Yesterday morning, the care workers were scheduled to arrive an hour later than their normal starting time of 8.00am so I gave myself the luxury of an extra half an hour in bed. I did not have a particularly energetic day yesterday but nonetheless, I had completed the tidying of the study and mowed the front lawns so I was pleased with my progress. One does not normally take much notice of elections in Canada but this time around, there is a stunning difference. When Canada goes to the polls, it might be the second election Donald Trump wins in six months. The US president has transformed Canada's political landscape, and the 'Trump effect' looks like it will be the difference between winners and losers. Tariffs, and his threat to annexe the country as the 51st state, have provoked a surge in Canadian nationalism, and it hass made a favourite of the candidate styled anti-Trump. Step forward, Mark Carney: former Governor of the Bank of England, now Canadian Prime Minister. His ruling Liberal party had been written off as an electoral contender. Canadians had turned its back on the party after a decade in power under Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau. The opposition Conservative Party, under the effective leadership of Pierre Poilievre, grew to a 25-point lead in the polls on the promise of change on the economy, crime and a chronic housing crisis. However, his conservative politics are more aligned with the neighbour in the White House and, in Canada right now, it's not a good look. So it looks as though Mark Carney, actually very well known to us here in England, may sweep to power in the polls. Polls indicate that Canadians see Carney as a stronger choice to negotiate with Donald Trump. He is a veteran of economic turmoil, having dealt with the 2008 financial crisis and Brexit If he wins, and that is looking more and more likely, the swing from Conservative to Liberal will be the biggest swing in the polls in recent democratic history. We have experienced something a little like this in our own political history, though. It is not often appreciated that just before the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher was the most unpopular Prime Minister of all time. Immediately after the victory, she became the most popular of all time and could not resist going to the country and securing a massive majority. There is nothing like an external threat to unite a country which is one reason why right wing leaders often pursue aggressive foreign policies as it diverts attention from domestic strife at home.
I have just completed a series of computing manipulations upon the HTML files that I had listed all of the files in my study (all 125 of them) and I have ended up with a completely alphabetical list which is what I wanted to achieve. The trouble is that each of the original HTML files was tied to a shelf location but that ordering is now lost so now that I have an alphabetical list I do not know where anything is! However, I have thought of a simple solution which is to go back to my unordered list, give each filename a suffix with its location number and then do the (online) sort all over again. This I have managed to do in little bits and pieces throughout the course of the morning and now I am happy to have an alphabetical list of each of my files and where it can be located. In the course of the morning. I have not felt at all well so have tried to have a very easy and stress free morning - so I have avoided doing things like reaching onto high shelves as I know that a lot of stretching up and bending down cannot be good for you as one ages. In the morning, I filled in the customary web form requesting some additional pain relief for Meg and also informing them that I felt rather unwell but there has been a marked lack of response. But the other day when the district nurses called around, they seemed to be exercised that Meg sometimes only had the visit from one carer when two were allocated and I think that 'reports' might have been circulated. In the late morning, I got a call from the social services area team and i tried to give them as full and account as I could. I indicated that the level of care provided by the individual care staff was of a high order but it was frustrating to the care agency itself, as well as myself, when care workers phoned in sick and the planned pattern of care was disrupted. I think I may have poured oil over troubled waters but we will have to see how things unfold in the next few weeks. The difficulties arise from the fact that Meg's needs are gradually intensifying by degrees but the care package remains a constant and therefore a lot depends on the care and attention of each of the individual care workers.
In the public debates today, I learn that the replacement for the Ofsted inspection regime of schools (which contributed to the suicide of a headmistress when her school was downgraded from 'Outstanding' to 'Unsatisfactory') is subject to a great expression of concern. The current system was previously criticised for reducing school performance into a single-word judgement. It was described by ministers as creating 'low information for parents and high stakes for schools'. The one-word judgement is set to be removed. But critics say the proposed replacement offers little real change. Report cards and a new grading structure have been suggested. But many argue these measures are only cosmetic and they fail to fix and alleviate the intense pressure schools are under. Among the coalition's demands is the creation of a robust, independent complaints and appeals process. Currently, any complaints procedure is largely absent, leaving schools with little recourse to challenge potentially damaging inspection outcomes. 'Trust in the system needs to be restored' a circulating letter reads. 'The rushed and closed nature of the consultation has only made that worse.'
© Mike Hart [2025]