New Muddled Ages plus 4

Still trying to solve some of the UK’s great missions as sketchily outlined by our new gifted leader – Sir Keir Stammer; it’s time to turn our attention to ENERGY AND CRIME. How to get more energy and less crime?

The link between crime and punishment seems to have been broken in recent years, as more and more crimes go unreported; or are unsolved; or offenders are given non-custodial sentences. Even when persistent offenders are finally incarcerated, they have to be released early due to overcrowded prisons. The system just isn’t working.

The Last Laugh Looney Party once again has a radical solution🤡Treadmills 🤡

Make prisons a place you don’t want to return to. No TV’s, no telephones, no drugs, no shortened sentences. Just tough restitution. Twelve hour shifts on the treadmill for all able bodied prisoners will generate a lot of power for the National Grid. What’s more it will double the capacity of our prisons, if a new hot bedding policy is implemented, in which each cell is to be used by two prisoners.

This means there will be no need for new prisons to be built, saving millions of pounds. Another positive spin off is that prisoners will be far too tired to take drugs. Finally, reoffending rates are expected to plummet as few will want to return to this harsh regime.

As the demand for more energy increases we may in future need to introduce longer sentences to give prisoners more time on the treadmills. Indeed as the gifted Mr Stammer closes the last of our gas fired power stations it is estimated there will need to be another 10,000 prisoners for each station closed.

The gifted Mr Stammer with his extensive legal experience has a an answer for that— more types of offence🤡

  • Exceeding the new national 20 miles per hour speed limit in built up areas, which could be almost anywhere when they have built 1,500 new houses in the next 5 years.
  • No Smoking inside pubs, outside pubs and within 5 miles of a pub. Or a restaurant, or a coffee bar, or any where you can eat something.
  • No Working in the office more than once a year. Or if you are a civil servant even going into the office at all, except for parties at Christmas.
  • Misgendering anybody by referring to him as her; or she as he; or them as it; or any pronoun as another pronoun.

The gifted Mr Stammer will undoubtedly lead us into this brave new world and get us out of the muddle we are in —————————- or he won’t.

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New Muddled Ages plus 3

This post takes forward the all new open door policy on IMMIGRATION.

At the same time it deals with the long standing vexed question of Scottish independence, which has been a thorn in the side of British politics for too long. The SNP’s succession of leaders – Alex the fish; righteous Nickola ; bearded Hamza all left under a cloud and finally we have Jock McSwinny who is still there the last time anyone looked.

People in Scotland have felt neglected by the Government in London. Now thanks to the Last Laugh Looney Party’s great ideas they are about to step on to a global stage.

WILD SCOTLAND will be the world’s biggest national park, a global tourist destination to rival Disney and the safari parks of Kenya and South Africa. It will encompass the whole land north of Hadrians Wall and include all the islands.

It will be an amazing opportunity to reintroduce bears and wolves everywhere. Penguins, seals and walruses on all the islands. And maybe even a DNA engineered Loch Ness monster🤡

Oh ! And one other thing. Scotland is currently the least densely populated nation in the UK, with only 5.3 million people, which is less than 70 people per square kilometre.

That’s where IMMIGRATION comes in. The 2 million refugees arriving in the UK each year can all be located in underpopulated Scotland, which means there will be 25 million living in Scotland within 10 years🤡

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New Muddled Ages plus2

This is a Last Laugh Looney Party attempt to resolve some of the big issues in these New Muddled Ages. Based on the idea that desperate times need desperate measures.

We certainly don’t want a war to force us to face up to reality, but neither do we need a revolution. Our politicians have failed us so far, so maybe the LLLP introduce some fresh thoughts based on previous ideas that have fallen on deaf ears.

A critical precursor to the LLLP proposals is that the Government be put on a war-time footing to enable actions to be expedited without delay. This should clear obstructive lawyers and civil service to one side.

Let’s start with IMMIGRATION. Attempts to turn back the tide have been as effective as King Canute. So why not swim with the incoming tide and welcome all immigrants. With conditions.

  • A visa fee of £5,000 payable on arrival in the UK. That will immediately stop the rubber boats crossing the channel.
  • Followed by a £100,000 CLAP – Citizen Loan Apprenticeship Plan, which they must pay back within 10 years; either in vouchers, or in working for the Government. Similar to the student loan scheme, it can pay toward their new lifestyle in the UK, by covering their rental and healthcare costs. The vouchers cannot be spent on anything else.
  • In return they will get accommodation and free health care.
  • They will have to use the vouchers to pay for their accommodation, which will be in tents, or caravans, or cheap hotels, or b&b’s, or even 5 star hotels. Whatever they can afford.
  • Those requiring health care immediately must pay cash up front or they will be sent to Rwanda’s excellent hospitals. For all other health care they must join the back of the NHS queue.
  • On arrival in the UK their skills will be assessed by the new ASS – Apprentice Skills Secretary – Smiling Nigel. He will greet them with a pint of beer and fish & chip meal and a packet of jammy dodgers; to get them into the English culture.
  • They will then be placed in a Government priority job, such as fruit picking for victory; or trench digging for the new green electricity grid; or planting wild flowers to create habitats for great crested newts and pine martins and house martins and every other kind of martins.

With this new open door policy the population of the UK is expected to increase by 2,000,000 a year. Or maybe even more!

The next post will look at where they might work and where they can be located.

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New Muddled Ages plus1

Our politicians can huff and puff, all they like, but they are never going to sort out the problems around the world, when they can’t resolve the problems in our own country. Indeed they don’t know the boundaries of our country. Is it just England, or does it include Wales and Scotland. And as for Northern Ireland, who knows? Oh and do we have borders anyway? Quite a political conundrum.

Now we have that sorted out 🤡 let’s look at the pressing issues that need to be solved at home:-

  • INFLATION – supposedly down to 2%, but it doesn’t feel like it – product sizes shrinking; special offers fiddling; cash disappearing and breaking the link with reality.
  • ENERGY – closely tied to rising costs and the knee- jerk response to climate change. We have shut down our coal mines; plan to outlaw gas boilers and frown on nuclear power. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot ☹️
  • WATER – privatise the water companies give money to foreign shareholders and pollute the rivers and the sea. What a good idea that was !
  • CRIME – what’s a crime these days? Stealing from shops doesn’t seem to be. Taking drugs is now recreation. Scams abound around every corner. Trust is yesterday’s way of life, now it is for the unsuspecting next victim.
  • IMMIGRATION – used to be a welcoming harbour for the refugees of war and famine; now it is a white cliff to be scaled by anyone wanting a new life. Rubber boats and a £7,000 bounty are the rights of passage.
  • CLIMATE CHANGE – a world of misinformation and uncertainty. A signpost for “ Just stopping oil”; or closing coal mines; or turning off the gas tap. Or the complete opposite if you live in China.
  • NHS WAITING LISTS – growing ever- longer requiring more and more money for less and less of a health service. Free, if you can ever reach the end of the queue.
  • HOUSING – not enough; too expensive; out of reach of young people; under-occupied by older people; under insulated; over clad with high risk material; empty second homes; nowhere near enough new homes being built. A catalogue of neglect !

There is more, but that’s more than enough to be going on with 🤡

In the past a Great Depression or a war would galvanise a nation into action on this scale of problems, but far better if we have a quiet revolution.

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The New Muddled Ages.

We are in the Post Covid Era. Where almost everyone has LongCovid and their brains are all addled. So this is a new series of blogs, which will try to see where and how the Era might end, although with most eras, it could go on for a very long time.

These blogs are just jumbled thoughts, which reflect our jumbled times. Now frequently expressed by our jumbled politicians of all parties. Some of them jumping off piers into the sea to catch attention. Others stumbling and mumbling about sausages in these most serious of times. The rest are busy falling out with each other and the confused electorate.

When you look abroad the PostCovid effects are even worse, with wars breaking out around the world. And in the USA they have resorted to shooting each other.

The Last Laugh Looney Party is being copied globally 🤡

The muddle started with the lock downs. People lost touch with reality and each other. They got on their computers and disappeared into a new world of conspiracy and misinformation.

Falling out with each other became the new norm. Trust went out of the window. Not working from home was a lot more fun than working. Especially if the Government was paying for this new found luxury. No school was better than school “we don’t need no education”. Strikes stopped because no one was working. Blissful head in the sand times🤡

ONE DAY WE WILL ALL HAVE TO WAKE UP !

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Politicians are becoming Chatbots.

Our politicians are learning from the CHATBOT Communication Handbook :—-

  • “Let me be clear”. Which means the very opposite!
  • “We inherited a £22 billion black hole”
  • “It’s all the fault of the last Government..”
  • “We did not want to take these tough measures”
  • “We are taking the decision to stabilise the economy”
  • “It may have to get worse before it gets better”
  • “We have to overcome 14 years of incompetence ”
  • “Everything is fully considered and fully costed”
  • “I am not going to pre-empt the budget”
  • “We have no plans to ……..”
  • “We have a plan for growth”

They don’t answer the question they are asked. They just trot out the party approved answer of the day.

Often supported by t-i-m-e s—t—r—e—e—t—c—h—i—n—g a—n—s—w—e—r—s….

Prime Minister’s question time every Wednesday in the House of Commons is a vacuous game of ping pong. Scripted questions and rehearsed fact free answers.

Robotic questions with meaningless robotic answers from increasingly ROBOTIC CHATBOT POLITICIANS.

Posted in GRUMBLES | 8 Comments

Winter Fuel Payments?

This last week has been dominated by Prime Minister Stammer’s decision to scrap winter fuel payments for older people, except for those on pension credit.

It has been the subject of ill-informed debate and rank hypocrisy. Plus large measures of pontificating and abject cowardice. Only a very few come out of this saga with any decency.

Who could deny that this benefit is not needed by millionaires, nor perhaps by those who have retired to sunnier climes? But they are only a tiny fraction of the 12.6 million elderly people who receive this universal benefit.

Introducing this cut is supposedly to begin to address the £23 billion black hole in Government expenditure. The £1.4 billion forecast to be saved will only make a small dent in the shortfall. But I suppose you have to start somewhere, so why not with old people who probably didn’t vote for you anyway.

And after all Mr Stammer is protecting the very poorest by keeping the payments for those on pension credit. Although sadly many people don’t claim it — 800,000 in fact. However,g strenuous efforts will be made to improve the take up. It’s only 250 odd questions to answer. What’s difficult about that when you’re 80 years old?

There is another problem, however; neither Mr. Stammer nor his Chancellor, Retched Rivet are very good at arithmetic.

If their heartfelt aspiration for all 800,000 pensioners to claim the benefit they are entitled to were all claimed, it would cost an extra £3.8 billion. This far exceeds the saving and makes the black hole bigger.

An alternative more clinical possibility is that they can add up correctly and the have calculated that most people still won’t take up the benefit and a few thousand extra deaths will probably occur each year, but that is a small price to pay.

This new age-friendly protector of the vulnerable can always bury them in the BLACK HOLE.

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My New Best Friend.

My new best friend is a CHATBOT. He/ she/ it doesn’t have a name, just a number – 0800 123456 ( name changed to protect the innocent). He/she/it works for NS&I. Who used to be called “ EARNIE”.

EARNIE only gave out good news — when you won a premium bond😀

That’s how I got to meet 0800 123456.

The story started when I received two letters in the post today, both from National Savings. The first one told me I had won £50 on the premium bonds and then even better, the second one announced I had won another £100😊😊

What’s not to like about that?

Well it wasn’t in the usual NS&I green envelope with a cheque inside. Instead it told me to send them my bank details. I was immediately suspicious — was it a scam? You can’t be too careful these days and that took away some of my jubilation about winning £150☹️

So I telephoned the NS&I advice line on 0800 173173. Only to be told the number was “no longer available “.

£150 is not to be sniffed at, so I persisted and found another number — 080 123456 — that’s my new best friend 😀. He/she/it is NS&I’s new improved automatic advice line. He/she/it answers questions in a monotone voice and not necessarily the question you asked, but the question you should have asked. Difficult questions like “ is this a scam ?”, don’t get answered at all.

So here I am, none the wiser and none the richer☹️

Maybe it has something to do with NS&I wanting all premium bond holders to move to internet banking, rather than having to post you cheques.

Posted in GRUMBLES | 2 Comments

Ageing in Retirement Villages— 5

A Retirement Village is a complex operation of housing and care. To function well they need to be fully integrated with the wider community and fully understood by statutory services. They are also most effective when fully interwoven with local GP’s and the NHS.

The devil is in the detail. Each piece of the jigsaw matters. For the village model to be complete and operating at its best, all the pieces need to be in place.

So let’s look at some of the small but key steps in the operation :-

  • WELCOME & INTRODUCTION. —- long before a new village is opened “friends groups” are established to explain all aspects of the lifestyle on offer and the opportunities to live an active life. Ambassadors from other villages are by far the best at explaining this. After a village has opened this welcome still needs to be made available to new arrivals and a friends club needs to continue to support prospective applicants on the waiting list for vacancies.
  • RECEPTION DESK — on arrival visitors to the village you are greeted by resident volunteers which immediately signals the important role residents play in managing the village.
  • VOLUNTEERS — the shop, the coffee bar, the drinks bar and several other functions are all run with the help of residents. Also the majority of the activities are totally organised and lead by residents with control over activity budgets.
  • OPEN COMMUNICATION — is essential in a village of several hundred residents, otherwise gossip and misinformation fills the void. Monthly manager meetings open to all residents; smaller street meetings; newsletters and a suggestion scheme are key components. Open doors, the village manager walking the floor and regular directors visits are also important. So too is an elected Residents Association.
  • TECHNOLOGY — has the power to collect and analyse data on the operation of the village. It can also facilitate research and future development of the village model. However it is not a substitute for face to face communication.

IT REQUIRES ALL THESE ASPECTS OF THE RETIREMENT VILLAGE TO BE WORKING IN HARMONY AS ONE BIG TEAM OF RESIDENTS AND STAFF FOR THE VILLAGE TO PROSPER AND REFRESH ITSELF AS NEW CHALLENGES ARISE.

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Ageing in Retirement Villages – 4

My last three blogs have looked at the origins of ExtraCare’s Retirement Villages; the development rationale; and the model for care and support. The immediate question then posed was is this financially viable as the community ages. The simplistic answer is yes if residents pay for it themselves by trading equity in their property for care and support.

However, it is worth stepping back and looking at the bigger picture first. The model is intended to be an integration of four key elements :- ACTIVITY; HEALTH; SUPPORT; FINANCE. All need to be at play for the model to work well.

Let’s examine each one in turn :-

  • ACTIVITY – the wide range of facilities available in a village is designed to encourage residents to live an active lifestyle. It draws on the skills of residents to participate in the running of the village and to socialise with other residents. Volunteering and taking an active part in managing the village, can give people a continued sense of worth and achievement. Way beyond the wrap around lifestyle of residential care.
  • HEALTH – this starts with a proactive approach to wellbeing. Regular health checks and medication reviews with a well-being nurse and if required liaison with GP’s. Promotion of exercise linked to the fitness coaches. Healthy eating advice to combat obesity.
  • SUPPORT – not everybody who moves into a village needs support and some will never need it. The lowest level maybe help with house cleaning. Next is assistance with care. For a few they may require nursing care. This could be paid for by Social Services or occasionally the NHS, but resources are increasingly limited. To access services more themselves residents will probably have to pay for it themselves. Hence the need to trade equity for care.
  • FINANCE – waiting on Governments to adequately fund social care has been a decades long issue. Because they had not anticipated increased longevity nor significantly increased morbidity. Politically it has now become to difficult to resolve, so the only answer is for the vast majority of older people to accept they have to provide for themselves. The health insurance industry has exited this market because of the difficulty of predicting long term care costs.

If Retirement Housing operators truly believe their lifestyle model prolongs healthier active lives, then they should be confident enough to provide a model of funding for long term care and support. With the caveat that they may need stop/loss insurance to cover extreme risk.

THERE IS STILL MORE TO COMPLETE THE FINAL PICTURE.

See my next post.

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