POLITICS CORNER

[Whyperion]

Most of the Republican Party seem more mitigating. N Korea seems concerned that US would like to see a re-united Korea (with no place for the present leaders, etc of N Korea), a not unreasonable fear , and is mostly considering taking mitigating action IF US continues its apparent 'agression' against N Korea, mostly in attempting to ensure US cannot effectively use Guam as an effective forward Sea and Air base against N Korea, which sounds a reasonable military objective, Maybe the N Korean leaders are a little more rational than western media would have us believe.

[Stanley]

P, I wonder if one possible result could be the ending of the President being Commander in Chief?
Richard, my impression is that there is a log jam in the negotiations because nobody is taking the initiative like making proposals on the settlement, starting with a blue sky figure and haggling from there. The UK government because they haven't a clue what it could be and any figure is going to be a red rag to le Leavers, and Brussels because as soon as they mention anything they will be branded as rapacious whatever the sum.
Another small black cloud on the horizon.... See this LINK for reports that the house sales market is slowing. (And the Pound hit a ten month low yesterday....)

[Stanley]

The only domestic political matter that caught my attention this morning is a piece in the local paper by our MP telling us how good the changes to the ambulance service are going to be for all of us. The brass neck of the man defending his party's underfunding of the NHS including ambulances.... Sorry but I am not impressed.

[Stanley]

See THIS, if nothing else it demonstrates the deep fractures inside government that are tearing the UK to pieces. Effective government seems to be entirely absent. Meanwhile, where is our 'bloody difficult woman'?
Rudderless ships springs to mind.....

[PanBiker]

In the meantime Jeremy is back from his short holiday and has already started visiting all the marginals and other seats considered winnable. He will be in Pendle next Thursday the 17th - 4.30pm Victoria Park, opposite the bandstand, no invitation required all welcome.

[Stanley]

I think he's being very sensible, he's campaigning already for the next election which he believes will be very shortly. I think he is right. Things are so dire inside the Tory Party with splits over Brexit and the complete lack of policy that individual ministers are making it up as they go along. Hammond is clearly setting his stall out to challenge Theresa May and I have no doubt there are others. Not a lot of talk about 'divided Labour' now!
Leaving aside global politics and talk of military intervention in Korea and Venezuela, there was never a time when we needed clear policies and strong government more. What we have is a Zombie Party heading for a cliff edge.
Re. Korea. The only clear message I can hear is China and the Republican Party telling Trump to stop making inflammatory tweets!

[Stanley]

Did I hear right? Is Jacob Rees Mogg really being touted as a possible successor to Theresa? I know it's the silly season for 'news' but this is ridiculous. Having said this, stranger things have happened. Remember Alec Douglas Home of the Hirsel? PM for a year 1963/64.
The joint statement from Hammond and Fox demonstrates how desperate the Tories are to present a united front. Pity they haven't got a viable Leader..... (LINK)

[Stanley]

See THIS for what counts as hot political news at the moment. Government figures suggesting ways to avoid problems with the movement of goods on Brexit. This even though they already know that the EU is refusing to discuss any other matters apart from the divorce bill. This is still shrouded in mystery but the figure that seems to be emerging is somewhere between 35 and 40 Billion Pounds. A far cry from the famous £350,000,000 a week that was going to save the NHS.
This is a bit like banging your head against a wall. If you do it long enough you get used to it. Is this the strategy, bore us to death so that any agreement, no matter how bad it is, will be a relief?
Later, the inflation figures are due this morning and are expected to show a rise. The measure that includes housing is heading for 4%. This is not welcome and will not be good news for the treasury!

[Stanley]

The RPI measure of inflation is 3.6% so that is how much rail fares will rise unless countermanded in the Budget. Nowhere near the average pay rise of about 1%. Another small black cloud!
I read and listened to the froth of media 'news' about the latest proposals for the treatment of borders and customs after Brexit. What is being proposed is that we have everything we want and a brown paper bag to take it away. The immediate response from the EU is that this is fantasy.
Long before Article 50 was triggered I pointed out that what nobody seemed to be acknowledging was that once this was done we were powerless, the EU holds all the cards. Instead of pursuing the impossible we should be acting as supplicants and asking for mediation. I see no signs of this happening.
Never forget that all this is self-inflicted. Cameron's Catastrophe is damaging us as much as war did but nobody seems to want to admit this. Time for a U-turn but it won't happen.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a BBC report of what looks like a serious melt-down in the White House as prominent business men on his advisory councils distance themselves from the President and he reacts by sacking all of them as advisers on business. There is no money in extremism! What really saddens me is that later reports on the BBC show that whilst some of his supporters are perturbed by Trump's stance on this, it has done him little damage.
Some may argue that this is nothing to do with us, it's a domestic matter. However, we live in strange times and remember Harold, "Events Dear Boy".... The last thing we need is external shocks.
I saw Theresa on TV last night, she appeared to be at an airport... The first time I have seen an image of her since she went off on holiday. Are her advisers getting worried by her absence at home?

[Stanley]

The man who was the ghost writer for Trumps autobiography goes public and says that in doing so he 'put lipstick on a pig'. He also says he doesn't think he can last out the year. We are getting so used to this tone of reporting about Trump that we have become anaesthetised, it's good every now and again to step back and take a fresh look at what can only end as a tragedy for the US.
In the middle of what is surely the most critical period in UK history for at least the last fifty years our PM makes a major intervention. She supports those who think the long term silencing of the chimes of Big Ben is overkill on H&S grounds..... Really?
On another front it looks as though other people have the same misgivings as I do about the resignation from the Labour front bench of Sarah Champion. I don't know the answer but am disturbed at what I see as a failure of rational debate. In a strange way it echoes Trump's problems with far right extremists in the US.
Later, after reading the BET I realise that racism has struck locally with last year's Tory Mayor being sanctioned for posting a racist joke on social media. What is it about tweeting that triggers this sort of behaviour?

[plaques]

On another front it looks as though other people have the same misgivings as I do about the resignation from the Labour front bench of Sarah Champion.

The problem is that the rightwing press would have been over the moon had he (Corbyn) supported her. We would have had countless headlines about how bigoted he really was and how in truth he was just a commie racist. He was never going to win on this one.

[PanBiker]

My sources tell me that Jeremy's rally at Nelson was very well attended (as all usually are), he even made time to visit Barlick and West Craven food bank. In a fair society he should not have to do that!

[Stanley]

He is doing exactly the right thing and despite the bias in flak from the Right he is steadily gaining ground. I said when he was first elected to the leadership that given time there was a good chance he would grow into the job. I think more and more people will begin to realise that this is indeed the case.
I'm naïve enough to believe that in the end good will prevail. Compare and contrast with Theresa......
See THIS for a scathing editorial in the NY Times. If it wasn't actually happening you wouldn't believe that this state of affairs could exist in what claims to be the greatest democracy in the world. It looks more like outright war between the White House and everyone else. The danger that Breitbart sees is that Trump will follow Arnold Schwarzenegger and swing to a more Liberal stance. It's a war between the Alt Right and the rest of the US. Not good for anyone.....

[Stanley]

It says a lot about my theory that we are on a rudderless ship when the major news item from Westminster is the temporary switching off of the 'Ayrton Light, which signals when Parliament is sitting.....

[plaques]

Things are changing fast. Mrs May is about to launch a tranche of papers telling the EU how we are going to run things after we have left. Link. On the other hand the EU is saying "you've got the cart before the horse, until we sort out the divorce settlement we are going nowhere". By releasing these papers it is hoped to calm the business market and counter claims that the UK doesn't really know what to do next. I suspect it will just muddy the waters even further.

[Stanley]

I agree with you completely. These 'policy papers' are for domestic consumption only, as far as the EU are concerned they are fantasy. Did you catch the 08:45 15 minute 'Point of view' opinion piece on R4 yesterday? I thought it was a disgrace, it was a Party Political broadcast on behalf of the Tory Party and was full of questionable statements. I suspect we are going to see more of this. The Tories are rattled and realise that they have to make pre-emptive strikes to justify their existence and actions which are, at the moment, demonstrably under scrutiny by the electorate. Contrast and compare with what JC is doing.....

[Stanley]

Trump caught my attention this morning, he was almost rational! I think someone is pointing out to him that more of the same is going to put him in danger so he is voluntarily back-tracking on his campaign promise to get out of Afghanistan.
George Osborne gives Theresa May advice this morning to attend to the Northern Project. He wants a high speed cross country link across the Pennines.... Not much chance of that but in these strange times who can say which direction the Tories are going to go?
Apart from that a deathly hush from Westminster..... Even Big Ben!

[Stanley]

Trump is up to his old tricks as he defends himself against accusations of racism following his initial reaction to Charlottesville. He is shooting the messenger by blaming the media at a political rally.
I've been thinking about his Afghanistan announcement, widely seen as a volte-face in that it is completely against another of his infamous campaign promises. The problem I see is that he and his advisers have fallen into what I believe is the old trap. They have done what everyone has done before they failed there, including us. They talk about it as if it is a country when in fact it is a loose federation of tribes living uneasily with each other. This is the level that the Taliban work on and is the basis of their resurgence. We should be doing the same.
There is no domestic political news.......

[Stanley]

I think we are being manipulated again. in an attempt to reassure us that Brexit negotiations are ongoing and succeeding, Downing Street is issuing a series of policy papers designed to show that useful work has been done and progress made. I think these are smoke and mirrors. Take the latest one about the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. May's starting position was that it would no longer have any powers over UK affairs. Now it has been modified to suggest that the ECJ would have minimal influence. It's obvious that anyone having any interaction with the EU will always have to submit to ECJ rulings. Consider the case of Walmart who own Asda, in the US they sell guns and ammunition, in the UK they can't do this because they are subject to our laws. The same applies in reverse, we have to abide by the laws of the the country we are interacting with. There are tried and trusted ways of arbitration in these matters and it's obvious that something like this will have to happen after Brexit. This means that what the paper on the ECJ actually is is an admission that May got it wrong in the first place. We can't ignore the ECJ any more than the EU can ignore our courts. In other words, a complete waste of time and effort on what will eventually be a mutually agreed procedural matter.
Trump tries to downplay the fact that there is an open rift between him and the Republican Leader of the House because if it is true it means his already miserable record of achieving administrative change will be further damaged.

[Stanley]

I see Boris is advising the Libyan government on how to run their elections and citing the May blunder as evidence. That'll go down well! The idea of anyone taking advice from the present UK incumbents is risible. You couldn't make it up but I doubt if this ever occurred to Boris, he is convinced he is right.....
Over the years I have flagged up the way the old pit villages were abandoned to their fate after the pit closures under Thatcher. The rate of drug usage went up inexorably and I see there has been a report on the prevalence of disability, unemployment and poverty but funnily enough I can't find a mention anywhere on the web.....

[Stanley]

There is no political news.... It's disgraceful!
Still no mention on the web of the dire figures for deprivation and ill health in old mining communities....

[Stanley]

Thanks to the Guardian the report on the mining communities has surfaced. See THIS for an excellent article on one example, Horden in County Durham. These communities have been ignored ever since the pit closures and the article gives a very good picture of the consequences. The original report I heard on BBC R4 concentrated on the high levels of occupational disease, mainly respiratory problems in the retired miners. This is part of the hidden Britain which is bearing the brunt of cuts, austerity and political neglect. It's a disgrace!
Meanwhile Trump loses yet another far right member of his staff and pardons a repressive sheriff in Nevada.... (LINK) Can this man survve a full term?
There is no domestic political news. Westminster is paralysed......

[Stanley]

Still no enlightenment from Downing Street. The EU negotiations resume this morning and commentators say that the mood in Brussels is one of frustration with the fact that the UK is still trying to manipulate the clear agenda. We are accused of 'magical thinking' on Ireland and criticised for still trying to talk about trade when the settlement and Ireland have to be addressed first.
It looks suspiciously like stalemate and I wonder whether the silence in Downing Street is a product of the fact that they have run out of ideas and fear that any more antagonistic statements could make things worse.
Theresa May restricts herself to attacking business practices.... Jeremy Corbyn and his team now favour staying in the Customs Union and the trade area with all that implies for migration. The official view is that this should last for the two year transition period but some voices are extending that. I detect a lot of rethinking on the Labour side about the economic consequences of Brexit and wonder whether something like this is going on in the Tory Party. Could this be why they are so quiet? Are we looking at possibly the biggest U-turn ever?

[Stanley]

David Davies still has his avuncular smile but Barnier looks like thunder. This continuing attempt to change the agenda instead of addressing the matters in hand is damaging and the clock is ticking. It was always obvious that once the talks started the EU held all the cards. For domestic political reasons the Tories are piddling about and wasting time. Meanwhile the uncertainty damages the economy. I think one of the main problems is the transition from the £350million a week refund to a bill for £50billion.
However, PE has an interesting theory.... They say that one of the main reasons for the shying away from discussion of border controls is the fact that HMRC are so far behind with their upgrading of their systems that they haven't a cat in hall's chance of coping with more border checks. Plus the fact that the upgrades were planned before Brexit and the plans and estimates are woefully inadequate now.
Another Tory manifesto 'pledge' bites the dust. The promise to control executive pay has crumbled as it becomes clear that the legalities of contract law give protection to executives.