New Agenda on Sunday. is out! Edition of 4th March 2018

Good morning everyone

The weather which the Express has been predicting/forecasting for some months, finally arrived as "The beast from the East" swept into Kent, Essex, Norfolk,Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and all places North into Scotland, before bumping into "Emma" roughly along the M4 corridor, coming in from the South to hit the West Country , Wales and Ireland with heavy snow, the worse and heaviest it is reported in over thirty years.

Apart from the usual travel chaos on roads and rail, the storms, snow and intense cold, tragically claimed 10 lives over the period of a few days. It is forecast that there will be a gradual thaw but it will remain unsettled. We must hope that we have seen the last of winter for this year. March 1st was, after all, the first day of Spring.

Prime Minister defends "cherry picking"

Prime Minister Theresa May, treat the country and the European Union with yet another speech outlining her plans/vision for our future relationship with remaining 27 EU members. It seems that her words have struck at least a small cord with the warring factions of the conservative party who view her message as "constructive". She remains convinced that it is possible to have a "soft border" between the Republic of Ireland and Gt. Britain (Northern Ireland) whilst at the same time taking the United Kingdom out of the Customs Union and Single Market.

When will this obdurate and intransigent woman grasp the simple reality, which practically every European Leader from Dublin to Brussels has made perfectly clear over the months, that a soft border and leaving the Customs Union and single market are totally incompatible and that she cannot "cherry pick" her way to a Brexit agreement?

As a footnote to this, the DUP are about to receive another £1 billion to ensure their votes stay on side in the Commons. The payment is being made with prior Parliamentary approval.

Image result for wallander (swedish tv series)

Sweden produces some first class television drama. Wallander was a classic example and on Saturday night, Modus completed a second series (I missed the first series) on the disappearance of the American President while on a visit to Sweden. Atmospheric and well acted I am looking forward to the start of another series next Saturday. With a very few notable exceptions, Strike for example, British television drama could learn from Sweden.

Image result for greggs driver distributing cakes

In a week dominated by news of snow, ice, wind and cold, it was refreshing to note the stories which went some way to restoring faith in human nature. The 4 wheel vehicle drivers pulling others out of snow, or gong to local hospitals to ferry patients and nurses to work or emergency appointments. The neighbours lowering food and hot drinks from motorway bridges to drivers and passangers stranded for hours on motorways. Farmers fixinging ploughs to the front of their tractors to clear snow from blocked lanes and roads. The one which really caught my eye amidst hundreds of acts of kindness was the Greggs delivery driver who unloaded cakes, pastries, pies and other "goodies" and from his stranded lorry and distributed them to other marooned drivers. The age of community spirit is not dead.

Have a nice week

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...

The writing on the wall

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-government-zero-hour-contract-ban-latest-a9257281.html?fbclid=IwAR0OW6qhoVnO9MVH-E9ruKFLnL_V3NQ5PMpYEkGGHEXskJxkAsrr2UJjRIs Two-thirds of voters want Boris Johnson ‘s government to ban zero-hours contracts, a poll has found. There will be many people over the coming months and years who will tell the "pollsters" that something should be done about the homeless, or the costs of electric, gas and water, or about the costs of public transport, or the failing (and privatised) NHS, or the excessive profits and tax avoidance of large corporations. etc. To all those I say, that if you did not vote Labour then you have only yourselves to blame and you must bear the consequences of your actions. Johnson a nd his sycophant cronies have been given a blank cheque to do as they please and sell off vast portions of the British economy to the Americans, (the takeover of British defence giant Cobham by a US private equi...

Greed and envy are good says Boris Johnson.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/embrace-culture-of-greed-says-boris-johnson-8968276.html Embrace culture of greed, says Boris Johnson Boris Johnson. "I stress – I don't believe that economic equality is possible; indeed some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity." Johnson delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher lecture at the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, Wednesday 27th November 2013 Boris Johnson seeks to emulate Thatcher. He appeals to the evil side of the "nasty" party, for a society where greed is good, where selfishness is encouraged, where division amongst people by envy and status is championed as a proper objective and where the excesses of business and government are regarded as appropriate and right for the advancement of the few at the expense of the many. Johnson is an evil man with evil intent...

Agenda 2019

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