20th January 2019

Comedy central continues both sides of the Atlantic. Trump’s US government has been shut down for five weeks so he can build a wall to keep out about six illegal immigrants via Mexico, compared to many more entering via Canada where there is no wall. Meanwhile federal workers queue up for free food. In the UK, the House of Commons provided the best live TV ‘Punch  n Judy’ entertainment ever. The speaker John Bercow v Michael Gove v Jeremy Corbyn was a sight to behold. Gove’s masterly performance in the House was Churchillian in its 90 minute expose of Corbyn. (If you didn’t catch it, google Gove’s Commons Speech in its entirety.)  Who needs comedy shows when we have live political entertainment like this. The EU?  I’m glad May picked up on my email to No. 10 telling her to arrange a cross-party committee but where will it all end? I could write a book...

13th January 2019

13th today. Unlucky for some.  In the US, huge snowstorms head for Washington DC. Tomorrow, Australia will bake through a heatwave,  the soaring temperatures predicted to last for 4 days. Multiple days in a row of 40C plus are unusual there. In the UK, a land notorious for grey, damp, moderate weather, last summer was unusual in that we enjoyed continuous blue skies and hot weather for weeks on end. Elsewhere last year saw a plethora of eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and massive flooding. Global climate change? Undoubtedly.  Man-made? The jury’s out. A similar global warming period has happened several times before, one such in 950 AD. Scientists gave the causes of that one as increased solar activity and changes to ocean circulation. Clearly not man-made then nor, in my view, is today’s!  Time for the world to stop discussing carbon emissions and to actively tackle the effects of climate change. Move people off tiny, flat islands and inland to high ground, away from coasts, fault lines and volcanos. Fact, not superstition.

6th January 2019

2019. A new year and I’m writing again. To be an author is a great risk, gambling that your ideas will resonate with others sufficiently to make a mark in the world. In the past I’ve dipped my pen into children’s novels, noir, wartime dramas, college intrigue, travel memoirs and humour.  When meeting people for the first time, I’ve often joked ‘Don’t annoy me or you’ll be finished off in my next book!’  But writing is no joke. It’s a serious business. Reputations are won or lost by the toss of a coin.  How to predict what will be ‘fashionable’ in the months it takes to write, edit and publish your masterpiece before releasing it to an unsuspecting world? Celebrities, unfairly, often use ghostwriters to pass their work off as their own. How is that allowed? I suppose, though, the public just want to read about their favourites, not really caring who actually wrote it. Despite all this, however, I feel a quiver of excitement as my new work builds day by day by my own fair hand. What’s it about? Will it set the world alight? I’m no celebrity so it’s a big, big gamble. All will be revealed in the months to come. Hope you like it, dear readers. A very happy and healthy New Year to you all.

30th December 2018

2018. A year of fire, eruptions and tsunamis - and that’s just in government! There’s the usual array of Honours given to the unremarkable whilst the true heroes, those who put their lives on the line for others, with no desire for publicity, are left with nothing. Meanwhile, the man in the street is busy contaminating the oceans with all that festive plastic. Globally, Merkel prepares her swansong, Macron has turned a ghastly shade of yellow and Trump fights a wall of his own making. Elsewhere, nations fight over whose land belongs to whom. My dream for 2019? Taking the criterion that land belongs to those settlers who have the earliest claim to it - e.g. the Jewish people residing in biblical Judea and Samaria, who were ejected by the Romans in AD 135, the Romans then renaming it ‘Palestina’ (the Hebrew word for which is Plishtin, the invader!) - that should solve all land disputes. At the first hint of fighting, a global committee of impartial, learned historians and archaeologists should publish academically-reviewed, historical timelines, the land awarded to the oldest known settlers. That should quench the fires.
A calm, soothing and healthy New Year to you all.

23rd December 2018

A tale of two tiny countries...
All hell was let loose inside the Commons over a sexist comment instead of concentrating on the Brexit chaos and the Irish backstop. And yet, if they had studied tiny Switzerland, they might have wondered how it is that an independent country, surrounded by 5 EU countries, does not have any hard borders. It’s because Switzerland is part of the Schengen agreement. But here’s the interesting bit. Switzerland has had a referendum about staying in the Schengen agreement and the Swiss overwhelmingly voted Leave. So why haven’t we heard about it? Because the Swiss government, in its wisdom, overruled the poll results on the basis that leaving would be too dangerous! And clearly the Swiss did not riot in the streets, going back to polishing clocks or whatever it is the Swiss do. And then came the drones, paralysing a major London airport. In came another tiny country, Israel which, despite its long, continued fight against illogical hatred, still found time to send London its supreme ‘iron dome’ expertise.
‘...It’s a far far better thing that I have done...’

16th December 2018

Watching the Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars) final last night, I was struck by the fact that the public voted not on the dancing expertise but the personalities involved. The same with Brexit it seems. So, ignoring personalities, let’s focus. The crux of the Brexiteer argument: over the last 40 years, too many immigrants (first from Asia, then from the EU) landed on this tiny island, overloading public resources and changing the character of the nation. The Remainers love the free access to mainland Europe and to trade across the continent to maintain economic stability. What do I think? We need to find a way for Britain to stay in the EU for economic and trade reasons but then change its rules from within. We should work to add a necessary clause in the EU rules to recognise that nations of a tiny size like Britain but also an economic magnet need an absolute immigrant-limit in order to function. Otherwise we’re dancing with disaster.

9th December 2018

Order! Order! Pantomime season has arrived.  First the French. Even though the President has totally scrapped the planned fuel tax rise, still the riots continue. Proof positive that once a momentum has started to roll, rationality flies out the window. And the British? Here’s what the Brexiteers have to say: ‘...feels like we no longer own our country;  now just tenants, forced to take into our tiny island way too many unsuitable lodgers. Still reeling from Blair’s earlier policy. Feels like I’m living in a suburb of Bangladesh...’ And from the Remainers: ‘it’s the economy, stupid. Need to be part of the ever-burgeoning federal project of the United States of Europe...don’t care if we’re governed by former enemy Germany. For peace it’s worth it.’ So, what’s gonna happen Tuesday? For the Labour party it’s clear: their vote has nothing to do with Brexit: all to do with forcing out the government and ensuring a General Election. Oh what a circus, oh what a show!