Sonny days are here – again
Well we’ve done it – seven days in now and the new pup is firmly ensconsed in our family life. Interesting transition from an old, super intelligent, compliant and deaf dog to a brand new rescue puppy for whom everything is new and exciting. It’s incredible how much human pleasure can be derived from watching him sleep and go to the toilet outside (my records have had a couple of near misses). His presence has also meant D2 to extending her stay with us as she bonds with the dog before moving back to London – which brings a very welcome change in the energy levels of our house. Katya our former guest from Ukraine has also seen photos and has booked flights to come for another visit – she’s pretending it’s to see us but we are not fooled.
Sonny – what else could he be called. I’d post a photo but this isn’t twitter and I don’t want to fall foul of the Linked In police.
I’m also not talking about football – the word exists for a reason. And the reasons are valid. Spursy. Been a tricky week being a Spurs fan living in Brighton. Luckily I can turn any conversation / gloating into a story about the toilet exploits of Sonny (the dog not the namesake).
Politics just seems to have got wearyingly hopeless and stuck again. The storm of the century seems to be ripping apart Florida as I write, WWF report that the world has lost something like 70% of animal species in recent decades. Yet our ‘leaders’ collectively turn a blind eye to the impacts of human behaviour – regardless of cost. The WWF report author (I think) also claimed that ‘with the right level of will we could reverse global warming within a generation’. Yet we do nothing.
In my world of work – this months budget feels like it cannot come soon enough and that it could well be the most ‘consequential’ for many years. The additional grant funding into drug treatment, rough sleeper initiative funding, employment support programme funding and violence reduction funding streams channelled through police and crime commissioners officers and resources targeting support at those with Multiple Compound Needs all theoretically end in this financial year.
I consider myself fairly ‘engaged’ and am actively interest in news, politics and social justice. Yet three months in – I am struggling to remember anything the new Minister for Combatting Drugs has said. Meanwhile people are dying, families are bereaved and communities are suffering. Local Authorities are consulting on cuts to essential public services, services are modelling what would be left if budgets are cut and understandably dedicated staff are leaving. You can’t buy back loyalty or experience quickly
If this does transpire it will have simply devastating impacts on services, will literally cost lives, increase crime and homelessness. And would serve to quickly undermine the sense of optimism that many felt after the June election – already reeling from some of the bizarre political choices already being enacted.
In every contract I am engaged with the sense of fear and trepidation expressed by staff, commissioners and partners is visceral. The coming budget and spending plans cannot come soon enough and can either rebuild a sense of mission and optimism or not.
The choice is the governments.
Thank the gods for live music – went to see The The (again) at the Alexandra Palace. Consistently been the soundtrack to my life since my teenage years – perhaps even more so since their output over the 40 odd years has been relatively limited (6 albums, 7 tours) and like with Billy Bragg I feel like I’ve grown up with them. It was also really refreshing to go to a gig which you could actually see without having to peer around a wall of mobile phones taking films that no-one will ever watch.
