Feature

25 NOVEMBER 2021

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From the front line…

Chesed is priceless, costing nothing other than your heart.

BY JACQUELINE CURZON

They say ‘a fool and his money are soon parted,’ a mantra most often seen in divorce cases, but I found a recent, hard-tobeat example. Caroline and Paul Crowther, both in their 50s and who had been married for 25 years, ran a shipping business and were arguing over assets, these cumulatively worth less than £1.4 million. Mr Justice Peel commented that the ‘only beneficiaries of their nihilistic litigation had been the high-quality lawyers,’ after the Crowthers ran up lawyer’s bills of £2.3 million. One must ask, what was the point of it?

I recently came upon a sizable list of words and phrases, which apparently I could use at the tender age of 18 months. I was very touched that my mother had taken the time to make this list, but of course this was in the era of Listen With Mother, followed naturally by Watch with Mother when a black and white television was eventually within their budget. The radio I vaguely still remember, sitting in pride of place in our living room. These learning experiences were swiftly followed by the cutting up of cereal boxes into little squares, whereupon mother would use the reverse side of the card to write letters of the alphabet, and I would sit on the floor making up words. Forget flash cards - she was light years ahead of her time, so small wonder I followed happily into her fascinating world of language, with its attraction and mystery of sounds and description. With a tinge of reservation, I admit to enjoying perusing dictionaries to great delight.

Scientists have recently launched a quest for the cleverest breed of canine. As the loving owner of several border collies throughout my childhood and youth, I can testify to their innate intelligence, and this merely in a domestic setting. Never mind barking to round up a hillside full of intellectually stunted sheep, a border collie can understand up to 1,000 words, identify hundreds of objects, and intuitively pick up on nuance of tone and subtlety of gesture. Small wonder the border collie is ranked top of the premier canine league. As a small child I’m sure the family collie had an infinite repertoire and understanding of words, superior to that of most young children. In another dimension they would be elected to the Westminster upper chamber, and doubtless make more intelligent contributions than some of our aged part-time attendees.

But a recent story focussed on an altogether different aspect of pet ownership. Callum Jones (27) from Maes Pinwydd, Deeside, was crossing a bridge in Loggerheads Country Park, whilst walking his dog. He fell and sprained his ankle, and when he began to feel unwell two weeks later, was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital. Callum was found to have a pulmonary embolism, then unbelievably, suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

Covid is still hitting headlines, although in the UK, life is just about returning to normal. Anti-vaxxers are however an extremely vocal group who need to take a good hard look at themselves. They are against the covid vaccine - fair enough perhaps - but I'll put money on them having been jabbed against polio, measles, mumps, rubella and a host of other nasties. Should there ever be an anti-cancer jab, I bet they'd sign up in a heartbeat, so what is intrinsically wrong with protecting yourself against covid? Cases across Europe are spiralling out of control and one of the factors must surely be the lack of vaccine uptake there versus the roll out here in the UK. The death rate amongst the 20% of anti-vaxxers here in the UK is equal to the death rate of the 80% who are vaccinated, but more concerning is that those in the 20% are selfishly putting the rest of us at increased risk. You can't have it both ways. Austria is the first to provoke a major backlash since its government made vaccination compulsory, and was followed with some extremely violent protests, but ask yourself - what choice do countries have with ever rising numbers of positive cases? Europe had last week reached an all-time high in infections, with 310,000 cases reported on one day alone.

Alexander Schallenberg, the Austrian Chancellor, announced that the entire country would go into lockdown, whilst unvaccinated nationals were extremely put out to be confined to barracks (home). Only a handful of countries have pushed through compulsory vaccination, including Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Indonesia, but whether they - or any others - can follow through on this remains to be seen, as compliance and uptake obviously rely on supplies of vaccines.

This connects neatly with the topic of distancing and mask wearing. Now remember the 2m rule was never that, but a recommendation. They could just as easily have chosen 1.5 or 3 m, but it would still remain a recommendation. Tell that to those who gleefully stuck tape to shop floors, pavements and so forth, and to the obsessively observant who shouted abuse at you for daring to step over the line by an inch. I am relieved to see masks on the wane, as this was also supposed to be a temporary measure. There is nothing to say it should continue in perpetuity, indeed that would be an awful vision. Imagine Bob and Julie's wedding pics, with all the guests in designer masks. Little Josh's first school play, with children spaced out as if ready for a game of What's the time, Mr Wolf, streamed on Zoom because you can't be too careful with these naughty parents. It is then somewhat a relief to see members of government declining mask adornment, assuming they're in the group which has been double or triple jabbed. Please let's get a grip and continue to work towards restoring normality.

Now, the fiasco over asylum seeking immigrants has reached new heights. Despite the UK paying our not-so-neighbourly cousin France, an exorbitant amount to help quash the rising tide coming from Eastern Europe, Sudan and African countries, President Macron, in typical belligerent style, has cried foul, and steadfastly refused to return boat travellers on the high seas to their port of origin, thereby showing active encouragement for any who dare to try independently - or pay to be smuggled - to gain access to the island we call home. We are also seeing huge numbers being shuttled from Africa to the borders of Poland by Lukashenko, and likely closer to home, in an attempt to engineer a social crisis. Numbers reaching the UK are rising exponentially on a daily basis, such that one would wonder if France is giving incentives for people to make the hazardous journey. The residents of Dover have got gripes of their own. Last week a well known pizza chain closed to the public after Border Control ordered 700 pizzas to feed migrants who had made the crossing. That was just for one day….. Now I’m hardly going to suggest we starve anyone, but really? I suppose a daily pizza bill of £7,000 is small change, when compared to the failed asylum system which costs £1 billion a year. In 2013 almost 47,000 asylum seekers (and criminals) were deported, versus 8,000 last year. The arrivals side of the scoreboard is going to soon run out of numbers: Arrivals : 30,000 | Departures: 3 ….. and so on. As Allison Pearson writes [Telegraph, 24 Nov], veterans who have fought for our country, end up suffering from PTSD, often end up sleeping on the streets and having to rely on charity and food kitchens. I also struggle to believe that South Americans who made it over the US border are given a hotel room, or state-funded accommodation and food from local restaurants. That’s a separate story from the severely impoverished members of our own community who live many miles below the breadline, relying on charity and the magnanimity of our great and good. Perhaps in the approaching season of goodwill, that sounds too Scroogelike, but I think the government has lost the plot. Priti Patel is discussing repatriation of immigrants to turn the tide on notions of British benevolence, however the conflicting message from Border Force is one of comfort and joy. Of the 25,000 asylum seekers to make the crossing this year, which is a 300% rise on 2020, only FIVE people have been sent back. So, assuming they’re here for good, that’s around 25,000 extra people a year putting pressure on the struggling state systems, and will likely keep rising. It’s not laughable, it’s condemnable. Boris needs to shore up our borders (sea and land) and remember who put him in office, and who provides the chips and the public pizza. Never mind the Red Wall, or the Trumpian Mexico Wall, let’s drain the channel and build a fortress around mainland Britain, at least as far as Gretna. Ms Sturgeon can then have the French re-route the travellers across the North Sea in one of her never-used ferries, and house them in her ‘fair and green land.’ She has the space, will enjoy the attention and gain additional votes for her party. It’s a win-win arrangement, although they may not take so readily to haggis, neeps and tatties.

And now to finish with a truly heartwarming story. Readers may recall I mentioned several years back my beloved father dying from the awful MND (motor neurone disease), a life sapping miserable condition which strikes down the unsuspecting in short order. Kevin Sinfield (41), Rugby league legend has just completed an eye-watering physical challenge to raise funds for his friend and colleague Rob Burrow, who was diagnosed with MND in 2019. Sinfield has just completed a run of 101 miles in 24 hours, raising more than £1million for the charity. He began his epic journey at Welford Road, Leicester and ended at Headingley, the home of rugby league club Leeds Rhinos, where he played for 18 years. Last year he raised £2.7 million by running seven marathons in seven days, and was awarded OBE in June 2021 for fundraising and services to rugby league. Never mind those individuals who are 'gong-ed' for simply doing their jobs, which is often a political point scoring exercise, I think for this extremely noble act of chesed, Sinfield should be knighted at the next opportunity. We did it for 100 laps of Tom Moore’s garden, we can certainly do it for 100 miles of selfless, relentless pavement pounding. You are indeed a hero, Kevin! We wish you a full recovery and a well deserved rest.

Jacqueline Curzon

PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY

Love

Jacqueline x

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