We are much worse off than we were, but better than we used to be.

Highlighting the needy, with Anthony Bernard.

Gloomy news makes comparisons with 2014 or the banking crisis of 2008, but it was not actually so bad then. Is the problem the severe downturn, or the ending of the huge surge in everyone getting whatever they want?

The media prefer good stories to reality. During lockdown, there were stories of businesses that would close without government help, but many were shops newly opened only a few years before. Food Bank help has been vital to support real needs and still is, but illustrations on TV show people with hair and nails that cost more than clients that I recall from my Community Larder days could afford! In formal interviews, I am waiting for a politician to interject "do you mind me talking while you interrupt!" The situations are real, but the media assertively pursues agendas of its own.

Opposition parties point out what is wrong and make promises that it would be better under them, but without a plan. We all know what is wrong; the difficulty is proposing a solution. The whole world has problems. Increasing debt won't work because there is nothing to spare for others to lend us; increasing taxation slows down business and encourages companies and key people to relocate abroad.

We did all right in 2008 and 2014, which are the years from which experts compare graphs. I don't remember unusual problems then, but there has been a lot of spare money in the meantime. Cheap migrant labourers from the EU were doing menial jobs, but they mostly went home when we left the EU. We worry about slave labour, but should we be relying on cheap migrants? Or should we make illegal migrants already here work for a year to earn their keep and perhaps the right to stay? Maybe that would improve their self respect, and ours!

Where else would we rather be? France is boiling with a new Revolution in the works! Their constitution gave an Emperor's authority to the elected President, now they don't like it! The French Revolution tore down the Bastille; but we kept the Tower of London. Even orderly Germans brought their country to a standstill with strikes! Israel is heading towards a religious dictatorship to match Iran, which I imagine the Heavenly Host is watching; the Old Testament records what could happen!

The United States wrote a Constitution 235 years ago to replace King George III and the British Parliament of that time, and now they are stuck with it from 1788! Their second amendment did not restrict the right to bear arms to muzzle loading muskets, meanwhile we retain the right not to be shot at!

Being British seems to me best, even though we do have many problems to solve.

Happy Easter to us all, The Lord is Risen and the chocolate eaten!

Climate Change is a greater threat than Covid-19 or the Ukraine war. Power shortages, floods, droughts and a lack of current food choices will change all our lives! Inflation occurs when the rich outbid others to get what they want. It will be a brave government that re-introduces rationing, but a little meat and seasonal veg is what many of us grew up with!

A little of what we fancy does us good; but too much fuels greed and inflation!