The More Things Change

Hello, dear readers!

And welcome to the sunlit uplands of a bright, brave new world.

It’s true. Even now, as I look out the living room window, the sun is streaming through the blinds and the temperature hovering just south of uncomfortable. It’s the kind of day where all seems right with the world. The kind of day to forget about tomorrow’s worries and focus on the pleasures of the moment (steady!).

Which is good, because thinking about tomorrow should probably carry some kind of health warning.

Luckily, the endless days of this late summer seem destined to continue for some time yet, because a saviour has emerged to banish the dark clouds and the rain we actually could do with a bit of. Winter might be coming, but Liz is going to sort it all out.

Sarky Pants
Now, those who know my political leanings (and, yes, I’m sorry, it is a political one this week), will probably guess that the above carries within it a small note of sarcasm. Nothing as grand as Joe Lycett’s turn on Laura ‘definitely unbiased’ Kuenssberg’s new show, you understand, but yeah, say it out loud and listen carefully. I think you’ll find it’s there.

As to why? Well a lot of that is due to my increasingly advancing years. The big 5-0 is less than two years away now, and the experience those years has gifted me might (might) have led a small amount of cynicism to creep into my otherwise sunny and optimistic nature.

Sorry, that was sarcasm again.

It’s wearing, you see, to live through so many iterations of the same thing. So many different faces spouting the same rhetoric. The Tory party has been in charge , this time around, for an unbroken twelve years and in that time there have been four Prime Ministers (Cameron, May, Johnson, and now Truss), and three in the last six years. But what, exactly, has changed?

Moving On Up
I know we live in interesting times. There is a war on, you know (not in this country, you understand), and there had been a massive pandemic to consider too, but even before those two earth-shattering events, things were getting measurably worse as the doctrine of Austerity (capital A) bit, and bit those with less all the harder.

It almost feels, on occasion, that the current governing body, whoever the face on the fliers may be, is set up for the express purpose of moving money upwards and ever upwards Concentrating it into fewer and fewer hands. Stealing labour and wealth from the poor and redistributing it to the rich like some dyslexic Robin Hood.

Rant Man
Of course there are those that still support the governing party, for whatever reason, (wealth? Ideology? Generational solidarity? Lack of imagination?) and for them, the Tory tactic of moving money to money while preaching the ‘get a job-pull yourselves up by the bootstraps-watch out for those sneaky benefits cheats and immigrants- everyone can become a entrepreneur-this time next year, Rodney’ mentality to people who, on the whole seem to have less and less while the welfare state and public services are dismantled into conveniently saleable chunks around them, still works… for now.

You see, if the Tory manifesto of enlightened self interest plus hard work (and inheriting a couple of mil from Mummy and Daddy) actually did work then surely twelve years should have been enough to evidence that, even with the extraordinary events of the last three. In fact, go back even further. Go back to nearly fifty years of Tory rule, interrupted only by the most right wing Labour government in history. Standards as a whole may well have changed, thanks to innovation and technological advances in the main, but the gap between rich and poor? Well that remains significant. And the last twelve years have seen that accelerate immensely.

This is getting a whole lot more rant-y than I planned, and I know there are those reading (or possibly who’ve stopped reading) who will disagree with every word, but look. Look at the world, the country, as it is now. We are facing a winter of discontent that would make Richard The Third jealous. A winter of soaring costs. A winter where libraries and sports centres are being spoken of as ‘warm banks’, and eating or heating will, for a lot of people, be an impossible choice.

Same Old
The solution seems to be government intervention, and all the signs say that intervention is coming. How it will come is still up for grabs, however, although a price freeze (and let’s take a moment to marvel at that choice of expression), seems favourite. How this, or any other measure will be paid for? Well that too is up for grabs, although in her first Prime Minister’s Question Time our brand new, nothing like her predecessors, PM ruled out a windfall tax on the companies raking in billions more than they know what to do with while ordinary, hard working people face the hardest times of their lives. This seems to leave those same people; you, me, pensioners, business owners, paying back that money over a length of time, thus making the future an expensive thing to have.

It boils down to a political and ideologically driven decision and it’s a decision that seems wholly in line with other governments of the recent past. I may be a tad biased, but it's a decision I could see Cameron, May, and Johnson all taking with a song in their heart and a smile on their lips. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Here comes the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Still, Liz will sort it out, yeah?


Until next time.

***

Hey, folks! If you would care to take a look at some of my more creative writing, then the links below will transport you to the magical worlds of a few anthologies my short (and in two cases, very short) stories have been included in. Feel free to check ’em out!

New Tales Of Old: Volume 2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09TMVTX9H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Death Ship

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9198684140/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_TWEMTA3KWK7T89QEZPF6?fbclid=IwAR322Fx5nfgVUQAA62ZZ6CUsNnBm8pbSxPanzz6Qkjg3vAv4ESipq7iKKhs

https://www.waterstones.com/book/death-ship/david-green/s-o-green/9789198684148?fbclid=IwAR2gP4CXHSG7wTccO39wOqXFtI81k0259Ep8DUM48Ki6kTUdlKoF3yafojA

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9198684140/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A2XZ7JICGUQ1CX&psc=1&fbclid=IwAR2Wa6sGxb82_VCsC7l1CGXwHjsSwTheqba6jDX_G8EDsywZoGpC93nXr2w

Reaperman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reaperman-Drabbles-3-Legends-Night-ebook/dp/B099NNPTQ1A

Pestilence

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pestilence-Revelations-Black-Ink-Fiction/dp/B09MDLZGHY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VP38WZDWJVAF&keywords=black+ink+fiction&qid=1654090896&sprefix=black+ink+fiction%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-1

The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Musketeers-Cthulhu-Court-King-Louis-ebook/dp/B09YQKQQB7/ref=sr_1_18?crid=2VP38WZDWJVAF&keywords=black+ink+fiction&qid=1654091002&sprefix=black+ink+fiction%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-18