Category: Politics

Starmer has said there will be no great spend if Labour win the next election. This may be prudent but the economy is stagnant and needs a boost.After World War 2 plans were already in place to create the NHS, introduce a new education system, build new towns, create National Parks, build many council houses. Renew city centres. Not all were fantastically successful but the vision and energy was there. Is it asking too much for the same vision and energy from Labour? The NHS needs restructuring and re-energising, as does education. The climate crisis is affecting wildlife and the environment and will. need drastic reforms of countryside laws including agriculture and the estates of the mega wealthy. Our energy sector has the potential to increase on the 26.8% of electricity sourced from wind last year and increase solar production whilst reducing consumption with insolation. The rail network needs renationalising as does water – but these will have to wait, although failed franchises on the railways can be required without compensation and targets for the water industry could do the same.

Still the greatest problem for any government. Costs are still rising, renting is increasing whilst home ownership falls (half a million less than 10 years ago). Is it cynical to ask who makes money from this situation?

Dinner should be an important part of the school. day – not something consumed on the hoof. It should be planned, chosen, sourced, environmentally and socially assessed, priced, prepared, cooked, served, assessed for nutrition, washed up too! An educational and social experience

Basically I am just enjoying the shitshow! Harry, it seems, has been told by his therapist to get his anger off his back and lay it out in public. Whilst the family are keeping shrumm. It amazes me at how entertaining people are finding this and are able to give their unqualified and uninformed options without shame! Those who want him stripped of his title should be aware that if this can be done, it could be done to the lot of them, from Charlie down! And it had gone quiet on Andrew again (whom incidentally seems not to have broken any English Laws other than acting like a complete overprivileged prick!).

There would seem to be less and less reason to treat the royals with respect or deterrence. Main stream media, especially some newspapers are reliant on the controversy for sales, especially the Mail, Sun, Express and Torygraph. Great escapism from the financial horrors inflicted by 12 years of Tory rule

Yet again the Government makes a meaningless statement which it has no intention of fulfilling, and it is not even sensible. There is a shortage of maths teachers and special needs and support staff are being shed by schools due to budget restrictions. The policy will also not be implemented until after the next election, so it will both look good in the election manifesto and will be something to beat the next government with and has no consequences for now. This is becoming a pattern.

Proctor and Gamble – prices up 9%; workers pay rise below inflation; CEO wage up 44% to£14.7million. Plans for large share buy back (£18bn) to push share price up. Same story at Nestle.

So profits up, prices up, dividends up, share price up, but wages suppressed. This does not seem sustainable to me. Two people working full time on minimum wage would not earn enough to live a satisfactory lifestyle with 2 children. So living standards are expected to fall again this year. The Central Banks will keep interest rates high despite the growth in unemployment thus pushing more into poverty. Government instructs “Independent” pay review board to limit NHS rises to 2% next year.

Tories have destroyed British society – there is no argument about that. Even the Tory trash rags like the ~Telegraph, Mail, Sun, Express, Times do not dispute it. They just try to push the blame elsewhere – which is becoming increasingly difficult. Public sympathy is with the strikers. But who to blame? Megan and Harry are good for 50% front pages but that is getting as tiresome as natural disasters sound the world. They have tried blaming nurses and doctors, train drivers and ambulance paramedics and lawyers, but know that will not sell papers. Putin could be worth another punt. I expect their reporters are being sent out to stalk celebrities and sports stars for meaningless headlines.

This is almost certainly lacking in correct dates, etc. but is honest in that these opinions are my own.

I was first aware of politics in mid-1960’s aged 12 or 13. Eventhen I was Labour. My parents would not say who they voted for, and it was only subsequent to my fathers death that I found out he was Labour. Grandad Tuckey was so left wing he would only have red flowers in the garden and would put his cloth cap on to do the washing up.

Number of cases admitted to hospital with flu is 3716 per day of whom 267 are in critical care beds. The number of NHS staff off with Covid was 8029 per day (up 47%). Why was the government reluctant to impose restrictions on Chinese people travelling to the UK?

It seems that Covid is still lurking in the corner! Numbers round here are creeping up slowly (and I presume that reported numbers are less than half the reported totals. It would be easy for me to predict doom and gloom, and delete this post when it does not happen – so I will not.

I think that this country is fairly well immunised so vulnerable should be OK (I hope as I am probably one!). The young should have built up some immunity so we should be able to avoid lockdown. However those in middle age with no top up injections may suffer? I am thinking and hoping not hospitalisation, but serious enough to cause absence from work. The NHS is already on its knees due to government mismanagement, serious absenteeism could be devastating (and NO I do not want NHS staff to report for duty if Covid positive.

I am fed up with people who do not/can not listen to other points of view. These are almost invariably people whose view does not stand up for scrutiny. yesterday an old guy (The only Express reader in the village – ps. I am the only Guardian reader although Observer does well in Sundays) stated that capital punishment should be brought back. He was not interested in any actually statistics , just convinced that murders have become a lot more common and DNA meant the police would never get it wrong. There would be no way to get him to change his mind. Incidentally the number of murders has gone up a little since the 1950’s from 350 in a pop. 50 million to 594 in a pop of 70 million.