Post Olympic dark cloud looming...

Oh I do so love a morning, in fact not any particular morning or type of morning, just mornings in general are very high on my list of likes.  I am sat here listening to the trickle of the water feature feeling very glad we moved it down to this end of the garden near the outdoor office.  I can hear the call of the birds in the trees hanging over the fence and Dr Horatio has cock-a-doodled the street awake, to which they have clearly all just sighed and rolled over in their beds pulling the duvet higher under their chins in a vain attempt to shun the arrival of today.  It wont work.  I could pop round to the nearest neighbours, knock on their doors and tell them Friday is here whether you accept it or not, but that's not likely to be a welcome sight especially in my pink spotty jim jams!
So back to my morning love...maybe we are very lucky in that where we live you can just hear the passing traffic over the back of a row of houses or so but beyond that unless its bin day the mornings are just beautiful and peaceful and great times to think and assess your plans for the day.
Now as regular readers will know those plans have mostly consisted of scanning the Olympic schedule for key Team GB events and even a few non GB ones where the mood grabs us and planning meetings, lunches and business tasks around that basic structure.  However this morning my Team GB email alert was titled 'In the finishing straight' which has germinated a sense of impending doom deep within me and I am struggling to shift it.  Two days ago we chatted over lunch with a good friend about the worry of the country recovering badly from Olympic fever, will the ParaOlympics be able to carry the euphoria for another couple of weeks?
But this mornings doomful feeling was further fuelled by reading the morning news articles showing the worst UK Trade deficit for yonks, growth in the Chinese export economy slowing sharply, unlike their gymnasts, divers and badminton players and the drought in the US causing massive losses of corn and grain leading to higher prices meaning cattle are being slaughtered with the fastest Bolt around, yes faster than the one in yellow and green with a sackful of dodgy poses for the cameras.
So what does Autumn look like? Well to start with the Paraolympic games will lead us in to the first 9 days of September with some continued pride, excitement and celebration either for continued success in the sporting arenas or for pride in the delivery of the games on the world stage.  But from 10th September we will be on our own.  We will have the post holiday blues, we will be returning to school terms and preparing for University courses which might distract some of the population from the crisis in our economy.  If the speculators are right 2013 could begin with us seeing Boris attempt to build a path into Conservative leadership and fight off Cameron in advance of approaching elections in 2015.  But what is for sure is the prices will rise, the cost of living will rise, the taxes will rise and the euphoria will sink following a full on belly flop from the 10metre board.
Now I am no crystal ball gazer and given my past experience of data crunching and looking for patterns I can claim no genius to suggest that surely the UK has to take a large fan like leaf out of the team GB training manual.  We need to focus on home grown.  Not just home grown talent, but home grown crops, dairy products and home made goods that do not clutter the ether with carbon footprints and can be produced at a fraction of the cost to both the economy and the environment.  I know this is a well played tune of old but surely with the economic crisis ahead of us this country has to remember to look after it's own first.  The UK trade deficit is a problem because we imported more than we exported.  The money people in the city have tried to blame the Queen for having a jubilee saying the ports were shut, but even I as a once a year ferry passenger can tell you if the ports were shut, which I dont believe they were on any bank holiday then they would be shut for goods going out of the UK as well as those coming in so that argument is sunk in the water along with the Uzbekistan's hopes of topping the Olympic medal table. Why Oh why are we importing eggs for example from abroad where the animal welfare rules are more relaxed and battery farming still continues so the eggs are cheaper, whereas we see egg producing companies in the UK struggling.  Why are we treating our dairy farmers in such a shocking manner that we set a national price for milk below the cost of producing it, surely if these are economists running the market prices they know where figures like that can only lead, either to cruel farming conditions or broke farmers.

So that huge flapping leaf that needs to be grabbed by UK economists should surely reflect the Team GB culture of nurture, funding, support, care and hard work.  I can't recall seeing a news report where British growers or farmers were complaining or threatening strike because their job was hard work, it's always been hard work and they roll up their sleeves and get on with it.  So come 2013 I would like to see farmers and GB producers being interviewed on the news thanking their team of trainers and support staff some of whom will be government departments, for helping them to work hard every day, in the rain, cold and bleak November mornings so that they could reep their medal of success which might just be a fair price for their produce or a national ban on specific imported products that we can supply in the UK without harm to animals or adding to the global smog.  For sure I am not advocating no international trade, just readdress the balance and make GB truly Great in all our arenas before we go off searching for the cheapest price for every item we stack on a carbon dripping shelf in supermarkets. Support our home grown, home made, welfare focussed farming and growing communities so we too can be proud to be Great and British.

Rant over, taking breath and sip of tea...aah the trickle of water and sound of the birds, I love mornings!