6 November 2022

The way to tell an intelligent person is to listen closely when they speak. If they are uncertain of something they will say. If they are sure of something, they will then commit to that idea, that concept, that direction in which they may go. "Aha", I hear you say, "sometimes we find out that things are not as we thought or things can change". Very true but I would claim that an intelligent person would know this, would be aware of things that might change or of things that they do not know the full facts about.

I say all this because our new PM, Rishi Sushi, is wavering over a few things that he may, carelessly, have committed to or said. Firstly, and most importantly to grumpy old people everywhere (in the UK) there is the triple lock on pensions. Sushi was a bit reticent (get it WASABI t) when asked recently despite the fact that he promised shortly after taking office that he would stick to the 2019 election manifesto which included the triple lock guarantee.

Now the cynics amongst us may think he said that because if he did stick to it then he could argue he had a mandate to govern even though he was not PM at the time of the last election. His attitude could be that he was just carrying out what the Tory party were elected to do and it didn't matter who did it, just that it got done. This will not look so good if he then doesn't stick to it. The argument to call a general election would be much greater. We will all find out in 11 days time when Hunt the Shunt presents his autumn statement which can't really be delayed much longer, purely on a seasonal basis

We then come to COP 27 to which Sushi said he would not be going. Possibly because he found out that BOJO was going in his capacity as a publicity–seeker, Rishi has changed his mind, done a U–turn or just made the wrong decision in the first place.

This brings me back to my first paragraph. Can we have in government a load of people who keep making the wrong decisions? Apologies, U–turns and changes of mind are all well and good but, as Lib Truss found out, by the time you change, U or say sorry so much damage can be done. Far better, and showing more intelligence, is to think, debate, consider and then announce a decision. Playing to the media who are always looking for quotes, sound bites or scraps to digest and regurgitate with a completely different meaning, doesn't work. Forget what the media wants, forget how you appear in public, just run the country in a calm and considered way.

Thanking you in advance, years in advance probably.

13 November 2022

Why are the front pages of so many newspapers full pictures of a camel's penis and a cow's anus. Now you may say that is no way to talk about Matt Hancock (the clue is in the name) and Boy George. Neither has a past to be proud of and neither would I classify as a celebrity. Surely, as I may have said before once or twice, a celebrity should be someone you celebrate, you admire, you look up in some sphere or another. Taking drugs, being in prison, breaking your own Covid rules and accepting a large sum of money but not doing the job for which you were elected, do not fit in my book as being reasons to admire anyone.

The whole show, indeed similar shows, are just a way of providing a ready audience with the chance to watch someone being humiliated and bullied. Have we not progressed from feeding Christians to the lions? The answer is no we haven't and I find it socially disturbing that the people who excite this sort of behaviour, the two presenters of this tripe, are regularly voted as best something or other each year.

There is a song, which I would politely suggest you listen to, called "The Children Are Listening". They are. They listen, they think behaving in that way, humiliating people for humour and entertainment is good and they copy. It happens in schools, it happens through social media and many condemn without realising that by watching these programmes they are perpetrating the wrong.

And as if these so–called celebrities who want to be got out of here (a strange title as the winner is the one who stays the longest I believe) we have the case this week of a man called David Walliams, born David Williams, making crude and derogatory comments about a performer on Britain;s Got Talent, another shows which borders on ridiculing some people. I don't really care if he's a willy or a wally but if you are paid money to do a job then you do not ridicule others that have you have been paid to judge. He will, or maybe has because I just read the story not the follow–, apologise(d) just like Matt Hancock apparently has.

For once and for all, an apology does not remove the grave, thoughtless error you committed. It does not mean that your judgement has changed and you won't do the same thing again. It does not in the slightest way, exonerate you and your actions. Thee should be some way that you are made to pay for your mistakes not bee paid because of your mistakes.

Rant over, for now.

20 November 2022

The government has once again assumed we are all idiots and triumphantly announced the Autumn Statement. Everyone admits there is black hole in government finances. The idea is to fill it by spending cuts and taxation. Instead of increasing tax rates which everyone would understand, the government lowers thresholds and freezes other thresholds. This means that we idiots will all be paying more tax.

The government announces an increase in the NHS and education budgets assuming we are too thick to know the money will have to be found elsewhere. The government knows that council taxes will rise but thinks we will all think that is the fault of our local councils.

I also kept hearing about what the Labour party had done when it was last in office. Stupidly, because we all are, I thought that George Osborne had announced a package that would put all that right. Covid began in 2020 and Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The finances were not in a good state before all that and so to try to blame everything on that is ingenuous to say the least. If you don't wish to say the least; it is a lie.

The 2017 election was fought by the Tory party on the slogan "Strong and Stable". Four Prime ministers later, desperately searching for a magic money tree (which we know doesn't exist but was actually found to get us through Covid) the strength is nowhere to be seen and the stable door has been left wide open even after the horse has bolted.

In the circumstances I will admit Hunt the Shunt didn't do a bad job, although after Lib and Khasi I find it hard to think of anyone who would now be seen to do a bad job. History, they say, has a habit of repeating itself but slightly differently. John Morton's two pronged fork has now turned into Hunt's full cutlery set. A knife to cut spending, a spoon to ladle cream on to a totally unappetising dessert and a fork because it is obvious the Tory party do not know what the fork they are doing. Oh and don't worry, most of what was announced will not be brought into effect until 2025 at the earliest, after the next election. This is another NHS reference as I believe, should Labour win that election they will have just been given a hospital pass (in Rugby terms).

27 November 2022

There does seem to me to be a problem in describing our system of government, i.e. the system that is used in the United Kingdom, as a democracy. It has always concerned me that it is quite possible for more people to vote for a party and for that party not to form the government. In fact this happened in 1951 when 13.9 million people voted Labour and 13.7 million people voted Conservative and yet the Conservatives formed the government as they had more MPs.

The reason I am bringing this up this week is it would appear that if 100% of people who lived in Scotland wanted it to be a separate country, it is possible nothing could happen. Scotland, so the five senior judges in the Supreme Court have ruled, cannot hold a referendum without the consent of the British government.

The Scottish government wants to hold a referendum next October, asking the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?" The British government's argument that it was all settled in the 2014 referendum when Scottish voters rejected independence by a margin of 55% to 45% seems a little bit ingenuous. In 2016 the UK voted to leave the EU by a far smaller margin but the people of Scotland actually voted to stay. To my mind there has been a very significant change since that first referendum.

However, it seems, judicially, that a Bill which would allow for a referendum on ending the sovereignty of the UK Parliament can only take place if the UK Parliament allow it. Turkey's voting for Christmas comes to mind