Apologies for the lack of blogging recently but I’ve been rather busy both personally and professionally, so something had to give. Plus, I’d have been tempted to indulge in some spleen-venting o ver the utter shit-show that’s the Tories election campaign, but more on that later!

The bank holiday weekend was rather sociable, partly because it was Dawn’s birthday on Saturday and we’d arranged to have a day out with her parents before going for a meal. We visited somewhere they knew well but I’d never been to before, Wentworth Garden Centre near Barnsley. It’s not just a garden centre (although that’s huge, and the cafe equally massive) but also an ornamental garden. I was impressed with both – especially the garden centre as it possessed a far greater variety of plants than any near us – and the prices were very reasonable too, which caused both Norah and I to come away with various green goodies. In my case a couple of colourful and unusual ornamental plants as well as herbs to replace some I’d lost last winter. Come the evening we adjourned to a favorite food haunt, Punch Tapas in Honley, near Holmfirth. The food’s always good, the atmosphere never too frenetic and the staff ever friendly and attentive.

The rest of the bank holiday weekend was spent at home doing not very much at all due to the weather, which has resorted to being atrocious. We’ve had huge amounts of rain dropping from end of the world coloured skies – as well as regular claps of thunder. To be honest, Dee was glad of the rest as she’s been working at 110% recently. I was quite happy to be housebound too as it gave me the opportunity to clear the decks of all the pictures I’d taken over the past week and get them out to clients – and get paid! Now we’re in a new week and the end of yet another month. The weather’s showing no sign of improving – exactly the opposite. We’ve more yellow warnings of thunder and heavy rain so I’m thankful that I’ve another day at home, writing for a living.

Of course, I’ve been keeping one eye on the election, and I have to say I’ve never known such an utter shit-show. It’s hard to believe the Tories once had a reputation as a fearsome electoral machine because all we’ve seen since Sunak dropped the news he was calling it has been one disaster after another. Over the weekend he came up with another ‘brainwave’ no-one in his party had been consulted on – bringing back national service. In fact, the whole idea had only been dismissed by his Government in Parliament the week before! But that’s ‘Head Boy’ Sunak for you. He only listens to a tiny bunch of ‘think-tanks’ he’s surrounded himself with. To say the idea was greeted by almost universal derision and condemnation would be an understatement. Of course, the right-wing press and client journalists tried to cheerlead for the idea, but it’s shot full of so many holes it’s had the opposite effect to the one he was mad enough to expect. As usual, the devil’s in the detail (not that there’s much of that) but the interesting admission was that the hopelessly underestimated cost (£2.5bn) would be paid for by scrapping grants to the regions that were meant to make up for losing EU regional funding after Brexit! Yep, the regions get shafted again!

This madcap idea was meant to appeal to the ‘hang ’em and flog ’em brigade, which is mostly the old. But not too old, as you’d have to be at least 84 to have done National Service (my FiL did, he’s 90 this year). To reinforce this appeal to an older generation, Sunak came up with a second ‘brainwave’, which is the ‘triple lock plus’. What’s that you ask? It’s a ruse to stop pensioners having to pay tax on their pensions as the Tories have frozen personal tax allowances until 2028. That ‘fiscal drag’ is why more people are now paying tax, but pensioners will become exempt. It’s just another mad ‘back of a fag-packet’ idea.

To say this appeal to the elderly is misjudged is becoming more obvious by the day. It’s widely accepted that the old make up the majority of the Tory membership and that it’s the over 65s who’re most likely to vote Tory, but the very latest polling research from Redfield and Wilton has put the cat amongst the pigeons. Here’s their breakdown of voting intention by age.

Labour are ahead in every age demographic – even the over 65s! In fact, only 26% of over 65s intend to vote Tory! The bribes aren’t working…

Polling across the board shows that the Tories are toast. If the polls are moving, the majority show Labour’s lead’s increasing. Nothing Sunak is doing is moving the dial in his favour. Mind you, you have to wonder what the next batshit idea his friends in the right-wing ‘think tanks’ will come up with. Bring back hanging? Send kids too young for national service up chimneys? Ban something – maybe Gay pride, or the Notting Hill carnival? I wouldn’t put anything past these people. God help us – we’ve 5 more weeks of this crap to go. Meanwhile, Labour are looking more and more like the adults in the room, just waiting to take over the reins of power.

There is one massive omission in all of this. Any talk of the biggest elephant in the room. Brexit. You can see why Labour are staying schtum. As the Napoleon quote goes – ‘never interrupt you enemy when he’s making a mistake’. What’s amazing is that the Tories aren’t talking about Brexit either. After all, they fought the 2019 election under the slogan ‘get Brexit done’. They did (supposedly) so why are they not crowing about the ‘success’ of Brexit, and how they’ve delivered on all it’s promises. Y’know – the ‘sunny uplands’ and all that, where we’re now richer and more important in the world, having ‘taken back control’? Anyone who’s not a fanatical Brexiter knows the answer to that one, but for some reason, the mainstream media give the Tories a free pass on that question…

OK, that’s enough politics for one night. Now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from Friday’s visit to Newton Heath Traincare centre in Manchester, not a place many people get to visit.

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