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 Lenders have already withdrawn hundreds of mortgage deals this week, as they struggle to price their products because of the financial market volatility.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.
