Thoughts of a carer

  It has been recorded that Prof. Neil Furguson thought, in March 2020, that lockdowns could not be imposed on the British people. Yet they were. Our leaders, and their advisers, were surprisingly quickly convinced of the need for this, and then thought there would be significant pushback, justifying a policy of behavioural management, nudge and coercion that, prior to 2020, would have been considered very un-British (Laura Dodsworh’s excellent book, ‘ A State of Fear ’ is worth reading, if you haven’t already.) . How might this have arisen? Were all government ministers fully aware of what was going on, had they thought everything through and considered the risks, I wonder, or were their faculties somehow impaired? *** I’ve written before on the topic of the side effects of prescription medication ( ref 1 , ref 2 ).  It's not unknown for people to mess things up, we all do something less well than we might wish sometimes. There will often be a reason for what happens; in some busi

  My local council has a new initiative to get children interested in books. Over the school summer holidays they’re laying on storytime sessions at the local library. Nothing new about that, except that the stories are read by ‘ Drag Queens ’. I’m not the only one to have opinions on this; Ann Farmer has an excellent article in TCW Defending Freedom on how it will leave children confused, and I agree with her wholeheartedly. I have suffered as a result of that sort of confusion for much of my life.  My concern is not actually that there will be a man in a dress reading a story to children; it is actually that a big thing is being made that it will be a man in a dress. Diversity is supposed to be about accepting people who want to do different things, not making a song and dance about it. Society has, in one way or another, been making a song and dance about men ‘dressing as ladies’ for centuries, and it doesn’t do any good. Drag Queens aren’t about accepting an individual’s identity

  July 2022  I’ve been helping out my sister and my mother recently; like many in their early sixties, I’ve also been looking at my finances, and trying to work out what I might need in the future.  My mum’s situation has given me food for thought - serious thought. After nearly thirty years of retirement she found herself in hospital at the tender age of 89, and the doctors declared her medically fit for discharge - which sounds fine, but she’s really struggling with her mobility. The hospital and social services between them agreed her discharge was ok; social services proposed she should be at home, with four care visits a day to help with meals and dressing. That, basically, is what our health and social care system might provide for you when you’re old and unable to look after yourself.  With the experience I’ve had with Viv, I was horrified - as was my sister. My mum has lived alone for the last twenty five years in a tiny, one bedroom bungalow (that was once part of a sheltered

  June 2022 I went to Elstree a couple of weeks ago: right outside the station there was a poster: *** In my youth I banked with Barclays; in 1988 they closed a savings account of mine - which held a modest sum, perhaps £10 - without telling me, because I had not used it for a long time.  I wasn't happy with this, so moved my account to Midland Bank and was with them, and HSBC, for a further thirty years or so, before going back to Barclays. The reason for leaving HSBC at that time is more complex than that for leaving Barclays in the 80s. I shall explain. *** It was a coincidence, but in 1988 I also met my future wife. From the outset I realised she had some problems with financial management, but the ‘optimism bias’ in me kicked in and we married in 1990. Within months we started to have financial ‘hiccups’ - there would be less money to last out the month than I had expected, I would have to raid the savings account for some ‘one-off’ bill or expense. I found myself unable to pu