SO MANY REASONS

So many reasons to despair, so many reasons to be angry; smug Tories cheering yet more restrictions on the poorest in the land; smug Tory politicians pandering to the baser instincts of the electorate; a smug Tory newspaper trying to denigrate a dead man in an attempt to smear his son.  Ironic when that paper's former owner applauded Hitler.  Then we have the Tories attempts to beatify Margaret Thatcher when they were the ones to sack her!

We truly live in a world where our leaders believe that Downton Abbey is a documentary - they still believe in a ruling elite where birthright and inherited money qualifies one for leadership.  Which is why  we have so many idiots in power; people who think that something should be so just because they think it.  The problem is that here are too few public servants left to unscramble this muddled thinking and we are the poorer for it.

Since the Tories took over (I discount the Libdems, as do most people) we have seen a steady decline in all our public services and the inability to defend our country.  I just hope that the Tories never get their wish that the NHS gets dismantled as - I really don't feel that it is safe in their hands.  I also remember of of the biggest lies in politics, "There will be no top-down reorganisation of the NHS".  I wonder who said that.   
      

 

This is, in the main, the text of an email to the Labour Party.  I expect only a bland, machine generated reply but I really am frustrated.  Things are so bad that I can see the Tories dumping Cameron and plumping (an apt word) for Boris Johnson - that's a real nightmare.

What can the Labour Party offer today to somebody who has always voted Labour?  I was a member until Ed Miliband took the Tory line over public sector workers.  I suppose that my problem with the Labour Party is its leader.  Since his appointment, there has been little in the way of opposition to this appalling government; so many opportunities lost, so many open goals not even attempted, let alone missed.  Ed has always appeared ready to accept on behalf of the Labour Party responsibility for the world’s financial ills and has continually attempted to divorce himself from the last government.  All the time wasted “Refounding” (a word not in my dictionary) Labour and nothing to show, Ed Miliband, by his low, not to say sunken, profile is largely responsible for the death of domestic politics.

It now seems that, that in an attempt to lure more middle class voters to the party, Ed and his advisers even want to deny that the Labour movement was created by the trades unions.  Is there a real Labour Party out there, somewhere, one that is not frightened to be left wing? 

I really do believe that Ed will lose us the next election and I really fear for the country under rejuvenated Tory leadership.  Is there a future for ordinary people in this country?

COMING HOME

You hear it on the News but it makes you think about it a lot more when you see an R.A.F. C-17 on finals to Birmingham International.  All the way from Helmand to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital - hope they survive.

THAT FUNERAL

I was somewhat amazed and dismayed at the news coverage of our former PM's death - it was way over the top for one of the most divisive politicians we've ever had the misfortune to suffer (until the current one).  Even Labour politicians have been told to be nice - is it some conspiracy?  What's the next step, ask the Pope to beatify her?  We must have very short memories if there is all this adulation for a woman who split the country, made us fight a war that could have been avoided was only saved by cheap oil prices.

But no!  It gets worse,we now have to pay a reported £10m for her funeral.  We cannot afford to repair schools or look after our sick and elderly but we can still manage to squeeze this enormous sum from our bare coffers for a woman who said she didn't want a funeral such as this.

Then there's the hypocrisy of the Tory party; if she was such a wonderful leader, why did they dump her with such ignominy?

NEW YEAR AND POST CELEBRATION BLUES

As a result of encouragement from my one fan, my random thoughts recommence.  It's been a long time so, faithful reader, thanks for your patience.

2012 was supposed to have been a good year.  I suppose it was for royalists and sports fans. Never having been an ardent sports fan, UK's medal haul didn't really impress me.  I suppose, at the back of my mind, there is a feeling that, in this age of austerity, the Olympic money could have been better spent elsewhere.  I understand that the average cost of each medal won was £4,549,990, wow.  The total medal bill was £264,143,753, double wow. All that cash spent on fit, healthy people to pursue their hobbies to higher levels (with the possibilities of massive earning potential) when a housebound old lady who can't get to the toilet on her own has visits by carers 4 times a day, a maximum of, say, 2 hours.  The carers are probably on, or close to the minimum wage.  The mathematics of all this are, to my mind, badly skewed.

Then there was the Jubilee.  First of all, I've never been a full throttle monarchist and the only reason I'm not a full throttle republican is that it would be too complex and expensive to change, but am I the only one to think that the recent junketing was a bit over the top?  Perhaps all the talk of bankrupt Britain left me a little unready for the heady excesses of the celebrations.  Or perhaps I am right to be really, really hacked off over the massive expenditure of our money.

Then, only this week, a Lib Dem MP (you know the sort; probably the guy who blocks the middle lane of the motorway at a steady 63.5 mph) say that the only way we can fund the care of the "elderly" by chopping the Winter Fuel Allowance. Isn't caring for everybody the job of Government?  If wealthy pensioners can afford to go without the allowance then how about millionaire MP's volunteer their services without pay.  We'd have a bit more money to spare for deserving cases.  Perhaps we could reinstate the 6,000 nurses missing from the NHS since Cameron stepped over the threshold of No. 10.

SORRY

I must start with a confession - I was a public servant.  As such, I now realise that I am responsible for all the financial woes the country now suffers.  Yes, I have a Local government pension and, yes, I also have a state pension. So there it is - I, and many others are solely to blame for all the cuts we are now facing, so all I can do, after nearly fifty years of working my socks off (it would have been a bit longer if a certain school hadn't decided that I was too old) is apologise.

All over the country there must be millions of people like me who have suddenly realised that we are personally to blame for all this.  There we were, working away and thinking that we were actually doing some good for the community but all the while we we were ruining the economy.  In our foolish, childlike way, we had assumed that the crisis had been caused by greedy bankers making highly dubious decisions while lining their own pockets.  How naive.

My wife has suggested that it was, in fact, the fault of those making money and bad decisions.  But that can't be right, after all, our Prime Minister has told us that the Public Sector has dragged the country down, and the newspapers have confirmed so it must be true, mustn't it?

I do begin to have my doubts, though.  The fact that our P.M. has advocated a no fly zone over Libya having slashed the R.A.F. to such an extent that it can't even defend our own airspace and the Royal Navy will soon be reduced to operating a couple of punts and a pedalo, leads me to suspect that he doesn't have a total grasp of the realities of government.

Our well-heeled cabinet my well be vindictive; they may well feel that the country is populated by benefits scroungers; they may truly believe that only the rich have a right to rule, but the impression they give is that they just don't care about the things that matter to most of us and, dare I say, they are beginning to appear less than competent at the art of government.  So, come on Dave, do something to prove me wrong, or, at the very least, make a decision while taking into account the law of unforeseen consequences.

EXCUSE, EXCUSES, EXCUSES

Now we know; the Chancellor really does think we will believe any old rubbish the Tories churn out to mask their contempt and incompetence.  Today, they seem to have stopped blaming the previous government for the economic mess.  Perhaps with the appointment of Ed Balls, they know their earlier excuses will be met with forceful and cogent arguments to the contrary so they turn to an agency which cannot respond; the weather. 

When we were suffering in the snow (in winter, who could have anticipated that?) where were the signs that the Government was leaping to spearhead the drive to get the country moving?  They didn't seem concerned then but as soon as bad economic news breaks - it's not my fault, it's the weather.  Come on George, we are not idiots, we can still sniff out male bovine ordure.  Are you treating us with contempt or are you just not doing a very good job?  Both  options are unlikely to prove election winners.  Remember, those of us who are not millionaires and rely on public services are not going to look kindly on those who take those services away.