Last updated at 19:55, Thursday, 28 June 2012

If you want to be cheered up don’t read this column, because I am in a seriously bad mood!

First, it was very sad to see that the Maryport Harbour Festival and trawler race had to be postponed because of the weather. I know that a lot of time and money went into the event, and it was incredibly disappointing for the organisers.

On the upside, though, it meant that I had a weekend off to do all the jobs around the house that seriously needed doing.

I managed to do some washing, none of which I could hang out, so my house resembled a Chinese laundry for days.

When I think of it, by the way, why is it always a Chinese laundry?

Now there, in a nutshell, is my problem. I get distracted!

I went to tidy the DVDs that the grandchildren are allowed to watch in “their” bedroom. My own kids never had a TV in their bedrooms, by the way. Anyway, I just thought I’d watch a quick DVD while Ascot was on, then read just a chapter of my book. After all, I still had Sunday.

All I did all weekend was eat, watch movies, read books and slob (sometimes with a glass of wine and sometimes without).

I returned to work on Monday more tired because I’d done nothing than I would have been if I’d worked.

My house is still a mess – messier, in fact – and I have wasted 48 hours that I will never get back.

I am also in a bad mood because of the football. I don’t mean I am devastated by England’s loss – although I will say that the only football I watched was the penalty shoot-out, or whatever you call it. I have come away with an informed opinion of the game, however; the Italians are generally better looking than the English players, although the English goalie is cute and so is Steven Gerrard.

The football bad mood is because there has been so much of it on TV, and I really do not enjoy it. I thought it would soon be finished until someone told me that the English season starts again in just over a month.

When I finally did get to watch the news, between Ascot and the football, my bad mood did not improve.

First of all I heard that Jimmy Carr and Gary Barlow were avoiding tax. They were both acting within the law but not within the British spirit.

Funnily enough, I found that I was on Jimmy Carr’s side to a certain extent, simply because David Cameron had singled him out for special mention.

Personally, I believe that we have a moral duty to pay our taxes. If we all evaded payment we would have no roads, no health system, no welfare system and no communities.

We are all part of this society and we are all, in fact, our brothers’ keepers.

I believe that Jimmy Carr and Gary Barlow, who have made a lot of money in this country, should pay their fair share of tax.

What put me in a worse mood, however, was the hypocrisy of Mr Cameron. He has vilified one little comedian, but what about the huge businesses in this country that take, take, take and pay as little tax as possible?

Close the loopholes, Mr Cameron! You picked on Jimmy Carr because he is well known and not as powerful as those huge businesses. You were being completely political and I don’t admire you for it.

Politics worsened my mood even further when it was announced that the Conservative Party was thinking of withdrawing all housing benefits from people under 25.

That is fine – as long as under-25-year-olds are barred from going to war for this country.

Of course there are people who feel an entitlement to a benefit and who do nothing to better their positions. These people are not all under-25, by the way. I know people in their 20s, 30s, 60s and 70s who have never held down a job. In some cases it is because they have never wanted to work. In other cases it is because they have never been able to.

Stopping the benefit to the under-25s will certainly discourage youngsters from deliberately choosing to become single parents, to move out of home and into the welfare system.

By the way, Mr Cameron, it might also mean that potential young apprentices will have to stay at home because they can’t afford to move to where the work is.

I’m in a bad mood because this Government thinks it can save the UK economy by picking on the little guy – and the odd comedian.

Maybe, by the time you read this, my bad mood will have gone. Maybe summer will finally be here, the sun will be shining, football will be outlawed and the gap between the poor and rich will have disappeared. Maybe.

First published at 19:24, Thursday, 28 June 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk