Dependency

I left my phone at home this morning.

Unintentionally.

I realised as I was on my way to work. I almost turned back, but thought I could make it through the day without it.

I was foolish.

I felt bereft all day. While I waited for my computer to power up I reached absent-mindedly for my phone to check Twitter, only to realise it wasn't there. Every time I got up to go to the kitchen or the loo or downstairs to move some boxes I looked for my phone. It wasn't there. I always take it with me. Today I couldn't. It felt weird.

Cathy says this is evidence of something that she has known for a long time - I spend too much time looking at my phone. I think she may be right.

A time of change (farewell to 'the tank')

My beloved Golf finally reached the point where money spent fixing it would be money wasted. For the past fortnight and a bit I've been driving my 'new' car, a Vauxhall Vectra. Having learned to drive in a classic boxy Cavalier back in the early 90s, it does feel a bit like coming home.

The Golf, known to us as P-TAB was a great car, though. I drove to Mull twice in him, although Mallaig was the furthest North we went in him. I tried to work out the extremities of our journeying - furthest south would be Hastings to the East and Plymouth to the South. We took him to Northumberland and the Eastern borders of Scotland. We even went to Llanidloes. You don't get much more wild west than that.

When I sold him on to those people who say they will buy any car (any, any, any!), he had over 175,000 miles on the clock. I put 75,000 of those miles on him.

I took these photos just before saying farewell to the car I affectionately called the tank.

In all his battered glory

The clock - 75,000 of those miles were mine

Setting off on the last journey

All aboard the Satan Bus

Think twice before going for a ride in this...

Turns out I'm really going to miss the Olympics

I must admit I was a bit of a grouch about the Olympics in the run up. All the hype was getting to me. But somehow I have become transfixed by it all. From the opening ceremony, which had so many brilliant moments in, through to watching Olympic football matches in our local world-class stadium, through to night after night watching highlights of success in sports I didn't even know existed.

For me, this may be my favourite photo from London 2012. Mo Farah and Usain Bolt saluting each other as only true sporting legends can.

Real life beckons and I am really going to miss the excitement, the novelty and the all-round cheerfulness of the Olympics. Sigh.

Thomas the Tank Engine gets off his face

I saw this from the window of a train on a tourist steam railway. I really don't know how parents would explain this to their kids.

Don't keep calm - get angry

I have been political in the past on this blog, but reading ‘To Isaiah’ by Dr Don Berwick this week has stirred up some more feelings of agitated anger towards some of the things being perpetrated by our ‘compassionate conservative’ government.

Don Berwick is an inspirational figure in the field I am currently employed in and was hand-picked by President Obama to introduce the reform of the American healthcare system so villainously and stupidly opposed by right wing America. ‘To Isaiah’ is the commencement address to the graduating class at Harvard University medical school. That sounds dull. It really isn’t.

There are three quotes in Don Berwick’s address that have particularly struck me. The first is by Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

“To become a man is to be responsible; to be ashamed of miseries that you did not cause.”

I am deeply ashamed – mortified to the point of anger by the on-going widening inequality between the rich and the poor in this country. I feel helpless with barely controlled rage when smarmy Dave Cameron and his equally clueless toffee-arsed chums bleat on about how they understand that life is hard for ‘hard-working families’ but ‘we’re all in this together’. I find it shameful to be living in a country where job centre managers are being given suicide prevention training because of the numbers of desperate people they are seeing each day. It hounds me to the core.
The second quote is from the late Senator Hubert Humphrey:

“The moral test of government is how it treats people in the dawn of life, the children, in the twilight of life, the aged, and in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”

So, how are we doing on this? How are the people living in the shadows? I tweeted recently how thousands of people are being denied disability living allowance under tough new governmental rules – and how, hypocritically, millionaire David Cameron and his wife Samantha claimed DLA themselves when their disabled son, Ivan, was alive.

I felt sorry for David Cameron when Ivan died. But I wonder what kind of bereaved father would wilfully turn the screw on parents who are going through the same experience of living with a disabled child.

Let’s be clear – the austerity cuts, the assault on the NHS, the denial of basic services to the community and particularly to the poor and needy are only ideological. They stem from a Tory conviction that the rich should not have to ‘subsidise’ the poor, that you are not your brother’s keeper, that if your neighbour only has one cloak you should take it from him if he owes you money, that compassion is only due to those you consider ‘deserving’, that the market is the divine authority and that the poor will always be with us so why bother trying to change things.

A remark on Twitter caught my eye today – on forming a government the Conservative’s priority was dismantling a working NHS. The rotten-to-the-core irredeemably corrupt banking system, which has yet again been exposed for the criminal racket it really was, attracted no attention. Bankers caused the global economic crisis that has been handily used as cover for the undermining, underfunding and destruction of the welfare state infrastructure. Have bankers been punished? Have they even been investigated?

There was an alternative to austerity – close the tax loopholes that allowed huge thieving companies like Goldman Sachs and Vodafone to pay less tax than the average corner shop. Deals were cut between HMRC and the accountants in those companies that were as unscrupulous as anything the traders at Barclay’s have been up to recently. Did the Tory government act when these came to light? Well, you know the answer to that.

And that gives the lie to the necessity of the austerity cuts. That gives the lie to the necessity of further impoverishing the disabled, the blind, the ill and the poor. That emphasises how these swindlers and conmen in government are in cahoots with the conmen and swindlers in the city and how the deliberate removal of what amount to a pitiful percentage of government expenditure, but means everything to the needy, is motivated by nothing more than an ideological, implacable hatred of ‘scroungers’ and ‘spongers’ by the wealthy.

This has happened by carefully and calculatingly distracting people. Firstly by the mythical debt that we had to pay off – although nobody I have ever asked could tell me exactly who this debt was owed to. Then by the righteous anger directed at the rioters, most of whom were uneducated dumbass kids from the worst of London’s sink estates. Then, by the wickedness perpetrated by journalists, although once that crept close to the government’s door it has been far less of a soapbox issue for politicians. And then by the Jubilympics, the endless stream of Union Jack tat, and the artificial excitement encouraged by a government led by a man who wanted everyone outside at street parties rather than paying attention to what was going on.

All this has happened in a haze of denial – encouraged by the incessant variation of a common theme: Keep Calm and Carry On. This ubiquitous message, to be quiet and shoulder the burden and just get through to the sunny lands promised on the other side of the long, hard, trek to freedom, is a meme that keeps coming back, and very convenient it is too. It appeals to the British stoicism, the ‘mustn’t grumble’ brigade, the ‘it’ll turn out alright in the end’ wishful thinkers.

But, no! We shouldn’t keep calm and carry on. We should get angry and change things.

This thought-train started by reading ‘To Isaiah’ (although much of it had been brewing for a while). I want to end with an original line from Dr Don Berwick that I found irresistibly prophetic:

 “A nation that fails to attend to the needs of those less fortunate among us risks its soul.”

Where is our soul?

The best company NOT to work for

I was told about this a while ago but forgot to look it up.

The charity which made me and 30+ other people redundant 2 years ago has included a picture of me in its most recent review. I'm on page 8.

The irony is it's about the 'Best Company to Work For' Accreditation that I helped them achieve. No mention on that page or anywhere else that I no longer work for them. Or why I left. Or how many people left with me.

Incidentally, it's not that they used the picture that bothers me so much. It's just I know plenty of people who still work there and nobody bothered to ask if it was okay. Which is a bit insensitive. (But I guess sums up the decision-making and management style I disliked when I was there.)

Ah, well, I've moved on to something better and enjoy my work a lot more now. Things like this encourage me that it was for the best.

Scary government

We moved into our current house in 1995. It's now 2012. For those not good at maths it's now 17 years since the previous occupants moved out.

That didn't stop the Department of Work and Pensions sending a letter to our house addressed to the previous occupants this week to advise them about claiming winter fuel payments.

Here's the thing. Firstly, it's summer, so why write now? That seems a bit daft. Secondly, how old is the database they are working off and how few checks do they run? It's not as if the government has an easy-to-access database of where everyone lives in the country, oh wait, yes they do - in fact they have several, council tax details, the electoral roll, the two census forms I've completed since moving here, the land registry.

Sometimes people expound ludicrous theories of government conspiracies, but given that some government departments seem unable to post a letter correctly, I think we're safe. The really scary thing is that government agencies can be so ineffective and useless.

(And, yes, I know, it's impolite to open other people's mail, but when you pick up the post you don't think it's going to be for somone who moved out nearly two decades ago.)

The long road to the Olympics

My Olympic tickets have arrived, for events in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. This is approx a mile from my house, maybe more, but certainly less than 2 miles away. When I go to events there I amble quite happily. It takes about half an hour max - even if I have to walk round the stadium to get in the other side.

The Olympic organisers are very worried,though. They keep emailing me asking if I've planned my route yet and telling me to research it thoroughly in advance.

Maybe if the emails weren't being automatically generated by machines, I wouldn't get the frankly ludicrous emails. But then, machines only do what they are told to. The stupidity is human.

Location is an important element in advertising

Nothing wrong with this poster. I'm sure any woman would appreciate the chance to shine for summer

Especially the women standing up to pee...