There is no doubt that 2022 has not been the best of years for the world in general! For us personally it was the best of years with the birth of our granddaughter Hannah and yesterday we enjoyed her first Xmas She really is the best present we could ever get! 

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could finally get rid of all these nasty petty pathetic men who seem to continue to ruin our lives and believe they are right! In no particular order if Putin, Trump, Farage, Johnston, Rees-Mogg, most if not all Tory ministers, any other dictators, the Taliban, Chinese Communist Party, North Korea and so many more the world would be an infinitely better place! It has to be accepted that we cannot solve the many problems that beset our country let alone the world but surely there must be agreement that at the very least we don’t make it worse? I am not optimistic about our future and fear for the future of my children and especially my granddaughter? The heady optimism of my generation seems to have dissipated and burst like the dream it was. We have conspired to make the world a shadow of the place it could be. We have made enormous progress particularly with technology but as a human race I fear we have regressed. I am not expecting joy and peace for everybody but neither did I expect this creeping sickness of fascism and the continuation of racist behaviour and such extreme views!

I am sick of being labelled weak or too liberal, a lefty leaning moaner because I don’t share the views of the capitalist society that sets up profit and the acquisition of money as it’s only goal! I am not altruistic I understand only to well that we have to have some form of renumeration in order to live in our modern world. I am more than aware that equality is unachievable, that there will always be the haves and the have less! I accept that there are many good people who do their best to make the world and peoples lives better, it feels like it but al is not doom and gloom!

This is no Christmas message , as you all no I abhor religion and all that it stands for but I would like some balance brought to the world!

Stay well

What are your thoughts on all the strikes? Don’t support the “workers” inconvenience, ruining your Xmas? Perhaps you are with them surely they all deserve better pay and conditions? Everything is political and nothing more so than Unions doing one of the things they are there for. Personally I am generally a supporter of this industrial action. When you see the wastage and expenses claimed by our government (which runs into multi-millions) their excuse that it will fuel inflation is bogus and disingenuous in the extreme. Yes many of these “workers” are already paid well, yes some of the union leaders are remunerated well. None of this is relevant in relation to a pay increase or some of the demands that are being asked of them by their employers! We love them and we hate them all at the same time. It is inconvenient, for many it will have an effect on their plans and why we complain that is all done at Christmas is bogus. If you were planning action at what time would you do it, when it has no impact on anyone or when it has maximum impact? Have you ever witnessed a government who condemn every strike, every action and yet refuse to interfere even though it is the fundamental task of governing to make sure the country runs! There are two side to every negotiation but in order to resolve a dispute you have to negotiate. It used to be that unions would make a demand above what they really wanted the employers would eventually sit down with them and agree to pay them less. Job done. Now both sides to a greater and lesser degree seem to have forgotten how to negotiate and the government has entirely absolved themselves of their  responsibility to help! It seems rhetoric and opposing each other has become more important than meeting and discussing a solution. The press and media love to vilify everyone and there is a some evidence that particularly one union leader might just be relishing the limelight a little to much? 

I am no great lover of Christmas and frankly it will not affect me but a stand has to be made after twelve years of Conservative misgoverning and corruption!

Stay well

I am not innocent of writing an insulting or vitriolic barb on social media, indeed I have written at least two this very morning on Twitter. I have noticed that this social media platform has become petty, full of bile and outright hatred. Perhaps it is a sign of the times we live in, that our frustration and outright disbelief, of the way of the world and particularly our country is running? The public are disenchanted with just about everything and who can blame them! An NHS under siege and falling apart at the seams. Strikes by disenchanted workers who have had enough of the way they are treated and the re numeration they get for doing their job. Not being able to afford to live is a reality. People homeless and on the streets is a reality that we all witness every day, well certainly in Kettering! Food banks are a reality. What have we come to when Ministers openly shout about opening more of them ? I do not claim to know the solution to these and the many many other problems that our country faces. The problem is that those we have elected on both sides of the divide don’t know how to either? They are just as guilty of petty insults and hatred as the rest of society! Whether they are a reflection of us or we are a reflection of them is a mute point! Never in my 70 years have we had such pathetic, inept MP’s as we have at present. There is not a states-person worthy of the name! I have bleated on many times about the endemic corruption that seems to pervade public life and there have been so many examples of it, that we have lost count and just shrug our shoulders, as though it is expected and is normal behaviour! 

My granddaughter Hannah is already 6 months old and we adore her, as you would expect but I despair at the world my generation is leaving her and the nation she will grow up in! I know she will have the values of our family instilled in her. We can be sarcastic, insulting and swear a lot but we also are fair, accepting, kind, generous , loving and at the risk of being superior, intelligent. I can only hope that the cyclic nature of the world will come around and there will be a period of peace and prosperity and the dire state we find ourselves in will improve? 

People often ask the perfectly understandable question “ what is the point of our existence?” My answer is simple, there is no point and that is the point! The sooner we come to accept that we are nothing significant or special, that there is no life beyond death and all we can do is live to the best of our ability, the better off we will be! We have to cope with all the tragedies and hiccups that life throws at us. If this sounds like some new age philosophical mumbo jumbo, well so be it, it is no less true for that!

Stay well

Apparently we live in a “woke” world The dictionary definition reads   "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)," 

Sounds perfectly reasonable doesn’t it? Surely we all aspire to be “actively attentive” on many subjects and if they are “important facts & issues” we should be aware? I am not ashamed of being one of the so called “Liberal left” These days if you are reasonable and balanced, you are weak left leaning moaner. You’re supposed to have definitive views, no wishy washy sitting on the fence, seeing both sides of a debate. Your either for us and if not you must be against us and not only are you against but your stupid and pathetic! Now I don’t like the Tories, I think I’ve made that perfectly clear but with the exception of a number of them, I don’t think they are stupid or in many cases don’t genuinely care about the country, I vehemently disagree with their policies and methods but (and there is so much evidence of corruption and cronyism) I can understand where they are coming from! Naturally I would fall under the current definition of “woke”? 

This lady who was “insulted” at this royal do! I think I too would be offended by someone of any age who was persistently asked me where I was from after answering the question once of twice ! Now in the great scheme of things is it important? Yes. It highlights the barely perceived underlying prejudice that still exists even if the enquirer was meant to be friendly! 

One last thing, I am fed up with this constant news trail about Harry and Megan. I could care less about them! Just leave them alone and let them stew in their own pathetic fantasy!

Stay well!