The Crown in Hartest

This pub is in the beautiful village of Hartest which we stopped at on our way to Nottingham. My wife was not sure of the exact route that we should take, the options being cutting to the M11 via Stansted, heading up the A12 and cutting across along the A14 or going on the A134 to Bury St Edmunds and then using the A14. Fascinating I know, but my wife had the choice, on her birthday and let me decide. We did not know if we were to stop in Bury St Edmunds or Cambridge for lunch and shopping so the more scenic route was chosen.

This was without the children who had got cards for my wife in her birthday. For her birthday present, she got a much wanted laptop bag, and of course, the love of her children. 

But back to our trip. We got hungry on the way and my wife picked somewhere to eat, which was closed. Driving down the country roads reminded her of Devon, but I pointed out that the country roads in Devon are much narrower and involve a lot more hills. But the second place she chose looked amazing from the moment we parked. Friendly service with good food, we may consider returning.

For now, we are in Nottingham, the journey, for the most being uneventful. I did make the mistake of not checking out destination before we came which meant cross words in the car in Nottingham as we ended up lost. But we are here now, calmer and ready for a great dinner.

The House of Lords

The matter of the House of Lords has come up with the resignation honours list of Boris Johnson. Too many honours went to those who helped him lie over PartyGate, but not all the honours relate to those who support and supported him over his lies.

There have been calls for an elected second chamber. I disagree with this. The House of Lords is there to scrutinise bills. Amongst its members it has judges, doctors, priests, artists and the like. These people have a lot to offer our nation and I want them to be able to serve our country by offering us their expertise. 

I do think that reform is needed. I think that new peers should be picked based on the vote share of parties, that is above a certain threshold and also based on the nations. Also, I think that experts, such as Baron Winston, should continue to be appointed. In order to be accepted, each peer should be accepted by representatives of the parties, the voting power being based on the vote share. 

So based on the last General Election, that would mean that the Conservatives would have around a 43% say in choosing experts, but that a 50% threshold would need to be met for a candidate to be accepted. Lords appointed on a party political basis would be done so by the vote share in each nation. This would mean that based on the latest division, England would have roughly 84% of lords being chosen, Scotland 8%, Wales 5% and Northern Ireland 3%. Of those from Scotland, the SNP would have about 45% of appointees, Labour 19% etc.

As for the resignation honours list, I would keep it, but limit the numbers to, at the most, ten members to the House of Lords. 

I suspect that I will refine my views on this as time passes, but that is my view for now.

Fathers Day

My children love me. My son got me a Star Wars game, my daughter a cuddly toy which she states is experiencing hair loss like me, and one I can let Leia, our Cockapoo, savage.  I got taken to the Mistley Thorn where I got to drink as have great food. 

Later in the day, it was time for the pub quiz. The questions were much harder than normal and we almost came second, a tie breaker putting us into third place. 

Nadine Dorries and the by-election

It has been an even more interesting few days in politics.  Nadine Dorries, has mentioned before, has resigned as an MP, after saying that she did not want to cause a by-election earlier that day. Now allegations are flying about the events leading up to this.  Ultimately, it comes down to if we should trust Rishi Sunak, or trust Boris Johnson, a man who lied about parties to Parliament, lied about his affairs and lied about so many other issues that the list is too long to post here.  

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry

This week, an inquiry into COVID is about to start.  I think that it is fair to remind people that despite the warnings of Exercise Alice and Exercise Cygnus, the nation was not prepared.  As noted on the video above, we did not have enough PPE and contracts were handed out to people who on too many occasions, did not deliver.  Thanks to cuts before the pandemic, our ability to test for COVID was insufficient. 

People still compare COVID to influenza.  Influenza does put the NHS under considerable strain, but not like COVID did in the pandemic.  People forget what happened in Italy and too many people are not aware that our funeral homes were overrun with corpses, this despite the extra capacity that they built for the pandemic.

Hopefully, the government will not be able to hide evidence from the inquiry and this will provide many with the answers that we can learn from so this does not happen again.

NHS staffing (again)

This week, two stories were in the headlines. One is about the UK taking too many healthcare staff from developing nations. The other later in the week was about how the NHS does not have enough staff itself to provide our nation with the level of healthcare people expect. 

Due to working conditions and pay, other developed nations are taking staff from the NHS. Staff have been voting with their feet and have opted for better pay and working conditions abroad. We need to change that. 

Boris Johnson again

First of all, there is the matter of the resignation honours of Boris Johnson from his time as PM. Labour said the list amounted to “rewards for those who tried to cover up rule-breaking”, while the Lib Dems said it was “gongs for Johnson’s Partygate pals” and described it as “corruption pure and simple”.  Listening to BBC Any Questions, the issue of Tony Blair came up.  While there is no doubt that Blair misled Parliament with his dodgy dossier, this was an exaggeration, not an outright lie.  Boris will continue to argue that events which required suitcases of wine to be brought into Downing Street were work related. I am not sure that many others either isolating, or like me working on the front line (though in my case, it was in the trenches just behind the front ones) will agree.

What is also interesting is how Nadine Dorries has quit as an MP, forcing a by-election which will cause harm to Rishi Sunak. Boris Johnson has since done the same after being given the Partygate report, but he claims to have been forced out.  It is a shame that this has happened as a return of Boris Johnson to power would herald even greater support for Labour in the next General Election. 

In summary, Boris Johnson who has finally resigned over PartyGate, has rewarded lots of people for helping him while he decided to mislead Parliament.