Back at school

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… 

King Charles and the Greenest Government Never

Yesterday, before the Queen became ill, our Prime Minister was extolling the benefits of increasing the contribution of our great nation to Climate Change.  Our Queen has died and our King, Prince Charles, a campaigner for the climate, will have to make a Kings Speech were he is going to promote policies which will harm our planet and country.  

And that is ignoring any issues with immigration, as he is the son of an immigrant himself and has commented on the process of sending asylum seekers abroad before.

The Queen is dead, long live The King

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 am glad that it is Liz Truss who is Prime Minister though, the thought of Boris Johnson, the man who partied on the night of the funeral of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, talking to the nation about our late Queen would have been an insult to her memory.  And let us not forget how he lied to her when it came to the prorogation of Parliament. 

 

May she rest in peace, and may her son, also the son of a man born in Greece, reign in peace. 

Liz Truss and her first PMQs

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!

Which arm would Sir like to have removed?

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! 

3-1 against 13 men is a decent result

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 #cheat pic.twitter.com/hJ0nikE8vY

— Kim Morten Ognedal (@kimmoAFC) September 5, 2022

Unions do not want to strike

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.