Local elections in Portugal will take place on Sunday 26^th September and all EU citizens and Brits have the right to vote.

June . We do like to be beside the seaside  - having beach barbeques at the G7 summit in Cornwall. The Indian – sorry, Delta – mutation of Covid 19 seems miles away and social distancing is very much for others as the Leaders of the Free World take in the joys of the English Riviera.

May. The `Indian mutation` of the Coronavirus hits Britain and throws the June 21^st `back to normal` deadline into doubt Fish Wars break out between France and Britain in the Channel Islands and a gunboat is sent.

April, a month of two halves. Dignity, service and loyalty following the death of The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at the beginning and squalid and unseemly wrangling over who said what, when and to whom and who paid for the curtains in the Prime Minister`s flat above Number Eleven Downing Street at the end.

The phoney `vaccine war `is a fig leaf designed to obscure the failure on the part of Commissioner Von Der Leyen and the EU to roll out an effective vax programme while the UK Government notches up a significant post-Cummings success in its approach to the pandemic. Less attractive is the Government`s offer of aone-per-cent pay increase as a `reward` to NHS staff for their service on the front line.

STOP PRESS!!! A line in the Budget statement suggests that the Government may be going to honour its pledge to grant “votes for Life” in General Elections in the next session of Parliament. We await the Queen`s Speech with interest!

With 39,9 thousand Null votes, 5,081,0 Abstentions, 46,9 Blank, and 255,0 Others (nanoparties) NABO won with some 58%!

January. Back to School. For a day. Schools are safe? Yes, but no, but yes but no. School`s out! Except for a growing number of vulnerable children and the children of key workers. Confusion and indecision in the Department for Education leaves Teachers in despair. Parliament is recalled for the second time to approve school closures. Keir “Captain Hindsight” Starmer wants schools open…er, no…shut.