Yesterday was the end to a very different weekend but a very enjoyable one nonetheless. After her party, my Droitwich friend joined me in the morning and we made ourselves an instant meal of some high quality sausages (regarded locally as being some of the best available) and some instant mashed potato, made somewhat more palatable using butter, whole cream milk and a couple of eggs. We were both determined to have a pretty lazy day in each other's company and that we did before she left as her boys were returning home after a weekend away with their father. As we had a rather magnificent breakfast, neither of us felt particularly hungry throughout the day and we just sustained ourselves on bits-and-bobs from the fridge. In the afternoon, I popped down to Waitrose in order to pick up a copy of my Sunday newspaper but was not surprised to see that they were all sold out, So I trekked onto our local garage and my luck seemed to be in because I picked up the very last copy. Then on returning home, I cooked my friend and I a very traditional English meal. Throughout the day, I had a ham joint slowly cooking in the slow cooker and I parboiled some carrots which together with some petit pois, would be given a quick hot roasting in oil with a dollop of honey added to glaze the carrots. My friend had not tasted the new kale called 'Cavolo Nero' so I showed her how this was to be prepared and then after some washing it only needs about six minutes in the microwave. I prepared a fairly thick onion gravy to which the slices of ham were added and then we partook of a very traditional 'meat and two veg' in the late afternoon before she departed for her own home later on. My friend had long standing social commitments with groups of friends in London for the next two weekends so the pleasant weekend we have spent together is not likely to be repeated for about another three weekends but we will still grab the opportunities to have quick get-togethers as and when the occasion arises over the next few days. The TV shows we had watched were not necessarily my first choice: 'Get me Out of Here - I'm a celebrity' on ITV but it was reasonably entertaining.
The Ukrainian situation is fast evolving. Alarmed by the one sidedness of the American-Russian plan, the Europeans have put forward a 28 point peace plan of their own. Perhaps surprisingly, the Americans have indicated that they are prepared to countenance a degree of flexibility and there is recognition that all proposed plans need to evolve. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is indicating both a degree of pragmatism and also some optimism that that there has been substantial progress in discussions over the future of Ukraine. Although it looks like fairly early days yet, the shape of a deal might be that the Ukraine gives up the portions of its state already overrun by the Russians but that Nato and the US will provide some sort of guarantees against further invasions or incursions by Russia. Although Russia is slowly gaining territory, international sanctions are biting and it could be that both sides have got a little war-weary and just want the war to end. There is a long way to go yet, but it looks as though the log jam over negotiations is slowly starting to break up.
The coming week is bound to be dominated in the UK political scene by the forthcoming budget. It seems likely that the so-called stealth taxes will remain, by not allowing the levels at which people start to pay tax to rise, then the total amount of 'take' from income tax increases, albeit at a rather smaller rate. Taxes, and particularly taxes on income, presents difficulties for all of the political parties, On the right of the political spectrum, taxes are regarded as a disincentive to savings and investment and there is a desire to have a low tax-smaller state spending society. But this has political dangers not least because of the nation's commitment to the NHS and, to a lesser extent, those parts of the welfare state seen as spent on those 'deserving' it, such as pensioners. So, in practice, the political right would not dare to cut taxes too far as the corresponding reduction in welfare spending might spell electoral suicide. On the political left, there is a natural tendency to rase taxes to finance the welfare state but equally there is a recognition that international currency markets do not have to be spooked by state spending seen as excessive and the political left feel that they have to prove that they are not fiscally incompetent by not controlling the overall level of government spending. But there are radical measures that need to be undertaken to reform the UK's extraordinarily tax system with seemingly high levels of tax offset by reliefs, allowances and thresholds. One of these would be to tax most of us by the land we occupy which would mean that wealthy land owners and the owners of very large houses would contribute more to the Exchequer. Another reform would be to radically reform business rates and, indeed, domestic rates that have needed some revisions for years but no government would get around to it. Another reform, that would never happen in the UK, There is always the possibility as well that there are new and, as yet, unexploited services that could be taxed. For example a £1 delivery charge on each item would yield about 750-800 millions a year, before extra taxes on Amazon itself were moderated. Rather than raise taxes, there is always the possibility that spending by the state, and particularly on welfare budgets, needs to be a prime focus. One way of saving money is to make the 'triple lock' into a 'double lock' for pensioners and, in view of the fact, that they have done pretty well over the past few years compared with the rest of the population. As for the 'war on waste', if there had been any very evident sources of waste of public money, this has almost certainly been found and then eliminated during the years of austerity we have had for the past decade or so. Those in regular contact with social service departments will know how 'hollowed out' these departments have been over the past few years but the massively increasing Universal Credit budget is not an easy problem to resolve given the degree of mental illness now in evidence since the COVID-19 epidemic.
© Mike Hart [2025]