The domestic news today is that Andy Burnham has invited other party leaders to a discussion on an all-party basis on the dilemma on how to organise and to fund social care costs. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, will only participate in talks on the condition that no taxes will rise which, in effect, is not participating in the talks. It has emerged in the last few days that Andy Burnham’s own father has dementia, is in a care home and does not know that his own son now occupies the role of Prime Minister.  As it is in the very earliest  days of the new government, I do not envisage how a fully worked out and costed plan can be presented to the nation to consider, but after this issue has been ‘kicked into the long grass’ by governments for about the last 15 years I am not very hopeful of anything very substantive emerging in the course of the day. Today should turn out to be a quiet day and my normal visit to the Methodist Centre has been put into abeyance whilst the centre is closed for refurbishment as is normal during the summer period. I have received new details about the Philosophy group in which I am due to participate at the end of the week but there will be one another new member joining the group as well as myself so am intrigued how the session will work out. All I can say at this stage is that the convenor is going out of her way to give full details of the venue and the organisation of the programme and I anticipate that it may prove to be a ‘listen and learn’ experience for me. The evening before last, I walked with my American friend in the park and we enjoy the fresh evening air, the stroll round the lake and the sharing of the frustrations of life we may have experienced during the day. We may well be experiencing the last of the series of heatwaves during the day and although temperatures have moderated somewhat from the highs of a week or so ago, there is still no prospect of any rainfall for another week. All of this means that us regular grass mowers have been spared this task for the past few weeks and the whole townscape has taken on a crisp look as the green verges have been replaced by a yellowy-brown straw colour wherever one looks. I normally go shopping mid-week and my domestic help has given me notice of some new lines in fresh fish that my local supermarket may well be stocking. On the occasions that I buy wet fish, I pan fry it lightly for about 3 minutes a side and then serve it on a bed of lettuce which sounds a bit odd but which is actually tastier and more appetising than it sounds. I must say that I am getting slightly fed up with a diet of salad or salad variations but when the weather has been so hot, there is a strong disinclination to prepare hot meals. When I did my usual weekly shop, then six items which  were on my shopping list were either not on the shelves or sold out and although the items were hardly esoteric, I have to make a decision whether to do without, postpone my purchase or choose a substitute. To be charitable to the supermarket concerned, it could be that going at a quiet time of the week is also going at a time when the shelves are not well stocked. Almost on principal, I avoid the units where shoppers check out their own provisions  and in a queue of about three of four baskets with well-laden trollies as there is typically only one manned till. When I got home, I cooked myself a meat-and-veg type meal, just for a change as much as anything else.

The much heralded speech by Andy Burnham revealed  three policies none of them earth shattering. During his speech on social care, the prime minister set out three key commitments: he brought forward the review into social care to summer 2027, he pledged to reform the social care workforce ‘to lift it closer to NHS standards’ and also to work more collaboratively on the issue. But all of this is not saying very much and the really big question of finance for the sector is avoided. I really think that the time has come for a big initiative and not for tinkering around the edges as it were, but as successive governments have ‘de facto’ forced more families to sell their family homes in order to fund  the residential care for their aged relatives, cannot see how this is going to be redressed without a major initiative  of the type I have outlined previously where the whole population get used to contributing to a fund for about thirty five years to fund the undoubted expense of care in later life. In the meanwhile, there are some massive iniquities built into the system because if one is diagnosed with cancer then curative or palliative care is offered on the NHS whereas in the case of dementia, the NHS practically denies this as a ‘social’ and not a medical need and hence support for dementia patients is extremely limited. I occasionally let YouTube offer me the results of liberal American media podcasts in which senior members of the Trump administration are often attacked by vociferous and well informed Democrat members of Congress. Almost inevitably, the members of the Trump administration acquit themselves very badly by prevaricating, refusing to answer the questions directed at thenm truthfully or counter-attacking with irrelevancies. But then the Democrat members run out of their allotted time for questioning and no adverse consequences seem to flow. Th contrast between these hearings and the UK Parliamentary select committees is stark because in the UK system a minister refusing to answer a question truthfully or massively evading would be called in contempt of Parliament. However, even the UK sanctions are applied. What is more, if any committee were to report to the House that it believed a contempt had been committed, and the House agreed, it remains unclear what sanctions it would have at its disposal. Historically, those found guilty of contempt could be fined or imprisoned, but those sanctions have not been used by the Commons since 1666 and 1880 respectively. For all sorts of practical, legal and constitutional reasons, it is highly doubtful that the modern House would seriously consider this but in the US, in contrast to the UK, it appears that congressional committees are flouted almost with impunity.

Two news items caught my attention yesterday morning. The first of these was a report of a recent study which showed that industrial poultry farming has led to a more than 100-fold increase in the spread of a bacteria causing food poisoning, scientists have discovered. Campylobacter is the most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea worldwide, resulting in 3.5 times as many upset stomach cases in the UK each year as all other monitored food borne bacteria. The huge global expansion of chicken farming over recent decades has created ideal conditions for the bacterium to spread and adopt new tactics to survive, a study by Ineos Oxford Institute researchers at the University of Oxford found. The scientists said the rapid expansion of global chicken numbers, increasing seven-fold to about 31 billion birds since the 1960s, had allowed bacteria from wild birds to circulate in the poultry population. This is quite disturbing news and is one of the reasons why I am always a little wary of chicken meat and will tend to overcook it when it comes to purchasing my regular weekly joint.  The second big announcement today was the government’s plans to tackle the huge ‘Neets’ problem (young people ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’).The government is proposing that from Year 10, pupils in England will be able to combine core subjects like English and maths with technical education based on the demands of local employers. This will pair skills training with work experience places. These pathways will be introduced from September 2028. The government will prioritise funding towards high-quality technical education and practical routes into work, and education inspectorate Ofsted will also change the way it measures performance, recognising schools that support children to develop the skills local employers need. The new pathways will be created in partnership between regional mayors, local leaders, schools, colleges and employers. It marks a big shift from the Blair-era policy of wanting as many children as possible to go to university. This sounds like  an excellent  policy shift and some would argue is long overdue – but the benefits may take years before results will come through, mainly the prospect of a university  education appear less than a glittering prize when faced with a debt in excess of £50k, great difficulty in entering the housing market and job prospects that seem to be diminishing day by day Turning to domestic matters, I started to think about my forthcoming trip to Yorkshire at the end of August to see my relatives and to have a little break at the same time. The evening before last was the date when some pension monies flowed into my account so  I immediately set to work ordering rai tickets for the journey. Doing this a month before the journey  proved to be highly advantageous and I was able to secure some excellent prices by using my preferred supplier of railway tickets and taking advantage of discount cards. So I am more than happy to have got these tickets purchased ad I have been sent all the QR codes so that all of the data is now held on my phone although I have taken the precaution of running off some paper copies with the QR codes in case my phone gets mislaid).At the same time, I checked my Expedia booking to make sure my hotel reservations, made last June, are still in place which indeed they are, with a reassuring receipt  being provided which indicates that the hotel accommodation is paid for. I have reminded my sister that I shall be coming up to Yorkshire to help to celebrate her birthday at the end of August but will leave the purchase of a present until a day or so beforehand so that it doesn’t have to get packed. 

After my customary chat with my domestic help, I made my way down to my Pilates class where there were only four of us in the session (normal for this class as it is in the middle of the day ad not convenient for many people) and then returned home to make myself a mackerel salad. After lunch and a little TV watching, I thought I would brave the websites and attempt to make a booking for a holiday in La Coruna in Northern Spain for the middle of next February and managed to make bookings for my American friend and myself at what I think is a reasonable price. It is so long since I have flown and when I did it was from London Airports rather than Birmingham and to the flight charges I would need to add on the car parking and petrol costs so it is a little difficult to work out whether I have a really good deal or not. I have avoided the really cheap airlines and chosen options that allow more than just cabin luggage on board. But I have booked the whole package via Expedia and I am delighted to have secured accommodation in my really favourite hotel in A Coruna (were the staff used to know Meg and I quite well) and which, as it by the sea, affords a wonderful walk along the promenade and a a taxi almost whenever you need one (with at least a dozen parked in the street adjacent to the hotel) So this and proximity to some of my favourite haunts (bars, restaurants etc) makes me feel very happy and I do not mind if I paid a hundred pounds or so over the odds for the pleasure that it will give. I also took out comprehensive insurance as an extra for myself and a friend and this should cover medical emergencies, hotel cancellations and so on. Hopefully, this will help to draw the teeth of the winter a little  and I have arranged some dates which includes two complete weekends which is when we can see our friends (hopefully) and with some interesting trips in prospect for us both in between.

In the days after the conclusion of the World Cup, another great FIFA scandal is unfolding before our eyes. European nations are discussing boycotting the World Cup if Gianni Infantino pushes ahead with plans to sell off part of FIFA to private investors, Sky News can reveal. UEFA nations will hold an emergency meeting virtually this week to discuss their opposition to FIFA’s attempt to launch a new commercial company with external investment, a source said. It was only after UEFA went public with concerns about plans it was hearing that FIFA confirmed its president Infantino wants to launch a subsidiary worth $20bn (£15bn) and sell off more than 20% of the new FIFA Forward Enterprise by raising $4.2bn (£3.16bn). It is understood the Football Association was completely unaware of the plans before Tuesday’s rushed announcement by FIFA. FIFA did not raise the landmark strategy during meetings with football associations in New York on the eve of the World Cup final. The plans and way they have emerged provoked renewed fury within UEFA at how Infantino is running FIFA. European football’s governing body said in a statement: ‘This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously.’

Yesterday proved to be an interesting day. It was the retirement celebration of a well respected and loved local Methodist minister/superintendent who my American friend and I both knew. We had prearranged that we would both attend this event as my friend, together  with other female members of the Methodist community, were going to bring along food for a pre-service get together. At this event, we got into conversation with a fascinating parishioner whose life had been colourful as her father was Danish but her mother a (white Kenyan) although she herself was born, by accident, in Birmingham. The tea time event lasted an hour and a half which was followed by a leaving service in which the meeting hall (serving as a church) which was packed to the rafters. This was a very Methodist affair with five hymns sung lustily but the words displayed on screens to assist the singing without hymn books. The ‘service’ consisted of some scriptural readings, many reminiscences and tributes (including one from his ancient mother) and words rom other local Methodist ministers with whom he had shared his ministry during the years. The minister himself I happened to know has a very poorly wife but he was retiring to Scarborough in North Yorkshire which is the seaside town in which I used to holiday  (for one day trip in the year). When leaving, I gave him my business card and quickly outlined to him the impact on my life of ‘Uncle Jim’ who was a very well known and respected Anglican priest. Sadly, as he died in 1962/63 and the church at which he officiated was pulled down in 1975, any historical records are extraordinarily sparse but I have managed to locate on my phone a photograph of his gravestone but with no dates or other details. As my ‘Uncle Jim’ as my sister and I affectionately knew him died in about 1963 and this was over sixty years ago, then it is not surprising that the historical record is so thin. But I remember well that we could not walk for a few yards down the street without a parishioner engaging  him in conversation as he was so well known and loved. Reading between the lines, I think he was the man that my mother ought to have married but did not and, if she had, I may not have even existed. However, returning to the here and now, I have the prospect of both a quiet week in front of me but also another heatwave but hopefully not as intense as in the recent past.  Normal ‘social’ events are rather put on hold as we approach the breaking up of the schools and the holiday  season but I have my first meeting of the U3A Philosophy group to which I am looking forward at the end of the week. The intense heat means that any grass in the area has been reduced to a straw looking, brown crisp and although it will recover in time (one hopes), in the meantime it means that the regular ritual of grass cutting is put into abeyance.  When, and if, the weather cools down somewhat I hope to resume a regular walk down into town but in the intense heat I have argued that ‘discretion is the better part of valour’ and taken a journey by car rather than on foot to pick up my daily newspaper. Although I have a house stuffed full of books, I was tempted in the Methodist Centre book collection to buy an excellent hardback book on ‘Nutrition for Life’ which is copiously illustrated, very informative and had an original selling price of £18 when it was first published under the DK imprimatur some 20 years ago. My American friend are I are  going to have a friendly fight over who reads which relevant sections first but at first sight, it contains a mine of well written material.

Conscious of the fact that I have not been walking down into town as I used to do every day, I resolved to make amends and made the journey down to Waitrose on foot. There I picked  my newspaper and then availed myself of the ‘free’ coffee offered to cardholders and then made the journey back, pausing to have a chat with two intermediate acquaintances  who I know live down the road. I cooked a meat and two veg type meal but to attempt  to limit the carbohydrate load,  I parboiled a few cubes of potato that had been soaking in water overnight together with a quartered onion and then finished them off with a quick toss in good olive oil and then had a meal pf this with beef slices in an onion gravy and some broccoli. After lunch,  I sampled a new comedy style programme which my son and daughter-n-law had told me about called ‘Anne Android’ and is the amusing tale of the encounters between a recently widowed lady and a robot procured by her son to assist in daily activities. The humour is droll and filled with some pathos and already it has quite a following across the BBC. One viewer has offered the comment that beneath the comedy, it says a lot about the world we are heading towards with AI, ageing, loneliness, grief, older children moving on (or not!), and what technology can and cannot replace when it comes to real human connection. Having seen the first episode of the series, I shall probably stick with it for a bit so see how the remaining episodes unfold. I made use of the fine weather to peg out a whole line full of washing to dry and I know that no rainfall is expected tonight. We learn this afternoon of the intensifying fires sweeping across France and Spain and more than 250,000 people have been evacuated in France, while more than 116,000 people in Spain have had to leave their homes, the authorities have said. The flames are only seven miles from Bordeaux and fires have ravaged the Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast and advanced towards the heart of the country’s winelands- it has so far burnt through 42,000 hectares of land. The French are fighting on a huge front and may be just about holding the raging fires at bay, but a giant fire thunderstorm fuelled by its own winds and lightning has formed in the Gironde region of southwest France, making a delicate situation more precarious.  The seriousness of all of this is hard to over-estimate and one wonders about the damage to the French, Spanish and European economy that will result.

When I awoke yesterday morning, it was to the pleasant surprise that we had some rain during the night. It is always difficult to assess exactly how much rain we had actually received but the paving slabs were wet and thee were some light rain clouds scudding across the sky. On getting up, I reminded myself to change the cold water in which the prepared potatoes had been sitting all night to reduce their starch content. Opinion seems to be divided as to whether this reduces the huge starch content by very much but I thought I would have just a few cubes of potato par-boiled and then finished off with a little oil together with an equal quantity of onion. I hear from the news this morning  that after one week in office, Andy Burnham, is due to unveil his plans for a National Care Service. This decision has been put off by successive governments for literally decades. The most authoritative report on this subject – the Dilnot report  was published 15 years ago but all govenments have baulked at the cost. There is a rising recognition that some of the costs of particularly residential care should be borne by people themselves but at a capped limit to ensure that the vast proportion  of the value locked within a house should not be used for social care deployed on the elderly person.  In the past, a Tory government suggested a cap of £75,000 but the trouble about a figure  like this is that it might  represent one third of the total value of a house in poorer pats of the community/country but be just a pin prick in prosperous parts of the country where house prices are so much higher. Taking a proportion of assets, such as a house, may sound to be the solution but this fails the test of fairness were individuals and families  are charged different costs for the same service. I will be interesting to see what solution will be forthcoming to square this particular circle but in any event one can be assured that the middle classes who may be asked to pay more will shout the loudest in protest. Now the chairman of ICI used to say ‘Do not bring me problems, bring me solutions’ so, in this spirit, I will put forward my own suggestions for the funding of social care. I start off with two axioms. The first of these is that we can all expect to live to old age, and perhaps even extreme old age, and probably in excess of the age at which parents died (on average) So if we are used to paying for pensions in our old age, why should we not make provision for or own old age as well. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced the world’s first state pension system in 1889, targeting workers aged 70 and older to curb socialism and ease industrial poverty which was nearly 140 years ago and the Germans fund old age with extra payments from those middle aged and older. My second axiom is that we can afford anything if we start saving soon enough  and for long enough  periods of time. So my proposition is as follows: that we charge almost everybody in the society with a compulsory level of £2,000 a year (about £167 a month) To put this amount into context, the average cost of keeping one medium sized Cocker Spaniel is approximately £46 per month in vet plan and insurance (the vet plan covers flea and worming treatment, plus vaccinations) and food costs of around £40 a month so this amounts to over £1,000 a year i.e. half the cost of a social care levy. I would  levy the £2,000 on practically the whole population, even if in receipt of benefits by reducing the amount of benefit payable and the population would pay this from the age of 35 until they were 70 i.e. just past retirement age and so, in round terms, this would build up an individual social care ‘pot’ of £100,000 in round terms. Now let us assume that average residential care costs are of the order of £65k a year, then the accumulated ‘pot’ can be run down at the rate of £20k a year which, with the average pension of £10k a year means that £30k of the £65k annual cost will be paid for by the individual with the government providing the other half.  Any house or capital that the individual has built up for themselves will be retained so there is no question of having to sell one’s house to pay for care fees (as has happened four times in the case of my immediate family, as it happens) I think that most of the population would regard it as ‘fair’ that they have to contribute to the cost of their own old age social care provided that the government was seen as doing ‘its bit’ and that retained the house that one has paid for during all one’s life.  Of course, one can play around  and model somewhat different scenarios with these figures – for example, could take the average length  of stay in a residential home at being 2.5 years in which case the contribution from the ‘saved’ pot would be £40k and with £10 of pension, this £50k per year would  then be 75% of the total cost. Now won’t it be interesting to see what kind of scheme the government comes up in the next few days but I reckon that it will not be as simple or as comprehensive as the scheme I have outlined above.

After the church service was over. I chatted with some fellow parishioners and was saddened to learn of the death of a parisoner with whom I had served alongside on the Church Parochial council for a time. He seems to have had a series of episodes of treatment in hospital followed by a rapid discharge and then an altogether not unexpected readmission. I was saddened to learn that his final weeks might have been anything but peaceful. After I had washed the car and bought a Sunday newspaper, I came home and watched again an episode of the ‘Pilgrimage’ series, this time focusing on a journey  through some of the Celtic sites of North Wales and although I had seen it before, it is always quite interesting to see the voyages of self discovery. I cooked mself a small meal of chicken and some stir fry as in the late afternoon I am due to accompany my American friend for a ‘leaving do’ for one of the Methodist circuit ministers whom we both happen to like and to know quite well.

I got up at yesterday morning at what for me was an unprecedentedly late time as it was approaching 9.00am. But I reasoned that my body was telling me that it was compensating for the 5.45 start to the day that I had experienced the day before when I had got up early for the gastroenterology procedure. The slight side effects that I had experienced of a slightly tender gastric area had subsided but as the day progresses, I may have lighter meals during the day to assist in the recovery process.  I must say that of the several times I have had this procedure, this was least unpleasant mainly, I suspect, as the sedative medication administered through a cannula in my arm seemed to be so effective.  Now I need to wait for a couple of weeks to see what the histological report indicates of the polyp that was removed. Thinking about the future, I did a quick AI search on what the normal individual can do to prevent the formation of polyps in the gut and discovered the following, most of which I already knew  and which advice I had been trying to follow. While gastrointestinal polyps cannot be entirely prevented, you can lower your risk by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and getting routine screenings. Dietary habits include eating more fibre, choosing fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains to help waste move smoothly through the gut, cutting down on red meat, processed meats, and high-fat foods and consuming adequate calcium from foods like dairy or dark leafy greens. Lifestyle choices include the cessation of all tobacco products, reducing or avoid alcoholic drinks and exercising most days of the week and work to maintain a healthy body weight. Although this information is readily available on the web and should be percolating through the knowledge base of the general population, I ask myself the question of whether the government could do more so that the NHS becomes as much concerned with disease prevention as with disease treatment.If I were the Minister for Health in any government, I would get supermarkets to have leaflets prominently available to encourage the population to eat more healthily and to promote health giving foods and to restrict the availability of unhealthy junk foods. There are at least two reasons why this would never happen, the most obvious of which the government would be accused of being the ‘Nanny State’ But a more serious and contentious issue is that supermarkets and food manufacturers would have to promote healthier foods and restrict the availability of unhealthy ones and this would have an immediate and probably deleterious effects upon profits. Taking the axiom that supermarkets devote more space to foods with a higher profit margins, then I never cease to be dismayed by how much space is devoted to crisps (think how many crisps can be made from one industrially thinly sliced potato) which  are then the bearers of salt and hydrogenated fats. Hydrogenated fats are created by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to turn them into solid fats. This process increases shelf life and stability but creates trans fats, which raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower good (HDL) cholesterol, significantly increasing heart disease risk. On a complete flight of fancy, I would then make the annualised cost of all endoscopies to treat possibly gastrointestinal disease payable not from profits but charged to salaries and bonuses of those in charge of or supermarkets and food manufacturing industries. Supermarkets have a strong commercial interest in selling junk food because these ultra-processed items offer long shelf lives, withstand supply chains easily, and drive impulse purchases that boost overall store revenue. Returning to a more mundane world, after getting up I immediately went down into town to pick up a copy of my newspaper which, heavy with supplements at the weekend, soon fly off the shelves. and returned home to enjoy the company of my son and daughter-in-law who had come to check up on me after my hospital visit the day before. My American friend is due to call around at lunch time and I am hoping to persuade her to watch the classic black and film Casablanca which will be shown for the umpteenth time but which film I never tire of a repeat viewing. 

In the afternoon, my American friend did call around and we carried on watching together the middle episodes of Vera Britten’s ‘Testament of Youth’ which was essentially broadcast by the BBC as a five part series. These middle episodes were particularly emotionally compelling, particularly the heart rending scene in which Vera Britten was in a hotel expecting to see Roland the following day when a marriage proposal was expected (as he had a week’s leave) only to receive the news that he was seriously wounded in the conflict and died of his wounds about a day later. Upon this news, Vera became a nurse and subsequently was posted overseas to administer to the many battlefield casualties. At home, in Europe, wildfires are sweeping across the continent affecting particularly France and Spain where more than 250,000 have been had to flee their homes. In the UK, we have a massive fire in the Cairngorms in which hundreds have been evacuated but this does not rival the ferocity of the wildfires on the continental land mass but where thousands acres of land are as dry as tinder perhaps there we are witnessing the inevitable consequence of climate change. On this subject, I recently saw a videoclip in which the melting of some of the glaciers in Greenland may well be impacting upon the normal flows of warm and cold currents on the North Atlantic ocean which, in turn, impacts upon the jet stream several  miles above it which in turn can facilitate the ingress of hot Saharan air across Europe. Such is the complexity of climate change which depends upon sophisticated measuring of ocean depths and even more  sophisticated computer modelling but it may well be that the climate change deniers are well and truly silenced. However, climate change deniers are now shifting their ground from outright denying the existence of global warming to attacking transition policies, promoting ‘doomism,’ and claiming that green energy is unfeasible. Rather than arguing that the Earth is not warming, modern skeptical discourse focuses on new, delay-oriented narratives. Although there may be a slight smattering of rain in the next day or so, it looks as though there will be plenty more very warm days until the very end of the month and so we might have to wait even longer for the long and sustained downpour for which many of us are earnestly hoping.

We wake up this morning to the unwelcome news that the UK may be dragged into the conflict of the US with Iran. After a thirteenth day of strikes, the Iranians have warned the UK that the country may become a target as it is is allowing US forces to position  strike forces in US military bases on UK soil. Our Ministry of Defence has responded ‘robustly’ but a war is the last thing that the UK economy needs in its present fragile state. These threats may not come to anything but Iran has certainly attacked other allies of the US in the region so nothing can be ruled out at this stage. The predicted rain for the forthcoming weekend will arrive ‘for some’ but I do not think that the showers will extend as far as the Midlands and another hot week is forecast for the last week in July. We are now in a situation in whichever patch of grass you see has been turned into a straw colour and the grass even crunches when you walk upon it. Somehow, though, our park authorities have managed to keep our park on the green side and they will not have been watering but have evidently sown a very hardy grass seed in the dim and distant past. The recriminations in the Labour party are still continuing after the change in regime and some are urging that Andy Burnham should somehow build bridges to try to tap into the expertise of those who have lost office but the mechanism by which this might be done is far from clear. 

I actually awoke, assisted by the alarm, at 4.45 this morning. This is because I had an appointment in the Endoscopy department of a local treatment centre to have removed a polyp, harmless at the moment bit with the potential of turning nasty. Having been given strict instructions not to eat or drink anything for hours beforehand, we had to arrive at the clinic at 7.50 am and hence my American friend (who was taking me to the clinic) and I set off for the clinic at 7.00am. I imagined that when I arrived at the clinic I would be the first in the queue but was surprised to find about five other people also awaiting treatment.  In these procedures, various bits of paper work and some medical preliminaries are undertaken and the young nurse allocated to me explained that there were now about eight treatment booths so evidently the capacity had been massively expanded over just the last few years. I was offered and readily accepted the offer of sedation for the procedure and the doctor performing the procedure allowed me to continue to wear my earphones for the ancient iPhone 4 I use solely as a type of iPlayer on occasions such as these. I scarcely remember getting much beyond the first half of the Mozart track so whatever sedative was used must have been pretty powerful as in time the procedure must have been completed although it took anything between 20-30 minutes.  I did eventually look up the effects of the medication adminstered to me and  discovered is a fast-acting benzodiazepine used for sedation, anxiety relief, and seizure control. Primary effects include drowsiness, muscle relaxation, and anterograde amnesia which frequently causes patients to forget events that occur during and immediately after the drug’s administration. So bit by bit, I think things are improving in our NHS. My American friend was sent for after a short recovery period and then we went downstairs to eat a very much appreciated protein-rich breakfast. I was feeling just a little knocked out after the procedure but my American friend looked after me during the day as I had a quiet day of recovery. In all honesty I had not slept particularly well the night before so was pleased to have someone with me all day – in practice the NHS guidelines were I needed to have someone in attendance for about 10-12 hours and of course driving, drinking alcohol or operating machinery (including boiling a kettle!) was out-of-bounds. During the start of the day we started to watch Vera Britten’s ‘Testament of Youth’  and only  got about half way through the second episode before we broke off and cooked an evening meal together. In the early episodes the film vividly portrays the enthusiastically optimistic spirit in which individuals entered the Great War (as it became to be known) and the full horrors of fighting over appeared to be yards of ground will no doubt be well illustrated in later episodes. Vera Britten’s daughter was Shirley Williams who was to become a prominent figure in the post War Labour party and eventually became one of the ‘Gang of Four’ in the breakaway SDP, later SDLP.

It is being reported on ‘Sky News’ that Donald Trump may press for FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to lead the UN which is a proposition which sounds so fantastic it is hard to believe. Firstly the UN has its own procedures and protocols to determine who the next UN Secretary General is likely to be. But Trump senses an opening among a field that one insider described as seven lame candidates. The contenders include Chile’s socialist former president Michelle Bachelet, who could face US resistance, and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, the current director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who could face concerns about the disputed Falkland Islands from the veto-holding UK. Trump’s concept would upend the anticipated selection of a candidate from Latin America or the Caribbean — a region last repped by secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru between 1982 and 1991. But multiple sources said that the UN’s soft policy of rotating the top job among geographic regions would not necessarily block Infantino and that it is possible he could pick up nominations from multiple countries. The point has to be made that the moral authority and freedom of manoeuvre exercised by the Secretary General of the UN seems sadly to have declined over the years. This has been coupled by a lack of willingness of the US to fund some of the UN’s activities of late. The exercise of the veto power by any one of the five permanent members (USA, Russia, China. France and Britain) means that serious action over major global issues is generally not forthcoming. Meanwhile the Iranian war rumbles on and the pessimist might conclude that this conflict could persist for months. America seems convinced that it can bomb its way into forcing concessions from Iran but every missile  and bomb that falls threatens to deepen Iranian resistance even more.  

The thing that caught my eye amidst all of the domestic and foreign news this morning were the latest developments on the $10 billion lawsuit that Trump has brought against the BBC for a ‘misreporting’ of some of his words when the Capitol building was invaded by MAGA supporters. The BBC lawyers have demanded that Trump hand over a tranche of financial records so that Trump could ‘prove’ that he and his business interests had been damaged by the BBC revelations. This, of course, Trump will never do and Trump’s lawyers are trying to argue that handing over the financial records would be especially burdensome although a court has ruled that they should.  I suspect the BBC have made a master stroke in this  court case and after much huffing and puffing I would not be surprised if President Trump were to pull out of the case or if the whole case might be decided for a trivial but undisclosed amount. In the American political sense which I am following closely, I think we are living in the most dangerous of times. So much hangs on the mid-term elections to be held in November where Trump is destined to lose control of the House of Representatives (the Lower House) and even the Senate (Upper house) may be threatened. So time is running out for the Republicans as holiday season approaches. So Trump will be driven to make and more desperate moves to try to postpone or to ‘fix’ the electoral process by redrawing boundaries to minimise Democratic voting strength so called ‘re-districting’) Trump himself must realise that he is running out of time as the Iran war is re-igniting with a consequent knock-on effect on petrol prices at the pumps and of course his own health is visibly failing almost by the day as his evident dementia progresses. So, I suspect a really dangerous few weeks as Trump realises that his options and freedom of manoeuvre are being stacked against him and after November, he may well turn into the proverbial ‘lame duck’ president. So although the cornered and wounded animal metaphor is a little overworked, I think it is absolutely appropriate to apply in these circumstances. I am pleased that my Tai Chi classes are continuing throughout the summer but without the bonus of a pleasant chat with acquaintances in the Methodist Centre in which the tea and coffee area is closed for its summer refurbishment. In the slightly longer term, I am pleased that my application to be part of the next U3A coach trip has been accepted and in September  we will be visiting Shrewsbury prison which has been turned into a visitor experience so that we can witness the delights of a well-preserved Victorian prison which was in active use until not so very long ago. At the end of the month, I also have the first meeting of the U3A Philosophy group where I think the topic for discussion is sometime along the lines of ‘The Philosopher Michael Sandel and The Moral Limits of Markets’ (and I am aware of some of the style of Michael Sandel whose contributions have been aired and I have followed in Radio 4 programmes)

In the morning, I attended my normal Tai Chi class but in the absence of any coffee bar facilities, I went out on the High Street with two of my fellow Tai Chi group members and we had a coffee together in favourite ‘Gifts of Love’ horse sanctuary which always offers a warm welcome and a range of delicious cakes and coffee to its visitors.  Then I returned home and cooked myself an omelette which I had with some salad. The domestic agenda is dominated by the news that Andy Burnham and the newly appointed Justice Secretary are to review the early release of prisoners scheme under which people convicted of rape and even murder are released.  Prisoners eligible for early release typically include adults serving standard determinate sentences who have good behaviour and have completed one-third (33%) to 40% of their prison term, depending on the jurisdiction and specific reform measures in place (such as those in England and Wales) More serious crimes may be released after about 50% of their sentences. The public are generally appalled  by these policies, wiht the victims of rape and the near relatives of those murdered fearing that the perpetrators of the crimes may be released to roam the streets in the same areas I which the crimes were committed. The public affected by these early release schemes make the powerful but emotive point that the criminals only serve a sentence which can be less than half than that announced by the judge whereas the victims of crime are living with the consequences of these crimes for the rest of the lives – a type of life sentence in itself. The root of the problem is that after years of austerity and one of the highest prison populations in Europe, the rate at which prison places are provided is less than the rate at which prisoners are being sentenced. The government claims that many more prisons are being built but this takes both time and money and, of course, planning the location of a new prison is always problematic because nobody wants a prison to be built in their vicinity. So Andy Burnham and the new government are dealing with an inherited problem but in the short term the prison service is in crisis as the additional capacity given as  a consequence of early release will soon disappear. Apart from the tagging idea, this is an area in which it is hard to think of an easy solution and, no doubt, other solutions such as prison ships and prison barges have to be ruled out. The primary problems with prison ships—both historically and in modern attempts to revive them—include catastrophic disease outbreaks, severe overcrowding, and logistical nightmares. Because they are confined maritime spaces, they present massive safety risks, strip inmates of basic human dignity, and fail to provide the resources necessary for rehabilitation. Some societies such as Holland have experimented with ideas such as ‘weekend’ jails in which prisoners live and work with their families during the week but ave to return to jail at the weekend. But this solution might only work for those prisoners with jobs which might be very few. Other European societies may be faced with these problems and it would be interesting to see if any other modern social democracies have thought  of any solutions. As we know from the housing of asylum seekers, if any kind of penitential facility is housed near to other centres of population and the local community, aided by local and some national politicians, will vociferously object to any new penitential facilities in their area.

We awoke this morning to the news that Andy Burnham’s new government is determined to show that it is going to tackle the ‘cost of living’ crisis by some populist measures. The day before, we had the announcement of a 5% VAT cut in electricity bills on Burnham’s first day in office, which will save average households £45 a year. You would think this sounded like good news but the practical effect is to moderate the rate of increase that would otherwise have occurred so the actual political impact is likely to be very small as it will scarcely be noticed by most of us. We have also learnt of the intention to cap bus fares at £2 per journey being partly financed by raiding the budget of the Department for Energy. One can see the intention behind announcing some of these populist measures but I think that the new government is trying hard to grab some headlines but the actual impact on the household budgets of most people is so small as not to be noticed. So we have a situation in which the government is certainly spending some money or re-ordering priorities but the political impact or gain is likely to be incredibly small. The new government is hardly sad to be enjoying a honeymoon period because  many commentators are voicing the opinion that there has been a ‘vicious cull’ of ex Cabinet ministers who stayed loyal to Keir Starmer and some of them are letting their voices, and their discontent, be heard. So the display of loyalty amongst the Labour ranks appears paper thin and we are entering a summer period in which political news and events takes a back seat whilst everyone goes off on holiday and the electorate are left with the impression of a Labour party with a large Commons majority engaged in some fairly viscious back- biting. Perhaps one should not be surprised that this has broken out so soon as those used to the privileges of office including ministerial cars and the trappings of office find themselves bereft and having to face up to the new political realities. It is possible that these perturbations will die away but sometimes unpredictable crises can occur in the summer months  whilst senior ministers are away from their desks and the fort is being manned by relatively junior, and perhaps inexperienced, ministers. One wonders if there is there a revolt against ‘Manchesterism’ (as the new politics has been dubbed) but I think that Andy Burnham’s first few weeks in power are not likely to be at all smooth. On the other side of the Atlantic, we see the US Defence secretary being challenged about the 156 deaths which occurred after the US bombed a school in the early days of the conflict against Iran. All the indications are that the US was acting on the basis of out-of-date military intelligence but an investigation by Sky News indicates almost overwhelming proof of a disastrous military mistake. But an ‘investigation’ by the US military seems to be taking for ever and I suspect that the truth will never be admitted. Meanwhile Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, is being challenged about all of this by protestors when he appears before the US Senate asking for additional funds for the Iran war, but answers are there none. As the veteran ex-Labour veteran Denis Healy used to say ‘In war, the first casualty is truth’ and there are also persistent rumours in the liberal American political media that the true extent of injuries  amongst American combatants is being withheld from the American public (much in the manner in which Putin in Russia will not, or dare not admit the casualty rate in the Ukraine conflict in which those killed or injured has been authoritatively estimated as lying in the range of 1.27 – 2.0 million).

The morning was a quiet one as I knew that the Methodist centre was closed for its summer refurbishment, but I watched some intelligent political discussion between two British podcasters on YouTube, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart who were discussing the contemporary political scene. Then I ventured out to do my weekly shopping and was pleased to have a fairly ‘light’ week, after which I returned home to have a meal of quiche with salad accompaniments. With the current spell of hot weather, I seem to cook a conventional meat + two veg meal less and less these days. After lunch, I had on a programme detailing how corrupt FIFA as been almost from its inception, Exploring this on YouTube, I discover that history shows that FIFA has a long history of aligning with authoritarian regimes, most famously when the FIFA Museum details how it allowed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to use the 1934 FIFA World Cup as a massive fascist propaganda vehicle. The organisation’s relationship with Mussolini’s Italy highlights several key historical realities. In 1932, the 1934 World Cup was granted to Italy after representatives of the fascist regime convinced FIFA that the Italian government would underwrite all financial losses, an offer the financially strapped governing body readily accepted. The tournament featured heavy integration of fascist iconography, with over 300,000 propaganda posters, special stamps, and tickets featuring the regime’s messaging. Mussolini attended every Italy match, using the matches to project international power. The tournament is widely considered one of the most controversial in history. Multiple sources, including FIFA World Cups discussions, reveal that the Italian government exerted direct pressure on referees and match logistics. The close relationship continued at the 1938 FIFA World Cup in France, where the Italian squad notoriously performed fascist salutes and was allegedly sent a telegram from Mussolini dictating they win “or die”. Another fact revealed I discovered was that that no African nations competed in the 1966 World Cup finals (in which England were successful, of course) All 15 eligible African countries withdrew from the qualifying stages in a mass boycott to protest FIFA’s decision to force Africa to compete with Asia and Oceania for just a single guaranteed tournament spot. Actually the whole history of FIFA can be written  as scandal ridden and cozying up to fascist regimes so the latest shenanigans we have observed seem to be the norm rather than the exception. I went through a pile of newspapers to see if any press cuttings needed to be retained before the wheelie bin is emptied tomorrow. I also took the opportunity to rid one of the corners of the house of some tall thistles that seem to have thrived in the heat and despite the absence of rain. I am looking forward to a walk n the park in the early evening as it has been quite hot during the day.

I went for a walk on my own in the park the evening before last to give me some fresh air and a little gentle exercise. Upon my arrival in the park, I was greeted by three police cars who were just leaving – apparently having had to deal with some unruly teenagers. They had released what were described to me as ‘fire bombs’ which are joke items often called ‘smoke bombs’ or ‘stink bombs’ and are novelty items designed for harmless pranks rather than actual destruction. They release a cloud of coloured smoke or an unpleasant odour when crushed, lit, or dropped. I suppose it is the start of the long summer vacations and bored adolescents were responsible but I did two circuits of the lake and then came home. The news media was dominated by the news of Andy Burnham’s cabinet  as posts appeared to be filled one by one. The wings of the Labour party had a candidate each (Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood) and by appointing either to the crucial role of Chancellor, Burnham would have risked alienating one large portion of the party another. To solve this dilemma, Burnham appointed John Healey who was the well established and well-trusted figure who had resigned as Defence Secretary when he failed to secure sufficient funding for Defence so now in charge of the nation’s finances. The boot, as they say, is now on the other foot. In the morning, I spent some time chatting with my son who called around after his swim and also with our domestic help who was recovering from a bout of sickness and then it was time for me to journey into town and to attend my Pilates class. I intended to wear the over-sized shorts bought recently n a charity shop but my domestic help promptly insisted that if  were to wear them I would be the laughing stock of the town so after the obligatory photograph had been taken, I obliged her and I changed into a more conventional pair of shorts. In my music lounge, I discovered a little pile of about six illustrated children’s books written and illustrated in such a way that a child between the age of 4-6 could have the bedtime story read to them by a parent and as the children got older, they could have course read these story books for themselves. There was one charity shop in Droitwich which always had a marvellous selection of such books and as Meg’s dementia progressed, I used to read these stories to Meg and she could look follow the illustrations as I fead. I think that these stories gave Meg quite a lot of pleasure until her cognitive powers had diminished completely and coming across the pile of books gave me some pangs of sorrow, particularly as I flicked through the pages of her favourite ones. My domestic help was more than happy  to take this collection of books where they might come into useful for the dementia sufferers in the residential home in which she works as the entertainments manager.

When I returned home, I cooked myself a portion of risotto which I rescued from the bowels of my freezer, after which  I was contacted by my American fiend who has having a new TV installed by John Lewis. The  TV set appears to be working  correctly but I am not sure that the internet connection she has (via Sky) is working very well or even at all. So I suspect that some traumas might lie ahead whilst we get the internet connection sorted out and my friend is not well informed about matters technological so it is difficult to give advice without looking at the whole setup. I am unsure how to help my friend out of this dilemma and I suspect that a joint visit to the EE shop or the our local TV retailer on the on the High Street may be the next step along although we could always trawl the net for an independent installer to diagnose and then fix my friend’s system.  In the afternoon my friend came around to give me a progress on her TV installation and afterwards we went for a walk in the park to clear our heads and to discuss TV and related issues. At the very end of our walk, we fell into conversation with a chap who was loading things into his car and at this time of night, people  are very relaxed, friendly and wiling to engage in all kinds of conversations. Initially talking about cars, we discussed the benefits of a daily walk and it transpired that the person with whom we were taking intended to undertake the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, probably  joining the French route. It looked as though he was going to fly to Madrid and then join a more organised group where they would walk 25-30 kilometres a day and stay in the designated hostels along the route.  I explained that my friend and I intended to visit Santiago de Compostela if our predicted holiday to Spain next February  proceeds without a hitch. Later on this evening, I am going to have a video-chat via WhatsApp with one of my University of Winchester friends whose wife, as it happens is very poorly. We typically chat about once a month and like to provide each other with some mutual help and support where we can. I was delighted that my friend and his wife had managed to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary which is a milestone that not many couples achieve. I think that the published statistics show that the percentage of couples who achieve a 50th wedding anniversary if of the order about 7% which means, of course, that 93% of couples do not as death, divorce and separation take their toll. I must admit that in the last day or so, I experienced a little twinge of sadness when  I reflected how interested and excited Meg would have been about the accession of Andy Burnham to Downing Street. Meg and I spent six very formative years of our life in Manchester as we had both been to university  there and then studied for our Masters there. I also spent a couple of years teaching in a College of Education in Manchester and it is inevitable that we should continue to have feelings of affiliation for the city in which we had met each other, been to university, bought our first house there, have our son born there and worked in vacation jobs in the Manchester factories (as well as the Tiffany’s nightclub) 

The evening before last and the first hour of yesterday morning  were rather taken over by absorbing the news of Spain’s 1:0 victory over Argentina in the World Cup and watching with so much pleasure the joyous moments when players received their medals and finally got their hands on the World Cup itself. I did notice that in the perennial victory photograph of the winning team Donald Trump managed to insert himself into the edge of the picture, not having the sense to realise that the World Cup was about the winers and not about him – I wonder if future photos of this event can be edited so that he is made to disappear from the picture? There are many innovations in this iteration of the World Cup many of which bear an ugly stance of Americanism but there is one innovation which I think is quite healthy. The next World Cup four year’s time will be hosted not by one nation but by a several adjacent nations, namely Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Evidently Spain will be very much the dominant partner in this arrangement and I will, for one, will welcome the European time zone but I do wonder whether the heat of the Iberian peninsular will be rather too hot for the staging of a World Cup? I suppose this can be mitigated by evening kick-offs but the other alternative will be adaptations to the stadia which might prove to be prohibitively expensive and can it be done in time even with four years notice? Now that the World Cup is over, we can return to a more domestic agenda and in response to my enquiry, I received a very full and welcoming email inviting me to the next meeting of the Philosophy group of U3A. This  I think I will almost certainly attend on a regular basis for a variety of reasons, not least that the venue is in the training room of one of the local supermarkets in which by definition, there is plenty of free and easily accessible parking and the group very conveniently meets on a Friday (the last of each month) and has an attendance fee of 50p a session. I informed the convenor that I had no formal training in Philosophy  (which is not a precondition) but on reflection, I think this is not entirely true. Desperate to get some GCE ‘A’levels, I actually did choose to study a course in Logic in which I attended no classes but did purchase a series of duplicated notes from a correspondence college called Wolsey Hall College, Oxford. The syllabus was reassuring very short and I did study one of those ‘Teach yourself’ books on the subject. In brief, I enjoyed this course tremendously and found the content of the course very useful in my later academic life and actually achieved a grade ‘B’ in the subject so  suppose I can say, upon reflection, that I have received  some systematic instruction in one of the constituent branches of philosophy. Also, having been in a department of Public Administration for much of my academic life, I have inevitably been exposed to some of the classic arguments of political philosophy (including, of course, Marx) and have been well immersed in the deep debates over the logical basis of scientific discovery in which I have always been deeply interested and incorporated into the courses that I taught in Research  Methods within the social sciences. So despite my telling the convenor of the group that I had no formal training in philosophy, this is true of the major branches of the subject but I have been exposed to some of its constituent parts. I need also to have a good look around in my bookshelves to see if I can locate the book called ‘Sophies’s World’ which was a cult book in the 1970’s and was written as a primer for 14 year old Norwegian schoolchildren (a project which one could never date to attempt  in the British educational system by the way). This will bring my U3A membership of groups to four on top of which there are monthly coach excursions to nearby places of interest so I think will probably stop joining more groups at this point for fear of over-committing myself.

The day has been spent quietly but I did spend a little amount  of time locating some of the philosophy books I have on my shelves, locating the one  wanted to re-read most of all (‘Sophie’s World’) and ordering a couple  of cut-price introduction to philosophy guides at the same time. We have witnessed the smooth transition of power from Keir Starmer to Andy Burnham who has become the UK’s seventh Prime Minister in 10 years. In an interview in Downing Street and before  entering No. 10 for the first time as PM, Andy Burnham announced that his first act was to put into place measures that would ensure that homeless people sleeping rough on the streets of our cities would be removed, presumably to appropriate accommodation. This sound an interesting first policy to announce and I think it has been done before. At Christmastime, there is often and concerted effort to provide accommodation to the homeless over the Christmas period, not least because  of charities such as ‘Crisis at Christmas’ Also, if my memory serves me correctly, at the outbreak of the COVID epidemic, the homeless were offered accommodation to get them off the streets and to assist the policies designed to stop the spread of infection so if we could offer accommodation to the homeless on a short-term basis, we know it should be possible to organise a scheme on a more permanent basis, whatever the cost. We are promised the publication of a ten-year plan to act as a sort of ‘political reset’ for the country and this should settle some of the policies of the newly reconstituted government. Also, of course, we should expect the announcement of the new cabinet but this may take a day or so and normally involves would-be ministers walking the length of Downing Street but saying nothing until a formal statement is issued. It does happen, of course, that would-be ministers are offered one portfolio but either turn it down or bargain for another one so the construction of a new cabinet is a little akin to the completion of a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes, prime ministers (such  as Margaret Thatcher) use this as a technique to reward supporters and to banish opponents but Andy Burnham may be trying a balancing act to represent leanings of left and right in the Labour party as well as considering both regional representations as well as keeping Wales and Scotland on side, so this is never an easy task.