"All in this together"

Not at all sure that we are, and in many ways it's a very patronising thing to say. I am lucky, I had a lifelong, secure, career in teaching & have a good pension. So I'm not in the same position as people on temporary or part time contracts with no job security, and certainly have never been made redundant or been unemployed through no fault of my own.

I came out of college with a degree equivalent qualification & knew that I would get a job after 3 years of study & GCE A & O Levels. I could even chose where I wanted to work, & if I didn't like it I knew I could easily get another similar job anywhere else I chose.

So I feel very sad for all the young people who have come out of education, at whatever level, and have no idea where or how they are going to get a job, let alone a secure career. There is something very wrong when intelligent, qualified people have to work in retail, coffee shops or bars. Or, worse still, can't find work at all. If significant numbers of our young people don't have hope & a productive & worthwhile life, society will, in the end, pay the price.

For the really privileged elite who now run this country it is even more offensive for them to say that "we are all in this together". They are the product of privileged, often private education with it's network of contacts to ease the way. Their parents were either wealthy by birth or created their own wealth. Our leaders, by an large, have no idea what it is to be poor or to have limited choices in their lives. I would have more respect for them if they made an effort to live on an estate, do a dead end job, or even better, fired off dozens maybe hundereds of applications without even the courtesy of a response. If you haven't any experience of confidence sapping rejection you should try it.

If I'm honest I don't know anyone who is in this situation, but I do realise that there has been a mega shift in our society, and I do sincerely try to empathise. Sympathy is no good, it doesn't solve anything. Our young people need action - jobs and apprenticeships.

We aren't even fair about "Internships". What a misnomer. The poor can't afford to work for no pay, while those with reasonably affluent parents will have no problems. When did it become OK for even state run organisations to "employ" people to do jobs without paying them?

Cynically even the "Big Society" is run on similar lines. If volunteers keep vital organisations going without pay they are depriving people of jobs. We have always had a tradition of volunteering & I have had volunteer jobs ever since I got medical retirement over 20 years ago. So I do think it is worthwhile, both for the individual and for society. But not at the expense of precluding young people from working or getting vital services on the cheap.

Increasing the age of retirement may solve one problem, although I doubt it. But it will create more. We need the elderly to retire to create movement upwards in the jobs market. It isn't rocket science. If the elderly stay in their jobs, the young won't have those jobs.

Creating a degree culture has raised the expectations of young people. Now we have far too many graduates & not enough jobs. We have put our young people in the position they are in today & we should do something about it, because it isn't acceptable.

No Room at the Inn

Jesus was born in a stable, so was technically homeless. I wonder what he would think about the number of homeless people in the "civilised" world today. There was "no room in the inn" for him, and there is no room in our hearts for the homeless. We don't want them in "our backyard".

He also had to flee into Egypt to escape Herod's massacre of the innocents. So he was an illegal immigrent too. I would imagine that he would be shocked at the continuing massacre of innocent people all over the world today. He would certainly be shocked at the way immigrents are locked in detention centres. There have been population movements throughout history for a variety of reasons - economic, climatic, as a result of persecution. What gives us the right to deny other human beings a home & a better life? All National borders are man made & have been changed time and again over the years. We don't have a "God given right" to be isolationist.

What has become of pity? Where is our humanity? What price religion in this day and age?

Prisons of the Mind.

We are all self imposed prisoners. We are prisoners of convention, of what other people think and expect of us. We are prisoners of the conditioning and learned behaviour instilled in us by our parents. We all want to be liked or loved, admired & respected. We are co-dependent on others for validation of ourselves.

We may want to break free from this. There may be things we want to do, but haven't quite got the nerve to cut ourselves off from the weight of others opinions or demands. It is almost impossible for most of us to be completely selfish & do just what we want. Equally it is almost impossible to be completely honest about what we want to do or not do. We don't want to hurt the feelings of others.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this. But as you age you realise that you are on borrowed time. In reality everyone is on borrowed time because death or infirmity can come at any age. But it isn't till you are older that you realise this.

So, having spent your life putting someone else first, parents, partners, children, family, friends, the job......there has to come a time when you try to put yourself first. This means breaking the habits of a lifetime and it is not easy. If everyone was truly selfish society simply wouldn't function and we wouldn't be very nice human beings. Most things, particularly at the level of the family, rely on "goodwill", on people putting themselves out & putting others first. Usually, in my experience, it's women who do this.

Well, I've done it for 66, nearly 67 years. I think it's about time I was free. Free to say no. Free to do exactly what I want. Free to be impetuous & spontaneous. Trouble is, I think I'm probably too well programmed.

   

Prison & Prisoners

I go into a prison regularly as a volunteer monitor. So I see what prison really means & meet & talk to offenders & staff often. Because of that I find myself wondering what we actually achieve by putting people in prison, as opposed to what we think we achieve.

People who break the law make a choice & know what they are doing. So the logic is they should be punished. I'm not denying that the public need to be protected from a proportion of dangerous & recidivist offenders. I'm also not denying the often serious & long lasting impact crime has on the victims.

But, so many offenders have addictive personalities & therefore have drug and alcohol problems which aren't best treated in a prison. Also a big proportion have psychological problems and need specialist help which is difficult to provide in a prison environment. Added to all of that there are the problems of a lack of literacy & numeracy skills due to a poor level of education or low intelligence. Then there is the general seriously disfunctional family background many offenders were brought up in.

I'm not a "bleeding heart liberal". But I am concerned that we seem to be a very punitive country, with statistics for incarcerating offenders which are disappointingly high compared to other European countries. I wonder why that is? Could it be that politicians make policy on the basis of newspaper headlines & focus groups. They know all of the above. They also know the true cost of our prison population in financial & human terms. They know that there are other ways of ensuring justice. Community Sentencing & Restorative Justice are both successful, but not particularly publicly popular.

I was also a magistrate for 12 years, so have been on both sides of the fence. That & my current "job" convince me that there is an awful lot of Law, but not a lot of Justice. I am sincerely impressed with the way the majority of staff work with offenders in the prison. They do the best they can & manage to maintain a sense of humour. I don't usually know what crime an offender is "in" for, so take them at face value & try to help deal with their problems. They are mostly surprisingly polite & reasonably easy to talk to.

Our society reflects us as individuals. We either actively support, tolerate, or demonstrate against any policy. Do we really want to be a "lock them up and throw away the key" society? Are we capable of being less judgemental and right wing & are we prepared to look a bit deeper & try to make the punishment really fit not only the crime but the criminal?

When you are eating your Christmas dinner surounded by friends and family, think about those thousands, not just offenders but also immigrants, who we have deprived of their family & friends as well as their freedom. Try, just try, to imagine what that might be like.         

The Eurozone

I can't remember a time quite like this in my lifetime. There have been times of great political upheaval - the miners strike for instance. There have been times of great austerity - the three day week, when the lights did actually go out. There have been times when I have genuinely thought that we were on the brink of a major conflict - the Bay of Pigs.

But never a time when I felt that the political leaders simply didn't know what they were doing - didn't really have a clue what the solutions to the problems were. Probably didn't really understand the problems.

Yet they still feel the need to trade insults with the opposition, whether another party or a different sovereign state. They still think that we are persuaded by braggadacio & posturing. They so underestimate the intelligence of the public. We know that things are seriously wrong. We know that there aren't any simple solutions. We don't expect them to have all the answers, but we do expect them to "know someone who does".

I have completely lost faith in governments & the coalition. There are undoubtedly genuine politicians who are there to try to do a good job & make long term decisions for the benefit of the people of the country. But I'm hard pushed to name many. Meanwhile time is running out & everyone in the world is being affected by this crisis. The longer it goes on & the deeper it gets the worse the impact will be. If I were in as much comparable debt as countries are I would be jumping off the nearest high building!

The way the system is designed both in the UK & in Europe is no longer a true democracy. The systems themselves are so complex & interconnected that I think we may have reached a stage where we are almost ungovernable by consensus.

Someone needs to get a grip & soon.  I'm not a financial whizz, but even I know -Printing more money won't work - Being isolationist won't work - Spending more or borrowing more won't work - Relying on anything other than producing goods that people all over the world want to buy won't work.

It's basic household management. In order to spend you have to earn. Bring in the women who manage household budgets - maybe they can do it.

Christmas Spirit

I don't really have any. I find the whole performance shallow & superficial, time & money wasting.

I do not want to spend my time shopping for gifts for people, young or old, when they already seem to me to have everything their hearts could desire and more. I suppose the good thing is that charity shops probably do well out of unwanted gifts after the event. Or the gift will go into the "present drawer" for some other unsuspecting recipient on another occasion. You just need to remember who gave it to you so you don't give it them back!

I don't want to receive any more "stuff" either. If I want something I want to be able to chose it for myself, not have someone buy something in the mistaken belief I will like it or it will suit me. My life is paved with Christmases & birthdays I've looked forward to with eager anticitaption, only to have to pretend to be overjoyed with the gift so I don't spoil it for the giver.

I don't want to spend my time, which is diminishing on this earth, writing cards to people I communicate with on a regular basis in one form or another. I much prefer to say my good wishes face to face. I now send e greetings & give the money saved for cards & stamps to a new charity direct debit every year. The rolling programme continues year after year so the charities continue to benefit. I'm also pleased that I'm not contributing to deforestation. Interestingly, when I announced that I would no longer be sending cards, my reasoning wasn't universally understood or accepted. It was nearly the end of one friendship.

Similarly I don't enjoy the time wasting process of wrapping gifts & am frankly no good at it at all. However I do enjoy seeing the excitement of children opening parcels, so they are the only ones I continue to buy for. I tend to buy smaller, less expensive presents or contribute to a big present with their parents in the belief that the children I know already have vast quantities of things to amuse them.

Then there is the shopping. I simply don't understand why anyone would want to spend time searching fruitlessly for the perfect gift in over hot & crowded stores, being entertained by the worst mindless & loud music. I don't go "shopping" very often anyway & when I do I rapidly come to the conclusion that there is nothing that I want that is worth the very real pain.

There is also the food. Recipe searching, menu planning, food shopping & searching for obscure ingredients. The cooking starts at least a month in advance if you want quality home made as opposed to overpriced, less delicious,shop bought. The stress of mass catering on the 3 days of Christmas can & does lead to real family dischord. Not to mention the dreadful bloated, over stuffed, feeling after too much food. The only thing you can say about drink is that it probably gets you through everything else if you have enough of it. 

Go into any garden centre & you will  be overwhelmed with Christmas decorations. Some people must buy new every year! It is an art form from the decidedly kitch to the really "less is more" tasteful. I simply can't be bothered. There is enough everywhere I go - I don't need it at home as well.

I won't dwell on family & friends, but there are a lot of ill and lonely people out there for whom Christmas is just another day to get through. They are not supported by anyone & certainly couldn't be said to enjoy their lives. Many families too try to keep up the charade of getting on when in fact there is a divide between them.

The whole thing is a mirage. A confidence trick of expectation over reality. It is supposed to be the season of joy. For who? For the fortunate who have the cash & the home & the loving friends and family. Our values are totally skewed. We are blinded by rampant consumerism to believe that this is what it is all about.

We should wake up & get back to something more meaningful. I'm not religious, so don't believe in the Virgin birth or that Jesus was the Son of God. But I do believe that we are living in a decadent society which has lost it's way & is in the throes of destroying itself. We need to wake up to reality.

Money (Mis)Management

I am a "bear of very little brain" when it comes to finances. My current account always takes me ages to reconcile with my statement. (The bank is always right!) However I do "get" some simple rules which seem to be beyond the financial movers and shakers of the world. I only buy things that I can afford to buy, (and need). I pay off my credit card every month so I am never in debt. I don't waste money or resources. I think about the impact my spending has on the world & try to make informed choices.

So why am I paying the price for the obviously ridiculously profligate decisions made by bankers & city slickers?

• Why does anyone still think that perpetual growth is sustainable, or the way to get us out of the mess they got us into? Simply put, if we don't make anything to sell to someone else, or have marketable skills, we can't grow. Everything else is all smoke & mirrors.
• Why do they think that we can spend them out of trouble, when we have a huge amount of personal debt to pay off? Relying on rampant consumerism was never going to be anything other that short-termist.
• Why has no one been held accountable for the patently negligent decisions made by the banks & financial institutions. I can't think of any other comparable situation, fraud doesn't seem to hash a term to me, where someone wouldn't have ended up in court.
• Why do we continue to pay huge salaries & bonuses to people who obviously simply don't understand the financial con tricks they devised.
• Why do we tolerate a situation where banks are announcing billions of profit, but not even keeping pace with inflation in the interest they pay savers like me? 

I despair.

My parents were "working class". I don't feel I ever went short, but there wasn't much spare cash & we had to have lodgers throughout my teens to pay for me going to Grammar school, staying on in the 6th form & then going to college. Books came from libraries. Most of my clothes were made by my mother. My father had an allotment to make the housekeeping go further. We travelled by bus. Holidays were cheap B&Bs or camping. All meals were cooked from scratch. I worked at the weekends in shops as soon as I was able & worked all through college holidays to pay my way. 

I married as soon as I left college & had a child after a year & a half teaching. I can remember having to have egg & chips on consecutive nights when the housekeeping ran out. Child Allowance kept us going. We moved from council housing when we had saved up enough deposit for a mortgage when my daughter was a toddler. Gradually we both got promotions & moved to better houses. I went back to teaching as soon as my daughter could go to nursery to help financially.

None of this is a sob story. I actually think I am very fortunate in having parents who were willing to make sacrifices for me to get an education. That education made me middle class, with a lifelong profession, & relatively "comfortable" in my middle age. All my life I have worked hard for what I have and it hasn't always been easy.

What seems to me to be missing now is the whole ethic which I grew up with. Everthing is greed, self, rights without responsibilities, short termist, power oriented. "I want it & I want it now, whether I have earned it or can afford it & never mind the impact it has on people less fortunate than me".

It will come back to haunt us if we don't stop & think & change our ways. This is just the beginning. Worse is yet to come. Much worse.