Blimey, what a month!   So I had to post earlier in the month on England’s amazing performance on the World Cup football stage this.   Hats of to the lads, they went much further than any-one expected and gave it everything.   You can’t not be proud of them can you?

Back to our grass-roots football and it was just so pleasing to be at Kempton Park on the 8th July and to see our Onslow FC Under 14’s team on the stage with their medals and holding the trophy.   To win the F.A. Surrey Primary  League 1 by just one clear point over the entire season was just a fantastic result.  Looking forward to going up a league next season.   Well done boys!

Kind of wish I’d taken the day off work to see the RAF 100th flyby with 100 aircraft flying over Buckingham Palace.  Made a mental note, I will never have the memory of seeing this happen, it was a 1-off.  Such unusual events need to be experienced and enjoyed if they are to be remembered and cherished.

Mid month, the EU signed the world’s biggest ever bilateral trade deal with Japan, creating an open trade zone covering 1/3 of global GDP.    What a great time for UK to leave the EU. Fantastic!

China has accused the US of “kicking off the largest trade war in history” and has hit back at the US with brutal retaliatory trade tariffs.

A lot more news about Brexit this month, with May getting UK Government support for the Cheques Plan, but the  ‘European Research Group’ seems to be strengthening it’s influence. Barnier (Brexit’s chief negotiator) rejected our proposals to collect customs duties on behalf of Europe, this is not helpful.  It also seems we need contingency plans to use the Army to ship food and medicines, in-case Britain leaves EU without a deal,  and supermarkets are already beginning to stock-pile.  This whole thing is becoming ridiculous.

Effects of extreme weather were in the headlines this month with 33 people killed in Canadian heat-wave, over 100 killed by wild-fires in Greece  and flash floods in Thailand trapping a kids football team and their coach under-ground after 17 days before all were eventually rescued.  Climate change and extreme weather related issues are now routinely in the national and international news headlines.  I’m not sure this has always been the case.  Clearly the big and catastrophic events, such as severe and life threatening hurricane and typhoons, have always made the headlines, but it just seems to be more regularly and blatantly visible now.  It is widely recognised that global temperatures are on the increase and this appears to be connected to extreme weather patterns which are undoubtedly more widely reported as global communications have improved massively in recent years.  So why aren’t we doing more to address climate change?