The Tom Sawyer Principle (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

So it looks as though poor old Nadhim Zahawi is for the chop. Not for what he did but because he wouldn't explain in a timely manner what he did. It is a salutary tale with lessons for us all, viz

1. Why do people with more money than they can reasonably spend constantly use tax avoidance devices that bring them nothing but grief in order that they might have marginally more money than they can reasonably spend?
2. Who knew that Nadhim Zahawi knew Peter Kellner?
3. We all first knew Nadhim Zahawi as the weird-but-effective bloke who was wheeled out to make excuses for the government even though he wasn't a member of the government.
4. We then suddenly knew Nadhim Zahawi as the second most important person in the land, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
5. We then knew Nadhim Zahawi as not a member of the government.
6. But the Chairman of the Tory Party
7. 'With a seat at the cabinet table'.
8. Though not for long it would seem.
9. Another case of tall poppy syndrome
10. Except this time all his own fault.

[Mick Harper]

I trust everyone spotted the 'bogus list' on Newsnight's piece on the 'scandal' of power companies breaking into your house without a by-your-leave to fit a pay-as-you-go meter. With the whole of Britain to choose from, the BBC's intrepid researchers came up with a mystery woman called Sarah, who could not show her face because she didn't want her employers knowing she couldn't pay her gas and electricity bills. So she had a job, did Sarah.

But she had 'mobility issues'. Unspecified but important because there's a clause in the breaking-and-entering laws about people with long-term health problems -- so Sarah qualified on that count. Newsnight said. Why couldn't she pay her bills? She lived alone so presumably she spent her wages on ... other stuff. We were not told what. The power company went through all the hoops -- letters, visits, magistrates application -- and for what? Not even to get the money owed to them. Just to get Sarah to pay for what she was going to use in the future. Disgraceful! Shouldn't ought to be allowed.

[Mick Harper]

Newsnight ran a long piece about why we're doing so badly compared to the US and Germany and arrowed in on the 50-64 age group which, since Covid, have taken to becoming 'economically inactive' even more big style than they usually do. Now as it happens I spent the years 50-64 being economically inactive (in their terms, I was working my ollocks off writing books etc) so I am in a position to tell Newsnight why it is, and how to cure the problem.

The British government wants there to be full employment at all times (like the US and Germany) so it arrows in on all sectors of the population who have a tendency to prefer being economically inactive to getting a job i.e. 50-64 year olds,. It then says to them

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

Now the divine Marina Hyde is at it.

[Boreades]

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

One despairs of African incompetence. The British built the Gezira scheme in Sudan in the days of Empah -- a million acres of irrigated (by the White and Blue Niles) land that was formerly mainly unproductive. It produced wheat enough to feed the Sudanese and cotton enough to provide them with an export cash crop. It practically runs itself, just a modicum of care and attention at the national level and making sure the farmers have enough left over to keep it running at the local level.

Brits go, Sudanese take over, Gezira reverts slowly to mainly unproductive land.

[Ishmael]

Just wait until the British are gone from Britain.

[Mick Harper]

I finished listening to Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop, turned to Ukraine One Year On and was struck by the parallels. The first is the story of how an unassuming but terribly nice woman gets forced out by the town bully. The second is supposed to be the opposite, but I wonder. Generally speaking it is not good that prevails but the strong.

We like to think that we are both but we are neither.

[Mick Harper]

The ANC really are something. South Africa is losing two hundred million a day because of 'intermittent load shedding', what the rest of us call power cuts. These are not, as they are elsewhere, because of unforeseen and temporary circumstances, it is because thirty years ago the ANC inherited a superb power infrastructure, had to do some elementary maintenance on it and a bit of renewal for time-expired power stations. Or they could have just turned the whole thing over to Westinghouse or whoever to run the show using the money people pay for the power they use in the normal way.

But no, the ANC weren't quite up to it. They had to keep it all in their own hands so they could dip into the conduit that runs from consumers paying their bills to power companies keeping the lights on. Meaning sooner or later there wouldn't be enough to keep all the lights on. But don't worry, ol' Ramaphosa -- the biggest dipper in sub-Saharan Africa -- is going to do something about it.

And the South African consumer is going to do something about it by keeping the ANC in power for the next thirty years.

[Wile E. Coyote]

This reflects good long term trends, unless you are a climate catastrophist, ie that a lot more folks, many who previously did not have electricity, now have access. Those that did have access are using lots more. The price of electricity for many users is less than the cost of supply. It's a win, win for everybody. Govt, State Company, users, districts (many don't pay at all!). The only problem is that every time you appoint a new C Exec he describes the current model as not sustainable. So you have a high turnover rate in C Execs. It's clearly a decision for "after the next election" so it's really annoying that these Chief Execs are allowing this to happen now.

[Wile E. Coyote]

The Home Office recently took a very sensible step of streamlining the immigration process, to get the numbers waiting down rather than calling folks in for a interview, they were going to now get folks to fill in forms themselves.

Predictable outrage from all those that saw this as a way of not doing proper immigration checks.

So, Home Office responds to public criticism by making sure the paper form is extra thorough and requires lots of explanations and evidence.

Result: the poor asylum seeker will need help filling in forms from their solicitor (kerching public legal aid dosh) and then, as we all know as solicitors don't give real answers other than "My client informs me that around about this time etc ", this will then need verifying by an interview....

So we have now invented a new step in the asylum process: a fast track triage for folks from certain countries that will cost the taxpayer more than the last slow track method.

Eventually when this fails, they will go the way of the superfast digital application, supply the asylum seeker with a laptop, then allow the computer to provisionally decide the application, using the latest software. Of course they will need the old safeguard, ie calling into Croydon for an old fashioned face to face, it's just going to be 3 years after the application was started.

Such is modern Britain. The good news is that all this prepares the asylum seeker for a future life of not being able to see a doctor.

[Mick Harper]