1^st June already? Shit, where did May go? – and I don’t mean the Prime Minister as that’s another blog entirely!

Apologies for my complete absence last month. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say or comment on it’s just that last month turned into a busy time that left me little opportunity to really compose my thoughts. I was full of good intentions to write some stuff whilst I’ve been on my travels but other stuff got in the way. Those of you who visit my photography website will be aware that I’ve been busy scanning and uploading hundreds of old slides. I’ve been concentrating on the ones I took just before I went digital, the problem there is that most of them were never catalogued properly, so they sat in photo albums unlabelled. It’s been the devil’s own job to try and caption and collate them as I had to dredge through old notebook but I’m getting there – finally! The rest are already entered on a database so they’ll be easier to do.

Besides the slides I’ve been busy with various press events and other jobs, including a trip on the first Eurostar e320 to Brussels as well as social events and my fiance’s birthday. We had a fantastic long-weekend in Cumbria which included walking up Scafell on the hottest day of the year so far. Here’s a sample of the views from the top.

You can find the rest here.

 Now the country finds itself a week away from what’s probably the strangest election in my lifetime. I’ll be honest here – I have absolutely no idea what the result will be. Despite having said she wouldn’t, Teresa May finally called it – only to see it blow up in her face. She’s seen a 21 point lead shrink into single figures, despite her opponent being the most unpopular Labour leader for decades. The Tories appear to have made a crucial error in basing their campaign as being all about Teresa’s personality and appeal. Their problem is – she has neither! The election’s been one of the most lacklustre and negative I can remember. If I hear her parrot vacuous phrases like ‘strong and stable’ once more…

The irony is, she called the election but then she ran away! She’s refused to sully her hands in a debate with anyone else and positively avoided any meaningful contact with voters. When interviewed she trots out trite, meaningless phrases that the media really shouldn’t be letting her get away with. If Labour had a decent leader with broad appeal they’d walk this election. Sadly, they haven’t although I’ve got to admit that Jeremy Corbyn has come across better in this campaign. Like many, I’ll be staying up to watch the results come in when the polls close. My prediction is that the Tories will win but what their majority will be is anyone’s guess. This election’s like no other and the effect tactical voting plus the collapse of UKIP will have is unpredictable.

What I can’t understand is the way Brexit is the elephant in the room that no-one mentions. Brexit makes a mockery of fine phrases about having ‘costed’ policies when none of the parties are being honest about what Brexit (especially the hard Brexit the Tories look to favour) will cost the UK economy. It’s madness, but that’s the way the UK seems to work nowadays. It’s like an economic version of the ‘phoney war’.