Another challenge

Stepdaughter - who is now sunning herself on a Greek island if things went to plan with the plane - persuaded me to open an Instagram account before she left, so I did. She believes that it is used as a showcase by almost everyone and I could impress future clients with photos and videos. Foolishly, all my eggs have been in one basket for the last 20 years, and someone dropped it two years before the pandemic hit.

So far, the best thing about it is being put freshly in touch with dear friends of all generations (mainly younger) and sharing virtual time with them as they sit around in bikinis on beaches, go for long walks in the country - with and without dogs -  eat dinners at fancy restaurants, drink pints in pubs and party late into the night with suspiciously good-looking companions - in short, all the things I have denied myself since Instagram was invented last week. There are a few work references. For instance, I did not know that C. had completed an abseiling course. Either that or he has been messing about by climbing churches for fun, which I would not put past the naughty boy.

You can find me there if you know my real name, but I don't want any references to my other life conducted under the false one. I am trying to behave myself and everyone deserves a second chance.

We have been locked out of the European Horizon science collaboration project until someone comes up with a solution to the intractable Northern Irish border problem.

One of the government's chosen scientists (who came to fame as a spokesperson during the height of the pandemic) has been saying that being denied access to the billions of Euros spent on scientific collaboration amongst E.U. members was really not a problem, as people do science all over the world, not just Europe, and we could approach countries like the U.S.A. and Japan to ask if we could please get involved in their research, because those nasty Europeans won't let us share the results of their collaborative research with what we have to offer.

In any event, he said, in money terms, you only get out what you put in and Boris has said that we could start up our own scientific research institute with a few billion and see who else in the world wants to join us. To the rest of the world, 'collaboration' under these conditions would mean 'how much money could we squeeze out of the U.K. to fund our scientific research?'

I hate to say it (he lied) but were we not warned that this would be one of the many disadvantages of abruptly leaving the E.U. for ideological reasons?

I will ask again. Can anyone give me one single example of how leaving the E.U. has tangibly benefitted the U.K. in any way whatsoever?