First Budget by First Female Chancellor of the Exchequer

The UK's first woman chancellor might have been expected to introduce a radical budget but sadly her budget was in my opinion, as uninteresting as many if not any, before her appointment. 

The really left wing policies were of course introduced almost as soon as Labour became the governing party again, after 14 years in the wilderness. These policies include the imposition of VAT and business rates on the public schools in the UK. My own view is that the European Court of Human Rights will question this imposition on  freedom of education  grounds. The French and Germans are already moaning about the effect on their UK schools; not to mention forces' personnel.

Taxing non-doms on the other hand does not seem to me to be intrinsically unfair. Those non-doms who only have British domicile for tax reasons, are probably more likely to leave now but Quatar and Monaco are hardly places that I would wish to reside in, for any length of time. 

Other policies that were introduced prior to the budget, were those of increasing train drivers' pay by larger than inflation sums without seeking any improvement in working practices and increasing doctors' pay, though the latter appears fairer given the drop in hospital doctors' income over the years.

I had thought that Labour would introduce road charging of some kind but instead, so far the governing party has frozen fuel tax yet again without mentioning road charging.

In fact, the budget was as non-radical as budgets have been for years despite the media hype in advance to the contrary.

Bushy Park

Younger brother and I decided to take a walk through Bushy Park near Hampton Court, yesterday whilst our respective wives were taking lunch together  with friends.

Unlike Richmond Park or Wimbledon Common, Bushy Park has a large section from which dogs are banned I think to protect wild fowl rather than humans, but welcome for humans none the less. 

Another attraction of Bushy Park is that there is large cafe restaurant in the non-dog zone. However entirely down to yours truly, we rather wandered away from the direct walk there after leaving the car park. Still the exercise was worthwhile despite the result being a rather late lunch. The lunch in my case of fish,  chips,  mushy peas and an Italian lemon drink, followed by a fresh fruit salad was fine. Younger brother enjoyed his chicken burger, chips and a beer from a Devon brewery the name of which I cannot recall though he was kind enough to buy both of our meals.

Given the long walk through the park to the cafe, we decided to use Google for the return journey. Almost amusingly we started back initially in the opposite direction to  the correct course, a mistake I often make when starting a walk mapped on Google.

We quickly rectified the error and made tracks for the car which we reached before  rainfall.

A tiring but very enjoyable afternoon. 

War and Peace

The war in Middle East seems likely to continue with all sides blaming every side other than their own.

Perhaps after WWII,  surviving Jewish people, millions of  whom had been mercilessly  killed by Germany, should have been provided with an area of Germany as their new home land, rather than a new Israel in the Middle East.

However we are in C21, where we are. Whether the killing this week of Yahya Sinwar the Hamas leader, will accelerate a peace process, seem unlikely to me as Israel's threat to bring about a major retaliatory blow to Iran for the latter's blow against Israel has not yet taken place. Retaliation would be likely to create more 'retaliation' and so war will not come to an end anytime soon.

The United Nations  appears sadly to be tied in by its failure to demand the release of the kidnapped Israelis which led to the current bouts war in the Middle East, as vociferously as its demands for Israel to cease fighting. Releasing the kidnapped Israelis should surely lead to negotiations for the ending of further fighting and killing.

Far more people are being killed and oppressed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine though the UN  seems to have far less to say about Russia which is a member of its security council, than about Israel. Russia has rights of veto at the UN which Israel does not.

My personal view, mirrored recently in a good article in The Times, is that the Commonwealth of Nations should come up to the plate. Israel, Palestine and Lebanon are not members; neither are any countries from the Middle East though were invited.  However, many countries in Africa are members and there is a sizeable number, 56, worldwide. 

There is no Commonwealth security council, so resolutions there cannot be blocked by partisan members unlike at the UN, although  opposition would still be heard.

Perhaps Commonwealth member countries will take note of the Times article if not the above, at their forthcoming meeting.

 

 

Doorstep Milk Delivery

 

 

 

My parents used to have two milkmen delivering milk to the front door for our family of seven children. The Express Dairy and the United Dairies were as I recall the milkmen they used though I vaguely recall that for a short time, mum and dad also had a baker deliver bread.

Post WWII, concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil for children were available at a special centre near the town's public library, until post WWII rationing ceased in the UK during the 1950s after which such drinks had to be purchased in for example supermarkets.

Eventually, as most of us  moved away from home, milk deliveries to the family home ceased.

Milk deliveries throughout the country began to dwindle as more people went out to work and car ownership increased. Indeed a few years ago one of the largest milk bottle manufacturers was about to cease production and close, until a German company decided to acquire it and start delivering milk again to front doorsteps. The company formed Milk&More and commenced trading. 

For a while, we used Milk&More but soon its prices rose to a point  when in my view, it became uncompetitive, so we  ceased door step delivery and  reverted to supermarket milk, which was cheaper but sold in non-returnable plastic bottles. This continued for some years until one afternoon a young lady called to the door to enquire whether we would try a British milk company,  which also delivered bread, orange juice and other goodies reasonably inexpensively.  

She was a good sales lady and we decided to give her company The Modern Milkman, a try. Interestingly that company's website is not in my view brilliant, not least because one needs to us its app to order etc. However the young lady took me to the app on my mobile phone and eventually signed us up.

We acquired from the Modern Milkman, a strong blue box (matching our front door colour) from the company having previously had foxes and birds attacking the plastic Milk&More box. 

The items available for delivery  in addition to milk, include freshly squeezed orange juice, ground coffee and sourdough bread. So far at least the Modern Milkman's prices seem reasonable but we shall see.

To date, our experience of The Modern Milkman has been fine. They deliver from 3am and take orders and altered orders, up until 8pm the evening beforehand. Stopping deliveries for a while or permanently, is  also straightforward enough. Their products mostly seem excellent as well.

On the downside though, is the fact that one has really to download their app to be able to order easily. I suspect that for many older people that will not be particularly straightforward. Then  using the app too has a rather clunky feel. 

Overall though, The Modern Milkman seems fine so far, given the bother it saves of carrying weighty goods from the  supermarket or taking the car.

 

Decorative and Antiques Fair Battersea

Attending the Battersea Antiques Fair with youngest brother, his wife Jan, who is an antique chair restorer and mrs maytrees, earlier  this week was enjoyable, informative and fun.

 

We traveled by District Line to Sloane Square, where because Jan had recently been ill, we took advantage of the free minibus to the fair rather than walking there.

 

Upon arriving we decided to try the Bone Idyll Cafe for lunch before looking at the exhibits on offer. Lunch was not overpriced and was enjoyable. I had a lamb stew with rice for about £13.

 

After lunch we toured the  exhibits separately although the picture above left, shows Jan, her husband and mrs maytrees, together at one of the exhibit stalls. The picture above right, shows a painting by a Ukrainian painter which seemed reasonably priced at  c.£400.

My favourite stand was one where a painter was advertising  his paintings including one of Nigel Havers and another, of two children, who I took to be the painter's daughters. Although one of the assistants took my details, sadly I doubt that I will be able to use the  services of the artist Alex Chamberlain, as his prices seem to range from £10,000 to £150,000 which is slightly above my affordability range. However his work does look good. None the less when I had a portarit of mrs maytrees painted some 50 years ago at the artist's studio in Warwick Square SW1, the price then was only few £100 but the painting was and is excellent 

Jan  explained that she visited the exhibition fairly frequently to provide her with ideas for her own reupholstering work, but given the prices of the exhibited works, she generally did not attend the Fair for the purposes of buying.

Some of the exhibits on display were fascinating others, for example a life sized lion, were almost silly, though there were a few which were not to my taste at all. There were many from countries of non-European continents, which were great to study. Others were of course not so great, but overall an excellent day out.

We were able to take the free minibus back to Sloane Square Underground station.

 

 

 

Vincent Van Gogh Exhibition

Despite this blog post's title we were unable to view the Van Gogh paintings at the National Gallery yesterday because of some behaviour of a few girls who were presumably moaning about their colleagues being sentenced to shortish terms of imprisonment for earlier just stop oil silliness. 

The ballot box is not a resource which such girls presumably use, though doubtless  supermarket shopping and travel by any means other than bikes, they undertake without a second thought about the oil used by  their shops and transport systems. If protest they must why not at the Chinese embassy  Indian High Commission or embassy of Saudi Arabia to name but a few huge users of coal and/or oil producers?

In the event though despite not being able to visit the Van Gogh exhibition younger brother, his wife, youngest sister, mrs maytrees and I enjoyed visiting the nearby National Portrait Gallery after an enjoyable lunch there together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above paintings are from different rooms of the National Portrait Gallery and the visit there was most enjoyable.

There were copies of a prize collection in a booklet published by the solicitors of which my my old friend the late John Farr RIP was  a partner John Farr RIP

 

Southsea

Yesterday mrs maytrees and I ventured to Portsmouth and Southsea for lunch with old friends who had acquired  small flat there in an old military barracks. Southsea is conveniently situated at the southern end of the A3 trunk road.

Their  barracks now appears  thus : 

 

 

 

Weather was warm and dry though thunderstorms had been forecast.  En route to our lunch venue we passed by Portsmouth Cathedral, which to my taste is not especially attractive

 

We arrived to an old Fullers pub just on the sea front where  our friends had booked a table for the four of us.

The pub fare was excellent with my lunch being a tasty fish pie followed by some raspberry water ice. During lunch however the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier came up close and personal to the pub, presumably on its way to join its sister carrier HM Queen Elizabeth which was already in the naval dock.

 

  Nearby was a famous Portsmouth landmark:

 Following lunch we took a stroll along the empty beach, before driving home after a great day away.