The Insomniac Meanderings Post : Where I Owe More Tax Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There is always a certain fear when the brown envelope hits the floor. You pick it up and find that it's from HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs - You don't think I want Wales to be a republic could make me ignore it? Ah well).

Well that envelope came again yesterday and unlike other occasions when it told me a change in the tax code or other admin stuff this time it said I owed them an extra amount of just over £107!!

I am annoyed for three reasons. Firstly I'm an employee which means the tax gets taken at source from my wages every month. In other words whatever has caused this alleged underpayment of tax is not my fault.

Secondly whatever has caused this alleged underpayment of tax is a factor as well. Because I don't know. It doesn't say on the document. I got the wife (who used to work at a pay department) to have a look and she can't see it either. That means on Wednesday (my next day off work) I'll have to ring these people up. The tax office enquiries service does not have a good reputation. And when I say it does not have a good reputation I mean I could be waiting on the end of an imaginary cordless phone line for hours.

Thirdly I'm not a wealthy man but I'm not on income support either. So it's made me realise the trauma families on income support face when similar letters drop into their homes. Even if this extra tax is justified the tax people have spent time and resources on getting just over a hundred pounds from me and other families where there are tax avoiders syphoning off much more laughing all the way to their next glass of champagne!

More on this to come.

To books then and the latest from the library I've read.

Edward Marston - Dance of Death

I've chatted about Edward Marston before in this blog on his Railway detective series so here's one on his Home Front detective Harvey Marmion also a series set in Britain of 1916 during the First world war.. Mr Marston seems to have tapped the entertainment historical detective market judging by the many books he's written. I can see why. Judged as an entertainment Dance of Death concerning the grisly murder of a professional dancer cannot be faulted. It has the detectives, the murder, the suspects and also the feel of historical accuracy.

It reminded me (though set a few decades earlier) of the Inspector Cribb novels of Peter Lovesey. And though not as good are certainly good value for your reading time.

A quick side issue here. I have a rough rule that if a book is part of a series then I read it in chronological order. The big exception to this though are detective series because to me the key is the particular murder and not the detective's family dynamic (there are things that happen here in that regard but I won't spoil by revealing). I'm not particularly bothered that the next Harvey Marmion novel I'll read might be earlier than this one in the series. To me it's funny how for the most part I'm fundamentalist on this issue but with detective fiction I couldn't give a damn.

Politics: And hidden away in the Welsh news was Plaid Cymru's stunning by election victory an increase in the percentage of 18% no less) in Cardiff's Ely ward for the council. It needs to be made clear here. Ely is a working class area which First Minister Mark Drakeford covers in the Senedd. It is the sort of place that Labour would describe as it's heartland. Not any more. The shift might be slow but previous Labour voters are seeing them in Wales for what they truly are. The arrogant incompetent arm of Welsh establishment.

Let this crumbling of the edifice continue. For at it's destruction will come independence.

And let's continue with the state of Cardiff shall we. the Cancer Research charity have opened a new superstore here (which I haven't been to yet). Now am I being heartless for saying that you can truly judge a nation's decline by the fact that a charity can open not just a shop but a superstore?

West Ham beat Fulham last night (I was at work). People say 40 points means safety which means they might get it when facing Cardiff City in two weeks time.....and I will be there!!!....albeit quietly in the home seats.

Until the next time.

Does Welsh Labour read books? (Libraries As Preventative Medicine)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Recently here in Wales there has been a report come out which says that should the funds ring fenced for health continue to be protected it might mean that leisure centres and libraries "unaffordable" in the future. The Welsh first minister, Labour's Carwyn Jones put his grave face on when he said that this was an "inevitable" result in the cuts by Westminster to the Welsh budget.

So the Welsh Conservatives respond in such a highly trained way you wondered whether London threw them a fish afterwards by saying that the situation was because of how Labour has mismanaged the resources it actually had.

Who is right? Well of course the answer is both. Westminster has cut, and will continue to cut the Welsh budget. On the other hand as I've documented in this blog from time to time Welsh Labour seem to prefer tackling issues with grandiose gestures rather than focusing on the nitty gritty of people need in their daily lives. You compare the Welsh Labour government with that of the SNP in Edinburgh and it fails, and miserably at that.

But for the purposes of this post I wanted to discuss the notion, which the Welsh Labour leader appeared to have accepted that to protect the health services in Wales you will need to cut leisure centres and libraries in the future.

What logic is there that the health service will be protected by cutting back on services that will help prevent health conditions? For years we have been told as a nation that we should actively participate in sport which would help to prevent heart conditions for example. So how does it help the NHS that people who could have had healthier bodies because of the proximity of a local leisure centre find it closed? You know what the increased budget will be spent on? It will be spent on people who were denied the means of participating in sports and physically suffered accordingly. False economy number one.

But there are plenty of people who will shout in protest for the leisure centre, so let me shout in protest for the library as a haven for preventative medicine instead. Dementia is a cruel disease of the mind where there is no cure. But it is known that one of the things that helps to at the very least is keeping yourself mentally as well as physically active.

Consider the library then as the leisure centre for the mind. It doesn't really matter what book you've borrowed. It could be James Joyce or James Patterson (plus one other) the point is that you've borrowed a book. Which means first that you have made the physical effort to go to a library. Then you have taken it home, then you sat down and started enjoying the quiet pleasure of turning a page whilst mentally engaging your brain.

Cutting the number of libraries will mean that this vital piece of mental stimulation for many communities will be lost. Consequently there will be a greater risk of dementia cases for the NHS to deal with. Welsh Labour Councils have already closed libraries (Rhondda Cynon Taff) or messed around with them (Bridgend). A more widespread closure programme will make the potential Alzheimer's timebomb even worse.

False economy number two.

And just to confirm I practice what I preach yesterday I finished reading Timetable of Death by Edward Marston. It's not the best Victorian police procedural I've ever read (that goes to the Inspector Cribb novels of Peter Lovesey) but taking the crime genre purely as entertainment I can't recall enjoying a book more for quite a while now.

If there is a piece of possible irritation it might be that Inspector Colbeck and his assistant Sargent Leeming might be of that brilliant upper class detective working class sidekick cliché. But I say possible because this novel is part of a series and being the first I've read (but not the first of the series, there's been at least fourteen) I don't know. Am not going to find out online either. I'll wait until another book in the series comes my way.

The other book finished yesterday was Moranthology by Caitlin Moran. A collection of her columns and articles in The Times newspaper. I loved it. One of those books where you're disappointed for having finished it.

Perhaps Welsh Labour may be interested in her essay regarding Libraries as "Cathedrals of The Soul". Explaining how to her the library was her university which gave her an education for her future life and how library closures will affect a town and the people in it.

But you won't will you Welsh Labour. You don't seem to care about books.

But think of this Welsh Labour. You may laugh at the little old lady with her piles of historical romances, Or the fifty three year old man with his crime novel set in Victorian England with added trains. But reading may mean that we are less of a burden on the NHS.

Think of that Welsh Labour.....and cut the stupid showy projects instead.

Until the next time.

How Edward Marston Helped Me With Another Stage Of Daughter's Growing Up

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I realise there have been no posts for a while. Apologies for that. The explanation is simple. I've been on the early morning shifts at work. As those will tell you the effect of night/early morning shift work is basically jet lag without the wings.

So I'll take you back to Thursday. Thursday afternoon to be precise.

Daughter is, as I've said before, getting older. Where we live is a car journey from her school. She however wanted to walk out of the school with her friends along the way through Penarth. A compromise was reached thanks to her uncle and his partner, who live about fifteen minutes away. She would walk there and, when necessary stay there until we pick her up.She will be....pause for dramatic effect....given keys!!

There were conditions. The day before I'd taken her on the simplest route. She wouldn't be given keys yet until she showed she knew the way. This was Thursday. This was the test. If she got lost she'd ring.

I park near the corner of the street of uncle/partner's house. Not quite on the corner you understand but just enough to get worried when a large truck turns my way and narrowly misses.

I start reading Timetable of Death by Edward Marston. It is the sort of book that takes you away from where you actually are. As entertainment it really cannot be faulted.

Still it doesn't stop me listening to conversations of people passing by.

"....Dinas Powys Princess....." was the words of a middle aged woman talking to her male companion. Always interesting catching part of a tale. Dinas Powys, rather like Penarth, has a reputation for being a bit snobby. But in truth I've never found an area of Wales yet that was snobby, but I do know areas where there were parts that were so (if that makes sense). Of course when a reputation settles then it's difficult to shake off.

It's 3:05. A teenage boy from daughter's school walks past. Young confident. You don't think yet that the problems of the world has hit him.

3:07: I ring daughter. She says she's on her way. Confident and content in tone.

3:08: Another boy walks past. Shirt out, short dark hair dark specs he really was Adrian Mole for the twenty first century. Also it has to be said exactly how I would have looked over forty years ago.

Two teenage boys walk pass. Another conversation caught mid stream.

"Her name was Helga....and she was forty!!"

This line is repeated. Unclear what is interesting him more. The foreign name or her age. Of course when you're a teenage boy women with European names have an allure. Who knows?

Then I see my daughter. She had lied about leaving at 3:07. She'd left earlier. She'd taken a slightly different route and knew where to go.

Nothing makes you feel inadequate as a parent more when your child not only has taken the initiative but has worked out a solution better than the one you gave her.

I feel very old now.

Until the next time.

Of Books Read And Borrowed Leading To My Big Enviormental Question

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the collected essays of Brian Aldiss is now finished. And for the most part I enjoyed it. You will rarely have a consistent view of any anthology but for the moment calling him the George Orwell of Science Fiction essays (though not all are Sci-fi) seems appropriate.

There are a few caveats. Some of these essays were so above me they were rocket to the moon length. Also this particular ebook lazily put certain volumes together even though some of the essays appeared twice, which was annoying. But approaching subjects like Mary Shelley or George Orwell from his sci-fi perspective is interesting and unusual. The book was worth reading for those essays alone.

Won't read the other Brian Aldiss I have on my Kindle yet, I'll save that for another day. So back to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield.

Went to Sully library to choose some new books. The Fiction choice was..

Edward Marston - Timetable of Death

I've never read The Railway Inspector crime series before. So this is new to me. But when waiting for my daughter at her school read sixty one pages of this book without realising I'd gone through so much in a short space of time. That is the mark of a good writer. Early days obviously, but it looks promising.

The other book. The one I wasn't sure to get but eventually decided upon was this.

David Attenborough - New Life Stories

This leads to my environmental question. Because I should explain first that I've never watched a David Attenborough or any animal programme.

So the question: Can you be truly care for the environment when you're wary in the presence of animals?

I believe in being environmentally friendly. I do believe in climate change and have shown that landscapes are important to me. Also I'm against zoos believing that animals should be allowed to roam free but at the same time I'm ambivalent to anything that's not human.

Part of the reason for this, possibly all of it, is my actual phobia for dogs. Brought on by being almost mauled by an Alsatian when I was a very young child. Even now, no matter how small the dog ("He won't bite,he's showing he likes you") my reaction is to stiffen with fear.

So I can't say I've read many animal books. When I finish it that will need to be borne in mind.

Until the next time.