{"id":8075,"date":"2019-06-05T11:20:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T10:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/?p=8075"},"modified":"2019-06-30T08:05:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T07:05:02","slug":"we-meet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/?p=8075","title":{"rendered":"We meet again"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not our dreamy<\/a> queen, whom<\/a> I’ve never seen in person and who, as far as I can recall, has yet to invade my subconscious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nor Labour MP Emily Thornberry<\/a>, one of the speakers outside parliament protesting the presidential visit and generally all things Tory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nshe even knitted her own jumper<\/em><\/p>\n

Nor the ghosted<\/a> Juliet Stevenson, who I caught back in 2004<\/a> alongside a brainy ironside<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nor Mark Rylance, as seeing him on the small screen<\/a> doesn’t count.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Making a statement<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is who I’m talking about:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were most concerned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was hardly in my element yesterday, as I don’t like crowds,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ticked the box for Brexit<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n(we all have disreputable<\/a> bedfellows at times)<\/em><\/p>\n

and don’t see myself voting Labour again any time soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But as happens so often, London beckoned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can’t imagine Lilibet was giddy with excitement at another opportunity to do her duty, even as the BBC<\/a> graphically wet itself with anticipation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Balloon<\/a>ists, on the other hand, had a field day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As did punsters,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\neven Photoshop sharpening can’t save this
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

jokesters,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and anyone in the mood to rattle some cages.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My goal for the afternoon had been to see Jeremy Corbyn, if only for ammunition to give him a speech balloon. This was not to be, as he took to a platform on Whitehall rather than the expected patch of green surrounded by stone cold worthies<\/a> where I had stationed myself.<\/p>\n

Every party needs a DJ. Ours started with Comfortably Mum<\/del> Numb,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nbottoms up<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

which would come to half describe my arm after holding an umbrella for an hour. Then came the relentless rain and reggae (even groovy tunes can wear one down<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Midway through the speakers<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBrian Eno got there early too
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I packed it in and commenced escape, only to be stopped short opposite Green Park, where a hassled but humbled group of us were barred from crossing the empty road for an indeterminate length of time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The only sure way across the border was to catch a train. One expects to be herded through cattle fencing during such events,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but this seemed a pointless exercise in creating a power vacuum.<\/p>\n

Before heading home I stopped by the National Gallery. It looked a little like a protest was going on there, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n“You can’t change him, he’s immutable.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, not our dreamy queen, whom I’ve never seen in person and who, as far as I can recall, has yet to invade my subconscious. Nor Labour MP Emily Thornberry, one of the speakers outside parliament protesting the presidential visit … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8075"}],"version-history":[{"count":105,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8351,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions\/8351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}