Scarborough journey

After celebrating the 10.00am Mass at St German's on  Wednesday morning, Clare and I travelled by train to Scarborough to visit out old friends from Geneva days, Peter and Andrea. The six hour journey was so much more pleasant than driving by car even if it cost more. The high summer countryside up the border between England and Wales, and on the journey across the Pennines from Manchester to our destination provided us with a feast of beautiful colour. The trains on both legs of the journey were in good order and satisfyingly full.

Scarborough is what one might call a traditional seaside town, beautifully maintained with lots of fine Victorian buildings and three cliff railways, of which two are working. The sea front is an eclectic mix of buildings serving the needs of holidaymakers: pubs, restaurants, ice cream parlours, amusement arcades, stalls selling toys, sweets, fresh sea-foods etc; and there's a harbour, with excursions on speed-boat or pirate galleon, catering for all kinds of taste. There are some grand hotels, and Victorian terraced houses of substance, and many streets that still contain small shops of every kind. 

Without striving to manufacture it, Scarborough breathes the ethos of an earlier time, an era which remains attractive and comforting to a large enough number of people to sustain the town as it is in these times of change. It has a high proportion of of older residents among its population, and that may be what ensures its viability for the present. Our friends are very happy there in retirement, and despite a Thursday of dreadful weather our stay with them was most interesting and enjoyable, destined to be repeated.

We had a couple of days without internet, only occasionally being able to follow TV news. Even so, just as I'd imagined, the numbers of arrests of people rioting in London and other parts of the country quickly rose to over fifteen hundred, with courts sitting all night to process offenders. Parliament recalled has discussed the events ad nauseam and now efforts are being made to begin a sensible grass roots enquiry into the reasons for such public disorder, even before any formal judicial enquiry is set up.

I daresay, in the long run, an analysis of how it all happened in its different settings may be achieved, but even if underlying moral and spiritual failures of society are identified as a key factor, I doubt if any practical remedy will be the outcome. The modern world is so addicted to its own ideas of progress, it's impossible to see what heartfelt repentance and reformation might look like in a way that would transform life for all.