Winter, ahem: Christmas is coming – definitely!

 

In ye olden days, before Audi Avenue denizens went on that ‘Great British Christmas Get-Away’ and ‘before covid’, Christmas Eve used to be a day of utter mayhem. Shopping centres and High Streets were bursting with people desperate to get their last-minute presents and their last pints in the pubs lining those streets. There were no outraged moans about those dreadful delivery drivers leaving all those Christma parcels out at the front doors, in the rain even, because ordering online simply wasn’t ‘a thing’ then. The supermarkets and indoor markets were heaving, there were ‘trolley wars’ and the queues at the checkouts – there were no ‘self check-outs’ in yon days – reached to the back of the stores. Everything closed, either at 1pm or 2pm. That was it.

Nothing was open on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. No ‘sales’, and pubs were closed. Grocery stores, much depleted, opened on the 27th of December. There was a huge uproar when the first superstores tried to start their sales on Boxing Day. The trade unions and Labour were fulminating against that because those sales deprived shop workers of their family life on Christmas. And now? This morning’s newspaper compilation is forgettable but predictably split between ‘royal news’; and other ‘news’ (link). 

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the usual traffic noise is way down. It’s a bit like during lockdowns. Perhaps people have taken the government nudges to heart and are refraining from having ‘fun’ in town because they might catch a bug and thus inconvenience the Sacred Cow. After all, there’s a ‘surge in flu and covid cases’, reports The Times, and doctors say people must be vaccinated (link, paywalled). By whom? Striking nurses? Absent GPs? Ah – wait: there are ‘locums’ and ‘agency nurses’ whom the desperate NHs always falls back on. Now see this: “The company that supplies the NHS with the most locum doctors and nurses paid its chief executive £1.1 million last year.” (link, paywalled). It’s ‘our NHS’ which pays those companies for those locums and agency nurses and, as we all know, it’s us taxpayers who pay for the NHS. What a lovely abuse of our money, wasted by the NHS.

Back in our towns and cities, the ‘Big Shops’ are so desperate to get people into their stores that they started the ‘Big Sale’ today already (link) – and why not? Christmas, after all, is now for shopping and spending. Those who want to have a ‘church service’ can watch one on telly or youtube. Still, there’s no uproar reported from trade Unions about show-workers being deprived of their own Christmas. Odd, innit like.

The ‘Big Getway’ was underway though. Shunning the inconvenience of the railways thanks to those strikes, people took to their cars. There was chaos, faithfully reported by the DM (link). Perhaps they’d have been better off flying away to skiing or to sunny beaches? The DT reports that

“Passengers have said they wish the Army could man the borders permanently after airports ran smoothly on Friday in an “embarrassing” blow to striking Border Force workers. […] passengers who had expected “carnage” [suggested] border checks were quicker than normal.” (paywalled link)

Oh dear. That’s a bit awkward, innit like. And then the DM ‘revealed’ that “[…] Border Force strikers have £21,431 starting salary and are demanding 10% pay rise. .. while the troops standing in for them get as little as £14,700” (link). That’s extra awkward, innit like! 

Two political ‘events’ are reported, one of which seems to be the latest subject of the beloved nudge unit. For some time now noises have been made that early retirement is damaging the economy. There was the BoE in November, blaming inflation on this phenomenon (paywalled link). Not much happened, people had other worries, such as energy prices. Then the nudgers used a different approach: telling the nation that those ‘early retirees’ were ‘feeling the squeeze’ and were returning to work. The cheek – or ignorance? – with which numbers allegedly supporting that argument were thrown around is staggering (my emphasis):

“Thousands of early retirees who gave up work during the pandemic are returning to the labour market as inflation eats into their savings. New figures show tens of thousands of 50- to 64-year olds “unretired” in recent months, in a much-needed boost to Britain’s workforce. The share of working-age people classed as economically inactive – meaning they’re neither employed nor job-hunting – fell by 0.2 percentage points between August to October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The decrease was driven by 84,000 fewer working age people classing themselves as retired.” (paywalled link)

I am utterly flabbergasted that 84,000 ‘returning retirees’ can have such influence on stopping inflation! Still – this being the latest ‘nudge’ – Sunak is planning to ‘encourage’ more of those retirees back:

“Rishi Sunak is drawing up plans to woo thousands of “missing” older workers back into the office with a “midlife MoT” in response to fears that Britain’s economic recovery is being held back by people taking early retirement. According to government estimates, about 630,000 people have left the workforce since 2019, with employment figures still not back to where they were before the pandemic began. This has been attributed in part to a big increase in professional workers over the age of 50 taking early retirement. Ministers want to encourage those individuals back into the workforce with a new personal MoT that will allow them to assess their financial health. […] The assessment will also be used to help them to identify opportunities for part-time or flexible work, mentoring and skills training.” (link, paywalled)

Never mind the extended bureaucracy needed to ‘woo’ yon retirees back: civil serpents would also have to abandon early retirement, yes?. Apparently it has escaped the attention of Sunak and his mandarins that ‘early retirement’ is a movement which is sweeping western economies. The reason most of those retirees give – from the USA to Germany – is that the level of taxation is so high now that work, especially for professionals, simply becomes unaffordable. ‘Teh Young’, demanding ‘work-life-balance’ and to work half-time onlyhave no influence on the economy whatsoever. It’s of course the bad ‘oldies’ who are the culprits again. This nudge will populate our MSM in the coming weeks.

The other ‘event’ to keep an eye on is one which might well cost Labour the next GE. Dutifully copying from the DT which reported that Starmer aims to change the ‘gender laws’ (paywalled link), here’s the useful headline in the DM:

“Keir Starmer ‘WILL change law to allow trans people to self declare their gender in line with Scotland’: Labour leader set to ‘update Gender Recognition Act if elected’ amid a 50/50 split within his own party” (link)

Middle England and the formerly ‘Red Wall’ voters will be delighted, I’m sure. After all, why not permit their 16-year-old children to change their gender as they want? Kids nowadays are so knowledgeable, right? And all those returning retirees would be happy to work extra hard to produce more taxes with which to pay for all that. 

And finally, given the ‘foreign news’ about a deadly winter storm hitting North America ‘from Quebec to Texas’ (link), please spare a thought or even a prayer for these poor cows:

“Herd of cows run free for months in Canada after breaking out of dairy farm – The fugitives have been on the run since midsummer, hiding by day in forests and cornfields and emerging at night to scavenge farmer’s crops. Four were captured last weekend but the rest remain at large, roaming through flat snowbound countryside in the Canadian province of Quebec where many now regard them as heroes.” (link, paywalled)

I hope they will keep themselves safe in those forests, or that they have found their way home by now. That report was published two days ago ….

It remains for me to announce that, while we’ll keep the site open, there won’t be ‘News’ or the ‘Daily Rant’ until New Year’s Eve. Well, if something extraordinary happens we will of course take to our keyboards! Enjoy the peace and quiet, enjoy the fun with friends and families, and above all: have a very Merry Christmas!



Print Friendly, PDF & Email