I spent a relaxing weekend down in Brougton this week, having a lovely meal at The Plough in Sparsholt on Friday before getting a bit ripped off in The Greyhound in Broughton. How is it you can spend £45.00 in a lovely country pub on two fine home cooked meals, two large glasses of white wine, and two pints of real ale, then get charged £10.00 for 1 small glass of unpleasant Pinot Grigio and and a large glass of passable red wine? The Greyhound in my opinion, is a lovely place inside, but exploitative and overrated, and though it’s sales figures may suggest I am wrong, I just don’t think there is a price and quality match. It’s just not that great.

On Saturday, I nipped off and took George to watch Reading demolish Sheffield Weds 5-0. Since they changed their manager, Reading have remarkably won five out of their last six league games to propel themselves out of the relegation area, and reached the FA Cup final quarter final stage for the first time in 83 years. The likable Brian McDermott is rapidly becoming some sort of Messiah at Reading and it has become fun to go there again.

After a lovely meal at Di’s friends Rob and Helen on Saturday, yesterday was spent being lazy, though I did do umpteen piles of Di’s ironing in front of the football, in exchange for a lovely Sunday dinner. This initially seemed a good deal, because it started as six school blouses, and a couple of pairs of Jeans. However, whenever I got engrossed in a part of the game, Diane sneakily added to the pile which probably ended up as a months worth. It was worth it though and we had a nice and relaxing weekend all round.

However this idyll came crashing back to earth to earth today as I vainly tried to drum up business in what is without doubt the worst recession in my working life. I have always got by, by having a good client base, a bit of luck, a bit of judgement, and a bit of charm, but none of these attributes work in an industry that is on its knees, and it is now a genuine concern.

A brief look at the figures chills the spine. A 48% drop in construction in the last two years, a further 5% drop this year, and only a 2% upturn predicted for the next three years tells its own story, but worse still is the situation in the Public Sector (social housing, schools, colleges and hospitals etc) which has contributed to 40% of construction in the last year. It was stated in the pre budget that the Public Sector fiscal stimulus (spending in layman’s terms) would be halted and public spending would decrease 50% over the next three years. It is no good voting Tory, their cuts are more draconian, and as the working man knows the Tories look after themselves first, and have no real feel for the real world, it is a mess which ever way you look politically, left or right.

Can I just ask these questions. Why do middle England have to keep propping up the dossers on the welfare state when it should be a service to assist those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own? Why is our immigration policy in a such a state (and I don’t mean genuine EU or skilled workers from anywhere in the world, I am not Nick Griffin)? Why are we spending 12 billion on a nuclear bomb we don’t need (unless we want to bomb fundamentalist’s who are probably all here anyway)? Why do council workers who do fuck all all day resent pay cuts when everyone else has had to take cuts of 20% or more just to keep working? I could go on, and on and on with examples of wasted money.

Worst of all why the fuck do I get so wound up about it all, when no one will listen to me anyway? Maybe I should just give up, claim disability benefit for a mystery bad back, get a few old tarts pregnant, buy a couple of Rottweiler’s, and see how many cans Red Stripe and packets of Super size fags I can get through a day, that should get me a free house and 40k a year. These type of people are fucking Britain up more than anything, but no one is brave enough to come out and say it, except people who’s voices are never heard.

I know there is more to it than that, and not everyone on benefit is rotten, but too many are, and the money is just not there for people who have never offered any financial contribution to the economy. It is a time bomb that dangerous far right groups will feed off, and when that happens, we will have a major problem that will affect the very fabric of this great country in a way that could have unthinkable and chilling consequences. Preying on disaffection is what made some bloke called Adolf so popular 80 years ago!!!