Apologies for the fact my blogging has become a bit scrappy of late. There’s been a number of reasons for that which include a lack of time and also inclination. Part of me wants to sit down and do some serious spleen-venting at the state of British politics and the whole shit-show that is the Tory party leadership contest where people are falling over themselves to appeal to the narrowest section of the British electorate – Tory party members, who’re mostly pale, male and stale – not to mention completely out of touch with the real world. Let’s face it, the days of a ‘one-nation’ Tory party are long gone. Johnson saw to that. Now they’ve morphed into UKIP. The contestants lining up for a shot at the job of PM have nothing to offer the country. They’re not interested in the troubles of the country, they’re only interested in what they have to say to get the votes of party members to get the top job and satisfy their own personal ambitions. Whoever wins, it will end badly, because none of them have any sense of the mess they’ve made of running the country these past 12 years – or how to dig us out of the mire they’ve sunk us in. Laughably, some of them talk of a ‘new start’, completely forgetting any new start isn’t them, it’s just swapping one liar for another. At some point my spleen will have to be vented before it does me damage, but right now I have other things to think about closer to home, which includes navigating my way through the economic shit-show these jokers have helped get us into.

Oh, and there’s still trying to enjoy life whilst I can. No, really!

Meanwhile, here in the Calder Valley the idea that we’re about to see record temperatures in the next few days seems rather far-fetched. The past few days have been noticeably cooler and windier than late, but I’m not letting that lull me into a false sense of security. We may escape the worst of the heatwave that’s coming up here in the Pennines but there’s no doubt that the climate’s changing – for the worse. Sadly, far too many people don’t seem to understand what this means for the future, it’s all seen as a bit of a joke, just another laugh about the weather. I suspect some people won’t be laughing come Wednesday…

We really do need to start waking up to the realities of climate change, but then I look at the way sections of the media downplay it – and then there’s one of the main contenders for the Tory leadership (Mordant) receiving funding from climate-change deniers and I start to wonder if the human race hasn’t had its day. We have the largest brain of any primate – yet so many of us refuse to use them! All I can say is that I’m glad I’m the age that I am and that I got to see so many beautiful places on planet Earth as I doubt my youngest nephews and nieces will have that privilege as those places will be unrecognisable.

Yep, you’ve guessed it – I’m in a pensive mood. I’ll not detain you any longer – it is Friday night after all. Instead, I’ll leave you with the picture of the day, which is of another far gentler primate to us – but one that’s increasingly under threat from its ‘brainer’ cousin. I took this picture of a mother Orang Utan with her baby in Sumatra in August 1998. Since then we’ve buggered up even more of the jungles they live in…