11th October
Liz Truss is launching a charm offensive.
Too late.
President Putin stands a better chance of appearing on Strictly and winning than she does of changing people’s minds about her and her government.
Maybe she should consider some dance lessons.
Therese Coffey, Health Minister (those two phrases don’t seem to sit well together), can’t answer financial questions on Sky, that’s up to the chancellor she says. And on top of that her message around any pay rises for nurses seems to amount to, ‘I know we relied on you tremendously during the pandemic, you pulled the stops out, you are working close to the edge daily to help patients, we promised we would reward you, but basically fuck off, there’s no money, and what money there is we want to give to our buddies.’ Okay, so she did not use all of those words, but that’s what she meant.
Maybe she should consider dance lessons as well, slow ones.
Bank of England steps in again to buy bonds. It’s all down to Putin.
Nothing like being on holiday and getting away from the news.
Scarborough for a few days.
Weather great.
Lots of shops seem to be closed down, lots more bring tarted up, even more with signs in windows saying they need staff.
Quite a few – I can’t think of the best words to describe these folks – people with challenging behaviours.
Three doors up from the appartment, in the entrance to a derelict shop, there is one man bedding down for the night in his sleeping bag (as Reece Mogg would say, ‘it’s a democratic country, it’s his choice’).
One young woman bumped into us, apologised, said she was always being accused of ‘lacking direction’, and started crying.
Three men lying in a shop doorway, clinking bottles, shouting loudly (difficult to know what they were saying, that’s the Yorkshire accent for you).
One young man, head down, muttering-muttering, just seemed to spend the whole day circling the Main Street.
One older woman and man, loudly arguing, she was pulling him around, he was trying to strop off, she got a hold of his hoodie and pulled him into M&S.
Policemen bumping fists with crowds of teenage lads.
Waterstones was an oasis of sanity.
If I was going to sleep in a shop entrance it would be that one.
One Pagers 