Bad news. Vaccine supplies to poorer countries and the COVAX scheme are being cut as the worlds biggest supplier in India says it will not be exporting any doses of the AstraZenica vaccine until the end of the year. With possibly millions dying in Africa we should not criticise them too much.
GREAT BRITSH RAILWAYS
If only the government could be believed? They have already refused to reward a popular and profitable, nationalised East Coast Line. Now we have a rebranding, but is their any real subsidence to their plans?
GEOGRAPHY OF POLITICS
Interesting article in todays paper by John Harris. It suggests that clustering is taking place in previously fairly uniform voting areas. Cambridgeshire, Surrey and West Sussex have moved to the left (possibly due to migrants from London). Greens win in East Sussex, Gloucestershire and Kent. Whilst areas in the north have moved to the right. Or is the terminology of left and right out dated. Are people making economic decisions based on their situations, education and beliefs. Just as religion is virtually nonexistent in my world, so the discussions about veganpsm, organic food, poverty and food banks, the wealth gap and the obscenely rich have grown.
OUR WORLD
Johnson is to make voting difficult for people without photo ID, I.e. poor – i.e. non-tory voters. Emigrants given the power to vote. WTF – there have chosen to leave and that is fine, but to still have the vote? If they continue to pay tax that would be ok. Conversion therapy not banned. And Lizzie had to read all this crap out for 15 minutes. I wonder if she thinks it is worth it?
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Israel is reaping the result of its unfair nationalist policies for the past few years. Does criticising the Jewish government of Israel make me anti-Semitic? Personally I do think so because I really do not know or care what a persons colour, religion, orientation, etc. is. There have been many things that seem wrong to me that have happened in the Middle East – most emanating from Post-War British rule. I am not sure the situation was ever manageable, but it seems like we did not try too hard!
BEZOS
CITIES
This might develop into a longer post than usual.
Levelling up is a favourite term for our misguided mob leading the country. Something they themselves have decried for decades. Ebbw Vale was built for steel, and now that industry has gone there is little point in pouring money into a failed site. So is this true of the north of England (or Wales, and parts of Scotland)?
COCK UP CALAMITY
Whilst things have been going well with the governments Covid strategy in the main, some aspects remain tarred with the brush of corruption.
Whilst Dildo Harding has over sight of test and trace, it seems she has not been alert enough. Over 50000 employees – not of the NHS, but outsourced to their favourite cronies. Not only is no evidence of any success or efficiency, it now seems that these firms have been abusing the system, avoiding taxes and undermining employee rights. Same old nasty party!
Why can’t they clean up their act, I guess it is because the guy at the top is incompetent.
Whilst on incompetence we have the Labour Party. Maybe Starmer could use the PMQ’s as a chance to state new policies which would be better than the Tory ones, or even just one! Slaging Johnson off is a) too easy; and b) possibly counterproductive as people genuinely do not care that much whilst they can sing the tune of we get things done. At the moment they are riding high on the vaccine success of the NHS, a rebounding economy and the end to lockdown (hopefully permanently).
So lets hear it for a renationalised train system investing in Northern links (combined with a ban on all flights of less than 500km. A new line to Cornwall avoiding Dawlish. Investment in electric charging points. A scrappage scheme to allow people to scrap diesel cars. Investment in insulation and planning rules to make solar panels compulsory. Investment in tidal energy – possibly small scale. Warn investors in denationalised water companies and energy companies that excessive profits will be taxed. Introduction of a rule that any company paying dividends must be paying employees enough to avoid claiming universal credit. Directors wages and bonus’s to be capped in a similar way. I do not care if Coates gets £420 million as long as she pays her taxes in full, and all her workers are properly remunerated for their efforts. Make tax breaks for John Lewis style structures.
Local business rates needs a complete evaluation. What do they get for their money? I know they do not get rubbish collection or recycling! I am sure the NHS could be less bureaucratic and I would love to know if school academies have been economically more efficient (I fear not!).
House prices – much of problem could be solved by higher tax of second homes and airbnb. Lets see what the education bit of the Queens speech says today. (PS. she is a fit old bird – has she missed one yet?).
IN PRAISE OF
Scotlands voting system. A mix of first past the post and then a regional list. This enables people to have 7 or 9 (I cannot remember the exact figures) MP’s to be able to approach. It also enabled the tories with 5 seats to have an extra 26 seats in the parliament, Labour to go from 1 to 22, and the Greens to go from 0 to 8. Thus if vote for a party which is well supported but get no initial MP’s you are still represented. Something similar happens in Wales. Of course the nasty party will not change, in fact it is thinking of reverting to first past the post in Englands mayoral votes. Oh and introducing visual ID to allow you to vote – despite there being no evidence of voter fraud (this is a trick learnt from party Trump to reduce voter participation by the poor and BAME communities.
POLITICS
Firstly why would anyone vote Labour in England – they appear not to have any policies. Yet in Wales they have their best ever result. SNP storm it in Scotland. It appears people voted for decisive leadership where it was available! Without that they voted for the furlough scheme and vaccinations. Hartlepool was always a disaster waiting to happen after the Labour leadership imposed their candidate. Why has Starmer not gone yet? Andy Burnham looks like a safe’ish set of hands. And again showed that a labour candidate is not disadvantaged per se.