Monday 20 June 2016

Bloody Getty Images

The weather is really beginning to get me down. Endless rain is not a great deal of fun at the best of times but of course, in our case, there's the added fear that it might make our roof collapse. Fiona texted this morning to say that it had done nothing but chuck it down in Brighton last night and Brother Edward yesterday stared wistfully at the bruised, heavy sky behind the O2 whilst talking about his Spanish lesson on Skype with a bloke in Spain where the weather looked beautiful. Warm, summery light was apparently pouring through the windows. I long for summer...

We've borrowed a de-humidifier from the parents to see if we can suck a bit of moisture out of our flood-damaged flat. I don't know whether to believe the figure on the machine which seemed to suggest we had a humidity level in the sitting room of 80. Is that 80%? Surely not! Anyway, over night it's gone down to 60, which implies a 25% improvement whatever the figures represent.

The water-logged air merged with fairly high temperatures is causing all sorts of issues. People stink on the tube, and my new osteopath, obviously a bit of a sweater, had to treat me with an electric fan blowing cool air into the space.

I read today that Getty Images provided Nigel Farage with the image of the queue of migrants he used for his deeply disturbing "Rivers of Blood" poster. This has made me feel really very angry. A respectable news-gathering organisation like Getty should NOT be thinking with their wallets and selling their images to be used cynically like this. It is wholly unacceptable, and I would even go as far as to suggest that Getty think about donating whatever amount they made from licensing the photograph to one of Jo Cox' charities.

The same newspaper informed me that members of the ghastly Westboro Baptist Church have been picketing the funerals of people who died in the Orlando shooting. That's right. That's how low and fundamentally lacking in humanity those nasty little so-called Christians are. Sometimes I wish there were a God, so that he could condemn those pricks to eternal damnation. Imagine the looks on their smug faces. Talk about adding religion-fuelled misery to religion-fuelled misery. How about these people take a look at their own lives before condemning others?

I am proud to say that the "handful" of protestors from Westboro were "blocked from view" by 200 counter protestors with large angel wings hired from a local theatre! I bloody love my community. We always seem to turn hatred into love and throw a bit of humour into the bargain.

Speaking of Orlando, I also read today that Noor Salman, the murderer's drudge of a second wife, actually knew about his intentions to kill people and that police are still deciding whether to press charges. Press away, I say. Teach that hate-filled brainwashed, sack of nothingness to value humanity.

All this said, I feel a sense of optimism in the air tonight. I went into central London to meet an old friend and when I emerged from Compton's, the lovely shrine to Orlando was still there, still covered in flowers and candles and the sky was a brilliant blue. There were glorious fluffy clouds in the sky and the buildings around Tottenham Court Road were glowing like they'd been dipped in golden syrup. I passed a sandwich board which reported that the football association had "put the boot in on Brexit." I don't know what the story is, but I'm hoping it's another vote for sense and kindness over paranoia, racism and bitterness. The pound is strengthening in the light of recent polls which suggest that the Brexit campaign is losing its grip, and Jo Cox is being talked up as a martyr. Kindness is winning. Last week was one of the darkest of many people's lives. Could there be a glimmer of hope on the horizon?

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