My first actual job after leaving the Merchant Navy was with a freight forwarding firm in Leeds. Located in Leeds Containerbase (which is located on Valley Farm Way in Stourton approximately 3 miles south east of Leeds) meant me journeying to work each weekday by bus. Two buses were required. Therefore the picture above from the 1970s is for me, redolent of that time in my life. Each weekday morning for the short while I was employed at this firm involved waiting for two buses and hoping that they were on time. Rain or shine, windy or not, Monday through to Friday saw me make four bus journeys each day. The buses were “double-deckers” and I would generally sit on the top deck at one of the front seats if I could. But it was the waiting that is my abiding memory.
You see, the only control I had (vis-à-vis getting to work on time) was to make sure that allowed for each bus being late. This resulted in me being 20 minutes early to work each morning – if the buses ran to time. Sometimes however I barely made it by 9AM!
You see, I was powerless to influence the buses progress. I had no control over the amount of traffic. I had no control over the traffic lights. I and my fellow passengers were at the mercy of chance!
The picture above of a 1976 Rolls Royce Phantom VI limousine reminds me of a scene I witnessed near Hyde Park Corner in London in the 1990s. During the day and during the evening, London’s roads are busy. Patience is required in London if you are a drive or a passenger in a road going vehicle!
Unless of course you are a VIP!
I was one of many pedestrians when the road rapidly became free of traffic. This was because police motor bikes had placed themselves across a number of junction to halt traffic. After what must have been less than a full minute a limousine the same as the one above swept along with a police motorbike in front of it and a police motorbike following. In it was a lady I recognised – as I was working as a photographer – it was the Duchess of Grafton, the Mistress of the Robes!
Her Grace The Duchess of Grafton, GCVO, JP served as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II from 1967 until her death on 3 December 2021, at the age of 101.
You see, Her Grace was a VIP. We pedestrians and the other road users were not! We were the plebeians. Her Grace was a patrician!
Today and until the afternoon of 20 January, you Dear Reader and the rest of the world wait. Wait for Donald J. Trump to take the Oath of Office and to become the 47th President of the United States of America.
As we ordinary insignificant members of the public wait, others, more significant wait as well.
The Right Honourable Rachel Reeves, PC, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (at the time or writing) the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey is waiting. As is her colleague The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer PC, KCB, KC, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Member for Holborn and St Pancras.
For the man now variously known as “Two Tier Keir”, “Comrade Starlin” and “Keir the Kneeler” this time will be a bit like the naughty schoolboy ordered to attend the headmaster in his office!
It was not so much the caning……. It was the waiting! You know it’s coming. One wanted it to be over and done with! But then the waiting was part of the punishment!
Very much in the same way – nowadays – British people who publish something politically incorrect on social media can get visited by police officers and interviewed under caution; to be told that the police will make enquiries and inform them subsequently if any action is to be taken! The waiting (and the process of a “non crime hate incident”) is the punishment!
So is the man below, right to have that worried look?
Yes!