2016 — 30 June: Thursday
If I ever needed proof of the destructive power of inflation1 over the last 35 years in the UK it occurs to me (as Mr Repointer starts up his cement mixer this morning) that the brickwork repointing and roof repairs are a good indicator. I have paid more than half the original cost of the house, as I explained in an email to a shocked Big Bro yesterday:
My house is simply not as well-built as the Old Windsor 3-bed semi... UK builders at the end of the 1970s were no more renowned for their competence and work ethic than any other section of our "artisanal" class. But I have to keep the cave watertight!
Pondering my neighbour's...
... impending relocation across the village (to get into a "better" school's catchment area), and knowing that he's asking for £389,000 as this yellowing clipping flutters into view...
... I note my chart's in considerable need of maintenance, too! Of course, it cunningly omits interest and currency exchange rates. Shifts in these ensured Christa's brothers prospered over that same timeline as the pound slumped ever further against the German mark, UK inflation soared while the German economy (of hard-working Turkish immigrant workers and savers) grew, and Karl and Georg sat in their fixed long-term low-rent apartments rather than stepping on to our crazy system of mortgage snakes and ladders.
Me bitter? :-)
The politicians...
... now frantically jostling for their leadership turn in the barrel are clearly insane. (Or am I missing something?)
Calm words...
... from the French finance chap:
Seems sensible to me, but what do I know?
R.I.P. Alvin Toffler
He said "Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn."
The obituary (click the pic) mentions the superb 1975 novel by John Brunner. It was heavily influenced by Toffler's "Future Shock" in 1970.
It amuses me...
... that, until hearing Tony Visconti chatting on BBC Radio 3 this morning, I was completely unaware of the "Eventide Harmonizer". Sounds like we could use a few of those right now.
As I depart for today's lunch rendezvous, I leave you with these thoughts :-)
Bye Bye BoJo!
Even as he shuffles off the stage, he waffles on about "fulfilling the mandate of the Referendum". (Run that by me again.)
Meanwhile, Theresa May — the terribly nice lady who has repeatedly been promoting legislation for snooping electronically and without warrants (I gather) on her fellow subjects' communications (all of them!) — oozes quietly into the jousting tournament. But then even the shortest period as Home Secretary seems to squeeze out the last drop of commonsense...
Now Gove says he's only running 'cos his good friend BoJo actually isn't up to it. John Crace's piece suggests Gove's wife (aka Lady MacGove) is in the pocket of that smelly rag I have detested for over 40 years. Perhaps she helped stiffen his resolve? What charming folk.