Is it safe?

This is going to be a trivial post. 

The Silly Season is supposed to be August, when politicians go off on their holidays and journalists (I use the word loosely) have nothing else to talk about, so we get re-runs of stories about Princess Diana, shockeroony rumours about TV 'personalities' - and sport.

But we're only just into July. The TV is awash with the Women's World Cup football. The English team is, as always, being over-hyped as the next world champions - despite the fact the US women are obviously miles ahead of them in experience and tactical knowledge. Heaven help the England women (Lionesses - for heavenssake, who came up with that one?) when they lose. As they surely will.

I draw the line at watching Wimbledon. I've never understood why the BBC feels the need to show it all day and all evening on two terrestrial channels. How many channels can you watch at a time? Myself, I'm reduced to watching re-runs of NCIS and I'm just about at the end of my tether.

But this is all a good distraction from the revelation that a fairly uninteresting woman dj is now being paid silly money to play pop songs on BBC2. She and Gary Lineker, another deeply boring person, get lots of taxpayers' cash mostly for providing background noise. The most exciting thing I can think of about Lineker is that his son either sued or threatened to sue his public school because he didn't get the A level grades he needed to go to university. Meanwhile, pensioners are to be deprived of their free TV licences to pay the wages of these people.

So how come I know all this trivia? Because I admit here and now that I haven't watched TV news or a political programme for about 6 months. Nor have I read any political commentaries. And I don't intend to pay attention to any of this stuff until I can ask, like the mad dentist in the movie Marathon Man: Is it safe? And get the answer I want.

Of course, it's not safe so long as Boris and Jeremy roam the UK 'hustings'. It's especially unsafe in areas where the contenders for the LibDem leadership are also on the loose. I have no interest in any of them but I have to ask just exactly how gullible are the UK public if they believe a word that comes out of the mouths of these people? Except, maybe, Ed Davey who seems faintly embarrassed when his colleague tells yet another whopper.

It's not just me: I have the feeling I'm surrounded by voters - decent people all - who just want an answer to another question: What the hell is going on? 

Why is Nigel Farage turning up at a parliament he claims he despises and encouraging his fellow brexit MEPs to turn their backs when they hear musicians giving a rendition of Beethoven's Ode To Joy? Why was one of his colleagues moaning on twitter about how difficult it was to get from Ipswich to Strasbourg - 3 trains (on the England side) and then a French TGV? Such a hardship. If he'd said, I'd have gone for him. And probably made a better impression. The brexit party MEPs don't have to be there. They've achieved their aim: the UK is leaving the EU. So why have they turned up? Just to rub it in that the UK is leaving? Just to collect their wages?

If they hand the cash to charity, I'll apologise, but don't hold your breath. Mind you, I wouldn't mind a couple of minutes from a couple of politicians in the dentist's chair and me with a drill in my hand...