Mad World

I think I'm getting old. The kind of old where you yearn for how things used to be. The kind of old where you find yourself saying, "In my day, we used to.......".

It seems we live in a funny old world now. The days of relative peace and harmony since the last major world war seem to have gotten more risky, worrying and crazy.  I know the world has seen sporadic outbreaks of trouble over that period, but none so risky as now with the internet and other technology to aid faster communication.

The shenanigans of American politics, the Russian attack on Ukraine, the brewing tension in the Middle East and the mindless thuggery over the last few days in the UK since the brutal stabbings in Stockport alone have made the world seem an even more dangerous place to be. In addition, social media and drones are the two things that make information and disinformation readily available at our fingertips. It makes our enemy abroad and the mindless thugs at home ready to assemble at a moment's notice and know where to attack. Unlike our parents' generation where snail mail, telegrams and months of intelligence-building took an age to prepare.

I have to say that the mindless thuggery seen on our streets this week are reminiscent of Nazi Germany where a politician of a small party in the 1920s sowed seeds into the minds of a racist few and conjured up in 1933 twelve years of racist hatred that led to the extermination of six million Jews. Many years ago that would have seemed unlikely to happen here. But now? Imagine a right-wing minority party here with an MP in Parliament and the scenes unfolding this week in a town near you. It's ironic that the thugs seem to carry flags of St George - a saint who originates from the area of Turkey. If only they could appreciate the irony.

I'm also getting fed-up of being made to feel guilty that I should be supporting people who  choose to have large families, because of the two-child benefit cap. I have no objection to people having large families if they so wish. But I don't see why I should have to subsidise them with my hard-earned money. I find that at the foodbank at which I volunteer, the regular group of mums with six kids have amazing manicured fingernails which can only have been painted at nail bars. I know for a fact that these nail bars cost a bomb and I often wonder as I hand out bags groaning with free food to them, that they could have afforded the food themselves, if they had gone without having their nails done. I often see them get into their big cars and drive off, again making me wonder where their priorities lie. Call me old-fashioned, but my parents survived a world war on very little and with no hand-outs at all. They couldn't afford a car in their entire lifetime and my father had two jobs to save up for a mortgage on a very modest house. People's expectations have grown to expect things such as a TV, washing machine, car and painted nails - to name a few - as given these days and, I'm not saying they should not be,  but to expect things handed on a plate at someone else's expense seems unrealistic. I'm sure many of you will disagree, but then that's why I say, I think I must be getting old...... and probably very grumpy, like Victor Meldrew.