No to delusional leaders, yes to rubber condoms.

 This day our news is dominated by Trump announcing he intends to run again and the hailing of the eight billion birth. The wider context is growing global tensions and the green agenda. I do not think there is one precise set of answers (save those of Jesus Christ and they are not actually precise). It is better to commit to directions of travel. I was born in 1959 when world population was three billion - https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/1959/ . For one lifetime this is utterly incredible and it is world population that more than anything else has created the green crisis. I have long appreciated that ordained man Malthus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus . Crying out to Just Stop Oil is one thing however the diesel engine is one of the most efficient of human inventions. The damage battery cars can do has yet to be really calculated. Electric cars from a central green power source might be better. Bodyshells and roof tiles which are solar generators.

 What really brings the planet back into balance is less of us. Less of megacities utterly unable to control plastic waste and the damage that is doing to the oceans. I do not advocate euthanasia. I do believe life is sacred but it stares us in the face that the science of reproduction is hugely wasteful. Jesus even got into this in parables. The way to have less of us should have been the enthusiastic promotion of rubber condoms. I am a rubberman. Those religious leaders who will not encourage the use of condoms are not offering populations hope but many of those same leaders have historically promoted the patriarchy and misogny. The situation is too critical to accommodate this any longer. After eating, the male sexual urge is one of the strongest forces on the planet and it needs to be managed (I do not say curtailed or destroyed but managed).

 And yes the condom and the delusional leader are linked. How many children do Trump and Johnson have? Five and seven respectively. I hope humanity will come to sense and realise there are simple solutions but all the experts agree we are right on the edge of the precipice.

Belfast 13th September 2022

  Belfast 13th September 2022

A week ago it was POURING with rain in North East England. On the Monday it had been gloriously sunny and four of us had greatly enjoyed chasing the Tour of Britain in the Borders and being by the finishing line in Duns. I think I photographed the ultimate race winner Gonzalo Serrano who won in the most unexpected of circumstances. But to return to the Tuesday. It was a filthy day and the Cornish team St Pirren made the headlines as their team leader an ex stockbroker Alexandar Richardson retro engineered leadership by controlling the peloton from the breakway. A very rare feat which left David Millar in commentary breathless. The breakaway stayed away although Richardson had to settle for third.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Scotland much was happening. Liz Truss had been declared the new leader of the Tory party on Monday. On Tuesday the Queen had received both Johnson and Truss at Balmoral and Prime Ministerial power was exchanged. Now, reflect the Queen had gone to beloved Balmoral for the summer. She was on holiday and the Tories were fighting about leadership. 

She could hardly be said to have seen eye to eye with Johnson. Johnson and Rees-Mogg had after all been to Balmoral in 2019 to persuade her to prorogue Parliament.

Two days after these audiences this week past in which she was described as alert but frail, she was dead. And the nation went into convulsions. But strange convulsions. No tragedy. This was sorrow and triumpth and it has become more than that. Because in her death the 96 year old Queen has masterminded a re-writing of contemporary Britishness. By which the entire establishment has been firmly reminded that England is one of four partner nations of the British Isles.

Suddenly all eyes are on Charles. He is undertaking a tour of the nations. The Queen is dead, Long Live the King. Everyone seemingly wants to shake the hand of sacred monarchy. Every turn has been about Christ and the Servant Queen. Scotland and its politicians discovers it is centre stage. The new English prime minister has to trek around and perform something of an also ran function.

This could not have been clearer in today's visit to Belfast and Hillsborough. I wonder if anything like today could have occured in 1997? I watched end to end the service in Belfast St Anne's Cathedral. Civic religion can sometimes leave me conflicted. this was ELECTRIC. It deserves to be watched several times. The camera caught Liz Truss more than once. She looked liked a woman who having planned one set of actions a few days ago was now squashed by events which were conspiring to impress on her the need to execute several U turns. 

The sight of Alex Maskey the bruiser, reading Phillipians with total conviction. The realisation that this was an ALL IRELAND event. The President of Ireland and his wife sat across the aisle from the new King and his consort. Immediately after the service, Charles went and greeted the President and his wife. In the warmest of ways there was clear mutual encouragement. The new UK PM just one place down in the pew had to stay silent.

The sermon from the Archbishop of Armagh will go down in history. So will the Celtic blessing delivered by multiple Church leaders. The Archbishop made clear how much the Christian leadership of the Queen had achieved and in eye to eye contact with an acknowledged acceptance the new King was clearly committed to his mother's agenda.

If anyone can tell me how many citizens of the Republic were in the congregation please do. A considerable number. There must have been some horse trainers? When Westminster politics restarts, the immediate need to solve the energy bills will be no less urgent. And yet it is as if with a summer, aged 96 to reflect in Balmoral, the Queen had resolved to bowl a googly at her politicians. These last few years have been dreadful. The EU referendum decision in which the UK pointedly did not learn from Ireland. The shambles and tragedy of covid in which whilst the Queen led in isolation, the PM partied and wriggled to cover his tracks have left the British very miserable. Our absolute need to unite around something else these 10 days are showing in rose petals. The shock of a new European war and a bully for an international leader have been very disturbing.

In Elizabeth's death there is suddenly a chance of a new beginning, a resurrection. We can even talk of the Saintliness of the  former monarch. We can reflect that without the supercharged Grace of Love which she conveyed and which present politics does not, we are stuck. We need to rediscover ourselves as the British Isles with flexible models of government, and also as geographically determined wedded to Europe and not a Trans Pacific trading entity. Realism and humility along with faith and spirituality need to partner again in a civic religion we can all buy into and which She exemplified. 

Rough edges? I was sad the Tour of Britain's last three stages were cancelled. One I could understand, black armbands would have been reasonable. And in a few minutes the Queen's body will probably fly in sight of Prudhoe. There will not be much we can do and the sight as in 1952 of the solemn passing of the Coffin on the Royal Train we have been denied. 

Petrol bombs in Carrickfergus

 

It is so sad to read this. Petrol bombs in Carrickfergus. This is where my Grandfather was born. This is where the Forsythe family really got into money making, in the 19th century. The Forsythe's have ever been pragmaticists and traders, not ideologues. They have also been internationalists. Family members, close family members live in Spain, Canada and Chile. Despite being born in Norfolk, my love blossomed in Dumbarton. Since 1986 my life has been led in crossing constantly (until March 2020) a Border that should be of no consequence. Many warned on this account (so John Batts) constantly of the perils posed to peace by Brexit. Because I am not an ideologue I recognise problems with the EU. And yes it would appear Leave more so than Remain has a stronger suite over the vaccine. But to take either of those options is ridiculous because what is at stake is the precious unity of the British Isles. Those who don't see that because Westminster is unimpressive the best solution is to rat on it and on the English leave me cold. Everyone in these islands are one British kith and kin. It is called geography and it is nuts to try and escape it just as it is nuts to try and escape Europe as our most significant trading partner. In the EU we had a deal better than Germany's but the ideologues and purveyors of division could not see it. So whether you are a Scottish Nationalist or an English one you both are one of a kind. Violence is no solution and compromise and renewal in faith in hope are the only ways forward.

BBC.CO.UK

Police attacked during fresh night of NI violence

Petrol bombs are thrown at officers in Carrickfergus and a car is set alight in Londonderry.

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Boris on Scotland

You will remember how Jeremy Corbyn came along and dismembered Scottish Labour with his attitude to devolution. To me it is no surprise at all that Boris Johnson did the same yesterday with his ill judged comments about devolution. This morning on R4 it was left to wise old Malcolm Rifkind to try to make some sense of it all. However so far no-one has tackled the elephant in the room. It is BREXIT. Guy Opperman had me telling the citizens of Hawick in 2014 that the only way to stay in the EU was to stay in the British Union. I am never going to forget that, as two years later that was swept down the pan. Support for EU membership, admiration for Sturgeon's government style, these remain strong and now with the crucial independence vote coming next May, the SNP have been handed a silver salver. Westminster Tories and Islington Socialites are incapable of understanding Scotland will be the mantra. I will level: the sooner Boris is gone the better. He is an utter disaster. He cannot manage social distancing in his own home, told to isolate, he opens his mouth on devolution! I am not keen on Scottish independence but Scotland is quite entitled to say our settled will was to remain in the EU and the UK government has to square that or else the UK becomes a footnote in history. It is a difficult one to square as is a Border in the Irish Sea and there are now only a few weeks in the world wide pandemic in which to do it. If we crash out to no deal on Jan 1st the resultant chaos will ensure a SNP walk over in May. Independence could easily follow even if I candidly feel it will not become a bed of economical roses. I also do feel that to insist on a referendum in 2021 when we are still reeling from Covid is rather beneath the belt. All Britons Take note, what happens between us and the EU in the next few short weeks will really affect whether you have one united union of nations to be proud of or not.

Monuments and the Queen

Emma Soames ""We've come to this place where history is viewed only entirely through the prism of the present," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. " Much of me has done my best to avoid talking about the rascist controversies. I am certain George Floyd died unjustly. But I am very uncomfortable about much that has happened in the middle of a pandemic lately. Yet to argue about this, easily takes one into a corner one does not want to be in. Do not think I have not thought and prayed about it much. So hear my best offering. At the root of all this lies man's readiness to bully other people. We just love it. I hated school for this reason, dammed near suicidally. I hated workplace bullies, I found my Lady and we have tried to build our little bit of heaven on earth. On all this I hate bullies, I am clearly with George Floyd but what if rioting and civil protest, taking over precincts in Seattle itself looks like bullying? How do we get out of this? I am offering this answer. We recognise that the ultimate bully, the one who started it all is God the creator (because I will not accept the Genesis account and that because man did not consciously fault but faulted into consciousness (I am with Auden, that profound bisexual poet of the 20th c (courting controvery at several levels there))). Auden learnt that, and says so bluntly, in our Pennine backyard. So grant to me any God who created this world must bear some responsibility for the bullying. What should we do in this moment? Surely logic says in the mood of our moment, anything that speaks of God must be torn down. We must not remember we believed. Justice can only be served by removal. Destroy the churches and temples! What does that remind you of? It reminds me of what happened in England after the reformation and in the Commonwealth. Is that the world you wish to be in because we could be quite near creating it in all this monument bashing? Alternatively you might want to read the Gospel stories again and see if some saving paradox is present? So give me a protest in Whitehall today or the Queen's ceremonies at Windsor and I will be with her. A most remarkable woman of faith. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53033550

Climate change New Year 2020

The Apocalypse is now. Whether you are in Idlib or the suburbs of Sydney. In Prudhoe it is a beautiful quiet morning and unseasonably warm for sure. In Australia it is our flaming June and it certainly is. There is months more to go. Australian institutions have been notably reluctant to recognise climate change. Just weeks ago they helped mess up the latest intergovernmental climate change conference. This I am certain of and so is the retiring BoE governor. Face up to the reality of the massive change needed in all our lives or we will quite likely burn. A dry summer in Prudhoe surrounded by its beautiful woodlands? That is what is happening to people just like you and me whether in Greece, California or Australia. This is a stark situation and I am amazed that many people will want to start New Year with a fireworks display? The thing is we have to listen to the Scientists and along the way the hearts of Putin, Trump et al have to change. But that is the rub, the hearts of all of us have to change. We need redemption. Recent political processes in Great Britain show the nastiness that lies in the human heart. Honest genuine patriotism can very easily be slid into warped hate filled nationalism. Nationalism will get the world nowhere in the face of where we are near headed. The miracle that is needed is a miracle of the heart and I would commend Jesus Christ and his Gospel and his presence today in the Holy Spirit as a power worth bending the knee too. My daughter gave me for Christmas a beautiful brand new apology for the Christian faith by Alister McGrath. And that reminded me of another book we have, all in the links below. I am an industrial archaeologist who sells out of date bus timetables married to a lovely librarian. Both of us work very hard in developing better public transport which will be essential going forward and where in the last 30 years investment (real betterment not like for like replacement) in North East England has been next to non existent. The famous industrial historian and founder of railway preservation L T C Rolt wrote one of the earliest green books - High Horse Riderless and I read it decades ago. Have a wonderful New Year Holiday and gear up for huge change in 2020!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50868717

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50938504 https://www.librarything.com/work/4544407/book/75726984 https://www.librarything.com/work/21298330/book/176892010

Mrs May will resign

This became inevitable the moment she really announced she would go. Has there ever been a longer lame duck PM in our history? Ever since she lost the 2017 election and then had a monumental defeat last autumn. Each of the those moments would have been perfect to say I am not in the right job. And she certainly is not because any of networking, compromising, gladhanding skils she certainly does not have and the situation certainly needs them. It seems very likely that the elections next week will be more bloody noses. The only question is will the centre or the far right scent victory? She apparently thinks this will scare Labour and the Tories into voting for what most seem to think is a deal in which we say goodbye to sovereignty handing it and our trade deals to the EU. Is that likely? Will the parting gift at the moment of resignation be "Oh, you are going, we will vote on the fourth go for your plan"? New faces are needed either to make a real Brexit work or to tell the nation, "you know what, you were uttely misled, we cannot do this and if we do you can say goodbye to heavy industry" (heard about British Steel this week?). Sense would say a general election or new referendum will take place and that we will learn from the Irish. Sense however in British politics has been lacking since probably 2014/15? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48304867

UN Climate Change report

I feel something should be said about climate change, so much in the news recently. But what? I do not feel I have anything systematic to say. Just a series of questions and points which may add up to something. I cannot say that the UN report or the extinction rebellion protesters have enthused me. Jamming up London's public transport certainly did not. I do not deny the reality of man made global warming. I am very taken by the thought that the world population has doubled since 1970. That cannot be remotely sustainable. For the UK my preference is a population at about the 60 million level and it should be a society which is very self sustaining and biased towards quality public transport. It is no sweat to me to ground flight. But think how many Kenyans or Egyptians would be upset by that? Will airships becomes the answer? I live in rural England and Scotland, a modern clean diesel car seems inescapable until battery power is really tops. And think of the rare metals that go into those batteries. I don't mind imported meat drying up especially from North America. But do I want to live without corned beef? And I certainly really enjoy eating Galloway beef and the other excellent options with no food miles on them that you can enjoy from Northumberland and South West Scotland. It does seem to me that the real action if change is to happen is in South America, the Trophics, Sub Saharan Africa and the Sea. Eliminating plastic from the sea is a no brainer. But telling people not to have babies is not popular. The Chinese tried to and gave up? Should they have given up? I am very relieved we only have had one child yet the animal reaction is to go forth and procreate. Sex needs to be realigned as primarily for pleasure. Many religious groups including Catholicism would struggle with the new message: the world is overfull. Malthus the priest is someone we have to listen to. Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus

Not left..........................................

I think (deliberately think rather than being certain) we will be participating in the EU elections on 23rd May. Donald Tusk is quite directly asking Britain to change its mind. How many Brits vote and how they vote is likely to be crucial going forward. I certainly will vote.

If it is news to you, the UK has been invited to stay "in" if it wants until Halloween to get things sorted! For May it is simple, that time will be used to get you to vote for the deal she has had on the table all along. However short of a miracle this will require Labour co-operation and in turn does anyone see that happening without a Custom's Union on the table?

The Custom's Union at one level makes enormous sense but it still leaves the UK handing control of large areas of its economy (the 5th largest soon to be 6th after India) to the EU without any influence against the present where we are equal partners in deciding matters. I think you have to have a huge amount of self confidence to wish to be in competition with one of the strongest cartels the world has ever seen instead of being a player shaping it.

So I think mature reflection comes back to being better off in rather than out, that is the achievement everything the post referendum period has shown us that after all, we are better off in. If you agree get to those elections.

Then there is Mrs May. She seems as happy as larry, she thinks it is right to carry on as leader for as long as the neverendingBrexit endures. She is the only guarantor of the delivery of Brexit. What a load of balloney. So much of where we are comes down to her leadership. If I was a Tory party member I would be pressing for her immediate removal forthwith. There is now time for a leadership election. I have argued for her departure for weeks or is it months despite accepting her deal for leaving is the only deal available. I stick by that: May must go.

Bogged down on the 31st March 2019

Okay it is still Brexit : after 10am on Marr, I heard something so revealing from Jane Moore Sun columnist. She was arguing that if we had voted Remain no more chaos would have followed and that by voting Leave the same logic should have been. They were both the yes/no of a binary situation. And that my dear Leaver is where it is all SO wrong. When you remain you vote for the status quo and there de facto you have to know what it means for all the shortcomings. But when you vote leave for a new situation, that is bound to be a hugely different choice. In logic, entering an undefined future is bound to involve far more potential answers than staying in stasis. That is even before you enter the real world that the EU, a massive trading partner of ours was not going anywhere because we said Leave. It is called geography. This refusal to recognise the huge flaws in the project from the outset which Gisella Stewart acknowledged and then correctly blamed on Parliament for signing off the Tory project is why we are where we are: stuck. And if you are Leave please understand that Leave could never, can never and will never mean simply Leave, not unless you wish to be in the mid Atlantic. A huge can of worms was opened in that referendum and we both said then "we're not playing" and I am so glad we did not. To have seriously entertained Leave a large number of white papers which never existed should have been written. And even after the vote, before Article 50 was signed, the studies to say what Leaving would look like could have been done. I cannot comprehend the most basic of mistakes that one after another both Cameron and May made. It seems to me most unlikely the end result is a crash out because as I think Stewart made clear and if not her another contributor, people may have thought they lived in a direct democracy, but they do not, they live in a representative democracy and that was rather ignored. I have no idea how this will end but an election is increasingly being framed, the local canvassing is certainly happening. But how that will make sense without clear remain or leave parties I have no idea. British politics is actually utterly stuck. However the best thing to do is to be patient and not advocate anything precipitate for that route brings suffering. After all the economy and the jobs market seem to plough on.

15th November 2018 Cabinet agreement

The sun is glinting on buildings down the valley. Sir Keir Starmer has just been roasted from about 0735am by Nick on R4. Labour have condemned the May deal and Nick Robinson had decided to show Sir Keir how close the deal was to Labour's stated position. That well shows the complexities immediately in prospect. I was never a fan of 2016 and in the end did not vote. From about the period of June I have said May's tack was the only show on the road. That remains the case. Behind all the froth, last night Newsnight had experts who had seen the deal, explaining why it made some sense. The Referendum debate back in 2016 showed what a hopeless instrument it was for informed debate, the same sort of process is at work now. There will be immense heat over Northern Ireland for an aspect of the agreement which is not even intended to happen. Some Brexiteers will long and work for no deal. I have never supported no deal. How that can be a happy outcome I find unfathomable. My hunch is that if you were going to have a Brexit, Mrs May's result was the likely one. It preserves jobs, gives us back some control and money, and isolates us from having influence in Europe. That is a realistic assessment. Allowing all that, many might feel we were far better off staying where we are? What happens next? In some ways May got Cabinet backing, some form of words from a hugely divided Cabinet and party. But now it is Parliament. That really does have Maths to suggest it is much more challenging. If Labour do what we are told Corbyn will tell them to do, it is lost. However Corbyn has always supported May and Brexit in key votes. Assuming the deal is not supported by Parliament, all bets are off. But what I lament is that an issue that ought never to have been an issue has been hugely divisive to the United Kingdom for years now and it ain't going away. I feel she will not win in Parliament because individuals with their own agendas will not embrace the logic of May's deal. It is what you get if you vote for Brexit, a loony position. It makes the best of a bad job. But achieving a majority in Parliament from a minority party to make the best of a bad job would seem a tall order. We go forward into the unknown buoyed up largely for today by the prospect of some sunshine.

Justine Greening's call.

It would appear even Parliament after last night is recognising a stalemate. There is Justine Greening calling for another referendum and various folks talking about crisis etc etc. What has changed? For over two years the UK has been unable to decide anything credible so what is different now? If I belonged to the ERG I would be delighted by recent events. Mrs May has not got her way post Chequers and it seems unlikely Brussels will agree to the proposal. The chances of us crashing out of the EU increase steadily and for all hard Brexiteers this must be the best solution forcing us to be independent. Yet business does not seem comfortable with this, the usual Tory partners. I rather think Mrs May's scheme is the only practical route to achieve a Brexit. What about this second referendum then? I am not calling for one. We live in a Parliamentary representative democracy. I did not have a lot of faith in the 2016 one because as was abundantly clear people could not on the information given know what they were voting about. Many thought it was about sending immigrants home the next day. So what would make another referendum better? I don't know. And why would it matter? Are we not leaving on March 19th next period? No, I think Parliamentarians have to knuckle down and sort it out. National interest comes before party and it a certain party is broken by it, so be it. And if there was another referendum how would I vote? Probably Remain because I would feel Leave has had plenty of time to show how to Brexit properly and beneficially and it has not done that. But what would voting Remain mean? Exactly where we were? Immigration was one of the strongest planks Leave had (although I note the numbers are still very high but it is now more rest of the world and less from the neighbours). Maybe we would be pressed to join Schengen or the Euro and regardless of what I think, the Brits will not buy those for a while yet. Incidentally having just come back from France I cannot work out why food (including French food) is so clearly cheaper in the UK than in France. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44855123

Boris' speech

Guess where I listened to R4 reporting Boris' speech this afternoon. Somewhere on the A75 near Dumfries. It was at the level of a second rate Oxford Union address. It did not deal with the questions of the moment. For months now everyone from business to the EU have pressed us (or the Tory government) "tell us what you want and how it will work?". Square the circle open freely moving borders including Ireland and whether leaving the EU means leaving the Custom's Union and the Common Market. Boris had no answers just Boris woffle. More speeches promised this week but do we really think any of them will have answers? I am not a remainer or a leaver. I am not Matthew Paris lying awake at night smarting from defeat. If you can, make Brexit work to our financial advantage; and if you can't, fess up to the nation over how ill led we have been. I say this with feeling because I spent the day in one of Europe's greatest strategic corridors. The Tyne Solway Gap aka as Hadrian's Wall aka the A69/75 Euroroute from the North Sea Ports to Ireland. And what is it like? You grind along surrounded by lorries from Italy, MacBurney's from Ballymena, who ever knows who from Donegal. You all get fouled up in the new roundabout at Dumfries Hospital. And so on and so forth. It is a dreadful route. Relatively speaking the Stanegate was more remarkable as was General Wade's Military Road from Newcastle to Portpatrick (a lot of which is the Euroroute but not all). What is the best reason for leaving the EU? Because we are not up to it. We have never been good at taking strategic benefit from it. Unlike the Irish, we don't how to get the EU to electrify derelict canal locks in the middle of nowhere. We muddle along because we love British amateurism. 18 months of planning for Brexit have demonstrated that. We genuinely have no idea from the Cabinet downwards how to deliver Brexit. And Boris did not enlighten. The next step..................................

Corbyn's friendship with May

If you call for staying in the Customs Union you should be blasted!!!! That is what the Daily Express and the Labour Party agree over. Not for the first time I am left saying Corbyn is May's best friend (a critic says so in the link). It would never surprise me to discover Corbyn is encouraged by May. "Hear, you have a job for life so long as you stay in "opposition" and I will help you". Opposition is about just that, so all the other opposition parties suggest a tactic Corbyn should welcome and he says No. The British Public by a very thin margin voted to leave the EU. Nothing was said on the paper about Customs Union, Common Market, although many people had their opinions. There is ample evidence many thought it was an exercise to get rid of Cameron and the government. That went off half cock. So 2018 starts with the same meaningless record. And this is why I say it is meaningless. Because although Corbyn and the Tory Right are both united in wanting as little to do with the EU as possible, they do want this for very different reasons. One wants the Freedom to build the Socialist Workers Utopia (with the railways as an example to us all), the other wants a Hard Right fantasy. One of those is going to be disappointed. One is a small number of people and a lot of money. The other is a lot of people and not much idea about money. And in between are most of us! Like the commuters trying to get to work this week (where I am not). Stuffed by intransigence, loud mouths and dogmatists. Along come some politicians who want to break through that and Corbyn says no, even though most of his MPs think Remain a good idea. Finally who realises the inception of Concorde helped fuel British distrust of Europe. I have chapter and verse for that.  See https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/901888/Brexit-News-BBC-latest-UK-EU-European-Union-Jeremy-Corbyn .

First Saturday of 2018

The first Saturday of 2018. By a thin majority the nation voted to say goodbye to our largest trading partners and 27 of our neighbours. 18 months after that vote and no-one REALLY knows how to do it. We are governed by a political party with just about 100,000 members? They are propped up by 10 Ulster MPs from the party and religious presuppostions of Ian Paisley. The most effective opposition to government comes from the SNP and its leader. Small wonder one faces 2018 in a spirit of uncertainty. If you had asked me to believe this would happen from the perspective of 1998 I would have said "Rowlocks". And above all, I don't get it, I don't understand how this has happened. And I don't know if the answer is Facebook.

Rail fares go up 2nd January 2018

Some of you will have just heard R4 with two protagonists on rail fares. Gents each from the Rail Delivery Group (who knows what that does?) and the Shadow Transport Secretary from Labour. Chris Grayling could not be borrowed to explain anything. The two who did speak were pathetic and this was based on their ignorance. The one point I heard which I think was a score was the stress on how foreign state railways benefit. It is a racket. The ignorance was for instance displayed by no-one mentioning the REPEATED failure of rail franchises. And added to it the CONSTANT changes of policy by Government. Tell me about Anglia Railways and Great Western (forgetting that serial offender East Coast) to understand this. Labour NEED to positively explain how they can do better. The guy did not. They need to say that the rail industry can only be efficient if vertically integrated and that the BR of 1993 was the most successful railway in Western Europe. All Labour needs to do is arm itself with the facts and figures of 1993 and say we will recreate British Railways as configured not for 1948 and Attlee but for 1993.

Hung Parliament

Our nation is one of the greatest nations in the World and most certainly in Europe. Viewed from the perspective of our friends and neighbours in the near Continent, this great nation seems engaged in collective long term stupidity. We want to sever relationships with our friends. At the end of the day, despite leading a very successful campaign, Labour is still a long way from government. The Tory leader (who I never felt very comfortable over) ran a terrible campaign (the visit to Eshott airfield really started to raise my eyebrows). But at the end of the day she had increased the Tory share of the vote but lost her majority. The Tories both in Parliament and the Nation remain CLEARLY the most powerful force and eclipse the Left. Yet the overwhelming power they sought eludes. Possibly because in a democracy we don't want anyone to have overwhelming power? The person who rescued the Tories was a lesbian about to marry Scot. Ruth Davidson is incredible and if you want the appealing politics of inclusivity, Mrs May should take much more advice from her than the party of the Paisleys. Do not be mistaken, the DUP are not and have never been the Ulster Conservatives. No way and never. I am not surprised Arleen Foster is relishing the idea of her politic being at the centre of British life for five years. No matter the British government is neutral with Ulster politicians to ensure the (currently broken down because of Foster) power sharing. So I think an alliance with the DUP is easily as nutty as the Referendum of 2016. We are simply as a nation not being "real". We are still pretty much unwilling to see the Referendum for what it was. We are unwilling to face down the UKIP mindset. Instead Mrs May has done her best to embrace it. I have no idea whether the proposed arrangement will last five years or a weekend. I am sure however that once Brexit negotiations start and we are forced to face the reality of saying we wish to leave the EU faced with the united 27 nations, several more wheels will depart ftom the crazed vehicle that has been British poliitics since 2014.

Our candidate called

Last night about 7.30pm, a knock on the door. It was our candidate Guy Opperman with one of Prudhoe's newly elected councillors Gordon Stewart working their way around the street. In seven years as our MP Guy has worked incredibly hard and when it comes to his willingness to meet anyone and pound the tarmac, he is faultless. He has willingly worked on railway matters with myself and colleagues. There are many reasons why he should have my vote but I will be struggling. Very little said about Brexit in this election so far but north of the Border, if the SNP receive a strong show of support, our UNION is in great difficulty over it. I think the concept of Brexit is questionable at the least. And I think the way we have set it about so far, referendum and all, is totally ridiculous. I could live outside the EU but not outside the Common Market or Custom's Union. Nuances millions would have to take time to dissect. Further, in this campaign, the Social Care issue has boiled up. Here we positively benefit from the utterly different ways Scots do things. Guy asked me how will you pay for it? My reply: not with a lottery. Pretty poor show if as a society we are not willing to share the costs and the benefits to everyone. A modern carehome boarded up a mile away is the local index to the issue.  It lies at the heart of Tory philosopy that people can work hard, improve themselves from the lottery of birth and pass that wealth to their children. A highly unpredictable death tax utterly undercuts that and in our community with its house prices will be deleterious. During the day I also met Wesley Foot who is representing the Greens. I think he is one to watch. A smart local, a businessman himself. So that leaves Labour and the LibDems. Will their candidates knock on the door? For me, the likely final point of decision will be the Prudhoe hustings 5th June 1930 in the Anglican church.

The Tories offer nothing for young and old people

Earlier this week, we were asking what do the Tories offer young people. This morning, & rather to my surprise: what do the Tories offer old people? The new manifesto is apparently about to lob a series of grenades at the older generation. A Great Christian Nation should unavoidably and indivisibly be founded on Christ's great instruction to care for those in need. The demands of old age are so variable that the only fair solution is the pooling of social care. It sounds as if we are about to fly from this and that everyone can expect in old age to have their assets reduced to £100,000. Only the filthy rich will ever hand on the wealth they have created for their children. For most people there were will be no incentive to save whatsoever. I was brought up on an utter (and I thought Tory) mantra of save and avoid debt. But of course ever since that 1983 election, it has been chip, chip chip. I said a while back that I anticipate dying in penury and some friends laughed. I am more confident than ever that if I pass the threshold of 80 this is how I will end my days; in poverty, with no wealth to give my child (whose university education I have not the faintest idea of how to pay for). All because I tried to save! If it was not for the generous social care package available in Scotland I have not the faintest idea how the last 10 years with a none too well mother in law would have been managed. The Scots do think differently. Ever since I married one, I have been told that. We are a society that cares, quizzical look at me from south of the Border, do you understand? I do. DO NOT VOTE TORY if you want a future, unless you carry half a million with you. The Brexit business has already stuffed our future for our children free in Europe and now (perhaps because she really has no idea how to pay for Brexit (hence Chancellor/PM tension yesterday)), the nation is being told, you're ordinary folk, don't try and save, just get used to reducing your expectations. Does any of this rings bells for you or am I on some strange island of my own? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39957879

Northumberland Local Election Result 2017

So what explains the Northumberland result? A nest of things, some external, some self induced created the perfect storm for Labour. I am sure the larger Brexit factor and the Corbyn leadership played a role. But they far from account for this. It must be said the Conservatives worked very hard. In Prudhoe their two candidates had been making a difference for months. In Tynedale in general the notices in the Courant affair will undoubtedly had an impact. Substantially the Valley has felt whether it comes to Roads, Planning, Schools, utterly neglected. Don't forget the Post 16 School Travel Row and that impacts beyond Tynedale. The Tories say they will re-instate the payments. A major matter through the county has been the County Hall removal. How could this make friends? Removed to a town without even a railway station or early prospect of one. Again the Tories promise to reverse this. At the end of the day the Tories cannot simply produce a majority administration and going forward it will be fascinating to see who they team with and then whether their programme retains their commitments and how they get paid for. But fair doos, I congratulate Northumberland's Tories on a great result and I look forward to hearing what Mr Corbyn has done by end of day.