even temperature gauges have differences in opinion, they are like us humans.

london 3.54pm 5.6C sunny saturday 2017

the temperature readings around my area can vary from 10.3C  to 3.5C . looks like these gauges have opinions too. like us humans.

this afternoon there is a march, from mayfair to waterloo place, by women against trump’s inauguration. they seem to think he might remove their privileges. why women in uk think he would do that , or for that matter why all women all over the world who are demonstrating, think trump will remove their priviledges in each of the many countries they come from, seem rather inexplicable.

 so looks like the temperature gauges are mimicking humans by expressing different readings and being contradictory.

unfortunately if u hold those opinions u will act on them even though they are wrong. i mean u just have to read all those people who have predicted doom for brexit, they are proved wrong, but they still have fears.

or they really want to remain part of the EU, even though those officials are not elected. one wonders why british people who vote remain and dont want to accept brexit  dont mind being ruled by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in brussels rather than by their own parliament. are they so afraid that parliament will remove all the rights that the EU have put in place? what makes them think so i wonder? why should parliament remove those rights  when u consider parliament have implemented all the directives given out by the eu?

or perhaps they feel that they wont be allowed into europe anymore if we leave. many of them have not lived through the old days when anyone can go into europe without a visa. i am not british and i can go in and out without any trouble at all.so brits can still go in and out of europe to visit. no problem at all. so those who think they will be barred from their holidays to france, or spain, etc, can rest assured.

 the only difference is you cannot work there , so maybe that is the one that makes people who vote remain, wish to remain. but how many really go there to work? when the european countries are having such huge youth unemployment there cannot be much work going around for expats to do. and i m sure not many brits are that fluent in the local languages to be hireable. that leaves only the self employed who buy or establish a business there. they can still do so after we leave.

 so that leaves those who have bought houses there and want to live there. cant be many of them. but they can still live there, just have to come back every 3 months or so. but one big problem will be they wont be able to get free medical treatment… or rather free to them, uk still have to pay for it with the present arrangement. that will push them back to uk. so in that sense they are the ones to lose out but the uk gains because the uk dont have to pay their medical bills as an extra to what is given to the nhs in uk,anymore. 

i think if those bureaucrats have handled the migration problem better, brexit wont have happened. people dont mind their economic incompetence, poor growth, mass youth unemployment,  greek economy, italy’s banks, is quite bad but i dont think they will want to break from the eu because of those reasons.  but when the people see so many illegally come into their country, it is an invasion… people will  rebel against it.

if the migrants have been peaceful and were not in such numbers, it might still succeed, as germany , even sweden ( was surprised to read in a blog that sweden has finally reached 10million population recently. so few of them… in such a big country) do want these young people to swell their work force… to provide pensions and replacement  for their old folks who will be retiring soon; but these migrants have a different agenda. or their numbers make it too many and they come in too quickly  to  allow time to integrate peacefully with the rest of the population.

immigration is a good thing, but it has to be controlled. just look at britain, who took in all idi amin’s uganda indians when they were kicked out by him and they have peacefully integrated and in fact helped the british economy. but it was a clear intake, limited in numbers and period… unlike now.

i think all those people crossing the mediterranean and invading europe will prove too much for the EU and cause it to disintegrate. it is quite difficult to see how they can control the people coming  in their boats from africa. short of shooting them, sinking them, or put them in prison when they arrive, all of which wont be allowed in any case, i cannot see how they can control it.

ah well, no need to get heated up at what i am saying. as my opinion is no better or worse than yours. and it is only an opinion. but i am glad the uk is going its own way. europe’s problems seem insurmountable really because it all has to be agreed by all 27 of them and that is impossible. 

steve hilton

london 8.26am 12.8C sunny monday 2016

i try not to link to any arguements for or against the EU referendum, as i have allready made up my mind about it. but this one by steve hilton, former adviser to david cameron seems like a insider look at the workings of the EU and his conclusion is leave, as it is not possible to govern the uk as a self ruling country if we remain. 2/3 of govt business is related to EU directives. if what he says is so, then we might as well just downgrade parliament to a uk council and let the EU govern us.

Digital StillCamera

it is the start of the chelsea flower show, so there will be lots of flower pictures coming our way. you know, looking at that rose, i am struck by how it is the only flower with that arrangement of petals. whorls within whorls. that must be unique.

cities vs EU

london 10.17pm 14.1C wednesday 2016

the cities are frustrated at what they see as EU double standards. On the one hand, the EU places pressure on cities to reduce harmful emissions. On the other, its new laws will do little to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from diesel vehicles. This could force cities to achieve emissions goals through bans and congestion charges, when they could have been achieved by more stringent manufacturing regulations instead. link

Digital StillCamera

it is an interesting effect of one branch of govt pushing for one thing, whilst another branch doing another which are inherently contradictory.

back to normal, steel closure

london 12.07pm sunny blue sky 11.8C tuesday 2016

its nice to get back to normal with the shops and activities open as usual. and we seem to have got rid of the wet storm weather too. it is all bright and sunny and blue sky here. (1.01pm added. spoke too soon, haha. the sky is getting darker and it is raining; so much for the sunny blue sky. haha. added, 2.13pm, sunnyblue sky again. good ol english weather)

i was at the library earlier, reading the backlog of newspapers that have accumulated over the holidays. i skimmed over them as there is nothing more dated than old news.afraid i only looked at the monday , sat, and sunday papers, and even then not all the different titles. 

it also included  the last print edition of the independant too, before they go online only. i suppose someone might consider keeping it as a souvenir, or with an eye to its future collectors’ item.

how things have changed from those days when weekend papers were the highlight of the week. that would be in the 80s, and part of the 90s. i enjoyed reading the sunday times. but it hasn’t been so for a long time . these changes are replaced by news online and the internet, so it’s not all bad.

in the past u get really good analysis of the news in the sunday papers, but perhaps nowadays things are more complex so that no one person can know everything to explain what the implications can be.

for eg, i should think it is very difficult to know for certain how uk will be affected if it leaves the EU. no one knows really. we can speculate and try to extrapolate, but we dont really know for sure. whereas we can be pretty sure what will happen to uk if we stay in. more union.

if u look at it logically it is better for europe to be united as one, like the usa. but humans are not logical. the british dont like it. so far the people in the EU dont seem to mind that they are getting closer union, but maybe they have yet to feel the effects.

in fact, the poorer members can access the generous system in uk so it is great for them and the big monetary contribution from the uk means  it pays them to be in the EU. but now that they are forced to take in their quota of migrants, they might think again. they will be the ones hosting migrants, instead of the other way round. haha.

and for the rich countries like france and germany… being bombed because of the porous borders, as in france, and having their women assaulted in the case of germany might make them change their  minds too.but they are in too deep. they have no choice but to stay in. when u dont have a currency to call your own anymore, it can be a real bummer to leave the system. greece had to face that reality and so it did not/could not get out. all the countries in the EU  burnt their boats really when they adopted the euro.

even in usa there are tensions, with states going their own way, defying the federal govt. i wonder if the usa will take a change and vote in the donald. if it does, than usa will become more protectionist towards china. at present, the usa have been allowing china easy access to its markets and china not… this will change if the donald comes in. the flood of cheap chinese goods have really destroyed the local industry in usa. now there is a currency war going on, with each country trying to bring their currency down in relation to the US$ . ah well, i know things are more complicated than this and we shall have to see how it all pans out when the us elections is over , and our uk referendum is done. 

added. 8.06pm i am seeing a news program on tv about wales having to close its steel works. it is owned by tata steel, an indian company , and they are meeting in mumbai to decide to close it. this is because of cheap steel from china being dumped in europe and uk. it is the kind of problems that usa is going through too. huge swathes of the locals being thrown out of work because of cheap stuff from overseas. its no wonder the donald is so popular, as he has said he will stop that happening. added. 11.14pm, it seems the tata will put their entire uk steel business for sale. 

added 4.59pm wednesday 30.3.16. it seems the uk govt is the one to blame for stopping the EU from raising the tariff on the steel from china. that post blames the uk govt. but wait a bit, as i continue to read that article it turns out the govt is fighting against the abolishment of the lesser duty rule.

Axing the rule would allow the EU to impose higher tariff charges on steel coming into continent as a way of counteracting the aggressive production of countries such as China.

i think that is the nub, the govt is afraid that if the lesser duty rule is abolished, the EU can raise the duty on british steel going into EU, as well as chinese steel. the british govt is right to fear abolishing that rule. that rule keeps the EU from imposing higher tariffs on everything coming into the EU. and that includes british goods.

i wonder if we were to leave the EU, there is nothing to stop the EU from abolishing the lesser duty rule. and then british goods can have higher tariffs placed on them. and this might lead to a trade war with each country retaliating and imposing high duties on each other’s goods. a trade war is very dangerous for the uk, as it depands so much on being able to freely trade with others. 

there is another rule that allows the EU to impose a higher tariff, if it is proved that the steel is being subsidised by china and so is sold at below cost. and i suppose that is the rule that allowed the EU to raise the tariff by 26%.

the usa has allready and very swiftly imposed 266% duty on the imported steel into usa.

added. 9.33am thursday 2016 7.7C sunny this daily mail article gives the reasons . its a lot of other actions that impact unfavourably on it. the central reason is that low demand for steel worldwide. 

 

 

hotel maids are still exploited.

london 5.12pm 10.2C cloudy wednesday 2016.

you would think the minimum wage will do away with such a thing with these cleaners of  hotel rooms, but it seems not. the hotels got round it, by hiring agencies, who put the workers on higher and higher work loads, increasing the number of rooms they need to clean, and if they dont finish the full numbers of rooms (30 rooms per person per day, giving only 28mins to do a room) they have to either clean it on their own time, or get reduced pay. they are supposed to be paid per  hour on the minimum wage, but they are not rated according to how many hours they clock on and off, but on the number of rooms. this is illegal, but no one dares to report them.

i think it is because so many do not speak english, even though they come from europe. that lack of english is the one that made them unable to find work elsewhere. once they learn english,or simply get worn out, they leave and the agencies dont mind that, they can handle the rapid  turnover as there are plenty of other suckers who will take over.

but i hope uk will leave the EU after the referendum, and so the easy supply of cheap labour will stop. it is the easy supply of these desperate workers who are driving the conditions down.

it will drive prices of the hotel rooms up, but these are high end hotel rooms, costing upwards of £300 a night, they can afford to raise their charges, or absorb the extra costs. it just means they dont make as much profit as they would, and i for one wont cry for them. haha.

if u dont speak the lingo u will be exploited and that is a fact of life. but if the uk limits the numbers of suckers coming in to do these kind of work, there wont be that many of them and the rooms will not have people to clean them. that would hit the hotels where it hurts. haha. so vote leave. those workers will thank you for it.

in a way it reminds me of the situation in medieval europe, after the plague decimated the population so there was not enough workers to work the farms, that forced the price of labour to go up.

it also reminds me of the topshop cleaners going on strike for the living wage. their cleaning jobs must be a real doddle compared to having to clean hotel rooms. cleaning offices must be real cushy… comparatively.

of course u could blurb out, if uk votes to leave the EU…  but that means we cannot even get in the uk to work here, nevermind the shit pay… !!

well, no one said life is fair. 

the thing to get out of this is to upgrade your skills. learn a skill, a trade, a profession. whatever it takes so that u dont compete on these low paid unskilled jobs that anyone can do. 

how does being in the EU affect our daily lives?

london9.19am 8C cloudy/rain thursday 2016

EU in 10 objects,

Voters are going to be told throughout the referendum campaign that the European Union affects their everyday lives. But how?

In its series Europe In 10 Objects, the Today programme is exploring the costs and benefits of the EU by looking in detail at objects people encounter in their daily lives.

the one about the sausage really interests me. why? because i have noticed the pork prices are always low,£2/kg , in the supermarkets, even when all the other meats, like chicken and beef jumps in prices so much. i wondered why? this one gave me the answer. because in uk, the very high standards imposed on british pig farmers to ensure their pigs are well cared for, are not enforced on the EU farmer, so they can rear their pigs cheaper than here, and so can sell pork cheaper than here, and because there are no barriers to trade, supermarkets can buy pork from them and sell it to us cheaper than buying british pork.

if uk leaves the EU, pork will go up in price. i wont like it but i would still vote leave.

i rather pay more for the pork if it means  getting back our own decision to make our own laws and regulations.

or forced to pay the UK share of the costs  whenever they make deals like the one they make with Turkey, for which they never ask the other members to vote on. that turkey vote seems to be taken by only a few people (who are they , no one knows) and the rest are expected to approve it and just go along with it. u might argue that the uk share is only(?) £500million compared to the 6billion euros promised. but depand on it, they will get the money from us through other means. maybe as part of a budget increase to pay for it. i think by us leaving it will concentrate their minds as they cannot rely on this huge amount of money the uk contributes to the budget. it might stop their profligate spending, and the other members might thank us for it. as it is there is this report about them wanting to have their own members car pool and chauffeurs to move them between the two capitals.

as it is we have to toe the line when it  is EU laws, but we could not even enforce our own higher standards for pigs on them. just goes to show how little power we have to change the EU>

actually the report using the sausage to illustrate it is not really very apt. it is the pork price that is low, but sausage prices are high even now. sausages are processed goods, and so their price is jacked up… if we leave the EU, sausage prices will still be high. it wont change. they might not even raise it as they should if we leave, because the public may not buy it.

as it is, with all the scare stories about sausages, (and bacon) there might allready be a drop in sales.

its a good series, so far they have shown how the mobile phone, and time directive and pork prices have been influenced by the EU.

 about the time directive,(a bad thing it seems esp for truck drivers but to others it might make them stop working so much and becoming a danger to themselves and to others) and mobile roaming charges (supposedly a good thing, though i myself would like to charge  those talking on  their mobile phones a lot more just to discourage them haha. than i dont have to keep overhearing their loud conversations. so if it were me, i would increase the roaming charges.

i had asked who decided on the Turkey agreement, and then i read this in the daily telegraph newspaper business section this morning… it seems it is germany merkel, she has been accused of bouncing fellow member states into accepting it. even though in a emergency summit with ankara earlier on monday they could not come to a deal. in the same article, iceland prime minister says even large member states like uk wield ‘diminishing power’. when it comes to the big stuff, he said, the decision are made by two, or increasingly one country. 

added. this article in the bbc news asks have uk really signed away its sovereignty? it seems it has, by signing the 1972 european communities act. which gives the European court priority over uk laws. u cannot call yourself sovereign if u then allow a foreign court to hand down laws that u cannot disobey. that is why i say the british people have been had by their politicians who signed up for the 1972 act. i daresay the politicians were fooled by the EU bureaucrats . those EU bureaucrats are experts at it, they are the ones who are experts at writing laws that can twist the meaning everyway they chose.  

Rhodri Thompson QC, a specialist in EU law, puts it this way: “The basic relationship between UK and EU law has been clear since 1972 – Parliament remains sovereign but recognises the binding nature of EU law.

some clarity, huh? even the specialist is fooled. how he can say parliament remains sovereign under those conditions? more fool he, call himself an specialist in EU law. what a fool. with people like him advising us, no wonder we are in the mess we are in now.

and there is no way of taking the act and pick and chose who or what u want to obey. its either all the way in or get out. 

uk have been empire builders and now are so afraid of leaving the EU, why?

london 10.36pm 13C saturday 2016 . sure is warm for this time of year, and it is nighttime too. this temp i would expect for the middle of the day. i bet there is a south wind blowing, but no, it is a east wind blowing.

just saw a bbc2 program about kipling, about his time when he was 16yrs old and went to lahore, (in 1882)at the height of the british empire in india; to stay for 7yrs, and where he honed his short story telling skills. india would be a good place to find human stories, and his tales from the hills made him famous. he wrote kim, about a orphan boy growing up in lahore, and that got him his nobel prize in 1907, the first englishman to get it. i have not read kim, but from this documentary of the young kipling, i am tempted to borrow it from the library. 

as usual, one only have to google it, and i found this pdf of his novel, kim to read online. 

we now have a date for the referendum whether to stay or leave the EU. it is 23rd june. i am looking forward to it, as it is a chance for the british public to decide. what i find rather interesting is the fear of leaving, as if this country that have been so confident of themselves and made themselves in the past ,the masters of the world with a world wide british empire  are so afraid now of going on their own way. what had happened to the people, or the present leaders of this country to  have lost so much confidence in themselves that they have become so afraid of going their own way?

what is wrong with the EU?

london 8.32am sunny 11.1C thursday 2015

this article by open democracy which i read in my wordpress reader (it is easier to read it there than in their website, one of the plus for the reader.)spells it out and very clearly. it certainly clarifies for me the  cons of the EU and it makes me realise it should have remained a trading body, rather than morphed into a govt by stealth.

it is not a parliament as such;  it has no opposition. and the speech by vaclav klaus, president of the czech republic in feb 2009 shows it very clearly, and he was rewarded with a mass walkout. and yet i dont remember it being reported widely. 

the whole report makes me rethink about staying in the EU. i am now inclining to join those heading towards the exit. 

should uk leave the EU?

london 9.26pm 16.8C, sunday 2015

this article in the daily mail says 51% now wants uk to leave the EU. opinion has changed a lot. previously majority was to remain in the EU.

Actually i am beginning to agree to the idea that  UK  leave the EU. All i am interested in is trade ties with the EU. that is all, i have no wish that the EU can start passing laws to control the UK and interfering with british laws.

in the past they have made it a condition of trade that UK be a member of the EU, or rather they have implied it. but that cannot be right. no country can put up trade walls and conditions to block trade with another. esp if they are also interested in trading with the UK.

The financial sector , which is london based, are afraid they will be blocked from doing business in EU, if uk is not a member,  it is possible that EU  can impose extra duty. The EU is considering a extra tax on financial transactions and if uk is not a member it can do it, and uk will be penalised. though it could work both ways, business may run to uk, if that tax is imposed in europe. the picture is not clear. uk have stamp duty and that has not detered those outside it from doing business with the uk stock exchange.

personally i think all countries should put a small tax on all financial transactions, that would raise quite a lot of money… though there might be disagreement on which country gets the money. but it is very possible that businesses will desert it and run to do business where the tax is not implemented.

ah well, these are problems that i am glad i dont have to solve. haha. the other thing if uk leaves the EU is what about all those brits living in europe now? their health benefits will stop as i dont think the reciprocal health arrangement currantly agreed on will hold after separation. and their freedom to live there for a long period may be subject to change. i think that group of people will see the biggest changes to their way of life.

i think for travellers and holiday makers, there wont be any changes. just as i can travel to europe easily, even though i am not british, after partition, brits will still be able to travel freely and holiday in europe without problems. i have a feeling things wont change that much if UK leaves. it is getting more and more attractive to leave, because i can see the EU govt tightening its grip and trying to make every country be united under one legislation. and they are very spendthrift, their spending is out of control. the gravy train is there for everyone in EU govt. it is really very bad and getting worst. 

the grexit, new york snowmegadorn … it might not be that bad

london

i read that the snow storm that the pundits say will be humongous, turns out to be just an ordinary one. so much ado about nothing.

i wonder if the dire predictions of disaster if greece exits the EU will also turn out to be much ado about nothing.

what if leaving the EU makes greece so much better… it will immediately be free of debt, and even if its ability to get loans will be curtailed, so what, if it can print its own money within the country it should not matter.

imports will be expensive, and it seems it imports a lot of stuff, food stuff as well, but i think it might encourage people to grow their own food and help the local farmers. remember that saying… owe £1million and you are fucked, but owe the banks £100billion , and the banks are fucked. haha. 

greece should take the brave option, and just go it alone. and tell its people there will have hardship at first (so not much different from now right?and people may have to tighten their belts and barter amongst themselves for goods and services… but if the drachma is so much better value,to the euro,  tourism and exports will boom and it will be flooded with new money and lots of jobs.

i know for sure we will all holiday there if the drachma is much reduced so making a greek holiday the cheapest and best value for money. 

the Eu will have more to fear from a greek exit, because if it turned out to prosper, that will make spain and portugal too want to get out.

i remember that time during the asian crisis when the thai bhat fell and toppled all the other asian currencies in a domino effect, and the then malaysian prime minister mahathir, refused to follow the advise of the IMF, borrow more money to prop up the ringgit, and instead fixed the exchange rate and took the ringgit out of trading, so that the speculators cannot drive it down. there was dire predictions of disaster by the IMF and the bankers, saying malaysia will be a pariah, but it was the best thing he did.

i think the bankers in the EU will  refuse to make any more concessions, they cannot afford to do it, otherwise spain and portugal will start to clamour for the same thing.  so if they wont concede to debt reduction, greece should get out of the EU, or might even be forced to take that option.

one thing, if greece exit the EU all the greeks now working in uk and other EU countries will have their work permit revoked and they will all have to go home. (will it be possible to evict all those greeks working in the EU?)  so it wont be all roses if greece exit, but i think anything is better than the present state of affairs.

added the new govt wants to change the all inclusive resorts which they say is not benefitting the local people as it stops tourists from using the local restaurants and services. the all you can eat and drink culture is making tourists behave badly.