This morning, Sky News is reporting a most extraordinary security breach by top American officials in the Trump regime. Donald Trump has been urged to fire US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth following the leak of highly sensitive war plans - as national security adviser Mike Waltz said he took 'full responsibility' for organising the group chat. The conversation on the messaging app Signal between US officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Mr Hegseth, was leaked to American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added to the chat in error. They discussed plans to conduct airstrikes on Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, which took place on 15 March. These officials should have been using the specialist and approved security systems for their group discussions but instead were using the popular 'WhatsApp' app which is considerably less secure. All of this displays both a cavalier attitude as well as the inexperience of personnel not used to the ways of government. When challenged, they have chosen to attack the journalist who was mistakenly invited to join the group and who seems to have acted with the utmost integrity in not revealing military secrets. They are also denying that any classified material was leaked but which appears, on the face of it, to be an outright lie because plans by the military to bomb a rebel group must surely be classified information. The Democrats are making the most of this incident as well as they should because not a single Republican politician has condemned this crass error whereas, in any normal political world, heads would roll. Meanwhile, our government is in trouble of a different kind. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has had her plans to save £5bn of the welfare budget has had her plans thrown into disarray as the OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility) who have stated that her plans will save £3.4bn and not £5bn leaving a gap of some £1.6bn still to be found. So, in advance of the Spring statement, Reeves is announcing further welfare cuts which again are falling disproportionately upon the poor and the sick. It is no wonder that Labour MPs are deeply unhappy as all of these cuts are not what they came into politics to do and seen to be the epitome of Tory policies. There are also hints that eventually some tax rises are being contemplated which is a sign of desperation rather than anything else - after a week or so of speculation, the full statement will be made to the House of Commons and no doubt, be subject to a torrent of adverse media comment.
We have now received news that a plasterer will call around on Thursday morning to repair the hole in our dining room ceiling that was hacked out by the emergency plumber to locate the leak we experienced over a month ago. So, our repairs are gradually being put into place, and I am hopeful that they can be completed before Easter. The care agency has re-timed some of their visits starting at 8.30am rather than 8.00am in the morning which actually gives me a little more leeway to get some of my routine household chores completed before they arrive. Our domestic help had called the day before and, having breakfasted, I popped quickly down the hill in the car to pick up our daily newspaper. Soon after I returned, the district nurse called around to assess the condition of the 'Deep Tissue Injury' on Meg's heel. She was satisfied that nothing needed doing at this stage but was very helpful in other ways. I managed to have a frank discussion with her on how we were to care for Meg in the foreseeable future, given that Meg now seems to be asleep for most of the time. Having explained how difficult it was to get food and drink inside Meg at the moment, the district nurse gave me a supply of three syringes so that I could get small amounts of fluid into Meg's mouth when this was needed. She said that she was going to email the doctor and request a home visit so that a doctor could take decisions, in the light of Meg's condition, as to the most suitable forms of medication and thought that the time might be ripe for the application of slow release pain relief medication to assist when the carers have to handle Meg during the day and when movement of her knees can be painful for her. The district nurse was very supportive and I was very pleased to see her.
The day started off a little gloomy but in the late morning, the sun has started to break through, making for a sunnier day. The major event today was the Chancellor's Spring Financial Statement in a speech described by commentators as 'punchy' but which seemed to be replete with an optimism that seemed to me to be clutching at straws. There was hardly a specific mention in the statement of additional cuts to welfare recipients and even the claim, which seemed to be extraordinary, that the average family has benefitted from a Labour government to the tune of £500 a month. Meanwhile, the Joseph Rowntree foundation reveals that a single person losing PIP and the Universal Credit health element could lose £818 per month but defence spending would be increased by £2.2bn - much of this being spent on armaments that would assist those parts of the economy engaged in supplying the Ministry of Defence. The OBR has downgraded the growth forecasts for next year but increased it somewhat for later years. There was hardly any recognition of the enormous swathe of price increases that would befall us from next month onwards and I imagine that an enormous disconnect between the relatively optimistic, if not exactly rosy, picture painted by the Chancellor and the very real hardships that families will experience across the land. Much of the optimism expressed by the Chancellor relies upon the assumption that planning restrictions will be eased and a massive housebuilding programme of 1.3 million homes provide the much-needed stimulus to the economy. But we know that there are all kinds of skill shortages in the building and construction trades and a major problem in our society is the fact that builders having acquired land will not start to build until they judge that they can do so at a time that maximises their profits. At the very end of the day, we still a big curb on some welfare recipients and a dose of optimism which I suspect is quite a lot of whistling in the dark.
© Mike Hart [2025]