POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

For 50 years I worked like a horse and paid all the taxes that were thrown at me believing that when I got old the government would look after me because I had worked for a low wage and had never been able to afford a private pension or worked for anyone who contributed to a pension pot. Then I got ditched, ask Sally what she thinks about pensions. Luckily I had enough oil in my can to apply for Pension Credit as I am officially under the poverty line so I have a letter saying that my TV licence is still free. Not everyone understands that mechanism, it's a very obscure benefit and much under-claimed.
I've watched how we oldies have been treated as expendable of late and I have got the message, the sooner I die the better off the government is. I am lucky, my needs are small and I manage them well, not every 85 year old is in that position.

[plaques]

Luckily I had enough oil in my can to apply for Pension Credit as I am officially under the poverty line so I have a letter saying that my TV licence is still free.

Its only free because the BBC has taken pity on you and waved your fee. The government couldn't care a toss whether you pay it or not, its all in the agreement. Also bare in mind the BBC are not giving you anything its only potentially lost revenue. If all pensioners over 75 were to die tomorrow they would still be in the same position as not collecting it. If the BBC increased its fee to £200 then the theoretical cost of the fee waver would rise from £750M to £1000M ie: £1 billion. All smoke and mirrors.
Pension credits are based on some mythical average wage. Drop below a certain value and you are considered poor enough to get assistance. If the average wage was to reduce you could find yourself in the solvent band with no credit. Quite possible the way we are going.
A comment on the offloading cunning wheeze. if a deal was done with say an American health fund that said the NHS is yours but it must be free for 5 years but after that its up to you what you do about charges. As the BBC deal has shown they could legitimately say its nothing do do with us. Now rumored that Boris is threatening to take back control of the reigns of the NHS there's nothing to stop him doing the above wheeze on a hospital by hospital basis.

[Tizer]

I suppose this always happens when someone starts throwing money around....
`Coronavirus: Taxpayers to lose billions to virus fraud - report' LINK

Like Brexit, another triumph of ideology over clear thinking....
`Coronavirus: UK opts out of EU Covid-19 vaccine scheme' LINK

[Stanley]

I noted both those and can't see any evidence of joined-up thinking Tiz. But then this government is so vague and devious that searching for coherence and purpose is useless.

[plaques]

Perhaps we are banking on our own world beating vaccine being ready long before the EU develops theirs.

In the UK, human trials of a vaccine are under way in London and Oxford.

This would put us in a position to sell it at our prices and in the quantities that suit us. That is if we own the intellectual property rights, sometimes they belong to whoever is funding the research, and that we haven't already sold the manufacturing rights to one of the American pharmaceutical companies who will then tell us what we have to pay for it in the quantities they decide.
Pessimistic I know but what is one to think with this devious bunch.

[Stanley]

Not pessimistic Ken, just realistic. But they are off on another hare now, Gove said we are building a world beating border. Funny how as soon as they describe something as world-beating it goes belly up.

[PanBiker]

Apparently the border is going to be inland as we don't have enough room at the ports. Won't matter in the long run with rising sea levels, wherever they put them they will be back on the coast eventually.

[Tizer]

An essay on the topic by an Oxford candidate for DPhil in Law...
`Ensuring Global Access to Covid-19 Treatments' LINK

[Stanley]

Borders, Gove says that there will be a full service in place with a new IT system in January.... Really?
Universities, I paraphrase but Gavin Williamson says that education is for enabling us to get a job and that universities are no better than apprenticeships. That shows he has very little understanding of universities.

[Stanley]

See THIS if you want even more evidence that Trump is a moron. It was sent to me by a friend in the US. I don't know whether it's true or not but it gives a good idea of the current climate in the States if such a thing could be published. (There's a link in the article that works which takes you to the actual interviews.)
One a wider matter, all the signs are that Trump is going to be in deep do do in the November elections.

[Tizer]

I too don't know whether it's true or not but it was published in September 2017 so even if it is true it hasn't had much impact. The mainstream media seem to have ignored it so perhaps they see it as `fake news'.

On the other hand, this morning's news about Trump criticising Fauci is being reported everywhere. Trump is undermining the work of the health officials and scientists struggling to hold back covid-19 and, as noted in the CNN report, will discourage people from getting vaccinated when it becomes available. This is a sign of the growth of anti-science in Trumpland but it could also be a tipping point when those who voted for him last time simply because they didn't want Hilary Clinton will now back Joe Biden. Another reason for a tipping point is that Trump has people around him who currently appear to be 100% Trump supporters but who will ditch him overnight if he looks like failing.
`White House takes aim at Fauci as he disagrees with Trump on virus' CNN

There's someone here in the UK who might be facing trouble too...
`Revealed: Dominic Cummings firm paid Vote Leave's AI firm £260,000: Boris Johnson’s chief adviser declines to explain reason for payments to Faculty' Guardian
A private company owned and controlled by Dominic Cummings paid more than a quarter of a million pounds to the artificial intelligence firm that worked on the Vote Leave campaign. The prime minister’s chief adviser is declining to explain the reason for the payments to Faculty, which were made in instalments over two years. Faculty also declined to say what they were for. But the payments are likely to raise further questions about the relationship between Cummings and the data analytics firm he hired in 2016 to conduct data modelling around the EU referendum for Vote Leave.

[Stanley]

Would you buy a used car off Cummings?
Just been listening to Johnson 'speaking' about face masks. If you transcribed the speech and examined it it is an oratorical disaster. It is incoherent and makes no sense,
I have come to the conclusion that interviews on radio via the web are a disaster. Those on a landline are far clearer and reliable.

[Tripps]

It is incoherent and makes no sense,

That applies to almost every reply to any question by a politician in any setting. I think they are trained in the art . Either that or they have a built in gift for it. They know time is strictly limited, and they just have to waffle until the ad break rescues them.

It's part of the ritual now - I'm not sure if they think it fools anyone though.

[Tizer]

I've just seen this on the BBC live news...
`US President Donald Trump has retweeted a social media post that accused the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of “lying” about Covid-19. The original tweet was shared by conservative game-show host Chuck Woolery'
This is the original Woolery tweet: `The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it.' ... and Trump retweeted it!

Here's more on Fauci, who Trump has now attacked: Anthony Fauci

What a crazy world!

[Tripps]

It's been announced that social care workers are not included in the arrangements for the points based immigration system. Not hard to work out that they think there will be so much unemployment later this year, when furlough ends, that there will be a good supply of native workers. Actually, having thought about it - it will continue a trend that I've seen over the last couple of years.

[plaques]

Not hard to work out that they think there will be so much unemployment later this year, when furlough ends, that there will be a good supply of native workers. Actually, having thought about it - it will continue a trend that I've seen over the last couple of years.

But people won't work for peanuts if they get more in benefits. Thinks!!! Damn it. I've just seen the flaw in my argument.

[Stanley]

Trump is getting worried about the election...... Hence his use of false news.
Peter, I heard that theory and believe it might be right.
Ken, lovely post and yes, all they have to do is reduce benefits.

[Tizer]

I'm still in with a chance that my prediction we'll never really leave the EU is correct...
`Brexit: MPs question promise of 'unfettered' trade between NI and GB' LINK

[plaques]

The Uk's position seems to be like that of a chap I was talking to yesterday who was taking his dog for a walk, a cross between a patterdale and yorkshire terrier. He said his dog keeps thinking its 3 ft tall and weighs 200 lb, and thinks it can beat any dog on the street. Our negotiators appear to have the same delusions.

[Stanley]

The bloke was right about Patterdales! Here's Kev's portrait of Jack.



He thought he was a 900lb gorilla when he was young but has modified his views now, he is content to think he's got me under control.
As for politics.... If yesterday's Huawei decision means that the 'internet of things' is delayed, good!

[PanBiker]

If yesterday's Huawei decision means that the 'internet of things' is delayed, good!

It will cost the taxpayer millions in compensation for breach of contract no doubt. Gobsmacked yesterday when the minister said we could get the tech just as easily from our European partners such as Siemens and Nokia. These will be the same Europeans that we have just told to sod off, bet we don't get mates rates.

[Stanley]

True Ian but I heard an interesting discussion on World Service about criminals using software that analyses random data and identifies traits. Too complicated to describe but once they get access to data from the Internet of Everything they can elicit information about patterns of activity that enables them to make informed decisions about which houses are worth breaking into and when to do it. Include me out!



See THIS BBC report of a bit of Parliamentary skulduggery. The upshot is that instead of yes-man Failing Grayling we have a chair of the Intelligence Committee who actually has experience. Mr Lewis has been expelled from the Tory Party for daring to confound the intentions of Number 10. Now we wait to see if they publish the report on Russia which Johnson has been trying to suppress since he came to the leadership. I hope they do it quickly and watch with interest.

[PanBiker]

Too complicated to describe but once they get access to data from the Internet of Everything they can elicit information about patterns of activity that enables them to make informed decisions about which houses are worth breaking into and when to do it. Include me out!

Unless you are prepared to go completely "off grid", I am afraid you can't exclude yourself. Like it or not you are slave to the system like everyone else, you have broadband and a mobile phone and you buy things online, your life story and daily updates of the shed showing all your goodies won't help anonymity either. You opened Pandora's Box a long time ago.

[Tizer]

Gobsmacked yesterday when the minister said we could get the tech just as easily from our European partners such as Siemens and Nokia.

I agree that it doesn't help that we're in the process of severing our links with many European countries but the boss of Ericsson was interviewed on the radio yesterday and he countered the claims of the Huawei supporters. For example his company has been building factories in Europe because they are bringing their sources of parts back from China. They were already doing it because of increasing concerns over the financial cost and carbon cost of transporting goods from China. Also he pointed out that the turnover of material in telecomms due to rapid development is so short that it won't take the seven years that's being touted by the Huawei supporters.

The Grayling-Lewis fiasco is a shambles. Johnson is getting more like Trump day by day. What more can I say?

Talking of the yellow knob...
`Trump weakens environmental law to speed up infrastructure projects' LINK
`US President Donald Trump has announced alterations to a landmark environmental law, in a controversial move to allow projects to go ahead with less oversight. Mr Trump touted changes to the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) as a "historic breakthrough". He said they would speed up reviews of major infrastructure projects. But critics say the changes amount to the dismantling of the 50-year-old law and are a giveaway to polluters. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, the NEPA is considered to be the bedrock of environmental safeguards in the US. Under the law, federal agencies are required to be transparent and consult with the public before embarking on infrastructure projects t hat could impact the environment. But under the changes unveiled by President Trump, the time window for the review process will be shortened. This will speed up approval for projects such as mines, roads, pipelines and power plants...
Since taking office in 2016, Mr Trump has slashed regulations on oil and gas development, weakened fuel emission standards for automobiles and proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act - a law credited with keeping hundreds of species from going extinct. So far, the administration has rolled back more than 100 environmental rules, according to New York Times analysis...A report found carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4% in 2018 - the largest spike in eight years - after three years of decline..'.

[Tripps]

It's nice to see that my Samsung Tablet thinks I live in Jakarta Indonesia and Google have me in the Lake District when I'm not in Princes Risborough. Who knows what effect the interweb thingy has on me though, using means that I haven't spotted. I don't feel tracked manipulated, or exploited, but perhaps they are clever enough to do so, but I don't realise it.