The Show

The Annual Stanhope Agricultural Show in Stanhope returns after two years, since the Junta banned it last year, because they could. How on Earth the humans gave up their freedom for a shower like Johnson and his gang, is hard to comprehend,.There are glimmers of hope from folks finally waking up from their nightmares, but it's taking a while, and many are so hypnotised they still think dangerous drugs, delivered free of charge, made by charlatans making fortunes, since free at the point of use, means taxpayers footing the bill, again.

An early visit on Saturday enabled a wander round the field, marquee and stands, chatting with friends not seen for ages, starting with The Churches Together crew outside awaiting folks of a religious nature, now that it's been seen that Blake's observation, All Religions Are One, is the best way to rescue the various versions of Jesus Christ's message from the slide in popularity apparent in Britain for at least two decades. The reason for eschewing the Marquee was given as caution about being infected by a dangerous disease thought to be circulating in big tents not set up for social distancing, since you can't be too careful, can you? Can you? Having spent some time in the Marquee throughout the day, discussing philosophic questions with captive stakeholders not wearing masks, and whole families risking their lives, blatantly close to complete strangers, we await reports of a surge in cases as a consequence.

The Methodists representing all the Christians were open to philosophical discourse, which went on for quite a while, on and off, and the customers were few, despite the lurking dread of death evident all round the world. Maybe the heathens are still not convinced of the message of the Christian God, that the End Times are arriving and now's the time to decide whether to go to Heaven above or Hell downstairs. Other versions of this scary story are available in different churches of course, hence all the Churches in the Dale, except the Catholics, uniting for economic reasons. Basically that's the two versions of Methodists, Primitive and Wesleyan, plus C of E, which is the Catholics without a Pope, more or less.

The search for the fascist MP, Rich Holden, went on all day, since further questioning was required to establish his reasons for bringing Fear to the Dale, as well as Consett, Burnopfield, Willington and Crook, where the Red Wall crumbled at the last General Election, much to the surprise of Holden and the chagrin of Katie, his girlfriend, who supposedly ran out of the Louisa Centre in Stanley when the results were announced, in tears at the thought of having to move out of London to mingle with the Great Unwashed in the South West Durham seat in North East England. Eventually a small marquee was erected, with a charming photo of Rich smirking, blatantly advertising his intention to be elected again, unless he could find a safer seat somewhere further South for them to mingle with the stockbrokers, the natural habitat of Tories. Anyway, Holden was wandering about the field, and the questions were shared with Douglas, who did the dirty work for Rich, doubtless with ambitions of his own. He escaped when a personal friend, Ian, arrived to explain why he'd decided to work the Dark Side and did he really trust a friend of Johnson. Well, we parted friends, and disagreed about the politics. He trusted the Labour Party less than the Tories, which is quite normal in Durham, since the County Council is well known for its corruption. Showing that divide and rule still operates, and Democracy is basically Tweedledumb and Tweedledee ... or Tweedledumber.

The numbers of folks risking infection grew steadily, and the competing sounds of humans speaking, tannoys annoying from at least two directions, paying attention to the stories of folks with opinions, not necessarily just to refute them, but to understand how humanity in this epoch, in the Western World, have embraced such a variety of versions of Truth ... whatever that is ... meant ears ringing, peace and quiet needed, and a retreat from the field, around 2pm.

Today, by the way, it's Tuesday already, and this post is late, due to Sunday and yesterday being less frantic but still active ... reports from the village say the two day show was a huge success, with record numbers of tickets sold ... 20,000 ... not to mention all those working the field or otherwise not recorded. Due to short attention spans, that's it for today dear readers. It's early and still dark. Sunday and Monday events and reflections may follow later ...