Happy New Year 2020

Well Christmas 2019 came and went and now we’re in the New Year and for what we are about to receive may the Brexiteers amongst you own up for and shoulder the responsibility – you elected Johnson and now you will have to own the mess. More on this later I’m sure.

I must apologise (again) for the late blog post but I can and must blame Christmas and our Christmas tree – all my techy bits and pieces (lap-top, printer and assorted paraphernalia) live on a small table in the hall by the front door, which also happens to be the preferred spot for the tree come that time of the year. So as the tree went up and got dressed so my odds and ends got moved and the power unit for my lap-top got mislaid. Unfortunately the lap-top battery was flat so I was unable to write anything. Twelfth Night saw the reappearance of my charger and so here I am. So that’s my excuse out of the way but I must admit to being less than disciplined about writing my blog so my resolution for this year is to write at least every two months and, where possible more frequently. You have been warned!

So where shall I begin this missive? How about some good news for starters? Well Karen’s daughter Leighann has had a little boy, born safe and well on 15th December. I pleaded with her not to name him after me – so she named the little fella after my guitar amp instead – so welcome to the world Marshall. That’s grandchild #5 in the bag and a more than welcome addition to the ever growing family.

Karen had returned to London to be with Leighann at the birth and was away from 3rd – 19th December leaving me in the hands of my French nurses and a care assistant from the UK called Michael. Michael is a family friend from Karen’s side and works in a nursing home so was fully experienced in the use of my equipment and dealing with any physical needs when needed. Fortunately my bodily bits and pieces were on their best behaviour and there were no problems on that score but he was kept busy keeping on top of the household chores, looking after me and doing odd jobs around the place. Between us we managed well and I owe him a massive thank you whilst at the same time acknowledge all the work looking after a spaz like me entails – it was obviously tiring Michael out at 22 years old so imagine how hard it is on Karen at almost time to start drawing her pension!? I don’t know how she does it but she proves day in and day out what a star she is and my love and thanks for that know no bounds – thank you my sweetheart.

Karen came home on 19th December and the next day we said au revoir to Michael and the called in at the hospital in Aubusson to have my leg looked at. There was good news in store – after three months in a cast I was given the all-clear . It wasn’t all good news though – I’ve had to give Pep a call and let him down gently because I can no longer make myself available for City if ever he needs me .

While Karen was away I had an orchard planted. We already had an apple tree when we bought the place and were gifted a second apple tree by our friends Francoise and Michel when we moved here after my accident but I always had dreams of an orchard, as part of a plan to be as self-sufficient as possible. My handicap pretty much put paid to the ‘Good Life’ but the desire for the aesthetic beauty of an orchard still burnt so we bought seven more trees from a grower in Gueret and the local guy who does the heavy gardening for Karen planted them all one morning. So now as you drive in through the gates there are two cherry trees in a line along the drive, with two plum trees behind them and then two walnut trees along the line of the front hedge. In a couple of years’ time when the trees have matured the cherry trees will make a glorious sight when in bloom as you enter the grounds. The seventh tree was another apple, which I had planted close by the two that existed so that they can all cross-fertilize each other. The apples will eventually make a lovely picture as you come down the drive towards the house.

As you will be aware from my blogs in the past I really do struggle dealing with my handicap but I feel I might be at least coming towards the corner I’ve got to turn if ever I do learn to live with things and all because now I feel as if I have (literally) put down some roots here in France. We’ll see. Fingers crossed.

We have also committed to having some work done in the house after finally finding a French builder who does everything. Tradesmen in France – Artisans as they like to call themselves – tend to stick with their own trade so a stone mason will lay stones and bricks, a tiler will tile, a plumber plumb and an electrician will do the lights and sockets. All well and good you might think but if you wanted a conservatory putting up in the UK you’d get a quote from ACME Conservatory’s and then leave them to see the whole job through from start to finish. Not here I’m afraid! We had a quote for a conservatory but were told we’d have to get someone in for the base, someone in for any walling and tiling needed and then someone else to put in any heating and electrics required. What a nightmare! The only way round that is to get an architect in, get them to draw up the necessary plans and then employ them to run the job, all of which adds to what is already an enormous expense. Fortunately the bloke we’ve found is up for a long-term project and has the skills needed to give us what we want. It’s early days yet but the quotes he’s given us come in at well below other prices we’ve had so fingers crossed. So far we’ve had woodworm treated in the joists in the cellar and then the cellar insulated. At the moment Christophe (for that is he) is ripping out the en-suite bathroom and turning it into a wet-room to make it easier for me to get a shower. Progress slowed over the holiday period, not helped by him being in hospital between Christmas and the New Year but should start picking up this week now. I’ll keep you posted as to progress during the year but we’ve got some big changes in store that will make things lot easier for us both.

My main worry about living here in France and the potential impact of Brexit on the reciprocal healthcare that I depend on to cover my costs here – where the UK reimburses the French for any costs – seems to have been resolved, until 31st January 2021 at least. My healthcare costs depend on me having a Form S1 from the UK. The S1 is dependent on currently paying National Insurance contributions or being in receipt of either an exportable benefit or the UK state pension. I was paying NI until mid-2019 when my employment was ended and was in receipt of a PIP (Personal Independence Payment, which is an exportable benefit) but both that was dependent on me having paid enough National Insurance contributions. Late in 2019 I received a letter telling me that my PIP would expire on 4th January 2020 because my National Insurance contributions ran out on that date after me no longer being employed and so no longer paying NI contributions! I checked on the HMRC website and confirmed that I had paid NI for almost 50 years so I challenged the Department of Work and Pensions over the ceasing of my PIP. I called their office in Blackpool and spoke with someone (who shall remain nameless – just in case – but if s/he is reading this post (s/he has told me s/he has) s/he will know who he is and my thanks to you for all your support) and was told that the DWP were waiting a legal decision about the exportability of the PIP, and bear in mind that only the independent living allowance element has been exportable to date – Theresa May won a High Court judgement that stopped the mobility allowance element being exportable. I know, I can’t even sit up straight never mind stand up and walk anywhere but I don’t need that extra help to get some independent mobility – because I don’t live in the UK! I hope none of you Brexit voting Boris believers or your family and friends end up in a wheelchair like me because you’ll soon discover first-hand what Tory austerity feels like – but then again you reap as you sow – fuckers!!

I digress, so back to the story. My contact in the DWP advised that a decision was expected a couple of weeks later, that h/she had had my case dealt with in the first tranche and advised that I should call back then. This I duly did – I had a direct line by then – to be told that my PIP would be reinstated from 4th January, would now expire 0n 31st March 2026 (the 10 year anniversary of me being awarded the PIP) and I would be advised by post of that decision but the DWP were still to be told that this decision had been communicated to the NHS Business Team and that I should call back between Christmas and the New Year to make sure that the NHS were aware. The NHS Business Team provide S1’s for people on an exportable benefit or UK state pension. It was confirmed that the NHS were aware, I received my letter from the DWP confirming that my PIP had been reinstated with an end-date of 31st March 2026 (I also got a letter off them telling me they were giving me a £10 Christmas bonus!) and I then received my S1 from the NHS, again confirming its validity until 31st March 2026.

All in all a pretty good result in so far as our healthcare is now secure’ish for the next 18 months. I say secure’ish deliberately because when Blow Job Johnson marches us all out of the EU on 31st January 2021 that might all change. If he pulls off the impossible and secures a deal we should be OK. If, as is expected by anyone with a brain, he fails miserably and steps off the cliff with no deal then we’re screwed and who knows what will happen. He has said there will be a 6 month grace period from 31st January 2021 but he’s a Tory and they’re all lying twats so I guess a massive pinch of salt will be needed for that!

I’ve saved the worst for last – the election result and all that entails.

If you aren’t of a political bent I’d advise that you skip the next few paragraphs.

To say I was disappointed at the outcome would be an understatement to say the least! That people who live in areas the most affected by Tory austerity then voted to perpetuate the same beggars’ belief. That they believed the bollocks that was spun them about Brexit should have woken those in charge of the Labour Party to the outcome but no, on they continued, pushing their left-wing socialist utopia and so help inflict a minimum of 5 more years of Tory misrule. Don’t get me wrong – I believe that where rail franchises fail there is an opportunity to bring those back into public ownership, with the wholehearted support of the fare-paying passengers, but whose idea was it to promise free broadband to all? Now, again, I fully understand the importance of broadband and that it is now as important a utility to the nation as water, gas and electricity – but we all have to pay our monthly bills don’t we! Renationalising the utility industries is an impossible dream but offering the sop of renationalising Openreach and then giving away its product was seen immediately for what is was – a pre-election gimmick – and laughed out of court!

Whatever is in store for the UK now will be a direct consequence of Brexit and the promises Johnson has made to the country and he must be held to account at every opportunity, in the press, over the despatch box in the Commons and in the workplace. But the same degree of accountability should be levelled at the regime that runs the Labour Party and the Lexiteers in the Trade Union movement. I also believe that the relationship between the Trade Unions and Labour should be revisited – something I know won’t go down well with certain readers of my blog but I need to understand why a Trade Union leader – let’s call the devil by his name – Len McClusky – wields so much power within the Labour Party yet isn’t elected by or accountable to Labour Party members. Yes he’s the leader of a large Trades Union that pays enormous amounts into the Labour Party but that shouldn’t elevate him to the position of de facto Party generalissimo. The same can also be said of Seamus Milne and Karie Murphy – special advisors to Jeremy Corbyn, joint architects’ of the collapse of the Labour Party and its plummet now into almost total insignificance. What happened to them? Permanent roles within the Labour Party organisation – the rich spoils of failure!
Machiavellian characters like these are no better than Dominic Cummings – little whispers in ears, directing courses of action that impact directly on millions of people but with absolutely no accountability! How can that be right and proper?

Lexiteers within the Trade Union movement will also have a lot to answer for when Johnson’s  Brexit hits home and hits hard! When I was actively involved in my then Union in BT, either side of Thatcher’s privatisation, I saw my job as being to protect and enhance workers terms and conditions of employment. Workers’ rights and Health and Safety have only ever been reinforced or enhanced by EU legislation but Tory Brexiteers saw an opportunity to tear away at these protections, supposedly to make UK industry more competitive as it rushed to the bottom. Why would a Trade Union official support an idea that risked dismantling all that was good about workers’ rights and protections? Do they really believe that the working class will rise up to overthrow capitalism gone suicidal post-Brexit? Old friends and colleagues, many still active, have failed to answer questions about what good they think Brexit will bring and I’m afraid they will have to have their feet held to the fire once the truths of Brexit are revealed.

So where does Labour go now? Corbyn was never the right man for the job, as principled and as honest as he has always been it was those traits that left him wide open to assault from other political parties and the mainstream media – it would seem that if you sit down with terrorists that automatically makes you a sympathiser – regardless of the real reason behind the action – the Murdoch press are not concerned with facts, just headlines that sell papers. How the link between Labour and it’s paymasters can be adjusted, if ever that is even a possibility, is for better brains than mine to resolve but it is a fact that Corbynism has lost 2 General Elections and it can even be said to be a part of why the EU Referendum was lost. It should now be as obvious as the nose on McCluskey’s face that old-fashioned left-wing socialism doesn’t fit with the times and is now as obsolete as a mechanical watch – and as a smiling owner of an Omega Seamaster I am fully aware of how appealing old-fashioned things can be – but it’s time for Labour to wake up and move on.

So I’ll be looking for a new leader who will look to modernise the British Constitution – end First Past the Post elections, introduce an elected replacement for the House of Lords and even, dare I say it, look to replace the Monarch with an elected President. Betty Battenberg’s irrelevance was held up to a shining light by Johnson’s total disregard of her, as shown when he lied to her when he prorogues Parliament and she was totally unable to do anything about it. A constitutional Monarchy isn’t worth the vellum it’s status is written on, is no longer fit for purpose and it needs to end – and all of that doesn’t begin to take into account the dubious character of one ‘Royal’ in particular!

So we are leaving the EU, with all that that will entail, and that is the end of that – except I’ve now become a ‘Returner’ and will advocate that position as best I can. Johnson and his cronies promised the earth to the electorate so we must. now all do what we can to hold them to account

End of political rant!

So what have Karen and I got to look forward to in the next couple of months? Well hopefully lots of building work to make our lives a little easier but also some more visitors – my daughters Amy and Beth are coming to see us for my birthday in February and bringing Amy’s girls – my gorgeous granddaughters Milly and Violet. We’ll also get to meet Beth’s beau Dylan and I’m busy planning lots of odd-jobs for him to do – I wonder if he can be trusted with a chainsaw? We’ll see. Karen’s brother Pete is due in April with his partner Paula and his two youngest – KT and Joe – and it’ll be great to see them all again as well.

We’ve had some really unseasonal weather of late with temperatures well in the teens Celsius for weeks. It’s been wet and windy but the ground needed the watering after the long hot summer we had so no complaints there. More significantly though is the fact that we’ve had no snow and there are no signs of any in the near future. I’ve parroted on before in my blogs about global warming, climate change deniers and the world that’s gone to shit on our watch for our children to inherit but if climate change is becoming more and more apparent here in rural France how much more of Australia has to burn or Arctic ice-cap has to melt before Governments across the world wake up and do something?

That’s all for now so my thanks for sticking with me to the end. I hope you all had a smashing Christmas and I hope the New Year brings you all you wish for.

All my love to you all

Jem