11th October 2023
THE WORLD JUST GETS WORSE – WHEN WILL WE LEARN?
This started as Septembers Blog post – but circumstances got in the way – namely that yours truly and his wheelchair came adrift from the ramp as I was unloading and I hit the deck pretty hard – side and head first. The arm-rest was under my arm-pit and my elbow was between the arm-rest and the floor, with all my weight and the weight of the wheelchair on it. I’ve bruised ribs for a couple of weeks and a bit of a headache but otherwise no damage done. All this while I have been waiting for my new chair to get delivered. The suspension on the old chair was knackered which meant that the front castors often got elevated and passed over the side of the ramp which then meant that the chair ran the risk of toppling over and off – which it did twice – fortunately I caught it on a third occasion and we managed between us to prevent another ‘cascade’ or ‘chute’ as they say here. The new chair arrived last week – same as the old one but this one has cost 13,000€ – they’ve almost doubled in price since my first one in 2016. I’m not overly confident with the new one yet but that will come. The next job is to get the rear doors on the van fixed so I don’t have to use the ramp out of the side door – that job’s been in hand with the insurance company since June last year – believe it or not they can’t source a back door for a 2012 Mercedes Sprinter!
On top of all that I’ve had a sore on the outside of my right foot that the nurses haven’t been able to sort out so I had the Doctor round last week and he confirmed it was infected and put me on some powe4ful antibiotics’ – which are having their usual effect on my tummy and making me pee an awful lot more than usual! And on top of all that he told me a couple of months ago that I’m diabetic – what else can go wrong?? Fortunately diet (i.e. no carbohydrates) and a tablet a couple of times a day seems to be keeping it in check. I test my blood every morning and I hover around the higher level of what’s considered OK so we’ll see how that develops.
Any way lets crack on ….
When I started the Blog it’s heading needed very little thinking about – there have been headlines aplenty referring to the state of the country’s school roofs that were built using Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (more on that shortly) and Laura Kuenssberg’s gripping yet terrifyingly entertaining BBC series currently showing on BBC1 and BBC IPlayer.
I’m no great fan of Laura Kuenssberg, her Sunday politics show seems to be more about her than the programmes content, the opening credits while she parades around pretending to be some kind of celebrity give it all away for me but I have to admit that the way she forensically takes apart the lunacy behind closed (and even wide open) Tory Party doors in ‘State of Chaos’ is a joy to behold – well would be if it wasn’t so serious. If you haven’t seen this yet catch up with it on the IPlayer – it’s too good to miss!
And while I’m at it have a look at Channel 4’s ‘Partygate’ and remind yourself if (if indeed you did) why you voted for that t~~t.
You might also want to have a look at ‘The Thick of It’ also on the iPlayer – ahead of its time beyond a doubt – but don’t watch it in front of youngsters or aged parents –the language is a bit choice!
With everything tumbling down around our ears Parliament went on holiday for 6 weeks, in effect turning its back on the shambolic and potentially deadly state of the nation. And no sooner have our MP’s returned to work they all scuttle off to pretend to be serious politicians at their appropriate Party Conferences. Given the list of problems facing the Government you would have thought some well thought out action or legislation would have been prepared to address at least the most urgent problems – even if that meant recalling Parliament early. Firefighters don’t put down their hoses at 17:00 hours on a Friday in the middle of a blazing fire just because they are off on their jollies the next morning, they stick to the task in hand until it’s sorted. Probably not the best analogy I know but I hope you get my meaning.
The RAAC problem fully illustrates my point. RAAC was used as an expedient from the 1960’s because it was a quick, cheap and easy way to get war damaged and/or old public building infrastructure rebuilt or modernised. It isn’t an intrinsically dangerous building method but like everything else it needs proper maintenance, especially when used for flat-roof construction, any kind of which are notoriously difficult to keep water tight. These problems were understood at the time and these structures had a known life-span. Unfortunately the funding of school maintenance has been a bit of a political football and has been ignored for years. When Sunak was Chancellor he knew about the state of schools and the money required to fix things but he kicked the ball down the road for someone else (anyone!) to deal with. Now he’s the Prime Minister and he chose to ignore the problem again over the summer, leaving school leader to fret about what the new school year would bring, many of whom still do not know what’s happening. Would Tories be so uncaring if the roof of their kids school was liable to collapse? I think not.
And there’s the rub – the Tory ruling class don’t actually use the facilities the rest of us are dependant on. Private schooling (in great part funded by the likes of us as tax-payers through their VAT-free charitable status) and private healthcare (in great part funded by the likes of us as tax-payers through the private sectors use of NHS trained doctors and nurses) mean they don’t have to learn side by side with the great unwashed in a state school and don’t have to wait on a trolley in a corridor of a hospital with a leaking roof and sewage on the floor of the toilets.
The Tories days in power are drawing to a close, they know it and I firmly believe they are now deliberately attempting to leave the biggest mess possible for the new government in waiting.
When in Liz Truss’s hands they totally screwed an economy already emasculated by Johnson’s Brexit, adding billion to the national debt and as a direct consequence of her actions sending interest rates through the roof adding thousands to mortgage payments and hundreds to rent costs – so much for them being the financially responsible political party!
All of that is on top of the Cost of Living crisis which has seen the growth of food banks (which in number now beat the number of McDonald’s outlets in the UK – FFS!!!), clothing banks and warmth banks rise enormously. Kids are going to school hungry, often in inappropriate clothing, all of which will be exacerbated with the coming of winter.
Try as they might none of these problems are solely down to Putin and his illegal, abominable war in Ukraine. Yes his actions caused a spike in wholesale gas prices which caught the West with their collective pants down but the UK suffered as a result of Tory political decisions that put our energy supply and storage in the hands of private companies and shareholders. As a result the UK had no stocks to shore the country up through the tough times and as a result the energy companies raked in excess profits – war profiteers one and all which Sunak’s idea of a tax raid hardly dented.
Osborne’s reign of austerity started the rot, cutting public spending to pay the price of bailing the banks out, rather than have them pay the costs of their failures. Ideologically driven small state, low taxation (for those with the most anyway), trickle-down economic neo-liberalism, started by Thatcher and followed manically by Tories ever since has failed miserably. The result is a country with a failed economy, crumbling and dangerous public infrastructure, a failed international reputation and political system now so damaged by the lunacy of 13 years of self-inflicted Tory mismanagement and manipulation that it is no longer fit for purpose.
As an ex-pat living in France I still pay UK tax on my occupational pension, something I have no problem with and in fact never have had. Paying taxes is like paying your membership subscription to a select club – a lifelong ticket to a steady and stable society that then looks after you when you are young or old or ill. Your subs, everybody’s subs based on their ability to pay, provide for all the things that a mature society recognises as necessary for the good of all. In a word ‘socialism’.
My only issue with paying UK income tax will only rear its ugly head if I manage to live another 7 years as then, when I have been resident outside the UK for 15 years, I will lose my right to vote. That is something that needs sorting out – there are probably a hundred thousand or more in that position and as tax-payers we should be demanding representation!
The Party Conference season is now well under way – Sunak exposed himself in his true colours – does anyone really believe a word from out of his mouth? And this week its Labours turn – but again what are Labour offering other than they aren’t the Tories – well not quite anyway?
The next General Election is a distance off yet but in truth I’m not sure I’ll bother voting – for the first time since I was 18 – but then again you’ve no right to moan if you don’t bother to vote – so I probably will, We’ll see.
More importantly we are now witnessing more war and destruction. The illegal Russian war of aggression in Ukraine shows no sign of abating and now Hamas have struck out at Israel. Neither of these conflicts will end well. I’ve got my own views about both situations but there’s one thing true to both conflicts – it now seems OK to deliberately target civilians – it isn’t – but who is shouting out about the atrocities being carried out? One thing that does look clear to see is Iran’s involvement in all of this. They busily supply Putin with suicide drones to pummel Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure and have also been supplying Hamas with arms, ammunition and rockets to hit deep into Israel, targeting civilians with no regard for their casualties – whilst hiding amongst Palestinian communities in the refugee camp that is the Gaza Strip, making it impossible for Israel to hit back without killing innocents. These are deliberate game plans on both sides and are unjustifiable. Now we have to worry about how the Middle Eastern conflict escalates. Israel will have no compunction striking Iran if they see the need, and whilst they remain the only nuclear power in the region they can act almost without restraint (pretty much as Putin does) but as looney right-wing nationalist as Netanyahu is he would have to knuckle under to US pressure to hold off – but remember Israel have hit Iranian nuclear infrastructure before.
I don’t want to take any side other than that of those caught up in the terror and carnage, Religion plays no part in my life – why should it? Just look at the trouble it has caused over millennia. But when rabid nationalism hijacks a religion things just get even worse. I accept that Israel has the absolute right to defend itself, indeed has the right to exist as a nation state looking for security post-World War 2 and the despicable horrors of the Holocaust. Does the Israeli Government not see the parallels between the Gaza Strip and the Warsaw Ghetto – Palestinians in one, Jews in the other? – so I must challenge the actions taken that target areas with a predominantly civilian population. Yes Hamas deliberately hide themselves away in these areas, knowing that the Israeli Defence Force will go for them and by doing so fall into Hamas’s PR trap. But what on earth gives Hamas the right to target innocents the way they did? I have seen first-hand in Bosnia in 1995 the impact of unrestrained terror attacks on civilians does – the world witnessed that as it did WW2 and as it is the present fighting in the Middle East – the crux of religions that profess peace and harmony! When will people learn?
My heart goes out to all those unfortunates caught up in this war and if any of you reading this have family or friends involved I can only offer you my sympathy as one human being to another, regardless of your chosen God.
This track seems appropriate for the times – Prefab Sprout – The Sound Of Crying
As if the challenges of climate change aren’t enough the world seems intent on destroying itself one way or another. Let’s hope there are more cheery things to write about next time.
TTFN
Jem