The greatest of all sins is stupidity. In 1945, when the people of Britain were released from six years of life under the restrictions of the Second World war, they held parties in the street. They hung bunting from their houses, they hugged their friends, their families and even complete …
Read More »Cummings, not goings
“Yond Cassius hath a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous” Well, that was excruciating. Yesterday we were treated to a prime-time TV spectacle of the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor Dominic Cummings sitting at a picnic table in the Downing Street Rose Garden trying to …
Read More »Normal people
I dreamed that as I wandered by the way Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring It may not be what we recognise as normal, but it’s definitely an improvement of sorts. Slowly but surely, things are changing. It was only in November that the first case of coronavirus was …
Read More »Lockdown lingo
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men’s blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know. So, from today (May 13) the construction industry is encouraged to get back to work …
Read More »Home thoughts from abroad*
*not abroad. At home. Still. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; How many times have we said to ourselves that, were we given enough free time, we would fill it wisely, …
Read More »The Easter Rising
O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells; “He is risen”. According to the Times, that was the first response of a member (it doesn’t say which) of Boris Johnson’s family, on being told by an aide that the Prime Minister had been moved out of intensive care …
Read More »Pass the pandemic
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. Remember what we used to say about the aftermath of …
Read More »Day 8 in the BMJ House
Oh to be (out and about) in England, Now that April’s there Things I have learned in the last week and a bit. Joe Wicks is A GOD. Not only has he made it his mission to keep the nation’s school-children physically active for half-an-hour-a-day (and their far less fit …
Read More »The isolation blues
I myself am best When least in company. Well this is all very strange. Every time I start to write something about the situation we’re in and the effect that the coronavirus is having on the country, something changes. The speed at which things have changed is what’s so alarming. …
Read More »A plague on all our houses
One sickly sheep infects the flock, And poisons all the rest I feel quite sorry for poor old Rishi Sunak. There he was last week, our newly minted Chancellor of the Exchequer, all scrubbed and shiny at the despatch box like the head boy proudly standing up at his …
Read More »
Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years