Driving back from a friends wedding in Taunton last Friday I was struck by the number of CCTV cameras in place as you approach the Glastonbury site. On poles, cherry pickers and I expect trees. I was then talking with Jun as we drove to my aunt’s in Sevenoaks Kent, just how heavily surveilled we are in the UK.

Then we looked at some of the houses close to my aunt’s home,  high fences and walls, CCTV and cameras on the gates. Some private roads seem to have systems as well before you even get into the road. Is valuing your privacy so that no-one gets close without your approval or is it a fear the family Van Dyck might go missing when you go to Waitrose for the weekly shop.

It is all rather scary and brought to a head in a way by the Johnson Scandal this weekend. I will have to check that my neighbours little solar panels for their garden lights on the fence are just that. It seems that you cannot go far without being observed – electronically. We now notice houses in Wells that seem more akin to Fort Apache the Bronx than desirable des res on the edge of the city. It is all a sad reflection on our society.

Then someone trashed the tubs that my neighbour put together to try and make it a little more attractive where we live. Just to add insult to injury they came back and took our doorside hanging basket.  All rather sad, but following our local Police advice I am able to say, Big Brother is watching you.

As we enter June you need to remember the weather is fickle. The commemorations for the 75th anniversary of D Day will take place this week and that was a close run thing with the weather. I recall a mid summer party a few years ago where people huddle in my small marquee in my back garden dressed like members of Shackleton’s ill fated expedition. So June is a month to be  treated with caution.

As a country we seem to have lost those things that other nations looked up to us for, fair play, honesty, kindness and a welcoming out stretched arm to those avoiding oppression. I wonder how Karl Marx or Gandhi would fair at Heathrow or Southampton nowadays. Our ability to be impartial has gone, social media connects you to millions (potentially), but denies you an opinion. A local MP has, I think bravely, come out in support of Boris Johnson for PM, looking at the twitter feed swathes of comments have been deleted and the general thread of those that remain are fairly emotive and derogatory.

Over the weekend a band has been dropped from the Glastonbury schedule because of the lyrics of their songs, Ann Widdecombe has said some things that have been edited to make them more inflammatory than they were by the media. I don’t like many politicians, but we must allow them to have opinions even if they are wholly wrong, because they are just opinions. We used to be able to discuss and rebuff them by well thought out argument, now our screams at the television become badly put together Tweets and do nobody any good. Look at the current state visitor who shoots from the lip repeatedly.

So my opinion for what it is worth, is break their arguments in discussion, you will win more people to your cause than demonstration or violence.

Today I had my first swim of the season in our local Lido, the boiler is broken, so rather like the current political environment…’Ooo baby it’s cold inside’