Please please

The devil makes work for idle hands, so they say. I’ve been struggling with inspiration (and occasionally technology) over the last few weeks, and have 6 posts on draft, none of which have really gone anywhere. Sometimes I’ve felt that I’ve been over sharing, and others that I didn’t really have enough of a point to make (’That’s never stopped you before!’ come the voices of Statler and Waldorf) so have dropped the thread. I also feel recently as if I have no time to myself, no time to think and prepare for a piece of writing.

I am intrigued by the issues of rape currently in the news, with yet another dangerous US Republican religious nut coming out with just such terribly depressing nonsense, and the unconnected issue of Julian Assange’s alleged infractions. I watched closely as a group of businessmen discussed these stories in the park today, wondering if any of them had ever sexually assaulted a woman. Then it was all capped off with the story of a 14 year old boy being raped in a department store in Manchester! Jesus.

I’ve been listening to the Tories tell us that we’re all idle, and thinking about those people who work 12 hour shifts as security guards or 'cooking' in McDonald’s; those who work as carers (obviously not the ones who beat old people up) or cleaners; all of those who struggle into a long day’s work at minimum wage day in and day out, just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Not for most the luxury of two weeks in Tuscany, a nice new car or some lovely new clothes. Yet, the problem clearly is that people are not prepared to work harder.

The (fairly) excellent series Toughest Place to Be A… has returned, with this week’s programme showing us the horrors of unregulated mining in Mongolia, and this is surely what those shiny faced little twats from Central Office want – British industrial practices on a par with those of the developing world. Rather than fighting to raise the standards of those less fortunate than us, thanks to many years of hard-won labour rights, they would have us all race to the bottom and a life of struggle and penury followed by an almost certain early death.

And then of course, the football's started again. Come on you Toffees!