Author: Steve Antipolo

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The above might not work as I’ve not tried it before

Listening to Theresa May earlier stumbling over one soundbite after another in an effort to avoid answering any direct questions. As is a recurring question at the moment she was asked about the £8bn promised by them for the NHS and where they’re going to find the money … the closest she got to an answer seemed to be that this sort of money just sort of turns up under a Conservative government so they shall use that. She said that this is how they’ve managed to find such amounts before, they’ve just done such a wonderful job of managing the economy that the billions just magic themselves into existing. Asked if they were sure this would be the case she stumbled again, she wasn’t going to comment on what or would not happen as far ahead as 2020, no one could know that she seemed t be saying. So, she was asked whether or not the money had specifically been budgeted, that she could say with absolute certainty it would be found and she repeated her assertion that they’d done it before. The question, the one she kept avoiding was, if you’re so sure the money is going to be there, how can you not say where or when it’s going to happen? The reality is, they have no clue. They are hoping there is a good following wind and that they get lucky during the next 5 years. Perhaps they are hoping for another coalition so that this sort of promise can be explained away as a coalition compromise. If it is so important to them, this £8bn, would they not be wise to say now that it would not be up for negotiation in the event of a hung parliament? The Liberal Democrats have been making similar such promises on certain policy commitments they mentioned, not that anyone believes they wouldn’t sell their own mothers to keep the power.

I just don’t like any party avoiding questions, it says to me that the answers are either not what they want us to know or that the answer is, the promise isn’t worth anything to them, it’s just an election bribe. If I hear Labour doing it, I’ll post about them too.

The “Right to Buy”. From the inception of the modern Conservative Party this has been a policy designed to promote the Conservative party. Margaret Thatcher knew this and she made a big thing about it. Right back when the Conservative as we know them now were invented they knew that a nation of tenants would not vote for them, their voters needed a stake in the country, a reason to ensure they looked after their own self interested as opposed to what was best for the country. Home Ownership was the key to that. Ensure that it mattered to these new home owners what interest rates were doing. Make sure they had a financial burden so they effectively gave up their right to strike because it meant losing their home. Home owners, and I don’t blame them, have little choice but to seriously consider voting Conservative. As Owners they are better placed for the sort of bribes a Conservative government would offer with regard to tax breaks and so on. As Home owners, they are not going to want to do anything which would risk their home. The Conservatives are so convincing that we should all aspire to ownership that they positively encourage a feeling of shame which those who do not own should feel, that ‘they’ are not fully part of society, that tenants are ‘less’.

What we need to remember is that we are all equal regardless of wealth or ownership, we all own this country and have an obligation to it and to each other.

It is said that each and every cloud has a silver lining and, I’m really being honest here when I say that, well, it’s not true, sometimes the sky is so dark, so full of clouds we wonder if the sun will ever shine again.

It’s always worth remembering that behind even the darkest of clouds the sun still shines bright and, sometimes, every now and then, through all those clouds it pokes through to remind us that the light is always there, it will always come back.

Remember that and, you have to take my word for this perhaps but, it keeps me going knowing that and when I see that sun, oh boy.

Went over to see Jermaine earlier.

He wasn’t in such a good mood today, told me to ‘Get out’, well, shouted at me actually. I ignored him and after half an hour managed to get a hug. I love him to bits but, at the same time, and I know this comes across as selfish, it’s really distressing seeing him like this and there is totally nothing I can do about it. I can’t communicate in any meaningful way and neither can he. As a parent, and knowing it’s not true, I still feel like I am letting him down … the joys of parenting, knowing one thing and feeling another.

You know, just not make any life changing decisions, don’t even date anyone, don’t even talk to someone with a view to dating them.

It would seem that I keep making the same sort of mistakes with people. You know, I trust them, I open up, lay myself vulnerable and then get stabbed in the back.

Certainly I need to stop being so stupid as to think I could have a long distance relationship! Hell, I’ve been lied to and cheated on by those in my own town, I must increase the chances of that happening many times over by adding distance into the equation!

What has sparked this?

Well, you’ll recall I got quite attached to a guy called Randy. He’s been quite lovely, saying all the right things, giving the real impression that he had hopes for something special between us, even just a couple of days ago he said this face to face across Skype and yet … I got a message from someone else in the UK telling me they’ve declared unending love for each other and they are going to live happily ever after. I was a little shocked but then, it also made sense, you know, one of those light bulb moments. Turns out it’s all true of course, Randy was keeping his options open, probably not just with me but, clearly waiting to see which guy would come up with the very real promise of money and Randy’s shipment to the UK!

So, I got made to look totally and utterly stupid again, a recurring theme of late.

Really it is, I just need not to trust anyone. It’s not serving any purpose, no one benefits from it and I end up the victim. So, time to toughen up and join the very real world where we assume we’re being lied to unless we get proof otherwise, assume someone is playing an angle at each opportunity. Had I done that previously I’d not been made such a fool of in the past. I’d have straight away suspected something and told those concerned to go do one!

So, time to take stock and just spend time with those who have not shit on me previously from now on. Thankfully I do still know plenty of people like that. Time to create some stability in my life. Not quite sure how I am going to do that but, I got to try at least. (When I think of something)