Northern Ireland and the UK governmment

I don't profess to know the history of Northern Ireland however I know enough that I am surprised at how the UK Tory government are pretending that it is not a issue. History tell us that it if the UK government do not deal with Northern Ireland, then it will just escalate and will ultimately come to mainland England and may spiral out of control. 

The main problem is Boris Johnson is focused on this issues affect mainland England and for some strange reason he does not see Northern Ireland as a big problem. This really makes me question how serious Boris takes the history of Northern Ireland. 

The previous Tory governments have had a similar approach and the worst being Margret Thatcher her lack of interest motivated the IRA to commit regular terrorist attacks in London in the 80s and 90s. It was not until 1999 that then Prime Minister Tony Blair brokered the Good Friday agreement. 

This agreement has agreed upon by all the relevant parties and end helped to end IRA terrorist attacks in mainland England. Then in 2016 UK agreed to leave the UK and it became named as "Brexit" and whilst UK Tory government where pursing Brexit they did not really think about the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and as Ireland are part of the EU and it was clearly impact on Northern  Ireland. 

Every economist and politician has pointed this out to the Tory government, however they have behaved like it will not impact. Now in the last few days there has been violence on Belfast streets and again Boris is slow to intervene and is just putting out feeble statements which has done little to quell the violence. 

So I think this Boris biggest test after Brexit and Covid and it will be interesting to see if Boris starts to take this serious and make a proper intervention and quell the violence and broker peace.

Covid- UK Lockdown

The UK has now been in lockdown since mid December and this has helped to bring down the infection rate and the deaths. Boris Johnson is planning a big speech on the 22nd February and he will layout is road map out of lockdown. 

Newspaper reports suggest that schools will reopen in March and shops and pubs around May. This lockdown has been very difficult for a lot of us. A winter lockdown when it has been cold and snowing and very much restricted to our homes as been a huge challenge. 

From what the newspapers have leaked about what Boris will be announcing not much is going to change for UK people. If that is the case I think he will start to have a real problem with compliance. 

Which may end up increasing the infection and the death rate. Boris’s road map out of lockdown is problematic on a few levels. Boris has vaccinated the most vulnerable people in the UK with one dose and they are due to get their second dose in three months.

The problem is for those 15 million people to be protected from Covid they need both doses. Boris is taking gamble and hoping that if the vaccinated meet the unvaccinated then the vaccinated will still be protected. 

This approach is based on zero research and Boris’s could end up dragging this out even longer than it needs to be. The UK are the only country given three months space between the first and the second dose. All we can really hope for is Boris’s gamble pays off.

The reality is Boris has taken a lot of gambles since this pandemic started with masks and keeping quiet about the variant so children could go to school and as a result we currently have over 130,000 Covid deaths if you include the ONS data. 

So there are more difficult days ahead for the UK and we can only hope that Boris’s gamble pays off so we can have a little bit more freedom than we we currently have.

Covid and the UK government response

 We are now nearly a year to when the first Covid case came to the UK and sadly it is as bad as ever. In the UK we are now on our third lockdown and this last lockdown started on the 17th December. 

I always knew that we would have a winter lockdown because I didn’t think that this country would be able to cope with Covid in wintery conditions. However even I didn’t think it would be as bad as it has been. 

Last March people like myself didn’t really follow the Covid pandemic so the first lockdown came as a shock! At first I felt a little sorry for Boris and his government but has the summer came and went and I started following more scientist on Twitter. I soon realised that the government could have done more to reduce transmission. 

I was horrified when the government encouraged UK people to go on holiday and then “Eat out help out” I generally believed it was a recipe for disaster. Then in September the same government then reopened all the schools, colleges and universities. All the while the number kept rising and even encouraged us to go back our physical work place. 

What makes this even more astonishing is around this time the government scientist had identified a new Covid variant in Kent but kept quiet about and only decided to tell the UK people on 17th December. 

By this time the damage was done and the Kent variant is highly transmissible and had ripped through Kent and London. Once the government announced the Kent variant other countries started seeing it in their own countries. 

So right now the UK is month into its third lockdown and the government does not seem to have a definitive plan of exiting lockdown. The NHS trace and trace system is overwhelmed and the vaccines are now being rationed out and the second dose can now be given at up to twelve weeks and this not what the manufacturer of the vaccine had said. 

So the UK government is going by its own rules and dragging 70 million people with them. What  I find truly outstanding is that the British people still believe in this government. 

We are now fast approaching the truly horrific number of 100,000 dead UK citizens and deaths are still rising with little accountability from the UK government. 

All we can hope for is that in the next few weeks they will find a road map out of lockdown and start listening to scientist. The more the government runs away from the science the harder it will be to get out of and stay out of lockdown. 

So the next few weeks will shed some light on which pathway this UK government will take.. One thing is for sure this is no way to run a country and use 70 million Brits as little pet projects. 

The end of Trump’s presidency

 Wow! Well it’s been a while and it’s the last few days of the Trump’s presidency and what a real eye opener it has been! Culminating in the insurrection rally two weeks ago. 

Frankly I am relieved that the social media giants started to take action by removing him from their platform. It actually helped the last few days to be normal. 

I have never followed Trump on Twitter but I couldn’t help but to regularly check what incendiary things he was tweeting out. 

What I think is super sad about the Trump’s presidency our his enablers... there where clearly people in his inner circle who encouraged and turned a blind eye to his behaviour. 

This brings me to his family.. I am honestly think one of his biggest enablers was his daughter Ivanka Trump. She is one the few people that he listened to and to me did little to rein her father in. She came across someone who enjoyed being in the corridors or power and little about her father’s behaviour.

One person I couldn’t figure out for long time was Trump’s wife Melania Trump. At first I thought she was too embarrassed to do anything but has time went on I realised she shared a lot of his opinions.

The reality is when Donald Trump is long gone the likes of Melania and Ivanka will be regularly reminded how they contributed to crazy four years. 

Neither women maybe bothered now but at some point both women will hopefully be held to account for their actions and it will be interesting to see long it takes before both are made accountable for their role in Trump’s presidency. 

Prime Minister's Questions 12th February

Today's Prime Minister Questions between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn was about the deportation of the fifty British Jamaicans. As usual Johnson referred  to them as dangerous "foreign nationals" however Corbyn reminded Johnson that  Johnson himself was not born in the UK and had dabbled in class A drugs.

This response seems to upset Johnson who gave a reply that made no sense  to me but  it felt like he was outraged to be compared with who he feels are foreign criminals. Johnsons' hypocrisy was breath taking and infuriating for anyone who believes these men's human rights have been  infringed.

In fact the rest of PMQs was equally frustrating with Johnson getting nice "softball" questions  and the issue of crime, health and  the economy barely touched on. You could tell from Johnson's body language that he seemed to enjoy it and he came out of it unscathed.

Whilst I am convinced the UK economy is slowing down and we are heading for recession, I hope our MPs will hold  Johnson to account. However after what I watched today I am feel that he may not be held to account.   

UK deportation of British Jamaicans

Well  Boris Johnson won the recent  election and sadly the election was all focused on Brexit. The Windrush scandal did not come at all and now the election  has been won the Tories have  resumed with deporting Jamaicans  who came  to the UK as children. The children  who to British schools and did not  go back to Jamaica are now being deported due to crimes they have committed.

I think the UK needs to realise if continue to sit back and allow Boris Johnson to continue with his ethnic cleansing". Then this government  like  President Trump will feel emboldened and attempt more human rights abuses.

Who will be the next ethnic group targeted for deportation under the guise that they are being deported because the are 'harden criminals?.... What of the families of these deportees left behind? Are the  government  going to step in and play the father role ? Now the Mothers of these children will have  to fend for children and themselves.

My wish is that the children of these deported fathers will grow and becomes a valuable member of the UK. That somehow if at all possible achieve their life goals not end up in a position of weakness because of what this Tory government have done.    

US Politics

Well  it has been  a while since I did any blogging! But it is good to be back to the  blogsphere.. In my absence so much appears to have happened . This  post will focus on US politics and I  literally do not know where to start.

So recently  President  Trump was impeached and acquitted, however the whole impeachment  trial was flawed as the GOP refused to have witnesses . Trumps acquittal seems to have emboldened him and by reviewing his daily twitter he now feels untouchable.

What I find sad this that the only GOP senate member to step up and find him guilty was Mitt Romney. Whilst  the  others sat probably afraid of the repercussions of voting Trump guilty. Right  now I think  politically USA is staring  into the abyss and  only  come out if their own citizens  set up and find their voices  to speak out against  Trump's behaviour.   

Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit

Okay I admit that I am not Jeremy Corbin fan but for the good of our country I'm mightily relieved that he has decided to step and accept the labour electorate campaign against Brexit. Maybe he finally gets that this his way to become Prime Minister and play the Tories at there own game.

Whatever has made Jeremy Corbin  wake up and see the wood from the trees is definitely a blessing. The Tories have no idea what they are doing and Teresa May is completely lost right now she is battling MPs in her own party then she is battling EU leaders whilst all the time making no progress.

Before the UK is completely destroyed it is good now Jeremy Corbin who many people suspect wants to leave the EU is now prepared to fight the Tories on this issue. Hopefully this will be a defining moment in Jeremy Corbin's leadership and he will now understand  how bad Brexit  is for the UK.

So these next days will be crucial I just hope Jeremy Corbin is ready to step up and potentially be a Prime Minister.

Donald Trump

It is even incredible how Donald Trump got elected as the President of United States. As a child in the 90s I remember that Donald Trump was always in the newspapers and it wasn't for his business acumen. First it was his divorce from Ivana Trump that made headlines and all the tawdry tabloid news that went with it.

Then in the late 90s I would constantly see him in pictures with black celebrities and mainly rappers. So fast forward nearly 20 years and now he has been elected the President of the United States! The whole thing is unreal and he is well and truly out of this depth.

He doesn't like reading and prefers to spend quality time on twitter. Now we are seeing scandal after scandal. I think Presidency will get even worse now that Robert Muller is investigating everything. Hopefully the American people will not suffer too much under a President that is out of his depth.

We just have to wait for Robert Muller to finish his Russian investigation and this will hopefully force Trump to resign before he destroys the fabric of America.

Windrush Generation - Political fallout

So we are now moving to week 3 of the Windrush generation controversy and now we have a better idea about the Tory government involvement. So in 2010 they destroyed the landing cards and then in 2014 inacted a law that would label them as illegal immigrants.

What makes this even more digusting is the disingenious behaviour of both Teresa May and Amber Rudd. In my opinion both should go, Teresa May inacted this policy that has caused untold suffering and I don't she gets the pain that she has caused them.

Amber Rudd apparently doesn't read memos sent to her and she is completely out of her depth. It would be long shot to see both of them go and probably unlikely but they have both put themselves in an untenable situation.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves one thing is sure the wider public will not allow them sweep it under the carpet. 

Windrush Generation

It has been a long time since I blogged but as the  toxic political climate grow in the U.K. so do my frustrations. I cannot believe nor do I understand why the Conservative government lead by Teresa May would target the people from the Caribbean who have been residents in the U.K. For at least 40 years. This is the Windrush generation that came to the UK and worked hard and paid their taxes. Now a lot of them are heading towards retirement the government have decided to try and deport these residents that cannot prove their 'Britishness'.

The cynic in me believes that Teresa May was happy when they all worked by now they may require assistance from the NHS it's the reason to deport them. Hopefully I am wrong and they the government are not even thinking like that.

To me this a blatant human right abuse and a country like the UK that goes around calling out other countries abuses this is hypocrisy at its highest level. I sincerely hope that the Tory government will have a cold hard think about this and have a bit more respect for people who have lived in the U.K. since infancy.

One this situation has done is open my own eyes and made me realise that my not blogging I have become silent minority that are not happy with the current situation but I was staying quiet.. but not anymore.. so you will be hearing more from me.

US Politics - Donald Trump

Wow I can't quite believe I am writing this blog and you may have noticed that I have not blogged for  awhile this was probably due to the shock of watching Donald Trump win the US Presidency. As a Brit I just did not see that coming but clearly his message really resonated with rural America. It was really sad to Hillary Clinton loose and I guess her message just did not cut acrosss middle America. I have to say that at times I was frustrated with her focus on women and I think that did not particularly go well for considering 53% white American women voted for Donald Trump.

Since his inauguration President Donald Trump has continued to play to his base. I found his inauguration speech to be full of hate and quite negative and no appreciation for all the work that President Obama's hard work..Trump has come across as unhinged and with little or no knowledge of how law and politics works in the US.

These are very scary times for the US and the rest of the world! President Trulp way of getting things achieved has been through Executive Order and his most controversial Executive Order was to ban se
seven predominantly Muslim countries from travelling to America. This alone sounded ridiculous considering that none of these countries had committed any terrorist attacks against the US.

Trump is totally out of this depth and what happens next will be interesting but I can
can impeachment on the horizon as his little knowledge of how things are find will be the undoing of him and personally I can't I would like the Office of Presidency to be taken seriously and not treated like a reality show.

US election - Election Day!

Wow its been while since I blogged! However I have been closely following the US election. I have to say it is definitely the meanest elections I have ever witnessed. 

I still cannot believe that hacked emails where allowed to be part of the election cycle. The insults that Donald Trump threw at Hillary Clinton where so un presidential. 

Donald Trump regularly called her "crooked" Hilary and his supporters where equally as rude. For me the video that surfaced on Donald Trump say he would one day date a ten year old that he saw in the lift was totally disgusting. 

Hillary to me has done so well to cope the barrage of insults about her family, her health and anything else they could have thrown at her. 

Hillary is not perfect but how many people are? If all they could find wrong with her conduct was the email server she set up then to me is definitely presidential material. 

So I will be keeping my fingers (toes) crossed for Hillary to be successful tonight. To me she has more than proved that she is capable and ready for the job as President. 

Mayor London - Election

Mayor London and local elections are taking place today and the main two candidates is Labour's Sadiq Khan and the Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith. 

What I think should have been regular election campaign between these candidates has got very nasty. This was Zac Goldsmith has accused Sadiq Khan of sharing a platform with terrorists. 

Zac then wrote an article in the Mail and Sunday to try and get some votes. However the accompanying picture to this article was nothing short of disgraceful as they used a picture from the 7/7 terrorist attack that happened eleven years go. 

To me this was a particular turning point of the campaign and it highlighted the depth to which the Tories will go to secure that win. 

The polls suggest that Sadiq Khan should get a comfortable win. Howevver the last General Election all the polls were pointing to hung parliament and the Tories ended up getting a majority. So hopefully this time the polls are more accurate. 

David Cameron - Tax avoidance

It has been a while since I have blogged about UK politics and it's main because I am still disappointed with the those 2015 results and I am not particularly happy with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. 

One story has renewed my interest in UK politics and that is David Cameron and his father's tax avoidance scheme. 

One is clear that neither David Cameron or is late father did anything illegal. However when David Cameron was first asked he told journalist that it was a private matter and yesterday four days later finally admitted that he had told some shares in 2010 and made £18K. 

I think what makes most people angry is the fact that he was not forthcoming with the details when asked and he is making money on the side and not declaring. 

This at the time when British people's wages are not rising and cuts in the NHS and education budgets. 

Will this lead to David Cameron resigning? Probably not but it would have damaged his reputation and will struggle to be able to discuss tax avoidance without people thinking that is what he has been doing. 

US election 2016

Ok I have finally gotten over the disaster of the UK General Election. As this year US election, I though it was about time I started blogging about it. 

I have to say that I am surprised that Donald Trump is actually been taking serious and could potentially be the republican candidate. 

I am also surprised that Hilary Clinton hasn't been fast tracked to the democratic nomination. 

This US election has been quite suprisein get for me as I would have thought that Jeb Bush would be more popular with the republican voters. 

I am still waiting for Donald Trump to announce this was a big joke and he had no plans of running for the presidency. However I now realise he serious and I should take his campaign seriously. 

The little I know about Donald Trump I have no idea why he would be fit to be the President of the United States. 

All I can see is that he is running on an anti Muslim ticket and that seems to have got lots of interest. 

Bernie Sanders is another potential Democratic nominee who seems to be very popular. He comes across a little old school and a bit like Ed Miliband and look how that ended up. 

I have finally tuned in and taking interest it is an important election apart of me which that Barack Obama could run again.

Labour Party after the General Election

I cannot begin to express how upset I am about the current state of the Labour Party. I am not impressed with any of them standing for leadership of the Labour Party. 

Quite frankly I can the imagine the Tories are loving every minute of this debacle. None of them in my opinion has any realistic chance of becoming Prime Minister. 

What's more concerning is that Labour becoming more left wing than ever which seriously reduces any realistic chance they have of becoming elected to into power. 

So right now I am boycotting all UK political news because when I read about the Labour leadership battle does not really seemed to be going well. 

Once the Labour leader is selected we can look that person realistic chances of becoming Prime Minister. 

What happened to Sandra Bland?

According to the Texas Police Sandra Bland committed suicide three days after being arrested. This death through suicide came as a shock to her family and friends. 

I think what brought it to the public consciousness was that the video of Sandra's arrest which was then released into the the public domain. 

In this video Sandra is clearly upset with the Sheriff and uses a few choice words and the Sheriff then gets upset and promptly arrest her. 

I think Sandra's could have had a little more respect for the Sheriff but that does not in any way justify the total abuse of power and a lack due diligence that I think led to her committing suicide. 

Before she was checked into her cell she was given paper work to complete and in one these paper work she admitted a previous suicide attempt but other paperwork makes no mention of the suicide attempt. 

This makes this particular Texas county look incompetent and if they had showed due diligence then I believe this would have gone some way in preserving Sandra Bland's life. 

The investigation is ongoing and of course it will not bring back Sandra but at least they can review their practices to ensure that something like this does not become the new norm. 

General Election - A Conservative majority

Well I am still getting over the shock of the Conservatives winning the General Election and getting majority. The shock started on the 7th May when the BBC exit poll predicted that the Conservatives would win 316 seats. 

At first I thought this had to be a mistake but as the night unfolded true the Conservatives ended up getting 332 seats. 

How did they do this? 

Now this was the big question because all the polling companies predicted a hung parliament. Labour won most of the seats in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 

However the conservatives managed to win six seats from Labour and over twenty five seats from the Liberal Democrats. 

The Tories targeted their coalition partners knowing that their seats would be vulnerable and they were right and Liberal Democrats now only have eight MPs and I was not too surprised by this as I expected them to be punished for going to partnership with the Tories. 

So this was a thoroughly unexpected result and now the Tories now have the mandate to carry on making cuts to public services. 

It's not the result I expected or wanted but Labour now have this result behind them and work on winning those middle class votes in 2020. 

UK General Election - 6th May

So it's been a while since I have blogged but I have been following the political campaigns pretty closely. It goes without saying that all the parties of fighting of each vote. 

It has been fasincating to see what the parties have been doing to try and get people to vote for them. 

I think Labour led by Ed Miliband have done well to be so close in the polls. Ed has had a strong message about making the UK a fairer society and get people who are not paying tax to pay tax. 

However his message may not be getting through due to the backlash from the right winger media. 

They are doing everything in their power for Ed to come across as incompetent. What they don't realise is that they coming accross as bullies which is why is not helping the Tory campaign.

The Tory campaign has been an unmitigated disaster, after they had spent the last year telling the British people how well the economy is doing we find out the economy is going backwards and there has only been 0.3 growth in April. 

Yet David Cameron is at pains to stress how the UK is thriving but the reality is the ones at the top have benefited whilst rest of the UK keeping it's head above water. 

Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats is trying to cling to power by stating that if there is a hung party then they will be the kingmakers which is unlikely as the polls are suggesting they will lose half there seats. 

UKIP have been making a lot of noise but they have gone quiet about there determination to leave Europe as they know it's not a vote a winner. They will be lucky to get three MPs.

So it's there is still all to play for but I am hoping that Ed and his wife Justine will be standing on the doorsteps of No10 as he is elected Prime Minister.