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Because of the energy crisis in the UK (thanks to a complete lack of long-term planning by successive governments) I thought I would spend some time at the quite innovative Birmingham Library. I considered it would have two benefits; one, I would stay warm, and two it would be a nice quiet place to take the computer and concentrate on writing.

Well, it was warm and about fifty other people had the same idea but unfortunately, two young girls and a boy talked and laughed nonstop while I was there which was about four hours.

I remember going to libraries when I was young and everyone whispered and if you didn’t you got the death look from the librarian who had colt forty-five tucked into her belt.

Perhaps I’m getting old

I was sorry to see Borris Johnson go; number 10 seems quite an anemic place without all those parties ( sorry; business meeting) and I was so looking forward to being invited there for Christmas.

So now we have a new Priminister who has stated her policies for the UK will grow, growth, growth, then immediately removes the cap on taxation for the highest earners. The pound plummets against most currencies,’ mortgage soar and the UK is considered a financial risk by the IMF. Then Liz reverses the policy as it is a minor irritation.

Borris, I am so sorry that I ever doubted you and despite my previous statement, I loved that gold wallpaper that cost thousands of pounds I could be wrong but I suspect Liz will never have your level of artistic talent.

I tried to find anything of substance in the speech given by Liz in her conference speech; so where are the policies that will stimulate the UK. OPPS there aren’t any apart from changing the taxation laws.

So let me give her a few hints on how to stimulate growth. Encourage and offer money to companies who can do or make things that no one else can.

Such as; electric car battery manufacture, chips for phones, heating insolation, hydrogen-powered lorries, and innovative software that can be used for banking,.

Don’t talk about insolating homes offer a grant that makes this possible even if it’s just enough to cover materials; many homeowners are quite capable of completing the installation themselves especially as we have youtube.

Build our own wind farms both on land and at sea and get Dyson involved as it’s just a larger variation on what he produces.

And don’t wait for thirty years do it now.

Although I am not a person who could be classed as a royalist I was sorry at the death of the Queen, she seemed a nice person who like many older people suffered a succession of setbacks and still smiled; at least on the outside.

I was particularly impressed that she continued working until the day she passed away. I had mentioned before that my mother was still working at the age of seventy-two.

Mom packed hairpins and grips; she counted them into groups of twenty-four took a square piece of paper then folded them into an elongated triangle shape and held them in place with a single hairpin finely she tied them into bundles of twenty-four and started the whole procedure again.

She was paid by the gross an amount that was so low that it wasn’t worth working for but when you have nothing then you accept what you are given.

I remember looking at her hands which had bumps all over them caused by arthritis and felt very bitter that she had done this for most of her life and for so little money.

Mom rarely complained about anything but just accepted life as it came and like the queen she had a nice smile.

Well, I could write enough pages about this subject to fill a book’ but having just finished one (Clone) and started another one ‘Tick-Tock’ I haven’t got enough time.

So let’s start with the nuclear power stations, have you noticed that there is a tendency to build them close to the sea and use the seawater to cool them, the same sea that is rising at an ever-increasing rate due to climate change. So let me mention one word. Flooding.

And at Sizewell B we use nuclear fuel from Russia, I wonder who signed the paperwork for that one.

Shortage of water in the UK, well you wouldn’t believe that a country that has a reputation for having too much rainfall could also have a drought but again we have never had any long-term planning as despite a large increase in population the last reservoir was built in 1991.

Water leaks in the UK water supply system has been happening from the moment the pipes were first laid, raw sewage is pumped into the rivers and sea but despite this catastrophic failure by the water boards they have been given 28 years to fix the problem. Bet if you held back the bonuses to the directors and shareholders until it was sorted out it would be fixed in five years.

The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham was a big success and I enjoyed every moment of it. I lived on College Road which runs close to the main entrance of the main stadium from when I was twelve until I was twenty-four and that period of time was the happiest time of my life. The rented council house my parents lived in has long been demolished but every time I drive past it the memories flood back. I watched as Ozzy Osbourne closed the show with his one major hit record and was reminded that this Rock n Roll star was part of my generation ( the sixties ) part of the groundbreaking music revolution. But of course I am biased.

At the moment I find ‘Any Thing you Want You’ve Got It,’ by Roy Orbison on YouTube quite uplifting, a shame we all have to die.

Well, that’s just what we want another conflict in the world between two superpowers on top of the pandemic and the Russian conflict with Ukraine, another case of two countries throwing their dummies out of the pram, unfortunately, dummies that have nuclear warheads on the end of them.

So what is the real reason for two countries fighting over quite a small island, Well it’s not just a matter of sovereignty it’s more that Taiwan has something that is far more important than who owns what.

Taiwan is the major supplier of super chips to the electronic industries and at the moment supplies about sixty percent to the world and is building an even more advanced facility.

So here is my solution, let Taiwan build satellite companies in China and US then everything is equal.

No that’s too easy, so let’s go for the nuclear war.

Wonder if I could become a politician, stupid me you have to tell lies and not answer any questions.

So finally the conservatives have realized that Boris Johnson has been walking around in ‘the altogether for the whole period of his office and the poorly fitting suit that only existed in the minds of the Tory loyalists ( there were a lot of them)

Now we move to the appointment of the next demigod but I hope this time they look for someone that has those rare qualities that are absent not just in MPs but in most humans, integrity, loyalty, and maturity.

And I will give the conservatives this advice, check the background of their final choice because even if they picked their nose on the fourth of January 2011 the press will eventually find out.

And the truth is that I started to feel quite sorry for Boris and I do believe that he could have been a very good Priminister but sometimes qualities that make a person great can destroy them. I stopped feeling sorry when I realized how much money he will make from book sales which will make my six-year book sales of £84.60 look quite insignificant.

I phoned a friend from the days when we played five-a-side football together back in the early sixties, he lives quite close but we only seem to meet at funerals now.

At seventy-nine he still works as a painter and decorator; not through choice but because he still needs extra money.

The conversation went like this.

Hi Mick, how are you?

Suicidal.

Why?

I have just realized that I don’t have any pension, not even a state pension. I will lose my house.

That can’t be right, your self-employed so the money should have been taken out of your tax returns.

I thought and told him I knew someone in the tax office and would get some advice and phone the next day, which I did.

Hi Mick, I have spoken to an adviser and she said you need to phone the tax office yourself but you should have a state pension.

No, I haven’t, and I owe half a million pounds.

Mick that’s impossible, you have worked all your life and your lifestyle is minimal, you don’t drink, smoke, or gamble and rarely go on holidays so how can you owe that kind of money. Sit down and do a proper check, I will phone back tomorrow.

I phoned the next morning, did you come up with any proper figures?

Yes, I owe a million pounds and even worse I have got rats up the loft.

Mick, you don’t owe that sort of money, the banks wouldn’t let you, your not well are you.

No, my son is coming to pick me up in a bit, I have been sectioned and have to go to hospital.

I had started to suspect that Mick had some type of mental problem at the end of my first conversation with him but it seemed so implausible, he was always so sensible and sounded exactly the same as when we first met in the sixties.

I will be going to see him this week.

I watched the first episode of the BBC series which covered the lives of the Stones and their musical journey. This one concentrated on the lead singer Mick Jagger from the early days to the present time.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had seen the Stones in the early sixties at a small club in Handsworth Birmingham; this was the start of their incredible musical journey and I immediately realized that they looked and sounded different from all the other local groups.

In his interview Jager admits that his voice isn’t the greatest but added to his backing group which played a sound that mixed blues with rock the combination of sounds is quite is unique which proves life isn’t always about having a special gift but more about getting the most from what you have.

And the night I saw the Stones the combination of music and alcohol blurred the the present into a prequel of expectancy that the bleak war years might change into something far more inspiring. This was only the second time that I remember the young girls stop dancing and press as close to the stage as possible, screaming in the hope that they would be noticed.

Its difficult for most of the younger generation to understand why the older generation describe that period of time as such an inspiring period in history but its like most things in life you have to experience them personally. When the second World War ended the osterity didn’t; poverty in many families remained for many years. It was a black and white period, their was little colour in life. Clothes were drab, music was predominantly aimed at the older generation but the seeds of change started to sprout as gospel and blues groups edged through America.

Then their was Elvis, chuck Berry, Eddy Cochran, and Buddy Holly which instigated the inspiration for all the Brittish groups that seemed to spring up overnight.

And the Rolling Stones, well they are still there at the age of eighty, musicions will die but their music will last forever.

This is my first oil painting and depicts part of the Birmingham city centre from the early nineteen hundreds a time when the peaky blinders strutted around thinking they were invincible.

From the age of thirteen my father would have stood on one of these corners selling newspapers in all kinds of weather. He was born in Balsal Heath one of the many slum areas that existed back then before starting work full time aged fourteen as an off hand grinder.

The grinding dust he sucked into his lungs from the castings and grinding wheels would force him to stop work at the age of about forty but only later in life did it take away his sense of humour as he struggled to breath.

And he often told me stories about the peaky blinders (Razor Gangs) and of course many other tales from his childhood.

But what I remember most about him was that he was a very special person.

Well as has been said many times ‘you couldn’t make it up, but you don’t have to.

So you live in a great big house and there are parties night after night with unlimited booze bought by the British taxpayers, there is loud music, fights between some of the officials, and sometimes purely by accident you walk into the rooms where it’s happening and although you protest someone places a pint glass in your hand, you only have three or four pints and then leave immediately.

Then you have no recollection of any parties on the premises, bet the burglars are casing the joint at this very moment.

Look my only gripe is that I wasn’t invited, it’s my eightieth birthday next month I wonder if it’s too late to become a conservative for one day only.