Steve Barclay and the NHS

Earlier on this year, Steve Barclay, the man now in charge of the NHS, was heckled by a lady who said that he had done nothing about the ambulance service.  She was wrong.  Under the Conservatives our ambulance response times have got worse.  This is nothing to do with those working for the ambulance service, this is to do with paramedics having to wait at hospitals to hand over patients to hospital staff because there is no room in the hospitals for new patients to be admitted. 

What a goal!

Granit Xhaka scored an amazing goal yesterday. Watching the highlights, we should have had a penalty in the first half and should have had more goals, but Southampton appeared to have had more input in the second half and put us under pressure and while Southampton scored a great goal, better defending as a team could have stopped that. Still, we are top of the league, but we could and should have come away with three points.

Rishi Sunak, racism and the Conservative party

My wife has just told me that Boris Johnson is not to stand for Conservative leader.  That is bad news for Labour as him being in charge of the Conservatives would result in a return to the numerous lies that caused him to resign before.  

This means that the options are Penny Mordaunt or Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.  As a Labour voter, the one I fear the most is Penny Mordaunt, she is a brilliant communicator.  While not as good as Boris Johnson in communication, she carries an air of competence.  

The one I fear the least is Rishi Sunak and the reason for this is simple, it is racism.  Not everyone who is against him will be driven by this, but a significant number will be driven by unconscious bias or outright racism.  Earlier today we watched this clip on YouTube when the reason for this voter not voting for Rishi Sunak is racism, though later, they managed to find other excuses not to back him.  No matter how good Rishi Sunak is, there is a large number of people who will not vote for him due to the colour of his skin.  

For the record, Rishi Sunak is British.  I would like to remind anyone who reads this that our King is the son of an immigrant, one who served our nation along with many others. We have members of Team GB who are not white and if Rishi Sunak is not British, those athletes such as Denise Lewis who have won medals for the United Kingdom have actually won it for other nations.

Could my blog embarrass my children?

Apparently another of my daughters friends has found my blog. Will it change what I post? No.  Friends of hers have found it before and that did not change anything. As people have noticed it is anonymous and when comments have been made that provide too much information about me or my family, they end up not published. The difference of course is the bond between her friend and me, but that is a different story for another day.

We have been out to celebrate her birthday and have been to Lucca in Manningtree which we all loved.  We have celebrated many an occasion there and there is no doubt that we will return.

Today has been a day of relaxing. Leia had diarrhoea in her crate yesterday which my fantastic wife had to clear up as I had to get to work. Today she seemed to be fine and enjoyed herself but sadly threw up later in the afternoon. She appears to be back to normal and fingers crossed this stays like this.

Kherson

The Russians are leaving. There are concerns about this when they retreat from Kherson. Is the evacuation of civilians a use of a human shield to enable Russian soldiers to flee? Is it because they are to use nuclear weapons to defend it? Is it because they are to destroy the Kakhovka dam? 

At present the Russian mobilisation appears to be using up Ukrainian ammunition as men are sent forwards to die. The human wave policy may work, I hope not.

Is Liz Truss the Lady Jane Grey of British politics?

Well, today was more interesting than yesterday was, well, more interesting than what I thought yesterday was. It appears that there was chaos in the vote in Parliament last night and now the premiership of the third female Prime Minister has become the shortest of all Prime Ministers in British history. 

 

While many are calling for a General Election, my daughter is hoping that this does not happen while my son does. He knows that if an early election is called, the odds are that he will get to vote in a General Election for the first time along with his sister. She is hoping that the election takes place after she can vote, and the Conservatives have until January 2025 to call one. Apparently she worked out when she would be able to vote in year 8 and has been looking forwards to this since. Also she wants to cast her first vote before her brother is able to do so.

If an early General Election does take place, Labour are favourites to win and many like me think that they would run the nation much better than the Conservatives.  But then I have said that since 2010! The problem would be that with the nation being in such bad shape, a Labour victory in an election held now may mean that they have to make harsh decisions which may result on the Conservatives returning to power in the election afterwards.  What is best for the nation, which is a Labour government now, may not be what is best for the Labour party.

The Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati

What a day in politics! Soon after ammending my profile on Twitter to say I am part of the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, the person who said it is gone. I naively thought that this might relate to the savaging she faced at the hands of Yvette Cooper the day before, 

Before I get onto that, PMQ’s. I felt sorry for Liz Truss considering the savaging she faced. Starmer performed well and was right in his comment about how Labour is the government in waiting (hopefully). I felt even more sorry for her when the resignation letter of Suella Braverman was published. I doubt tomorrow will be as interesting.