POLITRICKS

I follow politics. Had I ever had the opportunity to go to University I would have studied the subject.  "Politricks" was how my late Uncle Jim described the subject. During one of our stays in America, I followed the antics of Trump and his cohorts; watched the Congressional Hearings,  watched the political debates on CNN, NBC, ABC, and even viewed (against my better judgment) Fox News.

In America, I found it faintly amusing.  The way the goings on in Congress and the White House were dissected and analysed by the 'experts;' while Trump's daily tweets were leapt upon and talked about in depth ("Are the President's tweets official policy?")  But over there I was divorced from it.  It was nothing to do with me.  It was just entertainment; interesting, funny at times - that's the way they do it here, was my thinking,  it was fascinating but it didn't really affect me.

Now I'm home again and into the politics here again and it is not amusing and it does affect me. What a mess it all is, what a scandal.  In the few short weeks, I have been home the politicians have been up to all sorts of politricks, their reputations have sunk to an all-time low. Mrs May promises £10M to Northern Ireland in order to keep herself in Downing Street.   She insists the 1% pay cap to nurses, firemen, police, teachers and other public sector workers will remain while the MPs themselves get a 1.4% rise on top of the 10% raise they had in 2015.  The Queen is to have her income doubled to £82M "to cover the cost of essential works at Buckingham Palace."

It is revealed Prince Phillip took a ride on the Royal Train to Plymouth to attend a dinner at the Royal Marines Barracks. Cost: £18,690. Prince Charles took a two-day journey to Lancashire, Cumbria and West Yorkshire from Windsor on the train. Cost: £46,038.  The train was used 14 times last year and its cost is between £800,000 and £900,000.  An official is quoted as saying it was 'good value for money.'  He was serious.

The council leader and the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Council have resigned over the scandal of the Grenfell Tower disaster.  They couldn't stand the heat so they have got out.  They were lucky, over 82 of their constituents couldn't get out.  According to The Telegraph the CEO will be entitled to compensation of around £100,000. How much will the poor people who were able to flee from their burning homes in the middle of the night get in compensation?  I would like to know the answer to that.