Tag Archives: tired

Tired of life under the Tory government? You are far from being alone

Despair: it seems many people in the UK are losing the will to live – even (or especially) the young. How can we restore their joie-de-vivre?

It seems many older people, despite being in good health, are tired of life.

They provide numerous reasons for feeling that way, as listed here:

Aching loneliness, pain associated with not mattering, struggles with self-expression, existential tiredness, and fear of being reduced to a completely dependent state.

Tiredness of life also seems to arise in people who consider themselves to have lived fulfilling lives. One man of 92 told the network’s researchers:

You have no effect on anything. The ship sets sail and everyone has a job, but you just sail along. I am cargo to them. That’s not easy. That’s not me. Humiliation is too strong a word, but it is bordering on it. I simply feel ignored, completely marginalised.

For some people, this elicits a deep-rooted sense that life has been stripped of meaning – and that the tools we need to rebuild a sense of purpose are irretrievable.

The article goes on to say that this feeling is similar to what some of us can experience at other points in life – but it’s not the same.

I wonder…

How many of us are experiencing the same feelings of “not mattering” – and not being able to matter, because we live in a society that completely suppresses us.

I was talking to a friend a while ago about ways of getting young people interested in voting at the local elections. He said he thought it would be close-to-impossible to motivate people aged between 18 and, say, 24 because they lack one basic element that makes life worthwhile.

They lack hope.

So they immerse themselves in video games, in the instant gratification of social media attention… in meaningless sex. It’s simply to give themselves something to do.

They don’t believe that anything they do will make a difference. The environment is permanently maimed, in their view. Politics is a closed shop where only “elites” are allowed. And business is likewise controlled by a few barons and their families – look at Akshata Murty, the wife of UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.

In short, there are no opportunities for social mobility – for improvement of the conditions of their lives. Tory government over the last 13 years has locked off any such opportunities.

What is the answer?

Logically, it would be to give these people their hope back. That is an extremely tall order for the elderly, who feel that all of their usefulness is behind them and (in many cases) all of the skills they learned in earlier life are obsolete. It would involve finding a way to re-engage tired minds with the modern way of life, and medical advances that would restore their physical abilities.

But the young?

They can’t help us because they don’t know how to regain something they don’t think they’ve ever had.

Do we look at history? Examine how young people were motivated in past times? Do we look at geography – examine how young people are motivated in other nations?

I’m asking because I don’t have an answer.

What’s yours? I’d especially like to know if you happen to be a young person.

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Gavin Esler lays down why the Tories are probably on the way out, no matter who becomes PM

Veteran TV reporter: Gavin Esler.

Here’s a nifty little video clip for you:

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What was wrong with Michael Gove in Parliament last week?

Michael Gove: He looked a lot less active – or indeed, awake – in the Commons chamber last week.

Remember this?

Now we can enjoy this, too:

As Mike Cockerton stated on Twitter: “Thank goodness Michael Gove told us how much he bitterly regretted taking cocaine, otherwise we could have very easily misconstrued this.”

And we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?

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Fresh Labour v Tired Tories in a war of the words

—Bright, fresh and popular: Jeremy Corbyn and deputy Tom Watson meet the public on their way to the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

—Bright, fresh and popular: Jeremy Corbyn and deputy Tom Watson meet the public on their way to the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

The contrast is so strong it is painful – and for the Tories, the worst of it is that they have set themselves up for the fall.

On one side we have Jeremy Corbyn. In his speech to the Labour Party Conference, the new leader made a joke of commentators who have been trying their hardest to talk down his success.

“Some media commentators who’ve spent years complaining about how few people have engaged with political parties have sneered at our huge increase in membership,” he said.

“If they were sports reporters writing about a football team they’d be saying:

“’They’ve had a terrible summer.

“‘They’ve got 160,000 new fans.

“‘Season tickets are sold out.

“‘The new supporters are young and optimistic.

“‘I don’t know how this club can survive a crisis like this!’”

In response, according to fellow blogger Alex Little, Tory Chief Whip Michael Gove put out the following statement:

“Labour have confirmed that they are a threat to our national security, our economic security and to the security of everyzzzzzzzzzzzzz…”

Sorry – nodded off there for a moment. The last bit was going to be “family in Britain”, one feels sure – as it’s the same dull drone that the Tories have been using to bore us ever since pig-fancying PM David Cameron used it in response to Mr Corbyn’s election victory more than two weeks ago.

Tired Tories.

Fresh Labour.

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Clueless Cameron – as tired as his policies?

Tired old Tory: Is this David Cameron or Ken Clarke? [Picture: BBC, augmented with help by Ian Davies]

Tired old Tory: Is this David Cameron or Ken Clarke? [Picture: BBC, augmented with help from Ian Davies]

David Tennant’s outstanding run as the title character in Doctor Who began by ending the career of fictional Prime Minister Harriet Jones with just six words to an aide: “Don’t you think she looks tired?”

The character had been PM for a very short time but had made serious errors of judgement. In that respect – and that alone – she is the David Cameron of the Doctor Who universe.

Cameron and his cronies are currently wheeling out a succession of policies that they want us to believe are new. The latest of these, according to the BBC News website, involves extended opening hours for local doctors.

That’s right – he’ll be piloting a £50 million scheme in nine areas of England where surgeries will be able to bid for funding to open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

Perhaps he’s hoping that our memories have suffered rapid ill-health recently, because this is nothing but an old Labour scheme, painted blue.

Labour offered GP practices extra money to open later in the evening and on weekends, and most surgeries tried it out – until lack of demand meant funding was reduced and hours cut back.

Many surgeries still offer out-of-hours appointments – so it seems unlikely that there is any need for Cameron’s version at all…

… unless he is considering making an appointment for himself. Look at the image. Don’t you think he looks tired?

Other policies introduced during the Tory conference include the indefinite extension of Workfare for the long-term unemployed, which is nothing more than an underhanded plot to make it seem that joblessness has dropped, allowing the Bank of England to raise interest rates, as this blog revealed yesterday.

And the much-touted but low-paying married tax allowance turned out to be even lower-paying for the low-waged who are already receiving help through tax credits, which are due to be phased out in favour of Universal Credit, paid to people whose incomes are low after tax. Their higher after-tax income means their UC will drop by £130, making them just £70 per year better-off.

Meanwhile, the ‘free school meals’ policy unveiled by Coalition partners the Liberal Democrats has also left a nasty taste in peoples’ mouths. It turns out that the number of people receiving such help is about the only indicator of low-income households available to school authorities, and is part of how schools show regulators that SAT results are not their only priority – they are doing their best in areas where parents are out of work. Losing that marker means schools in challenging circumstances will be unable to demonstrate their situation and will suffer as a result.

That leaves just the new tax on plastic bags in England, which is an idea the Coalition stole from the much-maligned Labour Welsh Government – another Labour idea the Tories have adopted (and this should serve as a warning sign for Labour: When Tories adopt your policies, you have drifted much too far to the right of the political spectrum).

Clearly the strain – of trying to dream up new policies that will make his party look good – has taken its toll on clueless Cameron.

Don’t you think he looks tired?