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Questions Of The Day (Politics)
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Mick Harper
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Are the wildfires concentrating minds at last?

This year's crop in Europe are really getting home. Nobody can pretend the problem is 'containable' any more. It's a question of battening down the hatches and looking anxiously westward for the next anti-cyclone to arrive. But... will it make any difference?

* Europe is warming up at twice the rate of anywhere else.
* Europe is doing more in the pursuit of 'carbon-zero' than anyone else.
* Europe is too weak to influence anyone else.
* Europe is too small to have the least effect on world weather.
* Sorry, guys, you have to reap what you sowed, even if it was a long time ago.

Good luck! You'll be needing it.
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Mick Harper
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The view in Downing Street is Andy Burnham is absolutely committed to cross-party working. Nick on Newsnight

This would be quite a major constitutional innovation so clearly considerable work will have to go into the nuts and bolts. What, then are we to make of Andy's first foray into this uncharted territory?

He gave the Conservative and LibDem leaders eighteen hours' notice to turn up for a thirty minute Downing Street meeting, in the middle of the summer recess, to discuss the dazzlingly complex and notoriously controversial question of paying for social care.

"Sorry, prime minister, I'm having elective hospital surgery tomorrow," said Kemi.
"Sorry, prime minister, I'm in France looking after my son. I can do a Zoom," said Ed.

I think we can say the Prime Minister's initiative wasn't altogether serious.
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Mick Harper
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A fascinating illustration of the total idiocy of western migrancy policies was on offer in Ceuta, the Spanish exclave next to Morocco. On the rumour of a Spanish court ruling, fifty thousand Moroccans swam round the breakwater separating the two countries (Ceuta is considered a part of metropolitan Spain). Fifty-seven of them drowned but we can ignore them.

There wasn't any doubt about who these people were: they were young, fit, male economic migrants, with nary a refugee or an asylum-seeker in sight. So what happened?

First off, Ceuta's eighty thousand inhabitants were somewhat alarmed by having their population almost doubled overnight. Plenty of ructions there. The Spanish mainland was put into further ructions having to deal with the situation. Not to mention the wider EU, for instance Italy suspending Schengen.

Why can't the fifty thousand simply be bussed back to Morocco without further ado? Because there might be a refugee or an asylum-seeker among the fifty thousand. In fact there will be! Asked why all these people simultaneously embarked on what seemed to be a forlorn (and not a little perilous) quest, a migrant expert said:

"It's a like a gold rush. The vast majority will return home incommoded though basically none the worse for their adventure, but a few thousand will eventually end up living and working in Europe."

* If I was a Moroccan, I'd probably give it a go myself.
* If I was a European, I probably wouldn't vote for political parties responsible for such a system.
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Mick Harper
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The Case of The Reflecting Pool Liner

For those uninterested in trivia, a Washington ceremonial water feature was being given a hasty brush-up because of the looming 250th Fourth-of-July and bits of the newly-laid liner were seen to have parted from their moorings. There were two possibilities:

1. It had been an over-hasty brush-up
2. Vandals were at work.

It didn't require Las Vegas to put the odds of the two-horse race as a 100-1 on and a 100-1 against respectively. Nevertheless, first President Trump, then the combined forces of Washingtonian law'n'order, opted for the latter and were soon rounding up some very unusual suspects.

But the inevitable had to happen eventually, this being the land of the separation-of-powers, and one of the miscreants had his day in court. "Er...," said the prosecutor, "we have a document dated from a coupla days after the lining was finished, that it was going pear-shaped all of its own accord." But declined to end proceedings there and then and the court adjourned.

President Trump has not commented but, since he has never gone back on anything, he would have said, "It made the vandals' job easier." The American public are watching where it all will end. 'Sooner rather than later,' according to the latest Las Vegas odds (though only available to its dark web patrons).
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Mick Harper
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We finally got to the bottom of the why's and wherefores of the Ceuta mass migration. A nice EU lady explained, and I quote:

"The mafia and evil people-smugglers were behind this."

I must confess I couldn't see any sharp-suited gentlemen with names ending in a vowel standing at the end of the breakwater taking money but no doubt these things are arranged on the dark web nowadays.

Meanwhile it turned out not to have been a rumour about the Madrid court ruling. It actually happened. The robed ones, in all their majesty, ordained that migrants rescued from the sea could not be returned to their land of origin but had to be processed through the normal channels in Spain. No wonder 50,000 slipped round the breakwater. I mean, no wonder organised crime smuggled 50,000 people round the breakwater.

In case you were wondering what happened when Spanish mainland fuzz arrived in Ceuta to sort everything out, they persuaded the 50,000 to hotfoot it back to Morocco in fairly short order. It had to be persuasion because otherwise Spain would be breaking every statue in the international book. The Guardia Civil is known for its powers of persuasion.

Morocco was fully entitled not to let them through--none of the migrants had any documentation identifying them as Moroccan--but one look at the Morocco/ EU assistance packages made their minds up on this occasion.
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Mick Harper
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Reform UK's new stop-the-boats proposal -- that the Royal Navy intercept them and return the migrants whence they came -- has been welcomed by France and Belgium. "We will set up a floating tribunal to decide where each boat came from and inform the British navy where to take them. In case of disagreement, the German chairperson will decide."

Already this new body has been popularly dubbed the 'Après Vous, Claude Commission'.
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Mick Harper
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A perfect illustration of our 'victim-led society' was on offer yesterday. There is an early prisoner-release scheme about to start because there are too few spare places in prisons and they will become 'ungovernable' if we do nothing.. The policy has bipartisan support.

The government has worked out a detailed schedule of who gets out and who doesn't based on (as far as I can see) crimes the public least approves of at the moment. This is in itself perfectly acceptable in a democracy.

But the whole thing has been derailed because the widow of PC Andrew Harper, the bloke dragged to his death by a getaway car, thinks the co-driver should not be let out after serving half of a fourteen-year sentence. The driver isn't being.

She has been given acres of TV time -- she was the ten-minute lead item on Channel 4 News yesterday -- to air her views and this has made Andy Burnham's mind up to halt the scheme (for now). Apparently we must have national prison mayhem to spare the lady's feelings.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Its not really about the wifes feelings.

Attacks against those that protect the group, are threatoning to the group.

Its a serious taboo.

Those individuals, that attack those that protect the group, will be ritually cursed, for life, (unless they show real penance), in this case the ritual cursing, was the opening segment on Channel 4.

I dont really get, why liberals cant see this.

Maybe you can explain?
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Mick Harper
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Wiley wrote:
Maybe you can explain?
Gladly.

Its not really about the wifes feelings. Attacks against those that protect the group, are threatoning to the group. Its a serious taboo.

No it isn't. This is a modish concept that has just emerged because it's a useful stick to beat this victim's drum.

Those individuals, that attack those that protect the group, will be ritually cursed, for life, (unless they show real penance), in this case the ritual cursing, was the opening segment on Channel 4.

True for what it's worth. The rest of the segment was given over to women terrified about their abusers coming out of prison now, rather than in a year or two's time.

I dont really get, why liberals cant see this.

Count me in as a liberal.
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Wile E. Coyote


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So you are against Harpers law?

The law that now mandates life sentences for anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker while committing a crime in the UK.

You see no distinction, between the death of those that die protecting the group, and those who dont......
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Mick Harper
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Wiley wrote:
You see no distinction, between the death of those that die protecting the group, and those who dont......

Of course I do. Everybody does, whether consciously or not. The state does, it was reflected in the sentencing, viz

* Henry Long (the driver) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for sixteen years
* Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole (passengers in the vehicle) were found guilty of manslaughter and were jailed for thirteen years
* Appeals by the Attorney-General to lengthen the sentences and appeals by the teenagers to reduce them were dismissed by the Court of Appeal in December 2020.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Of course I do. Everybody does, whether consciously or not. The state does, it was reflected in the sentencing,


I disagree.

The law had to be changed, (Harpers law introduced) as the sentencing of the three, was out of step with public opinion. The proposed early release of those convicted, is again out of step.

Same cause, Same effect.
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Mick Harper
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Wiley wrote:
Of course I do. Everybody does, whether consciously or not. The state does, it was reflected in the sentencing,
I disagree. The law had to be changed, (Harpers law introduced) as the sentencing of the three, was out of step with public opinion.

Are you seriously saying that the passengers in a car that carried some routine bystander to their doom, would get thirteen years? Are you seriously saying that public opinion about 'protecting our guardians' is something that has just arisen and requires a new law, such is the recently aroused demand of those guarded?

The proposed early release of those convicted, is again out of step. Same cause, Same effect.

I agree. The two passengers got a very stiff extra tariff because it was a policeman. They are being let out early (but less than two years earlier than the one-third remission everyone gets for good behaviour) solely because of the exigent circumstances. I refuse to accept that a tearful widow should be the arbiter of how it is done--or even whether it is done.
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