THE LONDON LETTER
Back in London at the end of August, after spending part of the month in France, we measure everything we missed about the “Great British Summer”: the damp grayness and the freshness, between 18 ° C and 20 ° C almost all. the days in the south of England. In the parks, the grass still thick, the barely scorched leaves, the barely ripe blackberries …
An English summer was worse, to the point that the very serious BBC Radio 4 greeted with a touch of irony, Thursday August 26, this information from the MET Office – the equivalent of MeteoFrance -, according to which the temperatures had been, on average , higher by 1 ° C this summer in the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, it was the south-west of Scotland (Glasgow region) and Northern Ireland that drove this average up, with historic peaks of over 30 ° C in central Ulster. .
For those of the British who have opted for the “Staycation”, recommended by the Johnson government, and therefore spent the summer at home instead of flying to Spain, France or Greece as usual, the holidays must have been very gloomy. Even in the beautiful Point of Cornwall, a paradise for party-goers and stand-up paddleboarders, the sun has made few appearances.
The sporting fever subsided – let us recall the harvest of British medals at the Olympic Games (Olympic Games) in Tokyo (twenty-two gold charms), and England’s historic victory in the semi-finals of Euro 2020 football -, l The news gave very little cause for distraction. Boris Johnson did not appear to push further than Checkers, the official residence of prime ministers in the Chilterns, west of the capital.
The tabloids have had no entertaining photos of the blundering executive and his wife Carrie, pregnant with their second child, to chew on. Last year, Mr Johnson had spent a few days in a tent in Scotland and offered the media a few pictures in Bermuda shorts and a baby carrier.
Live as if the pandemic is gone
The “Geronimo” affair did generate some headlines. This alpaca was threatened with slaughter because it tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. History has touched the hearts of animal lovers the British. In Birmingham, the press and locals played hide and seek with Tom Cruise, who spent a few days in England’s second city for the filming of a new opus of Impossible mission – and had his BMW stolen there.
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