POLITICS CORNER

[plaques]

News this morning that Priti Horrible Patel is to chair a meeting with the big energy users. With a meeting at this level where presumably the captains of industry will be expecting some positive outcome. With the Buffoon on holiday one would expect the Deputy Prime Minister (Dominic Raab) and the the man holding the purse strings Rishi Sunak to be there. Long grass runs through my mind.

Another supply chain problem looming to affect our Christmas. It would appear that our inability to move the containers that are arriving at our docks is getting to the point where the full ones can't get in and the empty ones can't be returned. It has been suggested that the solution is to route them to Amsterdam and transport them by road to the UK. Can any spot the flaw in this approach? The alternative is not to supply the UK in the first place.
Watch this space.

[Stanley]

I have read similar stories in PE Ken about problems in container shipping. One is that because empty containers aren't being moved out of the UK back to the exporting countries who are short of them this in turn affects return traffic to us.
A lot of container imports was fuelled by the fact transport was so cheap. This has instantly reversed now, containers have never been as dear.
I tried to find a graph of prices but couldn't....

[Stanley]

Quasi Kwarteng seems to have got over the spat between him and the Treasury where they said he often lied in news briefings. (What the hell was going on there?) However, he has delegated the meeting with the Treasury to 'A junior minister'. PM Johnson is not back until Thursday, who is going to knock heads together?
Meanwhile.... the Tory Party Sponsors watch their businesses haemorrhaging money while they wait for a bail-out.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS BBC report on Lord Frost's activities and ask yourself is this the way to make friends and influence people?
"The UK government wants to remove the ECJ from its oversight role as part of the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying as long as it continues the protocol will never survive. The EU, on the other hand, has said it would be very hard for the protocol to continue without the court's oversight."
Let's not forget that it was the UK who argued for and agreed to the special protocol to enable Brexit to proceed. Now we are threatening to unilaterally ignore it as it can't work. Is this what Johnson meant by 'Getting Brexit done!"

[plaques]

The rationale for removing the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is not one of bias as our unelected Minister Frost implies but moving it to an international court where cases would take years to come to a judgement rather than months with the ECJ. This would allow the UK to break the rules as they so fit without being brought to account. The EU have been doing trade deals for 40 years and make sure they understand the rules before signing agreements. Meanwhile our amateurs have only done 'cut and paste' deals usually giving advantage to the other country. The Buffoons oven ready Protocol that he and Frost wrote and convinced Parliament to agree to was the one that Theresa May rejected and got herself the sack.
The whole process of the Brexit seems to be one crisis after another with each click of the ratchet making the working population poorer almost to a point where people will be too busy worrying about personal survival rather than organising a proper opposition to our pathetic government.

[Stanley]

Wonderful Ken! That last paragraph sums it all up I reckon. And I think you could be right about the delay going to global trade courts could inject into the system.
I know we ave been banging on for years now and get called 'remoaners' but can someone please show me one instance where Brexit has lad to an improvement in our lot or how UK PLC functions?
On another matter Johnson bleats on about the fact that the NHS needs 'extra' investment' and it will have to come from taxes. He wilfully disregards the fact that the cuts since 2010 are the reason why the NHS is so woefully under-resourced and any 'extra investment' doesn't even make up for what has been taken out.
Read Private Eye this week for detailed stories about firms close to the government are making a fortune out of contracts connected with Covid. Too many for me to detail but what it amounts to verges on fraud on a vast scale.
Sometimes I am glad I am old and will die soon. Watching this ludicrous apology for a government shafting us and lining the pockets of the wealthy is so painful after a few years when we were turning the tide of greed.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS BBC report that Ian Paisley says that Johnson said he would 'tear up the protocol' in 2016. Dominic Cummings says the same but of course he is suspect. Then look at the other reports that say that European Commission Vice-President Maros Šefčovič has said he is "not ready to renegotiate" the Northern Ireland Protocol. Then listen to the Noble Lord Frost on the same subject saying we cannot allow the ECJ to have oversight over our laws and you have to ask yourself why anybody should trust the word of the UK government?
The same trait can be seen in domestic politics. Promises are made and then quietly dropped, there are too many examples, go find them for yourself. Someone once said that the reason why the sun never set on the British Empire was because God didn't trust us if he couldn't see us. There must be a similar saying for this Tory government. Even their own peers are apologising in the Lords for their policies.

[Stanley]

The death of Sir David Ames is going to blanket out everything else. Quite right that it should be so, it is a terrible act of assassination. However, you can be sure that there is a twisted wonk somewhere in the communications arm of the government whose mind is working along the lines of "A good day to release bad news and bury it".
Also, nagging away in my head is the suspicion that somehow we have infected society with a germ of rage that is triggering things like this and Jo Cox five years ago. I have had this feeling for a long time that one of the most dangerous casualties of Austerity is society. But what does an old fart like me know about complicated things like this.....
Later, Tobias Ellwood MP has said that face to face 'surgeries' should be stopped. I disagree totally, that would be giving in and would damage our democracy.

[Stanley]

Forgive me for being perhaps too cynical but I get quite suspicious about the universal desire to jump on the grief bandwagon of Sir David Amess' death. This role sits particularly badly on Priti Patel's shoulders as far as I am concerned. I have seen no evidence of a soft side to her nature.
As I said yesterday, keep an eye open for bad news to be slipped in under cover of the assassination. The strange affair of the Hancock job could be one of them.
A parallel matter seems to be who is going to be at the COP 26 meeting in Glasgow. There seem to be some questions hanging over the attendance list.
Johnson's return from holiday doesn't appear to have triggered any executive action over the slaughter of pigs on farm, the phantom HGV drivers or the aid to high energy users. (But Rishi says Xmas will be OK so that's all right.)

[Stanley]

Later, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said that political discourse needs to be kinder. It sounds as though he is having the same thoughts that have been bothering me, the coarsening of daily life and interactions. It isn't only a political problem, I see the same deterioration in everyday life.

[plaques]

Another bit of nonsense from the Telegraph.

Britain can easily bear a trade war with Europe – and could end up stronger
The UK can survive a trade conflict with the rest of Europe, but businesses need to start war-gaming that right now

From the start of Brexit the oven ready deal which was to give us everything we asked for because the Buffoon and Frosty wrote it has finished up with one crisis after another. In spite of numerous 'U' turns and attempts to blame the EU every move has given even more advantage to the EU.
The HGV driver shortage is a prime example. OK we say 5,000 EU drivers up to Christmas, then perhaps for another 6 months. Result total visa uptake 20. OK we will allow cabotage (tramping) to the disadvantage of UK firms who don't enjoy this when working in the EU.
Can't butcher our own grown pigs. No problem import them from the EU. Not enough Turkeys going to market. Import them from the EU. Energy prices rising dramatically we have no buffer stock. Buy more from the EU they planned ahead with their buffer stock.

Yes all we need to do is show Johnny Foreigner we can do without him. All that is needed is a bit of austerity and belt tightening. Stiff upper lip and someone has blundered. Into the valley........

[Stanley]

Who would believe that all a reasonable person can do reading a terrible verdict like that is agree and say right on Ken!
I can't think of a single instance where any advantage promised to us by the Leave group has turned out to be true. To make it worse they are actually abandoning the farmers to the market knowing that they will make more money out of sterilising their land for 40 years for tree growing carbon credits which are themselves a con and so not having to pay even the pittance they promised for 'looking after the land' and producing 'public goods'. I can remember them abandoning the farmers in the 1930s and then surprise surprise finding out that they needed them.
Keep writing these pieces Ken, we need someone to talk common sense to us as an antidote to the crap that the government is giving us.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that the loophole whereby an MP can be found guilty of harassment or sexual abuse and escape being forced to resign is to be closed and quite possibly retrospectively. A welcome development as far as I am concerned. I don't like loopholes!
I have a question.... Hearing that PM Johnson has used the editorial columns of the Sun to announce his policy on heat pump subsidies I want to know where Parliament stands in this. Are they being by-passed? Should Sir Lindsay Hoyle be putting his foot down?

[plaques]

I heard that the Australian deal that was all signed up and ready to run has stalled with the Australians having another look at it. The suspicion is that they could be trying to screw a bit more out of the UK or knowing how the Buffoon is prepared to break agreements they may be firming up the legal text so that they can get compensation through the courts. On the other hand it could be that the EU's offer would collapse if we started importing beef to non-EU standards. One way or another the UK is in a very week position to start dictating trade deals.

[Stanley]

Ken, I doubt if there is any area of political life more obscured by the use of smoke and mirrors than the pursuit of trade deals to mitigate the terrible blow of losing the EU protection. As well as saving billions in what we paid the EU, the Leave campaign assured us that the world would come flocking to the UK to sign up better trade deals. That hasn't happened and that's why we keep getting non-news about trade just to keep the pot boiling.
The real truth, and this has surfaced but not been allowed too much exposure, is that industry is in despair at the way things are turning out and that hasn't been helped by the huge energy fraud. Johnson said we should trust the power of the market. It's that power and that market that has plunged us into deep do-do with astronomical energy price rises.
I know it gets boring but remember Aneurin Bevan, keep control of the commanding heights of the economy. The politicians have sold all of them down the river for a fast buck and to divest responsibility. We are starting to pay the price and it will get worse.
Incidentally there was a huge sigh of relief in some quarters when the inflation figure was slightly down on last month. This is solely due to complicated factors associated with the subsidised restaurant meals dropping out of the calculations. (Don't ask me, I don't understand it!) Wait until next month.....

[Tizer]

The Australia-UK trade deal - this was in the Guardian back in June...
Goods
The deal is centred almost entirely on goods, eliminating tariffs on exports to each other’s countries over 15 years. Overall it could increase UK GDP by an estimated 0.01 to 0.02%.
Will it mean more change in British pockets?
Yes. About 1p a week. The government has said it will save British consumers £34m a year, equating to 52p a person.

[Stanley]

A good point and I heard more nonsense about trade deals yesterday Peter. A politician was arguing that a trade deal on agricultural products with New Zealand, mainly on lamb and dairy produce, wouldn't harm UK farmers because it would give them their chance to export their niche market lamb to NZ.
Can you imagine the reaction to that in farm kitchens in Wales? They must think we are stupid. Come to think, collectively we are, we elected them.

[Stanley]

A fact that has surfaced in the debate on assisted dying is that Frank Field is terminally ill in a hospice. I am sorry to hear that, he has been a wonderful public servant and always spoke truth to power.

[Tripps]

Bad news - he's certainly one of the good guys.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

I listen to the announcements about what is going to be in the budget and wonder what happened to the tradition of the Chancellor going into purdah before the budget and keeping stum. Have a look at THIS for a BBC account of budget leaks since the 1930s.
Of course this is no good to modern politicians who are used to alerting the Tory Press to policy changes before Parliament knows about them despite Sir Lindsay Hoyle being incandescent with rage. Rishi Sunak has his prime ministerial campaign to think about, his blind trust and his wife's investments.

[plaques]

Lindsay Hoyle has hit the roof over Rishi Sunak leaking the contents of the budget to his pals in the media before discussing them in parliament Budget

Hoyle says past chancellors would have resigned for ‘riding roughshod’ over MPs with pre-speech briefings

This is obviously an attempt to bury all the current bad news of Brexit mistakes, driver shortages, empty shelves, rising prices etc etc. with promises that sounds like it will all be sweetness and light in a few months. Remove the public centre pay cap, minimum wage double current inflation. All good stuff but it won't sound too good when inflation hits 5%.

[PanBiker]

Peston was on the ITV news last night as political correspondent and they asked him about the budget revelations. He said the increase to the living wage or is it the minimum wage? I get confused, equates to roughly £1000 per year. Coincidentally this is the same amount taken off the low waged with the withdrawal of the £20 per week of Universal Credit. It's a bit of magic trick as well because after tax and NI hikes and the like the £1000 turns into less than £250 which is a bit short of a pound a week. Everyone is better off of course so get back in your box and be grateful. Pick that cotton, lift that bale.

Maybe on Wednesday he is going to fit a quart into a pint pot and plait sawdust while farting Land of Hope and Glory for an encore!

[Stanley]

As I forecast Speaker Hoyle has indeed hit the roof. He can't voice it but he knows what is going on. Sunak is working to the modern trend of leaking the good news before the budget and slipping the claw back in during the speech.
Like what happens to people on income support when their wage goes up? Money from the private sector goes to them and the government contribution goes down. There will be many more claw backs like that and this is what gives the Treasury the reputation of smoke and mirrors politics.
I agree with Ian and Ken and in particular Ken's reference to it being an attempt to bury the bad news that is to come, not just in the budget but the shocks that are coming down the line.
Johnson says he is worried about Glasgow, he's worried about what is coming and is doing all he can to disarm criticism before it arrives. Sunak is doing the same thing. The bottom line is that they know there is a s**t storm coming and their jobs could be on the line. (Have you noticed how reasonable Priti Orrible has been lately?)

[Tripps]

Sir Lindsay seems well annoyed. Get the popcorn ready.