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.
