Hello. I’ve had a few prompts from people in these past weeks, but I do not actually need prompting, thank you. In emails or in social media, the question has arisen: are you not continuing your blog? Elsewhere, in other places I have written, readers have asked: “Have you stopped writing?” Well I suppose I mostly have, otherwise the question would not have arisen.
All my writings for WherePeterIs.com can be seen on this link: https://wherepeteris.com/author/gareth-thomas/ I shall not be writing anything more for them, just for the moment, as I have come to the conclusion I do not want to be involved in someone else’s civil war. The culture wars that have raged over the past decade have not been solved or improved by anything I have written; least of all in my time contributing to the “Catholic” website Catholicism Pure & Simple which in the end turned out to be far from ‘simple’ and in fact had an ultra-right wing political agenda. I do not have anything more to contribute here: and if people want to have religious and cultural wars, well that’s what people always have done. Conflict is never new nor interesting.
Regarding my long and energetic anti-Brexit campaigning, that battle was lost a long time ago, and the present state of the Disunited Kingdom suggests to me another country on the edge of civil war – thanks to the same populism that has stoked civil and racial division and class war in the Disnited States. What is that to do with me, at the age of 70, living in Spain with four donkeys? I have told people not to send me any packages or parcels from the UK, because anything that arrives here now (post-Brexit) demands a payment for customs charges, VAT, ‘additional charges’ and whatever. The complete rupture between the UK and the rest of Europe is complete – on a personal level – and we who live in Europe are now forever cut off. Excellent! The UK and its culture wars are no longer anything to do with me. The far away noises of rudeness, corruption, pestilence and the breakdown of all civil nicety in the corridors of British power no longer surprise me. Nor does any of this interest me sufficiently to write about it. Even those who are paid to write about it (probably the best being Fintan O’Toole of the Irish Times) have very little new to say about the perfidious English nationalists who now rule Westminster without a shred of culture, intelligence or honesty.
Notice how I have said nothing useful here whatsoever. It is what everyone knows already. What’s the point of blogging about it?
The post-Covid situation is not worth writing about, as it is not actually a post-Covid situation at all. It is very much a continuing Covid situation! As far as I can make out – with about 1 in 35 people still getting Covid-19 and a large part of the health service here still severely affected by the disease, I’m not sure why there are aeroplanes flying over El Parral here in the mountains of Costa Blanca, bringing thousands of maskless tourists into Benidorm, spreading more and more disease around this area. (Oh yes, it’s the economy, stupid!) I don’t go anywhere without a mask and I only go shopping once a week, at 3 p.m. when there is nobody else shopping.
After two and a half years, mostly spent in this place, on my own and with hardly any social contact, it is probably unsurprising that I have reduced my output of blogging. There is little sign of interest from the readers who used to frequent this blog anyway. Everyone has moved on. I will continue to write from time to time, but I do not really need any prompting thank you. Here is a picture of some donkeys, if you came here for that. 🙂
Commenting is disabled. I can’t see why anyone would want to respond to any of the above! Neither am I interested in a discussion about it. Nothing to see here. Enjoy the summer weather.
Equus Asinus 