October 1st 2022
Well, who knew eh? Who. Knew? Well everyone except our government apparently. Unless of course the collapse of economic stability in the UK was their true aim, in order to rebuild it in a form conforming?. to their ideology. Some sort of twisted Ayn Rand thing about helping the rich cos helping the poor will only hold you back.
Its clear the social consequences of their ' growth strategy' are not high on the list of their concerns. Anyway they are dealing with protests by making it harder to protest. They'll make unions illegal if they get too uppity. So what if they riot, we'll ignore them too. They know what they need to do, stick to the plan. Its as if they are fully taking the Tory reputation as ' The Nasty Party, embracing it, and wearing it as a badge of honour and principle. High functioning sociopaths rule!
Crazy Kat said today he had no choice but to do what he did. Well, that is never true. There is always a choice to be made. Just ones you'd find quite ideologically challenging. So don't make it all sound so inevitable CK. You've just made a difficult Winter, an even more precipitous tricky path to cross for everyone except your backers. Who have probably made a killing speculating during your crisis.
Shop wise, after a stonking 1940's Weekend business has been gradually quietening down. The last week of September, following on from that 'fiscal event' took a more pronounced dive. Now it has to be said that the weeks leading up to October Half Term can be pretty pants. But we are only just in October and we've already had a very quiet ending week to September, bar one good day on Tuesday. Even though electric bills are now effectively frozen they're still ridiculously high. People's Mortgages, Pensions and investments were all seriously under threat last week, during that 'little bit of turmoil'. I mean, give us a break Crazy Kat!
That said, we are just about holding our own at the moment. Looking at our electric bills for shop and home, yes, they are going up, but for us, not to an unmanageable degree. We are normally quite careful in our use of electric anyway. Our heating is storage radiators on Economy 7. which we have not yet switched on. Plus our home has quite thick walls, so heat loss is not bad. We've done what we can to reduce draughts. We no longer leave anything on stand by, if we are not actively using it.
We have been within a hairs breath, more or less, of breaking even in the shop over the Summer. Which is a minor miracle, worthy of praising ourselves for. Nothing substantial to put aside to see us over the barren Winter months, though. So we will undoubtedly have to draw on our limited reserves. How much the current crisis hits sales will affect how frequently we may need to dip into it. We are doing a couple of mid-week craft fairs in Holt in December, that we hope will boost things pre the New Year. But who knows. This year has been impossible to predict.
It's looking like we may not be able to afford much of a holiday, if at all, this year. If we can survive as a business until June next year, and that is still a big if, then I can start taking my pension. This will help reduce what we need to draw monthly from the business. That, however, is nine months away and a lot of shit has yet to hit the fan. What further misguided things Lizzy T and Crazy Kat have in mind to launch. Our only hope is for a major Tory rebellion.
7th October 2022
It is now patently clear that a far right economic cult in the Tory party has now got its hands fully on the throat of government. And, as with all cults, it has an inflexible mindset. Blind faith in its tax cutting agenda, is confusing conviction with depth of truth. Believing they are prophets of an economic religion blessed almost by celestial appointment. It has been tried before, it failed. So let's keep trying it again, until it succeeds. It maybe unpopular and cruel, but - No pain for the poor, No gain for the rich.
Such economic cults, cannot resist their own repressive tendencies when they are confronted with opposing views. They cannot tolerate any deviation or dissent, believing in their fundamentalist ideology unwaveringly. Anyone who isn't a disciple of the new growth messianic truth is a heathen growth denier, the spawn of the EU. Standing firm against the onslaught of tradition, or worse neo liberal conformity, because all orthodox view points are the true problem and hence ignored or overcome.
The cult members think of themselves as noble libertarians, upholding the easier democratic values to support, of free speech, freedom of choice and free trade, because they cost you nothing to say. An exception always being made for free collective bargaining and freedom to protest, freedom to oppose and question, these are to be actively restricted. For cult leaders to be held to account by the hoipolloi is just not to going to happen. All opposition is a drag on growth. Protesters should be arrested, handcuffed and charged with deviation from the true faith. Its hard enough to keep the faith, to keep oneself pure and be ready for the economic rapture of growth. They are, after all, heralding the arrival of a new dawn, sing high their praises and be joyful.
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Oh, and never ever mention Brexit, nothing has gone wrong, there are no problems. It's just the elites, the EU, the Remainders sabotaging stuff. Round every corner there are agents of The Anti Growth Coalition. Be on your guard people, they could mean you!
8th October 2022
On a lighter note! A new series of a favourite programme on I Player - Ambulance. Following ambulance teams during their shifts, this time in Teeside. As ever it is a telling picture of human suffering, compassion and great kindness, mixed with showing the clear result of what years of austerity and continuous under funding of the NHS has led to. Cutting away at basic care services and support for folk with mental health problems. The consequence is the NHS Ambulance service is being forced to fill the gaps, and pick up the pieces.
When you hear of long waiting times for ambulances its due to an increase in their work load, and insufficient resources. Clogged up with issues that should be being dealt with by other departments. But those other departments are also reduced in capacity.
Ambulance is a real emotional rollercoaster with each episode. It is so palpably human, frequently hunourous or heartening, but also a distressing watch. Always worth viewing though. We frequently finish holding back the tears by the end.
9th October 2022
I had a huge amount of difficulty sleeping during the heat waves. Now we are into the autumn I had been looking forward to the cold nights when I generally sleep better. However,I have been wakening repeatedly with stiff necks, headaches and tender aching eyes. I changed my pillow. This had some relieving effect, briefly. The neck and eye aching has now resumed. I have come to the conclusion that its largely the result of increased tension, born of clenching my jaw a lot at night. Keeping my neck warm, regular application of heated wheat bags, plus pills and lotions to ease inflammation, all help, but nothing does so consistently. I'm currently experimenting with more regular practice of Metta Bhavana. Desperate times require such measures.
Bar a couple of days that were the pits, the rest of the first week in October was actually reasonably good in the shop. As ever in these times we live constantly with crossed fingers. Using our days off on Sundays to decompress and get away from our familiar environment. We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary at the end of September. Sometimes just enjoying time together in a place we both love is more than enough to put right our mood. The current situation with our government is completely out of our control, until a General Election is called. In the meantime - Keep Relaxing Boys & Girls
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