Friendly chat

Phil, I gather that as we reach our reflective age we lose the ability to remember recent events and those of our early life become dominant and liable to be re-enacted as the the ability of the neurons and their interconnections remaining in our brains to cognitively interact with the here and now diminishes. I have just attended the funeral of a long term friend and Anglican priest who suffered dementia to the point where he was no longer able to recognise his wife but could recite the prayers of consecration during eucharist and found joy and fulfillment when his carers took him to services where worship was familiar. The danger is that society assumes that dementia is a dumbing down of intelligence and provides infantilised activities without considering the history of the individual. On an earlier topic you mention that the little boy was special in needing to know how things worked. I was so driven. I was told "You can't have that toy because you will only pull it apart and break it". Lego does not come close to the freedom of imagination that mecano allowed my generation to develop abilities and be creative. I hope he is nurtured by understanding teachers and adults like you.

Thank you for that fantastic response. Whilst all sorts of explanations have been tendered, for the rapid increase, social wellbeing is high. The incidents of the conditions is halved in the affluent end of society. The jury is out in my mind, one reason that I've posted here, learning from responses like yours.

Dementia is a symptom with many causes. My friend had suffered for more than a decade with Parkinson's disease and my mother died with vascular dementia, two of my aunts with Alzeimer's. I suppose we all must accept that utimately we die because one of our organs wears out and stops functioning. Unfortunately when that organ is the brain the rest of the body can continue functioning even when the quality of life (judged by those caring) has been exhausted. As we age, eating well (as demonstrated by yourself) and supplementing vitamins are even more important, together with regular physical exercise and mental activity. Hearing loss appears to quicken the decline unless appropriately corrected by hearing aids and cochlear implants. Perhaps the "affluent end" are more likely to have resources to continue trying new activities, seeking help from professionals, and have had more opportunity of maintaining a healthy life style throughout their lives, having been more aware of the benefits. I am torn between the libertarian 'laisez faire' and that of the Chinese Social Credit system, where one is rewarded for having a good lifestyle, and where the 'nanny state' takes more control of our lives so that we ensure equality with the "affluent end". I think we have granted politicians far too much control already. Philip, you have led me into the murky waters of politics. I will try to confine comments to Coventry's history in future!

I am a great believer in the fact that a lot of older people do not drink enough. My mum although not diagnosed with dementia had some very strange ideas at the end of her life and another member of our family is mostly living in the past. I used to nag my mum about it and she would say I have a glass of water but it was the size of a whisky glass and still full of water. Same goes for the other relative. Apparently people with dementia forget to drink, also a lot of older people worry about going to the toilet a lot, especially at night. Alcohol drinkers might be pleased to know that the new theory is that abstaining can cause problems as well !

A lack of water can very much simulate dementia and very quickly. Infections too.

Hi Anne, Your comment about beer drinkers is backed up by research regards Covid severity. Regular drinkers are flushing & irritating their systems. It's getting the balance between a good refreshing pint, but not going over the top.

Ladies & Gentlemen of the jury, Your attention to a matter of great importance. WAGON WHEELS. During the years of my prime development, a Weston's Wagon Wheel biscuit cost 3d, each from the school tuck-shop. Today, even with a substantial discount, a packet of 6*36gm, costs £1. In 1956, a £1, would have bought 80 Wagon Wheel biscuits. I later lost interest in Wagon Wheels, when around 1960, the tuck shop had a new line of Cheese sandwich biscuits, also 3d. They were later branded as Cheese Specials, I believe. Can anyone please add the size or weight dimensions of the Weston produced biscuits, so as to substantiate or reject the claims that today's product is even more inferior. Please retire to consider your verdict.

I remember a wagon wheel being about 3 or 4 inches diameter. My dad used to have them on his van and give us one as a treat occasionally on a Saturday if we swept the van out for him. (That was if there were no cream cakes left.) They were lovely. Now they are about half the size. Todays ones may taste the same but only half as much content so you have my vote Philip that they are inferior. Just see a picture on t'internet, it says on the front 3 1/4 inches.

Wagon Wheels certainly seemed huge as a kid. They and Tunnock's Tea Cakes were always the best value item in the tuck shop. Or so I thought. The two confectionaries lead to my first burst of true self awareness of quality over quantity. I suddenly realised that I didn't really like marshmallow and thereafter switched to Kit Kat, which were small in comparison. Oh the joy of a Kit Kat missing some or all of its wafer! That aside, shrinkflation is very annoying.

Thoughts on our valued UK "Constitutional Democracy" Often heralded as a champion of all governments, democracy works when it's on your or my side. What when the demographics change from your stance or point of view. I believe that the value held by many of our forum members regards our forum is holding on to a past history that's forever changing. Consider a small farming village. Idyllic in our imagination of the charm of rural life, away from the hustle & bustle of driving to the Daimler to complete another shift of grinding camshafts, or the like. Instead we see a windmill slowly turning, or hear a cockerel announcing that dawn has arrived. Then an announcement is made that the government boundaries commission has decided by a democratic decision to add a housing estate. A few years down the line, no more sounds of the cockerel, as the over-spill town's folk aren't going to put up with that racket each morning. You can only have quiet animals, they mustn't stink either. Coventry has at least kept its technical heritage alive thanks to our universities, maintaining a high skilled employment base, but I'm struggling to see the benefits for low skill employment, as there was from mass manufacturing. That's now what's happening in many parts of the UK. Any thoughts on this?

There is a relevant article in the Daily Mail about global population and how population will eventually decline due to fewer babies being born. The increasing population of the planet is now more about people living longer than people in developing countries having large families. Without migration, this country would already be in population fall. A fear that was probably behind Thatcher creating a right for council tenants to buy their home at a reduced price. Experts thought that the rent wouldn't match the costs of maintaining them, especially as rarer and rarer workers would demand higher salaries. They thought that house prices would fall. The same problem would be true of the care services, especially for the growing number of elderly. To 'fix' this problem politicians, both local and national, have decided that more growth would be at least a short term solution. More business needs more premises and people who need more homes and both need more land. Everyone needs more 'state' eg NHS, which in turn needs more land and people. Repeat. In business the Brits would call this a pyramid scheme and the Americans would call it a Ponzi scheme. It's a con. No government has yet worked out how to break the cycle. Worse, politicians of all colours and civil servants just seem to look for more things to spend money on. The destruction of the countryside is just a side effect of successive governments of all colours refusing to find a new way to go forward. I suspect that the biggest reason is their inability to tell the public and probably themselves, a truth they think nobody wants to hear.

I agree Helen with all you have said. We have relied upon globalism to satiate our hunger for consumer goods. We have moved manufacturing to far away places where labour is cheaper and in doing so lost the practical skills necessary to recreate self sufficiency in response to changes in the geopolitical situation. We have created virtue signalling by closing down polluting industries yet we are happy to import our cars and manufactured goods made in places where our strict limits on pollution do not apply. The current global order relies upon safe, cheap transport, the Houties have proven it does not require a sophisticated military to disrupt an important shipping route and America is proving to be increasingly reluctant to continue as global policeman. The population demographic of the countries now involved in mass manufacturing is highlighted by a falling birthrate as they become increasingly affluent. Shortages of labour will raise prices and without the means to generate income our standards of living can only fall. In the UK we have relied upon the City to keep laying the golden egg but fewer and fewer companies are deciding to list on the London stock exchange. I have a horrible feeling we are going to find the 'state' is unaffordable shortly and the politicians only answer will be to print money causing runaway inflation. We will have more control from government. Philip, you have triggered a gloomy outlook as unsettled as your current weather report. I recall the optimism my parents had for their two sons, both off to universities, while they left school at 12 for mother and 14 for father. They were successful in providing a stable and loving family upbringing not without some self sacrifices of their own, something so many youngster now lack by the worries and economic pressures of the need for two parental incomes to provide a home.

Some good, interesting points here. Inflation: the biggest cause is the government, who with the BoE have been printing funny money for years, just as the Fed has been doing. If I did it, they'd call it forgery, and I'd go to prison. The government wants a certain amount of inflation - barring a level so high it would lead to civil unrest, rioting, looting etc. - because in real terms, it decrease the national debt. Immigration: One financial expert says "Legal immigration last year was over 700,000; that is the net immigration figure after discounting the 300,000 Brits who left the country last year; so the real immigration figure is north of 1 million. And who is leaving? The 5M unemployed? The 1.5M on long term sick? No, the ones leaving are the brightest, richest ones who can afford to. The wealth creators, the entrepreneurs. They have homes abroad, bank accounts abroad, and are drawn from the top 1% who pay 30% of all taxes." The roads are in a state of disrepair and are gridlocked every day. Why? Simply because there are too many people in the country. But I doubt if the government will ever admit that. Both Blair and Cameron said they had no idea how many illegals are in the country. It is often wondered why services provided are getting shoddier all the time? E.g., WDC now empties bins only once every 3 weeks, bins overflow, rubbish everywhere, vermin (WDC should be in court on a charge of not doing what they are supposed to do)... whilst we are expected to pay inflation-busting increases in road fund, council tax, utility bills... The following video is interesting: Why are taxes so high? Of course, I haven't forgotten Thatcher selling off council homes cheap, the Brown raiding the pension funds of millions of us, then selling off a huge chunk of our gold at giveaway prices...

They have already been printing funny money for years. The state is unaffordable. Some experts predict a complete RESET of the economy and financial system.

Good afternoon, I'm enjoying a mystery tour today. Can anyone help identify where I am please. It may assist any that come looking for me.