#Brexit an update. Horizon.

I post this as a firm supporter of Brexit. Remember Project Fear - how it was all going to collapse. Remainers blame Brexit for a drop in GDP etc and try to pretend any subsequent economic down turns were/are being suffered by the UK alone. Of course this is a complete fallacy. Covid has had a massive economic impact across the world and especially in the EU. There is also the damage caused by the war in the Ukraine and the impact that has had on power costs particularly. UK is now doing better than much of the EU and also the EU is more and more (as predicted) realizing that trying to cut the UK out (for voting to have democratic autonomy again) - it is cutting off its EU nose to spite its EU face (so to speak). Unnecessary trade barriers are reducing. See Horizon below :

The UK is to rejoin the EU's flagship scientific research scheme, Horizon, the government has announced.

UK-based scientists and institutions will be able to apply for money from the £81bn (€95bn) fund from today.

Associate membership had been agreed as part of the Brexit trade deal when the UK formally left the EU in 2020.

However, the UK has been excluded from the scheme for the past three years because of a disagreement over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "With a wealth of expertise and experience to bring to the global stage, we have delivered a deal that enables UK scientists to confidently take part in the world's largest research collaboration programme.

"We have worked with our EU partners to make sure that this is the right deal for the UK, unlocking unparalleled research opportunities, and also the right deal for British taxpayers."

Thursday's announcement also states that the UK will associate to Copernicus, the EU's £8bn (€9bn) Earth observation programme. Britain will not, however, be rejoining a nuclear research alliance known as Euratom R&D, although there is an agreement to cooperate specifically on nuclear fusion.

In a press release, the European Commission said that the decision would be "beneficial to both" and stated that "overall, it is estimated that the UK will contribute almost €2.6bn (£2.2bn) per year on average for its participation to both Horizon and Copernicus.

A Twitter (X) post from Andrew Neil today (29/09/2023) :

Apologies for spoiling the morning for so many on Twitter. BUT:

UK economy is now bigger than before the Covid-19 crisis. Indeed UK growth higher than Germany and France, new revisions to official data reveal.

GDP 1.8% per cent larger than final months of 2019 (ONS). Britain’s GDP reached its pre-Covid size way back in the final months of 2021.

So much for being worst performing economy in the G7, which is actually Germany, whose economy is about the same size as before the pandemic. UK has also outpaced France, post-pandemic.

UK growth still nothing to write home about. But that's true of almost every major economy post-pandemic.

As I say -- apologies. I know how much this will upset so many of you. But cheer up. The weekend beckons . 

#LibDems an article by Madeline Grant

I have been wanting to write a blog about the danger of voting Lib Dem. They are an appalling bunch. Their main characteristic is they will do or say anything to get a vote. The sad thing is some people fall for it. Now and again when the ballot box falls right for them they can hold a balance of power. - a hopeless outcome in every respect for our nation.

I came across this article today written by Madeline Grant (in the Telegraph).

The article says everything I want to say about Ed Davey and his party. As such I have copied and pasted it as a short cut : 

The Lib Dems are an increasingly unfunny joke

The party could again be political kingmakers, but they’ve given up on their true liberal traditions

Politics, it was once said, is showbiz for ugly people. I’ve always thought that wasn’t quite right: politics is more accurately a sort of holding pen for the deeply weird. Socialising for people without social skills. And even by the standards of us dweebs and nerds who follow politics closely, the Lib Dems must take the palm for lameness.

They are like a party made up entirely of odd uncles. There are the excruciating by-election stunts, whose cringe factor has to be sent to Cern for calculation; running into a stack of blue hay bales with a big orange tractor, smashing a blue wall with an orange hammer, popping a “Boris Bubble” with a giant needle.

This year’s party conference in Bournemouth has been no exception. Ed Davey thrashed gamely around in his kayak. The conference “Glee Club” rewrote the football anthem Three Lions with pro-EU lyrics (“Gold stars on the flag, four freedoms still gleaming, glory years of peace, kept us all campaigning”). Carol Vorderman and Steve Coogan appeared via videolink to demand electoral reform.

It also revealed a house divided. The liberal youth wing struck at the party’s beating Nimbyist heart by proposing to re-adopt national house-building targets. Tim Farron condemned the motion as “pure Thatcherism” and “the most Right-wing thing at party conference since we sent Liz Truss off to go and work undercover”. It passed anyway. 

Telling young activists that wanting to own their own home is the height of selfish individualism isn’t perhaps the wisest move within sniffing distance of a general election. Whether this morphs into actual policy is another question. Voltaire’s joke about the Holy Roman Empire – being neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire – could equally apply to the Liberal Democrats.

The Lib Dems are certainly the jokers of politics, but they may still hold the balance of power at the next election. Incumbent governments suffering crushing by-election defeats is, on its own, no barometer of future Lib Dem success. But there are plenty of constituencies, especially in rural areas, where voters will never vote Labour, but long to stick it to the Tories. 

Unlike the Messianic excesses of the last election, when Jo Swinson told everyone who’d listen that she was en route to No 10 and ended up losing her seat, this time the Lib Dems also appear to be running a targeted campaign, with resources and manpower directed only at winnable seats.

The party’s particular gift is being all things to all voters, harvesting local grievance and extrapolating it at a national level. Which is why the Lib Dems are so often a mass of contradictions; lofty parliamentary aims, relentless local obstruction; calls for uncontrolled migration but no housebuilding. In a masterclass of the genre, Sarah Green won Chesham and Amersham on an anti-HS2, anti-Planning Bill ticket, despite the Lib Dems’ national policy to support HS2 and build more houses.

They generally fare better alongside a Labour Party that people do not dread. Horror of “PM Corbyn” prompted disgruntled Remain-voting Conservatives to hold their noses and back Boris Johnson in 2019; Keir Starmer doesn’t spark the same visceral fear. Even if Starmer won an outright majority, he might still struggle to marshal his MPs, so Lib Dem support could sometimes remain necessary. Ed Davey might prove more amenable to a new-New Labour agenda than the John McDonnells and Dawn Butlers of Labour’s restive socialist wing.

But it is increasingly difficult to say what the Lib Dems are for. You might not have always agreed with the former big beasts of Liberal Democrat thought – Paddy Ashdown, Vince Cable, David Laws – but these were serious people with a hinterland. They boasted a distinct set of ideological traditions; Orange Book liberals vs Cableite social democrats. They were the party of freedom, civil liberties, anti-surveillance, the inheritors of Gladstonian liberalism. 

Sadly that intellectual heft has disappeared, especially since Brexit. The Lib Dems, to put it mildly, had a bit of a mad one in 2019, running Steve Bray – the megaphone-wielding eccentric who stands outside Parliament yelling “Stop Brexit” – as a candidate. They out-spent Labour yet finished one seat down. Now they appear a wholly incoherent group; a rainbow coalition of social democrats, classical liberals, student activists, #FBPE pensioners with a penchant for interpretive dance, people who are absolutely livid about dog poo.

There’s nothing wrong with protest votes; in fact, there’s a vital place for them. Charles Kennedy’s principled stand against the Iraq war laid the groundwork for the party’s 2005 election successes. I’ve protest-voted for them myself – most recently in 2021, when they, alone among the bigger parties, opposed vaccine passports. 

In an ideal world the Lib Dems would make a sensible addition to a coalition government; an Orange Book faction might inject a sense of economic prudence into a spendthrift Labour administration. Inevitably, though, they won’t demand sensible liberal things. Stand by for stubborn obstructionism; Nimbyish opposition to house-building. Their presence will amount to yet another cause of the national sclerosis that prevents us building, or doing, anything. 

#womeninmenssport - (warning this posting could cause offence !) For discussion !!!!

I just came across this comment below in response to a headline about the BBC's Football Focus viewing figures.

I hasten to add it is not my comment.

Why am I posting it ?

I think because I am so conflicted by it.

As the writer says many will not like it - refuse to accept it - call it sexist or misogynistic. It certainly isn't a progressive view.

Maybe responses will change over time - but for the time being I think the writers explanation and conclusion is a stark reality and men are quietly voting with their feet so to speak.

The BBC are very concerned because Football Focus, a programme that has run for 49 years has recently lost a third of its viewers since long running and very popular host Dan Walker left the programme to be replaced by Alex Scott.

The Beeb are coming up with all sorts of theories as to why this has happened but of course they attach no blame to Scott.

I can save them a lot of money and soul searching and can categorically give them the answer and that is.

Men do not like being lectured about football by women!

You may not like it, refuse to accept it, call it sexist or whatever you like but its true, and the comment was passed by my wife who had a season ticket at Hillsborough with me and our sons, for years, so she knows her football.

The answer is very simple, remove all men from women's sport programmes and give them all the jobs commentating,pundits on women's football,rugby,golf,cricket and leave men's football etc to male commentators, pundits etc.

The BBC wouldn't do it but I suggest any sports channel who wants to increase their viewing figures and therefore advertising, should follow my suggestion, I'm sure it would work.

Improvingourlife with Nation radio

I am mega behind with my blogs but it has been a busy time.

This is just a quick one prompted by Nation radio.

Years ago I read an article or perhaps it was my daughter who consolidated a thought in my mind - a coping strategy - a life enhancer - ha!

It is very simple. The idea is you try and do something every day - however small - to enhance your life going forward.

The sort of thing - sort out that app that is not working - review your spice rack - sort out how you store your socks etc etc

Small things - reoccurring things can be a pain - create negativity - you never get round to dealing with them even though they would probably not take very long to do. 

Well gradually knock them off - one a day. It doesn't have to be prescriptive - but it works. It works because there is an immediate positive from sorting whatever it was that was niggling you - a satisfaction - a smile and of course the irritant has gone going forward.

However care - I suspect we will never get to the state where all the low level niggles and irritants are removed from our existence - especially as they tend to go out at one end and come in another. I have a new one - self inflicted. I bought something wrong from the builders merchants. I need to take it back. I have to find the receipt - hopefully I will have it somewhere! And then it will be a pain going back to change it - a niggle until I sort it. I shall do it today as it has been hanging around for nearly 2 weeks!

But this is one side of the coin - sorting negatives. Perhaps as valuable - more valuable is introducing new positives to your life - however small.

Recently I found a new granola and I love it - ha!

But what prompted me to write this was finding Nation Radio. It is a commercial radio station based somewhere on the south. I found it twiddling the knobs on my car radio as our local radio station was sounding so repetitive. I love music in the car - on long journeys listen to my Spotify - but short journeys radio is easier. Without sounding like Victor Meldrew I don't really want to be listening to DJ's prattling on. I don't like rap. Nation radio specializes in 70s/80 and 90's. music. The reception is excellent and the DJ's do not seem to think they are more important than the music. The only downside is the adverts. I play a game - I turn the volume down when they start and up when I think they will have ended. Like chicken. I am getting better at it. But the music is great. They come up with some great stuff - tracks I haven't heard for a longtime. Finding Nation Radio has been a real positive - life enhancing sing alongs in the car even though I don't know many of the words - ha ha! Just a thought. xx

Ps so back blogging - some heavy political stuff in the pipeline!