The Entente Amicale
There were so many things wrong with the visit of French President Macron, that it is hard to know where to begin. Granted the banquet looked ok, and King Charles played an old uncle role very well, even trying to speak French. However, beneath the surface, and the playful enmity between England and France, the whole vista was something which grated. It grated from the “Entente Amicale” something which means even less than the Entente Cordiale, or even worse, the Special Relationship with the US. The main problem for us on this side of the channel is that the relationship with France in the wake of the small boats fiasco, and Brexit, leaves Macron looking and feeling even more smug than he normally does.
This is notwithstanding that the lay of the land for him politically in France gives him next to nothing to be smug about. But he could not help himself throwing in the odd acid drop regarding our decision to leave the EU, and the way that the establishment on both sides of the channel have ensured we get the longest punishment beating in history as a result of this.
Macron himself alluded to ECHR being the reason we cannot expel migrant. Presumably if we ever leave ECHR, this will be the reason we cannot expel migrants. It is all Alice In Wonderland stuff. It is even more Alice In Wonderland with the “one in, one out” deal that was introduced to an unsuspecting public. Why not, “one out, another out”? All of this really makes one wonder why successive UK governments do not just come clean and say that we would like as many migrants as possible, and are prepared to pay of not enough come over. This is over and above the knowledge after a year, that Keir Starmer’s dealmaking is always the same: to do and say anything possible to damage the national interests of this country. Make that the traditional national interests of this country, not his version of them.
Wealth Tax
Even though everyone should know the Churchill quote about standing in a bucket regarding taxes, and the Thatcher quote about socialism running out of other people’s money, apparently this government has no knowledge of these quotes. This is unfortunate. But it does explain how and why a wealth tax is apparently under consideration. It is under consideration even though anyone reading a newspaper will be aware that since this government came to power thousands of millionaires have left, with their bank accounts that will no longer be paying tax. Strictly speaking Thatcher’s quote should really have been “everyone’s money,” as once a welfare state reaches a certain size it will simply drown out everything with debt. We must be fast approaching a £3tln national debt, something that means even if all the wealthy handed over all their cash, it would still take years to pay this back. Of course, the dogma of increasing tax is not about raising money for good causes. It is all about creating more and more people to vote Labour. We were reminded of this during the week with the VAT on school fees. This has been a resounding success as even more pupils have moved from private to state schools. Presumably, Labour has saved even more stray sheep from being brought under the Conservative wing, and who will now vote for them when they grow up.
But getting back to the crackpot wealth tax idea. Should everyone classed as rich simply send all the bank statements directly to HMRC? Or even better. HMRC should become a bank to whom we send all our earnings, and we just wait at the end of the year to see how much of our money is left?
Air India Fuel Switch
It would appear that we are getting nearer to finding out what caused the Air India plane crash last month, but perhaps not in an ideal way. The cause is apparently between the engines cutting out, and the fuel switch to the engines being cut off by the co-pilot. There are a couple of issues that arise from this. The first is the drip-drip of information, something which is totally unsatisfactory for the relatives of the victims. The second is the way that we only get a partial picture (by its nature) from the preliminary report. The fact that there is no sanction against Boeing, does rather point the finger at pilot error. Of course, pilot error is the main statistical culprit in such disasters. But what has not perhaps been underlined enough is that this crash happened at almost exactly the most vulnerable moment for the plane in question, indeed, any plane: takeoff. If one reverse engineers the tragedy it could be said that if anyone wanted to deliberately crash a plane, the moment and the method displayed on AI 171 would be the way to do it. A fuel cut any later / higher after takeoff and the plane could have managed to land or attempt a landing. Indeed, if there was not a built up area – just flat land, one would imagine there would have been more than one survivor. And of course, a cut out earlier and the plane would not have left the runway in the first place.
It is said to encourage us, that these days airliners practically fly themselves. This is clearly an exaggeration, otherwise we could all swap with the pilot on our Ryanair trip to Mallorca. Nevertheless, the lack of any sanction on Boeing’s fleet points to a pilot error. This was either accidental, or most horrific of all, deliberate, given the timing of the fuel switch off.
Celebrities At Wimbledon
Conventional measures of success may include a fully paid up house or car, a six figure salary, private school education for the kids, or being successful in business / investment. However, it would appear that the real status symbol that sorts out the A List from the rest, is to be filmed / photographed at Wimbledon. This year we seem to have peaked in terms of the frenzy to see and be seen. This is even if like Hugh Grant you are photographed asleep. Ironically, he can fall asleep, as whatever he does he will always be an A Lister. Presumably some of the fuel for all of this has been social media, which seems to have gone not only mainstream, but neck and neck with existing outlets. It has also managed to amplify what we are normally treated to. And presumably, it is big business as far as the fashion world and many other sectors having their brands on display among the great and the good. Of course, anyone can go to SW19, queue up, and have their day in the sun. But in terms of status and visibility it would appear that Wimbledon wins the tie-break.
