Thursday sees this part of the world return to normal, supermarkets are flooded with starving people eager to resupply the empty cupboards, businesses clear away the cobwebs after a few days closure, staff struggling to open eyes now used to mornings spent in bed and the damp streets once more resound to the noise of traffic, delivery vans trundling round and postmen struggle to justify their day as even 'junk mail' is in short supply. The English world returns cheerlessly to normality, few signs of humanity are noticed amongst the throng, except the sun shines brightly, indeed warmly for several hours. Of course the Brit knows that as soon as the days off are over the sun will shine! In Scotland as always the second of January is a holiday, partly to aid recovery from the previous nights, mostly to allow for another shindig! New Years Day once saw the Scottish football clubs playing local derbies against one another, however for many years this was ended by the intolerably bad behaviour of the fans of Celtic and Rangers. Tsk! Such activities never occurred at the Edinburgh derby! There are several reasons for the difference. For one Edinburgh clubs are not crushed by sectarianism, for another Edinburgh folks are nice and wash behind their ears, and history reveals that Hibernian fans have usually gone home by half time after another thrashing from the 'Big Team!' The advantage they gain from this is the requirement to pay 'half price' to get in as everybody knows they will not see the end of the game. Tonight however, on the second of January, the Edinburgh game will take place for television reasons. TV has far too much say in when games occur, and they do not pay nearly enough cash in my view for this privilege, but there you are. By the time you and yours read this I, and all sensible people, will be engrossed in another Heart of Midlothian victory. I am preparing my smugness for friendly Hibbys as we speak!
Not that I'm one to gloat......
I was chatting to a friend about his job today. he has been in a 'caring' occupation for a while dealing with what they call today 'learning difficulties.' That could mean anything from mentally impaired (Backwards we used to call that), or have emotional and other problems. Recently he moved to a 'care home,' where he works 12 hour shifts on a rota of seven days out of fourteen. For this he ears about £7 an hour, that is the minimum wage! His point was that as this kind of occupation is dealing with people with needs surely it needs to be better paid. I did not mention the £36 a week I was paid until 1980 by the NHS, it may have upset him. Now he is a great lad but he does not appreciate the way this world works. 'Caring' is important but expensive, therefore the NHS and all care organisations are being sold off to save the taxpayer, at least those who usually earn more than the minimum wage, from paying tax. I think all ''care homes' are now privatised, these are desperate for cash as the running costs are high and only so much can be charged to patients. Part time and cheap staff, usually foreign these days, fill such care homes. There are good ones it must be said, although the 'BUPA' homes in Scotland have recently been exposed as in some need of change, and staff in such homes are never on a financial winner. I am not sure the homes can ever make much profit.
His point is good, if people are important why do we not care for them? The answer is that votes are found by cutting costs, not helping people! Private care homes cannot pay much, even the best ones, and no government has the guts to improve such places, old folks vote, but not when trapped in a home!
Some things do not change when the year does.
.
