I could scarcely believe my ears when I got up this morning and when I asked the smart speaker what the weather was in prospect for the day, I was informed that there was a low of 8° which is amazing considering some of the low temperatures we have had to endure recently. Looking over the news for the day, I am quietly seething about the fact that Rachel Reeves is softening up the public for fairly swinging welfare cuts at just the time when a greater proportion of our national wealth must perforce go to meet the threats to us posed by Russia and the increased defence expenditures have to be paid for somehow. So the very poorest in the world (via cuts to the Aids budget) and the most disadvantaged in our own society are having to pay for wartime expenditures. There is a case to be made that our welfare system is in need of some reforms and there are numbers of the population who are of working age but not economically active in these post-Covid days. Just to illustrate this point dramatically, the well-respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is telling us the following. For decades we have funded growth in the welfare state through cuts in defence spending. In 1960 we spent twice as much on defence as on health. As recently as the mid 1980s we spent the same on each. We now spend over three times as much on health as on defence. But even allowing for all of this, the burden of increased taxation is not being spread equally. I still maintain that our finance minister ought to get together with all of the other European societies and put 2p (or 2%) on the rate of VAT across the whole of Europe. This would come at the risk of a slight kick to inflation but would raise a lot of money immediately. Also, with some skilful political representation, this could be called a temporary 'Putin tax' and is only to be raised as necessary to counter the Russian threat. The fact that election pledges are being broken could be assuaged by the fact that the new revenues would be Europe-wide and that those countries that could, would contribute militarily or at least provide some money to buy attack drones and similar technology. I think the public at large would understand all of this and perhaps even support it, not punishing the government electorally for a broken pledge as the threat has only really arisen since Trump was elected and has abandoned Europe to its fate. We are now in the very interesting situation where the USA has abandoned its leadership role within NATO and the new leader of NATO could be said to be Keir Starmer and the UK. Who would have thought that in these post-Brexit days? Meanwhile, it is almost a certainty that Russian invasion of the Ukraine will be, in effect, condoned as Russia hangs onto the Crimea and the other Russian speaking parts of the Ukraine that it occupies and even modern maps of Russia produced within that country are showing that this is already being regarded as the likely outcome.
In the morning, we had two rather inexperienced care workers for Meg, and it showed. One has been in the job for about two weeks and the other for about three but, although well meaning, they are not that experienced in handling Meg or using the hoist. Consequently, I think they communicated their uncertainty to Meg who finished off in a rather troubled state. It did not help the situation in that one of the mini washing buckets that we wash when giving Meg a wash finished up with half of its content on the carpet (more cleaning up required) I did phone up the agency and got hold of one of the two managers and expressed my concerns, not in the nature of a complaint as such. The manager was in the middle of organising rotas and indicated that, in future, he would try to ensure that an inexperienced worker should be put alongside a more experienced one. Later in the morning, the Eucharistic minister called from our local church, and it was good to see her after a gap of a fortnight. She had been a bit poorly herself and had lost a close family friend in his mid 70's, but this seems all too common an experience these days. When I had done my weekly shop, I purchased some fresh sea bass and lettuce and thought, I would try again, something that we used to cook regularly each Friday. This was to grill the fish after it had been treated with some oil and lemon juice, and it only takes about three minutes on one side and two minutes on the other. I decided to cook the meal in two tranches as the fish needs to be eaten immediately after cooking and I prepared a portion for Meg. Unfortunately, this was one of those days when either through sleepiness or some other cause, she would not open her mouth to eat the food so I resurrected some of the bits of fish so that I can heat them up and try again later. Mine was delicious, though, and I enjoyed it very much. Yesterday afternoon, it turned out fine but a little cold but Meg (if she is awake and 'compus mentis') and I will watch the Question Time programme from last night.
Just when you might think that Donald Trump could not get any madder, he has announced publicly today that Taiwan (to which China has laid claim) would not be defended by the Americans. This must be an open invitation to the Chinese to walk into Taiwan whenever they feel so inclined and shows that the present Trump administration will dump treaties, accords and understandings if it does not fit into the mantra of 'Make America Great Again') But already Donald Trump is having to put into reverse some of his policies of imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada after a stock market crash. The imposition of these two tariffs has been suspended for a month and, I will suspect, continue to be suspended indefinitely. Trump has the reputation amongst some of the American electorate of being a successful businessman but most economists would regard his policy of imposing tariffs on all and sundry as being the height of economic illiteracy.
© Mike Hart [2025]