Food for thought…

Now, regular readers will know that I don’t do controversial subjects, comments on current affairs and social injustice, but just for a change I thought I’d have a dabble. There’s a lot going on that bears a little looking at…

First off, that damned Brexit! I see Boris is being hauled before the Beak for the Brexiteer's claim that we would be able to save £350m a week if we left the club. The private prosecution claims that not only was the claim inaccurate, but it was known to be inaccurate, and therefore misleading. He faces a charge of “misconduct in Public Office”, his conduct being “both irresponsible and dishonest”
(Getty Images)

I’ve been doing a bit of reading, and it appears that the cost of Brexit since the 2016 referendum has been between £20bn and £40bn a year, that’s up to £600m a week… This includes not just the direct costs incurred by the government for extra staff (4,500 of them) and procedures, but also the cost to the economy as investment falls off a cliff due to the uncertain future of our status within Europe.
The Bank of England’s estimate is even higher, they reckon it’s cost the economy £550bn so far. And that’s not including the £39bn “divorce settlement” already agreed.
Yet still the politicians wrangle about the way forward, putting personal and party considerations above the good of the country. If there ever was a time for them to work together for the common good, then this is surely it… Pipedream, I know.

I see the vultures are circling, it’s eleven candidates I think now vying for Theresa May’s job. Don’t they realise that it’s a poisoned chalice? Cameron did and jumped ship soon after the referendum. Whoever takes over will have to bring us out of Europe without a deal, or have a general election (and probably lose) followed by another £200m referendum. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Europe has made it very clear that the deal is now longer negotiable, so I don’t hold much hope for the new leader’s efforts to convince them otherwise.

I applaud Malaysia’s stand regarding their return of thousands of tonnes of “recyclable” rubbish to the countries of origin. The Environment Minister, Yeo Bin Yin, said that the country “won’t continue to be a dumping ground for the developed nations”. The problem seems to be not the recyclables themselves, but the contamination by non recyclables mixed in. The reason that the rubbish is sent over to the far east in the first place is that labour to hand-sort it is cheaper than in the west, but they’ve decided enough is enough. They’ve been making efforts to clean up their act, closing dozens of illegal facilities which import this mixed product then either just burning or burying it.
We in the west really should up our game. Plastics and electronics are an integral part of our lifestyle and will be for the foreseeable future. We need to seriously think about how to deal with the waste ourselves rather than just shipping it over the horizon and forgetting about it. Maybe when we’ve finished paying for Brexit (when?) we could re-invest some of that money in waste-management infrastructure? Or just load the crap onto a rocket and launch it into space. Leave it for the little green men to deal with…

We don’t usually, but in the absence of much else on the box we’ve been watching Britain’s Got Talent. I think they’ve got the name wrong though. We’ve only watched sixteen acts in the last two semi-finals, but at least five of them seem to be non-British… A sweet little girl from Malta, a group of leggy ladies from Holland (sorry, The Netherlands), knife throwers and acrobats with distinctly Central European accents. Don’t get me wrong, to get this far in the competition they have got to be good at what they do, but don’t we have enough home-grown talent? It is supposed to be Britain’s Got Talent, after all. Interestingly, none of the imported performers made it through to the final, maybe payback for Eurovision?

The judges are also an act in their own right. There’s Cowell with the scowl on the far end, with barely a good word to be said, Amanda who seems to get emotional about most of the performers and who appears in some distinctly odd dresses, Alesha whom I can’t think of anything to say about and good old David, with a permanent smile and often bemused expression.

Last night one of the acts that got through to the final was Korean War veteran Colin Thackery. The 89-year-old resident of the Royal Chelsea Hospital gave us a slightly creaky rendition of the Vera Lynne classic We’ll Meet Again, backed by other Chelsea Pensioners.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve every respect for ex-servicemen, especially those who fought in Korea, a nasty little war we shouldn’t have been in involved in. But the sympathy vote surely played a large part in him getting through.  And the bookies reckon he’s favourite to win. Good for him. Look out for the album of WWII classics coming out for Christmas…

Ok that’s it. I‘ve no doubt I’ve ruffled a few feathers, especially with the latter. But what the hell. If you don’t like it you don’t have to read it!

TTFN