PRIORITIES

I've not blogged for a bit. Reason being I'm coming to terms with a very changed life in which me and my only surviving sister are what's left of a family of five.
I don't spend my days disassociated with what's going on politically. Far from it.
Every day brings more bad news about what this wretched Government is doing to dismantle our NHS, the public sector, welfare benefits we have taken for granted over 13 years of a Labour government which , despite its failings, protected the vulnerable and weak.If not enough.
This is a truth ( universally acknowleged) by all the would-be leaders of the Labour Party.Yet I hear the forthcoming Labour Party Conference will be same-old same-old with lots of speeches by ex-Ministers and precious little chance for you and me to have our say.
At the moment, I'm taking pleasure in the very small things of life. Cooking nice meals, drying herbs for winter, reading books (lots) and generally escaping from the facts of a mortality awareness which sometimes threatens to stop one engaging with the immediate.
If I had a time machine I would love to esacape back to the 1980's when death was an impossible. I know now it is an inevitable.
The experience I have had watching my father die has had a profound effect on my life. At 52, I have far more years behind than in front. So it's hard (and frankly pointeless) to get steamed-up about battles which in the long-term, are meaningless.
At the moment. am concentrating my efforts of forthcoming NEC campaign. The last year, though unremittingly bad, has taught me to concentrate on the things which matter. They are: family, friends and principles. I'm taking it all day by day and wish nothing more that in the months to comewe can start to re-build a Labour Party we can be proud of. That still matters enormously. But not as much as putting what's left of my family in order - and ensuring I look after them.