Category Archives: Brexit

The curious case of the empty supermarket shelves…

18 Sunday Jul 2021

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

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This is not exactly a two-pipe problem, it’s pretty easy to guess what’s causing this, although some people will do their damndest to pretend otherwise. It’s all about Covid, apparently…

Really? Well, Covid is a global pandemic that’s hit the entire planet, so surely, other countries must be suffering the same problem, no? Here’s a few shots I took at my local Tesco supermarket today. This is a Sunday morning. The shops had all night and until 10:00 to restock and replenish before opening its doors to the public. I took the pictures at 11:50 when the place had been open for less than two hours. One of the things I was shopping for was Strawberries. Here’s where they should be. These shelves have been empty for a couple of days. The surrounding soft fruit shelves aren’t much better.

Here’s where the Tomatoes are normally on display. Spot the gaps…

Salad veg stocks weren’t looking much better either…

Good job I wasn’t after any Satsumas…

It’s not just fruit and veg either. Here’s the meat isle. Notice the gaps and low stocks.

If you wanted to drown your sorrows you’d have to be a lot more selective…

This shot tells another tale. The top self is where reserve stocks are kept that allow the shelves below to be restocked during opening hours, so that the isles can be kept free of shelf-stacking trollies. These shelves would normally be refilled every night.

This isn’t an isolated phenomenon or restricted to any one supermarket chain. I’ve just spent a week down in Surrey where we had to shop between different supermarkets because the large Sainsbury’s in Farnham looked very much like Tesco in Halifax. I’ve seen this in other towns and Cities I’ve visited too.

We’re now in the 17th month since the Covid pandemic triggered the first lockdown. Yet, in that first year during the first lockdown the only empty shelves I remember seeing in supermarkets were due to people panic buying stuff like toilet roll, pasta and hand sanitizer. Everything else was well stocked throughout, with the occasional product gap. Those shortages were soon sorted as panic buying subsided and suppliers stepped up production. This begs the question, if Covid is the culprit here, why now and not then? Why did shops manage to maintain stocks at the height of the pandemic, but not now, when tomorrow we hit the Government’s much trumpeted ‘freedom day’ and many restrictions are binned? Will we suddenly see these problems evaporate? I’ll be keeping an eye out on supermarket selves to bring photographic evidence.

Another thing we’re being told is that part of the reason for the shortage is that the existing lorry driver shortage has been made worse by the fact potential new drivers are struggling to book tests. Really? So why has this become a problem now, after 17 months of restrictions? What else had changed this year that didn’t have an impact last year? This BBC article gives a clue…

“Based on a survey of its members, the Road Haulage Association estimates there is now a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, out of a pre-pandemic total of about 600,000.

That number included tens of thousands of drivers from EU member states who were living and working in the UK.

Even before Covid, the estimated shortage was about 60,000 drivers”.

So, even if Covid hadn’t restricted driver training, there’d still be a shortage of HGV drivers because of – Brexit. The Road Haulage Association lists Covid 19 as No 6 on their list of reasons for the driver shortage. Brexit is No 2 after drivers retiring.

Oh, and don’t forget those drivers are now taking far longer to deliver produce from outside the UK because we’ve now declared customs sanctions on ourselves which means drivers spend far longer dealing with forms and other red tape. And I’m not even going to ask how much of the UK fresh produce is unavailable because the EU citizens who used to come to the UK in their 10s of 1000s to pluck and pack it are no longer here…

Now, what was it Brexiters like David Davis once said? Oh, yes…

They lied to you. They’re still lying to you. Remember that next time you go shopping and see empty shelves like this, because you won’t see them in any EU country – despite Covid.

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Brexit: a ‘game’ of consequences plays out towards the end…

01 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by in Brexit, Coronavirus, Musings, Politics

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With the planet in the midst of a global pandemic I’ve pretty much stayed away from blogging about politics, despite being sorely temped to vent my spleen at the populist stupidity on display in countries like the USA, Brazil and of course (to a lesser extent) the UK. I’ve also avoided talking about the looming deadline of Brexit. Well, haven’t most people? Their attentions have been elsewhere. The problem is, whilst everyone’s been looking elsewhere, the clock hasn’t stopped ticking and the Government has made sure of that by its mad insistence that – whatever happens – there will be no extension to the transition period, so on the 1st January 2021 we’re out, deal or no deal.

It’s becoming increasingly likely that ‘no deal’ is exactly what we’ll have…

Of course, the Governments narrative is that will be the fault of an intransigent EU. That narrative will be backed up by the Brexity newspapers like the Mail and the Express, and a lot of people will fall for it, both because they want to – and also because – if Brexit has shown one thing, it’s how ill-informed the majority of the population are about politics in general and the EU in particular.

Here’s a stark warning of what’s about to happen. You won’t find it covered in detail in most of the media – if at all. It makes too uncomfortable reading for some. This is the full text of a speech delivered (over Zoom) to Eurofi, which is a European financial think tank – by Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, yesterday;

“My sincere apologies for not being able to join you in person.

As you may know, we agreed with the UK to intensify our negotiations, starting this week. We do this to give the negotiations every chance of succeeding.
I continue to believe that an agreement is possible.

The EU will work for this.
We will remain calm, pragmatic and determined until the very end.

Because of the new negotiation agenda this week, I have had to reschedule many meetings.
But I wanted to address you this short video message all the same.

These are difficult times.
The coronavirus pandemic has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives around the world.
Global and EU economies have been hit hard.

Amid the uncertain outlook, I understand you would like clarity on the Brexit negotiations and the ongoing process for assessment of equivalences.

So let me tell you briefly where we stand on these two points.

As you know, the key instrument to regulate interactions with the UK financial system will be our equivalence regimes.
These are autonomous, unilateral tools.
And, as such, they are not part of our current negotiations.
I will come back to these in a moment.

Next to this, as part of our negotiations, we are proposing to include, in our future agreement, a chapter on financial services, in line with what we have in other Free Trade Agreements.
Our proposals would give UK operators legal certainty that they would not face discrimination when establishing themselves in the EU.
And the same for EU operators in the UK.

The UK, however, is looking to go much further. I will be blunt: its proposals are unacceptable.

Firstly, they would severely limit the EU’s regulatory and decision-taking autonomy.
For instance:

 The UK is seeking to create a legally enforceable regulatory cooperation framework on financial services in our agreement.
 It is attempting to frame the EU’s process for withdrawing equivalence decisions; trying to turn our unilateral decisions into co-managed ones.
 It wants to limit the scope of the so-called prudential carve-out.

There is no way Member States or the European Parliament would accept this!

Secondly, the UK is trying to keep as many Single Market benefits as it can.
It would like to make it easy to continue to run EU businesses from London, with minimal operations and staff on the continent.
For instance:
 It wants almost free reign for service suppliers to fly in and out for short-term stays (‘Mode 4’).
 It proposes provisions on the performance of back-office functions that could create a significant risk of circumvention of financial services regulation.
 It wants to assimilate British audit firms to European ones to meet ownership and control requirements.
 It wants to ban residence requirements for senior managers and boards of directors, to ensure that all essential functions remain in London.

Let me be clear: The UK chose to no longer be a Member State.
It chose to leave the EU Single Market and stop applying our common ecosystem of rules, supervision and enforcement mechanisms.
In particular, it refuses to recognise any role for the European Court of Justice.

These choices have consequences.
The UK cannot keep the benefits of the Single Market without the obligations.

In the EU’s view, our future cooperation should be voluntary and based on trust.
We would like to set up a voluntary framework for dialogue among regulators and supervisors that would allow for intensive exchanges on regulatory and prudential issues.
We already have well-functioning dialogues of this kind with other major financial services jurisdictions.

As for the equivalence assessment process, which is under the responsibility of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and led by experts in DG FISMA:
As you know, the Political Declaration committed us to “best endeavours” to finalise our respective assessments by the end of June.
The European Commission has therefore sent questionnaires to the UK, covering 28 areas where equivalence assessments are possible.

So far, the UK has only answered 4 of these questionnaires.

So we are not there yet.

These assessments are particularly challenging.

Firstly, because they have to be forward-looking, given the UK’s publicly stated intention to diverge from EU rules after 1 January 2021.

Last week, the UK published a paper on its future regulatory framework for financial services.
This is a useful document. We are now analysing it in detail to gain clarity on how UK rules will evolve.  But let us have no illusions: The UK will progressively start diverging from the EU framework. This is even one of the main purposes of Brexit.

Secondly, the size of the UK financial market and the very close links between the EU and UK financial systems mean we need to be extra careful.

We need to capture all potential risks: for financial stability, market integrity, investor and consumer protection, and the level playing field.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I know that many of you would like the level and ease of access to our mutual markets to remain the same.

I know that many hope our equivalence decisions will provide continuity.

Many believe that “responsible politicians” on both side of the Channel should make this happen.

But things have to change. The UK and the EU will be two separate markets, two jurisdictions.

And the EU must ensure that important risks to our financial stability are managed within the framework of our Single Market ecosystem of legislation, supervision and jurisdiction.

Having been Commissioner for financial services, I can reassure you that I know well the EU’s capital markets and the role of the UK in some parts of that market. As does Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis.

However – especially in the context of Europe’s economic recovery – we must look beyond short-term adaptation and fragmentation costs, to our long-term interests:

Building our Capital Markets Union. This means strengthening our independence when it comes to financial market infrastructures;

Further deepening the Banking Union and;

Fostering the international role of the euro.

And so, we will only grant equivalences in those areas where it is clearly in the interest of the EU; of our financial stability; our investors and our consumers.

What does this mean in practice?
It means that you need to get ready for 1 January 2021!

We now know that the transition period will not be extended.  The EU was open to an extension. But the UK refused. It is the UK’s choice.

So, 1 January 2021 will bring big changes.

UK firms will lose the benefit of the financial services passports.

This should not come as a surprise to you. We have been warning about this for the past 3 years.

Furthermore, as you know well, in some areas – such as insurance, commercial bank lending or deposit-taking – EU law does not provide for the possibility to award equivalences that would grant market access to third-country firms.
In these areas, if British firms want to provide services in the EU, they must ask for an authorisation in the EU. Or comply with all the relevant national regimes of those EU Member States where they want to continue to be active.

Nothing in the agreement that we are negotiating will change this!
These are automatic, mechanical consequences of Brexit.

If you are not yet ready for these broad changes that will take place – whatever happens – on 1 January 2021, I can only urge you to speed up preparations and take all necessary precautionary measures!

I know how mobile and dynamic the financial industry is.

I trust in its capacity to adapt to new times and continue to contribute to developing the Capital Markets Union and Single Market for financial services.

We cannot do this with regulation alone.

You all have a crucial role to play. As of now.

Let us look to the future not with fear of the unknown but with confidence in our well-regulated and supervised markets.

Thank you to all of you for your attention. And thank you, David, Didier for your invitation.

I hope to see you in person next time! ”

To recap one very important point “So, 1 January 2021 will bring big changes.
UK firms will lose the benefit of the financial services passports”.

This is going to be devastating to the UKs financial sector and it didn’t need to happen at all. Instead, it’s about to happen in the midst of a global pandemic, when firms are struggling to cope with the consequences. It is utterly, utterly mad, but it’s solely the British Governments decision and no-one else’s.

Covid 19 has caused the worst contraction to the UK economy in 41 years.

Every day we get news of more companies shutting. Today TM Lewin announced its closing all its UK stores whilst sandwich seller Upper Crust has warned 5,000 jobs could go. Yesterday Airbus announced 1,700 UK jobs will be going. The list is growing every day and Brexit is only going to make that worse. We’re the only economy that’s doing this to itself, no-one else is that stupid.

Still, all these newly unemployed folks will be able to get work abroad, won’t they? Oh, wait, the Home Secretary and Tory backbenchers are taking great delight in announcing that Freedom of Movement is ending on January 1st.

patel

If you ignore the obvious oxymoron in the first sentence, you’ll notice a glaring omission. Freedom of movement is a two way street. The Government is boasting of ending OUR freedom of movement too – and it’s worse. Much worse. The EU 27 know they’ve had their freedom of movement reduced by just one country. We’ve had ours reduced in the opposite direction. We’ve lost it to 26 nations, not 1. Yet many Britons still seem blissfully unaware of what’s about to happen – and don’t even start me on the utter stupidity of retired folk owning homes in countries like Spain and Portugal who voted Leave….

Of course, due to the Government making a mess of handling the pandemic, many thousands of Britons have already had their freedom of movement removed. Permanently.

Despite the richness of the English vernacular there simply aren’t enough expletives to describe the utter shit-show this country has become over these past few years.

Meanwhile, the political game of “look over there” is played out in Government as Johnson announces his economic ‘new deal’, comparing it to FDR’s new deal in America in the 1930s. In this deception he’s relying on an uncritical media and an ignorant public. Not only is the £5bn he’s announced peanuts in comparison, it’s not even new money. It’s yet more re-announcements of earlier spending commitments. The BBCs ‘Fact Check’ blew the whistle on this here. It makes depressing reading as the scale of Johnson’s con is laid bare. For example…

fact check

But the party faithful will lap it up, and it will work as yet another dead cat as the arguments over it detract from the unfolding coronavirus scandal and Brexitshambles until its too late.

How I wish I could get the hell away out of this mess and watch it unfold from somewhere where it had no impact on me. Sadly, we really are caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. But only one of them is truly of our own making, not that those responsible seem in the slightest bit willing to take responsibility for it. This is like being trapped in a slow motion car crash. You know the result will be awful for all those involved – including yourself – but you are utterly powerless to stop it…

 

 

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Going nowhere fast…

04 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Calder Valley, Halifax, Musings, Politics

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After yesterday’s fun and games gallivanting up and down the West and East coast main lines I’ve had a far more relaxing day catching up with work at home – with nary a real train in sight! It won’t last of course, but it makes for a pleasant interlude. You can find many of the photos from yesterday on my Zenfolio website. Follow this link to see which galleries they’ve been added to as there’s a variety. Here’s one from the end of last night, when my homeward bound Grand Central service was diverted via Hebden Bridge.

180106 working 1D95, the 19.54 from London to Bradford Interchange reversing at Hebden Bridge after being diverted.

Whilst busy editing pictures I’ve been keeping one eye on events in the wider world and the political shenanigans in the UK where we’ve been graced by the presence of the Tango’d Tw*t. Sorry, the President of the United States of America, who’s been rubbing shoulders with other NATO leaders including our very own bouffant buffoon, Boris Johnson. It seems it’s not just ridiculous hairstyles and a proclivity to misogyny the two men share, it’s also an aversion to press conferences and interviews. Both men either cancelled them or cut them short, whilst Johnson is still running scared of and hiding from a BBC interview with Andrew Neil! When these mean are classed as ‘leaders’ of the free world is it any wonder we’re in such a mess?

With all that in mind I filled in my postal vote today. Regular readers will know that I’m advocating voting tactically. There’s hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of us who see themselves as politically homeless at the moment due to the shit-shower on both the Left and Right of UK politics at present. I’ve talked to just as many Tories who’re in that position as I have Labour supporters. There’s no doubt that Brexit and the parade of the dogmatic, venal or talentless politicians that we see on either front bench right now has caused a shift from the old tribal politics. It’s just that none of us know where it’s going to lead when the dust finally settles. So far the election campaign interviews with various politicians have seen more car crashes than the Indianapolis 500. I especially like this one, with the latest in a (very) long line of UKIP leaders!

As a tactical voter I’ve had to hold my nose and consider who is best placed to keep out Johnson and help block Brexit, rather than whom I might prefer to vote for. of course, the decision’s never easy as you may end up voting against a good local candidate, but many voters are now doing what not enough MPs have – and are putting country before party (if they still feel they have allegiance to one). This went into the post tonight, sans stickers of course…

With the latest polls showing a narrowing of the gap between the Tories and Labour and distinct signs that tactical voting is starting to register it looks like we’re in for a very unpredictable election night that could very well provide some more ‘Portillo moments’. I see the Green party have now stood aside in the Chingford seat of arch Brexiter Iain Duncan Smith, who only has a slim majority in a constituency evenly split between Remain and Leave in the 2016 referendum. It’s also rumoured to be looking dicey for another Brexiter and member of the Cabinet, Dominic Raab, in his staunchly remain constituency of Esher and Walton, which would be a major turn-around. I’m not going to expect too much as one can always be let down, but I suspect many of us can think of certain dogmatic MPs who serve no useful function that we’d love to see lose their seats. I wonder if someone shouldn’t produce a Brexit Bingo card with their names on? It would certainly add to the entertainment.

If the polls continue in this vein I’d certainly recommend getting in the popcorn for the night of December 12th, along with something stronger, just in case it’s needed.

Talking of the election but on a different tangent it’s been amusing to see the dwindling band of StopHs2 Nimbys desperately trying to pretend that they’ve still got a dog in the fight and can actually swing the vote in some constituencies. The fact we’ve empirical evidence from every election since 2010 to prove this is nothing but bluster makes no difference, they’re still maintaining that fiction! Quite who they expect to fall for it – other than themselves – is a good question. here’s a classic example from Peter Deeley.

Seriously? No, it’s bluster, Deeley’s timeline reveals that he’s always been intending to vote for the Brexit party. Shame they’re not standing in his constituency, as I’ve blogged about previously here!

OK, enough of politics, I’m off to edit a few more pictures! Goodnight…

A mixture of musings…

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Calder Valley, Musings, Politics

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To misquote Kings Henry II on Thomas a Becket – ‘Who will rid me of this turbulent weather’? It’s been another bleedin’ awful day in the Calder Valley. For the umpteenth in a row we’ve had rain, fog, low cloud and the sort of depressing weather that make you want to reach for a travel brochure that features white sand beaches and palm trees. Not that there’s much chance of that at the moment, unfortunately.

To add to the general merriment we’re also slogging our way through a turgid general election campaign where you wish an option on the ballot paper would be ‘non of the above’. I received my postal ballot today and found that we have a choice of Holly Lynch, the incumbent Labour MP – whom I respect, even if I can’t stand ‘Magic Grandad’, her party leader, or some of the lacklustre people he’s put on the Shadow Front bench. Then there’s the Lib-Dems, the Tories (whose candidate lives in Lancashire!), the Greens and the Brexit party. The woman who’s paid Farage her £100 to stand for the Brexit party lives way over East in Batley and Spen, the constituency where their Labour MP, Jo Cox, was brutally murdered by a far-right extremist.

The Brexit party candidate’s name’s Sarah Wood and all I know about this young woman is that I’m getting well pissed-off with her clogging my Facebook page with adverts like this! She admits she never voted until 2015, now she expects to be elected as an MP, but I’ll be damned if even she knows what she stands for. One of her videos filmed in the local market claims the Brexit Party will scrap local business rates and replace them with a ‘small’ tax on online retailers. It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to spot the flaw in that plan! This is populist politics at its basest.

“Ready”? Ready for what? Bunging Farage a few more quid?

Well, that and the fact her replies to some of the comments on her FB adverts don’t exactly make you think she’s a political titan who’s got much of a grasp of things. You know, like reality…

I’m hoping that Wood will split the brexity vote and allow Holly Lynch to retain the seat in order to help deprive Boris Johnson of a majority. Plus, we get to keep a decent local MP, so a win all round!

How the election’s going to play out is anyone’s guess, but I’ve been heartened to see how many young people (ie, under 35) have registered to vote before the deadline closed. The potential impact this could have can’t be underestimated, because they’re the one’s who have most to lose from Brexit, and it’s clear that Conservative Party Central Office are acutely aware of this as Johnson’s lead in the polls starts to disappear. I don’t believe for a minute that Corbyn is going to sweep to power. I suspect we’ll end up with another hung Parliament, but I am hopeful that tactical voting will produce more than a few ‘Portillo moments’ (when he lost his seat in a shock result in the 1997 general election). I came across this on Twitter earlier and hope it has relevance to Halifax too…

Politics and weather aside, I’m back on the rails again tomorrow, so expect the first rolling blog for a while. I’m heading back to London to get some pictures for a magazine, then pop over to an event that I don’t want to spill the beans about just yet. The reasons for that will become clear tomorrow! Typically, the weather forecast isn’t looking great wherever I am, North or South, the only difference is that the rain will be warmer in London!

My spleen needs venting…

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Brexit, General election 2019, Politics

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So far, I’ve pretty much stayed away from the fray and restrained myself from commenting on the forthcoming general election and what ‘delights’ are on offer, but the time’s arrived when I need to vent my spleen at the political shit-show that’s being proffered.

There’s an old saying that a country gets the politicians it deserves. In which case the current crop must be fate getting its revenge for years of British colonialism and imperialism. Fate also seems to have a sense of humour, hence two of the ‘stars’ of Johnson’s Cabinet (Savid Javid and Priti Patel), the offspring of immigrants, helping make the country so unwelcome to anyone who came afterwards. The perma-smirking Patel being the classic example. You do wonder if she has an ounce of empathy for anyone. She positively revels in the idea that she’s helping deprive people of the right of freedom of movement, seeing this as something to boast about and completely ignoring the fact this isn’t really foreigners she’s depriving it of. After all, it will only be one country EU citizens will be restricted from (the UK), whilst Britons will be deprived of the same rights in 27 EU nations. Fate must be laughing like a drain…

Meanwhile, that walking, talking vanity project and illegitimate baby-factory we’ve learned to call our Prime Minister continues to show just how utterly unsuited to the great state of office he really is. Johnson spews lies like a someone born to it – which he was. His whole life has been founded on his ability to lie without thinking (or morality), despite him having been sacked twice for it by people with more honour than he has. Scandals swarm around him like flies around shit. The tragic thing? No-one seems to care. He knows he’s lying, the media knows he’s lying, most of the public knows he’s lying – but it makes not the slightest bit of difference as we’ve become so blasé about lies after three and a half years of the Brexit shambles. This is confirmation bias on a weapons grade scale and why the country’s on the verge of a breakdown – and a break-up.

Like most tragi-comedies, there are two sides, and the other is the inability of Her Majesty’s opposition to be a credible opposition. We’ve the worst Tory Government in living memory, but we’ve also the worst opposition too. Any opposition worth its salt should be streets ahead in the polls right now. Instead, ‘Magic Grandad’s’ Labour party is trailing – badly – but his acolytes just don’t care. They’re more concerned about the ‘purity’ of the party rather than the country they think they can/should lead. It’s the ultimate political clusterfuck as with our First Past The Post (FPTP) system it’s almost impossible for anyone else to break the two-party system.

The best we can hope for is for people to vote tactically, to deprive the Tories of a majority and prevent the hard Brexit that’s clearly their goal. This means we’ve all got to hold our noses and vote with our heads, not our hearts. Will it happen? I don’t know, all I can do is encourage people to do exactly that. If we do, the future could look very different. If we don’t – then the future looks bleak. A new Conservative Government with a workable majority and with Johnson at the helm will ruin this country. I doubt the union will survive, but then as a few polls have pointed out, the hardline Brexiters care more about delivering Brexit and would be happy to see the break-up of the UK as a consequence. The fact most of them can’t agree what Brexit actually means matters not. This is a cult…

The December election is going to be the most important one since World War 2, but it seems clear many people are bored with it already, despite what it could mean for their future, or their children’s future. We’re an old, complacent democracy with a population who’re more interested in what’s on TV than who governs them. Whatever happens, I fear this is not going to end well…

Crazy anti Hs2 campaigner of the week. No 23.

04 Monday Nov 2019

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I didn’t expect to be bringing this back twice in a week, but then we’re in general election mode which has thrown up all sorts of nonsense, not least from the anti HS2 camp who’re really making me laugh!

The latest exponent of this craziness is one Peter Deeley, an ardent Brexiter (funny how so often being pro Brexit and anti Hs2 goes together, Ed). Deeley is a former Parish Councillor in Boddington which is in the Daventry constituency. You can find him on Twitter as @PDeeley. He’s always been one of those who’re opposed to HS2 who never lets fact get in the way of fiction, especially when it come to claiming how many people actually oppose HS2! If you believed his rambling tweets, the whole country’s united in opposition to HS2! Here’s one of the latest examples, as Deeley tries (and fails) to get people to retweet him.

This was yesterday. Since then, Deeley’s been on a continuous and tedious loop with the same basic tweet and getting nowhere fast as no-one’s interested. But how can this be? Deeley claims there’s “hundreds of thousands” of potential Tory voters willing to switch allegiance because of HS2!

Really? Where?

Well, not in his own constituency for a start! Here’s how many in Daventry signed the last StopHs2 petition which finished last week.

Just 100 signatures, or 0.101% of the 99,130 constituents in Daventry. So where are these ‘hundreds of thousands’ then? They exist only in Deeley’s fevered imagination! That ridiculous petition only got 24,079 signatures, nowhere near ‘hundreds of thousands’. Nor have their been any sign of all these people in a single election since 2010. This is the stupidity of these people, it’s pure bluster and it’s so easy to disprove you have to wonder what the hell’s the point? Who do they think they’re fooling other than themselves?

Of course, there’s the usual hypocrisy at large here. Whilst claiming he’d vote Tory if Johnson releases the Oakervee report, Deeley’s not clever enough not to have let the cat out of the bag in his own Twitter feed. His intention’s always been to support the Brexit party, no matter what.

There’s a double irony here. The MP for Daventry is one Chris Heaton-Harris, a Brexit zealot and member of the European Research Group and former group Chair! But then when have these Brexiters ever made sense?

Talking of Farage and the Brexit party, it’s a great shame the man has declared that he’s not going to stand in any constituency in this election as we’ll be deprived of the pleasure of seeing him beaten for the eighth time. Of course, the Brexit party are only Farage’s latest vehicle for his ego, and it’s certainly the strangest. It’s very much his party as it has no national executive or structure, everything is in his control, right down to him charging folk £100 a head for the chance to get on the list of candidates. To say the whole process is bent and the antithesis of democracy is an understatement, but then it’s typical that the people who bang on about the EU being ‘undemocratic’ are the biggest hypocrites.

These are the people that fantasists like Deeley are in bed with. Is it any wonder no-one takes these StopHs2 keyboard warriors seriously anymore?

Back in the UK, sadly…

29 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

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After a wonderful few days in Belgium and the sanity of being in a country that’s not tearing itself apart both politically and economically, I’m back in Brexit Britain where the madhouse continues.

The good news? We’re not leaving the EU on October 31st and Johnson’s not going to end up dead in a ditch (appealing as that idea may be to more than a few people). The bad news? In an act of monumental political stupidity, ‘Magic Grandad’ Jeremy Corbyn has given Johnson exactly what he wanted and has agreed to a December general election, claiming that he’s succeeded in getting a ‘no-deal’ Brexit taken off the table. It’s nonsense of course. Instead, he’s now mixed up Brexit (but no second referendum) with a general election. A general election he cannot win. What the fall-out from this will be is incalculable, as the old political tribal allegiances have completely broken down. All we do know is that there’s going to be a lot more MPs around that won’t be from either the Tory or Labour party. My sincere hope is that Corbyn’s just signed his own political death-warrant, but the problem is the collateral damage to the country his decision to agree to an election could cause.

Make no mistake, this is going to be a very nasty campaign. The Brexiters are going to throw everything at winning this and getting their ultimate aim, a no-deal Brexit, and Corbyn’s just handed them that opportunity. The only thing the rest of us can do now is vote tactically for any anti Brexit candidate who has the best chance of winning. What we also need is for an outbreak of common-sense and willingness to co-operate between the anti Brexit parties so that they don’t split the vote with competing candidates, the way the Brexit party is offering to with the Tories.

Whilst the parties haggle over the exact date of the election (December 9th or 12th) there’s only one thing looking certain, whenever the election is, it’s going to be a rollercoaster night. Many Remainers are sick to the back teeth of Corbyn’s shenanigans and they’ve no trust in the man left at all. At the same time Johnson has made Teresa May actually look competent!

It’s going to be a cold Christmas…

Bojo the clown? There’s nothing remotely funny about Johnson.

26 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Musings, Politics, Uncategorized

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As I predicted, there were angry and heated scenes in Parliament yesterday. MPs from all sides expressed their disgust at the behaviour of Johnson and his Cabinet coterie. Some, like Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman (a man I normally have little time for) didn’t mince their words.

The whole proceedings were a deeply unedifying spectacle, more so because of the complete contempt Johnson and his clique showed for both Parliament, the Judiciary and democracy itself. The final straw for many was Johnson’s clear disdain for female MP’s worries about him stoking up tensions and his attempt to co-opt the spirit of the murdered MP for Batley and Spen, Jo Cox, by claiming enabling Brexit would honour her memory.

I met Jo Cox once. At a station adoption event in Batley. Jo was very kind and helpful to my wife Dawn as it was Dawn’s first public speaking event representing her company, ACoRP. After that meeting I was convinced Jo would have gone far, maybe even all the way to the top. She was clever, witty and engaging. She also knew how to make things happen. What I do know is that Jo would have been horrified by Brexit and done everything she could to fight it. Johnson using her is typical of the man. Let’s face it, he has a long history of using and exploiting women. He has no moral compass whatsoever. The only thing that matters to him is his own ambition.

But don’t fall into the trap of thinking Johnson’s unapologetic performance and stoking of outrage yesterday was accidental. It was anything but. It was straight out of the Steve Bannon playbook, the one Trump keeps under his pillow.

Johnson’s trapped himself. His arrogance, willingness to lie fluently and lack of a moral compass have got him (and us) into this mess. Politically he’s a dead man walking, caught in a mire of his own making. He’s impotent as he has no majority so he’s at the mercy of others. He’s swinging in the wind like the famous picture on that zipwire. The only way out of it that he sees is to trigger an election – hence his behaviour. He wants a vote of no confidence – anything that will trigger an election that he thinks he still has a chance of winning. That’s why he’s trying to goad everyone, be they Labour, women MPs or even his own backbenches.

But remember the old Chinese saying. Revenge is a dish best eaten cold. Johnson’s problem is that others remember that saying too and are happy to give him enough rope…

Postscript.

Since I wrote this Parliament has voted to refuse to suspend itself during the Conservative party conference. It’s yet another humiliation for Johnson, who’s faced with being at the conference or in Parliament. Ten of the former Conservative MP’s Johnson withdrew the whip from voted against the motion. Remember what I said about revenge?

Rolling blog: Wednesday mixture.

25 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Politics, Railways, Rolling blogs, West Yorkshire

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14:30.

I’ve already had a varied day at home, sorting out a selection of pictures for my show at tonight’s Bradford Railway Circle title “from contraction to expansion” which will take a look at the way the railways fortunes have changed in the last few decades. I’ve also been sorting out pictures for a couple of clients. Now it’s time to escape the house for a few hours as I make my way over to Bradford. After the torrential rain we had yesterday things are brightening up, we’ve actually got some sunshine to keep the dark clouds that are looming company. Hopefully, I might even be able to get a couple of decent pictures on my travels.

It’s not just over the Calder Valley where the weather’s stormy. I’ve just been watching some of the proceedings in the reconvened Parliament. To say that some MPs are angry is an understatement! I expect more thunder and lightning when Johnson appears at the Dispatch Box later this afternoon. This would make great theatre if the consequences for the rest of us weren’t so damned serious. All will be revealed later, but don’t expect Johnson to have any answers, or apologise for breaking the law.

15:56.

It looks like I made a mistake in trusting the weather forecast, which said we’d be getting some sunshine this afternoon. This was the view as I headed up the hill from home earlier. That’s more rain heading my way, not ‘sunny spells’! I managed to walk to the station without copping for more than coating of drizzle, but this is hardly ideal weather for photography…

17:00.

As often happens, once I left the valley behind the weather picked up. Not so much in Bradford, but I decided to sally forth to Shipley once more to kill some time and add to my gallery of CAF built Class 331 shots. For once, everything fell right with the two sets in traffic following each other on Skipton services, one from Leeds, the second from Bradford.

Now I’m making a move back to Bradford to try and grab a few more shots before heading out to my show. If only the weather was like Saturday, when for a few brief hours we returned to the summer!

18:10.

I’ve managed to bag a few library images. Nothing special as the weather wasn’t playing ball, but useful nonetheless. I also had the opportunity to see how recent track alterations have cut out conflicting movements to allow trains from Leeds and Halifax to arrive simultaneously. Now I’m waiting for my train out to Low Moor, the sole station between Bradford and Halifax that reopened in 2017. I’ve never visited before but now I have an excuse as it’s the nearest station to tonight’s venue.

18:32.

My train to Low Moor is being worked by my old friend, the e-Pacer!

23:21.

The show seemed to go well, although it’s always slightly unnerving when you have such a famous railway photographer as Brian Morrison in the audience. No-one fell asleep, there were several questions and I was invited back! I’m very lucky that my line of work gets me to places the public don’t normally see, so it’s always great to be able to share the pictures and anecdotes with aporeciative people. Heading back from Low Moor the e-Pacer arrived again to take me back to Halifax and I’m now home and ready to call it a day.

There’s another busy day ahead of ne tomorrow, plus an early start in order to fit everything in. Watch this space…

Breaking: Britain officially downgraded from being a banana republic.

24 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Brexit, Politics

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As if three and a half years of putting up with the brexitshambles wasn’t enough! Seeing our once proud country descend into third-world levels of political incompetence and corruption, whilst our two main political parties are run by a coterie of politicians whom you wouldn’t trust to run a bath, never mind a country. Whoever suspected that such an old democracy as our could fall into this state so easily? But that’s complacency and being stuck in the past for you.

Today, we’ve reached peak shambles. The Supreme Court’s 11 judges have unanimously ruled that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. In a pitiful response, John accused the judges of trying to ‘frustrate’ Brexit – completely forgetting his own narrative that prorogation was absolutely nothing to do with Brexit in the first place. In just a couple of months in office, Johnson’s lost his first six Commons votes in a row, broken the law by suspending Parliament and misled the monarch. Even some die-hard Tories must be wondering how on earth they managed to back someone who is so clearly incompetent, but then they ignored the fact the man was a proven serial liar in the first place. To make matters worse, another scandal has broken over Johnson’s relationship with a former American model, Jennifer Arcuri, when he was Mayor of London – only this time it’s not just about illicit bedroom activities, this is about real allegations of corruption, the abuse of office and also misuse of taxpayers money. This is serious stuff.

Meanwhile, the cult of Corbyn has made a resurgence at the Labour party conference where it’s like a revival of the 1970s. Composite votes that are passed (or not passed, the result kept changing) by a simple show of hands look bizarre in the 21st century. The end result was to pass a Brexit policy that will have Remainers abandoning the Labour party in droves. It was a classic political stitch-up the hard left have practised for years. This wasn’t the longest suicide-note in history, but it was certainly written on the same paper! Anyone thinking Labour may just have been rediscovering a semblance of looking like a party fit for Government has been sadly disabused.

God only knows what our friends in Europe are thinking as they watch this shit-show unfurl. We’re beginning to make Italy look like a model of political stability. Where the hell is this going to end? I have no idea. I’m no lover of Johnson, but even I didn’t think he could be this politically inept. His predecessor, Teresa May, was the first Prime Minister to be found in contempt of Parliament. Johnson’s gone “hold my beer” and has been found to have illegally shut-down Parliament – and misled the Queen! And, he’s still saying he’ll break the law to crash us out of the EU without a deal on October 31st!

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow has announced an immediate recall of Parliament. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of angry scenes in the chamber when it is, and I can’t imagine Johnson having anything other than a very rocky ride from all sides of the house. He won’t be able to cope. His lack of attention to detail and the fact he lies so easily (despite the consequences) will ensure that.

We’ve now gone from a fiddled referendum into the brexitshambles and now added a full-on constitutional clusterfuck to the mix – and no-one looks like they’re in any position to pick up the pieces.

Welcome to Britain in 2019.