New Painting: I’ve decided that I am going to try having a portrait and another painting going at all times for the next month or more. I’ve just finished my first of those portraits. It is of Judie and it owes a lot to the style of David Hockney. As you can see from below, it’s not a bad painting and I suppose it looks a little like her. I guess that I’m not really displeased with it, but I am a bit annoyed that I didn’t really capture Judie. I kept working on it, trying to get it, until I finally realized that I was doomed from the start. I never had the head shape correct and trying to correct that made the hair wrong. So I decided to accept that it was a decent painting and move on. It was frustrating. But I have learned a lesson–that the initial drawing is the key in a portrait, so in the one I am working on now, I was much more anal in transferring the picture to the canvas. We’ll see.

Bake-Off News: I don’t know if this news made it to the States, where the Great British Bake-Off is a big hit (I’m told), although it is two seasons behind. The producers of the Bake-Off have sold the show to Channel 4, away from the BBC, after the BBC was outbid by a substantial amount. What Channel 4 failed to do was make sure that the talent was coming along with the big tent and the ovens. This was huge news here, eclipsing even the Brad and Angelina beak-up. Last week, shortly after the announcement, Mel and Sue, the hosts and comediennes who provide the light moments to the show, announced that they were not making the move. This caused a great deal of outcry. But that was nothing compared to yesterday, when Mary Berry announced that she is staying at BBC. She is the heart and soul of the show. It is like you are cooking for your loving grandmother. She will criticize you “soggy bottoms” or dry cakes, but in a loving and gentle way. Now, for £75M, Channel 4 has got the tent and the name and Paul Hollywood, the other judge who needs someone like Mary to be a counterpoint. It’s a bit of a disaster for everyone concerned.

Labour Party Vote to be announced this weekend: There is no drama here. Everyone knows that Corbyn will win, maybe by more than he won the first time. He is utterly beloved by the mostly young, far left voters who make up the membership of the current Labour Party. Whether the membership represents the actually Labour voters int he real electorate is another question, one that is familiar in the context of U.S. primaries, which have tended to skew toward either extreme for the last decade or two. As an article in Friday’s NY Times explained, a lot of this is about taking the Labour Party back from the Blairites, who moved the party away from its socialist base and disenfranchised the activists. I get that, but it seems to me that you still have to have a credible a Parliamentary presence and pose an electoral threat to Theresa May and the Tories. I don’t that Corbyn can do either of those things, and what is worse, especially to the Labour politicians who care about such things, is that he doesn’t seem interested in doing so. This the party divisions will not be resolved by this vote and will grow increasingly ugly.

The Liberal-Democrats, a third/fourth party, which actually seemed like they might be relevant force a decade ago, are hoping to rebound from the brink of extinction, by offering to be the center-left alternative for disenchanted Labour MPs and voters. There is no sign that the Labour MPs are interested in this, although they might be if they are attacked from the Corbyn-loving left in the selection process and are faced with retribution and the loss of their positions for daring to oppose the sainted Jeremy. It is going to be ugly and depressing for most Labour supporter in the coming year.

Theresa May and Brexit, etc.: Because May never went through an election, no one knows exactly what she stands for. She makes Yoda-like statements like “Brexit means Brexit”, which everyone now agrees is utterly meaningless. She is promising to get a “good deal” for Britain in the upcoming negotiations, but what good deal is depends on which of the various wings of her party you talk to. The Brexiteers are pushing her to invoke Article 50 and start the process of leaving the EU immediately or at least very soon. It would probably be a stupid act, but she might get forced into moving too soon. Even if she holds out until late next year, these negotiations are going to be extremely difficult. The eurosceptic wing of her party (especially the ones who go on and on about sovereignty) are absolutely convinced of the importance of British trade in the EU and are convinced that the EU will fold in negotiations. They are almost certainly wrong. (A significant number of the Conservatives believe that once Britain leave the EU, the days of the British Empire will magically be restored. It is pathetic.) The Cameron/Osborne wing of the party are more supportive of a slower process, but Cameron has left Parliament and Osborne et al are pretty discredited and, of course, there is no serious Labour opposition, so it is easy to imagine May being pushed into a process that turns out very badly for Britain.

It is in the non-Brexit areas of policy that things could get very ugly. May and the Tories are very conservative and are now unrestrained. The attack and gradual defunding of the National Health Service will continue, with the idea of eventually privatizing it. They want to reduce the funding of the BBC! The want to go back to the old days of selective grammar schools for the best students (who, despite May’s protestations to the contrary, are likely to be “the right sort of people”). They clearly want to cut back their aid to poor countries and to continue to cut back on welfare benefits. They are absolutely committed to limiting immigration. Labor Unions will see a new wave of attacks. The real economic impact of Brexit has not arrived yet, since nothing has happened. But it will happen and when it does, lots of people will suffer and they will not be “the right sort of people”.

There is a chance that May may call a snap election, which makes good Machiavellian sense to me. Labour is so divided right now that an election might destroy them or at least worsen the divisions. If she waits, there is chance that she could overreach and anger the electorate and even give Corbyn a chance to figure out how to be a leader (although that seems unlikely).

New Medical Mystery: At the beginning of the week, I woke up with my left leg completely swollen. It looked sort of weird, so I went to see a doctor. I’ve ended up getting an ultrasound, a chest x-ray, blood tests and a CAT scan. They have discovered that I am completely healthy. My leg is still swollen and they can’t figure out why. But they have eliminated all the serious things, so maybe it is nothing and it will cure itself. I’m supposed to go back next week.

Surrey Down: Judie and I went to Surrey this week. (By the way, I have always love the song “Stoned Soul Picnic”, but never knew exactly what “surrey”meant. It turns out that no one knows and that there any number of web sites discussing this. Perhaps Laura Nyro knew, but has taken the secret to her grave.) Anyway, we went to a place called Pennyhill Park, where Judie was at a conference. It is a rather historic place that was purchased and converted in a resort with a little golf course and one of the biggest and most elaborate spas I have ever seen. It was very nice. I probably would have done more while I was there, but I was sort of being careful because of my leg. It was fun anyway.