All politics is local (Pt.2)

+The Titanic battle to save Scarborough, England’s first resort and Queen of the Yorkshire coast is now well under way as campaigning for the new town council ramps up. So far I’ve had two leaflets, one from the Tory and one from Reform. Reform are pledging to ‘stop the boats’ which is perhaps not the best kind of commitment given that we have a harbour. They also want to ‘scrap net zero to cut your energy bills,’ showing us once again that as far as Fartage’s party is concerned future generations can go to hell. I would be quite happy to see ‘net zero’ scrapped—if it meant stopping the many eco-cons it disguises. Reform’s two candidates are totally unknown. It would appear that they live at 124 City Road London EC1V 2NX. By way of contrast, the Tory candidate who lives a couple of doors away in my street is well known and active in the community and she contradicts Reform’s abandonment of our children’s future saying ‘We owe it to our successors to leave this place a little better than we found it,’ referring to the harbour but applicable as a general principle. Should I do the neighbourly thing and vote Tory for the first time in my life? It’s only a parish council after all. I shall have to wait and see if any other leaflets drop through the letterbox.
 
+It was reported today that personal credit in the UK has now reached a new peak, any downturn in borrowing after the pandemic has been fully reversed and then some. And with emails dropping into my inbox like this, it’s good to know that I could make a significant contribution (?) to the country’s debt pile: ‘People with a credit score like yours are typically seeing up to 67 credit cards they're eligible for when they search with us. Want to see how you compare? Search now to see how many cards you're likely to be accepted for - it won't have any impact on your credit score.’ (Experian) Compare? Or compete? I’m afraid Experian has yet to recognise my strict fiscal rule, which I will not deviate from. I call it Securonomics.
 
+Lest any readers think that my rejection of Starmer’s LINO is 100% it is not, quite. Recalling Parliament today to introduce a bill to protect the future of the UK’s last virgin steel maker in Scunthorpe was the right thing to do. Apparently it is not a full nationalisation, but criminal penalties will be applied to the Chinese owners if they don’t comply with the government’s wishes. Could this herald a shift in industrial policy? The Tory opposition described the government’s action as a ‘failure,’ forgetting that the problems in the steel industry have been brewing for years. And let’s not forget under whose government Redcar closed down.