Wednesday started off with a pattern which is all too common these days as I received a text from the care agency one hour before the two carers were due to call asking if I could assist the one carer who was calling as people had phoned in sick. This is the second time in three days this has occurred first thing in the morning, so I am logging these occasions so that I can remonstrate if necessary with the agency. Having showered this morning, when I got down Meg was attempting to get out of bed but had she done so she would fallen which would mean her lying on the floor for several hours until the falls team and/or the ambulance service were called for. I need to avoid calling the ambulance service because their protocols are that fallen patients have to be taken to hospital for a checkup and once we get into this scenario, things can only go from bad to worse. So I have to make every effort to ensure Meg does not try to get out of bed and generally put a wheelchair, with its wheels locked, in a critical position to avoid this eventuality. The media having been dominated by news of the forthcoming budget have had their attention diverted by enormous flash floods in the eastern part of Spain around the area of Valencia. Some reports are saying that a combination of dried hard earth and a year's rainfall falling in eight hours can make these floods catastrophic. We know that this area of Spain was liable to very heavy rainfall because when Meg and I visited Valencia, we paid a visit to the 'City of Arts and Sciences' which is a world-renowned complex that combines avant-garde architecture, entertainment, and education in one place. Apparently there had been really catastrophic floods in, I think the 1950's in the area just to the west of Valencia. The Spanish regional authorities diverted one or two of the local rivers, created a huge flood plain and then wondering what to do with the vast area that they had cleared built the 'City of Arts and Sciences' The reports are that at least 90 people have died and it is expected that these numbers will rise substantially. One report is saying that this latest flood is one of the greatest floods in Spanish history but I think there may be a degree of hyperbole involved in this.
After breakfast, I felt pretty tired and did not really feel up to an extended walk into town which I might have done if both Meg and myself felt a bit better. I had intended to walk all the way into town and visit our favourite cafe on the High Street but I was a bit anxious as to whether Meg could cope with an extended walk. But on our return, I regaled us both with some potato and leek soup of which I had just bought a packet and then the two care workers turned up but not the two I was expecting according to the rota. Apart from periodic sickness factors, it is half term week which always plays havoc with the domestic child care arrangements of the carers so some disruption is only to be expected. After they had left, Meg and I saw the major elements of the Budget speech live on TV but have not caught up either with the expert analysis that will be undertaken or indeed the political reaction to it. But it does look as £40 billion of taxes are to be levied but none directly on the working population. One tax I was particularly glad to see imposed was via the abolition of the non-dom status by which so many of the rich (including the ex Prime Minister's own wife) have benefitted. What we got from Rachel Reeves today was, in economic terms, a major departure from economic policy as we've known it in this country for the past decade and a half.We got the single biggest increase in taxes in any fiscal event since 1993. The tax burden itself is now heading up to the highest level in history. So all of this is quite a gamble but not the kind of gamble for which Liz Truss is notorious. The overall impact of the budget is a little hard to gauge because those who have benefitted (e.g. from the rise eon the Minimum Wage) are not very vocal whereas some small (but not the smallest) businesses are complaining about the increases in their costs that the National Insurance changes will bring. But it could be that this particular budget will be seen as ground breaking but whether it will lead to increased growth is a very unknowable question, Even the OBR has moderated downwards some of its forecasts for medium term growth once the impact of some of the tax changes work their way through the system. But budgets are judged upon political as well as economic criteria and it is possible that the budget is welcomed, if not entirely warmly, by the Labour back benchers whereas economists may themselves be divided upon the future impact.
This afternoon after lunch, Meg and I were intrigued to view on BBC iPlayer one in the series presented by David Olusoga called 'A House Through Time' The concept of the program is to find a house which is at least a century old and then trace through the life histories of everyone who has ever lived in it. The programme we viewed had taken a house in Headingley, Leeds which I have probably walked past and looked at the occupancy of a middle class Victorian house (built in a terrace of about three or four) and built with both basements and attics. The attics would have provided some quarters for servants in a middle class household and we found this living history programme to be fascinating. When I lived in an adjoining suburb in Leeds, I used to visit Headingley quite regularly as did my mother and as a 17 year old I used to look at the stone clad fine looking houses and wondered if I could ever live in one of them one day. So I found the programme to be particularly intriguing and the lives of those who had occupied the house through the decades was equally interesting. David Olusoga and his researchers. used Census and other records to build up a picture of the lives of the occupants and this is an excellent way to present this type of economic and social history.
© Mike Hart [2024]