Day 13: Shepperdine to Northwick

A watery few days in beautiful scenery.

Some of those who have hosted or walked with us (and they will, of course, remain anonymous) have related tragic stories of the conduct of their children or in-laws behaving cruelly towards them. Our friends are elderly and vulnerable and, in the main,  widows.

In two cases, the children are denying their parents the opportunity to see their grandchildren unless substantial money is paid.

Of course, we have only heard one side of the story, but we do know the people: we are convinced they are telling the horrid truth.

In a short story somewhere, readers are warned that because of escalating costs, the country will be obliged to cull those over seventy-five by obliging them to go to one of a series of houses where they will be given a dry martini, a medal for past services rendered and then a lethal injection! This may be too true to be funny because my spies tell me that the Starmer government will shortly introduce legislation to allow assisted dying with all the unintended consequences this will bring about. Here are a few thoughts.

The law changes will be irreversible and as years go by – as has happened in Canada  – the scope of the permissions will inexorably widen.

And not all of the younger generation are kind. Many bitterly resent, for example, watching their parents’ cash wasted on care home fees and here is an opportunity to do something about it. Inevitably, intolerable pressure will be applied. Relations in many families will change fundamentally and not for the better.

And if you think that the cautionary barriers promised by the government to protect the vulnerable from abuse will prove to be effective, gosh,  look at those rose-coloured pigs flying past my window.

Rebel Women

When I last drove to Scotland, Jane was rude to me. I concede she had good reason. I was pondering the meaning of life (and as supporters will know, I have a beautiful and sensitive mind), only to discover that instead of nearing Manchester, we were hurtling towards Bristol.   

“You,” she said, “are a freshly minted moron!”

Career Path

Today, Jane is a confident and feisty woman with serious career achievements to her name. However, the fact she has turned out this way is not because she was primed to forge a career. Her brother’s future prospects were taken seriously. He went to “good” schools, and thence to Cambridge and off to make a fortune in the city. But she was not offered the same chances.

When Jane was a child, no one said specifically, “Listen Sunshine, you don’t have to trouble your pretty little head with learning how to earn your living because your destiny is to be number two to men.” But, through a process of social osmosis, she picked up the thousands of negative messages floating around intended to destroy the average girl’s ambition for independence. Many young women were persuaded not to go to university or seek jobs that were deemed “unladylike” – such as joining the police (I know of an actual case of this cruel sabotage in my own family).

So, Jane was sent to a girls’ school that pretended to provide education. There the pupils fluttered around with ghastly nicknames such as “Goonie” and “Dunce” (and there were twins called by their father “Thick” and “Thickest”!) Like many of her chums, Jane was hardly taught anything. She then went to a Swiss finishing school where the agenda was cooking and “how to get on in society”.

The young women of Jane’s generation ended up as cooks, chalet girls, secretaries, flower arrangers or junior teachers (like one O-level Princess Di), waiting for broad shoulders to rescue them. Some, teeming with ability and grit, and blessed by forward-looking parents, couldn’t be stopped by such nonsense, and rose high in the few careers then open to women. But the bulk of Jane’s contemporaries had no proper training or confidence-building, so, if they didn’t marry, or were dumped or widowed, they ended up unable to forge an independent life. By then, the sweet bird of youth had flapped off, leaving them middle-aged, disconsolate and vulnerable.

Where did this misogyny come from? I believe St Paul is largely responsible. In Tim 2, 11–12, his message is parodied by comedian Harry Enfield: “Women know your place!”

In these damaging verses, Paul claims that women should not be in leadership roles and that they should be submissive to men. Because Eve fell for the wiles of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, they can only be redeemed by childbearing.     

My vicar friends insist these verses should be read in conjunction with many others that claim that women are loved by God and are equal to men, but this is sophistry. The verses are as clear as “Don’t walk on the grass”! There’s no ambiguity whatsoever, just wishful thinking.    

Even today, my wonderful, talented ordained daughter is unwelcome to preach in some churches because of these unfortunate verses. And they are why so many women, called by God over the years, were blocked from ordination – and why the Catholic Church still justifies blocking them from leadership.  

Former archbishop Donald Coggan proposed that when he reached heaven, he would ask Paul for an explanation. “Goodness me,” he imagined Paul replying. “Did I actually write that?”

Yes, Paul, I fear you did – and the effect has been profoundly damaging, for these verses have echoed down the ages, allowing men to stymie the careers of generations of capable women.   

Crazy Taxes

The government treats us like idiots.

Tuppence of tax here or there and it’s not what the country needs. For a start, we should be treated as adults.

What the chancellors fiddle about with simply doesn’t help as a political trick and it’s not what we need as a country. Just look at a few features of our tax system that are holding up growth and productivity. 

First are the crazy marginal rates of tax on earnings of £50,000 and above – when child benefit and personal allowances begin to taper, and “free” children’s schemes are lost. Someone earning £99,999.00 with two children under three loses an immediate £20,000 when they earn a penny more! Many studies show how people deliberately cut their hours to avoid marginal rates of tax of 80 per cent or even higher. It makes no sense to earn between £100,000 and £145,000.

Then take the VAT system. If a coffee shop sells £84,000 of coffee, no VAT is payable. At £85,0000, you must charge 20 per cent more on everything so, compared to your competitor next door, you’re no longer competitive! That means tens of thousands of small businesses quite sensibly will do anything to stay under the VAT threshold. For example, they might be reluctant to recruit more staff or a retailer might shut shop in February.

Then why not just scrap National Insurance?  If employers didn’t have to pay 13.5 per cent on wages, people would earn more.   

If Tory chancellors have been hopeless, what can we expect from the new government?