Dispirited and disappointed

 I rarely feel low. Today I do. I've not really felt like this for a while. There are several reasons. Probably the biggest is the fact that I damaged my shoulder a month ago and it is not improving. My physio told me last week to ice it four times a day and lift nothing heavy for three weeks (difficult with my job). Although at times it doesn't hurt at all, when I turn over in my sleep, it is rather painful and wakes me up.

The second reason is I had a PSA test yesterday and I always get anxious as I wait to see whether or not I am still free of prostate cancer. I really am not in the mood for more treatment. I've no reason to feel negative, but it always plays on my mind. Add that to the bad shoulder and it is not great.

Then there is the terribly sad news that Pat Collier, bassplayer in seminal punk band The Vibrators passed away. The news broke yesterday. Normally I'd have put a little memorial page together, but I was feeling too down to bother. Pat Collier was, like me, an ex pupil of Orange Hill, a musician, a studio owner and a music producer. If you don't know his work from The Vibrators, you will probably be familiar with Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and The Waves which was produced by Pat. He was best mates with my old Geography teacher at Orange Hill, Dave Harman, who was also an old boy. Many people assume I must have known Pat, but our paths never really crossed. He owned Alaska Studios in Waterloo and I had little reason to go there as I had my own. I recommended him to a few people over the years as a producer as I knew he was good and our drummer Gray Ramsey and our producer Boz Boorer knew him well. He did once ring me up, say thanks and said he'd buy me a beer when I recommended someone to him, but it never happened. I regret that now. When we opened our own recording facilities in 1998, we stopped sending people down to him. Puremania by The Vibrators, which Pat appeared on was the first punk album I bought. Pat wrote and sang a few of the songs. It is a go to cheer me up album, so his passing has really hit me. 

And finally, yesterday we had a statement form Rachel Reeve, the new chancellor. I have been ambivalent about Labour under Sir Keir Starmer. I had no doubt they would be an improvement on the Tories under Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, but I was worried that they would waste the massive opportunity they have, with a massive majority, to sort this country out. Yesterday, that changed to dejection. It is now clear to me that Reeve is a cowardly individual, who is totally unprepared to grap the nettle that needs to be grabbed to sort the country out. The headline news from her statement is that she's going to give not very well off pensioners a kicking by taking away their winter fuel allowance and she's cancelling a whole bunch of much needed infrastructure projects. I get that Boris Johnson's scheme to build 40 new hospitals was hare brained and ill thought out, but the hospitals are needed and she had an excellent chance to sort the plan out and properly fund it.As to scrapping road and rail projects, this is an act of national self harm. We need these to get us and keep us moving. You may say "Well where will the cash come from? The magic money tree?". The answer is quite simple "No, it should come from clamping down on multi national companies tax avoidance schemes". Companies set up massively complicated schemes to ensure they pay minimal tax on profits made in the UK. I am all for companies making profits, but those profits should be taxed in the UK, so that we can all benefit from the cash. The chancellor has clearly decided that she wants to stay in with the rich vested interests in the City, rather than the people who vote in their millions for Labour. I see nothing at all wrong when those with the deepest pockets pay a bit more. The multi national companies that spirit cash out of the UK to offshore tax havens deserve no sympathy. I'd personally like to see countries across the planet cooperate to clamp down on avoidance, but we should start here. I'd also like to see additional Council Tax bands introduced, so people in mansions pay a bit more for the privilege. That would give local authorities more cash, something they desperately need. They should also be massively taxing water companies that pollute and dump sewage into our rivers and streams. It seems to me that Reeve is scared of upsetting big business. 

I totally get that the Tories have left a massive mess to sort out. I get that actually passing laws to get corporations to pay tax on UK profits in the UK is not simple and it is far easier to clobber pensioners, but it is quite wrong. I don't qualify for  a fuel allowance as I won't be old enough for a few years, but it is plain wrong. 

All in all, I feel rather dispirited and disappointed.  Anyway, RIP Pat Collier, here is the rather good Petrol from Puremania, that Pat wrote and sung