demented driver

Out to the coast to take my mum to see her doctor again, firstly to get him to complete the (newly printed) document correctly, and also to persuade him to write a letter of support for her appeal to have hr driving licence restored, having had it peremptorily revoked by the DVLA last week the moment they learnt of her Alzheimer's diagnosis. To give added weight to our argument, I sat next to her as she negotiated the 5 mile run from her home to the surgery through heavy traffic, very cautiously, but without any errors. Thankfully he complied immediately, and we walked away with his letter of support in our hands.

Now she must wait for a positive response from the DVLA before she can drive again. I explained to her again and again that she must not drive even a yard, as she would be breaking the law as well as being uninsured. Will she remember to keep to this injunction? I am not certain she will, but I feel it would just be too humiliating for her to confiscate her keys, like some wayward teenager.

COMMENT: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A BIT OF IMMOLATION CAN MAKE

It all kicked off in Tunisia with someone setting fire to themselves in protest against a heartless, autocratic regime. Then someone did the same in Egypt, and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyone with even a spark of humanity must have been moved by the "people's protest" in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the past fortnight, the high point of which for me being the Army's refusal to crush the revolt, a la Tiananmen Square in 1989.

But Mubarak is still there, waiting the protesters out, and I fear in the short term he will win the waiting game. He knows the people there, living in increasingly squalid conditions, will eventually give up in despair, while he waits in comfort and luxury. Already the Americans, so strident to begin with about following the will of the people, have backtracked, quietly reverting to their time honoured position of favouring a stable government over a democratic one every time. But given a longer time-frame, time is on the people's side. Big M knows his days are numbered, and I can only echo those famous words used in a different context:
"In the name of God, GO!"