It looks as though the momentum is with Liz Truss and if that is the case, put simply we are fucked! If it was not for the fact that our granddaughter Hannah has just entered our lives, we would be leaving the country, quickly! It would be a tragedy whichever of these two losers won but doubly so is it is her. I have long advocated that women should be running the country but she is as mad as a box of frogs! 

Paradoxically although our political and economic world is being torn asunder, I am a happy man. I may moan and complain about the parlays state of the UK but personally I am happy. It is summer, I have just become a grandfather and am as physically fit as I have been for a couple of months after a dodgy back and knee. Naturally I am concerned about the rising cost of living. I do not for one second dismiss the hardship and turmoil that it causing for millions of families but it is rare in my life, that in the retail world, prices have not steadily risen and only rarely dropped? As now, there have many times when prices have risen fiercely and I do not lessen the impact that such huge rises have. It is true that I am more insulated then at any time in my life but this does not mean that we have not discussed a number of ways to try to save.

I wrote to one of the directors at my energy supplier yesterday and once directed to the right set of accounts found they are operating at a substantial loss and have been for five years. I was told that they are not the only ones of the smaller/mid-size suppliers, who have been. Therefore I posed the question why and how do they remain in business? I have no idea what the operating profits of the larger energy suppliers are, though we are aware that several of them are making enormous profits. If the smaller companies are losing money who in their chain is making the profit? Somebody somewhere is making a lot of money and as always it is the consumer who is footing the bill!

As is always the case with these industries, we never really know the truth. 

Stay well

 No choice It is the predicament of the people in our country we have no choice. We can’t  choose the leader of our government, now the the former one has been ousted. We have no choice over the policies that government implement even if we were their supporters and if we weren’t we have no choice! We cannot influence a single thing, only in a general election and even then it is one day when we make a choice and after that we have none! We maybe a “democracy” but you can guarantee that the people have little or no say in its future. Yes we had a referendum but then again that was no choice, either you believed the lies or you were having your rights removed. We live in an age of apathy and silent acceptance. 

Truss says she is going to curb the power of militant unions, she has no idea what a militant union is. If you were around in the 70’s then you will know what I mean!

If I was one of these candidates I would have stayed away from any public debate and kept my mouth shut except to explain to the party what my policies are. Debates are pointless, we have no say in the choice of our next PM, yet again!

Let’s be crystal clear, Pandemic aside, we would not be in such a poor economic and social mess had we still been in the EU. We would definitely not be if we had a genuinely progressive government who actually want our people to prosper and not look after the privileged and wealthy! 

I feel sometimes as though i am banging a drum in a padded room where no sound escapes and that there are still those who are blind or just too ignorant to understand the damage that has been done? I am dumbfounded, though not surprised, that there is anyone in our country who still believes that the Conservatives are the right party to be in power? I understand agenda’s are in play and huge influence is wielded. I fail to understand the constant flow of spiteful rhetoric spouted by Tory after Tory. I fail to understand how people listen and accept their bullshit? I am neither naive or stupid but this last 12 years has been a disaster for this country and it is only getting worse. Unfortunately we are powerless do stop it because as usual, we can shout all we like but we have no choice!

Stay well

 Wendy and I have just been blessed with a granddaughter but the thought of having Liz Truss as the next PM is enough to have us contemplating moving to Crete permanently. It was bad enough with Boris but if that woman gets the job we are doomed. Never has there been a more prime example of a person who has been promoted way beyond their level of incompetence. It comes to something when I would prefer that slime ball Sunak in preference to Truss but is just highlights how low the Tory party has sunk, as if they could have sunk any lower!  

I am sick of answering every appalling event with the words “well we should have expected it” or “It’s never been any different” I want to switch off but it is impossible as each day our world descends into more chaos. I am sick of my own pessimistic writing. There are great and good things going on in the world no doubt. 

Nature has tried desperately tried to get rid of human kind for thousands of years but it’s biggest pest keeps surviving, earthquakes, floods, fire, pestilence, volcanoes, climate change, extreme heat, extreme cold, disease, tsunamis, you name it she has thrown everything at us and still we continue to destroy her. We’ve tried wiping each other out several times and have failed to do so. Millions have died but we are still here kicking and screaming and getting it all wrong at every turn! We will die out eventually but whether by the time we do we have actually learnt to be human is highly unlikely.

Stay well

There are substantial rumours that Boris Johnston is trying to get the decision to remove him overturned and that he believes he will be reinstated as PM by next year? Only a man as deluded as he is, would attempt such a move or actually believe he could return. They must nail him for the many times he mislead Parliament wether deliberately or not!

They won’t admit it, the can’t admit but none of the architects of Brexit will admit that it the cause of many of the issues that beset our country. they certainly won’t take the blame! I still see comments that those of us who voted remain should stop moaning and accept the democratic decision. Well we have as much right in a “democracy” to hold that opinion, as they do to tell us to get over it. You can see with your own eyes the chaos it has caused and the damage it has done. 

If a single person thinks the Tories have run this country well over the last 12 years then you have not been living in the same one as I have? There are global events that no government would have found it easy to deal with not least the pandemic but  I suspect most of us could have made better and more common sense decisions they have!

The choice, of the two, left to fix the mess he has left us with is a dire one and the damage inflicted is so bad, that whoever the government is at a general election, it will be mightily difficult if not impossible to rectify!

Life goes on and we must endure!

Stay well

Naturally I am delighted that Boris will no longer be PM, though I have a feeling we have not heard the last of him in the political arena. He has gone but the choice of his replacement in many ways is more frightening than having him remain! Sunak or Truss is not a choice, it is a damning reflection on the paucity of Tory candidates and the moves that have been going on for weeks in the background as they manoeuvred to oust Johnston and place themselves in the frame. No doubt all sorts of skullduggery and shenanigans have taken place behind the scenes as alliances were formed and promises made and broken to the Conservative party MP’s and members. We will never know the truth about what appears to have been Johnson’s sudden demise, even though we all knew from day one how unsuitable he was to be PM. You can bet it has been months in the making and the final act was the avalanche of resignations. The general public are not easily fooled (maybe!) this was not a sudden and spontaneous manoeuvre, it was planned and executed to put the maximum pressure on Boris and force him out. We all knew he would never go voluntarily and his unapologetic words since have shown yet once more how unfit he was to govern.

His final appearance at PMQ’s was just a further example of how right up until the last he bullshitted and blustered and repeated lie after lie as he “answered” questions in Parliament. His legacy is one of lie’s corruption and sleaze and he will not be remembered with as the “statesman” he so craved us all to believe. Have no doubt that even from the sidelines he will continue to spout his crap and tell over and over the same litany of lies. Scandal will follow him and he will become embroiled in yet more, it follows him around like his shadow!

It is depressing that this government will largely continue with much the same cast as before and with the same disregard for our welfare continuing to fiddle while Rome burns!

The head may change but the body will still make the same tired old mistakes it has made for 12 long years.

Stay well

 Glad to report that our granddaughter is home and all is well.

How do you feel at the moment? Happy with the state of things? Everything going your way? I simply ask because I wonder how everyone really feels, whether we do all worry about our countries position, whether you actually care or are too wrapped up in your own problems or perhaps are just not interested? There was a time when we would be out in our thousands protesting, irrespective of any legislation designed to stop us. Either we feel helpless or are to lazy, apathetic or no longer believe we can change anything? I certainly come in to the lazy category! With so many social platforms, such as this one, to express our dismay maybe it is hard to motivate ourselves, when we can sit, as I am in my comfortable kitchen typing this? 

We are living in turbulent times, uncertain, tragic, hysterical and depressing! Most of us are concerned over everyday ordinary stuff that makes up our lives. I am far more concerned that family and friends are well and healthy. For instance how are the majority of us going to pay our energy bills, my new tariff increase my monthly DD by over £230, with no other choice! I fear there will be many who will not be able to pay. Wendy and I are now thinking hard how we can save. We have discussed not putting the heating on this winter and I invested in a eco friendly kettle. It is the small things that will help to save money. when your energy company does raise your costs, do not meekly accept, immediately write it them and question everything.

Stay well 

Little bit of a struggle at the moment. Our newly born granddaughter went home with mum and dad but has been back in hospital since Wednesday due to being dehydrated. All is well but the wheels of the NHS turn slowly and testing etc is not fast. My son has developed a positive hatred for the doctors but has nothing but praise for the nurses (no choice really his wife is a Matron).We hope the will be released today but when is the question?

Stay well

 

What a farce our politics has become. It has always had an element of the pantomime but it has become a bigger joke then ever. There are serious matters discussed and good work done but the headline weekly theatre of PMQ’s has under Johnson been a car crash. Yesterday he signed off, for what hopefully will be his last ever PMQ, saying he will leave with his “head held high” , a more deluded man you will never meet. He has not necessarily gone because of his policies, though they are reason enough, he has gone because even the Tory party could no longer stomach his behaviour. There are those who say he did a good job, that he “got Brexit done” (after all he one was one of the prime causes it happened), he saw us through the pandemic (not yet over) he has supported Ukraine. Any leader would have had to have dealt with all of those and frankly he did not handle any of it well. However his fitness for the job was seated in his unrelenting ability to embroil himself in scandal after scandal, he broke the law, more than once, he supported MP’s who had committed foul acts and of course he is and has been a serial liar! He has to go and be limited to the back benches and then hopefully his constituency will get rid of him at the next election. 

He is going to be replaced with yet another Tory right wing leader and whilst they will endeavour to be scandal free (not one of them has a clean record) the policies will not change and the rich will get richer and those worst off in society will still be.

The is only one solution to this Tory rule of 12 years and we all know what it is. My concern is that the nation is so conservative centric that they will get in again.

Stay well

 You know I still believe we are fundamentally a decent nation of people. Frankly I don’t care at present. Yesterday we welcomed our one and only grandchild Hanna into the world and Wendy and I, as you would expect, could not be happier. Mother and baby doing fine and today I will meet her for the first time.

It is these things that make a pleasure!

I don’t know what sort of world she will grow up in but I know her parents and ourselves will try to give her all the love and knowledge we can to deal with it all.

I won’t be around to see the vast part of her life but I will do all I can to nurture her. I intend to be a silly grandpa and teach her all the same nonsense I taught my sons.

Stay well

Three failed PM’s in 6 years and now we watch as 11 hopefuls, so far, vie to perpetuate our misery as the Conservatives continue to “govern”? We have to have a general election with whichever tosser they elect instead of the absolute horror that is and was Boris!

Whether you want them back in power or not, we deserve to make the decision on which party should now be in power. We will have another leader foisted on us with recourse to the ballot box! Yes May and Johnston went to the country and called an election but after the antics of Johnston and those who continued to support him and now want to lead, we should get the choice?

Promises, promises, if one more candidate says they will cut taxes I will eat my hat. If you are not sick of this hypocritical bunch of mealy mouthed enablers than you have not been living in the same country as I have! 

The answer to who should be the next PM is simple, none of the above!

Stay well

Apparently the cleaner at No 10 is contemplating throwing his hat in the ring to become the leader of the Conservatives? He says he has no chance of winning but why not every other bugger has! 

Every single prospective candidate is as guilty as the next of enabling Boris Johnston. Not one of them is not scarred by association. For all of their collective rejection of the man they all were prepared to stand by him, defend him, follow him and carry out his instructions. Jeremy Hunt may claim he has never served under Boris but let us not forget what terrible Health Minister he was. 

Whoever does become the leader and therefore PM, they are no better than the man who came before them! This is still the same party, this is still the same ethos. Yes I’m delighted that Boris is going, though cannot understand how a party who no longer wish him to be leader can let him continue as PM? I’ve wanted Boris to go from day one, he should never have been allowed to become leader in the first place, charisma and character he may have (hmmmmm) but he was a proven liar,  with a well known lack of integrity and a track record of infidelity and corruption. 

Any government would have struggled with a pandemic, which we are still suffering. Who knows what, another party in power, would have done? What we do know is the personnel behaviour of a man who was well known for having a loose relationship with any kind of rules. Remember all the men and women of his party who continually appeared on our screens and airwaves shamelessly defending and justifying his behaviour! Many of whom are now running for his job! Hypocritical and duplicitous are just two words that come to mind.

I fear in spite of all that has happened, all the lies and corruptions, come a general election the British public will still vote this sleazy lot back in power? 

We need a different voting system and some how we desperately need a government who can actually govern and address the real problems we face. I despair that it is too late but hope I am wrong?

 My reaction to the cavalcade of minsters and ex-minsters touting themselves as the next leader and PM

Ha HA Ha HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Stay well

 It goes without saying that I will be “over the moon” once Johnston finally realises he cannot remain as PM but we must temper our delight because the Tories will still be in power and there is not a single one of them that is fit to be the next leader, never mind PM! Every single member of Parliament under Boris is tainted with the stain of his time in office. Let us be clear the vast majority of them supported him through scandal after corruption after lie. None of them can use the word “integrity” without shame! The current avalanche of resignations are merely to disassociate themselves from a PM whose time is up! That he should have resigned months ago is now a mute point but few of them resigned along the way even though Johnson had committed so many crimes and told so many lies. 

He claims he has a mandate from the people. The truth is that he only has a slim majority in his constituency and that almost 65% of them did not vote at all. His leadership was only possible because they voted him as an MP and not by much.

This whole fiasco is amusing and tragic in equal measure. No matter how amusing, this is the governing of our country and it was already a disaster, what word would you use to describe it now?

This the end of Johnston and it was always going to be in the most ignominious of circumstances, though none of realised it would end without anyone left to actually govern? 

We will have days and weeks of this farce as the Tory party unravels and the infighting gets worse. Surely a General Election has to be called, the people deserve to choose the next government, it certainly could not be any worse than what we have suffered for the last 12 years!

No doubt the money men have leaned on him and the real power has told him he will have to go, good riddance!

Stay well

 Are you like me struggling to believe anything thing you read in the news or on social media? Have we become so cynical and lacking in trust of anything written or said? So many lies, so much spin and misdirection! The world is a scary place and becoming scarier by the minute. Everyday we wake up to yet another tragedy, another shooting, another sleazy scandal, day after day after day! We are more polarised than ever, if your not on the right, you must be on the left, if your not religious, you must be anti-religion, if your against trans, you must be anti-trans. Indeed any comment that seeks to take the middle ground will be interpreted by one faction or another as a defining statement either against or in support of whichever view suits their agenda. Women are the biggest losers as their rights are eroded and their independence once again trampled over by insensitivity and a lack of understanding that belongs to values, we thought had long since been discarded. 

People have strong views and opinions and are entitled to them but there is reluctance on both sides to give any ground to the other. It appears easier to disagree all the time, than find any common ground? 

Temptation is a difficult prize to resist and it is evident that far to many of our elected Parliament are unable to do so. Who of us would say we would not be tempted given the opportunity to line our own pockets if we thought we could get away with it? That so many from the top down do it so shamelessly without any remorse has become the norm and their blatant refusal to accept responsibility for their actions is only a another symptom of the wider attitude prevalent in much of societies throughout the world!

We must do our best to remain steadfast in our beliefs, whilst accepting that there will always be those who we will disagree with. We cannot accept the current standard in public life and must do all we can to revisit it’s creeping erosion of our rights.

Stay well