I wasn't as such no. Its just the phrasing of the statement that's unnerving.
I just looked up Palmerstone's death though with you having said about it:
Palmerston enjoyed robust health in old age, living at Romsey in his home Foxhills, built in about 1840. On 12 October 1865 he caught a chill, and instead of retiring immediately to bed he spent an hour and a half dawdling. He then had a violent fever but his condition stabilised for the next few days. However, on the night of 17 October his health worsened, and when his doctor asked him if he believed in regeneration of the world through Jesus Christ, Palmerston replied: "Oh, surely." His last words were, "That's Article 98; now go on to the next." (He was thinking about diplomatic treaties.)
Which has now unnerved me even more.
I think the thing about this year so far is that whilst 2016 was shocking and marked a shift in the balance of power you could see patterns and the opening up of the possibilities and there was a certain predictability about it if you could read the political signs. And it was a slow creep.
With this and the covid-19 crisis in general its been much more of a complete curve ball and spanner in the works. Yes there was the predictability of a sars like coronavirus emerging and the fact we were over due a pandemic and yes if you paid attention to China and then Italy you could see a mile off that the government response and the NHS were inadequate for those challenges.
But its the sheer speed and scale of the changes its forced that's been unnerving. And the random nature of it, where no one is insulated from it. It's a massively levelling force and yes it has brought these striking ironies and what some describe as 'karmatic' situations (personally I don't believe in this and don't really like the concept of the 'deserving' versus 'undeserving' where ever it pops up). The optics of it do add to the effect though.
I think my point is this year of curveball just keeps giving. Just as you think you've got your head around the last one you've got this next event within an wider crisis situation popping up with a frequency that seems to defy what you reasonably thought was your worst case imaginings (eg oh well Johnson has got covid-19 now he can just get a snivel and then go around saying how it's not that bad rather than shit the bed he's in ICU).
What got me earlier was Raab giving an interview with Kuenssberg tonight. He looked absolutely shell shocked and close to tears and only just holding it together. Also (and this is where noticing the details tells you interesting things), the interview with her was a BBC Exclusive and she had turned up in person in contrast to the normal presser which we've got used to being with video link.
It really struck home the seriousness of it all.
One further point: I really feel for Nadine Dorries now too as she was in contact with Johnson when she had it, and the timing suggest she could indeed have been the source of his infection. Of course we will never know but I'm sure seeing how the timings work she will have real moments of guilt. If you cast your mind back to 2016 it was Dorries who was one of Johnsons key supporters in his leadership challenge, crying when he threw in the towel in dramatic fashion.
The way things seem to interweave with past events leads itself far too easily to conspiracy.
The reality is different but it's hard to see that right now.
I wonder what headlines I will wake up to in the coming week / weeks and I forget what was normal just 2 or 3 weeks ago. We have become do detached from any sense of normalcy. And that, like political vacuums, is something which has huge consequences to the size of the fallout for us yet to fathom out much less process in a meaning way.
I think I'm just numb and stunned tonight.