When I awoke yesterday, I resisted the temptation to sleep a little longer and got up as quite a bright day beckoned. On consulting the weather app on my phone, it looks as though we are in for a spell of cooler temperatures and a temperature averaging some 16° which will suit me just fine. There are no particular tasks associated with today apart from the usual extended chats with our domestic help and a possible visit to the Methodist centre later in the morning. The newspapers are rather agog this morning with the revelation made to the House of Commons yesterday by the Defence Secretary. After the withdrawal of first, the Americans and then, the British from Afghanistan and the takeover of that society by the Taliban, then the fate of those Afghanis who had assisted the British in their war efforts became problematic. They had often acted as interpreters or as liaison between the British military and the Afghanis but, of course, would be regarded with great suspicion by the Taliban. Britain did grant asylum to a selected few but there were 19,000 in this category. In one of the biggest data leaks in history, all of their details were revealed in an unprotected email and hence their identities and contact details were known and their lives subsequently at risk. To cover all of this up, the previous Conservative government applied for and got a 'super injunction' where even the court was held in secret behind closed doors and it was forbidden to reveal the existence of the injunction even to Parliament. This super injunction has now been lifted and the details revealed to Parliament. The British government had run a highly secretive immigration scheme to assist a few of the Afghanis but the total cost of the scheme which has now run for three years and may well have to continue is of the order of £7bn. In view of the sensitivity of immigration, it is not surprising that the government sought to hide all of these details in this way but I think that MPs were truly shocked when eventually the details were released to the Commons. A super injunction is a type of court order in England and Wales that prevents the publication of private information and, uniquely, also prohibits reporting that the injunction itself exists. This means not only is the information (e.g., details of a private life) kept confidential, but the public and media are also forbidden from reporting on the fact that a court has issued an order to keep it secret. This is a really draconian power and these injunctions are only ever sought to protect the already rich and powerful but the shocking feature is that even Parliament is denied knowledge of the events. This may well now change after this revelation but you can see why the past Conservative government wanted to keep quiet about this massive data leak and its political consequences - perhaps even more details will be revealed to Parliament and the press later on today.
After my shower and breakfast, I spent a fair amount of time talking over the details of the new post which our domestic help will shortly assume in the care home for which she works most of the time. I am sure she will be excellent in this new role but of course, every job has its particular challenges. Eventually, I wandered down the hill stopping on a couple of occasions to have chats with acquaintances that I know by sight from my journeys up and down to collect my newspaper. On the way back, I was surprised when a couple that I scarcely know engaged me in conversation and when I communicated to them that my wife had died some nine weeks ago I was surprised when she intimated that everybody along that stretch of road already knew the news. I suppose that I must often have been observed whilst I was intent and focused upon getting Meg up and down the hill but evidently our excursions has been noted. In our conversation, it transpired that the wife of the couple was an AgeUK volunteer and her own father had died of dementia so perhaps she recognised all of the signs. When I got home, I noticed that our domestic help had helped to clear out a bit more of the clutter in our wardrobes some of it Meg-related such as old handbags. Some was going to be recycled back to AgeUK and a lot of packaging materials junked, which was just as well as it is the day for the disposal of general household waste this week. I was not particularly hungry today but I put some bits and pieces into an omelette to get them eaten up. After lunch, I felt that I needed to go out and do a bit of gardening bit most of my energies were devoted to getting the rust of my favourite pair of long handled garden shears to which I gave a bit of a sharpen-up with a special tool that I have. I then tidied up a bit of a tangle before I start on the edging to the back lawn probably tomorrow if it is not too wet. I am looking forward a little to the Norway vs. Italy quarter final which is to be played in the evening but if this match is not as entertaining as it might be, then there always a new series of 'Sky Arts' on the Tate Modern which is probably worth a watch. My sympathies will probably lie with the Norwegians because they may well be the underdogs in the battle against Italy. To take some of the pressure off tomorrow, I might just pop out to access the ATM this evening which generally I do the night before I go shopping because the car parks are generally empty and the ATMs easily accessible. This week is a bit of an 'empty' one as I have no appointments of any kind whereas next week is going to quite a full one. I have two occasions on when I am going out to see relatives/friends and a clutch of routine medical appointments which asll seem to have clustered next week rather this.
© Mike Hart [2025]