When England cricketer Jonathon Trott left the 2013-14 Ashes series early to fly home from Australia, the official explanation blaming a stress related condition prompted several instant – and largely ignorant – media responses, as is common in this Twitter age.
Trott maintained his own silence with immense dignity and his return to health and form this summer has been rewarded by selection for the England Lions tour of South Africa in the New Year.
In several interviews he has credited much of his recovery to working with Professor Steve Peters, author of the book The Chimp Paradox.
With testimonials from the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Steven Gerrard and snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan, Peters is honest enough to begin with the premise that the reader will not embrace all that he presents but it is a very compelling read.
One of the central themes of the book is not ground-breaking but simply that life is not always fair.
We exist in changing and challenging times; whilst we may enjoy the benefits of living in a free, high-tech and largely civilised society, vast swathes of people feel disconnected, impoverished and enduring rather than enjoying life.
Queuing in the Post Office the other day I eavesdropped on the woman in front of me.
“Ten pound on t’Gas, five on t’electric and a fiver’s worth of scratch cards” she said, thrusting the notes across the counter.
So why should this little passage be of any interest?
As money gets tighter and tighter – and it will, whoever’s false promises you believe next May – the challenge to most will be to make it stretch ever further. The little passage above suggests much about how those on the margins live.
You can be certain that the woman will be on the most expensive utility tariffs available and that, even if she were being prudent and choosing to be in credit, using the service providers as a savings bank is good only for them.
It is a fact that the choices for those who need them the most are often the most limited.
A recent Panorama documentary followed several families and a single man existing on income support benefits. The assertion here was this was modern day poverty, if you ignored the mobile phones, big screen televisions and menagerie of pets.
The single man suggested he was starving with an empty fridge and barren cupboards as evidence but when his money arrived how he used it was illuminating.
Withdrawing it from a cash point he went straight to a service station shop and bought food – including ready meals – all at prices that he could easily better at most supermarkets. In effect he paid premium prices for crap.
Better money management in both situations above would instantly improve the lot of the people concerned. In addition, better choices would also help. Is this too simplistic? Let’s broaden the argument.
Rock icon Roger Daltrey entered the immigration debate the other day making a considered point that, as a society, we have let down a generation of young people.
His contention, that the Blair/Brown Labour governments opened the immigration floodgates resulting in a sea of cheap labour, is hard to ignore.
Immigration is the hot topic as we approach next year’s election but the reality is that, short of exiting the European Union, there is not a great deal any politician can really do.
What none of them will do is offer us a convincing argument – free of rhetoric – laying out the pros and cons maybe because they don’t fully understand them.
Big business, of course, likes immigration because it not only provides cheap labour but also keeps wages low for the indigenous population. And as politicians are in the keep of big business then you can see why talk is cheap.
We do need immigration just as much as we need to get indigenous people who are scamming the system off benefits we can no longer afford; this is not easy stuff to resolve.
However, we cannot remain an open door.
Blair can also be “credited” with expanding our university population creating a class of debt-laden young people with useless degrees. One reason wages are lagging in a fast improving economy laden with graduates is that employers call the shots.
Institutions we have taken for granted for generations are also under ever increasing pressure including local authorities and the NHS.
The recent five year plan for the NHS highlighted a significant funding gap which no honest politician can promise to plug. However, new CEO Simon Stevens, was brave enough to point out the blindingly obvious; this is not a blank cheque anymore.
His contention is that people have to start to make better choices and take responsibility for their health. Combined, the issues of alcohol abuse, obesity and tobacco addiction place an enormous – and unacceptable – financial burden on the NHS.
Despite five years of austerity we have doubled the national debt. There may well have been cuts but as a society we are living well beyond our means in a fiercely competitive world.
Just like the woman in the Post Office, we could all make better choices and will most likely have to because austerity is here to stay, like it or not.
We should start afresh with the young and think about how we prepare them for later life, not simply “lend” them thirty grand to keep them off the statistics for another three years.
Fundamentals like money management, how to cook and the merits of a healthy lifestyle have far more value for most than many academic pursuits. Of course, you can never help everybody but where we are at the moment is failing far too many.
There are tough choices ahead and Nanny State won’t be there as she used to be.
Make you own call.
Only In Bradford – Odeon Update
Last week there was more news from the Bradford Odeon with an update on the £1.32m works being carried out ahead of the final decision on ambitious plans to revive it as a live entertainments venue.
This is the culmination of a fifteen year battle to save the building from the wrecking balls and Bradford from more Legoland inspired concrete blocks.
That such a significant sum of public money – central not local – should have been committed whilst the building’s future remains far from certain may puzzle many. Are they really going to knock it down now?
It is with the dimwits in City Hall that the final decision rests in early December and that should send a shudder down the spine of anybody desperate to see this fantastic building reborn, breathing life into a soulless city centre.
Bizarrely, structural works on the iconic twin domes are scheduled for January but what if the Council bottle it?
Only recently the inspirational leader, Cllr Ear Ring, announced that he would be seeking the public’s ideas on how to cut Council spending in future years, presumably because he has not got any.
It is, therefore, extremely worrying that the fate of this wonderful building may be in the hands of a bunch of amateur politicians.
Stuck…who me?
Often I am told that I am “stuck in my ways” largely by people who can’t actually see that, if I tread quicksand, they are lodged in concrete by comparison.
It’s an easy thing to level at a fifty-something bachelor; I don’t deal with change any better than the next man but have discovered the ancient secret of coping.
You see, there is actually no point in trying to change, far better to stay as still as you can and let everything else around you change. This way you get the perception of change without actually having to do anything.
Simple!
More From Big Al’s Corner
Another Sunday night in the company of “Norm” Hardy and “Cliff” Patchett was interrupted by a comely young thing, a sight we are not used to at the local watering hole, enough to make us all temporarily down pints as jaws slackened.
“Give me ten minutes with that” said the big man, drooling for a change over something other than his pint.
“Ten minutes? You haven’t got ten in you!” I offered in wonderment at his delusion.
“Course I have; seven to get undressed, two to warm up and time for a cuddle as well!” he winked and gripped the only love of his life – his pint – with more tenderness than ever before.
So…is it me?
Anybody else out there irritated by the growing trend of people young and old starting sentences by default with “so“? All of a sudden adults are speaking like five year-olds having just learnt something clever on the playground.
Must get out more.
Gasman says
So good is blog is what i fink