Yesterday, a very rare parliamentary sitting was called so that MP’s were ordered back from their Easter leave to attend a sitting in Parliament. What triggered this extraordinary move was the imminent collapse of the Scunthorpe steel works as the Indian owners were threatening to close the plant completely. The steel making plant at Scunthorpe had been limping on for years but it could be that the tariffs-induced economic crisis proved to be the final straw. The government is going to give itself the powers to take over the running of the plant and to keep it functioning and it could be that there is no alternative but a re-nationalisation of the steel industry. Without such emergency moves, the UK would have been left with no steel when supplies are needed for the railway and other industries, not to mention construction. To be completely dependent on foreign made imported steel would have put vital infrastructure at risk and this no government could contemplate even though the costs are heavy. The last time that I recall the Commons being recalled was on the occasion of the Falklands war and I remember that Meg, Martin and I were listening to the debate when we were making a long journey by car.

The day before,I had ordered and brought into use a faux leather table mat, with which I am highly delighted by the way. I wondered idly why I had not considered something like this before but there is an obscure part of the Amazon purchase website which details when the product in question was first sold. From this, I have gathered that the product only got on the market about two years ago and I imagine that demand has now increased, production methods improved and the costs reduced which is why the product is achieving the popularity that it has. As a way of demonstrating some of its properties, I saw a promotional video in which water was deliberately spilt on the surface (in real life, more likely to be coffee) but this was wiped up within seconds. Over the years, I have only spilt a cup of coffee once on a work surface but this quite enough. On the subject of clearing things up, I did notice when I was a child that my mother always used to wipe her one pair of general household scissors after each use. I now more fully appreciate that the cutting of paper (my typical reason for using scissors) can wreak havoc on the blades. Cutting paper can dull fabric scissors The abrasive nature of paper, especially the fibres and additives in its manufacturing, can quickly reduce the sharpness of scissors designed for cutting fabric. Fabric scissors are typically made to cut smoothly through fabric, and using them on paper can leave them duller, making it harder to cut fabric precisely. So my mother might have known a thing or two by constantly cleaning her scissors. Apparently a spot of WD40 does the trick but I have just requisitioned one of those little cans of oil with a flexible spout to be always on hand in my study (Incidentally, I used to watch in some wonderment as my mother used to put minute drops of oil into the working mechanisms of her sewing machine by letting literally a drop of oil roll off the end of a pin to where it was needed).

Yesteday being a Saturday was the day for our regular meet-up with our friends in Wetherspoons. I was very careful to make sure that Meg was well and truly strapped into her wheelchair and, as it happened, Meg and I and our two friends all arrived within seconds of each other. To one of the friends I gave on a permanent loan a book on the history of ‘The Archers’ which has been on our bookshelves for at least ten years. As she is a keen Archer’s listener, I thought she would really appreciate some of the historical background not least because one of the first producers of the series was a local man. Then, I got our two friends to recite the first verse of Jack and Jill and then make a stab at the second verse. The point about this is that the last two lines of the second verse run ‘Jack went to bed, to mend his head, with vinegar and brown paper’ and I was intrigued by the reference to the folk remedy of vinegar and brown paper. Now most households possessed some vinegar which has got mildly antiseptic properties so is not a bad way to treat minor cuts and grazes. Now before the days of plastic bags, many packages were wrapped in brown paper (and sometimes tied up with string and sealed with sealing wax, to boot) The point is that many households had quite a copious supply of brown wrapping paper (unlike today) and this was often used to form a type of poultice. So after a minor accident dressing one’s cuts and bruises with vinegar and brown paper might have been quite common.

The middle of the day should have seen two carers turn up but only one of then did so, the other having been detained by the police. Now whether she caused the accident or was involved in an accident, we shall have to find out. But as soon the one carer had departed and I got a modicum of food inside Meg, I thought I had better press on and get the front grassed area cut. We know that showers may well come along tomorrow but the back lawn is more easily fitted in between the showers but although pretty tired after this morning’s push up and down the hill, I pushed myself on to get the grass cut with only two minutes to spare before the carers arrived for the afternoon call. Having had 2-3 lots of ice cream today, I am at a bit of a loss what to prepare for our evening repast. I will probably just revert to the standby of some apple pie and custard which is one of our regular stand-byes. Tonight having had a fairly busy day I am looking forward to the period after Meg is in bed when I can have a good read off the newspaper, watch the news a little and probably have a nap as well.

A little twist to the tariffs saga has just emerged. Democrats in Congress have questioned whether President Donald Trump and his allies may have acted improperly on his suggestion on Wednesday that it was a ‘great time to buy’ stocks. He made the comment shortly before announcing he was cutting back on some of his new tariffs – a move that made markets go up. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats ‘need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people’. He added: ‘What if any advanced knowledge did members of the House Republican Conference have of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs that he put into place?’ Jeffries said several members of congress will be ‘aggressively demanding answers and transparency’. The White House denied that Trump was engaging in market manipulation and accused Democrats of ‘playing partisan games.’ But what is undoubtedly true is that any of Trump’s coterie with some spare cash could have made a fortune knowing that the stock exchange was bound to score spectacular gains the minute that Trump announced his change of policy.

My tidying-up activities have continued apace yesterday. Our domestic help had changed her day this week from Wednesday to Friday, so I am interested in observing her reactions to the restoration and transformation of our dining room, which I now intend to keep in its pristine condition. I had a near disaster when moving a heavy box of my published papers caused one of the bookcase shelves to completely collapse, shedding its contents onto the floor. So an instant repair had to be made and some of the contents restored but I had the opportunity to throw away some computer software and out-of-date manuals. I have taken the opportunity, though, to purchase a new leather (actually artificial or PU leather) desktop mat to enhance the appearance of my desktop. It seems that a more modern concept is to utilise these desk mats which have the advantage of being able to dispense with a mouse mat, are wipe clean (in the face of the almost inevitable coffee spills) and are often two-tone colour reversible as well. The one I have purchased is a deep olive green and, I must say, adds an air of class to my desktop as well as dispensing with the mousepad. You can even buy an ultra-thin one which can be rolled up, held together with its own little leatherette clasp and then transported together with one’s laptop if you were going to use a laptop in a friend’s house (or even a hotel bedroom). It is the kind of little innovation which makes you wonder why it had not been thought of before but in the days when Meg and I used to stay in hotels, it would have proved to be a boon. The prospect lies before me of attacking some of my cluttered bookcase shelves one by one, but this does have the advantage of cutting a huge task into a smaller one as one can tackle it shelf by shelf on a daily basis. At some stage, I need to dispose of a lot of my academic books and did find an organisation that would have taken them off my hands for free (rather than just dumping them) But they wanted full bibliographical details on each book and the task of doing this for each of several hundred books would have been too daunting and time consuming and so it never happened at the time. However, it is a longer term prospect that I know must be done in the fullness of time.

Yesterday morning our domestic help arrived but I was a little fraught when she first arrived because the care agency had three staff reporting ‘sick’ and could I help? Actually, the morning call is pretty exhausting as Meg is quite a dead weight and still half asleep so getting her washed and dressed is no easy task. But the young female carer and I managed it all right but it took us the best part of 50 mins and it was not the best way to start off the day. But I took great delight in showing our domestic help our restored dining room which she can now clean so much more easily and also took the opportunity to let her have a set of beautiful dessert glasses that we originally had as wedding presents and only use on the most special of occasions. They had been recently washed before they had been put away and were therefore in a nice condition to gift but our help is very fond of this type of glassware so I know it is going to a good home. I have managed to tidy four shelves of the large bookcases I use as a quasi-stationery store so only two more to go. The weather continues to be glorious sunshine and I feel I should really be outside doing some much needed gardening but I also need to keep a watchful eye on the Meg. The weather is shortly to break down bringing some much needed rain to these parts. I need to re-seed some of the bare matches in our front grassed area, denuded somewhat by the activities of either one or several moles. I have the grass seed standing by in readiness but I do not want to dash out and sow it until I know that rain is imminent (as otherwise it might just provide food for the birds)

Having a baby is expensive, but it’s even more so when you are spending almost £400 on items you don’t need. According to data released last year by iCandy, UK parents are collectively spending £7bn on unused baby items, from cuddly toys to shoes.Almost 60% bought stuff that never got used – or were used less than twice – wasting an average of £379 in the first 12 months. Cuddly toys top the list – though they’re super cute and look great in a baby’s nursery, one in three UK parents who have kids under 10 (31%) admitted they did not use them.

So, it looks as though Donald Trump ‘blinked’ (i.e. panicked) and reverses all of his tariff increases of the past few days with the exception of China and set a rate of 10% for everyone. The inside story is that it was the operation of the bond markets that forced a change in strategy and what we are seeing is very similar to the financial moves that brought down Liz Truss ad Kwasi Kwarteng After a week of economic chaos and criticism from allies, what changed? Not just pressure from businesses or Republicans —Trump was rattled by a bond market in meltdown mode. The bond market is where the US government borrows money by selling Treasury bonds. These are usually seen as ultra-safe investments. If investors stop buying them—or worse, start selling them—it is a sign of deep concern. Without steady demand for these bonds, the government could trouble funding everything from infrastructure to defence. That’s why a selloff in this market causes panic—it suggests serious instability, and potentially, a crisis. By Wednesday, however, it had become evident the campaign to convince Trump to change course would not let up. It had also become plain after a sharp sell-off in US government bond markets — usually a safe corner for investors — that the economic ramifications of the president’s strategy were potentially catastrophic and worse than his advisers had previously predicted. The growing alarm inside the Treasury Department over developments in the bond market was a central factor in Trump’s decision to hit pause on his ‘reciprocal’ tariff regime, according to three people familiar with the matter. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised those concerns directly to Trump Wednesday in a meeting that preceded the pause announcement, underscoring concerns shared by White House economic officials who had briefed Trump on the accelerating selloff in the US Treasury market earlier in the day. Calls to top White House advisors from key business community allies also increasingly focused on the troubling developments in the bond market as they made the case for Trump to pull back. No doubts, whole books and PhD theses may be written on the events of the past few days but at the risk of an extreme analogy, it looks as though the ‘immune system’ of the capitalist system (the bond market) has activated procedures to defend the whole of the system. The rate set by the bond markets is what governs mortgages, credit card payments, car purchase and other day-today financial transactions and if ever single America citizen were to be suddenly hit in the pocket, then perhaps it is no wonder that Trump realised that the game was up. A 90 day pause seems an eternity given what has happened in the last few days and the big question remains as to what happens at the end of the 90 day period. But a period of stability that pause brings might allow cooler and more rational decision making to be made and we might be saved from an economic and financial armageddon.

To return to more mundane matters, I save a lot of useful material in A4 document wallets which are readily accessible on the shelves of a proximate bookcase. Some of these are of great importance such as income tax records, council tax transactions, a ‘household maintenance file’ and so on. But others are a lot more transient such as a recipe I wish to keep or some health/diet related press cuttings. I took the opportunity to throw away a lot of the transient material by keeping that which I still considered relevant and discovered, by the way, some notes on the preparation of a haddock fish pie. But the other ‘big’ files do require a more radical thinning but this is not a case of simply throwing away as, in general, there are names and address that end to be excised and then shredded and this slows the whole of the thinning process down somewhat, But I have made a very good start and my shelf full of files looks altogether much more manageable and fit for purpose.

Yesterday was my ‘sit’ day when a carer comes to sit with Meg whilst I go out and do my weekly groceries shopping. But I got a message from the agency telling me that the carer allocated to the sit session would be delayed by a couple of hours. Then this message changed and I was expecting someone at 11.15 but it actually turned out to be half and hour later so I did not get out and do my shopping until practically midday. However, I usefully occupied my file by going systematically through twelve years of financial records that I wished to junk. But I needed to go through several inches of paperwork to ensure that names, addresses and any identifiers were excised from each document (my scissors were working overtime) before I felt I could safely throw the out-of-date documents way. Even so, I ensured that all of these papers were secured into one stout envelope and then again bound into an old file before they were consigned to the green recycling bin. I have two more large files to go through but in the case of the ‘House Maintenance file’ there may well be suitable addresses of tradesmen who have jobs for us in the past that I would want to keep.

The USA media are reporting that ‘Liberation Day’ just gave way to ‘Capitulation Day’. US President Donald Trump pulled back yesterday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order. Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy. His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony. The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans to rethink their retirement plans. However, we are not out of the woods yet and the UK economy is still to be hit by the 10% tariff and the challenge has not gone away. The EU has also announced that it will suspend retaliatory counter tariffs for the next 90 days but reserves the right to re-introduce them unless a satisfactory deal is negotiated.

The evening before once Meg was safely abed, I made sure that we had an assembled together a range of NHS provided aids which has been loaned to us over the past year or so in efforts to make life more tolerable for Meg. But a lot of this equipment is not only taking up space but also needs to be got into the hands of people who desperately need it. The principal piece of equipment is a ‘Sarah Stedy’ much used in hospitals to transport patients from their beds or bedside chairs to a toilet and back again. This is a marvellous piece of engineering, but Meg did not possess the upper body strength to hang onto the framework as she was required to do so the cate agency a year ago moved Meg onto a regime of hoist and wheelchair which Meg has used ever since. There is an appointment made for all or most of this equipment to be picked up during the day, but we have no idea when, so it is a bit of a waiting game. There are two wheelchairs in this collection and one is definitely NHS provided whereas the other I believe I successfully bid for on eBay. My first thought was to ‘gift’ this back the equipment store but I have an idea that they may refuse to accept it so I am left with the option of selling it, giving it away or even retaining it. As it folds up for ease of transportation and I still have a storage box for this in the garage, I am minded retaining it should I need to use it myself in the years ahead. Part of my decision making here despite my evident desire to declutter is that I might need it myself in the years ahead. If I were to retain it, then according to the way in which ‘Sod’s Law’ operates, I might not need it for years whereas if I were to dispose of it, I might have need of it tomorrow.

The first cracks in the Trump regime are starting to appear with Elon Musk probably about to depart government but not before he had called Trump’s principal tariffs a moron who is saying things that are demonstrably false and also calling him as dumb as a sack bricks. There is actually a deep philosophical rift at the heart of the tariff disaster with some believing those who believe tariffs are a good thing in themselves and that the USA has been disadvantaged and exploited in its international trade arrangements and others who believe that the erection of tariffs is the start of a negotiating process. This rift can be seen in Trump’s pronouncements that the announced tariffs are immutable as against the fact that according to the White House countries from all over the world are clamouring to negotiate a better deal with the USA, on the presumption there can be some negotiation. There are some commentators in the middle ground who are convinced that the whole Trump experiment will end in disaster (like Liz Truss) and the Republican party may well split over this issue. But there is plenty to happen in this scenario and one can argue by analogy that although cracks can be seen to have appeared in the dam walls, the dam is still holding for now. However, it is true to say that every country in the world (with the exception of Russia) is having to make economic adjustments to deal with the crisis. Here in the UK, for example, in a bid to assist the motor manufacturers, a slight relaxation in the transition period to full EV (electric vehicle) status from 2030 to 2035 has been announced.

Yesterday morning, the carers were getting towards the end of their session with Meg when the Worcestershire equipment agency turned up to collect the various items of which we no longer had any use. The person who turned up was somewhat dismayed to see the numbers of items of equipment much of which he had not been told about and, moreover, as the two care workers were occupying the space in the front of the house he had to trundle it all a fair distance away to get it into his vehicle. He would not accept the return of the wheelchair either but that might be provided by a somewhat different service. I have finished up with two almost identical so-called ‘transit’ wheelchairs, one of which I almost certainly paid for myself as I acquired it through an eBay bid but the other supplied to us. However, this morning I did get a letter confirming the fact that in two weeks’ time a specialist would turn up to re-assess Meg’s needs in view of the fact that she is danger of slipping out of her current chair if the journey is of any length. I have managed to find a home (under the stairs) for the two wheelchairs I am retaining, and I thought I would offer one or both in a sort of trade when the wheelchair specialist does pay a visit. In the morning, I had set myself a little task of taking one of the bookcase shelves that I use for stationery items and giving it a thorough sort-out. One thing that we had was a couple of boxes of face masks from the COVID days and we shall retain for further pandemics and I also rediscovered some joke spectacles that I sometimes have worn to persuade people that they prescribed by my optician for computer use. On the same shelf are series of A4 folders in which I have various documents and saved papers filed but my technique for dealing with this pile (as with paperwork in general) is to turn the whole pile upstairs down and then start throwing away from the bottom upwards. Generally, things at the bottom of the pile can be dispensed with in any case but I may have to leave a lot of this activity until later in the day. I am trying to fulfil my objective of decluttering by choosing a fairly simple task e.g. one shelf of a bookcase, and making sure that it is completed by the end of the day. Another district nurse called around, as scheduled, in the afternoon and she brought with her some specialised medical supplies for future use with Meg as her condition progresses.

Yesterday, to continue with my spring cleaning and decluttering zeal, I decided that the next priority along should be the desktop in my study. To describe this as a cluttered eyesore would not be an inaccurate description so after lunch, I set to work on this as I put any of the desktop items into one of those vegetable boxes with low sides beloved of supermarkets because the fruit that they contain (apples, pears and the like) can both be transported and displayed. I like to have one or two of these available to me if I have a clearing up job to do because I keep the original approximate location of an item so that can be restored to its proper place. Ad so armed with my vegetable box, I set to work in our Music Lounge where I could sit next to Meg whilst I worked and the whole job took me the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening after Meg had been put to bed. Part of the origin of the problem is that I have a table rather than an actual desk to house my computer and associated peripherals. If I had an actual desk, it would have had some drawers in which stationery items could be stored- instead I have a series of little functional containers to hold each stationery type. When I have a completely free desk top I treat it to a clean it with a dose of furniture polish and it might be a year or so until it gets its next one. Bu the overall result was pleasing to me. The large computer table is ‘de facto’ organised into quadrants. One is filled with the Apple Mac and its keyboard whilst behind it lies the scanner, backup storage drives and cables in variety. The third quadrant is now filled with well organised stationery whilst the fourth is my functional work area protected by a series of mats that may have started off life as one of those huge blotters you occasionally see. In an utterly nerdish way, I counted the number of different stationery items (think of everything from paper clips to Tippex to scissors) and it cane to 4 dozen. But, of course, now that it is in pristine condition, it is quite an easy to remove any one of the containers and reassess its contents. For example, one of them contains felt tip pens in a variety of colours and point sizes so one little job for this afternoon will be to go through the lot and ascertain which are functional and to be retained and which are dried up and need to be thrown away. Actually, below the desk I store some actual tools which I deploy on quite frequent occasions including some long nosed pliers (excellent for removing paper jammed into a printer for example), a fine long bladed screwdriver (for multiple purposes), some pliers (for flattening staples) and a supply of that stretchy elasticated fabric you sometimes see in hardware stores. Needless to say, I am filled with good intentions to keep my desk as neat and tidy as I can and perhaps only engage in one of these more radical cleanups about once a year. I did resurrect a rechargeable Apple mouse which tends to be a bit particular about the type of mouse mat on which it is used whereas the Logitech alternative mouse which I now use is so much more precise and reliable and cost about a quarter of the Apple version (incidentally, a quick perusal of the web shows that other Apple users had the same experience as myself)

In the morning, Meg seemed a little more alert and a little less sleepy than in past days so I was happy to get her well strapped into her wheelchair ready for the journey down to Wetherspoons. I always approach these journeys with a certain degree of trepidation because as the journey progresses, Meg having no body strength remaining does have the tendency to gradually slump in her wheelchair assuming a sort of ‘hypotenuse on the triangle’ orientation instead of an ‘h’ type of orientation and over the course of a two and a mile round trip (down and up the hill) there is always the slight danger that she might end up on the floor again as she did about a month ago. I have made several improvised adjustments to the wheelchair by inserting thin triangular type wedges designed to throw the seat backward somewhat. In addition, Meg’s ankles have the approved wheelchair velcro ankle straps and there is a lap belt as well. To these, I have added a luggage strap which goes around Meg’s torso and then to the back of the wheelchair, so this is a third anchorage point. I really need an extension or an adaptation so that Meg does not allow her head and neck to go backwards over the back of the chair but I improvise with a ‘V’ shaped cushion, put upside down which half does the intended job, at least at first. In two week’s time, we have an appointment when a wheelchair specialist is to call around to see what adaptations can be made. I suspect that at the end of the day, we need a more specialist chair because the wheelchair that we have is officially designated as a ‘transit’ chair and the assumption is that you are going to use for this short journeys, either within or outside the house and certainly not 2.5 mile round trips over what can be appallingly bumpy pavements. Whatever. the wheelchair experts recommend, it will probably be some time before we can see any improvements and in the meantime I feel that I have to take a calculated risk each Tuesday and Saturday and it is true to say that Meg is in a fairly slumped state by the end of the journey.

This afternoon we are both enjoying a concert of the Beethoven Violin Concerto played by Sophie Anne Mutter, one the world’s finest violinists. The quality of the concerts – generally European artists and performances- available to us on YouTube makes for a very pleasant and restful afternoon while I am generally engaged in other tasks with the music playing in the background. It certainly makes a change from some of the depressing economic and political news but we have the local elections to which to look forward on 1st May when I expect to see the Labour Party get punished for their stance on the Winter Fuel Payment as well as their current ‘bash the poor’ agenda. As the Greens are rightfully saying in their local election campaigns launched today that the Labour party has proved to be a ‘crushing disappointment’, a view shared by many of us at present.

Last night, when I happened to be up for a brief period during the night, I idly turned on YouTube and stumbled across a fascinating podcast by Alastair Campbell (ex-Labour communications chief) and Rory Stewart (ex-Tory minister and one time governor of a province in Iraq). They make a fascinating pair, probably with a mutual admiration for each other, and their podcast was so good I might try and tune into them a bit more regularly to follow their observations. One of them had gleaned the following observation upon the Trump tariffs from a world trade expert to the effect that ‘The proposed changes to the tariffs to be imposed globally bear as much relation to economic realty as creationism does to biology or astrology does to astronomy’ One of the utter madnesses behind the Trump tariff walls is that the figures only relate to manufactured or physical goods and take no account of the service revenues that accrue to large companies such as Apple, MicroSoft and Google )which are, of course. considerable) There are also rumours, not denied, that the UK may exempt some of these companies from the 2% Digital Services tax as a ‘quid pro quo’ for a new tariff agreement with the USA which would be the terrible concession to make. But the fascinating part of their podcast were their insights int the new world order that may emerge. Their guess was that Canada would form a close association with Europe probably by in effect joining the Customs Union and the UK would follow on their coat-tails, with Australia, New Zealand and Japan and several other Asian economies joining in. After all, if you are clearing up after the ‘bull in the china shop’ (what an appropriate analogy, by the way) you do not need to put the various pieces that survive back into the place that they once occupied. The two podcasters made the interesting observation, shared by some other commentators, that the Trump tariff regime is not about economics at all. They make the point that Trump is first and foremost a showman as well as being extremely egotistical. Hence his announcement in the White House garden of the various tariffs that were about to imposed on practically on country on earth (but not Russia!) meant that most countries in the world, not to mention the major corporations, were hanging on Trump’s every word and he was loving every second of it. In his attempt to re-industrialise America, Trump might not be at all unhappy about wrecking other parts of the world economy as, in a paradoxical sense, it reinforces his self-belief as a president who is changing not only America but the whole of the world economic order.

Given the economic reconstructions that have to take place in the major western economies following this bout of severe American protectionism, then a nimble footed government could introduce all kinds of policy changes that might otherwise be hard to get through the political system. But there are indications that even erstwhile Trump backers are starting to appreciate the economic madness that is being wrought. Billionaire Trump backer warns business investment ‘will grind to a halt over economic nuclear war.’ Ackman, who endorsed Donald Trump’s run for president, said the president is losing the confidence of business leaders – and should pause his trade war. In a lengthy post on social media, the billionaire fund manager wrote: ‘The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out. That’s to give time to resolve any trade issues through negotiation. If, on the other hand… we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt. Consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate’

Yesterday morning did not exactly go as planned. It did not start well when the carers thought that Meg may be suffering from an infection and also reporting the unwelcome news that the deep tissue injury on Meg’s heel might be showing signs of breaking down. So my first reaction was to make an urgent call to the District Nurses to apply a dressing to Meg’s heel(s) and then I needed to utilise the webform which is the way in which requests the assistance of a doctor in today’s conditions. Just after breakfast, the postman delivered a parcel for Meg which was not expected but when I opened it up, it contained two large medical bootees which were designed to wrap around the heel/foot to help with the deep tissue injury. I was just on my way out to collect a newspaper when the District Nurse turned up and thought that Meg’s heel did not look in too bad a condition but fitted the bootees as I shall call them to Meg’s feet. Shortly afterwards, I did get a phone call from a doctor whose name I did not recognise who fitted the track record of being of useful as a chocolate teapot. Without suggesting that she would make a call to see Meg she indicated that she would prescribe some antibiotics and offered not very helpful advice how to get food and drink inside Meg. So, we shall probably have to wait at least a couple of days for the antibiotics to arrive through the post (I cannot leave Meg in order to get a prescription dispensed) so I am just hoping the infection does not worsen until the antibiotics have time to arrive. In the meanwhile, the carers came in the middle of the day but now had Meg’s bootees to take into account whilst they were making her comfortable.

It was reported mid-afternoon that Donald Trump is considering a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except China, according to the president’s top economic adviser. It is still too easy to make an assessment whether this is somewhat of a ‘U’ turn on Trump’s part, but it is certainly the case that some of our economic and financial elites are starting to worry about the potential damage to the world economy. Some leading bankers and large investors met over the weekend and one wonders whether the international banking community will withdraw support and succour to the American regime.

Now that I have one room in the house – our dining room – restored to a state of perfection such as it has not known for at least 10 years, I am resolved to continue on a de-cluttering campaign, aided by the fact that spring is here and the days are lengthening. Actually a Swedish book, and the concepts it explains, has hit our bookstores recently. ‘Döstädning,’ or ‘Swedish death cleaning’ is a Swedish term that which refers to the practice of sorting through and discarding possessions to make the process of clearing out a home easier for loved ones after death. The primary goal is to reduce the emotional and practical burden on family members who would otherwise have to sort through a lifetime of accumulated belongings. While it involves decluttering, ‘Swedish death cleaning’ goes beyond simply tidying up; it is about intentionally curating one’s belongings, keeping what truly matters, and letting go of items that no longer serve a purpose or bring joy. The benefits can be listed as follows.

Peace of Mind: By taking control of one’s possessions, individuals can gain a sense of peace and clarity, knowing that their affairs are in order.
Simplified Legacy: It helps ensure that loved ones are not overwhelmed by the task of sorting through a large collection of items.
Reduced Burden: By decluttering, the process of downsizing or moving to a smaller space can be made easier.

I think that I might buy and read the relevant book which is Margareta Magnusson:’The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter’ before I actually start because it might give me a whole series of tips and hints from which I could learn. I suspect that my son and his wife will give this book their enthusiastic endorsement and have already started at least some of this process themselves. Whilst on the subject of learning from others, I am a firm believer in the observation that one can learn something from someone every day if one is sufficiently open minded. But given our Anglo Saxon culture and the prevalence of social media, I have a feeling that we in the UK are not very good at learning from others or from cultural borrowing – for example, in terms of social policy we tend to take our lead from the USA which, in present times, is a terrible role model. We could learn a lot from the ways in which the Germans and the Scandinavian democracies organise themselves. For example, I believe that in Germany individuals from their middle age (when presumably their earnings are somewhat higher than when they were younger) pay an enhanced rate of social security contributions to help to reduce or to offset the increased costs of an ageing society for both themselves ( and their parents) This sounds such an eminently sensible idea but it is not even on the radar of any of our political parties. Sometimes, of course, the Liberal Party used to develop ideas and policies e.g. in the ‘green agenda’ which were then stolen by the other political parties just before election season.

Our University of Birmingham friend called around as he typically does and we spent some happy time discussing the problems that we had in common in our respective employs. After he left, the carers came round to perform their ministrations upon Meg and I pressed ahead with a lunch of a newly cooked ham, a baked potato and some mange touts. Meg ate most of her portion I am pleased to say and then I had a little doze. It was another superb afternoon so I made haste to get the back lawns cut whilst I could. Actually it only took some 15 minutes plus some extra time to clean up the mower which I do on every occasion. To prevent too big a buildup of grass/mud on the underside of the hood, I also give a spray of WD40 which would drive out any damp in any case. I took care in my mowing to avoid the slightly ‘dodgy’ side of the mower, repaired as it is with what I term ‘little girlie bands’ but more properly called hair bobbles. Just before I did the mowing, though, I did a quick think about what I might deploy to act as a table protector and actually found a little foot mat which might serve perfectly for the purpose. I have given it a thorough cleanup and the only problem is how and where to store it as if it developed a pronounced curl, it would not fit its intended purpose. This evening, the two caters might arrive for the bedtime call about 15 mins earlier than usual. I am quite looking a quiet evening where I can read the Sunday newspaper at my leisure and perhaps catch up on the Trevor Philips Politics programme generally broadcast at about 8.30pm on a Sunday morning bit which I now miss as the ‘morning call’ carers arrive at about this time.

Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday. Sky News is reporting that around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in every US state, in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida- just miles away from where the president has this weekend played golf. The ‘Hands Off!’ protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues. In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: ‘Make democracy great again.’ And as I was preparing lunch, I was listening to Radio 4 and I think that I heard a female American commentator observing that the USA was as near as turning into a fascist state as it was possible to imagine. Now of course Trump and his cronies can ignore these protests for ever and a day but eventually this tide of public opinion might have an effect on enough members of the Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate) to swing some crucial votes. Both houses are fairly evenly divided at the moment unlike the UK House of Commons so it is not going to take vast numbers of the Congress to change their minds for Trump’s measures to be countermanded or made invalid (not to mention illegal)

Last night proved to be another late night but largely because I really wanted our dining rom to be absolutely perfect before I completed my reclamation of it. Because the dining table was a large area even though populated by some table linen, I tended to use it whenever I needed plenty of space to do a clerical type of job. The prime example of this would be Christmas card writing them when I had piles of different kinds of cards, address books, address lists, stickers of news to go inside, address labels stamps, Sellotape and so on. I also used this table when I was experimenting with putting a keyboard on an iPad and other activities when needed to have a number of files open around me. The solution, of course, is is be absolutely scrupulous about clearing away afterwards so that the dining room looks like a dining room and not an overflow work area. As the table looked a little bare, I put a place mat on each setting and complemented this with some coasters of which we seem to have accumulated a lot over the years. As I put the coasters into position, I realised that they were the same rural scenes (I think taken from Constable) as the place mats themselves which I had not ever noticed before, so it gave me some pleasure to match them up with each other. In order to ensure that everything I wished now to retain was properly stored away, I needed to severely rationalise our drinks cabinet to create some storage space. At the end of the day, I have some papers that I need to file or discard and random items of stationery but these I have seated on a spare food tray so that I can take them out of the room easily to go through when I am in my sitting room. Of course, when you have things absolutely perfect and in is rightful place, it creates a big incentive to keep it that way. The next more formal occasion when the room will be used for its proper purpose may well be next month if we decide to have a family meal to celebrate my 80th birthday and, of course, if we have some friends around for some afternoon tea.

In the USA, the Democrats have finally taken a leaf out of the Republican campaign book and come up with a good catchy slogan to rival ‘Make America Great Again’ The slogan is the three word mantra ‘Tariffs are Taxes’ and the message is being hammered home that Trump and his cronies are imposing a $3,800 tax on each American family. Although I deplore the modern tendency to reduce complex political policies to simplistic slogans, I am prepared to concede that on this occasion the Democrats might have found a worthy stick with which to beat Trump and the oligarchy with which he has surrounded himself. The increase in tariffs against the Chinese coming on top of other tariffs (imposed by past Democrat presidents!) has spurred the Chinese into retaliatory action, the consequences of which are likely to be severe.

I was not a particularly happy bunny this morning because although I was ready for the pair of care workers at 8.35, I received a text saying that one of the carers could not make the call and could I assist the other one? The carer who turned up ome 40 minutes late had been on maternity leave and although she had seen Meg a year ago, she was in a very different state of health just then. Consequently, I needed to instruct the carer about how to deal with Meg at the moment and the call started so late there was no chance that we could get down to Wetherspoons to see our friends. But I texted them to explain we probably could not make it this morning but in order to avail ourselves of the fine weather, I pushed Meg down the hill to Waitrose to pick up our Saturday newspaper and then got back to a well-earned cold drink of cordial. The strip light bulb I ordered for the unit arrived this morning and this went into the cocktail bar ‘section’ which is normally hidden behind a locked panel so now I have the four lights working in the display cabinet for the first time in years. I also have in mind, and have done some preliminary searches, for a ‘table protector’ which can be bought in a variety of sizes. When next I need to have a larger working area, I will utilise the table protector so that I do not disturb the place settings underneath. Looking at how these are advertised, I think that people engaged in craft activities deploy these table protectors so that in the pursuit of their hobby they do not damage the furniture. After lunch, even though a little tired, I thought I would get the front grassed area cut although the flattened molehills make life a little difficult at the moment. But I got the mowing done, leaving Meg to listen to a Beethoven concert on YouTube and, fortunately, the mower behaved itself with the temporary repair that I effected last week. Tomorrow, I will cut the back lawn which only takes half the time of the front.

This afternoon when the two young care workers arrived, I showed them our renovated dining room because they had seen it at its worst when there was a hole in the ceiling. I also showed them the pencil portraits that our Lancashire friend had drawn of us whilst we were all on holiday in Southern Spain and they were intrigued by these – they agreed with my plan to eventually get them framed. Incidentally one of the newest care workers who was one of the older generation said that I reminded her of the film star, Clark Gable. Now she is not the first person to have made this observation and I suspect that is the similarity of the moustaches that lead them to that conclusion. I did out of interest, though, see what Clark Gable looked like and there is the faintest of resemblances but I would not want to dwell on that.

Last night proved to be quite a full one, once Meg was asleep in bed. But the evening did not get off to a flying start because the anticipated carer who was due to arrive at 7.00pm (and was scheduled to assist him) did not turn up and the relief care worker turned up at 7.40pm. By this time, Meg was well and truly asleep and badly slumped in her chair so it always more difficult to prepare Meg for bed under these circumstances. I had set myself the task of washing all of the really good glassware which normally occupies a pride of place in our display cabinet, being wedding presents in the main. Glasses stored in a display cabinet like this acquire a sort of dull bloom and we used to empty the cabinet once a year as part of a spring-cleaning routine but those days have long gone. I started the seemingly endless cycle of washing the glass, drying it and then remembering how they were actually stored but I did manage to complete this task sometime after 9.00pm. Then there remained three large cardboard boxes filled with all kinds of things that we have accumulated over the years, so I completed the task of emptying one of them which was filled with some ornaments and pictures that adorn the walls and shelves of our dining room. Then I placed one of the two remaining boxes on the table and started on its contents. At 10.00pm having got all of the glassware back into the unit and two of its lights working again (not an easy task as the supply cord had been trapped behind it by the decorators who had not seen fit to rescue it before it was moved back into position) I decided to have a break. Unusually, I thought I would treat myself to an especially fine flavoured low alcohol beer but then, not to break the habit of the last few months, I promptly fell asleep with the beer glass falling from my grasp. Most of this ended up on my trousers (straight into the washer) and some of the rest on a protective mat I have in position to guard against such an event but the remainder on the carpet. Now I have to swing into a well-rehearsed routine to clean spills off the carpet which involved a lot of water and then drying off with liberal amounts of kitchen towel using bare feet to get the right degree of moisture absorbing pressure (a tip got from a local renowned carpet cleaning expert). Then I really have gone to bed, but I wanted to watch a bit of NewsNight in view of the global financial reaction to the Trump tariffs and then I could not resist a little start on one of the remaining boxes. Here I discovered all kinds of things long forgotten about but often, I suspect, Christmas style gifts. The box proved to be a cornucopia of forgotten things but I did discover a wine thermometer, a fine Italian leather note wallet and a couple of pencil portraits that a holiday friend of ours – quite a renowned artist in his own right – had sketched of Meg and I whilst we were on one of many vacations with him and his wife. We might just get these framed when I am next in the vicinity of the local photographic shops that sells frames in variety and will find a place to give them the airing they deserve. Needless to say, I am finding some things to throw away but not quite as much as I expected.

The carers arrived at a time schedules slightly later than usual and they got a sleepy Meg up, washed and dressed whilst I supplied her with porridge as per usual. I had a quick excursion to get my Saturday newspaper, and I had not been back for long when the electrician turned up to re-install the light fittings taken down before the decoration. As he was doing his work, I questioned him about things electrical and I pointed out that I needed to get a 221mm picture (strip light) for the central panel of the unit. He thought these things unobtainable and did a quick search on the internet through his mobile phone to no avail but said he would look for me to see if any his suppliers had any old stock. I searched on eBay and found one source that sold the longer (280mm) strip lights, so I emailed him to ask him if the shorter picture light was still available and did he happen to have any? I then had a bit of brainwave and cannibalised the size of bulb I needed from the companion corner unit so now the main unit has all of its three lights working for the first time in years. I did a quick Amazon style search and did find a 221mm bulb so promptly ordered it because I suspect that they are (or may become) as rare as hen’s teeth. I contribute to be inspired by my clearing out zeal so carried on apace with the second last box until everything here had been sorted. Then I started on the final box and, by Sod’s law, found a bulb of exactly the kind I was looking for, so it was soon fixed in the corner unit and is working perfectly. The late morning carer came round to check on Meg but she was comfortable, so I mentioned to the carer how I was de-cluttering and disposing of unwanted stuff from the dining room. As it turned out, she was absolutely mad about candles and so I let her have a good supply them to her. At the same time, I established that she was a gardener as well, so she left clutching one of my big RS encyclopadias which reduces my book clutter a little. Then I carried on until the entire table and was cleared and I reestablished the normal table decoration – the dining room looks tidier than it has been for about 15 years! I took a photo of it and and am now resolved to keep it in its nice clutter-free state. I still have some files of paperwork to sort through and file or discard, but I can do that anywhere and at my leisure.

Late last night and just before I went to bed, Donald Trump was announcing the list of tariffs he was going to impose across the world. The UK is going to be hit by a 10% tariff which is better than a 20% tariff which would meant the loss of thousands of jobs but worse than no tariffs at all. The UK seems to have emerged from this bloodletting with one of the lowest of tariffs but the 25% on imported cars seems to be universal and which will hit Jaguar/LandRover. My initial reaction was also shared by Beth Rigby, the respected Sky News political analyst whose reaction was ‘It could have been worse’ But even a 10% tariff will hit the UK hard and will result in some job losses without a doubt but the UK is continuing to try to negotiate a better deal given that our trade with the USA is approximately equal in both directions and therefore any tariff is unfair. The EU for whom Trump seems to have a particular hatred is to be faced with a 20% tariff and they are certainly going to retaliate with reciprocal tariffs of their own. The reaction of the rest of the world will unfold throughout the day but ‘Liberation Day’ for America spells out a terrible downturn in world trade from which we all suffer, and stock markets will no doubt fall throughout the day as the news is digested. In the days when we used to have ‘GATT’ (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) trade negotiations were long and complex and took months to emerge and were certainly not announced unilaterally by a world superpower. In time, the USA may be able to ramp up is manufacturing capacity, but this cannot be done overnight, and Americans will be hit in the short term. The big political question is whether this short-term hit will be enough to stop Trump in his tracks but it all rather depends on how well the Democrats get their act together and any reverses in the electoral battle grounds. The next month or so will prove crucial in the American political scene and, of course, what happens in the USA is bound to have an effect on the UK economy which is hardly in a healthy state.

Thursday is my shopping day and I have a ‘sitter’ to care for Meg whilst this gets done. Fortunately, these days, Meg is still pretty sleepy in the mornings which makes my dashing out to do the shopping a little easier to bear but I still try and do it as fast as I can. It is always a relief to get home and see that all remains well. After I had the shopping put away, my son (recently retired) called round and said he would help me to put our dining room back to rights after the redecoration. We re-hung the curtain pole and restored the dining room table to its rightful position as well as re-commissioning two audio systems that we have in the room. One worked fine, the other which was a Sony system inherited from my son and daughter-in-law, we got working but frustratingly the remote seemed to work for a second or so and then fail. It is always possible that it got damaged in the flood damage but as I can get the system to play ClassicFM that is good enough for me in the meantime. There are several boxes of china and bric-a-brac yet to unpack but the glassware I want to keep needs to be washed and then out back in its rightful place but anything else I will put in some boxes for the carers to have first refusal and then the rest will go to charity shop. Then I started the business of trying to return some of the NHS equipment we have accumulated. After a couple of phone calls, I have a collection day of next Wednesday so the equipment is neatly stacked up in the hallway awaiting collection. I also have several other pieces of gear including a wheelchair very similar to the one supplied by the NHS which I am pretty sure I bid for on eBay about a year ago and this needs to go to a good home but the wheelchair service will not accept donations so I may have to find another quick and reasonable way to sell this. The trouble is I do not have the time to advertise, pack up, post off and so on but just want to see the back of the stuff. The wheelchair is pretty good, though, and might just be worth hanging onto in case I need it myself in a year or so’s time.

With all the comings and goings of today, I have not had a chance to catch up on world news but, as expected, there is a certain amount of controlled fury. China, facing a 34% tax, said it would ‘resolutely’ hit back and ‘take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests’.’China urges the United States to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue,’ said the commerce ministry. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the tariffs would have ‘dire consequences’ for millions of people around the world. The whole point is that world trade is a delicate ecosystem of rules, regulations and trading relationships which Trump is trying to re-write unilaterally. It must be said as well that the Americans do not care what the rest of the world thinks as they do not travel and interact as we in Europe would do, for example. There is an interesting geopolitical theory emerging that perhaps China, the EU, the UK and Canada ought to ‘gang up’ on the US to indicate what a rogue nation the USA has become. I even head the European representative of Republicans Abroad on the BBC2 Politics programme arguing that the US was ‘subsidising’ the rest of the world, they were effectively paying for the NHS for us! This argument was so ridiculous that even the Tory on the panel could not helping to laugh out loud at the absurdity of the suggestion.