Life & Times

Matthew Lesh of the Adam Smith Institute gives a glowing(?) review of PM’s speech at the Tory conference.

“Boris’s rhetoric was bombastic but vacuous and economically illiterate. This was an agenda for levelling down to a centrally-planned, high-tax, low-productivity economy. He is hamstringing the labour market, raising taxes on a fragile recovery and shying away from meaningful planning reform. Shortages and rising prices simply cannot be blustered away with rhetoric about migrants. There is no evidence that immigration lowers living standards for native workers. This dog whistle shows this government doesn’t care about pursuing evidence-based policies.”

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #7 spice 📷

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #6 street 📷

Interesting article by Tom McTague on The Atlantic website today.

According to his onetime rival for the Conservative leadership, Rory Stewart, Johnson is “the most accomplished liar in public life—perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister.”

Is Boris Johnson a Liar? - The Atlantic

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #5 toy 📷 🐕

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #4 sharp 📷

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #3 majority 📷

You get this when the majority put their cross in the wrong box.

London petrol station charging nearly double the average price for fuel sells out - The Independent

Disgusted that this petrol station is charging twice the usual price

Boris Johnson condemned for saying ‘never mind’ about cancer outcomes

Johnson’s mask slips

Boris Johnson has sparked outrage on the eve of the Conservative Party conference after saying “never mind” about cancer death rates and the recent fall in life expectancy.

Grilled about his plans for Britain’s recovery from the Covid crisis, the prime minister chose to emphasis economic growth over health measures.

Pointing to the recent growth in wages, Mr Johnson told the BBC: “I’ve given you the most important metric – never mind life expectancy, never mind cancer outcomes – look at wage growth.”

Opposition parties pounced the prime minister’s remarks, with Labour accusing him of showing an “outrageous” disregard for the health of British citizens. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told The Independent: “Boris Johnson starts his conference with the most chilling words ever spoken from a prime minister dismissing the importance of cancer outcomes.”

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #2 dark 📷

Listening to Vessel by The Accidentals on Apple Music 🎶

Try to give it time, life will teach you how to live

You just have to live it for a while

Micro.blog October 2021 Photoblogging Challenge #1 touch (someday, maybe) 📷

One of the best lines in Kier Starmer’s speech at the Labour Party Conference yesterday.

“It’s easy to comfort yourself that your opponents are bad people. But I don’t think Boris Johnson is a bad man. I think he is a trivial man. I think he’s a showman with nothing left to show. I think he’s a trickster who has performed his one trick.”

Trying out Apple Music, listening to star-crossed from Kasey Musgraves. Somehow I managed to get a free 6-month trial, so I’ll probably cancel my Tidal subscription 🎶

This article from The New Statesman website is a sobering read for those of us lucky enough not to worry too much about the odd £20,

Will the £20 Universal Credit cut become Boris Johnson’s government’s worst decision? - New Statesman

Whitehall’s own analysis finds the cut will have a “catastrophic” impact, warning “homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar”. More than half a million people face being pulled below the poverty line, including 200,000 children, as a result of this change, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an anti-poverty organisation.