My daughter is studying politics at the Sixth Form College and Will Quince, our MP is to visit today. I suggested some questions that she might wish to ask him last night.
1 - was it right to Defund The Police between 2015 to 2017 and would it be right to defund them, sorry carry out efficiency savings, now?
3 - what do you think about the rumours that Liz Truss is a Lib Dem robot sent back in time from the future tasked with destroying the Conservative party?
She is not going to ask the third question!
After watching This England with her last night, I lay suggest a COVID related question. The government have got away with us having the 4th highest death rate in Western Europe and their response with PPE and the mateocracy was terrible, but they did well to get us the ventilators that we thought might be needed and also to build he emergency hospitals that were needed in China.
This year, Paxman Academy has been offered a place in the NEMOs, the North Essex Mathematical Olympiads to take place on Wednesday 5th October 2022, held at St Helena School.
The competition involves teams of 4 students competing against other schools in Colchester and North Essex. We would like to offer (insert our sons name here) a chance to be involved, as one of the best mathematicians in Year 10. (Insert sons name here) will travel to St Helena School in the school minibus at the end of the school day. The competition will run from 3.45pm until 5.15pm.
Yesterday I was at a large meeting about healthcare. There must have been over 200 people there. I only saw one other person there wearing a face mask. There were occasional coughs and needless to say, I was a little twitchy. Saying that, I also did not feel 100% (and still do not) and could not be certain if this related to my vaccinations on Tuesday (when I had COVID in one arm and flu in the other) or if I had caught something from my son who has been unwell and at home for the beginning of the week. My wife has not felt too good either and she is going to cancel her day at work today as she is still so rough. Anyway, I was surprised to see so many people working for the NHS not wearing a mask. It was good though to see many on a face to face basis, and despite me wearing a face mask, I was recognised by all who I have regular Microsoft Teams meetings with, though I almost did not recognise one myself!
In the evening, I watched This England with my daughter after we all had caught up with She Hulk. I do like She Hulk, I think that we all do, though I think that it has more meaning for my wife and daughter that it was for my son and me. This England did bring back a few reminders of just how terrified I was back in 2020 when there was no vaccine and the fatality rate was higher. It also reminded me of how much I hate how the Conservatives decided to ignore the concerns that had been raised before the pandemic. Exercise Cygnus appeared to be ignored as were the lessons of Exercise Alice. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the episodes.
Spent part of yesterday vaccinating people against COVID and influenza. I was surprised to find one person who refused their flu vaccination and another who declined the COVID19 booster. Fortunately I was able to be immunised as well as my wife as we are both front line workers.
Here is hoping that it prevents us getting infected as viruses are spreading more with the temperature dropping. Australia has has a bad flu season, here is hoping that the same does not happen here. I suspect with the rare use of masks now, that it will.
I am about to start a series of meetings in Martlesham but was directed by mistake by the people here to the vaccination clinic. Not today!
The IMF have said that Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax cuts are likely to increase inequality and measures should target households worst affected by energy crisis and inflation. Lenders have already withdrawn hundreds of mortgage deals this week, as they struggle to price their products because of the financial market volatility. The pound has hit a low against dollar after the mini-budget rocked the markets and the former boss of our Chancellor is raking in the money.
Normally, I would say that this is too much of a co-incidence to be just due to Putin, but considering his invasion of Ukraine and the incompetence shown in his invasion, I do think that Putin is behind this. The question is what will others who may be on the list to have accidents do about the ever increasing death list.
I watched an interesting documentary on Al Jazeera which has shaken up a hornets nest again.
I had realised this came about from the hashtag on Twitter of #ItsAScam.
Needless to say, I cannot comment on most of the allegations made about another branch of the Labour Party as I have no idea what happened there but the documentary makes no reference to the outcome of a report into one branch. I can comment about how Momentum moved to take over branches as this is what happened in Colchester. At the time this happened, I had not joined Labour, but I knew some of those in the party and in the summer of 2017, the make up of our local party was changed, quite dramatically. The Al Jazeera documentary refers to a slip of paper that had described how to take over Labour Party meetings. Comparisons have been made with Momentum and Militant, the Militant tendency being a face of Labour that was considered unelectable to many people who would not normally vote Labour. There is no reason why people should not band together to put forward candidates and organising to do so is not necessarily a bad thing, but lying about doing so is wrong. It may be that the slip of paper that was included in the dossier was not something spread by Momentum, but it is a lie if someone says that Momentum did not plan to take over branches and reshape Labour to fit what they felt was needed for the nation. Lots of people joined Labour BEFORE Corbyn became leader thanks to membership rule changes which were brought in by Ed Miliband following his election to become Labour leader over his brother. Yes, many of them voted for Corbyn, as was their right, and following his election, even more joined a party that was revitalised and offered a fresh approach to politics.
I am of the view that Corbyn was wrongly held to account for the actions of some of his supporters, an example being accusations that Corbyn was allowing Trotskyist and members of the hard left to infiltrate Labour when he did not change the rules to enable entryism. He has always been clear in his call for Kinder Gentler Politics, a value that I feel should still be present in the party of today and politics overall.
The Labour Purge refers to how in 2015, lots of Labour members were suspended before the election into the challenge into the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. That was a disgraceful and dark period in the history of the Party, and I do not think that enough action has been taken to find and punish those responsible. I actually had forgotten this occurred, despite one of my good friends being suspended due to this (this was a factor in him leaving the party).
The “die in a hole” words of Ella Rose are inexcusable (which she accepted) though there is a difference between making a comment about someone to making comments to them. The issue of Israel and the support towards one of the few democratic nations in the Middle East is a contentious one and is one which I have addressed before. I have used language which I did not appreciate was antisemitic in the past and too many people view the issues regarding Israel and Palestine as a binary issue ignoring the grey that exists.
It also looks at abuse sent to party members. Let me be clear, making comments about people in private is different to the inexcusable behaviour of sending threats and abuse to someone.
Another part of bias in this report is the reference of Labour members on the right of the party. Labour members can be divided into those towards the centre of the political spectrum and those on the left. When it comes to Conservatives, they are not described as being on the left of the party, but instead are centrists or this on the right. Having been called a Red Tory, describing people like me as being right wing is to ignore our left wing views, just like describing Labour as being on the right when it is still a left wing party.
I am not sure how much damage this will cause before the party conference, the Conservatives can only hope and pray for another Labour civil war.
We had a much needed family meal out today. I did not get to spend much time as a unit yesterday as I had to take my mother home and the kids were in bed when I got back.
I took Leia out for a walk in the morning, this being off to Highwoods which she loved and on getting back started to unwind from the drive yesterday night. After school, we decided to go out for a meal and went to the Crown. They take dogs which was great as Leia joined us. The food was good, but I have to admit, as good as it was, it did not match up to the standard of food in Greece! That however just shows the standards of food at that hotel and does not take away from the quality of the food here.
We all had a great time at the restaurant, though I did break a chair, or rather it broke. That is something I suspect the children will never let me forget!
I am so pleased that the wealthy got something nice in the budget when they so often get overlooked. After all, they must be suffering in the cost of living crisis and deserve the abolition of the highest tax band. Arguments that it is those less well off who keep the economy of the nation running are ‘solved’ by giving most people a tax cut that will be swallowed up by rising prices of food and fuel. Okay, I am being sarcastic.
My fear is that the less money people have, the less they can spend in the economy, which means that the recession we face will be longer and harder. Let alone the job losses as businesses have to deal with less revenue from a cash starved population.
Bankers however will no longer be bound by the wage restraints that the rest of the nation has to abide by. Basically this is a budget by the rich for the rich or at the very least, looks like one.
This morning was sad as it was our last morning in Greece, for now anyway. After our breakfast we headed to the airport and then the flight home. This all was uneventful, but things were to change.
My daughter and my mother appeared to have an argument about Leia. I am not certain what the full details are, but it relates to my mother taking her off the lead in a public place despite being told not to do so. Things escalated and I had to take my mother home today, rather than tomorrow which is what I had planned. I am back now, but I am shattered, this despite napping on the way back up (the drive was risky as I started to doze off twice on the drive). Fortunately I can unwind tomorrow, hopefully.
Also, I will need to check that my daughter and my mother can repair any rift that may have formed between the two, unless things have been sorted already.
Today is our last full day in Greece. It has been a great and relaxing time, though I did take some time out to dial into a work meeting that I could not miss as it had come to a very important part.
We swam, ate and unwound. I was surprised to find out that my mother at home has risked losing Leia on a walk by letting her run off lead. She is not able to run after her and is not aware what Leia is like with foxes, rabbits, squirrels and birds. I hope that the kids will ensure that this does not happen again.
Anyway, time to pack for our trip back tomorrow. I am looking forwards to seeing the kids, even if they are only looking to see their mother.
The UK has had elections using Proportional Representation when we were part of the EEC, later to be the European Union. Due to the results, I not in favour of this.
In 2019, the Brexit party got the highest percentage of votes in the European Elections which meant that Nigel Farage won it, though I will admit with the Lib Dems, centre and left wing parties got over 50% of the vote.. In 2014, Brexit supporting parties won over 50% of the vote (a combination of UKIP, the Conservatives and the DUP equalling 50.5% of the vote, Nigel Farage getting the most votes again this time as part of UKIP. If those elections had been for Head of State, we would have had Nigel Farage in office since 2014, but if for the UK Parliament, that would have meant that he was our Prime Minister since then instead.
In 2009, the Conservatives got the highest vote margin with 27.4% of the vote, UKIP coming second with 16%. Combined with the homophobic DUP (0.6%) and the far right BNP (6.2%), the right wing of UK politics got over 50% of the votes. in 2004, adding up the votes of the Conservatives, UKIP, the Ulster Unionists, the DUP, the BNP and the English Democrats, they come to 48.6% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats got 14.4% of the vote and would have needed to join a much broader coalition to have a chance of getting left wing and centre ground parties over 50%, but with the numbers of parties there, I am not sure that would have been feasible. The possibility of a centre and left wing coalition would have been present in 1999, but that would again depend on the Liberal Democrats, with 11.9% of the vote joining with Labour, and parties, formed due to Labour not being left wing enough also joining it. This is of course assuming that the Liberal Democrats joined such a coalition and did not go it alone or even joining with the Conservatives as they did in 2010.
Again, another relaxing day in Zakinthos. Not much to say really, I went for a walk after breakfast, my wife and I swam in the pool in front of our room. We had lunch in the restaurant at the main pool and just spent the day relaxing. I still miss the kids, but less than before, which is strange. I am surprised that I do not miss the dog though! The video is from my walk earlier today, the photo below being from it as well.
Zante, or Zakinthos to those in Greece has been amazing. Saying that, other than me taking a short walk down the road, we have not left the hotel. We woke late for breakfast, had a swim in the pool outside out room and while my wife had what she later called the best massage of her life, I watched parts of the Royal Funeral while taking breaks for a swim as well as a walk around the grounds of the hotel.
My wife is still affected by her knee and swimming, while normally a good exercise for someone with joint issues, appeared to set off her knee.
Lunch was great, I actually had some wine (I normally do not drink until the evening) but dinner was amazing. The hotel has a guest chef in for two nights, tonight being his last night, and he was amazing. This meal means that this is in the top ten of dinner locations that we have been to. Sadly he will not be here tomorrow, but the meal of today would be a hard act to follow.
My guilt at leaving the kids behind is still present, but not as much as before. I am not sure that they would appreciate it here, and while I know that there is stress for them back in the UK, it is nice not to have to deal with it directly myself,
Today is a historic day with the funeral of The Queen taking place. I am not sure if my wife and I will be watching history as it happens, being on holiday, but leaders from across the globe have come to pay respects at her funeral.
I am in favour of The Monarchy, not because I consider them to be better than me (I do not do so BTW), but I prefer them to be Head of State. The option of an elected head of state has no appeal for me. In 2019, the Brexit party got the highest percentage of votes in the European Elections which are, or were, our only elections held under Proportional Representation which meant that Nigel Farage won it. In 2014, Brexit supporting parties won over 50% of the vote (a combination of UKIP, the Conservatives and the DUP equalling 50.5% of the vote, Nigel Farage getting the most votes again. If those elections had been for Head of State, we would have had Nigel Farage in office since 2014. The role is essentially ceremonial, The Monarch in essence doing what they are told, keeping their views private. King Charles, when Prince Of Wales, was outspoken on environmental issues, campaigning for this when it was not a big issue for the political mainstream (i.e. before the electoral performance of The Green Party in the 1989 European Elections). In addition to this, he has reportedly spoken out in private about being against the deportation of refugees and migrants to Rwanda, a policy that would have seen Paddington being sent to the jungles of deepest Africa and Jesus being housed in an inn in Kigali for fleeing The Massacre Of The Innocents. Now, as head of state, he is going to have to appear to speak in favour of policies that will probably increase our contribution to global warming and may include even more radical proposals on deportation. Nigel Farage, in such a position would have a more prominent platform to spread his lies designed to stir up hatred and division in our multicultural nation.
What I am ashamed about when it comes to the Royal Family is the double standards shown (again). The Duchess of Sussex held the hand of her grieving husband and faced a backlash from many about this. I suspect that those who felt that she was wrong to do this will not speak out when other wives do the same on official visits to our nation. It just so happens that those couples are not mixed race and both are white.
My wife and I have taken a few days holiday. My mother is looking after the children and we have just arrived at our hotel and are having food on our terrace looking over the pool. She needs a break from the kids, and while I appreciate a break as well, I have a gaping hole in my heart as I miss them so much. I am surprised at how much I do miss them, but hopefully they will miss us and appreciate us more when we return.
This issue has come up recently in the UK. There has been an outcry that those who wish to protest have been prevented from doing so where people are mourning or paying respects to the late Queen Elizabeth the Second.
I did try discussing this with my daughter who thinks that protests against Prince Andrew should be treated differently and should be allowed (I do not know if she thinks the same for anti-Monarchy protests), but she did not elaborate on her views as she was too busy or tired as the day went on.
I do not think that The Westboro Baptist church or similar homophobic groups should be allowed to protest at funerals or where mourners are present. I would be interested to know if there should be a legal distinction between one type of protest and another though. Please leave comments about this as I do want to hear views on this.
Part of me feels sorry for Russian soldiers. Not those who have engaged in war crimes of looting, rape, torture and murder. But those who are trying to do what their government says they are doing. Russia has been pushed back in the Kharkiv region. By pushed back, it appears to be a rout. That must lead to further problems for a Russian soldier.
It may be that Russia will be able to prevent this from happening in the Luhansk Oblast, but if they fail to do so, what will happen to the Donetsk Oblast? If that falls, Russian forces in Southern Ukraine will only be supplied by a bridge to Crimea.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The reason I mention this is because of the complaints by some that Liz Truss has been elected leader by a small number of the population, and how our head of state has been appointed.
First of all, King Charles. We have the right to become a republic and can bring this about through democratic means. If we want no Royal Family, we can elect a government who will make our nation a republic. This has happened in many Commonwealth nations were Queen Elizabeth was head of state, examples being India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. When it comes to who appointed the King, that was the Accession Council. Put simply, if we want to be a republic, like many other nations that had our Monarch as head of state, we can become so.
Second, Liz Truss is appointed by MP's. When we vote in a general election, while many cast their vote based on the leader to the party they are voting for, they are actually voting for the MP. The MP's in Parliament decide who is to be Prime Minister, which is why they were responsible for Boris Johnson resigning, and why they have elected Liz Truss as Prime Minister. We have had the chance to change our electoral system in the past and decided against this. If we want to change this, we can, though the ballot box.
So my question to those who want a negotiated peace, is should this involve Russia keeping the parts of Ukraine it occupied in 2014, or should more of Ukraine be given to Russia now?
Yesterday, we went to visit my mother and my in-laws. We have not seen them for a while so this trip was overdue. However, on Wednesday, my mother had a fall when in the street. She waited for an hour but no ambulance came, but fortunately, some kind passers by helped her and she got home. She is in pain and our visit I hope lifted her spirits, though she did make some interesting statements on the War in Ukraine (she wants negotiations to take place which in essence means negotiating for Putin to gain more Ukrainian territory) and women leaders including Liz Truss. I try not to snap, but there is only so much I can take! While she was glad to see both children, it was my daughter who was the main attraction after her exam results.
After this, it was a trip to see my in-laws. Again, the star of the show was my daughter as this was the first time that they have seen her since her exam results but both were still happy to see my son. My father-in-law appears ambivalent about Leia but now accepts that she is part of the family.
Once we got back home, my son went to spend some time alone (he had been around us for a long time) and my wife picked a film for my daughter and I to watch her with her. This was Love Sarah. It started off in a depressing manner, but improved afterwards. We liked the film, though I felt that the story arc did not have to employ the romantic end which involved a cad being turned by a lady. However, like many films set in London, it is part fairy tale, and this rose tinted view was picked up by the Guardian. It was a nice film for use to watch, but I doubt I will ever watch it again. Apparently it was meant to have been released in cinema's, but I am not sure if this took place over the lockdown. What was interesting was to see a pilot from The Phantom Menacefeature in it, though many will remember the person as the Vice Chancellor from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
The kids have been back at school, or in the case of my daughter, now at the Sixth Form College. Both have had some issues with their peers and I suspect would follow the example of Anakin Skywalker, sorry, Darth Vader, in the Jedi Temple if given the chance…
I am not shocked that we have a change in monarch. I am surprised that it has happened so soon after a change in Prime Minister, to quote Twitter, I’ve got a bottle of milk in the fridge that has seen two Prime Ministers and two monarchs. My son earlier today asked if he would get a week of school if she should die. I told him no. My daughter debated the monarchy in her politics class today, though I have yet to hear what she thought on the matter.
I see why Conservatives think that Liz Truss did well in PMQs today. They do not mind energy companies making huge profits during the upcoming energy crisis. Labour and the SNP were right to ask her about a windfall tax which would mean that energy companies would not make huge profits at the expense of the nation.
If Jeremy Corbyn had decided to waste tax payers money in the way Liz Truss is to do so with increasing our debt to deliver a tax cut that will benefit the few, the would rightly have a go at him. Instead they had a go at him over his fully costed plans in the last election while ignoring our new Prime Minister. Let alone the comments our new Prime Minister has made about British workers!
Tomorrow, our nation will have its 5th Prime Minister in twelve years. While the choice between the two candidates was like deciding which arm I am to have removed for me, for some the decision was easier.
My son, who had his first day back at school today wanted Truss to win as he was not too keen on having to learn both Mathematics and English until the age of 18. He was not too forthcoming about how his day was but appeared to be in a good mood when I got back.
My daughter heads off to the Sixth Form College tomorrow. I did not see her today, but talking to my wife, that may have been a good thing as she sounds a bit stressed.
Hopefully she will have a good day tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
After the match, I had tweeted that we were playing against 12 men, but when we lost to ManUre, we were up against 13. I know that it is hard to get decisions to be fair when playing at Sold Trafford, but the bias shown against us was, frustrating, to say the least.
It was interesting to see this game being one at the top of the table. We are still top by one point and ManUre are now in 5th. Previous games between us have not meant so much when it comes to league position for a while. I watched it with two friends, one of whom commented on the referee being from Salford. I assured him that the referee would be unbiased for this match. How wrong was I! We had a goal that was disallowed for a foul, and I can understand that (though I am not certain it should have been given), but ManUre in essence played rugby against us with some of the tackles which were ignored.
We did play excellent football, though this changed once our substitutions were made. The better team was the one with eleven, not thirteen men. This sadly was shown on the highlights on Match of the Day 2, but watching the whole game, you saw who was the better team. MOTD2 also mentioned that Arsenal did not press, but then they did, fouls were given against them which were not given to them when ManUre fouled them. I was impressed with the way Arsenal kept fighting and I hope that this resilience keeps us winning our other games.
McTominay is a cheat and a caveman. The fouls he gets away with every game without a card is ridiculous. Two yellow card offences and one arguably red card offence yesterday vs Arsenal. When will the first leg break occur? #McTominay#cheatpic.twitter.com/hJ0nikE8vY
There has been interesting discussions about unions. Some say that they are against people being in work. Well, let me say, that considering they depend on people who are working joining them, that is an insane argument. At the moment, unions are being portrayed as being happy to strike. Those in work want to work, they, like the unions who represent them want employees to be working. But the main reason for strikes right now, in my view, is the lack of action by the government on the cost of living crisis, as well as the lack of action when it comes to energy bills. Decent action by the government on these issues would have resulted in less of a call for increased wages. That and action to prevent bonuses being paid to the rich. Action may take place once Liz Truss is elected, but considering that she is more interested in tax cuts, I doubt that she will address things. At least she is not as bad as Rishi Sunak who has actively taken money from where it is needed to reward Conservative voting constituencies.
Unions represent workers who want to work and want employers to engage in reasonable discussions rather than strike. Things are more difficult when the government does not allow negotiations to be fair, but the idiocy they show on this is reflected in other areas of how they are mismanaging our great nation.
I have noted in my job, that when seeing people with work induced stress, people who are members of a union are treated better than those who are not. Management appears to be more careful in treating a member of a union compared with those who are not in one. Although the same laws apply to those who are or not in a union (due to the work of the unions), due to the advocacy that workers in a union get, employment law appears to be followed better in these cases.
I however had joined a union before I saw (in my job) how unions had helped others. And by being part of a union, in one of my jobs, our employment rights, which had been bent by our employer, were followed when challenged. We had tried to discuss this matter without the help of the union, but we got no where, but when our union was involved, they told us what we needed to do to bring about the change we asked for, and once we did that, our employer had no choice but to accept that they were not following employment law.
My union has not always been successful in bringing about change, but I know that like other union members across the planet, I have more security from being in a union, compared to not being in one.
This was a good film. My daughter had asked about watching it before, but I did not have time. Today though, on my arrival from work, my wife talked about watching it. My son did not join us, though my daughter did.
We all liked the film, though not the protagonist. It was full of surprises and while it has been panned by some reviews all three of us recommend this to be watched.
Thursday, 1 September 2022
I have had some time to reflect on the funeral yesterday. It was nice to see the wishes of Tony's mother being respected with the location of her funeral. It got me thinking about my father who stated that when cremated, he was happy to have his ashes flushed down the toilet! In the end, my mother had a say in how his ashes were disposed of. Also it was nice to reflect on how much Tony's mother was proud of him which is something my father did not appear to be with my career choice. Ultimately, his approval was not something I sought, or really cared about, which is why I had not seen him in the years before his death. If I had seen him in the few years before it, I would have seen him being ravaged by dementia which changes him anyway, but I do regret not seeing my step-mother even now.
On a bright note, not only did Arsenal win last night, a game which I missed due to travelling on the M4, but the scum dropped points as well. I would have preferred it if they lost, but I should be grateful for what I have with football as well as life in general, as I have a lot to be grateful about with both.
