Money, the root of all evil?

Dear Diary,

Today.

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.

Louisa May Alcott
1832-1888

Politicks are now nothing more than a means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politicks and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.

Dr Johnson in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, 1775.

I am late in posting this and so it is really Old News, the like of which you have probably had your fill. For that I apologise but I have a good excuse as I had a wee accident in the home, something I have a penchant for doing, if truth were told. But even though we Arians are accident-prone this one was not my fault. I was sitting on the edge of my new and previously much-loved and raved about Ikea Poang chair when I reached out to brush one of my dogs.

Suddenly I found myself on the floor and the chair which had tipped over was on top of me. So if you have one of these chairs then beware. They are probably safe on carpet but mine is on quarry tiles and must have slipped. Since then I have had pain in my back which I am hoping is just bruising. Thank God for Ibuprofen, hot water bottles, Tiger Balm and arnica. They can be my Blessings for today. At least it has rained almost solidly these last few days so I couldn’t have gardened anyway.

Anyway here is the late post.


(Last Friday)

I received an extremely high ‘leccy bill this morning; not the best time to start worrying about how I would manage to pay it……..with what is going on in our country. So I warn you, today’s blog will be free of Blessings but instead will be full of Moans and Groans.

BBC’s Question Time was from Grimsby last night and was exceptional in that there was none of the usual argument between the politicians on the panel. There was one MP from each of the main parties and they all looked as if they were suffering from lack of sleep, indeed they seemed to be visibly shaken and I detected a wobble in their voices but I must say that the lack of backbiting between them was very welcome.

Margaret Beckett was heckled…. and some …..(whoop whoop! - I just wished it had been Hazel Blears). Teresa May was struggling. Min Campbell, who, naïve soul that I can be sometimes. I would never have suspected of any wrongdoings was also clearly in a bit of a corner. They were all heckled as the programme progressed.

Conversely you could almost see the halo around the head of the Assistant Editor of the Telegraph as he was bathing in the glory of the appreciation of the audience and probably the whole of the electorate too. There was even a good looking bloke on there too in the form of one of the top bods from McDonalds and he also spoke such good common sense. Would that there were more like these two, with a sense of urgency and strong, decisive solutions to this expenses horror story.

So just how angry am I with our politicians?

I am incensed. Especially with those who have broken or twisted their rules and treated taxpayers with contempt. I am even more than angry, I am livid with those who are nothing more than criminals, crooks, fraudsters - we know who they are and they are still coming. They should be prosecuted as anyone else would be and I see that the Daily Mail are starting a fund to bring about private prosecutions.

(I never thought I would ever agree with the Daily Mail!).

There is a complete lack of morality in this whole affair, a lack of ethics in the manner we have been governed. Pure corruption is the name of the game.

A few more questions…

Why should MP’s set their own salaries anyway? No other employee does.

Should politicians be above the law? Should anyone be above the law?

Should fraudster be prosecuted? Of course they should.

And shouldn’t those MP’s who payback what they ‘stole,’ pay the interest as well?

Half our banks are in national ownership which is all down to risky investment and obscene amounts paid out in bonuses to the bankers.

And the heads of these organisations, RBS’s Fred Goodwin for example, swan off with HUGE pensions

A root and branch reform of our so-called democracy is long overdue.

And now I hear that more money is needed for the Olympic Village and only 2.7 million pounds is in the contingency fund, half of which has already been spent and only 36% of the building work done. And all the while cuts have been made countrywide in small sporting sports projects that would have benefited the whole of our population.

Security costs for the bands of Royal hangers-on is another drain. Just one example - £280,000 each a year for Beatrice and Eugenie and £110,000 for a recent trip when one of them went swanning round the world.


On a lighter note I am losing myself in a funny book recommended by a borrower. It is The Only Boy for Me by Gill McNeil who also wrote Divas Don’t Knit which I haven’t read. I don’t normally read chicklit type books (am I too old?) but this one is making me laugh out loud in places so is good laughter therapy for me, better than political hysteria any day.

And if there is an antidote for all our anger I would suggest you read How to be Free by Tom Hodgkinson. This is a must-be-read-by-everyone kind of book.

There are lots of good poetry programmes on BBC4 and Radio 4 at the moment so if you are a lover of poetry like me then look out for them.

I shall leave it at that,

Bye for now,

I am off to bath two smelly dogs, one is especially foxy.

Cait.