It has rained before during the lockdown but today was a proper day of rain. Though some have wondered if the cleaner air, as a result of the lockdown, was causing us to have such a sustained bout of sunshine still it had to break. True, particulates in the air do allow the precipitation of moisture in the atmosphere but there are natural seeding devices such as salt and sand thrown up by waves and as we live by the sea and near mountains which drive warm air upwards there’s hardly need for pollution.

I created myself some masks this evening though I’ve not worn them in anger yet. All it required was a T shirt and a pair of scissors and made a pretty effective mask. There’s no sewing involved so that’s good. And I watched my second conference in 2 days on dealing with racism. Yesterday’s concerned racism within the Labour Party uncovered by the latest leaked report which revealed some awful racism where there ought not to have been any (as if there should be racism anywhere) and this evenings was about a public enquiry into why BAME (Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic) communities have been hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic.

As unwelcome as CoVID-19 is, it has shone a light on injustices that never should have been tolerated before this and must be addressed now, along with systematic abuse from the state, political parties and society at large. At a time when society is being seen in a different light and those who were looked down upon are being acknowledged for their service its hard to hear that domestic abuse is on the rise and those very people who are giving their lives for our health are living under the threat of deportation.

Its time we took a hard look at ourselves and separated the chaff from the wheat. For all our liberated ideas we are still shockingly racist and wilfully ignorant of how corrupt our systems are. Though our empire ceased to exist several decades ago, our arrogance and exceptionalism is still awful while the received wisdom of how benificent and gracious we were, not only to those we colonised but to our own people, belongs firmly in the fiction isle. The true history is pretty bleak.

What everyone is talking about today is the damning Panarama report. The bottom line is that the government has been putting all its energy into making itself look good rather than actually taking care of frontline workers. While its true that no government could have averted the crisis and there would have been a significant number of deaths particularly among the elderly despite government intervention, any claims of success on behalf of the current government are shameful and without substance.

It rained today because all the elements came to together under the right conditions to make that happen. Its that simple. If only…