It’s a five minute walk from my house to the pub
It’s a 35 minute walk from the pub to my house
The difference is staggering.
American executions
US Attorney General Merrick Garland recently ordered a moratorium on federal executions and a Justice Department review of the death penalty.
The move followed a decision by the Trump administration Justice Department to revive federal executions by lethal injection in 2019, using a one-drug protocol. The federal government then carried out 13 executions from July 2020 to January 2021. During his confirmation hearing, Garland said that exonerations of people wrongly convicted have given him “pause.” He also noted that President Biden is strongly opposed to capital punishment. “A most terrible thing happens when someone is executed for a crime that they did not commit,” Garland said.
My comment: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth may have been normal in primitive society, but it is totally wrong for a normal, civilized modern State. The death penalty should be banned – everywhere. It is obscene and immoral to see the Federal government involved in killing individuals, no matter what they are accused of, and especially if the victim is mentally ill and the evidence against him is contested. I believe that Epicurus would agree.
Life expectancy
In 1921 men in England and Wales had a life expectancy of 56 years,women 60 years. Ninety years on the figures are 79 and 83 years respectively. Simply living longer is a bit meaningless in itself, but it is a pointer to better health. The Western world has shared in this greater longevity, thank to national health systems.
But things are changing. In the borough we stay in in London life expectancy in the poor north of the borough (where the disastrous fire was a year ago) life expectancy is 14 years less than parts of the borough just walking distance away. The people burned to death last year’s fire were minorities or migrants.
Instead of a steady improvement in life expectancy of 0.25 years every year, the rate has recently declined to 0.07 per year for men and 0.02 for women. This change is 80% down on that of the last 90 years. In continental Europe lengthening lives are still on track , but in the UK are they stalling and in America nationwide life expectancy has declined two years in a row, with those with poor education doing worst.
The pattern seems to be pretty obvious: the lower the position on the social hierarchy, the worse the health. We know that inequality is having bad effects in America, but what is worrying is that Britain’ changes are regional – the south east is doing well but the North is suffering. The greater the economic distress and unemployment (or casual employment and short- term contracts). the higher the mortality, with alcohol being an important factor. Infant mortality has risen two years in a row.
One reason given is the funding of the National Health Service, an increase in the number of old people and a decline in the increase in spending by the Tory government . Expenditure , once reliably 4% annually , has dropped to 0.3%, and going down. Along with this there has been a drop in spending on social care of 25%.
Meanwhile, back to the borough I am living in. Also within walking distance there are 6 Russian oligarchs and a host of kleptocrats and crooks with London boltholes, some lured with a promise of British passports, few of them, I imagine, paying any tax. Those of us with an Epicurean outlook have to reject this way of running a society. It is stupid,
and short-sighted.
Ironic event
I have had several occasions where my right leg has caved under me, causing me to fall. My GP referred me to the National Health Service Falls Centre, which trains people to avoid falls and breakages.
After a session I started on home with my wife, armed with a list of exercises. Running for a bus ( dumb thing to do!), I tripped over the edge of a paving stone and crashed, face down, on the sidewalk., my arms and elbows taking the hit.
The rest of the day was effectively spent at the hospital, being examined, patched up and X- rayed. I felt such an idiot. Still, I suppose that’s why they have a Falls Centre.
P.S: I am o.k , just laughing at my own stupidity.
Boredom
| ‘“The idea that boredom is good for us – particularly in childhood, because it encourages imagination and creativity – is well established,” writes Jemima Lewis in The Daily Telegraph. She recounts the “massive afternoon longeurs” of her own infancy, during which she would “finally peel myself off the dusty-smelling carpet to read a book… or feed mystery liquids from the medicine cabinet to my little sister”.
Now, though, she says, boredom is harder to come by. “If I want my children to be properly bored – not just fed up and listless, but laid out flat by the certain knowledge that there is nothing to do – I must hide all the screens. In doing so, I create the first of the day’s entertainments: hide and seek.” My comment: I can’t remember when I was last bored. As my late father-in-law said, “No one gets bored but a bore himself”. I don’t in the least believe boredom encourages imagination and creativity. Where did that come from? Educate me. |
The British Unexplained Wealth Order
David Cameron might have been a disaster when it came to Brexit, but he did absolutely the right thing with the Unexplained Wealth Order. This is a government programme to uncover the crooks and thieves who use London to cover up corruption and theft in their home countries and to relieve them of dubious investments, often property, they have bought in the UK.
The idea is to increase transparency, opening up Companies House for free searches, forcing companies to declare their real owners, and convening a corruption summit. HM Revenue and Customs, the National Crime Agency and the Serious Fraud Office identify people whose lifestyle looks out of proportion to their income. Property has to be worth £50,000 or more.
Once an Unexplained Wealth Order is issued the property owner has to show that his or her assets are clean. If they fail to reply or their answer is unacceptable, .the property is confiscated. The objective is to have 20 UWO’s a year, enough to frighten the crooks. If the latter realise that their assets are no longer safe they will move on. Of course you will have the situation where assets are nominally held by a Cook Islands Trust or a Panamanian shell company, and no one knows how judges will deal with these cases.
Nonetheless, the UWO is wildly popular. Foreigners with hot money have forced up the value of homes, parking places and restaurant bills, in and around London, and most Brits can no longer afford to live there.
My personal comment: What the UWO failed to achieve has been practically finished off by covid. Huge numbers of shops, for instance, have closed, theatres and concert halls are struggling. London is busy, but the sounds of foreign languages on the streets are noticeably fewer. Is this because of the UWO, covid or Brexit? Or all of them together in a perfect storm? Well……..yes!
Lack of sleep and early death
A new study has found that people who get little exercise and sleep poorly are 57% more likely to die prematurely compared to those who exercise a lot and sleep better as a result.
Bad sleepers also had a 67% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and a 45% higher chance of being diagnosed with cancer. The study was carried out by the University College London and the University of Sydney. (The Week 2 July 2021)
- My comment: I go to the gym three times a week , use a walking machine at 4mph and at a 5% elevation and do it for 45 minutes three times a week And go out for more civilized wallks in between. I still lay awake most of last night – but then the England win over Denmark at football yesterday evening was rather exciting,
Quote for today
Damian Hirst reveals that his mum is happy with his shift from provocative artworks to cherry blossom oil paintings:
“When I was making animals in formaldehyde , she said, “Oh, there are enough horrors in the world. Can’t you do paintings of flowers?” And I think, my God, it’s taken me until I’m 55 before I can please her.”
Friendship declining in the US
Friendships are declining in America. According to a recent American Perspectives Survey, people reported having fewer close friends than in previous years, with roughly half of Americans citing three or fewer. Instead, they’re turning to parents and romantic partners for support.
“People have lost their fringe friends, or those friends they saw once in a while. So it’s unsurprising that surface-level friendships have decreased since we haven’t been out and about as much,” psychologist and friendship expert Dr. Marisa Franco says, citing social distancing measures and lockdowns.
Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and author of “ Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong health and Happiness” adds that many people faced significant personal challenges during the pandemic, and as a result, became more selective in deciding which friends were worth confiding in. More than one in five survey respondents said the past 12 months have been “much more difficult for them than usual.”
“More people were willing to be vulnerable during the pandemic. They wanted to be accepted and wanted it to feel more meaningful to have deep conversations rather than surface-level ones,” she says.
Friendships have been on the decline for years thanks to increased geographic mobility and increased workplace demands, according to the survey. Americans are working longer hours and spending twice as much time with their children compared to previous generations.
“The reality is they’re just too busy and it’s hard to keep up with their non-essential relationships. And sadly, friendships tend to be the first relationships that people drop,” Franco says.
Nelson also blames the larger culture in America that sees “friendships as optional” in comparison to romantic or familial relationships.
“We live in a society where we feel friendship is a luxury for when we have extra time. And when we feel pressured for time due to work or our home lives, friendships are what we don’t feel we have permission to maintain,” she says.
“In contrast, the belief is that our parents and spouses will always be happy to hear from us, kind of like a safety net, even if we haven’t been good at reaching out.”(Washington Post)
My comment: What these “friendship experts” leave out is individual disposition. Are you extrovert or introvert? To the extrovert the recent period of pandemic must have been dreadful; to the introvert a period of calm and and a chance to catch up on things undone, to exercise, and to reflect. I should add that Epicurus was a great advocate of friendships ( plural) as essential. But he sounds to me to have been a huge extrovert, enjoying the company of many friends and acquaintances. To each his own.
Exports to EU hit by Brexit
Food and drink exports to the EU almost halved in the first three months of the year, the Food and Drink Federation reports.
The group’s data showed that EU sales dropped by 47% compared to the same period in 2020. Covid is likely to have had an impact but the trade body said the decline was largely due to changes in the UK’s trading relationships with the bloc. The government said it was “too early to draw any firm conclusions” on the long-term impact of Brexit.
My comment: There are no apparent changes to life in London ( at least), except for the empty stores and newcomers to the main shopping areas. But these could be explained by covid, and it’s hard to distinguish cause and effect. You still hear foreign voices among the crowds. House prices are still apparently going up, and if covid has encouraged people to move out of London then it doesn’t seem to be reflected in property prices. But I suspect there is a lag effect and that the results of Brexit are going to be felt gradually, over the next few years.
Quote of the day
~ Robert Benchley. (American humorist and writer)
I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it.
Verdict on the current British government. (Part 1)
“Instead of a cabinet, there is a potentate. The traditional structures still exist, but as tributes to an obsolescent way of governing.” There are still secretaries of state, but they now have “little bearing on real power, which swirls in an unstable vortex of advisers and officials vying for proximity to Boris Johnson’s throne”. Behr continues that “having such a personality at the heart of government makes a nonsense of unwritten protocol” that governs British politics. “It was never rigorous. All manner of hypocrisies flourish when a self-selecting elite chooses the boundaries of legitimate behaviour. But there were boundaries. Johnsonism has none.” (Rafael Behr, The Guardian)
My comment: Epicurus disdained politics, and one can see why. There is little we can do about it, so I think we should concentrate on inter-personal kindness, consideration, politeness, honesty, and integrity, and do what we can to help for the poor, the sick and the under-served.
Abolition of slavery
On June 19th Americans celebrated Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the anniversary of June 19th, 1865, and the end of slavery in the United States. Many believe Juneteenth is a celebration of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, However, the document was actually signed in 1863. The real cause for celebration came two years later in Galveston, Texas when Union General Gordon Granger’s troops made it to the city and informed the population that slavery had finally been abolished, releasing hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from bondage.
We should reflect not only on how far we’ve come as a nation but also on the many challenges that Black Americans still face in this country; not the least of which is a massive racial wealth gap. We have watched this gap worsen for over fifty years, in large part owing to massive inequalities found within the U.S. tax code that continues to put Black Americans at an undeniable disadvantage. (Patriotic Millionaires June 16, 2021)
My comment: I think Epicurus would have said “ Amen” to this.
Smacking worsens behaviour?
Smacking children makes their behaviour worse, according to a new review of two decades of research. The study found that children subjected to physical punishment showed increased behavioural problems with no improvement in behaviour.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children are among the groups calling for an outright ban on physical punishment of children. ( The Week, 29 June 2021).
My comment: The first time I was severely smacked is vivid in my memory. My grandfather had a barrage balloon station on his farm. My sister and I had climbed a ladder to get onto the top of the ballon and were playing there when the air raid siren went off. Enemy bombers on their way! There was a delay in letting the balloon fly into the sky as Home Guard members had to climb up and remove two naughty kids who were having an exciting time running around on top of the balloon.
The first time I was smacked (well deserved!). We were repeatedly forbidden to go anywhere near the balloon. Had roles been reversed and had I been my father ( on weekend leave) I would have smacked my son, too. The smacking did me no harm at all. Even at 5 I knew I had been naughty and deserved it.
100,000 children have not appeared at school
| More than one in eighty U.K. school pupils have failed to return to school following the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns, according to a new analysis of official U.K. data. |
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found that 93,514 pupils were “severely absent” – absent more often than they were present – during the autumn school term. In a newly pubished report titled “Kids Can’t Catch Up If They Don’t Show Up”, the think tank reports that the total number of absent youngsters has risen by 54.7% year-on-year.
My comment: I think, if I were a parent of a young child, I might keep the kids at home as well if I felt that the local educational authority had not taken adequate steps to keep children safe from covid, and other infections as well. Companies appear to be desperate for workers – perhaps the missing workers are keeping their children at home for safety’s sake?