Random Stuff

[poliphilo]

They're having a heatwave down south. Here it's been close and overcast and on the point of raining for days. This morning there's a breeze.

Eleanor (my old boss's wife) was rattling a tin for the Samaritans outside Sainsbury's yesterday morning. Most people from one's past slide away on whatever current is carrying them and one never sees them again, but Graham and Eleanor we keep bumping into by accident- even though they live in another town. I feel these pleasant, inconsequential meetings ought to amount to something- ought to signify some deep, karmic connection-  but I don't see how they do.
 
I haven't got the hang of this government yet. Cameron comports himself with dignity on the world stage and is taking our troops out of Sangin (which I'm pleased about). As for the policy of cutting government expenditure to the bone, I understand that smarter economists than George Osbourne think this is entirely the wrong way of doing things. I have no subtlety in these matters, but persecuting and harrassing the unemployed (and barely employable) at a time when you're turning thousands, even millions out onto the streets seems akin to piling up gunpowder kegs, climbing to the top and then lighting a cigarette. Later this year I expect there to be an almighty whoomph- and I'm sticking to my prediction that the coalition won't survive it. 

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Our heatwave was last week. We did not break 100, but we came within a degree or two.

I don't think the conservative version of economics is actually based on economic principles, is it? I always assumed they were simply maximizing profit for their masters.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the present policies of our Tory-dominated coalition government mask a desire to trash the welfare state.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I suspect you are right. The one unwavering goal of so-called conservatives in this country is the destruction of any and all government-funded social programs or anything that might be plausibly construed as a social program. From publically-funded education to medical assistance for the aged, all of it is an unfair financial burden on the wealthy. It's never put in those terms, of course. The preferred method is to convince low-to-middle-class whites that such programs disproportionately favor blacks, of course, but that is just a matter of political expediency, not a statement of actual policy.