Zelensky vs POTUS

President has just victim shamed one of the poorest, humblest and most abused European nations since Czechoslovakia in 1938. 

I dare you to call yourselves leaders of the free world ever again. 

Trump had just condoned the entire Russian campaign

What is next? Hold your heads in shame United States of America.

Your

Mark my words 

This is the day the US sold the free world down the river

Ukraine vs. US (Wasn't that supposed to be USSR?)

From the outset Europe were terrified of Trump in power again. Recent events surrounding the Ukraine have only served to justify that fear and double down on the idea of Trump representing the end of 80 years of peace and prosperity in western Europe. 

Perhaps We in Europe should view the last 80 years as evidence that US governments despised communism more than they cared for democracy. Abroad that is. So now communists don't exist (maybe) The US does not see the need to act as defender of last resort to western democracy in Europe. Since it only wanted to halt the march of communism rather than defend the right of Europeans to self determination and freedom of expression etc etc. 

Has Trump just sold Europe down the river? Putin has written of his preference to re absorb the Baltic States.  Does this mean that reaching for the Baltic is in the Kremlin mission plan? Maybe. Putin has released an essay talking of the illegitimate nature of sovereign states in the recent past. I cannot find websites to pieces about this however. There are significant Russian speaking communities in these states and it is thought the Kremlin can use their defence as an excuse to invade.

So where are we.

Well lets take a look in from a different perspective

Russia is largely advancing in on Ukraine. But at a cost. Throwing Russian people under the bus in the name of strategic victory is a concept well known in Russia. From Napoleon to Hitler the Kremlin has been more than willing to barricade Russian territory with the bodies of it's citizens. But something is beginning to give at the Kremlin. Perhaps it is the economic sanctions, perhaps it is the loss of life, perhaps both. However Russia is not so close to its knees that it will come cap in hand to the European powers asking for peace. I think it does want some form of peace because the "special operation" is dragging and enjoying mission creep.

My belief is that, no matter what the belligerence of the Ukraine government is, this war is taking an enormous toll on everything Ukrainian. Population, infrastructure  you name it. 

Whilst I support propping up the Kyiv government any sane human being must be asking themselves just what is it we are asking them to do? Europe and US are providing arms to help defend Kyiv but we must ask ourselves if that support is not part of the problem. I am not a Putin appeaser but Ukraine is by far taking the biggest brunt of this war and just maybe stopping the fighting whilst there is still some Ukraine left is no bad thing.

And Russia knows this. So it is still largely in a position of power. 

Trump has at least got the Russians to the negotiating table. An opinion of this is that Trump has offered Putin an off ramp, one which he is prepared to accept. It does not require him to about face or apologise. It saves face.

Let us hope this was Trumps plan all along. The ties with Europe are actually too strong so we can take it and still remain long term friends. Let us hope that Trump knows what he is doing and that what Russia ends up signing for is a lot less than they bargained for.

But at least they are talking.

The Trump administrations public demand for a deal on Ukrainian mineral wealth is, quite frankly despicable. We will negotiate for you and about you but only if you hand over the family jewels.

Time will tell

One and a half million homes!!

th February)UK House Building 

This morning (Sunday   the Labour Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor has re iterated the governments drive to build 1.5 million homes before the next general election, The interview can seen here for the next few months on BBC iPlayer. I don't intend to spend any time on the what was said. What was said was pretty much what the government wanted us to hear. Go check it out for yourselves. What I do want to do is provide a little context to the debate. 

The concern among many commentators is that, currently, the next generation of home owners have been priced out of the market and that the current "business model" for home ownership and for personal savings etc is building on feet of clay. The pitfall being that without a constant supply of first time buyers eventually all the home owners will die off and with the laws of supply and demand so will the housing prices. This in turn will affect those who have taken out mortgages that require paying back up 3 times what was borrowed in the first place.  They will have borrowed on the basis of constantly rising house prices and that they would get some kind of return on their payments. If that is not the case the whole concept of banking in this country could  be thrown into turmoil as mortgages will become deeply unattractive. 

There are many reasons that house prices have risen the way they have. But London is the focal point  or epicentre. House prices in London have been going of the charts since the 1970's at the very least. probably longer. People, mostly the middle classes have been moving to the suburbs since the 1920's and so called "new towns" like Basingstoke and Milton Keynes have been developed in the post WW2 period. 

I blame this nations and London's move to being a financial services led economy. London always was an important banking centre but since Thatch in the 80's and the so called big bang.

I dont want this blog post to get anymore turgid than it needs to be so I will sum up

The reason the Government is going to fail is not that it lacks ambition or even wont be because it can or can't effect changes in planning law.

It will be because builders are building the wrong type of houses. 

It's not their fault. Housebuilders are all in the same financial straightjacket we all are. The houses that make the most money are the up market detached houses. Executive housing for want of a better word. Too expensive to new buyers. Also much less dense housing that starter homes. 

An estate of typical starter homes would be limited to 20/21 houses an acre. Executive houses fit about 5/6 houses per acre. So a third as dense. No matter how much extra land the Government gets to release to builders, the builders will most likely only stick on much more profitable larger houses. Therefore the situation will not improve as the new houses will still be out of reach of new buyers

I know developments by and large are forced to create 10% of their estates as affordable homes but is that enough?

Instead of changing planning laws, for instance, Would the government be better served to force t construction industry to build only affordable housing? Like when councils used to do it? 

Farage vs Starmer

 European Wanderings

There are more blunderings in the right wing press from our own Right Honourable Nigel Farage MP 

Not content with making us work with one arm behind our backs as the Brexit farrago makes it more difficult for our small to medium businesses to do what they do in Europe, he is now trying to cosy up to Trump (has been since the first time around) and is telling the British PM to concentrate on the trade deal with US. 

Since the UK does far and away the most trade with Europe it only makes sense that the Prime Minister should be re working or at least making an attempt to mitigate the disaster that is now Brexit.

Not getting caught up in Trumps trade war is attractive but Trump is an ace negotiator and I don't think anyone in ministerial circles could match him. Westminster has not had a good track record of managing these things. 

We might well come to an accommodation with the US but you can bet your bottom Euro that the US will come out on top of any negotiated settlement.

We would still need to improve our relationship with Europe as it is costing our exporters and, just as important, our food importers time and money.

Beware US food imports! Currently US meat and diary uses too much anti biotics and chemicals than we currently allow in our food chain. The US Dairy industry is one of the biggest in the world. 

Beware A deal with Trump. Not because he is unfair or unreasonable just much bigger. More importantly ignore anything Farage says if only because he said it

What next UK plc?

I started this blog some 14 years ago, just as this country was rejecting New Labour in favour of Old Conservatives. I would lay many of today's ills at the foot of the government that came to power. The power sharing agreement of Conservatives and Lib Dems. The country was fed a diet of "got to get our house in order.." alluding that this country was a household with one too many credit cards and IOU's to its name. We can't print money you know. So it went on. 

The big upshot of this was that the government ran up massive IOU's disguised as Quantitative Easing and which amounted to the Bank of England printing money hand over fist. 

I dont want to get mired down in this too much. QE as it became known was the only method of maintaining good order in the financial markets that was used by the government. It may not be unconnected but this enabled quite a lot bonuses to be paid to our bankers whilst all other areas of public life were starved of funds.

The staffing crisis in the NHS is directly drawn from the fact that staff didn't receive a fair pay rise for at least 7 years post 2010. I railed against these decisions on this very blog. 

After 14 years of Conservative blundering and yes I do mean blundering, the Brexit debacle, HS2, Covid 19 response and now the long recession. Never mind Boris Johnson! Liz Truss anyone? We have at last come full circle and are "welcoming" in a Labour government. That promptly went and dropped manure all over our old folk to name but one group usually aided by Labour.

Plus ça change

They have 5 years to recover their reputation. If they can get the economy growing again some might be forgiven. They do not look like they have a plan however

Watch and wait

Conservative jiggery pokery

There can be no doubt now that the UK is in need of a general election. The Conservative party has made us all look like chumps, at home and abroad. To shuffle one incompetant Prime Minister (albeit the only one actually elected as such) for another incompetant one and then foist a third on us, just shows how much contempt they have for their constituants. 

It currently looks like no one is capable of governing parliament but due to the size of the current majority it is unable and most certainly unwilling to go to the polls. Turkeys and Christmas come to mind. 

What this country needs however is A leader not lots of them, a revolving door of clowns and incompetants!

It is time for the conservatives to go. I would not shed a tear if they disappeared for good. Right wing politics has run its course and shown to be woefully short on common sense. All for one and....well all for one really. 

I hope this shone a light on the crass pretensions and fallacies owned by the right wing politicians. Many of whose policies have brought us to this sorry state. 

Labour can surely be no worse

The Johnson heirloom

It should be noted by every voter in this country that the Conservative party faithful have no interest in the current cost of living crisis 

Fact : From day one the election babble emanating from the Tory hopefuls has  been all about tax cuts and almost nothing else. When pushed candidates say they will fo "something" when in power, for the energy bills, but are frighteningly low on detail.

If this is the behaviour that wins votes in Conservative circles it demonstrates that no one with voting rights has a "Scooby Doo" about what it is like to live in modern Britain.  They must be so protected from the fiscal straight jacket  that is about to wrapped around every household in this country. Their one need from an incoming Prime Minister is to allow them to keep as much money for themselves the rest of us can freeze to death.

With this evidence of the selfish and greedy nature of Conservative groupies how do they manage to be the dominant political party in this country?

Beware the incoming Prime Minister. If he or she only panders to its elite pals the Conservativd party may well tip us into a winter of discontent that will make that of the late 1970's look like a tea party. 

It will not be the end of the world, quite, but it may prevent the Conservatives holding power for a long long time

Every cloud has a silver lining i suppose