Nationalised British Broadband
Labour’s plans to nationalise broadband and provide it free to homes and small business is a cracker!
Advantages For Labour
It would have one big advantage for Labour!
It’s a great way of listening in to all their political opponents. They only have to ask the Chinese how to do it!
How for instance, would another political party, with a radical agenda organise?
But!
Consider these points.
- Mobile phone traffic uses the same Internet backbone as broadband.
- Internet tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google wouldn’t pay up without a fight
- Everybody’s pension fund would suffer, as BT is often there and shares would be replaced by junk bonds.
- Virgin Media and other broadband suppliers would be nationalised as well or could become worthless.
- A lot of American Internet companies would go running to the US President and just as Trump has applied tariffs willy-nilly in his trade war with China, a future President wouldn’t take it lying down.
- The high-tech industry has already said they don’t like it.
The biggest problem is that Internet usage will grow exponentially with 5G broadband and all the connected devices, like
- Driverless cars.
- Automated warehouses and delivery systems.
- Connected smart household and other appliances.
- Connected massive screens, which every business, school or home will have.
- Every child watching content on mobile devices.
- Collectinbg operating data from cars, trucks and trains to make them more reliable.
- Automated care assistance for the ill, frail and elderly.
Can any government afford the cost of continual upgrading of capacity, which will not be like anything seen before?
It certainly, is a cracker!
And if it is implemented, it will blow up in the ultra-Marxists’ faces.
PM Backs Clean Air Law
The title of this post is the front page headline on today’s copy of The Times.
This is the sub-heading of the article on The Times web site.
PM promises binding targets to reduce pollution and praises Times campaign
In a separate box in the paper, which is entitled Our Manifesto, this is said.
- A new Clean Air Act to confer a legal right to unjpolluted air for everyone in the UK.
- A ban on new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 and cuts to green car grants to be traversed.
- Temporary traffic bans outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times.
- The extension of pre-2016 diesel and pre-2006 petrol pay zones to more cities.
- Pollution monitors in every postcode to empower people to take action.
How far will Boris Johnson go to meet the manifesto of The Times in the Queen’s Speech on Monday?
Are Extinction Rebellion Counter Productive?
I am coming to the conclusion that Extinction Rebellion are a bunch of climate-change fascists of the left, that mirror, the racist and immigration fascists on the right.
Both have unrealistic ambitions and just like Hitler and Stalin want to control out lives and give themselves and their acolytes absolute power.
In my mind, there is no difference between the extreme left and extreme right. For instance the extreme-right is generally thought to be anti-Semitic and who is being accused of that now? The once respectable Labour Party, which is now more useless than a chocolate teapot.
I am scientifically green and have been so since my I left Liverpool University round fifty years ago.
I have believed in global warming for about thirty years, ever since I was told by a guy on the NASA team, that measured the Earth’s temperature from satellites, that the world was warming up.
No matter what Bolsonaro Trump, Xi Jinping and other leaders say, global warming is a NASA fact!
But large numbers of people don’t believe in good scientific practice and behaviour.
- Some are anti-vaccination.
- Some believe in homeopathy.
- Many believe in religion, some of which are totally bonkers!
- Some think the 9/11 attacks were faked or carried out by the Israelis.
- Some believe the moon landings were faked!
- Some believe in log fires.
- They drive hundreds of miles to work every year.
- They drive their children everywhere.
- They never talk to anybody of a different race or religion.
- Some have a holiday home in Cornwall, North Norfolk, France or Spain.
There is only one way to convince morons like these to change to a more scientifically-green lifestyle.
By nudging them to it, by showing them it can be better and more affordable.
Extinction Rebellion and their ilk just alienate Middle England and they push green issues under the carpet for another day.
Incidentally, we need politicians at both a National and local level to stop playing stupid games about Brexit and get on with the job of improving the lives of all of the residents of the UK.
Should We Have An Electronic Vote On Brexit?
We need to do something quick and radical to sort out Brexit.
Surely, if electronic voting is good enough for Estonia, it’s good enough for us!
Also if we can work out a secure system for Strictly Come Dancing and Love Island, we must have the technology for a secure vote!
Try getting that proposal through the House of Commons
Boris Gets Screwed, Glued And Tattooed
I voted Remain, but just wish that this Brexit rubbish can be sorted one way or another!
With my circumstances as a non-driving, single pensioner living alone in a comfortable house with a more than adequate pension, Remain or Leave will probably make no or little difference to the rest of my life.
But other things could!
- Increasing air pollution in London and other cities.
- Global warming.
- A government that raided my pension fund or pursued policies that would reduce its value.
- The closure of more restaurants that are good at gluten-free food!
- A government that didn’t back public transport.
- Increasing violence on the streets.
- A government that didn’t back serious research in Universities.
I have listed them in a rough order.
Should We Leave Now?
I actually feel now, that we should leave the EU, as to disobey the referendum would set a bad and dangerous precedent.
Especially, if we have a second referendum, in the hope of getting a result more acceptable to government and/or parliament and it proves just as close.
Imagine a controversial referendum in the future, such as bringing back the death penalty or imposing high carbon taxes.
If the government and/or parliament does’t get an acceptable result, will they go for further referendums until they do?
Where Now?
Boris is in a corner of his own making!
In the days of Rab Butler, Joe Grimond and Harold Wilson, the solution would have been to call in The Queen, who would give the nod to the next Prime Minister chosen by the Great and Good of the strongest party in the House of Commons.
Now with more democratically elected party leaders and the Fixed Term Parliament Act, such old-fashioned methods are now considered undemocratic.
But will the current crop of comedians in the House break the deadlock?
Conclusion
House Of Cards has nothing on this!
Austria Scraps Its Sun Tax
The eye-catching title of this post is the same vas that of this article on PV Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The nation’s political parties have found agreement on a green electricity package which is expected to create stable conditions for the next three years. From next year, €36 million will be made available annually for the further support of PV systems and energy storage.
As to the Sun Tax, this is explained further on.
The association has already seen one of its other demands met with the cancellation on Thursday of the ‘sun tax’ on the consumption of power generated by householders with rooftop arrays. Under the previous rules, solar households could consume 25 MWh of self-generated solar free of charge but then had to pay a €0.015 levy on every subsequent kilowatt-hour consumed during the life of the PV system.
|All parties seem pleased with the scrapping of the tax.
Bollocks To Brexit
This snippet is in the bottom-right corner of Page 29 in today’s Sunday Times
Is there no escape from politics? The top and bottom rows of the cryptic crossword in Thursday’s Guardian spelt out “Bollocks to Brexit”. Very amusing, but not a message that isn’t available elsewhere in the paper. How much more impressive to have smuggled it into The Daily Telegraph.
There’s certainly no escape from hearing views about Brexit.
What Happens When An Irresistible Force Meets An Immovable Object?
Wikipedia has an entry called Irresistible Force Paradox.
Read it and you won’t find any help with a solution to the Brexit impasse!
As someone, who is very much a European, who voted Remain and believes that we should always follow the first referendum result, Wikipedia didn’t help me either!
The only thing that will sort this stand-off out, is a good old-fashioned British compromise.
We can probably wait for ever for that!
Has Boris Shot The Fox?
Has Boris shown Remoaners and the other parties to be bad losers?
They’ll all running around like headless chickens!
He’ll surely win the next election by a street!!
The only person, who can stop Boris, would be a brilliant orator, with total respect from everybody!
The Anonymous Widower 