Lassitude seems to suit me. A few essential tasks are within my grasp but nothing else gets done. This all started when I got sanglier flu in France.
My recovery was delayed by a most pleasurable but exhausting day in Chichester and then getting soaked going to the dentist and afterwards looking for the missing statue of Capability Brown. Belatedly, I realise that I need to stay indoors, listen to opera and read – well maybe a medicinal glass of sherry too.
However, I did go to the City yesterday for the AGM of plantation company, MP Evans. You may recall that at the end of last year they fought off a hostile takeover bid. Since then they have been sticking to their knitting. Their palm oil yields have improved, as has their crop and prices have risen. They are negotiating to buy more than 7,000 hectares of already developed plantation. The mood of the meeting was one of satisfaction. The thwarted bidder holds 12.5% of their shares and may come back with another bid. Takeover rules don’t allow this before the end of December 2017.
Meanwhile history is repeating itself. The Conservative government needs the votes of Irish MPs to survive, as it did in the 19th century after Catholic Emancipation. I hope this will bring us to a soft-boiled Brexit but there is much uncertainty which is the enemy of prosperity. We can only await events; big girls don’t cry.
I knew the Irish Parliamentary Party helped keep the Liberals in power at various times from 1886 onwards, but weren’t aware of any 19th century Tory/Conservative governments ‘which needed the votes of Irish MPs’ to survive. Please enlighten further…
This is from the letters column of the FT:
MAY 12, 2015
Sir, Roy Foster’s excellent reminder of the role played by the Irish Home Rule party after 1885 tells half the story (“Bribery, corruption and other ways to curb the Celtic nationalists”, May 9). The first half began in 1829 with the passing of the Catholic Relief Act, allowing Catholics to sit in the House of Commons under the leadership of Daniel O’Connell. As in the period Professor Foster describes, this influx of new, Irish nationalist politicians were a great nuisance but they were tolerated as they propped up a succession of weak Whig and Tory governments.
I am descended from two of these MPs, Patrick Bellew and George Bryan, so feel considerable admiration for the achievements of the Scottish National party and, if history is to repeat itself, it may also attain independence.
Christopher Bellew
London W6, UK