At the moment, the whole world seems to be working out how to deal with Donald Trump now that he has hit the ground running with his presidency, mark 2.0. In particular, Keir Starmer is angling for an early opportunity to meet with the incoming president but this is unlikely to be granted. The British, in particular, often speak of the 'special relationship' between the UK and the USA but the Americans hardly ever do so unless prompted by the British which probably means that we are growing less and less relevant in American eyes. According to 'The Independent', sources in the Trump campaign suggest that the President-elect is considering rejecting Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, an almost unprecedented move that would be a huge diplomatic insult. Peter Mandelson has been suggested by Keir Starmer because of his vast experience in international affairs, not least being at one time the European Commissioner for Trade between 2004 and 2008 but this fact alone may him look suspicious in the eyes of Donald Trump who was recently warning the Europeans about the tariffs he intends to impose. Trump addressed the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland by a special video link. One reporter has said that he was in a packed hall but that the mood in the hall went from laughter to silence within seconds as Trump enunciated his America First policy with his typical ebullience. If carried out as threatened, this will be one of the biggest disruptions to global world trade for years.
I am engaged in a domestic experiment at the moment. Following some advice on websites, I have turned down the thermostatic valves in the rooms in the house that we are not using to their frost setting and also tweaked the timings that the central heating runs in the house from 9 hours day to 6 hours a day. In theory, this simple move may save me £50-£70 a month or so. Apart from the desire to save unnecessary expenditure, the lifestyles that Meg and I are following these days have altered and so the changes to our central heating should reflect this. Meg is put to bed by her carers at 7.00 each evening and as I get up at 6.00am I am going to bed an hour earlier, starting at 9.00pm so there is no point in heating the whole house for an hour between 9.00pm-10pm in the evening. Of course, times have changed and, for decades, Meg used to start to go to bed at 10.00pm and listen to the news, and sometimes Newsnight, as we were getting ready for bed. But out circumstances have changed so it makes a lot of sense to do a 'reset' of our central heating timings for time to time. I seem to remember that in the past, we always had the. central heating turn off at 9.00am in the morning or even earlier as we were both leaving the house to go to work well before 9.00am. Our preferred energy supplier, Octopus, has an informative website that allows you to monitor and adjust settings and tariffs so the effects of my changes should be easy to assess. I may know even know the results within a day and certainly within the week. I have built up a small reserve with the energy supplier so that if we were to have another particularly cold blast, we would have the reserve to cater for this but in the meantime, the temperature this morning has risen to 10° Celsius which is quite a lift but we have a huge transatlantic storm about to batter the northerly regions of the country and even a rare red warning (danger to life) has been issued by the weather authorities for those living in Northern Ireland and Scotland. In view of all of this, I asked the advice of the two care workers who were attending Meg this morning whether it was or not to venture outside with the wheelchair. Although the temperature was markedly higher than a few days it was so gusty and with threats of squally rain that I took the care workers' advice and decided not to make out a trip today. Instead, my son and I got my EE accounts in full view by using the app (I had been using the website which gave me a very incomplete picture) Then I made a phone call to EE to pay off the remaining balance on my newish iPhone 16 which although it took a chunk out of my savings did have the advantage of reducing my monthly bill quite substantially which is the name of the game these days.
In the late morning, I got a call from one of the District nurses to take another blood sample from Meg. I suspect that our doctor is worried about Meg's hydration levels and I too share this concern but it is quite difficult to get Meg to take fluids these days. I am using a wide-brimmed cup rather than a feeding beaker and also make sure that Meg has sufficient yogurts, mousses and similar preparations which is one way I use to get minimal amounts of fluid into Meg. If I had not specified otherwise, I am pretty sure the doctor would have had Meg in hospital to administer some fluids intravenously but we have collectively ruled out visits to hospital A&E departments under the present circumstances. This afternoon, we are listening to Thursday night's 'Question Time' where the audience attention is devoted both to the sequelae of the conviction of the murderer of three young schoolgirls in Southport during the summer as well as the utterings of Trump mark 2.0. The Met Police Chief Constable Sir Mark Rowley is reported as saying that 'There are thousands of young men online who are obsessing about violence. ...They are bouncing between videos of school shootings, other gruesome acts - some of it by terrorist groups, some of it nothing at all to do with terrorist groups - and it is the obsession with violence that is driving some young men to do horrific matters.... If you are lost in your bedroom and you are grazing on a diet of American school shooting materials, ISIS beheadings, extreme right-wing propaganda… material that gives you tactics for use of knives and building explosives, it is horrific and that should not be in kids bedrooms, but it is,' he said.
© Mike Hart [2025]