|  Uncategorized   |  It was a dog’s life….

It was a dog’s life….

10 days into our journey post Ledley – still feels very odd. The hallway seems far to large, clean and easy to navigate without the dog himself and various items that he’s spread arond the place being tripped over. Adjusting to a new (less structured) regime is taking some time and I must say I’m flailing a bit. We’ve had far too many questions that have almost ended with ‘….getting back for / feed the dog’. Its been very touching though how many people have heard, stopped us to offer condolences or who have sent random photos and videos that they had of Ledley that we didn’t know existed. I hope to be as fondly remembered when my time finally comes.

Anyway – watch this space…. I can’t believe we’ll be houndless for long.

Work seems to be picking up again with various things bubbling for a September start in addition to the Evaluation of the Changing Futures (Sussex) programme that we start at the end of this month. We were involved in writing the original submission, model and theory of change for this programme so its really exciting to see what systemic and relational changes were delivered over the three year period.

One eagle eyed colleague has also spotted my ‘first session free’ offer on my website and my post election offer of 50% reduction for next two VCSE engagements. We’re meeting at lunchtime to talk through some strategy development work. We’ve also submitted for some evaluation work with a new core Associate joining the team if we are successful.

Politics remains interesting both here and in the US. Surely to goodness we stand at the point when America will have its first woman President. Surely. I mean surely.

At home – it feels like a reasonable start for the new government. Suspending MP’s for voting to scrap the two child benefit cap which was Labour policy whilst in opposition and when we know their ‘mission review’ will scrap it later this year looks like macho posturing rather than serious government. But there are really welcome announcements on the ‘Rwanda scheme’ and closing the Bibby Stockholm – two abhorrent legacies they’ve inherited. It feels like positive progress is also being made with regard to public sector pay deals, disputes with Junior Doctors, rail nationalisation and within the energy sector.

The seemingly sensble appointments in Justice and emergency measures to reduce the size of the prison population are to be welcomed. As I have said before though – de-penalisation should / could be a strategic aim of a refreshed evidence based aproach to crime and justice rather than a sticking plaster. There really is no good reason why we should have one of the highest rates of incarceration – especially when we know the human and financial costs of imprisonment.

I also eagerly await some sense of direction with regards to Drug Policy – the current financial settlement for drug treatment has only 8 months left to run, drug death remain shockingly high and there are new and emerging substances posing new risks to already vulnerable people.

Be nice at some point to think there might also be an Alcohol Strategy – but I feel like I’ve been stuck on that loop for at least 30 years.

Saw my first complete cricket game of the year (others have all been rain disrupted) as Sussex (home county) beat Middlesex (childhood home county) to reach the T20 quarter final. Whilst I cannot conceive of not going to Spurs – there is something just much more pleasant about watching competitive sport when not solely surround by men of a certain (my) age.

Off to see Waxahatchee tonight with D2. She’s back home ‘between tenenacies’ for a few weeks (D2 that is not Waxahatchee) so we looked for some live music on a whim last night. As ever Twickets came up trumps this morning – for those of you who don’t know – that’s a re-sale site with all tickets at face value or less. Get the touts and re-sale bandits out of the music business!

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