From my desk 6th November 2020

Last week a picture of Nigel Farrage appeared on various social media platforms. Nothing unusual about that as the man thrives on publicity, of any sort. This one picture showed him in Washington DC proudly displaying a betting slip purporting to confirm he had placed $10,000 of his children’s inheritance on Donald Trump to win a second term at odds of 15/8. As I am writing this on Friday evening (6th November 2020) that bet is not looking too good.

I have my doubts he did place such a bet.

The firm that is shown as taking the bet, Guessor, only operates online. They do not have retail outlets like William Hill, Paddy Power or Bet Fred where ordinary people can walk in with a wedge of cash and place a bet. If Nigel Farrage was genuine about this bet, then to salvage some integrity he could have at least put up a screen shot of his transaction. Also, in all my experience as a punter placing bets in a betting shop never, have I ever seen such a big betting slip. I don’t mean in value but in the size of the paper. All the betting slips I have had and sadly not collected on have not been any bigger than a petrol receipt; not the size of an A5 piece of paper. Finally, I cannot see any marks on the piece of paper showing a receipt stamp from the company who took the bet.

Enough on that subject.

On Saturday 31st October, after being backed into a corner by the media who had been leaked plans for a further lockdown in England, the Prime Minister announced a new raft of restrictions. No more visits to hostelries, gyms, hairdressers, beauty salons, shops that do not sell essentials and only travel when necessary for the citizens of this green and pleasant land. These measures urged these restrictions on all of us. “Stay at home” and “Together we can beat this virus”.

How come then he traveled to the East Midlands later in the week? Was he shopping for essentials? Was he checking up on housebound relatives? Was he travelling for work because there was no other way he could conduct his business? His party is in power for the next four years so he couldn't have been campaigning. Yet earlier in the week he could have maintained the tradition that all serving Prime Ministers address the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) via video link. He chose to break this tradition and missed an opportunity to build bridges with industries and businesses still harboring the wounds of his "F@&k business" comment to an EU diplomats back in June 2018 when he was serving as Foreign Secretary. He really needs to read Henry Kissinger's "Diplomacy".

Oh well, at least he did not visit any ancient monuments in the area. And hopefully, as he has an entourage of drivers and close protection personnel. He did not drive himself to test if his eye sight was good enough for driving.

During the first full day of this current lockdown a video appeared on social media showing the police enforcing the new restrictions on a gym that had remained opened. Comments attached to this video described the police action as being “Nazi” like. However, much people disagree with what the police were doing their actions, in my view, were nothing like those of that long gone regime. No, the British police were not attacking or destroying a business on those most irrational of ideological grounds; race. They were enforcing a law but before that they gave the offending person every opportunity to back down before arresting them to be dealt with through due legal process. Those are not the actions of fascists in uniform who attack on grounds of race or religion and are beyond the law.

The UK Government is criticized for its handling of the COVID 19 pandemic. Yes, they have appeared to be permanently on the back foot with their reactions. The latest being forced to bring forward the announcement of the current lock down plans. They have sent out mixed messages. Members of Parliament and the back room administration have been caught breaking the rules they themselves helped draft. It is not surprising there is a lack of confidence in the Government.

The strongest criticism comes from those who disagree with any form of lockdown. They suggest that previous restrictions have not worked in stemming the progress of the virus and conclude that if they don’t work why should we bother? Even my local MP, a staunch and lifelong Conservative party member, voted against his own Government when the restrictions were debated in Parliament.

Fair enough as we are all entitled to form our own opinions and express them freely. A situation we should cherish and fight to retain. At last a Conservative MP has had, what I believe to be to be misdirected, courage to ignore his party whip

Unfortunately, history is not like a video game where we can play away until we start losing and then start again with more knowledge about how to win. History never gives us that opportunity, so it is impossible to return to January 2020 when the pandemic started hitting the West. Press the restart button, play without any restrictions, see how many people die or end up in hospital and compare that data to what happened to measure success or failure in combating the virus.

It is impossible to be counterfactual.

Nigel Farrage is probably wishing he could be counterfactual with his bet now that VP Joe Biden has picked up a lead in the outstanding battleground states.