because life is just one big long victory parade

 this was horsemouth's answer to why british people liked applauding so much. 

of course there's a lot to clap about. (no slow hand clapping at the back there). 

while the death rate proves recalcitrant things return to their previous condition (except for the new varieties available - isn't constant improvement a wonderful thing especially when applied to biological systems).

today a day when horsemouth doesn't have to work. you will not notice him being any more cheerful. 

the government has failed to hit its 'ambitious' target for building brand new homes (again). covid has nothing to do with it. the 'ambitious' house building targets, that are never enough, and never of the right type, never in the right place, have never been fulfilled, the government are continuing to move society in the direction of private renting because that's their ideology. 

and if labour come? same-same. horsemouth doesn't hold out hope for a giant wave of council house building (the thing that is actually needed).  instead he would expect to see a wave of support for first time home-buyers, the kind of voters they'd like to have, the ones they are in competition with the tories for. 

still clap-clap-clap (jolly good show). 

horsemouth regrets to say that he thinks the british people are (collectively) insane (and not in a good way).  he thinks fintan O'toole has diagnosed it correctly, a failure to separate from empire, an unwillingness to admit it is over, a failure to recognise any of the history that has taken place since (except for two world wars and one world cup to be sung to the tune of camptown races). 

the portuguese have it, a mellower form of it. but lots of european nations should have this as well (the french, the dutch, the belgians, have an appreciable imperial histories. even the germans and italians to some extent (about the danes, swedes, norwegians and finns horsemouth does not know). the scramble for africa, congo, indonesia, the maghreb, south west africa, german somaliland. 

horsemouth rolls in the direction of his bus pass (not that he'd want to use it much at the minute), retirement and pension. brexit has probably fucked retiring to the south of europe and the sunshine. quite what the medium and long term results of all this covid lark will be are difficult to see at the minute.