We’ve all got our stories of this second wave of ‘suppression’ but a short tale of my walk around Keswick this evening.

I left my hotel room, got to the bottom of the stairs and went to walk the 8? steps to the exit door when one of the young staff came bounding over and said...

...’you need to be wearing a mask mate - new rules came in last night’. That rather hacked me off - partly due to the zealous finger wagging but mainly to think how absurd after six days in this hotel of not having to wear one - now illegal not to. This was all happening...

...by the way while there were people sat around without masks because they were having a drink. Because as we know, the virus avoids people who are eating and drinking . I can’t blame the lad really, but it would have been great if he’d shown a bit more care in other...

...areas of customer service. Like ticking me off for being ten minutes late for dinner a couple of nights ago. But he’s good.
Then, as I walked out into the pedestrianised town square I was met by an actual hi viz covid marshal. Apparently I was about to walk the wrong way...

...around the square where the market was on. ‘Sorry sir, you’re going the wrong way, it’s a one-way system. You need to turn back and walk around the other way’. Still annoyed by the hotel telling off, I said; ‘why...huge walkway & we’re in the open air?’ To which she replied...

...’Council regulations’. Unfortunately I just wasn’t in the mood. So I said ‘That’s ridiculous and I’m not doing that’. And carried on the way I was going. I heard the her huff very loudly and, in my now very uneasy state, half expected the County swat team to appear...

...from behind the knitwear stall and take me down.
All this petty officialdom and my, admittedly, petty resistance just made me feel really gloomy. I know we keep saying this but; what have we become? I was an early sceptic. I was against Lockdown by the time Johnson’s...

...(no longer Boris) first three weeks of flattening that sombrero was up. I tweeted this on 17 April. No great shakes - I know a lot of you were the same. But after six months with another six to go. And then another whatever after that. Please. Oh and a new ‘Sunak Normal’...

...I now understand. So I just realised I genuinely and actually have had enough of this. I know I’m in good company here. But to have been railing against this madness for so long, and seeing as clearly as it’s possible...

...to see, that our Government is destroying us. Our society, our normal ways of living & interacting, our economy, our livelihoods AND our health - all for no good reason. Not good. Made worse by the realisation that we live among a majority (apparently) who crave all this...

... - the COVID cultists, the curfew cravers, the Lockdown lovers - whatever. And for those of us who have this clear vision of the hell we’re in, it’s very unsettling. Dystopia Now - Village of the Damned meets The Prisoner meets...

...Midsommar. Defy the cult and expect a grisly end. Or Fahrenheit 451 as we see our Government and Police side with a cultural revolution that is trashing everything we hold dear; liberty, free speech, respect for our nation our history, the family, and Books.
Anyway, on my...

...way back, to avoid more stress for both me and I’m sure the very nice covid lady, I took a detour. I walked through Fitz Park across the River Greta (oh Lord) and around the back of the swimming pool (closed) to the site of the old Keswick Railway Station. I’m intrigued...

... by dismantled railways. The platform is still there and the waiting room is now part of the Keswick Hotel. A station that sat between Penrith to the east and Cockermouth to the west. I love coming here. You can walk along a footpath that follows the line that headed out...

...towards Threlkeld and on to Penrith. The Cockermouth section was the first to disappear as part of the Beeching cuts. Keswick itself finally closed to passengers on 6 March 1972. I stopped on the old bridge that crosses the River Greta a little further down from Fitz Park. ...

...and pondered. I’m up here alone to do some fell walking - not wife’s thing - and to just get some time on my own.
And just to say; my gloom started to lift as I looked down at the River and thought, not of Greta, but of all of you who share my concerns, and at times...

...I’m sure, the same despair but who, like me, are determined to fight on. In whatever way we can. I’m not a politician. I’ve been in the property business all my life mainly in medium to large corporations. And I’m planning my retirement - some...

...time over the next 12 months. I have been very fortunate. So apart from doing retirementy things, I am keen to support and work with others who want to take on the political fight. We owe it to following generations. My sons for example, both in music & performance, who’ve...

...seen their industry ruined. We need to offer a popular liberty-centred movement which would be of the right but with conservative/libertarian/blue labour appeal. One that defeats the progressive liberal monster that has consumed our two main political parties and stalks...

... every institution in the Land. The Remain Parliament and the present Conservative Government have shown how our political elites continue to betray us and fail to do what we voted them in to do.

So it can feel quite grim and gloomy at times. ...

... But I’m very optimistic and upbeat about the future, particularly if we work together.

To end (forgive my ramblings), I took this photo as I walked through St John in the Vale yesterday evening as the sun broke through a ‘crack in the sky’.

There are sunlit uplands ahead!