Today, we anticipate paying a visit to our new found little cafe, ‘The Lemon Tree‘ despite the fact that local roadworks are making a visit to it a little awkward. Although it does involve a somewhat longer venture out than is our usual trip, it does have the advantage of a trip down our local High Street where we can pop into the occasional charity shop and/or buy things such as cosmetics which are not available in our local supermarket. The centre of the town is being remodelled yet again and goodness knows what is going to emerge at the end of the day. I suspect that some of the money coming to pay for improvements is part of the ‘levelling up’ process which was a policy of the outgoing Conservative administration. I think that quite a lot of money was channeled towards traditionally Conservative areas to help to keep them loyal. But one of the local roads through the town has been made one-way whilst various schemes are under way and there is quite a degree of scepticism that anything really tangible is to result. According to the local newspaper, workers will begin upgrading the paving, planting trees, installing cycle racks and benches and improving the drainage. This hardly sounds like dramatic improvements to the town centre which seems to be dominated by charity shops, coffee outlets and vape shops without very many of the traditional businesses one would want to see in a town centre. I am pretty sure that Bromsgrove town centre is not unique in the paucity of shops that it currently boasts and the prevalence of large outdoor retail parks as well as the prevalence of online shopping does nothing in particular to help the town centre. Some of the long established residents of Bromsgrove fondly remember the days when there used to be quality retail outlets in the town but it does not surprise me that many of the existing shops find it difficult to keep going. The one thing that does help to bring a bit of excitement to the shopping experience are the street markets that are held each Tuesday and Saturday – for example, I have traditionally used one stall which used to do quite a brisk trade in watches, watch batteries, and handbags and other stalls sell some interesting food products. But even here the stalls are not what they used to be. I used to use one stall that sold a whole range and variety of hardware and gardening implements and from another, there was always a good range of plants sold but these stall holders have moved off to other pitches such as Kidderminster down the road where I suspect that the weekly rents for the stalls are lower and the footfall more substantial. It must be a sign of the times but there always seems quite a brisk trade in the charity shops and I must confess that I frequent them myself where in the past I have bought cushions and the occasional kitchen bric-a-brac. But this does seem to be a fragile base for the local economy and I sometimes do wonder how much income goes across the tills on a typical weekday for many of the shops. Having said that, I am conscious of what are called ‘biased statistics’ because on Saturdays there always seems to be a flood of local people walking the High Street but as I tend to avoid the town centre on these busy days, I am probably not getting an accurate impression of the level of economic activity in the town. But shops cannot survive on their Saturday trade alone and it is hard to know what the local authority can do to stimulate more actual trade within the town.
There is the usual media interest in US presidential politics as the Democrats are meeting for their convention in Chicago (always a Democrat stronghold). Apparently one ‘Obama’ made an absolutely stunning and empowering speech at the Convention but it was not the speech from the lips of Barack Obama, the former president but his wife, Michelle. The convention was set alive and inspired by the speech that encouraged the Democrats to rekindle their hopes for a better future. There is almost no doubt that if Michelle Obama had ever been in a competition with Trump she would beaten him very easily. But even though her endorsement of Kamala Harris came somewhat late in the day, no doubt there was a lot of crude political realpolitik in recognising that a split Democratic party was no way to take on the challenge of Trump and Trumpism. One wonders what future political role might lie in store for Michelle Obama given her undoubted intellectual and political gifts. There are such jobs such as Ambassador to the United Nations or even to London as a suitable post but I am sure she is absolutely focused on getting Kamala Harris elected. Weever she visited London, Michelle Obama would make for schools generally in the East end of London with a high black population and inspired the school pupils with the message that she started off life coming from a poor black area of Chicago and there was nothing to stop them from aiming equally high. Tonight, we shall see the much anticipated keynote of Kamala Harris herself and no doubt this will be much scrutinised as I think it is fair to say that the Democrats campaign has been ‘policy light’ so far. The latest opinion polls out her about 3% ahead of Trump but a key portion of the electorate, the white working class male with minimal college education, naturally gravitate towards Trump and will take a fair bit of convincing before they will vote for a mixed heritage, female candidate.
In this country, all eyes at the moment are fixed upon Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer who will be presenting a budget in October. Many have argued that the UK’s finances are not in a good state but the most recent data is giving rather mixed messages as economic growth seems a smidgeon higher than was predicted but the anticipated tax revenues somewhat less. Reeves may well do what George Osborne did and introduce a regime of tax rises, blaming it all on her predecessor. On the other hand, she may be playing a more skilful political game by making the population fear that tremendous economic pain is on the way but, having softened up the public, produce a budget which is not quite so painful after all.
© Mike Hart [2024]