No money — and no inheritance to help out

LIFE AND OTHER BITS:

THINGS are not always what they seem — England will win the World Cup; was the man frantically wafting his arms about at Lords cricket ground waving to a friend in the crowd or was he a bookmaking tick- tack exponent asking was the no-ball the third ball of the fourth over or the fourth ball of the third?

And then there’s the comprehensive spending review. How’s that for a misnomer?

What it should be, of course, is the no-spending review because by the time Dave, Nick and George (the three stooges?) have done with us there will be no money in pockets, purses or even under the sofa cushions.

And precisely how many folk will lose their jobs in this firestorm of government frugality?

We already know that a lot of people on benefits won’t be any longer because the coalition wants to put all benefit claimants in work (in many cases this will, of course, require a miracle cure).

Now I may have missed something (though not, sadly, the wind and the rain) while I was on holiday, but every time I have come across the word job in the media over the last few weeks it hasn’t been preceded by the word new, but has been followed by the word losses.

So where are all these people who suddenly have to take up their beds and follow the coalition into a bright new tomorrow going to find jobs? In a sense of course, Cameron’s rallying call that we are all in it together has some credibility. It’s just that some of us will be deeper in the ‘it’ than the likes of Dave, Nick and George.

They will be able to keep their heads and inheritances (or the wife’s money) out of the ‘it’ while most, shall we say ordinary folk, will simply go under. I ‘d get the goggles and snorkel now if I was you.


One feature of the so-called summer has been the whinging about the weather and media pundits, who no doubt holiday in some exotic sunspot, asking what’s the matter with people these days.


I recall holidays in Pembrokeshire and on Anglesey with four children, all under five, who we took paddling in their wellies and sou’westers.

Oh, and my car broke down on the Menai Bridge, two of our party (adults not children) fell out and didn’t speak for 10 days; we broke a window in the holiday cottage with a tennis ball and my sister got a touch of food poisoning. But did we whinge. What do you think?


Final word: Have you noticed how people don’t say “cheerio” or “goodbye” any more? They have been replaced by “See yer” in another evolutionary leap backwards for the language of Shakespeare.