The Royal Society, the very old, venerated, distinguished and revered, scientific ‘national treasure’ (but literally so), has a new president. And, (shock warning, stay seated and find your ‘happy place’ before reading on), it is… a man! Why is it a shock? Because in all its years, dating all the way back to 1660, they’ve only ever had men as presidents. So why is electing another, as the 1500 members did, such a big deal? Because this is 2024, that’s why. And everyone’s obsessed with ‘diversity’. To the extent that choosing another old rich white man in a job pretty much made for old rich (its a non-paying position) white men, is completely unacceptable. They looked for a disabled, mixed-race, non-binary, pronoun-quoting, vegan single parent but couldn’t find one. Well, couldn’t find one who, like the new pres., has a Nobel Prize for science and is a known diplomat, as the job involves high level negotiations for government money to further research. When they’re looking for a president of a society where the job requirements are ‘on benefits, suffers from mental ‘ealf’ issues, bisexual, possibly tri-sexual, and Oriental’, we’ll get back to you.

I love the whole ‘diversity’ thing. Until it gets to the point when the most suitable candidates are overlooked just because they aren’t sufficiently diverse. And I’m speaking here as a one-legged (metaphorically!!!, don’t be so pedantic) person of colour (pink’s a colour, innit?), who identifies as a ballerina.

Someone in the Trade Union movement heard that the new PM is a total fucking pushover when it comes to negotiations. In fact he doesn’t. Negotiate. He just does the digitalised version of ‘writing blank cheques’. Possibly “giving you my online login details”. So having pissed away umpteen billion on the rail workers and doctors, he’s now faced with a series of tube strikes. Because they’re going on strike. All of them. The whole effin network. Drivers, station staff, line workers, anyone with an underground logo on their t-shirts. Even a few tourists are probably in line for a big payout for that very reason.

Consequently, the ‘black hole’ in the economy, which stood at 22 billion when Rachel Reeves invented it, has increased to 40 bil. And that’s without the Tube workers. Nurses. Dockers. Teachers. Police. Ambulance. Fire brigade. Lucky thing that the other ‘working people’, the ones who don’t count, have bottomless pay checks when it comes to paying tax. And national insurance. I hate to point out that a ‘black hole’ can’t actually ‘get bigger’. That’s the whole point of a black hole, it’s a ‘singularity’, the tiniest possible imaginable point. Except in Labour Space. Where all laws of gravity are suspended. Along with common sense, credibility and getting free tickets to Taylor Swift.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx