Cathy Dobbs: Bingo! Now I know where the money goes

It’s interesting who you get talking to in the Post Office queue.

Take the money lender that was queuing with an armful of presents. He explained how he has to look into the accounts of borrowers to ensure they can make the repayments. It seems the majority of them only work 16 hours, which entitles them to top-ups from the Government taking their income to around £40,000 – all of it untaxed.

With such a large income, why do they need to borrow money? Well, it seems that on the days they’re not working they’re spending all their spare cash on online bingo sites. Not on the heating bill, the electricity or the shopping. So, it makes you wonder how many people are living in poverty simply because they can’t manage their money.

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If there’s one thing the Government is good at it’s spending other people’s money. Take the new job advert for Director for Lived Experience at St George’s Hospital in Stafford. The salary is £110,000-£115,000 – that’s four times the amount paid to a newly qualified nurse or junior doctor.

So, what will this tsar do? Well, firstly they need to be ‘interpersonally talented’ and they will be ‘responsible for establishing and maintaining the highest levels of Lived Experience Practice’. Well, that’s about as clear as mud isn’t it – what language are the NHS speaking these days?

Well, if you can make sense of their over-inflated jargon you have until January 8 to apply for the role. Just make sure you know how to ‘infuse and propagate best practice’ while being ‘experienced in lived experience practice’.

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The devastating news that a group of boys died after they fell into a frozen lake in Solihull has shocked people across the country.

We all hope that children have now been warned of the dangers of going near frozen water. So, when a recent front-page story in the Express & Star showed children playing on a frozen canal, shivers went through parents everywhere.

We know that youngsters have been getting into trouble in frozen water for generations. We try to protect our children as much as possible, but when you are dealing with people who think they are invincible it’s not an easy task.

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Talking of cold water, when you are snuggled up warm on Christmas Day spare a thought for those crazies that don their swimsuit and bobble hat to take a dip in the sea. The only ice I’ll be getting close to on Christmas Day are the cubes in my glass!