the fact that it rains

today (friday) mum has friends coming to visit. 

meanwhile horsemouth is unsure what he will be up to. 

the fact that it rains

it does indeed (rain horsemouth means). he's trying to work out if this amount of rain is typical (whether we will have just experiences the driest january on record)  or if it is raining more than usual (the wettest january since 1849 etc.). 

ok herefordshire seems to have gotten off comparatively lightly (150% of averages) compared to somerset/ aberdeen etc (200% of averages) but still.

horsemouth suspects it is a wetter winter than usual and he blames this on global warming - warmer air can hold more water vapour and thus we have more rain (and thus we have more flooding also). 

of course this can be followed up by drier, hotter summers and water shortages (horsemouth fully expects a water shortage in the summer). 

yesterday the rain is kept him locked up in the house (ideally he would have been off to ewyas harold in search of the hereford times). he tried to work out whether it was worth it or if there was something else  that would have been good for his head (besides writing that is).  

ok it was decided. he went

he'd talked his mum out of getting the bus in (leading to lots of pointless hanging around for the bus back) instead he went on his own. his mum wrote an endless list of foodstuffs that they desperately need before next wednesday. 

and then he was back. he thanks the driver who gave himself and the neighbour a lift back when they were walking along the road (horsemouth had decided the road was the safer bet going back having fallen in the mud on the common a number of times). 

the grump is leaving him. he's beginning to feel the benefits of having done it. mission accomplished - tick. 

no bell-ringing last night. they did it early and then went to watch the rugby (horsemouth is not a rugby fan so he thought he'd give it a skip - was this wise? he doesn't know yet). 

there's the usual mandelson, starmer, mcsweeney fall - but this faction within labour also included wes streeting (perhaps he will get lucky and escape it) but can he now stand knowing that the matter could be raised?

who is the alternative?  

is angela raynor too compromised by the brighton flat thing to go forward? do they really want a re-ron with wallace and gromit (aka. ed milliband)? do they really want a re-ron with andy (will he? won't he?) burnham?

what's the game plan? 

gorton and denton by-election 26th february (3 weeks) - horsemouth assumes there's no optimist who can be found who thinks that labour will mount a successful defence of it. defeat - heads must roll.

but then there are the 7th may local, sennedd and scottish parliament elections. these are 13weeks away - is this long enough to depose starmer and have his replacement in place? the timetable for these things can be as short as 6 weeks (2 weeks warning/ 4 weeks voting) or (in corbyn's case following ed milliband's defeat in 2015) 4 months. 

whoever gets in they have until 15th august 2029 to move the dial.

lots of rain in the night. let's see what the morning is like.