vivweb01blog

  This post was first released in October 2022 as a response to the political 'crises' of the time. Note the more recent updates at the end of the main text - nothing really changes, does it..... As a bit of light relief from the momentous events of recent weeks in politics, I thought I’d take a wry and admittedly somewhat irreverent look at what motivates our politicians….if Radio 4’s ‘News Quiz’ can get away with it each week, despite the BBC’s draconian rules on all things pc, then so can I… In seemingly perpetual 'crisis' situations like this one,   as individuals we only really have two options - either to laugh or cry; I prefer to laugh – for now, at least. Recent upsets at the top of the political tree, and the almost obsessive speculation about the outcome of yet another leadership race in the media, prompted me last week to ask myself the question:  “Why on earth would anyone actually want to be PM at a time like this ?” The role is, after all, a positiv...

  Two years ago I published a blog describing in detail some of the problems with our UK political system, as I saw it then.   The recent General Election result has ‘set the seal’ on the unsuitability of our ‘First Past the Post’ (FPP) system, and reinforced the need for change. This will need to be radical if we are to maintain  our democracy in a healthy state, and ensure it continues to be fit for purpose in the 21 st century. A reappraisal is particularly important at a time when populism is eroding modern democratic institutions and the world as a whole is tending towards autocracies as the chosen method of government.   Amongst other things, to achieve this we will need to exert more control on the UK government of the day, and this will involve some form of continuous assessment ‘with teeth’. We cannot afford to continue to give governments we elect with large working majorities 'carte blanche' to do whatever they want for the whole of their 5-year ter...

  I first published this blog in late 2023 when the realisation that vaping was harmful to teenage lungs was becoming more widespread, and the authorities were finally waking up to the fact that they needed to do something.  All the evidence that has emerged since then has tended to confirm our suspicions - i.e. that long-term vaping does impair lung function, and is likely to be doing so irreversibly. We should thus only be permitting the use of vapes strictly as an aid to stop smoking, and only for as long as is necessary to 'kick the habit'. If we fail to restrict availability, and don't manage to convince our kids as to the dangers, we will be condemning a whole generation to breathing problems in their middle and later years, with the serious burden that will put on our NHS as a result. Teenagers who have not yet taken up the vaping habit should be prevented from doing so at all costs. Those who have already been ensnared by the marketing hype, and nicotine's extre...

  This particularly thorny question is the subject of much discussion at present. It has also resulted in many sleepless nights for many of our pensioners and for single occupiers of all ages, who now fully expect to lose some or all of their entitlements on October 30 th . There is little doubt that Starmer and Reeves are planning to use the ‘Tory Black Hole’, as they call it, to justify both swingeing benefit cuts and tax rises in the Autumn Statement.   The size of this new ‘celestial’ phenomenon is reputed to be £22Bn, although it should be noted that the calculations supporting it have never been fully verified. To put the amount properly in context, the calculation was based on an audit performed by the treasury in July, comparing the Spring Budget Forecast of £1226 Bn for total public spending with a post-election updated estimate by Labour. If this is correct, the difference would represent only a 1.8% underestimate of spend (i.e. well within 'experimental' error ...

This blog will be updated regularly in the run up to the Autumn Statement at the end of October.  I'm planning to ask a series of key questions on 'X' (Twitter in old money), then attempt to answer them myself  in this blog,  in more detail than X will allow.  Why ? It's important that we all keep this Government's 'feet to the fire' to reduce the risk of losing any more of our precious and hard-won benefits.....  See also my recent blogs for more details on this topic: https://vivweb01.blogspot.com/2024/07/labours-war-against-pensioners-where.html https://vivweb01.blogspot.com/2024/09/update-on-pensioner-benefit-changes.html Here's the first offering for the pot: 1)   DWP have identified 880,000 pensioners who they 'believe are entitled to Pension Credit'.  Why don’t they do the decent thing and simply award these folks the benefit, without forcing them to fill out a 230-question form ? Comments: The answer is almost certainly money....and to an...