What May 2023 Means to me

It was at the end of the first week of may that Prince Charles was coronated as king of Britain, Northern Ireland and many commonwealth nations. He's now the head of state and head of the Anglican Church. I'm not against him but I didn't care much. I watched the highlights of the ceremony and wished him well. I was a bit concerned about protesters being arrested, the reason they gave was the police thought the anti monarchy protestors would obstruct the procession; Freedom of speech is important. We should be careful about that. 

During may it was the first time I used my Google pay on my phone to open a ticket gate at a train station. I used my smart phone to pay for a train ride. The Google wallet app can store more than one bank card and make contactless payment on their behalf. At the same time there was a disaster and I was given a lot of grief the following day. I saw it comming but it is a very sad loss. 

I also learned that conservatives are very unpopular, they were taking advantage of the good nature of public servants like nurses and teachers and freezing their pay for several years until they finally went on strike. Now the conservative party has lost many seats. If you have inflation and the pay stays the same, that is the same as a pay cut. They do those jobs because they care but they deserve a fair deal. 

It was a tough month for me and my family so we went on a short 3 day break at the coast to relax a little bit. Sometimes you need to take a break, to stop and rest. It was very nice. 

Government Mutiny

When I watched PMQs (Prime Minister's Question time) on TV and read leadership tweets throughout twitter, it is very obvious that the 'Conservative' Party are having a  mutiny. Many MPs are trying to get Boris Johnson to resign. I don't think there is much the conservative party can do, it was the whole group that was throwing a party during Christmas lockdown and breaking their own law. They can only hope the Brits forget about it by the time there is a general election in about three years, if they have a snap election now, they would probably lose or have a hung parliament. 

I'm just a servant, I try not to have an opinion but I understand people's anger because some people had to leave their relatives on their own to die in the Hospital; many people were isolated from their relatives throughout the Pandemic, they celebrated their birthdays and Christmas alone. The same is true of my Son's birthday, when he was one years old we stayed in our home away from the other relatives and even when he was 2 it was a low profile event with just a few relatives. 

Free School meals cut

The government has voted to cut free school meals from schools. I'm not really in control of what the government does. Once we have elected them, they make big decisions on our behalf. 

I think it would be a good idea for parents to give their children jacket potatoes and busicuits as part of their meal. In the market place you can buy a 7 killogram sack of potatoes for less than £5. You would probably give them about 250 grams worlth  of potatoes for each meal so that works out as about 17p. Plus a few biscuits and a fruit, about 25p. Potatoes contain a small amount of everything, they contain iron which is good for the blood, they contain carbohydrates in the potato starch, they contain proteins in the skin and just under the skin, potatoes also contain fat plus the sauce that your kid would use probably contains fat, they would get most the nutrition they would need from that at a very low price. 

The other option I thought of is to make pasta or rice and sauce, use a microwave to boil pasta in a bowl then add sauce and fry some bread in olive oil and cut it into strips and add tomato puree and add it to the pasta. Again it would cost about 20 to 25p if you buy it in bulk. The total cost would be £1 to £1.25 per week.

I can't control what the government does but I give out some ideas to parents. 

Less yellow and orange

I think that all the political parties have one thing in common, they have made promises they can't keep. Either they are over ambitious or they will be blocked by the shadow cabinet or the house of Lords. I don't really care who gets elected now because this election is all about Brexit and I don't really know what brexit polarity is best anymore.

The only thing I would like on the weekend is to see a political map of Britain with less yellow and orange. If there was no yellow or orange at all then that would be even better. The Lib-dems and SNP have been telling us what to think and don't really listen to ordinary people. They have their own ambitions and work against the will of the majority.  I don't care what colour my district lights up on the weekend as long as it is not orange or yellow. It could stay blue or turn red and that is fine, it could even turn green and I would be happy.

This weekend will be very revealing indeed. We will have a better picture of what the Brits actually think and what the start of the 2020s will be like.

Boris power

Boris Johnson has been voted leader of the conservative party, the Queen has welcomed him to the helm and he has made his speech and summoned his cabinet team.  Therasa May has stepped down, she did well I think.

Why did they take so long? We knew last month that Boris would win, he had more than double the votes as all the other candidates. Why did we wait until there is only 3 months left before the October deadline? I think they should have fast tracked his promotion.

My local MP Steve Barker happens to be the most hard core Brexiteer in the whole house of commons, why did he turn down a cabinet position? He has a clear plan in place. I guess he just wants to remain a back bencher.

Do they know that people like me get nervous when cabinet ministers quit on mass. When people are fleeing in a movie it is because there is danger, they are either running from an explosion or a monster. Yet the cabinet ministers and leaders are stepping down so often that they may as well go to Ikea and get a whole new Cabinet, I know that joke is not funny.

I wish Boris good luck, I keep my chin up for my island home. Rule Britania, my island of Hope and glory. May the Island of Great Britain and it's family stay in prosperity.

Leadership Race

The conservative party has once again performed a party leadership race to replace a resigning leader. It is now down to two candidates, a pathological liar and a rule book burner. I won't say which ones which or if they are interchangeable titles.

All I will say is, why so many rounds? Boris has more than twice the support of Jeremy Hunt. If we wait until the last week of July, we will only have 3 months until the October deadline. Why are we wasting so much time picking a leader when it is so clear who will win?

When Boris wins, I'm sure all the Greek and Latin he can speak will help him communicate with ordinary people like me. We will say hello to Halloween in fear, not because of the costumes. They are both toffs anyway, things like a housing crisis are probably not even seen as problems to these people.