I try to ride my bike on actual roads, especially main roads, as little as possible, preferring bridle paths and smaller lanes. This morning as I swooped down the last section of Den Lane, about to turn into Uppermill high street, I spotted familiar figures crossing the bottom of the lane: my daughter and her smallest child. They had just dropped Granddaughter Number Four at school and were having a stroll round Uppermill before deciding what to do with the rest of the day. So I picked up some pains au chocolat at the co-op store, did my usual run around the market and went and joined them in the park for an open air breakfast/snack.
There was a little moment of chaos in the side street next to the co-op store as the co-op lorry tried to park in his usual place to make his deliveries, rather hampered by a car parked on double yellow lines at the corner! I suppose it could have been someone who doesn’t frequent Uppermill on a Wednesday and wasn’t expecting a huge delivery lorry but anyone with an ounce of common sense and rather less sense of entitlement to do what they like would have parked elsewhere.
Granddaughter Number Four doesn’t finish school for summer until tomorrow. I think the local secondary school finished yesterday. My daughter finished her training sessions yesterday and is now officially on holiday: hence her being able to walk the small boy through Uppermill this morning. She still has stuff to organise before school resumes in September but she was looking relaxed this morning. Having spent all my working life in educational establishments one kind or another I remember that feeling of freedom with the whole of summer stretching out ahead of you. It doesn’t last long and you quickly realise you have a million things you want/need to do in the limited time available.
And we need a bit more sunshine! It’s quite warm out there today but the morning sun has withdrawn behind the clouds. But at least it’s not raining!
One of my young heroines, Zarah Sultana MP - not my actual MP but still a good person to follow - has had the parliamentary whip withdrawn from her for voting for an amendment to the King’s speech, proposed by the SNP. This is what she wrote on social media:
“i have been informed by the Chief Whip and the Labour Party leadership that the whip has been withdrawn from me for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which would lift 330,000 children put of poverty.
I will always stand up for the most vulnerable in our society.”
And there’s more:
“A couple of years ago I proposed a law in Parliament to introduce free school meals for all.
This would tackle child poverty and guarantee every primary school pupil has a hot healthy meal each day.
Today I joined campaigners in Westminster to renew this call.”
The House of Commons voted 363 to 103 to reject the amendment about the child benefit cap, tabled in the name of the SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn.
Zarah Sultana was informed by email last night about the decision to withdraw the whip. She’s not alone: The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the former business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, along with Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, and Imran Hussain have also been suspended. Most Labour MPs toed the party line. Independent thinking is clearly discouraged. At least it is in this case but it’s not consistently been the case
According to Owen Jones, writing in the Guardian, “Such parliamentary rebellions are scattered through our democratic history, and are accepted almost as a convention of government. Boris Johnson suspended multiple Brexit rebels in 2019 and it was rightly seen as an aberration. He did not, for example, exact the same punishment when five Tory MPs backed a Labour motion extending free school meals in 2020. When it comes to Labour history, even Tony Blair never resorted to such petty authoritarianism. Forty-seven Labour MPs rebelled over a cut to the lone parent benefit in 1997 – none had the whip removed.
There isn’t the money available, we are told. The price tag is £1.7bn, a pittance given annual government expenditure is £1.2tr. According to the Sunday Times rich list, the 350 wealthiest British households have a combined fortune of £795bn: is leaving their taxes at the same level more important than parents skipping hot meals to feed their little ones? When Starmer told Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the UK would give Ukraine £3bn a year “for as long as it takes” he acknowledged there is money available for what the government considers a priority. This Labour government simply does not regard child poverty as a priority.”
Also among the headlines in the news this morning, not a main headline but still there, was the news that King Charles is to get a pay rise. The sovereign grant will rise to £132m for 2025-26. Now, of course I know all the arguments about how the money is needed for upkeep of estates and renovation of the palace and such like. And I know we have standards to maintain and all that kind of thing but it does rather smack of rubbing struggling families’ noses in it. Mind you, Charles was sensible: he only had two children!
This weekend another event to take our minds off serious matters kicks off: the Paris Olympics. One of our bright hopes for winning lots of medals, equestrian Charlotte Dujardin, has had to withdraw as she has been provisionally banned for six months by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports for mistreating a horse during training. I’ve already commented on the fact that Slovenia won’t be represented by Tadej Pogacar on his bike. One factor in his decision is apparently the fact that his equally successful cyclist girlfriend has not been selected! Oops!
And here’s a link to an article about “false news” reports that the Olympic athletes have to sleep on cardboard ‘no-sex’ bed. Various athletes, from a range of disciplines, have tested the beds in no-sex but vigorous ways and have demonstrated how sturdy they are!
It must be the silly season.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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