W632

F/70/widow/Southwick W.Sx retired Part 3:The Diamond Jubilee 2nd - 5th June 2012 I share a house with my youngest son(42) daughter-in-law and their youngest daughter(21). I told him that it is actually the anniversary of King George VI’s death, and that I was 10 years old at the time, one day my mum met me from school and took me to see the King lying in state in Westminster Abbey. We travelled from SE27 into the centre by bus and joined the end of the queue on the South side of Blackfriars Bridge and spent the rest of the day shuffling along the embankment until we reached the door of the Abbey at almost midnight. Mum said in a report in the newspaper, Daily Herald, the next day that the doors were closed soon after we filed past the bier. The next year was the Coronation, it was watched by the kids in our street (about 12 of us) at the home of the Tory councillor, the only family with a TV, the size of a laptop, all crammed into his little prefab. (they were also the only ones with a car too - wow!), I am not an idolater, do not worship god, the monarchy, celebrity, footballers etc. I am superior to no-one and no-one is superior to me. OK it’s my fantasy. I have my family, friends and neighbourly ties and do not need to look to people I have never met to provide a surrogate relationship. It’s not personal, I’m sure she is a very nice woman, I shall treat the Olympic games brouhaha with the same lack of interest. I will spend the weekend and bank holidays doing what I always do, usual chores, washing-up, washing, ironing etc. after which I will get out in the garden as much as the weather allows, pottering around, bit of weeding, bit of pruning. If I am stuck indoors I will get on with my project to digitise all the family photos, I have completed the forebears, my early years growing up, through my marriage in 1960, the boys being born and have got to 1970. I won’t set foot outside the front door. 02/06/2012 - I agreed with Peter Tatchell where he put the case for a republic on Channel 4 evening news. The Jubilee celebrations are just so much fluff. If only the thought and planning that has been put into the arrangements for this event could be transferred to something useful. I want to hear opposing views to austerity on the TV, opinions from social economists, Labour and OccupyUK. There is no big vision as to what can be done from this government of back slapping, public school boys and their City pals. I remember the 1970s when every home in the country was switched to North Sea gas from town gas. Teams of fitters were sent into whole neighbourhoods throughout Britain and attended every gas appliance, cooker, boiler, fire, to change the burners. You only have to look at the war effort to see what we can do when under fire. The fight now is against a stagnant economy and we could decide to switch us all to photovoltaic solar panels. What an amazing infrastructural change that would be. It would involve a massive injection into the manufacturing industry to make the equipment and take up the unemployed engineers, fitters, roofers as well as giving the youth apprenticeships in these trades. It would be cheaper than building nuclear reactors and provide free electricity to the elderly, disabled and young families. Daytime spare capacity can be stored in massive flywheels. A win/win situation, I am sure someone will manage to make a profit out of it. Or we could connect areas of low water supply to a National Grid system and replace all the old pipe network. There must be other urgent works that can use the current spare capacity. The buzzards that want shooting are those circling the NHS and schools. 03/06/2012 - I pre-recorded the Andrew Marr show so that I could fast forward through any Jubilee interviews. Granddaughter is going to a pub Jubilee BBQ with friends from work, it is about 7 miles away on the outskirts of Brighton. Next door are having a party for their son’s 18th birthday, there is no bunting on show even in the back garden where most of the people are gathered. There are no flags flying down our street either and in this area usually 30% have outdoor Xmas lights. 04/06/2012 - My middle son(44) and his partner came over from Eastbourne to see me, they are house hunting in the surrounding area while renting at the moment, but are finding there is nothing much on the market. Granddaughter helped me in the garden and mowed the lawn. 05/06/2012 - I watched a programme on BBC4, Surviving Progress, last night which showed how a lack of consideration of the environment, nature and natural resources has enabled the greed of the top 10% to grab its monetary value and impoverish us all. Most telling was a business man talking to someone saying that they had borrowed money and, although they have repaid that amount, they haven’t paid the interest and they now owe 9 times what they borrowed and must repay it because he is a bank not a charity. We then see who he is talking to; a poor African child. It showed that each financial crash costs more and more and makes the poor pay the price while those with the money hold all the power and influence in a system designed to suit only themselves and how other great civilisations have been wiped out as a result of this behaviour. At last the alternative views to capitalism are getting an airing. A breath of hope. This government could easily make work pay, just increase the minimum wage to a living wage. Why should taxpayers pay housing benefit and tax credits to subsidise exploitative employers of cheap labour. Hard working people should not need to go begging for handouts or take 3 jobs to earn a basic standard of living. And raise the family allowance to reflect a truer cost of raising the next generation. Putting money into the hands of those who will spend it is far better than giving it to banks, it creates demand that gets the economy moving and the unemployed back into worthwhile jobs. Before the Euro speculators would pick off individual currencies and force a country to devalue, they have since ruined our building societies and sold pension and insurance products that had no value to the holder. The financial markets need to be locked into a straitjacket of regulation to make them play fair. The bankers need to pay for the damage they have done. Popular demand for a financial transaction tax is still being ignored. 08/06/2012 - at the hairdressers today one woman was saying she attended some jubilee event with the centre piece a large cake decorated with the Queen’s head in the design of a postage stamp. The other ladies and staff, 8 altogether, said they hadn’t done anything special for the Jubilee and there was just a string of Union Jacks across the windows. A woman of about 50 said her husband had gone fishing in the pouring rain, we all laughed, we can’t understand men at all. I said we didn’t have time for hobbies, she said that somebody had to clean the loo. David Cameron intends to make forced marriage a criminal offence as he says it is like slavery, to women most marriages are like that.