Tag Archives: opinion

Unknown's avatar

The news at the end of a wet week

by

I caught snatches of today’s news as we quarter-circled around the M25 out of London. Here’s what I heard.

First up were a prince, his spokesman and paper dragons. The spokesman said that getting burned was the price the prince had to pay for fighting dragons. Meanwhile a paper dragon flamed about suntans, California, and sharing breathing space with the truth. It seems the prince and the paper dragons are not done yet.

Then we heard of a British teenager, missing for six years, but apparently found recently in the middle of the night. The man who found him was a French student working as a delivery driver in his spare time. He saw the youngster wandering along a lonely road near Toulouse and offered him a lift. They got talking, and the story told in the cab that night, and later passed to the police along with the teenager, was about a mother, who ran away with her son and her father. They joined a group leading a nomadic, off-grid life, but the son – the wandering teenager – is now keen to be reunited with his grandmother in England.

It was a strange story, that left us imagining, and was then followed by news of pirates in the Red Sea. There have been attacks and threats, and ships re-routed, and it sounds a lot like things might get worse.

I preferred the account of the grandson heading home.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

Unknown's avatar

So what’s been happening here?

by

Well, January is the month to be glum, and thanks to the train strikes, we’re all being glum from home.

Nothing works. And to prove it, some of us are stopping work. So while the rain rains – and it is – and the wind howls – and it was – we’re moaning. We do pause occasionally. Recently it’s been to fret about the brotherly I-said-you-said, soundbites-at-dawn storm, that’s swirled our way. We’re still writing the chorus for that, and it’s proving darkly occupying.

This morning I was wondering whether any whales passing these islands can hear our song? And if so, what it sounds like? I imagine it sounds like a miserable humming, with crescendos here and there as we add the woes of others to our own. Perhaps that’s why there aren’t many whales around here – too glum. Although maybe not for walruses.

Thor, a fine young male, turned up in Scarborough at New Year. He didn’t stay long though, which leaves me thinking perhaps he’d been sent by the whales on some sort of reconnaisance mission to find out what’s going on.

Hope there’s a cheerful noise where you are.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023