Windsor Framework

Britain is an aggregate of 4 nations, about 300 years ago the kingdom of Scotland, England and Wales merged together; they said to themselves we all live on the island of Britain, why don't we have one kingdom for the whole island. We then became the United Kingdom of Britain, one state for one island. 100 years later the island of Ireland joined the union but recently Ireland broke off from the Union except all the Irish that wanted to remain British, the Pro-british unionist communities clumped together on the northeast side of Ireland. Ireland became a two state Island, UK northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 

When I was a kid in the '90s I saw the Ira fighting to make the whole of Ireland separate from Britain. One Ireland that was independent of the kingdom. The loyalists and Ira were constantly fighting a paramilitary civil war. They were even detonating powerful bombs in Britain itself. 

During Brexit the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland had become the border between the UK and EU because the Republic of Ireland remained a part of the EU trading block. 

The problem is the EU member states don't want products and services from low income, low tax countries to enter the EU trading block without being charged a tariff to make the products less competitive with theirs. For example Britain could buy 12 tonnes of olives from Brazil and send them across the Northern Ireland border and undercut the prices of Spanish and Italian olives. The farmer's incomes in Brazil are less than in Spain and Italy. 

Apparently our government have negotiated a deal with the EU member states that allows Northern Ireland to have full access to UK and EU markets without tariffs and stipulations. They call it the Windsor Framework. Northern Ireland can sell their products and services to the Republic of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland can do the same with the UK. Northern Ireland has become a unique place on the continent. 

Let's see if it works. My local MP is the minister for northern Ireland and he is a Brexiteer, he approves of the new deal. It's a small world. 

Lockdown countdown

The second lockdown to slow down the covid19 virus has started in the UK. No liesure, no recreation, only shopping for food, essential work and waiting. It is cold and dark and the frost reaches the ground where I live at night, the coastal areas don't have to worry yet because they are close to sea level so the frost can't reach them before it melts, although some costal areas are hilly so the hilltops would get smeared with frost. 

It was at the start of the UK lockdown that the American general election votes were being counted. The outcome is a knife edge result, very close, an almost 50 : 50 split. The American political map resembles the British Christmas snap election one in some way, you have one big clump supporting Republicans(Trump) in the centre of the country and the east and west coast supporting Democrats(Biden) except Florida and nearby states. 

Politics wasn't the only rivalry occuring, games companies were releasing their next generation games consoles. PlayStation is taking online payments for the PlayStation 5, XBox has the XBox X and S, PlayStation and Xbox were releasing 4k masterpieces. Then you have the Atari VCS, a 4k video gaming PC that is souped up as a retro flashback combo system. If I was loaded with cash I would get all three of them, the XBox, PlayStation and VCS. 

My head was buried in my own little world, dreaming of having a bigger home with a room just for liesure called the "happy zone", a "man cave" filled with arcade machines and gaming tables with a drinks & coffee bar. I watch videos of all the "arcade1up" compact arcade machines. One of my creations has to be outstanding in some way to lift me and my small family out of the grey(gray) zone. I keep trying and never give up. 

Fire and Water

Here in the UK on the Island of Great Britain there are currently floods occuring in the center of the island in North England and in the midlands.

Rivers throughout England are surging very forcefully, I saw a tree was pushed over on the river bank near my home in Wycombe. I blame global warming for this disaster although I also blame my leaders for not making infrastructure preparations like what I often describe in this blog. I also blame global warming for the fires in East Australia in New South Wales. Many people in Australia have lost their homes and some people have been killed and many wild annimals have also been killed.

I hope that a new high capacity battery is invented soon that is cheap so I can afford to buy an electric car and make my Carbon footprint more shallow than it was before.

Frosty aspiration

Every day I look out for the morning frost and I see if it will come at least once before the clocks go backwards on Sunday the 27th of October. I sense that the frost is nearby but doesn't quite reach the ground yet, perhaps it hangs in the air half a kilometer above the ground. Every night at about 3 am, it gets closer and closer to ground level.

The only sighns  I have that it is near is the condensation that comes on all the metallic surfaces; a fine spray of water droplets.

Anyway, it is true Autumn now, the day and night are nearly equal in length and will be so on the 27 of October and the trees are starting to sense the frost is near, they are putting their leaves out of service in a brown and yellow display.

If you are reading this blog in descending order then you probably know better than me if the morning frost came before daylight saving in 2019 in the UK. To me that is comfort that global warming hasn't taken a deadly grip on our planet yet. Silly to many but logical to me.

Boris power

Boris Johnson has been voted leader of the conservative party, the Queen has welcomed him to the helm and he has made his speech and summoned his cabinet team.  Therasa May has stepped down, she did well I think.

Why did they take so long? We knew last month that Boris would win, he had more than double the votes as all the other candidates. Why did we wait until there is only 3 months left before the October deadline? I think they should have fast tracked his promotion.

My local MP Steve Barker happens to be the most hard core Brexiteer in the whole house of commons, why did he turn down a cabinet position? He has a clear plan in place. I guess he just wants to remain a back bencher.

Do they know that people like me get nervous when cabinet ministers quit on mass. When people are fleeing in a movie it is because there is danger, they are either running from an explosion or a monster. Yet the cabinet ministers and leaders are stepping down so often that they may as well go to Ikea and get a whole new Cabinet, I know that joke is not funny.

I wish Boris good luck, I keep my chin up for my island home. Rule Britania, my island of Hope and glory. May the Island of Great Britain and it's family stay in prosperity.

Divided Britain and Kingdom

The year 2018 is coming to an end and my island of Great Britain is very divided with odd pairings. From the summer of 2016 the British people divided themselves into three groups. Brexiteers, Remainers and Abstainers. Brexiteers wanted the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Remainers wanted to stay in the European Union and Abstainers weren't sure or refused to vote.

The divide spanned across the British Island and spilled out to the edge of the Kingdom in northern Ireland and Gibraltar.

There was odd pairings and aliances  throughout the UK. London and Scotland wanted to remain. The rest of England and Wales wanted to leave. Northern Ireland wanted to remain and so did Gibraltar. Ultimately, leaving EU was the final verdict.

I have seen business leaders and politicians that were far from friends working together to achieve their goals. Rival politicians came together and was working as a team. Tony Blair and John Major were working together for the Remain Campaign, they were political rivals in the previous decades. It is a bit like Superman, Batman and Skeletor forming a group. I saw Tim Martin and Robert Dyson on the leave group. A pub chain owner and a vacuum cleaner manufacturer. People I would never see working together were drawn together by this strange situation.

Now the divide is about how we leave and the whether the Kingdom will be intact or if Great Britain will remain Great or be split in half across Hadrian's wall. My Island is filled with uncertainty. I can only hope that we work together and make the final decision work for us. Even a paralyzed man needs both his arms to push the wheels in the same direction, otherwise his wheelchair would just spin around and he would have no hope of getting anywhere.

When the Queen did her speech on Christmas, it made a lot of sense to me. We need to be united in the United Kingdom and the sons of Britain need to respect their brothers and sisters.

I can only hope for the best outcome.

5th Dimension

When I was a young boy, my parents took me to Chessington Zoo, We went on a Dark ride called the 5th Dimension. It was a sci-fi adventure on a train inside a cavity with no sunlight. On this ride, we meet an animatronic robot call Zapponatic. He was a robot that repairs things I think. In this fantasy world, we were given the mission to kill the Gorg, A Gorg is a huge monster that was terrorizing this world. Zappomatic was our guide and would give us a heads up on what was happening.

I learned recently that the ride was a commercial failure because it didn't attract very many visitors. I was surprised to learn about this because I remember the ride blowing my little mind. and I found it more entertaining than the other rides. I do remember the ride having very short ques. I think it was ahead of its time and perhaps going on a virtual Quest wasn't important to young kids back them.

Now virtual reality is starting to catch on, perhaps people will value the ability to go on a virtual Quest and have a little fantasy adventure.

Scotland and Us

I sense that the Scottish people want to break away from the UK to rejoin the European Union. To be honest, I would be disappointed if they did because it means they are choosing the EU over the UK. The UK is older than the EU and functions better. I will accept their decision and try not to take it personally.

I am proud of the UK and feel that it will out last the EU because they are trying to turn into a federation and the countries don't fit together. They will probably blame the UK exit for the end of the EU but the truth is it was a doomed project.

We did a lot for the Scots , we bailed out RBS and put all gov projects their to increase their employment. If they want to turn their backs on that then I won't hold it against them.

I think that the Scots leaving the UK is bad for them because we buy most there goods and we share their currency.

Deep space threat

The UK government recently opted to upgrade their Nuclear deterrent. I don't know if that is good or bad. What I do know is that there is a bigger threat to everyone. The threat is deep space.

Large fast moving objects are moving through space. When one of them strikes the Earth it could destroy the food chain and cause the death of millions of people. It is also possible that mankind could become extinct.

I don't understand why we are prepared to shoot missiles at other countries and not to stop Asteroids and Comets from colliding with earth. Is the Deep space object collision not inevitable?

Today I am grateful that the disaster has not happened and I am also pleased that world war 3 has not started and may never start if we are wise.