Eroticdreambattle

If David Cameron had had his way- and not been thwarted by a free vote in Parliament- we would now be fighting alongside the Syrian rebels who include Mr Baghdadi's Islamic State. What a difference a year makes. Now the rebels are the bad guys and young Brits who are doing exactly what Cameron wanted the British armed forces to do are being criminalized.

I notice we're hearing much less now about what a genocidal bastard Assad is. The media- in deference to the weathercock change in government policy- have piped down about his atrocities. Instead they're going on about the wickedness of Baghdadi's lot. Look, they chop people's heads off and oppress women- how very medieval of them! (Just like our very good friends the Saudis- only lets not talk about that.)

Boris Johnson wants to suspend one of the cornerstones of British liberty in the case of young persons returning from Syria- and treat them as guilty until proved otherwise.

Please, everyone, remember this when the conniving, amoral, cynical, power-crazed little shit makes his bid to become prime minister of the UK.  

It's been raining all day. Ailz told me I wouldn't melt so I put on my hat and coat and did my usual patrol round the fields- taking special care not to tread on all the big black slugs.

I over-heard my mother talking on the phone to my sister this evening. "No," she said. "It hasn't been raining here."

I do get low. I don't dwell on it here because I don't want this blog to be a moan. "Accentuate the positive" is one of my mottoes. Besides the black mood passes. This evening I had my supper (just a bowl of cereal) an hour earlier than my mother because breaking out of her routines eases the sense of entrapment.

I'm  re-reading- Robert Aickman's "strange" stories. "Strange" was his preferred term for them because he didn't like "horror" and "ghost" is hardly accurate.   (This, by the way, is his centenary year and Faber is celebrating it by reissuing all his fiction. And about time too). Aickman is my idea of comfort reading.