Trump has driven a coach and horses through the Free Trade that for decades has made millions of people around the world better off that they would otherwise have been. I see that the UK government is considering nationalising British Steel, which is something I’d normally be diametrically opposed to. In this case. I rather think they should and what’s more, without compensation. Steel is said by some to be a strategic asset: I’m totally convinced. We haven’t after all built 50,000 ton battleships since the 1940’s and modern battle tanks are armoured with some akin to your kitchen tiles but if the world order is breaking down in a Trump dystopia, then perhaps it’s becoming true again. What is for sure is that if the owners do shut it, then they face huge redundancy and restoration costs as well as continuing pensions liabilities. They may also face Trump tariffs o n steel they make elsewhere. The Government has already offered £0.5 billion towards converting the site to cleaner arc rather than blast furnaces. We might as well find the other half and do the job ourselves rather than give it to the current owners.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to have a real influence as it starts to be embedded in search engines. I’ve seen already what a pernicious influence it could have by narrowing our range of thinking and speaking by giving only one answer. I used the phrase “blood and snot” in another thread to describe Mirom Muslic’s style of play. That’s not a phrase I’ve used perhaps ever before and I wanted to check I’d got it right. Was it snot or sweat? All that happened was that I was told to stop picking my nose and if that failed to stop the bleeding, to consult a doctor. Eventually, I got an admission that it was a phrase meaning “a chaotic, stressful or violent situation”.
And immediately after I wrote that, a piece came into the Radio 4 morning news about suggestions the big TV streamers (Netflix et al) should put more money into making British dramas in Britain, possibly in.co-production with the BBC or ITV. Having recently watched the utterly brilliant if terrifying “Adolescence” on Netflix, made in Britain with British actors and British writers, that can work. Although very different, this is definitely up there with the very best: Wolf Hall, Happy Valley or Mr Bates and the Post Office. That’s not the only good thing on Netflix either but it does show the impact of new tech on traditional media.
Now here's a headline you don't exppect to see: Unsecured penguin caused helicopter crash No injuries including the penquin luckily. Don't people know what penquins are like and take better precautions?
Have you never seen the film Madagascar notdistant. Them Penguins are lethal and smart too. As an aside to that I read an article on the Beeb news page tonight about Barber shops across the nation being raided. Apparently they are just a cover for money laundering etc. Have you ever counted the number of barber shops starting at the Hyde Park pub on Mutley Plain and going to the Town end of North Hill? I counted 20. That's in around less than a mile. As somebody who no longer needs to go to one and hasn't for some years now I find that astonishing. I wonder what they all do for customers?
It’s because penguins can’t fly themselves you see. Even a distant glimpse of a kid with a kite can drive them mad with jealousy, let alone a helicopter. If ever you go on a plane and there’s a penguin sitting next to you, it’s wise to make your excuses and leave. It’s vape shops be raided as well as barbers I think isn’t it, being used for money laundering. Any business that still has a substantial dealings in cash is good for that. That’s why the Mafia love a casino. Do we know anyone who still insists on using cash and travels suspiciously long distances to do it……..?
You can add Nail Bars to that list as well....plus the staff have been somehow brought into the country illegally and have no life outside the salon that they work in.
France is supposed to be working closely with Britain to end small boat crossings., and has received generous funding from the UK government to support its efforts. We now learn, however, that French authorities are providing illegal migrants with life jackets to make their Channel crossings safer, as well as escorting dinghies through shipping lanes. It's a sign of the utter lawlessness that has been allowed to develop on the French coast and the failure to put an end to the vile trade in people trafficking. The aim may be to prevent tragedies at sea and save lives....Nobody wants people to drown in the Channel....but it suggests that France has given up any attempt to stop the crossings and instead is devoting resources to making the journeys safer. The question that must be asked now is why British taxpayers are expected to subsidise France's failures. Daily Express...Friday April 11th 2025.
I’ve been listening to a Government minister talking about the Scunthorpe steel plant this morning. It’s considered a strategic imperative to keep it open and she refers to increased defence spending and higher infrastructure investment which will need steel. Fair enough. The first task is to make sure that specialist coking coal is brought in to keep the furnaces burning, otherwise they’ll set solid and never work again. This has to be imported so lead times are quite long, requiring action this day. It’s odd though because obtaining a planning permission to allow a new coking coal mine to open in the UK WASN’T a strategic imperative and would have threatened net zero targets. Recently, it’s become the case that any project’s green credentials must take into account secondary CO2 emissions not just those it generates itself. So a road improvement must take into account the CO2 of the cars that run on it even though those journeys will take place via other routes anyway. Developing a coking coal mine must take into account the eventual burning of the coal even though that coal will have to be imported anyway as the steel plant is a strategic imperative. I smell cant.
British Steel a subsidiary of Chinese Steel....who flood the market with cheap steel....a strange set-up....nationalise it now....don't give China a penny or even a Yuan for it.....they have been taking £millions from us to keep it running.
I don’t think the UK Government has the expertise to run a steel plant. Or organise a party in a brewery come to that.
Trump is quietly running away from his totemic tariffs policy under the utterly predictable reaction of the markets - financial and retail. Trump's iPhone olive branch is a significant trade war retreat https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde2z6jpzp8o
Sometimes life can seem unfair, but having just been watching QI, I've been introduced to the Pumpkin Toad. We should all count our blessings. This poor little sod can leap like any other toad but it has no inner ear, so it has no sense of balance.
Literally just watched it myself. I used to have trouble putting in Scunthorpe on our prediction league when it was the beeb owned site.
Well if you do say or do something embarrassing, perhaps breaking wind, the best thing to do is carry on as though nothing happened, perhaps with a jaunty “more tea vicar?”
I have no time for some of the things this Government is doing - particularly the new employment rights laws, which will undoubtedly inhibit recruitment. However, they certainly have been plunged into an invidious situation now Trump is President. He has a severe prejudice against the EU. He doesn’t seem to understand (or care) that VAT isn’t a selective tariff against US imports but a tax paid by consumers on all products in a particular category, imported or made locally. He doesn’t understand that nobody in Europe want to eat meat full of hormones and antibiotics. He doesn’t understand that Europeans and Americans prefer European cars because they are better than American ones. On top of that, he’s shown himself to be an unreliable and erratic ally, diplomatically and militarily. Given that last point in particular, do we now ally ourselves more closely with the US or the EU? It can’t be both with Trump. I think the military and diplomatic issues trump (sorry) the economic ones. That’s going to be difficult economically particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors.
PS there is one lever we may be able to pull. It’s the purchase of new fighter jets for the RAF. The unions and BAe are arguing for the purchase of new Typhoons. That would maintain highly skilled jobs in the UK but the Typhoon is yesterday’s technology. The alternative that it’s said the MoD is leaning towards is the American F35A. We do produce a significant fraction of this plane as sub-contractors but it’s expensive, may still not be able to fire British missiles and may well carry an American “stop button”. Tough decisions……
