All Together - In The Altogether

-


Two more examples of the fatuous, headline and soundbite-grabbing ethos we currently have to endure: an enquiry into the handling of the Covid crisis deferred until spring 2022, and a proposed statue to the frontline workers who have actually been physically and intellectually instrumental in our getting through this thing, despite the best efforts of the PM and his government to scupper things at every step. The simple facts are that:

a) Questions over the initial, laggardly response to the coming crisis, lock/un-lockdown timings, allocation of dodgy contracts, cronyism and much more need answering now - not when the heat has gone from the moment and those responsible have moved on to pastures new. Official enquiries have few legal teeth and statutes of limitation should not allow the culpable to hide behind an officially-confected history.

b) Frontline workers, in particular NHS staff need a substantial hike in remuneration for their skill, dedication and frankly, bravery for their efforts on our behalf. Statues do not put bread on the table or pay the bills: they are a cheap and high-profile stunt on behalf of an establishment reluctant to use our money for what we want and need. Nursing staff in particular deserve a significant pay rise - end of.

c) The issue of long-term care of the elderly, sick and vulnerable needs to be state-funded and NHS organised; not a business opportunity for the private sector, draining the very resources that people have often worked long and hard to save: both for their retirement and for the benefit of their children. Prudence, thrift and inheritance it seems, whilst always encouraged in the hoi polloi by the Conservatives, in the end count for bugger-all for the majority and serve only the wealthy and connected, who only seem to practice the inheritance part of the concept, anyway.

There you go - more of the same for the rest of this government's term and probably beyond - one day, the people of this country will wake from this dream-state and see the naked Emperor before them. I can only live in hope.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [
Read more