17 April 2016

You know the old saying about waiting for a bus – you spend all day long waiting for a bus and then three come along at once? Our social calendar apparently operates in a similar manner. Last Friday lunchtime we went from having absolutely no commitments over the weekend to being thoroughly occupied with three “social” occasions in about twenty minutes. It’s lovely to be able to take advantage of such activities when they arise.

Our first task of the weekend was to accommodate a visit from our very good friend, George Jefferies. George is the youngest of the three Jefferies boys who grew up in Ratley, just up the hill from us when we lived in Radway. Our three and they are about the same ages and George and Adam were classmates at primary school. George studied film at university and then travelled the world settling for a time in Hanoi where he worked as a journalist and then in Cambodia where he was involved in a variety of film projects. He’s now come back to the UK after about fifteen years living abroad and has been trying to find a job in the film industry since he arrived back last summer. Although he’s had a number of temporary gigs, he’s not found a permanent job so far and this visit came about as he had an interview in Birmingham and was up from London for the weekend. As always, it was a delight and pleasure to see him and to provide him with a meal and overnight accommodation in our ever-popular and increasingly famous Guest Wing.

Our second social commitment of the weekend was being invited to Sunday lunch with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle followed by an outing to St Nicholas’ Park in Warwick (just opposite the castle for those of you who know). Although the skies were moderately clear and, thankfully, we endured no precipitation, it was certainly “bracing” with a stiff wind. We walked around the park with Bubble scampering along on her scooter – my goodness she can go quickly when she wants to! She and Grandma then clambered aboard the model train ride, Bubble went for a paddle on the canoe ride and then there was a bit more running, jumping, swinging, and climbing on the playground equipment before heading home for pudding. A splendid day out.

(An aside – I was trawling through the eighty-four thousand photos on my hard disk the other day. I was looking for something specific which I never found but I did run across the following – Nick as, about, a two and a half year old, riding the same train at St Nicholas’ Park nearly forty years ago! The track layout is exactly the same now as it was back then but they have since erected tunnels and other bits of “scenery” to presumably make the ride more entertaining to the discerning youth of today).

nick_in_train_1977

After pudding we raced home for our third social engagement of the weekend – our dear friends the Heydon’s called in on their way home from Coventry. I worked with Jo Heydon at the computer education factory and she and her husband have three of the nicest kids you could ever hope to meet. I’m sure these kids would have been grand no matter what – Jo and Colin are splendid parents. But these kids also attend(ed) the Treehouse School (the primary school I am always banging on about) which has helped them develop outstanding social skills and maturity. It’s always fun to see them. The main purpose of this visit, as well as just wanting to see us, of course, was to collect a couple of banners Ms Playchute had made for their Treehouse 10K and Family Bunny Runs which take place today.

After such a splendid social whirl of a weekend, we’ve continued to enjoy the flak surrounding the revelations in the Panama Papers and Cameron’s response. As I wrote last time, when asked whether he had benefitted in any way from his father’s offshore trust revealed in the papers, Cameron tried to evade the question by stating that he currently does not hold any stocks or shares. It took him three days and five answers before he finally conceded that he had benefitted from the trust.

So, having failed to satisfy the press with his attempts at obfuscation, he then pulled off another of the politician’s favourite strategies (distraction) by announcing that he was going to introduce a law making it a crime to aid tax evasion. Good idea, right?

The issue here, however, is not about tax evasion, as Cameron well knows. It’s about the perfectly legal but, in the Prime Minister’s own words, the “morally reprehensible” objective of reducing tax liability for the very wealthy and corporations. So, the way in which Google, Facebook, Vodaphone, et. al. and the very wealthy organise their finances so that they pay no tax in the UK would not be touched by any new law making the assistance of tax evasion illegal. Tax evasion is already illegal and, while there may be a handful of tax advisers who assist their clients in evading tax, the majority simply assist their clients in avoiding tax by using the existing tax laws to facilitate their efforts. If Cameron was in any sense serious he would reform the tax legislation in the UK and in Crown colonies such as the British Virgin Islands to ensure the wealthy pay their share of tax. Once again Dave has demonstrated that, while he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, he is certainly a master of all the politician’s tricks of the trade.

Frankie Boyle, a Scottish comedian and writer, had one of the best lines I’ve seen so far on the Panama revelations in an article in the Guardian.

The Panama papers show that rich people aren’t even rational: they send their money on holiday to the Caymans, and live in perpetual rain in Britain

And, as if we were ever in any doubt about this government’s priorities, an article in the Guardian on Thursday highlights the discrepancy between the numbers employed to track down and investigate benefit fraud and those employed to investigate the tax affairs of the very wealthy. Figures suggest that benefit fraud costs the government £1.3bn per year; the gap between the tax owed and tax paid by the very wealthy is reckoned to be at least £34bn (some estimates put it as high as £120bn per year). Logically, therefore, one would assume that there would be something in the order of 26 times as many tax inspectors ensuring that the very wealthy pay the appropriate amount of tax as the numbers policing benefit fraud. It won’t surprise you to learn, however, that the opposite is the case: 3,700 benefit fraud inspectors compared with 700 tax inspectors keeping an eye on the wealthiest 500,000 people in the UK. Quelle surprise!

On to some “lighter” topics – I don’t know how I missed the Wolf Run Spring Endurance race which was held in Warwickshire over the past weekend. It was so close had I known about it I surely would have entered. There are some great photos here.

wolf_run

And finally, the best news I ran across this week – researchers at the University of Reading have found that drinking champagne can improve one’s memory! I can’t imagine why I hadn’t run across this before – the paper was first published in May 2013 – but no matter; I’m all for it. Even better, previous research from the university revealed that two glasses of champagne a day may be good for your heart and circulation and could reduce the risks of suffering from cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Make mine a magnum.

Finally, finally – today would have been my mother and father’s 68th wedding anniversary. Sadly, we lost my father last October and I guess today will be bittersweet for my mother. All I know is that I had a splendid set of parents and I am exceedingly grateful that they decided to get married on that April day all those years ago.

Love to you all,

Greg

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