Back to the Cotswolds, Theresa May is still UK Prime Minister!

Back to the Cotswolds

Last weekend we stayed in the Cotswolds to celebrate a birthday. I have said before that I find it beautiful even when it's raining. Well, we arrived, and it started snowing! First snow this winter and it's only the end of October!

Bibury

Despite the fact that we are lucky enough to live so close to the Cotswolds, I am still surprised by the beauty of many of its towns and villages. Bibury (pictured above), Burford, Barnsley (the B's) are some of my favourites.

Calcot

We stayed in a gorgeous, typically Cotswold building in Calcot, making very good use of the roaring log fires they had burning in the lounges and corridor. We even tried out the fuming outdoor hot bath which we enjoyed as it snowed on us. Next to the bath was of course a log burning fire so the air was mixed with smoke fumes and steam from the bath!

Theresa May is still Prime Minister!

After the UK Prime Minister called the ill-advised election in June last year, designed to sure up her majority but having the opposite effect, I predicted she would not last long. I was wrong. She is performing a near impossible task of trying to keep the opposing factions of her own party on-side, negotiating with the EU on the Brexit terms and keeping her majority in the Commons by relying on support from the DUP MPs representing Northern Ireland and with yet another different agenda. Each of those tasks is near impossible. Oh and she also has a country to run although clearly non Brexit related issues are relegated to the unimportant tasks list.

Her task is almost impossible and she will deserve credit if she succeeds which is currently looking unlikely although everyone seems to agree that no deal would be the worst deal of all. One recent development has been the utterings of the hard Brexiteers who are increasingly sounding like swivel-eyed loons when you re-consider their earlier predictions of an easy peasy Brexit in the context of the current climate:

"The free-trade agreement that we will have to do with the EU should be one of the easiest in human history" Liam Fox July 20th 2017

"There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside."  David Davis October 10th 2016

"The day after we vote to leave we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want." Michael Gove April 9th 2016

"There will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market." Boris Johnson June 26th 2016

"Getting out of the EU can be quick and easy – the UK holds most of the cards in any negotiation."
John Redwood July 17th 2016

"To me, Brexit is easy." Nigel Farage September 20th 2016

Are these elected representatives stupid, evil or just utterly mis-guided? Only one thing is certain to me at the moment; when they are challenged in a few years' time on why Brexit hasn't brought the benefits they promised, they will simply blame Theresa May for negotiating a poor deal.

My Quote of the Month

"Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 19 and 6, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and 6 result misery. Mr Micawber, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 1850.