Update 16
This week’s greatest downside has been the realisation that I am currently finding it impossible to derive pleasure from eating or drinking anything at all. The drug I bought at the pharmacy to overcome oral Thrush does not seem to have made any difference but another, as prescribed by Michelle should be available from this afternoon - my fingers are crossed. My breathing is still restricted though I have now self administered (injected) 50 doses of the Fragmin prescribed to deal with my Pulmonary Embolism - again I must hope for an eventual improvement. For the moment, the slow release Morphine seems to be keeping my headaches at bay. Unfortunately, another comms breakdown twixt surgery and pharmacy means the anti Thrush medicine along with two other items were not available by Thursday afternoon. We were however, able to collect them on Friday.
They know how to make an old man happy - last weekend the entire family came to Cheltenham
This week has been dominated by the new Chancellor’s first stab at something resembling a budget. His tax cuts, as predicted by Rishi Sunak and others have thrown the financial markets into chaos and provoked even some Conservative MPs to express doubt that Ms.Truss’s premiership can make it even through to Christmas. In Thursday’s Times 2, Rachel Sylvester reported that Kwarteng is untroubled by self doubt and does not need to be liked which, given the way things have gone so far, is probably just as well. In talking to his contemporaries she further notes that he lacks any real understanding of poverty or empathy for those struggling to heat their homes or put food on the table. He is, as another of her sources puts it “very much an Etonian”. Others have taken to describing him as “Kami Kwasi Kwarteng” - time will tell just how accurate is such graphic terminology. Whilst the pound looks to be recovering, the same can’t be said for the mood of the cabinet.
Interesting to note that Johnson’s legacy now appears to be a 33% lead for Labour in this week’s opinion poll of voting intentions. This should send Conservative voters into the”bring back Boris - all is forgiven” camp.
I’m getting ever crosser at statements that everyone’s energy bill has been “capped at £2500 per year”. No one’s bill has been capped at that level. The unit cost has been capped at 10.334 pence per kWh for gas and 33.726 pence per kWh for electricity. What you pay will still depend upon how many of those units you actually use. A lot of folk anticipating a maximum bill of £2500 are in for a shock. We live in a 3-bedroom flat (average accommodation?). At the old rate we were paying £3387 per year for gas and electricity. At the new rate we will be charged £3959 - way higher than that much quoted “cap”. Not for the first time, the government is wilfully misleading us.
One of our number (i.e. on this distribution list) explained succinctly why he also finds Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels so appealing: “a nice combination of fiction, fact, whodunit and history.” I agree, oh and by the way, I now have the dvd of that ‘Elvis’ movie.
