Richard Fisher

Bit of a shock this morning when my train stopped short at Bishop’s Stortford Station! Whole of the last carriage hadn’t actually arrived at the platform but the doors were still released. Good thing the train wasn’t crowded.

Surely the driver must have known they were short of the stopping point? They have screens at the end of the platform that show camera pictures from along the rest of the platform – if the train wasn’t aligned with these then it must have been clear to the driver that they had stopped short.

Had a very enjoyable Mother’s Day lunch at Pizza Express in Jesus Lane, Cambridge on Sunday. Happily paid the bill without checking (I’m far too trusting). As we were leaving I overheard somebody else questioning their bill.

So, when I had a moment, I checked mine. Clearly Pizza Express were enticing customers in with a Special Offer, three course meal for £16.95 and then not discounting the items which they charged at full price.

It rather spoils the experience – they even charged for the allegedly free glass of prosecco for my wife!

Delighted to find copies of my first novel, “The Purging,” on display and for sale at the excellent Hart’s Books in Saffron Walden.

If you’re thinking of buying a copy, please visit them. Well, why not visit them in any case to buy all your books?!

Hart’s Books makes a great contribution to the town and it’s good to see Saffron Walden supporting such a variety and wide range of shops.

There was something rather appropriate to our times when the wrong film was announced as winning best picture at last night’s Oscars. It seems that even this major event in Hollywood can no longer get it right. How rapidly the American dream fades!

However, despite the mystery of the wrong envelope (surely a plotline for a great detective novel) there was much to celebrate in the spread of awards. “La La Land” did well, but didn’t crush everything else in its path.

It was great to see “Moonlight,” a fiercely intelligent and compassionate film, win the Oscar for Best picture, with much deserved awards also going to “Fences” and “Manchester by the Sea.”

2017 will be remembered as the year of the wrong envelope; the year when the mistake that must never happen actually happened. Hopefully this will not eclipse the memory of four outstanding films that, each in their own way, capture important truths about the human condition.

 

After the events of 2016, the New Year will certainly be a bit of a roller-coaster ride. We get off to a lively start with the inauguration of President Trump. Just how this pans out in terms of relationships across the world will depend on how many sensible people will manage to exert some “self” control on his behalf (if that’s not a contradiction in terms).

Then, sometime in the new year, Theresa May will hopefully tell us what Brexit really means (hard, soft, red white and blue or what?). That’s when the fun will really start and the paper will no longer cover up the cracks in the Tory Party. Whichever way she jumps, one side or the other are going to be very upset.

Meanwhile the Copeland byelection will give us a good indication of how things are really going in the traditional Labour heartlands. A long term Labour seat looks as though it will be at least a three-way Labour/Tory UKIP fight, if not a four-way one (The Liberal Democrats are a bit of a wild card on this one, but they might appeal strongly to the minority in this constituency who voted Remain).

So, hard hats on and prepare for a very bumpy ride!

For readers of Philip Roth’s novel “The Plot Against America”, Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House may sound rather familiar.

Published in September 2004, Roth’s novel centres on an alternative history in which aviation hero Charles Lindbergh is nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for President in 1940 and goes on to defeat Franklin D Roosevelt on the back of a strong tide of popular support.

Lindbergh’s first act is to sign a treaty with Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler promising that the United States will not interfere with German expansion in Europe. With Lindbergh as president, Jewish families increasingly feel like outsiders in American society.

If you swap Russia for Germany, Putin for Hitler and Muslims for Jews, then Roth’s novel seems frighteningly prophetic. Scrape away at the surface of American society and there is something very nasty lurking underneath.

The last few weeks have been very focussed on housing. First of all, it was off to Birmingham for the National Housing Federation conference. In the midst of what is a major housing crisis, housing associations are offering to play a full part in providing new homes. “Ambition to Deliver” sets out how housing associations are united by a single purpose – to ensure everyone in the country has the opportunity to live in a quality home that they can afford.

Too often we seem to take it for granted that the housing crisis is just something we have to put up with. Let’s hope that “Ambition to Deliver” is the start of a real effort to solve the problem.

This week has seen London mayor, Sadiq Khan, launch an inquiry into the huge overseas investment in housing in the capital city. This is often in homes that are kept empty and used only as an investment. Here’s hoping we can get these properties lived in and providing the much needed homes that our capital city needs.

Congratulations to everyone at Saffron Walden County High School where students have achieved the school’s best ever results at both A-level and GCSE.

A tremendous and much deserved achievement representing the culmination of real hard work from students, outstanding teaching from staff and great support from families and friends.

Nobody does back-stabbing better than the Tories, but equally they know when to rally round and assert their grip on power.

Theresa May’s seemingly effortless rise to the highest office in the land, stepping over the bodies of her colleagues, will provide fascinating material for historians in years to come. Her almost uncanny impersonation of Margaret Thatcher at her first Prime Minister’s question time, and her wholesale clear-out of ministers, makes it clear that she means business.

We’ll watch the progress on Brexit with interest. Will Brexit really mean Brexit? Or has she set her pro-Leave colleagues up to fail? We live in interesting times!

Nobody stabs their best friends in the back better than the Tories. Just amazing how Cameron, Johnson and Gove have turned on each other, destroying the political careers of two of them and probably Gove as well.

Will we ever learn if Gove’s treachery was a last minute decision or a carefully plotted move that was planned months ago?

The events that take place in my new book “RANT” start to look pretty tame when compared to real life politics at the moment (will Corbyn ever go?), but I hope if you want an enjoyable summer read you will give it a try.

As for events in Parliament, I rather agree with the comment that they “make House of Cards look like The Teletubbies” !