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What were you doing on the 16th June this year?
I’ll give you some help. It was a Sunday. Father’s Day. You might have been getting ready for a BBQ…
… it didn't rain, so you probably didn’t need the gazebo.
Maybe you went to the supermarket, took the kids to footie, the dog for a walk, did some emails or maybe just vegged out.
Perhaps you visited your Dad… bunch of flowers? Bottle of scotch? You love yer Dad. Since Mum died he hasn’t been managing well. He's in a care home.
He’s been fretting about having to sell the house to pay for his care… he wants you to have it and sell it… ‘give you and your brother a leg-up, that’s what your Mum would have wanted’.
You give him a hug and tell him all you care about is, he’s happy and looked after.
As you leave you catch sight of him looking through the window. You wave but he’s not sure who you are and turns away.
He’s not getting any better and the costs are racking up.
That’s Sunday. Different for us all but strangely, the same. Stuff that can only be defined as ‘stuff’ gets done. The rhythm of life syncopates. Why can’t there be two Sundays in a week?
Kuenssberg was on the Beeb. Her guest was Wes Streeting. Here’s what he said;
'One of the things that we've committed to is the cap on care costs, is due to come in. I've wanted to give the system the certainty this side of the election of knowing we're not planning to come in and unpick that and scrap that.
… I’m not interested in tearing something down until we've got something better to put in its place.’
Yup, that’s what he said. You can check it out here.
Fast forward 43 days. Last Monday.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves stood at the Despatch Box in the House of Commons and with a strange, robot-like delivery announced that the adult social care charging reforms, due to be implemented in October 2025, would be cancelled, saving £1.1bn by the end of 2025-26.
Scroll back to July 2010…
… following a commitment by the then coalition government, the independent Commission on Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot, was set up to consider sustainable, long-term funding for the social care system.
The commission reported a year later. Top line; there should be a cap on lifetime contributions of an individual.
The Care Act 2014 legislated for many of Dilnot's recommendations. Oven-ready ten years ago.
It looks like Wes agreed with that and I agree with Wes… that’s the second time in a week!
Now we are both disappointed. Well, Wes is probably disappointed but unlike Wes I don’t look a fool or a patsy.
Reeves has made choices.
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Stopped the hospital refurbishment programme, which might have helped stimulate some economic growth.
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Dumped support for bus services, which a lot of working people rely on to get about
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Cut the fuel allowance for pensioners, other than those on pension credit... there are about 12.6 million pensioners in the UK. Fewer than 1.4 million claim pension credit... it's too complicated to claim...
All in the name of plugging a hole in the nation's finances. A disputed, £20 billion which is approximately 0.77% of the UK's national income.
This is all about politics, not economics. It's all about demonstrating power and pointing fingers.
Reeves somehow found the money for unfunded pay-rises across the public sector. Now, half of the spending "hole" is now public pay, over which she made a choice.
Labour won't put up taxes, now Reeves says they will.
Streeting is either a co-conspirator, or agrees with me... Labour are shysters and scammers.
Life is a test.
To find out what we are; we are tested in many ways. Our beliefs and priorities. Our faith and perhaps our faithfulness. Our patience and our resilience…
... but;
To find out who we are comes down to the choices we make.
This week we’ve learned a lot about who Labour are.
... don't get old.
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