Blame the Crossfit CEO, blame Sainsburys, blame Peter Shilton and blame Little Britain. The twitter hits of the day are consistently pointing fingers at others for the state we’re in.

Thankfully we aren’t blamin Prince Philip who is 99 today and I hope in a year’s time he will get a telegram from his wife!

I don’t blame anyone for blaming everyone but I do think a lot of people would be better off considering the public service of this happy couple than by putting everybody else down!

So here are the five blogs published on here which I’d point you to for positive alternatives to the deepening despond.

1. Con Keating and Iain Clacher propose an alternative way of funding DB pensions which better balances the interests of pension scheme members and shareholders. If you want to see both companies and pension schemes stay solvent read this
2. I praise Michelle Cracknell for not blaming Dominic Cummings for 65,000 excess deaths (keeping her head where all were losing theirs)
3. Demonstrating how an insurance company can respond positively to the crisis in our care homes and provide a better way for the elderly to plan ahead
4. Nicola Oliver provides a scientific analysis of the merits of wearing a face mask at the current time
5. I urge the Treasury to engage with the over-payment of pension contributions by 1.7m savers who need every penny they can get.

These are five of the 345 blogs published in 2020. That’s nearly 350,000 words or around seven novels worth!

Keeping this blog positive

I publish and I’m frequently damned. But the blog is read and I hope read positively. Readership is running at around 40,000 per month and has remained consistently at this level for around three years.

And though I write blogs that are critical of Government, companies and often of individuals , my aim is to raise issues and create positive change. Of course there is dissent but there is not hate. Where I see hate I will delete it.

These two comments were deleted from the site yesterday. They came from the same computer and  John Peters and Duncan Ferguson are bogus. The ongoing defamation of Angie Brooks is shameful. I will stand by those who persistently stand up for others.

Let’s stop blaming everybody else

There is much kindness to be found on the web and on social media. I see kindness in the queen and indeed in her often curmudgeonly husband (happy birthday). I see vulnerability everywhere and can often forgive a personal attack , knowing that it comes from a personal sensitivity which it were better I understood than exploited.

Last year, when I had two serious health scares, I saw much good in those whose views I don’t share and that has made me more tolerant.

This blog and its sentiments are dedicated to Naibuka (Sam) Qarau

Today I am attending, virtually, the funeral of a man on whose face I never saw anything but a smile or a look of concern. He died too soon and we will mourn his passing.

Naibuka

If you would like to read a tribute to this man by Leslie Griffiths, here it is in full.

If you would like to spend time between 1.30 and 2.30 in his honor, his funeral service will be streamed here