+I feel a certain sense of inevitability about this. Following the BBC’s decision (under the cosh from the Tories) to limit free over-75s TV licenses to those on means tested benefits, I have received a missive from Cycling UK (formerly the Cycling Touring Club, CTC) that from next year it is withdrawing its over-65s concessionary membership rate. I expect other organisations of which I am a member to follow suit, as the wellspring of resentment against ‘rich pensioners’ gathers momentum. It may be argued that age related concessions used to be offered because pensioners were poor—nothing to do with the possibility that after decades of normal contributions a little relaxation was in order as people entered the autumn (sniff) of their lives. It is now becoming the common theme (if it isn’t already) that pensioners are a bunch of freeloaders, who got their degrees for nowt, paid off their mortgages, went on cruises and generally need to be punished for being the architects of a world headed into one crisis after another. When it suited the commentary, ‘baby boomers’ were the blessed generation who having survived post-war rationing helped develop the liberal economies which hailed the ‘end of history.’ Well, that’s all buggered, and a younger generation wants payback. As regards the Cycling UK proposal to cease offering pensioners an automatic discount, I shall vote against it. The increase takes membership from £30 to £48. They should cherish their older members. We’re a dying breed.
+I have discovered today what Labour currently stands for: Inquiries. Absent any significant policies of our own, since anything that is branded ‘JC’ had to be ditched, our stance now is to call for inquiries into anything and everything Johnson’s shite government fails to deliver. Today it was the failure to deliver 50 million PPE masks. Why do we need an inquiry? We know the answer already. It is time, five or six months into this pandemic for Starmer and Co to say how things would have been dealt with differently by Labour. It is not inspiring sitting behind somebody who only knows how to ask questions, and not provide answers.
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This will not be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve just watched a 37-minute attempt at an interview with Trump, available here. The main thought that came to mind was ‘God help us.’ But that comes as no surprise. What perhaps was of passing interest was the effort made by the interviewer, a chap called Jonathan, to try to get the President to answer questions. Wishful thinking on that score. The interview has been widely reported, not least that Trump wished Ghislaine Maxwell ‘well’ - practically referring to her as an old friend (pity she won’t be tried and convicted whilst he still has the power to pardon her). What hasn’t been reported was Trump’s repeated remarks that Jeffrey Epstein may have died as a result of homicide. He clearly intended his well wishes to Maxwell to imply that she too might meet a grisly end in a state penitentiary. Given that Trump is so routinely thick one wonders whether he blurted out a known unknown, an unknown known, an unknown unknown or merely something he dimly remembered seeing in an intelligence briefing. No, that’s asking too much.
+A coalition of green groups has called for the banning of adverts for ‘Sports Utility Vehicles’ (SUVs). Well, join the club! A dozen or so years ago whilst in parliament I sought the introduction of tobacco-style warnings on car adverts, but the environmental movement paid no attention. I am now reminded that in practically every sphere of life there is a degree of proprietorialism, which is to say ‘If I didn’t think of it first, nobody else is allowed to think of it.’ This has been the undoing of the great Aubrey Meyer, whom I along with other MPs nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the origination of the Contraction and Convergence approach to tackling climate change. Because they hadn’t thought of it first, many green groups shied away from it, even denounced it. But none ever came up with a better plan. And poor old Aubrey was made a pariah for his (unpaid) troubles.
+We might do well to remember that the American invention of SUVs had everything to do with simple tax evasion. They were designed to take advantage of tax loopholes for vehicles which might be classed as semi-commercial. If I could have my way, all SUVs, e.g. in supermarket car parks should be forced to park together. In standard sized parking spaces. +I read in the Guardian this morning that the champagne grape growing season has been particularly good this year, and that there is likely to be some crop left to rot since there is already a surplus of champagne in stock. The growers are up in arms that they will be forced to see so much waste. And the brand name producers don’t want to see their prices fall. In the end, the French government may have to intervene to dictate the terms of what is allowed to happen in what you may have thought might be a free market. But the French have their traditions. One of which is that ‘good’ champagne must never cost less than £60 a bottle, and God forbid it ever becomes as commonplace as Prosecco. There is a certain irony in that the iconic symbol of free market excess is itself unable to function in a free market. Were it not for state intervention, I suspect we’d be looking at the £5 bottle of champagne. But if that was the price, would it have any more cachet than a bottle of Lambrusco? At that price no self-respecting quaffer would want to touch it. +Trump’s call for the 2020 elections to be postponed is as even some on his own side agree, thoroughly anti-democratic. We on this side of the Atlantic can see that quite clearly, and may scoff at yet another iteration of the President’s desire to become King. But with Johnson appointing 36 cronies and turncoats to the House of Lords—already one of the world’s largest legislative chambers, it would be well to remember that we already have somebody who thinks and acts as if he were a King. Or perhaps Johnson is merely trying to demonstrate how urgent the case is for the abolition of the House of Lords. I hope rubbing shoulders with this latest bunch of unworthies gives longer serving peers a burning sense of injustice.
+The BBC is in an awkward situation today, with the new system for giving some pensioners a free TV license starting—such freebies are now only available to those on pension credit. The government blames the BBC for this cut, when of course it originated from their own austerity programme. The BBC should promote the take-up of pension credit, enabling more pensioners then to get a free TV license. But if they did that, it would only cost them more in lost license revenue. On the other hand, a successful campaign could be revenge served cold. It is estimated that 1.6 million pensioners are missing out on claiming an average of £1,700 each (Wikipedia). If all those pensioners claimed, it would cost the government £2,720,000,000—rather more than the £750,000,000 the parsimonious Tory bastards cut from the BBC. +Today is Yorkshire Day. Independence for Yorkshire! |
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