Week 6 – 5th to 11th February 2023
Christmas 2022 is over…it’s official!
Due to a bout of flu just after Christmas, then a couple of busy weeks, it took until this week for us to pack the Christmas tree away and put it into hibernation until November 25th. I had thought that it would be nice to keep it up for the whole year, but the rest of the household decided that February was the right time to get the place back to normal.
There’s something quite sad about a house when the Christmas tree is taken down, all of a sudden it looks bare, cold and uninviting. Even though the house is only decorated for a matter of weeks, it takes a while to get used to it in its stripped down state. The tree, the garlands, the twinkling lights, all make our houses look and feel cosy and warm. And then we move into summer mode.
Although Christmas is my favourite time of year, once the post-Christmas blues have washed away, we couldn’t live in better place to enjoy the new seasons ahead. The beaches, the countryside, the harbour towns and fishing villages. There are so many things to enjoy and experience.
It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind of life; the cycle of work, sleep, repeat. Add football into that and that sums up my life really. Football at least provides some fresh air and gives me the opportunity to visit a few different parks and pitches around Cornwall. Work pays the bills and we’re all facing the reality of energy price hikes, the rising costs of essential shopping and our wages not keeping up with inflation. Appreciating what we do have is more important than ever. Family, friends, laughs, love, the sun when it’s shining, the rain (even that fine rain that gets you really wet), Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie To You. There are always things to be thankful for, things that we can fall back on when times are tough.
Not all of us want to hike for sixty miles over hills and moorland, we can’t all be adventurous and daring, climbing mountains or skydiving, but every one of us has something that we love to do that can take us away from the worry that modern life likes to provide. TV, jigsaws, painting, puzzle books, listening to Ragtime Jazz, reading, writing, blogging…all sorts of things. We just need something to take our minds off whatever worries we may have. Even if it is just for an hour, or a few minutes every day.
So, as one Christmas season comes to an end, we look forward to the spring, and then summer. Warm nights, cold beer, walks on the beach and the cool waters of the seas splashing against your legs. Festivals, live music, and golden sunsets. And then, before you know it…we will be getting the tree and all the decorations back out of the loft.
Why are political parties like nappies? They both need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason!
I like to think that most people who enter politics do so for the right reasons; making the country successful and prosperous, providing essential services to the people, ensuring our safety and security both nationally and internationally, and looking after the most vulnerable in society. Simple goals, but a difficult job, no doubt about it. Political parties have their own ideologies and opinions on how best to achieve the best outcomes; sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don’t. That has been quite evident with our recent political nightmares of late. But, nobody said that running a country would be easy.
I’m not a student of politics, more of an interested observer, and I’m not a member of any political party or have any specific allegiances. From what I see, both sides of the political divide have their problems. What I’d like from our elected officials is less political infighting and more serious work to find solutions to the problems that we are facing. If PMQ’s is anything to go by, it’s no wonder we’re in a bad state. It is farcical at times, a pantomime. Why so much grandstanding? Why use this time to make cheap political points? Watching recent PMQ’s, Kier Starmer has had a chance to make his points and put Rishi Sunak under pressure. Rather than turning the screw on our under-fire government, he seems to read from prepared questions and responses. On more than one occasion in recent weeks the PM has responded to a question posed by Starmer, the labour leaders next comment alludes to the fact that Sunak had no answer, even though an answer had been given.
The job of the main opposition parties is to put pressure on the government and ensure that they are held to account. However, the opposition must be effective. We need to know what options we have and what the other parties stand for. Ultimately, I worry that whoever is in power we’ll have the same (or slightly different) shit, just a different party.
Nobody can deny that the Conservative Party tend to shoot themselves in the foot. Whether it is giving a cabinet position to somebody who was previously removed due to breaking the ministerial code, crashing the economy on a whim or watching porn whilst in the House of Commons. There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by when a Tory MP makes some kind of blunder or an error of judgement. They’re not the only ones though, all parties have had to answer for indiscretions from their MPs.
The people we elect to become our representatives in parliament are human beings, fallible human beings, and as we vote for them. You would imagine, if that is the case, they are a representation of the people who vote for them. However, in Jacob Rees Mogg’s case, I’m not sure how many 18th century haunted ventriloquist dolls reside in North East Somerset. So, if anybody is to blame for who is running the country…it’s us!
Whoever is in power has a difficult job at the best of times, when everything is going well and there’s stability at home and abroad. Right now, we are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a war in Europe and, as a result of this, in part anyway, energy costs are at unprecedented levels and inflation is forcing the cost of everything upwards. Wages across the board are not increasing at the same rate and people are struggling, food banks are our only growth industry. I don’t envy anybody trying to solve the problems that we have. I just wish that I had a bit of confidence in the people we have in positions of power and influence.
Right now, people working in some of our most essential services are striking as they fight for more pay and better conditions. I don’t think that there is anybody who wouldn’t agree that nurses, teachers or the emergency services aren’t vital members of the workforce. Having received fantastic care from the NHS I appreciate what doctors, nurses and hospital staff do for us. Having been the coach of a youth football team I also understand how difficult it is to work with kids every day, so teachers have my respect too. And of course, the police, fire service and ambulance staff all do an amazing job in often difficult circumstances too. The question is, what should they be paid and how much can the country afford.
There is no doubt at all about the importance of their roles, and our politicians need to ensure that they are rewarded for the work that they do. But I also think it’s fair to say that we are all part of this machine that is life. We are all cogs, constantly turning and contributing to society. There are so many people struggling to pay their bills, put food on their tables and heat their homes, we need a government that will not only look after the most vulnerable right now but build an economy that will enable us all to prosper. We need a government that will ensure that large corporations will pay the correct amount of tax, encourage investment, look for new technologies and take advantage of the talented and hard working people that we have in this country. We should celebrate success and expect those successful people to reinvest their wealth in the country.
I’m no economics expert; I don’t understand the finer details of taxation and inflation, trade deals, exchange rates, deficits or GDP. We need to rely on the government and their advisors, the banks, the economists. But surely we can some way of everybody coming together, finding a way of coming to some consensus about how best to solve our problems. I get that the Conservatives and the Labour Party have differing views on the best ways of spending and creating money. But surely there must be valid ideas from both sides that could be considered. Maybe a new way to do politics could be considered?
All I know is that things can’t go on as they are. Our politicians should act like grown ups, do the jobs that we elected them to do and rather than feathering their own nests, they should all focus on their constituents and what is best for them.