Spoilt child throws toys out of pram & we all draw breath

It's Fathers' Day today: my own late father has been on my mind. (This photo is him demonstrating to a bunch of children how he was able to remove the top half of his thumb. Some readers will know what I'm talking about, for everyone else, well, you had to be there).

Anyway, he was definitely NOT born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His dad was a miner & he grew up in a terraced house in a mining town near Rotherham. They wouldn't have had Sky TV even if it had been available.

And yet, my mum was quite right when she used to describe him as a bit of a spoilt child. He was an only one, had the gift of the gab and always seemed to be able to get his own way. It also helped that he was very single minded and very, very stubborn. As his health began to fail in his 80s, we tried several times to persuade him to downsize and move to a more manageable house, with a smaller garden.

The last time we did this he had a proper, full on tantrum, stomping off with the retort:

"I'm not moving. I'm NEVER moving. I'm NOT LEAVING. They will take me out of this house in a coffin."

He got his own way.

However, stamping your feet, having a tantrum, flouncing out of a job (which I did several years ago, when I didn't get a promotion I was expecting) is not always the long term solution. Sometimes, it pays to take a breath, for everyone's sake.

Quelle Horreur

Take M. Macron, for instance. Whilst the media here seems to still be talking about the most boring and potentially most predictable election in recent history (although, by the way, I think the Tories will do a bit better and Reform a lot worse than the polls predict), the election which could generate seismic change is going on over the channel.

In case you missed it, Macron had a hissy fit when the far right won loads of seats in the recent European elections, so has called a snap election of his own. Trouble is, he hadn't paved the way AT ALL. The left are in a mess, squabbling like chats et chiens, whereas the far right is on a bit of a roll and no-one has a clue what's going to happen.

And it isn't without consequence. Just think about what France led by a far right, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, illiberal government would look like. Quelle horreur indeed.

Macron appears to have placed a huge bet on the "intelligence" of the electorate, saying:

“To be French is to rise to the challenge of the epoch when necessary ... It is to know what a vote is worth and how liberty feels. To act, whatever the circumstances, with responsibility is fundamentally to write history rather?than be its victim."

Cameron and Osborne did something similar back in the Golden Ages before Brexit and look what happened there.

Unconscious Incompetence

There's this theory of learning that suggests that, in order to learn, you need to go through four stages. Think of a baby learning to walk. At first, the baby doesn't even know that walking is a thing. The baby is "unconsciously incompetent." You don't need me to explain the rest.

OK, if you do, first baby realises everyone else gets to things before he does, so has motivation to crawl (conscious incompetence), slowly learns to walk but it takes effort and concentration (conscious competence), until eventually is walking without even thinking about it (unconscious competence). Boom.

The problem, it seems to me, is that many of our politicians and leaders do not realise that, when it comes to economics and the like, most of the population is still stuck in the Unconscious Incompetent box. Giving them the vote is not to be done lightly.

If you are going to give people a say, you need to put a lot of effort into the education bit so that they understand what they're actually voting for. And you need to control the system, which includes punishing politicians who lie. And stopping those people from ever trying to get elected again. Mentioning NO NAMES because those people do not deserve any publicity whatsoever.

Beach Body Ready? You have to be kidding

Another fabulous example of unconscious incompetence came this week from Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, who warned that people should not take weight loss drugs to get themselves "beach body ready." His comments were in response to reports showing that many people - mostly young women - are buying weight loss drugs like Ozempic without medical prescriptions and ending up seriously ill in hospital, including in intensive care.

I know plenty of women (and men) who are keen to get a bit fitter and slimmer before donning a bikini. My friend Erin and I often discuss going on a "ferocious diet", usually whilst downing an aperol spritz and tucking into a delicious dinner. There is no way on earth we'd consider taking drugs to speed us along the way.

What the professor and regulators don't seem to appreciate is that these drugs present huge risks to people suffering from anorexia or other body dysmorphia issues. Their motivation is quite different from getting "beach body ready" and describing it as such seriously diminishes the problem and the potential harm.

I fear that, as we did with vapes, we may be sleepwalking into a terrible health crisis here.

A Father's Advice to His Daughter

Well, my dad's advice anyway (the bits I remember)

• Pay into a pension from day 1 (good advice)
• If you can't say anything constructive don't say anything at all (also not a bad one)
• Never pass one (referring to the opportunity to use the toilets at a motorway service station or other stopping place on a long journey)
• If someone walks across an empty dance floor to ask you to dance, say yes (based on his own experience of being rejected I think - not great advice on reflection, I think I took it too far and also said yes the first time someone asked me to marry them)
• Only with whiskey (when asked by a waiter if he'd like water with dinner - to be fair, I do say yes and take the water but then don't drink it).

The Cultural Bit

I watched: In Bruges. We watched it last night. Utterly brilliant. Love love love it. If you haven't seen it, do watch it. I think it's one of the funniest and at the same time most thought provoking films I've seen in a very very long time. Here is one person's take on the best lines, but there are many.

https://youtu.be/h6B2fwzNBc4?si=kEyCynwWzolkxsZs

Also watching: Presumed Innocent on Apple TV with Jake Gyllenhaal. Took me a little while to stop comparing him to Harrison Ford, added to which I sort of remember what happens, BUT it's growing on me. Ruth Negga is brilliant as his wife, Barbara. And it's a slow release one - have to wait until Wednesday for the next episode, which somehow makes it even more appealing.

I'm listening to: Unspooled podcast talking about In Bruges

I'm reading: The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright. Shortlisted for Women's prize. Didn't win but I'm enjoying it.

I suppose I will also be watching some football.