Bless The Weather, Curse The Storm...

Some days it's so difficult to come up with a single idea for a post on this blog: sometimes a single-themed channel seems like it might have been a better idea to commit to, but there we are. I opted for this open-ended format out of choice and I'm committed thereto, for better or for worse; for good. So tonight is ramble territory; a stroll through the byways of the day, my thoughts, and unfortunately, the bloody news. First off, of course, is that hardy perennial of British conversational gambits: the weather. What on earth transpired today? We had been told of a gradual turndown of the heat of the last few days in the coming week or so, and it was so unseasonably hot yesterday at 32 Celsius, which predictably precipitated much atmospheric electrical theatricality last night; but today? From a warm, hazy start to the morning, the temperature reached a still pretty warm high of 26 Celsius by the middle of the afternoon; but by around seven-thirty this evening, the wind having whipped up a change, the mercury substitute had dropped to 15C. I know the physical reality behind the meteorology of it, but I've never experienced such a dramatic late springtime drop in temperature in my seventy-one years on this earth; strange and worrying in equal measure.

As to the news, I really don't want to start, as there is so much going on in this world that is just plain wrong and more to the point, preventable. But there we are. What I will just note is that Tony Blair's bloody 'essay' on the current state of the Labour Party and its government was, writing as a lifelong Labour voter [and I have to add, non-doctrinal] party member, both unwelcome and pretty bloody unhelpful. It strikes me that this particular self-serving ex-Prime Minister should confine himself to his present business matters and keep his Tory-Lite think tank prognostications within his own socio-political milieu, leaving the bloody government alone to find ways to clear up the stinking mess that his 'New Labour' and subsequent Tory and coalition governments created in the first place. Just butt out, mate. As to the tragedy that is youth unemployment, as above, so below:

New Labour and the aforementioned continuation governments all operated to foster deregulation of business practices in the service of 'the free markets' [read: 'free for businesses to do as they fucking please'], at the expense of the labour market itself through their commitment to cutting back their workforce via the deployment of technology, lowering of wages, and reducing workers' rights in general; all aided and abetted by those subsequent governments. Leaving the EU has further exacerbated the situation by removing a huge chunk of the potential job market from our youth. As I've whined on about so many times in these pages, the very worst thing that governments can do is exactly this, because it fosters the absolute greed for profit-at-any-cost philosophy that underlies the so-bloody-called 'free' market. Cutting costs - i.e wages, principally - lies at the heart of this daft ethos.

What the fuck-wits at the helm of this Titanic of a vessel don't seem to realise is that the economy is a two-way street: those that work within it and earn wages and salaries are the drivers of that economy through their spending power: without that input there is de facto no business, as business is entirely by definition transactional. As with the Titanic, speed [growth, margins and dividends] isn't everything: the safety of your passengers most definitely is, as they're the ones paying you in order that you make the profit in the first place. Quad Erat Demonstrandum...