Election lost on the battlefield of culture wars?

I stated a while ago that I thought culture wars were sending the Tories down a cul de sac with ever diminishing returns.

People want answers to paying energy bills, putting food on the table & seeing a Dr etc. Not culture wars.

The local elections to this point, far from showing me this is wrong, have only fortified my thoughts on this.

But I think there is more to it than that.

A lot of people are looking at the Tories and seriously wondering what they have to offer if they were to get another five years.

You look at the front and back benches which are devoid of any heavyweight politicians. There are some more competent than others but overall they are extremists and ideologues. 

Even Sunak comes across as an over promoted school prefect.

They have no policies, solutions or ideas that will solve the current problems. The policies they do offer are only performative. Designed to create division and distraction rather than solve the issues they are supposed to address.

People have rumbled this and do not want another five years of destruction and decay.

Government, BBC, Culture wars and Lineker.

The most important thing to realise is that the BBC is simply the monkey not the organ grinder. The government is the organ grinder.

The government has applied political pressure to create division and a distraction. But in doing so they have not only exposed the blackness at their own heart they have created a platform which shows how many people dislike this government's divisive rhetoric.

They think culture wars will get them re-elected. I think this Lineker episode exposes the cul de sac that the tories are fast heading down.

In the cold light of the voting booth what will come to people's minds? Culture wars? Or energy bills? Rising rent/mortgages? Energy bills? High food bills? 9Struggling to get a doctor's appointment or access to a dentist? That long wait for treatment on the NHS? Pension moving ever farther away? The struggle to find a job? The worry about your job security due to economic mismanagement?

I think any culture war is going to be very low on the list. 

The local elections in May will show where things are on the list.

Does your mind ever wonder to the bigger picture?

It's easy to get caught in the immediate stuff like the Tory Brexit or the cost of living crisis.

Does your mind ever wonder to the bigger picture? By bigger picture I mean the biggest picture. Mine does.

The human race. Where are we going? The answer to me cannot be separated from where we came from.

Everything we know including ourselves is made of matter. Matter that was created in the birth of stars.

In other words we are born of the stars. Our destiny, if we are to survive as a race, lies one way or another in the stars.

One likely possibility is that we will be stupid enough to burn through all the natural resources on our planet. Therefore we will have to journey to the stars to find another planet for human life to continue.

Even if this scenario, or another scenario, does not occur one day our sun, like all stars, will burnout and explode. Resulting in the same journey to the stars, beforehand, to find another planet if we are to survive as a race.

Our journey as a human race therefore started in the stars and unavoidably will end in the stars.

The Tories are the problem.

Sunak has a deal. The real question is whether he is prepared to take on the extremists in his party or rely on Labour votes? Or will he fold entirely and leave things as they stand?

Sunak is a weak leader in charge of a split party. 

The dance around the NIP this week illustrates why the Tories need to be removed from power if this country is ever to repair some of the economic and social damage they have caused.

This deal was needed to kill the NIP bill now in the Lords. This would have been a key step to build trust with the EU. In turn that could have led to.a closer relationship benefiting the economy.

The factions and individuals within the Tories may have dealt a fatal blow to their fading electoral hopes. The economy will now carry on scraping along ar the bottom. More importantly their blind ideological stubbornness and, in some cases, individual entitlement have solidified the damage in this country.

At every turn since and including the referendum individuals within, factions within and the Tory party itself have put it/themselves before the interests of the country.

Reflections

 Sat in the window seat of a coffee house this morning. The perfect position to watch the world go by.

Yet my attention is drawn to the bulb just above my head.

The glowing pleasingly shaped filament. 

The warm colours in the glass. Warm like a real fire.

The reflection of the world around me. The window bar where I am sitting and my cappuccino at the bottom of the bulb. 

The street outside with people moving to and fro on the left of the bulb.

All the while my world sits next to me in conversation, Mrs J and my Son, while my autistic mind wonders…..

Running and ageing.

A personal outlook on this as it is a very individual thing.

I look on it as you can either rage against the dying of the light or accept it and make the most of it.

I'm nearly 55. I could take the position that I am still 25 and try to run and train like I am. Or, I can accept I am nearly 55 and train and run to do the best for my age and circumstances.

I choose the latter.

Ageing is something we can't change. We will all get older. But we can alter our running and training to allow us to continue and still enjoy running.

I find a combination of running, yoga and pilates works for me. My race personal bests are behind me. But, I do get some PB's for my age and occasionally a PB on my garmin for shorter distances.

I enjoy running these days for the sake of running. I appreciate the fact I can run when many, for various reasons, cannot. I enjoy simply participating in a race rather than the competition.

My next race, first since the pandemic, is the Chester Metric Marathon in October. Looking forward to this for a number of reasons. Firstly just to enjoy participating and appreciating the countryside as it passes by.

Secondly to meet up with people, from my running website/club, who I haven't met.

I record my runs on www.fetcheveryone.com which also has a UK athletics affiliated running club - FERC. As anyone, anywhere can use it there are members far and wide "Fetchies". It will be good to finally have a chance to meet some of them in real life.

There is also the bonus of a PB. I haven't run 26k specifically so will be guaranteed a PB 😀 There's more than one way to still get a PB as you get older 🤣🤣

So to sum up, for me as I get older it is about just appreciating and enjoying the journey 🏃

EU law bill folly

Firstly there are no EU laws left. Since we left the EU all our laws are just that - ours. EU laws were incorporated into our statute. Why? Because either they are useful or would cause too much damage if removed.

Secondly if, as this bill requires, they are removed overnight it will cause chaos within business and therefore more massive economic damage.

So why do this? Because they have the letters E U linked with them? Possibly but more than likely only slightly. 

Scorched earth policy knowing they will likely lose the next election. Again possible but only slightly likely.

Doing it in the full knowledge the Lords will alter it substantially. In this case it keeps the eternal excuse going that if so and so had only done or allowed this Brexit would have been a success. A lot more probable than the other reasons.

The question is if they remove them what do they replace them with? It's unlikely they would remove these laws, causing all the ensuing damage, just to replace them with something similar. 

So you have to reason they want a clean slate to remove the rights we enjoy but inconvenience them. 

All the roads from Brexit far from leading to 'sunlit uplands' seem to lead downhill for the majority of us.