with Fascism than the teachings of Jesus.

Whether it’s the UK Tory government or Trump’s America, their politics are addressed to the peoples’ basest fears and prejudices. Where’s the humanity? Where’s the compassion?

 

Rating: 1 out of 5.

The Rise of the Deplorables: Part 2

The symbolic power of the flag has undergone a renaissance over the last decade or so, particularly in the UK and America and, currently, your response to your national flag, more often than not, reflects your political outlook and societal values. In both the UK and America the national flag has become synonymous with patriotism…

oscardiamond's avatar by oscardiamond

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…

oscardiamond's avatar by oscardiamond

Walk, run, think (kindly thoughts)

Ball mobiles are on hold at the moment. I’m currently working on aluminium and brass wires supporting flat aluminium paddles or end pieces, attached by rivets. Like most worthwhile activities, all it takes is time, focus and application. Irritatingly, these tend to elude me. I need to get a grip and create a more disciplined…

oscardiamond's avatar by oscardiamond
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New/old Tories crawl out of the septic tank and hose themselves down. Heart disorder stops me running.

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This year, I’ve made it super difficult for people to negotiate their way to the kitchen door without a machete.

Hollyhocks and verbena bonariensis are in the ascendancy this year.The hollyhocks have developed rust, which is disfiguring, but height seems unaffected and they are flowering well.

My running regime was going quite nicely, thank you very much, until the day of my birthday, nearly six weeks ago, when I developed atrial fibrillation. I was running with my pal, Rob, in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by fields, when I lost puff and felt breathless. I recovered quickly but after several hundred metres, I had to stop again. I tried to run a few times before giving up and walking back to civilisation. I soon discovered that my pulse was irregular and elevated and so it has remained. My heart medication, bisoprolol, has been doubled and will soon be be tripled and I’m on an anticoagulant. My heart could revert back to a normal rhythm spontaneously. If it doesn’t, I’ll probably have a cardioversion procedure in several months, where a small electrical jolt to the heart hopefully reinstates a normal, strong beat.

So, disappointing in the extreme for me at present. The hospital has said I can continue normal activities, including running. In the last six weeks I have run one 5k which went okay. I ran less fast and didn’t feel breathless. Since then I have had covid and currently the weather in the UK has been very hot. Today, the maximum local temperature is expected to top 40c. I’ll run another 5k when the temperature returns to normal and then I’ll increase the bisoprolol as prescribed. I’m a bit wary of doing this. It may drop my blood pressure to the point where I experience dizziness. The doctor said that there was a greater chance of my heart reverting back spontaneously on the bigger dosage. My suggestion she put me on a huge dose of placebo fell on deaf ears so all my extensive evidence that placebo can be very effective, indeed life altering, went for nought.

Johnson is still scuttling around on the periphery making forlorn and absurdist statements but, essentially, he has collapsed under the weight of his own arrogance, hubris and mendacity. Unfortunately, these are not qualities a large section of the Tory party membership and supporting voters can easily recognize. They simply don’t care. The four leading candidates for the vacant post of UK Prime Minister all served under Boris Johnson and defended his blatant lying and contempt for acceptable rules of conduct. They were, and are, his creatures. Johnson’s appeal was irresistible to the lowest common denominator of voters who placed personality well above policy, fairness and competence, who valued humour which easily disguised the ugly reality of the impact of Tory “values”and applauded the racist mindset which espoused to make Great Britain great again. The simpletons ensured Brexit happened through Johnson and his ilk. We are all demonstrably poorer for Brexit. It’s defenders point to the global economic situation, the Ukrainian disaster and the impact of covid but will not countenance the obvious harm departure from the EU is currently causing. Trade has shrunk, there is a great contraction in available workers in many industries and the NHS is desperately short of staff. Red tape has increased and new trade agreements are lacking. Economic growth has stalled and our supermarket shelves are sadly depleted. It was all predicted.

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Winter running. The cold, the wind, the mud. It’s predictable, like Tory sleaze.

Two daughters and one boyfriend ran the Cambridge 10k the day before I ran the half last October. It all went very well. It’s satisfying that all my five children have been running at some stage and will return to it when their circumstances allow. Running. Who wouldn’t want to do it, huh!

I’ve managed to run consistently since my last post in November 2021, without injury, and covering 30-35k weekly. I now have a new running chum whom I meet weekly in an adjacent village. This has resulted in new running routes, which is very welcome, since I have relied on just two for years. It’s also added a new dimension to running, namely, chatting. Having been a lone runner for decades, I wouldn’t have guessed this would be conducive, but it is. Of course, our weekly runs aren’t competitive. My strategy in any races we do together is to encourage chatting while I listen attentively and then pull ahead towards the finish, using the reserves of breath I’ve held back. It’s a fool proof wheeze. Possibly.

I’ve also returned to parkrun on an occasional basis. Occasional because of the covid risk but also, since the sad demise of Cambridge parkrun at Milton, because of the travel involved. Storey’s Field, Eddington, a new town on the edge of Cambridge, is my chosen parkrun at present. It’s very well organised and there are plenty of familiar faces, yet I still pine for Milton.

Under two weeks until the Cambridge half marathon. I’ve now done two training 21k sessions and feel set to go. The last Cambridge half was in October 2021, deferred from the previous March, so now it’s back to its original time of year.

Prime Minister’s Question time, broadcast live on the BBC each Wednesday, never fails to be an education. Boris Johnson, having won the last election with a vast majority, has proved that you can fool most of the people, most of the time. Huge swathes of traditionally Labour voters were persuaded to leave Europe based on government cultivated xenophobic anxieties regarding immigration, loss of British jobs to foreigners, loss of British sovereignty and jurisdiction and the assertion that the haemorrhage of tax payers money to the EU would cease and go directly to boost the NHS. What is it about the British electorate that provokes them to regress to uttering simplistic demands about “wanting their freedom back” and instancing minor examples of European law and bureacracy?

The Ukraine crisis has proved to be a get-out-of-jail card for Johnson, allowing a diversion of attention away from the government’s handling of Covid and the scandal of numerous social parties organised by the government during the lockdowns, egregiously breaching their own rules, and showing contempt for ordinary people. Johnson clearly revels in playing an inflated role as the elder statesman on the world stage. He does this well, with confidence, conviction and powers of persuasion instilled in him by his class and education. That’s how the Tories excel. They project and amplify emotions that target the electorate’s fears, anxieties, prejudices and sense of being disadvantaged. They shamelessly use their own statistics to demonstrate success, relying on a credulous electorate to be impressed. Think about the thousands of extra nurses, doctors and billions going into the NHS. Don’t think about the previous lack of investment and cuts to services and loss of hospital beds. Do be awed by the repetition of billions of PPE items obtained during the pandemic and regular announcements of further billions of pounds being expended on the NHS. Don’t mention the government reacted slowly to provide equipment, or abandoned care home residents to die in their tens of thousands. Or that a a large scale excercise concerning management of a pandemic a few years earlier pin pointed exactly what was needed to meet such a contingency, but had its findings and recommendations ignored.

This is what the Tories do best. They are, collectively, a master class in expert, nuanced manipulation directed against a softened up, beguiled public in thrall to posh boy politicians and hard nosed, cruel female counterparts.

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What have we learnt over the last year?

 

It’s a very broad question and, of course, we all learn differently. So what have I learnt? {Yes, it’s all about me. me, me}. I have been deeply impressed by the kindness, forebearance and bravery of others, particularly in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic. The suffering and loss has prompted deep compassion and continuing, everyday examples of innate humanity, despite the backdrop of an incompetent and complacent government. But, then again, that’s what I would expect because most people, under the most trying circumstances, would endeavour to act responsibly and sensibly and follow rules designed to alleviate the current crisis. The severe restrictions may have brought financial hardship, increased poverty, unemployment, loss of movement, prevented social interaction with family and friends and  stopped activities we took for granted but life, although curtailed, carries on. Nevertheless, the cost to many is huge.

So far, so positive. I don’t find the above remarkable. It’s what I expect. It’s not an eye opener. But some of the responses to the Covid pandemic and the American presidential election and its aftermath do turn a spotlight on a number of disturbing beliefs and an apparent willingness to act upon them.

Covid and Trump’s America have exposed and highlighted the existence of a willingness to embrace fantasy as fact and condemn unacceptable facts as fake. Both Trump and Boris Johnson trade in arousing negative sentiments and heightening emotions to influence people. Trump in particular is skilled at exploiting resentment and amplifying feelings of loss, unfairness, anger and hatred. He points the finger and creates targets for the aroused masses to focus their attention. In America, Trump has been able to sidestep reality and construct his own elaborate conspiracy theory to explain his defeat. He blithely faces down any kind of fact based argument, rubbishes anyone who disagrees and tramples democratic norms. In the Uk Boris Johnson doesn’t have to go to such lengths because the levels of anger and seething bitterness in the UK are much less virulent. We tend to fall for wealthy right wing stand up comedians to pull the wool over our eyes instead.

Why do so many people fall for politicians like Trump and Johnson? Why are they able to marshal such negative passions in so many of us? Their supporters are not psychologically minded. They are primed to react, to be aroused, to release their anger, aggression and sense of losing out, of being tricked. Their focus isn’t on community or fairness but on loss and identifying  who has taken it from them. They don’t think, they feel. That’s the nature of right wingers. Even if you feel I have presented an exagerrated caricature the evidence in both America and the UK is that the middle of the road conservatives will hold their noses and still support a fascist narcissist or someone who makes them laugh. Theses politicians are able to stir the deep well of aggression and negative emotions a lot of us obviously possess.

Phew! Back to something less controversial. Despite my dodgy right knee I’ve managed to run around 32k each week. That’s three 9ks and one timed 5k. My knee is still weak and stiff but running isn’t problematic. Part of my run is along an old Roman Road called Mere Way (currently threatened by the construction of a waste water treatment plant}. It’s exceedingly muddy for most of its length. We’ve had a lot of rain and the ground is saturated. It won’t be drying up any time soon. We are still in partial covid lockdown and there are no races on the horizon yet apart from Cambridge half marathon scheduled for October. Entry is by competitive ballot this year. I’ll do it if I can, Covid allowing.

I’ve just had a phone call from my GP surgery offering me a Pfizer vaccine. It’s the only advantage to having heart disease. Yippee!

 

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British Understatement : 2020, a funny old year

 

Or rather, not funny at all. Certainly not funny ha ha and funny peculiar hardly describes it. But humour is a complicated thing and frequently misunderstood. I tend to spontaneously half gasp, half chuckle when I hear something outrageous or emotionally upsetting as related to me by others talking about their own unfortunate experiences. Surprisingly, no-one has ever found this response disrespectful or upsetting because they recognise my empathy and sense of outrage on their behalf. I reacted strongly because of my sense of unfairness and appreciation of their emotional hurt. Professionally, when I was working, I did a great deal of half chuckling, half gasping, sometimes even laughing out loud. I heard many accounts of emotional suffering, often spoken with sadness and resignation and they were never less than shocking. My responses never caused offence.

And now, in 2020, I’m still unable to stifle grunts, gasps, sharp intakes of breath, groans, sighs and bewildered expressions. I spend a lot of time feeling incredulous and disbelieving. While I’m at it, throw in pained expressions and open-mouthed shock as well.

Am I exaggerating? Of course, but not greatly. The events and behaviour, provoking these reactions are all around. Boris Johnson’s UK and Trump’s America provide countless examples of right-wing cultivation of people’s fears and prejudices which produce unkind, cruel and partisan policies .Both are populist governments heavily reliant on the populations’ deep reservoirs of anger, resentment, xenophobia and sense of betrayal. Lip service is given to the needs and welfare of the community and individual vulnerable groups. Maximum emphasis is placed on loss, damaging cultural change and ethnic groups or countries taking unfair advantage.

Brexit is a prime example in the UK. Another was the UK government’s determination not to fund free school meals for the children whose parents lost income during the pandemic restrictions or would normally be eligible if schools were open. The government, in the first pandemic wave, was responsible for the wholesale neglect of the elderly in care homes which resulted in many thousands of deaths.

The Trump administration demonstrates that absolute power can corrupt absolutely and how the normal checks and balances embedded in a democracy can be found wanting. He has wantonly and effortlessly degraded the office of the President, given succour to racists and the extreme right wing, run rough shod over normal and decent values, crudely whipped up violent and disruptive groups and lies without compunction. Trump is a single individual who has contrived to prove fascism is not only alive and kicking but can also accrue widespread support. A shameful, vicious and extremely embarrassing episode in American politics.

On the positive side, Covid 19 vaccinations are over the horizon, crazy anti vaccinators notwithstanding, and my running is stepping up. Despite my right knee remaining puffy and a tad stiff, I can run every other day. I can do 5k and 9k without obvious problems and I recently did 15k successfully. That means a half marathon is within range and I’ve pre-registered for the Cambridge half which is scheduled for October 2021. I’ve got high hopes that parkrun will recommence by the Spring when the vaccination programme is up and running.

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Last gasp of summer as second covid wave arrives

The little sunflower is still intact but summer in the UK came to an end today with plummeting temperatures and rain in the south. It’s coinciding with an upsurge in positive corona virus infections, a growing increase in hospital admissions, more severe restrictions on social interaction, limiting pub and restaurant opening times and government advice to work from home (again) wherever possible.

It’s pointless to speculate how a Labour government might have managed the impact of covid 19 on society and the economy. We only know and experience how the present Tory incumbents are handling the unprecedented challenges. We know, for example, that substantial lockdown measures were introduced far too late in March, that the Tory government abandoned test and trace measures around the same time and care homes, along with their vulnerable residents, were disasterously left to fend for themselves. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, famously asserted that he had thrown a “protective ring” around the care home sector, a claim that was competely hollow and a willful, cynical misrepresentation.

The government mantra is they are led by the science but the measures they announce to combat the virus are political and with an eye to their popularity.

Governments worldwide are having to manage unprecedented circumstances and formulate contingency plans. In essence, it’s a balance between saving lives and saving the economy. At present, without an effective vaccination available, in any given population, there are loud voices giving  emphasis to personal and family risk while many oppose severe measures because of the resultant loss of economic demand and consequential unemployment.

This UK government has a history of spin, bluster, slick presentation and dependence on feel-good bromides and platitudes. They are massaging the covid statistics and their “NHS”test and trace programme is not fit for purpose. Boris Johnson has the temerity to give it give it the prefix NHS but in reality it should be termed Serco test and trace. Led by Dido Harding, it’s a good example of Tory nepotism as is her appointment.

Currently, the running has come to a dead halt. Until recently I was running 9k every other day and my weak, stiff knee was coping well. Unfortunately I pushed it bit further by adding a 5k session in without sufficient recovery. Result? A painful unrunnable knee. Now having at least a week’s rest. Oh dear! But I can walk. Phew!

 

 

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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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A different reality now. I’m grateful to be able to run

Under the UK Covid -19 restrictions we are allowed a daily period of exercise, up to an hour, and within a reasonable distance of home as long as the journey does not exceed the period of exercise. I am in the lucky position, living in the countryside, of not having to negotiate my way past people on narrow pavements and maintain social distancing. It’s much easier to run around walkers by running into the road now that there is much less traffic. The density of population is far less so there are fewer people around.

Nevertheless there is a heightened fear and anxiety, in some,  of runners spreading contamination by coughing, spluttering, spitting and heavy breathing when they pass. particularly if they do not give a wide birth. All runners and cyclists have a responsibility to behave with care and consideration, especially at the present time. There is a running etiquette to observe and this includes not alarming people. In previous times it was good manners not to startle pedestians by passing too closely or by coughing to announce your presence if there were few peope about. Coughing, of course, is wholly inappropriate now but all runners need to think ahead and behave sensibly.

My knee injury is coming up to a year old. It’s still stiff, weak and a little swollen. My appointment at the Musculo-skeletal clinic is on hold indefinitely. Nevertheless I am able to run up to 8-9k every other day without experiencing discomfort or pain. So it has improved and unless I ask too much, hopefully it will continue.

We may feel we are hunkering down and waiting for the Covid crisis to pass but there is no justification for suspending our critical faculties. You would hope that your government would act with integrity and in good faith. That they would take timely decisions acccording to need and necessity and the process would be transparent.

The daily government, medical and science press briefing are a wonder to behold. Boris Johnson, before he became seriously ill with Covid-19, was gung ho, up beat and clearly didn’t take matters seriously enought to practise social distancing. The government maintained the fiction that he was only mildly unwell and still fully in charge up to the point he was taken to ITU.

Each  briefing brings an avalanche of numbers concerning items of personal protective equipment suggesting the government is meeting supply needs despite the clamour from hospitals ,nurses, doctors and others anxiously reporting the complete opposite.

The care homes appear to have been abandoned in terms of PPE. Not only do they have an appalling lack of PPE, the government has failed to include their high level of mortality in the numbers dying from Covid-19.

Covid-19 have caused a disproportionate number of deaths among the black, asian and minority ethnic population. The goverment was very slow to acknowledge this fact. They have also substantially under recorded the number of deaths among health care workers and people working in health care. Their preferred focus is on doctors and nurses to whom they readily pay lavish homage. Porters and ancillary staff don’t quite cut it.

The press/media questions after the briefing do not bring any clarity. The minister of the day, flanked by medical and science experts either do not answer the relatively tame questions or resort to generalities, spin, platitudes or just plain praising their own efforts.

I believe the government was very slow to react to the virus threat initially and several weeks were lost. I think a lot of decisions are made which are politically inspired despite the mantra that they have always been led by the science.

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Covid 19 has changed everything

The Cambridge half marathon took place on the cusp of more Draconian measures to combat the corona virus, on March 8th. So quickly have we been conditioned to self distance to protect ourselves, it feels unsettling to see these images.


Cambridge and Coleridge come in first and second (middle and right side C and C’er respectively). There should be a law to ensure they are putting in maximum effort and suffering at all times. I know this is the start of the race but they still looked composed at the end of it.

 No family member took part this year. I’ve still got a dodgy knee and my eldest son was unwell and had to forgo his place

In the UK, at present time of writing, we are allowed to exercise once daily, outside our homes, and appropriately observing social distancing requirements. My knee is still problematic, and my referral to the muscular-skeletal clinic has probably fallen into a black hole but I’m able to run short distances each day. The roads are very quiet and lots of people are walking around who wouldn’t normally be on the streets. Plenty of us are running. Personally, I feel the fitter I am, the greater resilience I will have if I contract the virus. I’m in one of the vulnerable categories because of heart disease so I am particularly careful. I feel fit and my lung capacity must be good. I don’t feel at risk but, of course, I risk others’ health if I become ill.

The middle class are about to discover the cruelty of Britain’s benefits system

The coronavirus crisis ignites a bonfire of Conservative party orthodoxies

Coronavirus exposes society’s fragility. Let’s find solutions that endure once it’s over

It takes a whole world to create a new virus, not just China

The above links are to Guardian or Observer articles and offer analysis to these drastically changing times. It’s ironic that the Labour Party’s manifesto, before the last Uk election in December 2019, was roundly criticised for its profligacy on spending plans to transform British society. We are in a crisis now and there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of financial help. This may be vital to maintain confidence in our economic system and prevent societal unrest and civil disorder. But the same Tories have presided over swingeing cuts to the NHS, education, social services, children’s services and local goverment for well over a decade  I had an argument with an idiot in a hospital outpatient clinic who kept on repeating “Where’s the money coming from?” The right wing have done such a good job in subverting the concept of public good and replacing it with fear and condemnation and personal threat, a large number of people can’t see the wood for the trees.

So galling seeing the Tories and their scientific and medical friends, standing at lecterns which proclain” Protect the NHS”, during the daily press briefings. As if they believe that.

I believe there will be a reckoning when this present emergency subsides and hopefully the evil Tories won’t succeed in spinning their own version of events.

Pity the poor Americans. Trump living on another planet and unable to string a coherent sentence together and suffering  wholly inadequate health care and social benefit systems. Where’s the humanity?