Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Pete Jones]

The mythical(?) Bacon! According to Edwin Johnson, both Roger and Francis Bacon were pen-names of some club of literati that were interested in something something making England the cutting edge of literary achievement. "Bacon" being one of their go-to names, for whatever reason. Naturally, if I go with Johnson, I can't go with Bacon-as-Shakespeare. Bacon would just be another Russian doll to open.

I think another utopian novel is The Swiss Family Robinson, where the family builds the world they want to live in from scratch. I have only recently read the Children's Illustrated Version to my son, so perhaps the actual book is darker.

[Boreades]

Call me a sentimental old fool, but I've always loved My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell, about an idyllic life on the Greek island of Corfu. The ITV series "The Durrells" is based on the trilogy. Now available on Netflix.

[Mick Harper]

If you insist. You're a sentimental old fool.

[Mick Harper]

British Steel

Am I the only person left with even half a brain? Everyone agrees the Scunthorpe plant is hopelessly uneconomic -- and will get more and more uneconomic over time -- but everyone says it has to stay at all costs! Apparently it's foundational to British industry.

That's certainly true in the sense Britain founded the iron and steel industry on an industrial scale. But in case anybody hasn't noticed, this means it is wildly overdue to get the chop along with coalmining, textile manufacture, shipbuilding and all the rest of the foundational activities of the last three hundred years we have thankfully emerged from as the world's first industrialised country and hence the world's first post-industrial country.

[Mick Harper]

Trump Joins Anti-Vaxxers

Before we jump on the bandwagon condemning Dr Andrew Wakefield for starting the MMR=autism scare, let us not forget he was acting in an exemplary AE manner when pointing out the possible link. He was struck off by the GMC for, in Newsnight's words

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

I'm glad to hear Chinese emperors are now numbering themselves just like our kings and queens.

[Mick Harper]

Spot The Bit I Made Up

[Mick Harper]

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

Do you recall that an academic researcher got prosecuted for having 'terrorist literature' on his computer? As I remember it, he got off the charge but his career and his equanimity were severely tested.

[Mick Harper]

President Trump has an odd idea about tariffs. He keeps referring to, for instance, China having to pay several billion to the US if they want to export their goods to America. At one point he threw out casually that the world would be paying trillions into US coffers.

He doesn't seem to understand that only Americans pay American tariffs. The importer pays directly at the dockside and the consumer pays indirectly at the point of retail sale. It will be interesting to see what happens when someone tells him.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Trump has repeatedly said the United States is taking in $2 billion per day from tariffs, including revenues directly resulting from his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs. Accordong to the Treasury Department the daily statement of total deposits listed under “Customs and Certain Excise Taxes” is $305 million.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/16/us-customs-tariffs-revenue-generated-since-april-5.html

It is now getting pretty difficult to calculate anything, as the President has imposed tariffs, then paused them, and then has made numerous adjustments, including exemptions, so a lot of that $305.00 million might well have to be refunded.

[Mick Harper]

The kerfuffles the Prez is having with his courts over illegal migrants should remind one and all that we've had our own kerfuffles, which we have never solved, and which are at the heart of our migrant crisis. Consider these two scenarios:

1. Nigerian male arrives at Heathrow. He has no documentation. The immigration people put him straight back on the plane (at Air Nigeria's expense). Case not only closed but it would never happen because it is so swift and sure Air Nigeria would never have allowed him on the plane in the first place.

2. A hundred Nigerian males arrive on a beach near Dover. They have no documentation. They go into various B & B's or what-have-you. Several years later most have been given some sort of leave to remain, some have been deported to Nigeria (at HMG's expense).

There is no question of any of them being either refugees or asylum-seekers. The Heathrow chappie would have some sort of documentation if he was, the Dover chaps have come from France for goodness sakes. The only reason for the difference is that lawyers are not involved with (1) but they are central to (2).

Good luck, Trumpikins, but you won't win. It's called the Rule of Law.

[Wile E. Coyote]