POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

I noted that result with relief Tiz.
My remarks about free trade yesterday are pertinent again this morning because Trump seems to be hardening his line on protective tariffs against, in particular, Mexico and China. America has tried this ploy way back in the inter-war years and it developed into the Nye Committee and Isolationist policies which at the time were very popular until Roosevelt steered the nation into intervention in Europe. Let's not forget that this was not altruistic, it was pure pragmatism. He came to realise that it was better to fight Fascist aggression in Europe rather than on American soil. We can only hope that Trump will have a similar conversion before he puts these mistaken policies in place.
Incidentally, these arguments for free trade also apply to our relations with the EU, the Brexiteers have forgotten that this was the genesis of the original formation of the precursor to the EU Project.

[Stanley]

Watch out for policy announcements slipped out under the cover of Xmas!

[Tizer]

Trump won't understand that wheeze, instead he tries to cheer up our Christmas by telling us that he's going to restart the global nuclear escalation. And he does it with a tweet. If he decides to declare war he'll probably do it on Twitter. Please, someone take that man away and place him in a secure location where he can't start a war!

[Stanley]

I watched the reports of the statements by Trump and Putin and thought 'Peace on Earth....' eh? Putin has the bit between his teeth now, his Greater Russia Project is going well. After his expansion in Crimea and the Ukraine he now arguably the power broker in the Middle East.... However, some very knowledgeable commentators were, last night, pointing to the internal economic situation in Russia and suggesting that if anything upsets the apple cart it could be that.
Apart from May's platitudinous 'Xmas Message' THIS got my attention. I have always rated Peter Ford, I remember him making sensible statements at the time. This attack on the way policy towards Syria has been conducted reinforces all my misgivings about the calibre of 'Middle East Specialists' in the FO. We need more people like Mr Ford speaking truth to power.

[Tizer]

Someone on OG recently mentioned that it was again `a good time to sneak out bad news' so I looked for it - and here we are....
`Tuition fee rise 'sneaked out' on website' LINK
"The move to increase university tuition fees in England to £9,250 has been launched - without any announcement from the Department for Education. The changes to the fees, affecting more than 500,000 students beginning in the autumn, was put onto a government website last week. Opposition parties have called it "shabby" and "avoiding scrutiny". The Department for Education has rejected suggestions it wanted to deflect attention from the increase."

A radio programme last week compared students in the four nations of the UK and found that English students were forced to run up debts more than twice as high as those in Scotland and Wales.

[Stanley]

I told you so..... The government says that our technical abilities are the key to post Brexit survival and at the same time 'saves money' by making it impossible for some to get into higher education..... Can anyone see the flaw embedded in that?
Obama is attacked for not following precedent in applying the veto to discussion of Israel's West Bank settlements. High time this almost genocidal policy was opposed by sanctions. I admire the Jews as a race but hate today's version of Zionism. Hard to discern but it looks as though Trump will favour the policy.....

[Tizer]

I admire the Jews as a race but hate today's version of Zionism.

I agree and I guess Jeremy Corbyn says the same but unfortunately a lot of people now fail to distinguish one from t' other. If you say you don't like what the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinians then you're likely to get called anti-semitic.

[Stanley]

And I have a suspicion that if we clearly distinguished between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism we would find most of the former on the right of the political spectrum.
There is no political news, nobody has any information on which to base firm opinion or policies. I have an idea that this situation is going to last for at least two years!

[Tizer]

The Queen was a bit miffed when Theresa gave her the `brexit is brexit' cliche. One is not used to being given the run-around. Theresa will go down in history as `May be this, May be that'. `Theresa Maybe'.

[Stanley]

If she had any idea as to how hard the next few years are going to be she would go off sick! her enjoyment of power is evidently compensating at the moment but even she must realise the potential for complete disaster.

[Stanley]

It's the time of year when the 'experts' review the past year and tell us what has happened. The most common theme is that they all see a change in politics, the landscape is changing. I am reminded that in 2009 when we became aware of the scandal of Parliamentary Expenses I said that I detected a possible shift in the tectonic plates of politics and I think I was right. Add to this the uncertainties of Brexit and I think we are in for some interesting times.
At the moment I am concerned about the proposals to demand identification at polling stations. I listened to Ken Livingstone yesterday who said that this would be a disincentive to voting especially in poorer areas. The government dismisses this and says it will make sure that the process is easy but I think Ken is right. The very mention of complications at the ballot box will be enough to put many voters off. All right there may be improvements that can be made especially in the field of postal and proxy voting but I think that this demand for identification is the wrong way to go. Turnout is far too low as it is and anything that further undermines it is a bad thing. The question is, who will the change benefit the most......

[plaques]

The very mention of complications at the ballot box will be enough to put many voters off.

Reading a scientific study on predicting the probability of stock market changes some of the latest thinking is that the stock market is strongly associated with politics in the way we assess what is going on. Some of the later studies suggest that there may be an element of quantum mechanics in it. The reference was made towards Schrödinger's cat where the act of looking at it changed the outcome. The parallel was that if you did a survey involving the public then as soon as they saw what was going on they may change their mind and make the original result a load of rubbish. Think Brexit and why Mrs May is keeping quiet. This may also be true of voting patterns.

[David Whipp]

On polling ID; the most vulnerable part of voting is the use of thousands of postal ballots. I can't see how ID is going to help with this at all.

[PanBiker]

Personally I can't see why everyone should not have to carry ID we are after all on a semi war footing or at the very least extremely high attack threat level. I think ID should also have the capability of carrying voluntary important medical information. I would also look at compulsory voting models.

[Tizer]

Mr Whipp makes a good point but I still think it would be better to require some ID at the polling stations. I think I mentioned at the last election time that I'd asked the officials at our local polling station if they shared my concern that anyone could come along and they were me. They agreed that it was bit too easy to play the system. I think the solution is to have an obligatory secure voter's card with a photo which could also be used in all those other situations were we are asked for photo identification - that's getting more common every day. But it should be set up in a way that provides other benefits to the user - perhaps you get points every time you use it which can be `spent' at the supermarket. Now you might turn up your nose at that idea but the politicians need to talk to the retailers who are very clever at this sort of thing. Time to pick their brains and get them to help us out! I don't worry about a Big Brother government misusing the card data - what does worry me is the inability of organisations to keep stuff secure from scammers these days.

[PanBiker]

Yes, we as a nation are one if not the most observed populations on the planet. I think it has passed 300 hits per day in any of our larger towns and cities. Your movements are tracked every time you visit an ATM, bank, building society or use a credit or debit card. What difference would carrying photo ID with other relevant information make apart from making life a little easier if thought out correctly. I like the idea of getting green shield stamps for every time you produce it, I would add a source deducted fine for not producing as well which would include turning up to vote. It's not big brother it's common sense really.

[Tizer]

At the same time, I'd like them to slip in my favourite project - zero tolerance on road traffic speeds. Lots of cameras, heavy fines, a driving ban after x number of fines. Have limits marked out very clearly and advertise the new regulations very widely, make sure every driver must know and then there's no excuse for not observing the limits. There'd be much moaning from the Clarkson types but we'd all soon get used to it. And if they don't like the fines and bans there's a simple answer - don't break the limits. We'd all find our road journeys much more relaxed and safe and I bet we wouldn't take much longer to get to our destination.

[PanBiker]

I was going on to Skipton this afternoon to pick Sally and Ruby up from the station. Driving down the hill and through Thornton village at 30mph. There is a traffic island at the exit / entrance to the village where the speed limit changes to the national limit on the exit and 30 when coming the other way, shortly after the island when leaving the 30 zone the road bends to the left, a blind bend before opening up to what is known as Thornton drag. I had just reached the island when some idiot passed me at about 50mph on the wrong side of the island just before the bend. I was so taken aback that I had no time to get the reg number, by the time I had accelerated to the straight he was already halfway down the drag about half a mile and another two cars in front, some folk are just incapable or totally stupid, probably both. He will do it once to often.

[Marilyn]

Annoying isn't it?
We had to slam on the anchors this morning when some sweet-faced old fruit bat of a woman nearly killed us. She was sat on a side road to our left and pulled straight out in front of us to do a right hand turn into oncoming traffic. She seemed completely oblivious. Trouble was, she got half way across our lane and couldn't complete the turn due to traffic coming in the opposite direction, so she stopped dead, blocking our side of the road. If she had only waited to be clear of us, there was no traffic at all behind us.
Some people just think they are more important than others...

[Stanley]

David is dead right about postal and proxy votes.... I note that Pendle is seen as one of the areas where the idea will be piloted.
I like the idea of Tiz's voting card but it must be compulsory if you are on the Electoral Roll and free. But I also agree with Ian that I see nothing wrong with an identity card, they worked during the war!
As for driving, you illustrate why I kicked driving into touch. Apart from the fact my reactions will be slower because of my age I can't trust other drivers to be predictable. That frightens me.....
I notice the increasing gap between to policies of the present US administration and what Mr Trump seems to be proposing. Difficult to be precise of course but the general impression he gives is that he favours the right wing Israeli administration and will be no friend to the Palestinian Arabs or the 'Two State Solution' that has been mooted for so long but in practical terms attacked incessantly. This has implications for the whole of the Middle East as Iran is a strong champion of the Palestinians.

[Tizer]

After posting my views on the need for zero tolerance on road traffic speeds I realised another reason why we should do it now. I've said before that it would make the roads safer for all road users and pedestrians, reduce pollution and carbon emissions, save on fossil fuels and lower the costs of running a vehicle. Now I realise that observance of speed limits is even more critical due to the greater amount of driver distraction in modern cars and the move towards automated and, eventually, driverless cars. The distraction now comes from a wide range of electronic gizmos built into the latest cars that require more attention from the driver, more looking away from the road in front, more pressing buttons or swiping touchscreens. All this makes excessive speeds even more dangerous, not just for the driver but for everyone else on or near the road. An even greater need for attention to speed is going to come with automation and driverless cars - as I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, `the big problem is incompatibility between even semi-auto driven and manual driven cars. I don't know how the car industry is going to solve the transition problem'. I now believe that this is the time to start preparing for the automated or driverless cars by bringing in strictly monitored speed limits to smooth traffic flow and encourage drivers to match speeds and to eliminate erratic driving habits. The move towards these future vehicles is the ideal way to package the new attitude to road speed. Eventually drivers/car owners won't control speed, it will be governed automatically via sensors in the road and in the vehicle which will judge appropriate speeds, traffic density and distances for optimum journey time and safety.

[Stanley]

I'm sure that you are right Tiz in your forecast but I can see so many places it can go wrong.For instance there will be another transition, if such a scheme of sensor controlled roads was instituted it could only cover major routes and your road outside your house would be a magnet for the Clarkson's of this world. The government would outsource the installation and management of such a scheme to the private sector and you'd get a situation similar to rail, profit takers jacking up the cost of motoring. I'm glad I won't have to deal with it beyond paying the inevitable rise in prices as transport costs rise. I keep telling you, I saw the glory days of driving.....
The current spat between Obama and Russia give Trump some interesting problems. It will still be current when he takes over in January..... The world suddenly seems a less safe place......

[Tizer]

Instead of complaining repeatedly that Putin is behind the hack attacks on the US I wish Obama would start telling the world that the attacks are coming out of Russia but Putin's denial shows that he has lost control. He doesn't know what's going on in his own country and isn't able to do anything about it. That would worry Putin more than blaming him directly - like all leaders of Russia/USSR, he's desperate to show himself as being in control.

[plaques]

I suppose we will just have to wait until Mr Trump tells Mrs May what we are going to do about it.

[Stanley]

I think there is going to be a lot of sitting and waiting P! My prediction for 2017 is that UK politics will be dominated by Brexit. See THIS for what I think is just the start of interminable arguments on hard or soft and total versus transitional that are going to dominate because nobody really has any idea at all of the consequences of any action. (and that includes the government). The UK ship of state is sailing into a thick fog bank.... Tidying the deck chairs is going to be the order of the day!