Promises, Promises, Promises

Hi Everyone

The new kid on the block has showered us with goodies this week, with no VAT to pay on our electricity bill, a reduction from £3 to £2 for all bus journeys outside London and a 20% reduction in business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues. All this is designed to give us “breathing space” with our cost of living. Apparently the VAT reduction will reduce our annual electricity bill by about £45 but does not apply until October, while the reduced fares on the almost non existent buses do not start until next January. Apparently, almost two pubs close their doors permanently every day in the UK, so with the reduction in business tax not applying until next April, a significant number of pubs will close before then. I would suggest that even then, many more pubs will be forced to close. My question is why does it take so long to implement these changes? Surely all could be dealt with within a month but it appears that the new kid on the block is just the same as the previous five kids on the block that we have had in the last ten years. The fact that he has also announced that the tax threshold will not be increased means that as our state pension rises each year we are paying more tax, and as most private pensions are not index linked it means that the reality of “breathing space” is almost non existent. 

Early in my working life, it was just a week to go before the two-week Potter's holidays. At that time you could have your holiday any time you wanted as long as it was the first two weeks in August. In those two weeks, the city would become a ghost town with the

building industry, coal mines, steelworks, and the Pottery industry closing down. As I was classified as staff, my £11 a week holiday pay was guaranteed but for the craftsmen and labourers their holiday pay was a book of holiday stamps that had been deducted from their weekly wage in the previous fifty weeks. Many would just stay at home with the odd day out; some would have a one week family holiday at the nearest seaside resort that had a railway station, as most families did not own a car, and even fewer would have a two week holiday. I remember some men, especially if they had a large family, keeping their holiday pay and finding other work for the two weeks. When we were first married, I was able to borrow the works' Bedford van. Having finished work at 5 pm on Friday, by 7:30 pm the Main Contractor and I, together with five or six family members and the family dog, would be on the road driving through the night to Cornwall for two weeks of sun and sand. The journey took eleven hours, as even though it was the middle of the night, we were caught up in queues of traffic making the same escape route as ourselves. We had a tent while the rest of the family stayed in a rented caravan. Those annual two weeks were special times for all of us, as when we went back to the five and a half day working week in the middle of the month, we knew that the next holiday from work would be Christmas Day and Boxing Day. How times have changed. 

Now our new kid on the block has pledged ro end rough sleeping. At the end of 2025 there were officially 4793 people rough sleeping on a single night in England, with charities noting that the real yearly total is much higher. Of course it is a pledge that we hope is successful but the fact is that three or four Prime Ministers ago made the same pledge when the number of rough sleepers was substantially lower than it is today. 

Just a Thought:

Taking over as Prime Minister is great until you realise that you are required to fix everything that you have spent years complaining about.

My friend put a map of the world on the Kitchen wall telling his wife that they were going on holiday wherever it landed. They spent two weeks behind the fridge.

I met a homeless man named Rich. He wasn’t.

Brian