What is the truth? A big question for any one – or at least for anyone genuinely interested in the subject. ‘’The truth’ (definite article) smacks of ultimates (restricted in human beings by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle) but truth ( a non-articled abstraction), suggests more process than outcome. Many of us seek truth, but seeking truth is not the same as finding it- except of course for the religiously inclined. The reason I am asking this is to find out what you, James, think about Dominjc Cummings’s testimony last week. Was he telling the truth or was it just a pack of lies?

Dear James, Thanks for yesterday’s letter. No James, a three-dimensional person is not one who listens to me but one who is willing to risk their career for matters of principle rather than just toeing the party line. I have no reason not to applaud you for doing your day job but the list of your busy life is what one would expect from an MP in your position. Some may do it better than others. I certainly have no reason not to believe that you just may be one of the better ones.

Dear James,

I’m afraid you entirely missed the point of my last letter to you. Firstly, I am not continuing to fight a referendum where the decision has been made. I am not a Brexit denier. Brexit has happened. Neither am I gloomy. I am happy that the vaccine rollout has gone so well – courtesy of a joint Anglo—Irish team in a jv with an Italian company and in cooperation with our excellent NHS and its staff. And I have every reason to celebrate the genius of the British people and know they will get through no matter what. What I am gloomy about is the state of your government, its incompetence,

Dear James,

We are all cultural animals. Much of what we call ‘thinking’ is not thinking at all. It is a series of reflexive reactions rooted in a culture’s linguistic short cuts. We are all born into nations, into groups within the nations and we are brought up within the values and rituals of such groups. This is deep culture.

Dear James,

It is a landscape from Armageddon or Apocalypse Now. From the air, Delhi seems to have been hit by a massive incendiary bombing raid. Funeral pyres burn in car parks, public spaces and back gardens. And yet only three months ago Prime Minister Modi was boasting that India was ready to ‘save humanity’.

Instead Modi is today seen as the initiator of this tragedy

I’ve been away. Did you miss me? Of course not! You’ve been far too busy trying to put the best face on the worst government we have had in living memory. Having needed a bit of R&R, I'm now back in the saddle and joined today by none other than, one, Dominic Cummings. August company indeed! While Dominic has been seething, gathering his gunpowder, sharpening his pencil and waiting for his chance, I have been quietly watching from the sidelines as revelations of government sleaze have continued to seep to the surface like black oil staining unsullied desert sands.

Dear James,

Any government has successes and failures. Polls go up and polls go down. Our present government is enjoying poll success at the moment due, in particular, to the undoubted achievement of the vaccine roll out. Boris’s numbers are up and ahead of Labour. People are already forgetting that the UK mortality rate from Coronavirus is approaching 125,000, the second highest rate per head of population in the world after Belgium.

Dear James,

While Boris glows in unaccustomed success courtesy of the coronavirus vaccine, all is not well behind the scenes. The rest of your government are fighting like ferrets in a bag. Oliver Lewis (Who?) is quitting as head of the government’s ‘Union Unit’ (What?) citing tensions in Number 10. Just in case you were unaware of these individuals and this Unit,

Dear James,

On October 10th 2019, Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, met at Thornton Manor near Liverpool Airport. Boris offered Varadkar a solution to the Backstop problem in Northern Ireland. Rather than a land border in Ireland, the new border should be in the Irish Sea. Until then Britain had seen such a solution as impossible – or as Mrs May put it - that, ‘no British government could ever contemplate’ such a move. At their meeting, not only was it contemplated, it was done.

Dear James,

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial has ended, as predicted, with his acquittal by 57 to 43. Despite the overwhelming evidence that he was the ‘Instigator in Chief’ of the January 6th attack on the seat of American democracy, only seven Republicans in the Senate, refused the clear need to find him guilty. And that is despite each member of the Senate being required to take an oath promising to be ‘impartial jurors’ in such a trial.

Dear James,

Credit where credit is due. Team Boris has got something right at last. Early in the pandemic, it ordered millions of units of a variety of vaccines before any had proven their efficacy. By last Friday the UK had vaccinated 11% of our population compared with 2.3% in Germany and 1.8% in France. Outside the EU it is 8.5% in the USA and 52% in Israel, the current leader in vaccination. Well done Team Boris! You are for the first time ahead of the curve!

Dear James,

A year ago, few, even in their worst nightmares, would have foreseen that the UK would reach 100,000 Covid deaths in less than twelve months. Since then, in disbelief, we have watched, numbers climbing exponentially until yesterday they reached that appalling landmark. As a number, it is difficult for those not affected directly, to grasp their meaning. Today however, the television and newspapers are attempting to put it into human terms by profiling particular families. The BBC is running a continuous gallery of victims with short biographies. Yesterday we saw on tv, a 55 year old man explaining to camera

Dear James,

Yesterday, on a bright, cold January Morning in Washington, America carried out a peaceful transition of power. Donald Trump left the White House at 08.00 and Joe Biden entered it at about 4pm. Just enough time to do a quick clean up, hoover the corridors, steam clean the carpets, clear out the ashtrays and open a few windows. America breathed a sigh of relief. As did much of the free world.

By 6pm another kind of cleaning was happening.

Dear James,

It was hard to believe. Yesterday, at a new Mass Vaccination Centre in Bristol, Boris stood there, jacketless, his tie tucked into his shirt front and his sleeves rolled up as if preparing for some prankish game of arm wrestling, He was watching a nurse administering the saviour vaccine to a young lady. Perhaps he wanted to remind everyone that it was he who had ordered the vaccine and t hat there is now light at the end of this endless tunnel? Whatever it was, the expression on his face gave it all away. It was empty of substance with his trade-mark impish grin glancing off-camera as if to say to his minders?, “Is this what you want?’

Dear James,

Yesterday, in a period of five hours, we saw the best and the worst of America. To quote Charles Dickens on the French Revolution, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was he age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

The world watched in horror as, at about 14.00 EST yesterday, the mob moved up the steps of the Capitol in Washington towards a thin line of policemen.

Dear James,

I seem to have touched a nerve. A rather raw one. But hey ho, aren’t you politicians supposed to have thick skins? Besides, I think I detected a small vulnerability in your rather irritable response to my last message? Nothing wrong with that! It shows there’s a beating heart behind the ‘political personality’!

Dear James,

Well, what a surprise! Let me say immediately that I do appreciate your finding time in your schedule to reply to me personally after two years of my writing to you. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers and that one personal response out of 188 attempts is not too bad as a return! Anyway, may I take this opportunity to reciprocate and wish you and your family a Happy New Year!.

Dear James,

Can it get any worse? Yesterday the rest of the world put the UK into a very solitary, solitary confinement. Ports were slammed shut, flights from the UK and into the UK were cancelled, cross-border passengers were banned. Today the M20 down to Dover and Folkestone is blocked by stationary trucks and Manston Airport is filling up fast. In the international press, the New York Times called us ‘Plague Island’ revealing a lot of pent-up Schadenfreude for this sad little island. And it’s coming our way, thick and fast.

Dear James,

The government went strangely quiet on Sunday. It was supposed to have been the make or break day and yet the day passed without a decision and ended with both sides saying that they would continue talking. They are still talking. There are at least two possible interpretations. Firstly Boris may seriously be trying to explore every avenue before going for no-deal. But the second option is far more interesting. Perhaps he has, at last, looked into the chasm of no-deal and has been terrified by what he sees. In other words, perhaps Boris has panicked!