As I predicted, yesterday turned out to be a much better day than the weather forecast would have us expect. In the mid to late afternoon we went up the hill to Dobcross in the sunshine. The proposed canal towpath walk with my friend will have to wait for another day.
I’ve not managed to go out for exercise today yet as the small boy has not been in the mood for adventuring. Maybe in the early evening I’ll get out and about. The day is fine and sunny, if a bit blustery. Rain, some of it heavy, is promised for the weekend.
Today by-elections take place in various places around the country - a challenge to Rishi Sunak’s hold on government. Meanwhile Kier Starmer is apparently being renamed Sir Kid-Starver by some for his refusal to promise to reverse certain Conservative policies.
Here’s something from the Letters page in the Guardian:
“Well said, John Harris (Keir Starmer is threatening to leave our crises unchanged. So what social forces will he unleash?, 16 July). At last a journalist is challenging the Labour/Tory nonsense about spending money on our cash-starved public services being “unaffordable”, because there is “no new funding available”. Of course, when Keir Starmer writes or speaks, the 13 years of unnecessary austerity are “pretty much unmentioned”, as Harris says, as they were the result of political choices which, it seems, the Labour leader is about to replicate.
Starmer’s insistence that what is needed is “reform” is correct, but not of our underfunded education, health and care services, where cash injections are needed immediately, if only to stop the outward flow of essential staff. Where reform is really needed is in the taxation system: the rich and high earners have to pay more; the oft-suggested equalisation of capital gains and income tax has to become a reality; the tax gap of £32bn has to be reduced; all tax reliefs need assessing; and all loopholes, especially those in inheritance tax, have to be closed.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool”
That’s telling Kier Starmer, I suppose. However, some in the party are saying we should get him elected and then work to get him to have more socialist ideas. That would be rather like getting into a relationship in the hopes of changing your partner into a better person, and we’ve seen numerous examples of how that doesn’t work. We shall see!
Meanwhile, I read that windfarm profits have soared this year on the crown’s estates and the king has agreed to take a cut in his share of those profits:
“The Treasury said it would halve the proportion of the crown estate’s profits paid to the royal household through the sovereign grant, which will fall from 25% in recent years to 12% from next year.
The monarch is still expected to take an £86.3m cut from the crown estate, in line with this year’s grant, because profits made by the crown estate from leasing the seabed to offshore wind developers are expected to soar in the coming years.”
He’ll still be making rather a lot of money from it but at least he’s setting an example to other wealthy folk. But maybe not as good an example as Dolly Parton.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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