Reversing into space

 I have a novel coming out in October. The novel is a fictionalised 'biography'. Well they do say that everyone has a novel in them and I guess that I am no exception, although the critical reader will be the best judge of that. The main character is an ordinand David and we meet him at his ordination where he is made Deacon. During the ordination service he reflects on all that had brought him to this point in his life and then the story takes us forward into his new life as curate in the Church of England. Friends who have read the story have been complimentary and my publisher has clearly felt that the novel is worth taking a risk over. There are some risky elements to the story most of which is true but some of. which I have, as someone once complained about novels, ' they read as though someone is making it up as they go along', made up as I went along! So the affair, the attempted rape and the girlfriend who goes off to seek ordination in the USA are? If you ever

 There is I think something deeply shameful about the Tory Leadership election. Apart from a fundamental failure on my part to understand why anyone can actually be a Tory????  Or why they can justify being in hoc to capitalisms task masters?  Or how a few thousand Tory voters can elect a Prime Minister without a general election?  Not one of the candidates has accepted responsibility for the mess we’re in and which has been made by the party they want to lead?  Not one apology, not one new idea, just a rehashing of failed policies. All the candidates agree that we are in a mess economically, socially and politically yet not a single one is prepared to accept responsibility for the mess that their party and their government has created. Two of the candidates were senior members of cabinet as Chancellor and Foreign Secretary yet inflation is at an all time high, there is a cost of living crisis and Europe is at war with Russia. Two of the candidates want to remove the commitment to net

 I haven't need to look into my rear view mirror these past few days what has been unfolding in front of us on the nightly news has been so riveting. I haven't watched a movie on Netflix, I haven't watched East Enders, I haven't really watched TV at all other than News, News and more News. It has been both unbelievable and utterly riveting to watch the end of an era being played out live on TV.  It seems that the triggers that have unleashed this political drama have been a mixture of Partygate and the associated untruths, the Chris Pincher affair and the loss of two by-elections. Each on their own might have been survival but as each story has hit the headlines the growing wave of distrust in the personality and judgement of the Prime Minister has grown to represent what one MP interviewed on TV called a 'Tsunami'. The culmination of the 24/7 news coverage, although by no means the final dramatic act was the speech at the podium in Downing Street which has alre