Can You Trust Truss?

What makes you angry?

Let me tell you what makes me angry.  First, is dishonesty.  That can be simply saying something is true when it isn't, or vice versa.  It can also be allowing an untruth to stand when there was an opportunity to correct it, but you didn't.  

Second, is being caught in a 'cleft stick'.  In other words, being in a situation where there are two options, neither of which is the right thing to do or say, but that the right thing isn't on offer.  If someone asks me a question, I may go all round the houses to explain something rather than give a 'yes' or 'no', if I realise that my answer depends on circumstances beyond the question, and neither would be an honest answer.

So, I often get angry when I'm listening to a radio interview, and the interviewer asks "would you back so-and-so?"  As often as not the interviewee begins to explain the circumstances when she would do so and when she wouldn't, but he pushes again for a simple 'yes' or 'no', talking over the attempted explanation (genders introduced there solely for clarity). I get angry and either shout at the radio, or turn off in disgust.

Third, is when people fail in management and still are rewarded with a magnificent bonus, when by all that's just they should be sacked and replaced.

I could go on and on, but time - and my readers' patience - doesn't permit.

We have a new government because the previous one made me angry (Well, not directly, but I think you will get my meaning).  I'm not sure the new one is going to be any good at reducing my anger levels, though. 

Somewhere else along my list would be doing something that's completely counter-productive when a far better solution to the problem at hand is staring you in the face.  

I like the idea of 'the polluter pays'.  If you make a mess, you clear it up.  Similarly, if you find a few extra thousands in your bank account because someone put the wrong number on a transaction that was meant for someone else ... do you go on a spending spree, or make an effort to return the money to the right place?

When all the world is saying "tax the excess profits that energy companies are making from the increased prices, and relieve the pressure on those who are juggling food and heat instead of enjoying both", it seems the height of nonsense to ignore that advice and instead introduce measures that will make the rich richer and do nothing to help the poor, in the vague hope that wealth will 'trickle down' to where it's needed.

Someone said - many years ago - "An engineer knows that water trickles down.  Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot.  But money trickles up.  Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow.  But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow's hands."

I'm still angry.