So Where Are We Now?
I can’t believe that nearly 4 months has passed since I last posted here. Life has certainly been strange. Here in Wales we entered into lockdown a week before Christmas and we are still under some restriction today, although the rest of the UK is considerably more open. I don’t resent our tighter restrictions. I prefer “Drakey’s” cautious approach to Boris’ gung-ho one every time.
I know that lockdown has brought financial problems for many people, but fortunately not for us. Our pension income is unchanged and our living costs have decreased (no travel means no fuel costs, stay-at-home means no restaurant bills and no twice weekly visits to Starbucks). All this has enabled us to put a bit more than usual into savings AND pay off our credit cards!
Because I think I will need those savings soon. Our son has just told us that he is getting married again, although no date has been set yet. Watch this space!
Toodlepip for now.
Lyndon.
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Life seems to be back to normal in the UK. Not in France, the disease is still spreading badly, we’re under restrictions and short of vaccines. Our politicians are so hopeless.
Here in Australia Lyndon, life has become somewhat of a turmoil as covid restrictions are eased/reimposed/eased/reimposed to somewhat arbitrary degrees with very little warning. Not that anyone in particular is to blame, the virus is most insidious and will break out anywhere at any time under its’ own rules. Unfortunately our vaccination roll out has been severely disrupted, due in part to the EU blocking supplies of the Astrazenica vaccine in defiance of prearranged contractural agreements between the EU and Australian Govt. What was from the beginning an inordinately ambitious roll out plan to vaccinate all Australians with at least one jab by October is now pretty much in tatters. To further exacerbate an already messed up situation, a 44 year old recipient recently developed blood clots, confirmed by medical authorities to be caused by the vaccine, which has the potential to place the roll out in further jeopardy. From the personal finance point of view, those on fixed incomes such as pensions have rarely had it better. Both the state and federal govts. have been throwing money at us in gay abandon in order to stimulate the economy but, with severely reduced opportunity to do anything with that money, it has not had the desired impact. Whilst we appreciate that we are not in the same position as the UK, Europe, America etc with regard to the number of cases and deaths, there is no cause whatsoever for complacency as things could rapidly spiral out of control. I wasn’t aware that Wales’ approach to the pandemic differed from that of Britain but, by what you have said, I’ll put my money on Wales to weather the storm more successfully. Appreciate the update you have provided, please don’t hesitate to continue in that vein.
Wales is a quasi-autonomous region with its own parliament known as the Senedd (pronounced “sen-neth” – Welsh for “discussion”). Scotland and Northern Ireland are roughly the same, although confusingly each nation has a slightly different set of devolved powers. We use the term “home nations” but I think your State governments would be a useful analogy.
There is some tension at the moment because Britain generally has a Conservative (right of centre) government whereas the Senedd in Wales is Labour (left) controlled. The current Prifweinog (“First Minister”) is Mark Drakeford, who I refer to as Drakey. He is VERY left-wing! He has taken a very cautious stance on removing restrictions which has not been universally popular – but it works for me.
Thanks for the further insight, it will be interesting to see the future outcomes of the British Conservative versus the Welsh Labour approach. I’m not a betting man but, if I were, my money would be on the Welsh approach winning the day. We in Australia are currently served by a conservative Federal Government along with 3 conservative and 4 labour state governments. A ‘national cabinet’ consisting of the federal Prime Minister and each state Premier was convened shortly after covid was declared a pandemic and has been in continuous operation since. The federal Labour opposition was not included in the cabinet, which leaves them free to democratically snipe at the operation and outcomes of the National Cabinet as indeed is expected of an opposition in the Westminster system. In my humble (non partisan) opinion excluding them was a big mistake as a lack of overall consensus plays into the hands of the virus. The Australian War Cabinet of 1939 – 1945 was bipartisan as was, if I remember correctly, Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet. In those days we were fighting an enemy beyond our borders, surely an enemy rampant within our own borders is a crisis of the same (if not greater) magnitude. And so, while the to-ing and fro-ing of politics continues its’ fruitless progression, Covid 19 makes merry of the dissension. Probably rambled on more than I should have, thanks again for the insight.
Thank you all for presenting these views. I do see the points being made and agree.