POLITICS CORNER

[Tripps]

Religion has a lot to answer for.

Agreed - in fact that could qualify as the understatement of all time .

[Stanley]

Agreed but the bottom line is the fact that England has always regarded the large island to the west between us and the Atlantic as quite obviously ours. Hence the misnomer 'British Isles'. It completely ignored the fact that the island had a different history, culture, language and religion than England. Note that this also applies to Wales, Scotland and even the West Country. Partition was a huge mistake and the Protestant element in the north was the result of a deliberate policy of transplanting English Protestants to illegally seized lands in Ulster (Itself a misnomer as three of the original counties of this ancient Irish district are in the South).
We should stop treating Ireland as a colony and encourage Reunification. The Unionists will never agree to that but tough, they are a minority and like all minorities they will have to bow to the majority. That day may be nearer than anyone thinks.

[plaques]

Karen Armstrong herself a former Catholic nun wrote that religion is about someone else telling you what to do. The church through religion saw that they could take control by introducing an element of fear in peoples lives. A bit of 'do as I say or else'. The existing Monarchies soon saw the advantage in this approach and took control as another lever of government. Northern Ireland is still governed by this dual control, 'we will tell you what's good for you' even if its against your best interest but keeps US in charge. The current breakdown in the Stormont assembly may be the turning point to get back to a true democracy.

[Tizer]

Our government is so busy defending the rights of Ukrainians to get their own country back together on a democratic footing 2400km away to the east that it forgets that for a very long time we've been preventing the Irish from doing that 540km to the west.

[Tripps]

I've just bumped into the Parliament Channel from the House of Lords. A relaxing Queens Speech debate. very civilised and well mannered - not quite as clever as I'd have expected . Noted a very large number of women members, and the fact that Boris has beaten Cameron's previous record, and appointed 84 new Tory peers in the last two years.

Ignoble thought - that lot have all trousered £350 and a subsidised lunch for having a nice day out in London. Mercifully the words 'food bank' have not been heard.

PS when I endorsed the words "religion has a lot to answer for" I meant it to include not just Christianity, and Ireland but all religions. Too big a subject for a quick summary. Even Buddhists murder people freely in the East.

Here's and interesting graphic - covers the Abrahamic religions

religions.jpg

[Tripps]

I was idly wondering this afternoon why we don't get Russia to join NATO. They wouldn't have to worry about being invaded then, and would have to come to the aid of any member who was. Remarkably it seems it has already been considered, by George Robertson. NATO

Then I solved the cross channel asylum problem. - Give them all a ticket on a ferry (not P&O of course) and let anyone in who wished to come. We're told by many, including Mr Corbyn, that they are a net asset to the country so why not. Why then have any limit? It would stop all those dangerous sea crossings and make the evil traffickers redundant, and solve our current labour shortage. Win / win.

Next the so called cost of living crisis could be improved no end by the Government paying everyone's fuel bills. We're the 4th or 5th largest economy in the world for goodness sake, surely we can afford that - at least for just a few years, until climate change comes to the rescue. What's wrong with it being a bit warmer? I'm looking forward to it.

It's good this having an afternoon nap. Good dreams . . . . .

[plaques]

Some good stuff there Tripps.

If Russia had joined NATO there would have been no need for it to keep such a large standing army. As it is with still some element of the cold war still running they kept it just in case things turned sour. Having kept it there's always an obligation to use it otherwise the Russian population will be asking why are we spending all our money on soldiers and armaments when we need it for Airpods and fashion items.
One may also ask if Russia has the monopoly in supply Europe with energy, wood and materials why not let them join the common market?

Controlled asylum used to be the norm. but once we cast ourselves adrift metaphorically speaking from Europe every foreigner became persona non grata that is unless you could bung a bit to the Tory coffers. Statistics show that foreigners who come to work here and then go home are a net asset. Asylum seekers will general take most work that our lot can't take up because they live in the wrong places whereas asylum seekers are migrants who will live anywhere there is a job for them.

I disagree with paying fuel bills. We elected a government to make us poorer and miserable which is what they are doing quite well. How can we possibly show stoicism and Dunkirk spirit if life becomes warm and cosy? One needs to keep a stiff upper lip and revel in becoming third class citizens in a third class country.

A slight aside. i saw it being offered up that reason why diesel prices have risen sharply in the last few day was because most of the commercial vehicles were diesel and I presume white van man is out delivering all the stuff we can't afford to buy at the supermarkets but buy at a premium on line. Raising diesel prices will make the goods dearer for direct delivery but cheaper than collecting it yourself by car. On this logic the cost of living will always be on an upward spiral closing down the supermarkets.

[Stanley]

Unfortunately you are both on-target. I particularly like the graphic showing the location of God's interventions. That worried Karen Armstrong as well.
See THIS BBC report on PM Johnson's visit to Ireland. Johnson's visit coincides with increased speculation that the UK government is poised to introduce legislation to strip away parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol. This will provoke a reaction from the EU and give the government more reasons to lay the blame for increasing problems being largely due to EU intransigence.
Once of a time government used to be policies framed after debate guided by ethical principles. Today policy is dictated by Cunning Wheezes.....

[plaques]

Our 'there were no parties' Boris Johnson made a quick visit to Northern Ireland to talk to the DUP, its not clear if he took his oven with him, but in the past when the deal was still waiting to go into the oven he promised that the bag of rubbish deal he was on the verge of signing up to would be changed later to give the DUP what they wanted, ie: a hard Brexit. Now with only a 40% following in Stormont our Buffoon thinks its only right to give the minority 40% the say over the 60% majority. When are people going to wake up to the fact that Boris's verbal promises are not worth the paper they are written on. Dominic Cummings was probably right in saying 'it doesn't matter what you do or say people will have forgotten about it in three days'.

Boris's attack on the Civil service will probably see those who collect data on the state of the economy being closed down. Without this data nobody will be able to prove one way or another what the state of play is. The government is already in breach of a Commons order to publish the advice why they gave Evgeny Lebedev a peerage.

Watch out for Jacob Rees-Mogg claiming that the FA cup result of Liverpool beating Chelsea was a levelling up success only possibly because of Brexit.

[Tizer]

A couple more reasons the Ukrainian army has been surprisingly successful against the Russians. We offered them our Brimstone missiles but the consensus was that they need to be fired from fighter planes or warships because of their size. The British and Ukrainian military technicians got together and managed to make them usable from `a vehicle the size of an ice cream van'. There's a photo of the first test firing - they are fired `in threes' and have proved very effective. The vehicle can quickly change position to avoid return fire.

The other reason is that while the Russians stick with traditional grouping of artillery pieces so they can work together the Ukranians spread theirs widely. That's become possible because military technicians (British and Ukrainian working together again) have developed a new system of controlling and firing such weapons. It's software based on the Uber taxi system of rapid allocation of resources and can respond to identification of a target with the most appropriate weapons and base locations in a couple of seconds - what would normally take about 20 minutes for the Russian equivalent. It can coordinate artillery, missiles, drones etc and this is was illustrated recently when about 70 Russian vehicles were destroyed in two days as they tried to build pontoon bridges over a river.

There is another factor. At the start of the invasion the Ukrainian military's communications were not secure enough so Elon Musk allowed them to use his Starlink satellite network. I don't know if it's still being used by them but if it is we might see Putin threatening Musk with destruction of his satellites. I wonder where that leaves Nato?

[Tripps]

Mail headline. Have politicians no awareness or shame? The increase would likely have been about 30p per item, so a saving of perhaps £10 - £12 per annum, less with an annual 'season ticket'.

"Health Secretary Sajid Javid freezes prescription charges to ease the cost of living crisis"

Those most in need of assistance probably get them free anyway, but as Tesco say 'every little helps'.

[Stanley]

I've been listening to the latest assessments of what the government appears to be contemplating doing about the NI Protocol. The general opinion is that Liz Truss is out of control and is demanding 'strong measures'. It looks as though the protocol is going to be 'pruned' and the expectation is that the Eu will retaliate in some way. All this in the biggest inflationary crisis for 40 years..... As one lady peer described it.... 'bonkerooni'. (I think that's a technical political expression.)

[plaques]

A master class in malapropism. Mind you from the Telegraph so nothing new there.

Boris Johnson has warned that the Northern Ireland Protocol is holding Westminster back from helping with the cost-of-living crisis as he prepares to approve a law scrapping key parts of the agreement.

Interpretation. Once we get the law in place we'll be able to send the cost of living sky high.

Did I tell you I have indigestion.

[Stanley]

That reminds me of this Rowson Cartoon of Blair at the time of the Iraq crisis.
Exactly the same applies to Johnson, either he's lying or he believes it. Whichever it is he's unfit to lead.

[plaques]

Andrew Bailey the chap in charge of the Bank of England (BoE) is predicting food price rises of Biblical proportions, (apocalyptic in his words, been around a long time that chap has) all down to soaring inflation which is expected to rise above 10%. Note the absence of a figure of how much more than 10% it will go. Apparently he can't predict it because after all he's only the boss of the BoE and anyhow its not his fault because he only put it up by a tidgy amount. And by-the-way. don't ask for a rise because unemployment will inevitably rise which assumes more people will be classed as being in poverty but don't tell anybody. Food banks will be doing a roaring trade, a Brexit advantage. What a good job George Osborne fixed the roof while the sun shone.
Don't worry about riots in the street Priti Patel's stun gun brigade will make sure the soup kitchen queues behave themselves. Meanwhile Boris and his Cabinet will be thinking ahead for the long term and putting ideas together for the future since they apparently mislaid the plans they set in the past to cover today's emergency.

End of nightshift rant.

[Stanley]

That's not a rant Ken, it's a robust description of the current situation.
As I listened to the report of what he had said I reflected that things are actually a lot worse than he has described. Did you note yesterday that India has stopped all grain exports? There has been a drought since they promised to feed the world. Remember Useless Eustise reassuring us that Ukraine wouldn't affect our food supplies? What the stupid buggers don't seem to have realised is that there is a time bomb ticking away in the fields. It is the acreage that has not been cultivated or planted because of difficulties like labour supply, cost of inputs like diesel and fertilizer and the refusal of supermarkets to promise an economic return for the crops as they think their customers are more important than the growers. This will all come to a head in a couple of months when the flow of produce from the fields as the hungry gap ends doesn't materialise because not enough crops have been planted.
The aforementioned silly buggers will then throw their hands up, say this could not be predicted and they will blame the growers and the supermarkets. How come a silly old bugger like me can see this coming down the road but our expert leaders can't? There is a simple answer, they have not listened to people like the growers and producers, they have been flagging up the supermarkets driving down returns to them for years but nobody has taken action.
I have news for the silly buggers, it's too late, the fields are bare, the young animals haven't been conceived and reared and the farmers and growers are running bed and breakfasts instead whilst drawing an annual wage off the Carbon Credit Crew for planting trees and sterilising the land as far as food production is concerned for a century at least.
Oh and by the way, no good thinking we can just increase food imports.... the rest of the world is short of food and anything they deign to divert to us will cost an arm and a leg.
What a bloody mess!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that an MP has been arrested accused of rape. What the hell is happening to our public life? Or is it just that these things are more easily reported?

[Big Kev]

FB_IMG_1652860988826.jpg

[Tizer]

Nice one, Kev!

[plaques]

Liz Truss has started the ball rolling by intruding a bill that is designed to break and international treaty that Boris the Buffoon Johnson only signed up for a couple of years ago. Sold to the country at that time as the best thing since sliced bread it ensured stability in Ireland, upheld the Good Friday Agreement and fulfilled the requirement of control checks on goods moving from the UK to Ireland. It now transpires that Boris never intended this part to be carried out in full because the DUP wouldn't like it. People are pointing out that there is no mention of this in the Tory manifesto although to to be honest how could they with one sentence saying 'Get Brexit Done' and the next saying 'Cancel all that's been agreed'. As mentioned in other posts on OG it even looks like the Queen is giving the government the bum's rush by not having it in this Parliamentary session or even attending in person. The House of Lords have already said "not over my dead body". Breaking international treaties is a bridge too far them. Our Attorney General has apparently found some 'expert' who says its legal but remains anonymous to the outside world. The general feeling is that this bill is a sop to the DUP ultimately destined for the long grass falling under the heading 'Promises, Promises and work in progress but best forgotten.

Brings to mind the comment that he is so bent that if he swallowed a nail he would sh*t a corkscrew.

[Stanley]

Nice one Kev, dead on target!
You're absolutely right Ken the whole NI mess is of Johnson's own making. He promised everybody they would get what they wanted knowing all the time that the opposing demands were incompatible with each other.
The Buffoon is in the middle of digging another hole. When challenged by Starmer over the millions being made by the oil companies as the public pay the same amount out in energy bills the Buffoon started waffling about the millions already put in by the government and when taxed further about rises in National Insurance he said that most would not pay as the threshold had been raised. He said this largesse was only possible because we have a 'robust economy'. He repeated this time after time.
So there you are, all is well because we have a robust economy.... In a pig's ear Johnson, you must think we are as stupid as you are.

[Whyperion]

That's not a rant Ken, it's a robust description of the current situation.
As I listened to the report of what he had said I reflected that things are actually a lot worse than he has described. Did you note yesterday that India has stopped all grain exports? There has been a drought since they promised to feed the world. Remember Useless Eustise reassuring us that Ukraine wouldn't affect our food supplies? What the stupid buggers don't seem to have realised is that there is a time bomb ticking away in the fields. It is the acreage that has not been cultivated or planted because of difficulties like labour supply, cost of inputs like diesel and fertilizer and the refusal of supermarkets to promise an economic return for the crops as they think their customers are more important than the growers. This will all come to a head in a couple of months when the flow of produce from the fields as the hungry gap ends doesn't materialise because not enough crops have been planted.
The aforementioned silly buggers will then throw their hands up, say this could not be predicted and they will blame the growers and the supermarkets. How come a silly old bugger like me can see this coming down the road but our expert leaders can't? There is a simple answer, they have not listened to people like the growers and producers, they have been flagging up the supermarkets driving down returns to them for years but nobody has taken action.
I have news for the silly buggers, it's too late, the fields are bare, the young animals haven't been conceived and reared and the farmers and growers are running bed and breakfasts instead whilst drawing an annual wage off the Carbon Credit Crew for planting trees and sterilising the land as far as food production is concerned for a century at least.
Oh and by the way, no good thinking we can just increase food imports.... the rest of the world is short of food and anything they deign to divert to us will cost an arm and a leg.
What a bloody mess!

I still cannot work out why there was a great big mega bag of Rice in the Food Bank box yesterday. (I suppose the large indian families might appreciate it), and if there is a shortage why the local supermarket has even bigger bags piled up in the Big Boxes aisle (well corner) , do they think they HAVE to compete (and eliminate) the local specialist shops that always sold onions for the curry by the net bag full. I am sure there is too much waste - or overconsumption.
Unfortunatley blaming Tories for the loss of (effectively the Marketing Boards) is not good enough, as Blair never did any long-term thinking either. I assume the EU is a little better prepared.

[Stanley]

I mentioned the other day that the only time Michael Fabricant hit the news was when he committed another gaffe. See THIS for the latest example. The man is an idiot.
I also noted that Torsten Bell repeatedly calls for benefits to rise to help the poorest survive the most savage price rises in the last century. (Before anyone takes me to task note I said price rises not rate of inflation. The speed and severity of the crisis is greater than anything I can remember...)
See THIS BBC report that many other charities and some MPs are calling for increases in benefits. I saw Sunak grinning with his mates at PMQs yesterday, he hasn't a care in the world and today it's estimated that almost 7 million families will miss one meal. Kids are going hungry and Sunak is grinning like a loon.....
The word on the street is that Sunak is warming to a windfall tax on the oil companies but it is being blocked by Johnson because his advisers say that it could be seen as an 'un-Conservative attack on industry'. Bugger what it looks like, poor people are suffering and children are going hungry!

[plaques]

The word on the street is that Sunak is warming to a windfall tax on the oil companies but it is being blocked by Johnson because his advisers say that it could be seen as an 'un-Conservative attack on industry'. Bugger what it looks like, poor people are suffering and children are going hungry!

Sunak may be warming to it but yesterday the Conservatives voted it down.Link It may be a case of not going along with it until they can spin it so it appears it was their idea. Either way they will have to find time in the commons agenda to fit it in which may take months.

Nearer home.
Our newly elected Pendle council are showing their green credentials by putting building on brownfield sites as their preferred option. Also they are looking at trying to reduce the overall number of houses in future plans as against those allowed in the existing plan. I would remind them that it was a Conservative council that ignored the fact that the projected population growth in Pendle was stagnant and against all logic went for an increase of 8+%, this gave an housing requirement of around 3,000. To compound the nonsense they identified every bit of land green or otherwise that had the potential to be build on. Consequently proposals to build on greenfield in Barrowford and the Lenches Colne have little chance of being stopped. They must also know that the existing plan instructed by the government is set to run from 2018 to 2043. The rules also state that any houses demolished in this period must be added to the plans number.

It looks very much that they are following Boris's playbook by making promises they can't keep.

[plaques]

Inflation and the cost of living is hitting the headlines not to mention peoples pockets. In America Warren Buffett has said that basing inflation on Consumer Price Index (CPI) is not a good way of measuring inflation. Of course the American CPI has a different content to the UK CPI, but the argument still holds true for the UK. The CPI is based on a range of goods that people may buy but for pensioners and those on low incomes there are many items which they would never buy especially high priced electronic or new to the market goods that may reduce in time as volumes increase thereby bring the CPI down. Their main concern is things they buy every day through necessity. Food, Heating, petrol, and some basic services. In other words their basket of goods is very different to those that the CPI is based on. In effect their inflation rate is well above the 9% currently being quoted. Perhaps its time to take a more realist approach and have indexes based on different levels of income. The government will claim that this will add to the data collection costs and add more red tape. Meanwhile they are quite happy to peddle half truths to gullible people.