From Conservatism to Catholicism

 Thankfully I still have my online prayer retreat with St Beunos. Veronica has been wonderful and really helped me to focus on what matters.  This Jesuit way of going on is really very good you know. If only for the fact it is a real break. You have to believe, of course you do. But that's all.  I'm pleased that I have this Jesuit business on top, or rather, underneath Catholicism. I'm trying to explain it and struggling. I suppose its like being a mechanic and focusing on magnetos. Even better, more like being an artist but wedded to pastels. That's a better illustration if you'll pardon the expression. Perhaps its that Denis McBride book but there is a lot of art in the Catholic Church from what I can see and I like it. Never very artistic at school and always sceptical of 'artists' or the media type who I always felt should go out and get a proper job.  Compared the Jehovah's Witnesses, this is a very different way of looking at the Bible, they tend t...

  Good morning, I have just been to Buckingham Palace and accepted His Majesty The King’s invitation to form a government in his name. It is only right to explain why I am standing here as your new Prime Minister. Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis.  The aftermath of Covid still lingers.  Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss, she was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country, it is a noble aim.  And I admired her restlessness to create change. But some mistakes were made.  Not borne of ill will or bad intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact. But mistakes nonetheless.  And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your Prime Minister, in part, to fix them. And that work begins immediately. I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda.  This will mean difficult decisions to...

 Talks with Boris and Rishi have come to nothing apparently. I think as a party we should be hanging our heads in shame and its nice to see we are. Members are now allowed to vote online due to the timeframe. Which isn't overly fair on elderly voters in my opinion.  But when did the party last care about us or indeed the country? What annoys me is that none of the old boys came forward, no one stepped up. They are just standing by watching this happen. In a way, the selection process maybe to blame due to the lack of loyalty for they choose candidates with no experience in associations and lets face it, parliament is a scaled up parish council.  I think we can all see which way this is going...

 Sir Graham Brady has said this is all going to be sorted within a week, hopefuls need to get a hundred votes and then it will go the members.  The media is crying out for Boris who is coming back early from his holidays with his new girlfriend  wife and mother of his two youngest children.  I keep breaking down in tears, thinking of him and that love story and those blonde haired children and that scruffy rescue dog from the Christmas card he sent me. To see that family back in Downing Street would be like a Disney film. Justice would be served. Stability restored. Lessons learnt.  I wonder if he will. Frankly, why should he? After the way he was treated? If it can turn me off the party I've loved for so long, surely it would do the same to him. Now we've interrupted his holiday.  The media are really pushing for Boris, the same ones that pushed him over the edge. Bless him. We will just have to see what happens. This has certainly got my interest in the p...

 Honestly, she's tiny. Today she has gone.  I did feel sorry for her. She was the anti Rishi vote really because nobody wanted to reward the backstabber.  Watching her resignation speech I could see she was glad to get be getting out of there, the poor woman has probably not slept a wink and will be relieved to have the pressure off.  In all fairness, she did what she said she would do. Cut taxes. Now, I remember her and her chancellor - Kwasi Kwarteng from a book they were involved with together called Britannia Unchanged.  I remember saying to someone that I suspected the appointment of Kwasi was would you believe a political one. Let's go back to Rishi who replaced Sajid. Sajid father was a bus driver - something he liked to keep quiet - joke. He was always on about it. Coming from the May days and thinking he was good in local government (I've heard both sides) he was gone at the beginning of the pandemic.  The appointment of the entirely unheard of Ris...

 Not only do they queue out the door for the Eucharist, they queue up to get in! I got there just as the bells were ringing and my 'best seat in the house' is now routinely taken. I went further the front, only two rows back. What an absolutely packed church. Can't believe it still. Not all old ladies either, or Eastern Europeans either, there's modern young people from all over.  So many children, carrying candlesticks and doing a noticeboard. Its lovely. I just love that church. Talk about a secret club.  The priest notices me you know, one can sense him taking note of my presence.  Last time I was there, when they said Father Patrick was leaving, I heard some hinterland chatter that he would never be replaced, its impossible and we'd all been so lucky and isn't it a shame and things were getting a bit doom gloomy so I distanced myself from the talk. I'm not interested in the ins and outs of the committee etc. But it did make me think, what a shame.  The t...

So, I got another job in the end, a writing job. Which will give me more time at home. That's important as a mother and as a woman.  I went up to Edinburgh and had a handover, thus missing the Tory Party Conference. Well frankly, I'm not sorry. Its all about what they did to Boris. Looking back at the people who I first mixed with, I see they were MPs back in 1966. They are dead now but they taught me so much, firstly vicariously and then, directly. I was a lucky girl and there is a structure and model of behaviour that has lead to the Conservative party being the oldest and most successful political party in the entire world. Although when we compare it to Catholicism, there is a little bit of difference in the longevity, you'd have to say!  I'm noticing a bit of an uprising in Christianity, people are giving off signs, wearing the cross is just one. Perhaps its a fashion statement or a protest against Islam but more likely I think young people are searching out other ...