Tidings of great joy or of woe? Who can possibly tell amidst the doom and gloom of the reports filling the main stream media? It really does send negative vibrations across the airwaves, as if the whole of the western world is going to hell in a handcart. Politicians from both wings of the spectrum are floundering about, controlled by hidden forces. Honesty … probity … decency … rationality … no chance.
We, in Cyprus, feel somewhat insulated from the desperate state of the UK, but it doesn’t stop us feeling sympathy for friends and family who are suffering the shameful deprivations people are undergoing. And, let me put my cards on the table, I worked non-stop before and after university and did not ever consider going on strike. In the first instance, as an army officer it was illegal to strike and I would probably have ended up in the Tower of London. After that, the years of teaching were dedicated to the pupils I taught and the colleagues with whom I worked. Striking … I have always vehemently opposed strikes which damage the public. Nurses and ambulance staff striking to save the NHS - what a load of self-serving twaddle.
All of us who lived through the 1970s and had to endure the trade unions attempting to hold the country and the government to ransom, the “winter of discontent”, the heartbreaking inflation and the unbelievable decision of the government to give in to the strikes (with eye watering pay increases) to buy off the unions, know that the 2020s is a rerun of the 1970s without the flared trousers. After Oxford, I went into teaching and was incredulous when the school increased salaries by 30%. Within a year or two I was worse off. I now wait, not with bated breath, for the first union apparatchiks to mention the dreaded phrase “pay differentials” - which was the signal for the next round of blackmail to begin.
Where it will all end I have no idea, but - as the running joke in Star Wars had it - “I have a bad feeling about this”.
2023 is the year we work hard to put the last two years of broken bones (Ann’s) behind us and a nasty bout of illness which is now under control (mine). We have always been “glass half full” kind of people, and so optimism is the order of the day. I trust all the readers of this blog have a happy, healthy and fulfilling year. In the next month this blog will record its 70,000th page visit. Will that be you?
Hello Step-father, Happy New Year to you, am I the lucky 7 millionth visitor? Do I win a prize?? I always enjoy reading your blogs, even though I disagree with most of your political views, in a respectful way of course! Can I say, as a GMB member and a health and social care worker, and partner of a student paramedic, I am split on supporting the strikes, but the nurses I work with every day do not strike lightly, all are really uncomfortable with it, but all feel the NHS is dangerous in its current state, unappealing to work for and genuinely broken, and they are left with no other option. However, with their strikes, the social care sector (me) is put under more pressure... and nurses already earn loads more than I do as a carer! I predict riots by summer! Hope your New Year has been fine so far, I am saving my pennies to come and visit you soon, we can continue the debate then if you like x 🙂
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