Rick's b.log - entry 2023/02/13

Shut up, you bloody muppets!

“Instead of talking of sellout at private conferences the UK establishment needs to complete Brexit and use its freedoms.”

“fully and enthusiastically embrace the advantages of Brexit”

The what?

You know, I'm still waiting for somebody to list genuine Brexit "benefits". I've been waiting for years. Oh, and I mean benefits for ordinary citizens. So quietly stripping people of human rights and employment rights does not count, neither does saying "screw you" to the European banking institutions and putting in place a low-regulation regime.

I want to know what Cynthia in her ex-council house near Aldershot will see that is a proper benefit that Brexit offers. Because, you know, she's probably been laid off because the complications of exporting to the EU means the company just doesn't any more. She can't retire to the south of Spain any more. And the economy is crap. Just today, the Bank of England says that the penalty of Brexit is around £1,000 per household. That's a lot. Just after the referendum, business investment pretty much stopped in its tracks. The irrational and frankly gonzo negotiations meant that nobody with a brain was willing to invest in British businesses. Now? Post-leaving? Well, the "deal" was just not good. There are many problems with it, and the internal war within the Conservative Party meant that there were four years of pathetic posturing rather than any serious attempt at making a proper and comprehensive agreement.

Which is why migrants are a problem nowadays. Boatloads of people (see what I did there?) cross "illegally" into the UK and idiotic people whine "why can't they stay in the first friendly country they come to?".

The reasons are simple. Firstly, the UN convention actually does not require a migrant to stop in the first friendly country, something upheld by English case law (EWHC 765, July 1999).
And, secondly, the ability to send migrants back to a friendly country they came from is an EU agreement called the Dublin Regulation (previously the Dublin Convention) which ceased to apply to the UK following formal withdrawal, and - guess what - the wonderful Brexit negotiators didn't think to put anything equivalent in place. Thus, that convention (which is actually rather flawed) no longer applies. Like, at all. So shut up about it.

The militant Tories wish to use migration as a reason why the European Court of Human Rights is a bad thing. Well, hate to break it to you but there's also the UN Declaration of Human Rights, specifically Article 14. Is the UK going to abandon that too in their fervour for kicking out those perceived as undesirable? It might be worth actually reading the two human rights accords in order to understand what risks being lost as colateral damage.

Anyway, back to the original topic. Brexit. It is hurting Britain. Maybe not if you're a millionnaire, but most people aren't. Most people are just suffering a decade and a half of extreme incompetence, corruption, and gaslighting.

Things have to change. It's good that steps are being taken in the right direction, as no country is an island these days... even when it literally is. Oh, you know what I mean. Britain needs to recreate connections with their partners and try to look for solutions to make the mess less punishing.

And no, this doesn't mean reversing Brexit. The UK is out of the EU. It's done and it cannot be reversed. Not because of the political will of Westminster, more a question of what makes anybody think the EU would welcome the UK back? The time for undoing the damage was before the formal withdrawal. Now it's happened and everybody has made plans and provisions for how to work around the impact. Dropping UK-based suppliers for those based in the EU, stuff like that. There is unlikely to be any pressing reason to have the UK and it's distruptive attitude back in the fold.
Furthermore, let's talk about the Euro, the Schengen zone?

But, while it's unlikely the UK as it stands will rejoin the EU, that isn't to say it cannot arrange some sort of agreement akin to EFTA (but not EFTA as the countries there have already stated that they would veto the UK joining because of the belligerance, are you starting to spot a trend here?). Maybe some sort of bespoke "deal" to replace the woeful actual "deal" that Johnson rushed through just so he could go down in history as the Prime Minister that delivered Brexit (even though May was the one who triggered article 50 setting it all in motion, Johnson pretty much just turned up at the end to bask in the glory).

The damage cannot be undone. Brexit cannot be reversed. Rejoining is not a possibility. But steps can be made to lessen the damage. And, yes, it will implicate a certain amount of following EU rules. But that would be the case wherever the UK tries to cut a deal, do they really think America won't have their own requirements that would need to be followed in order to have better trade? The UK.... uh.... pretty much doesn't have a say in the matter unless they want to start a great trade alliance with... oh, I know, Rwanda!

Come on you muppets, shut the hell up and let some Ministers actually, for once, try to do something in the national interest. Brexit is not working. Wittering incoherently about benefits, advantages, and opportunities does not make them magically appear.

Brianna

What's with all the stabbings these days, anyway?

Sorry, can't resist

Sorry. ☺

PS: Remember how it ends... Seh die Welt in Trümmern liegen, Hab 'n Luftballon gefunden, denk' an dich und lass ihn fliegen.

My bank statement

Well, there's only so many times I can write "For set aside" and "For savings" before I get fed up of writing the same thing over and over.

Last month, I got proper fed up with the monotony.

The boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B.

What?
Don't ask me. I have plenty of (gothic) symphonic metal songs I could have quoted, including the poetry of Tuomas Holopainen not to mention a wealth of songs from the '80s. Or even, for god's sake, the pseudo-wisdom of Dylan or the actual wisdom of Leonard Cohen.

And the first thing that popped into my mind? A song that predates my mom, never mind me. It's from 1941, but people around these days probably remember the Bette Midler version (May 1973, just predates me), or the various cover versions made around VE Day's 65th and 70th celebrations.

Of course, the question I have to ask myself now is what to write the next time?

• There's a crack, a crack in everything, that's now the light gets in.
• And no one heard at all, not even the chair.
• That's it, the end, but you'll get over it my friend.
• It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead.
• Without you, the poetry in me is dead.
• We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.
• How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?
• Oh, there's a lot of opportunities, if you know when to take them.
• We let the weirdness in.
• Hello, hello, it's only me infecting everything you love.
• Let me stay where the wind will whisper to me, as the raindrops as they're falling tell a story. (*)
• Hello, I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to.
• Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken.
• The world is so loud, Keep falling, I'll find you.

Hmm, maybe I should just make my way down the list? A game for you guys, if you're interested. Do you recognise any of those lyrics, and if so, who are they? Answers in the comments!

* - I don't know what the length limit is. I hope this one would fit.

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J.G.Harston, 13th February 2023, 20:40

Attack ships off the shoulder of Orion.

Rick, 13th February 2023, 21:21

Could be something to think about if I have multiple transfers to do (or feel like wasting time breaking my transfer into parts just to be able to quote the whole thing. 😉

Rick, 13th February 2023, 21:22

Argh! Syntax error!    Here: )

C Ferris, 14th February 2023, 10:07

Ref your wood - don't you have a fireplace?    Back along at a local farming show the police had a large collection of knives in a barrel - the politicians had discided to stop the stabbings in London by collecting farmers pocket knives!

Anon, 14th February 2023, 16:40

Apparently that stabbing is now being treated as a 'hate crime':    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64638653    (Rick - can you work your magic and make that a link?)    I try not to pay too much attention to the news. It makes me feel like I don't want to be on this planet any more. Perhaps I should just go home. :-)

Rick, 14th February 2023, 17:29

Let's see. A boy that became a girl and was bullied and harassed a lot, killed in an attack that the police admit was targeted, was originally considered *not* to be a hate crime?    Whatever idiot plod went on TV/radio and said that yesterday is unfit to wear the uniform.    I listen to the radio news and read The Guardian (I'm "woke", see?). I think it's more that the planet doesn't want us here any more. But, same difference, can somebody please stop reality for a moment so we can disembark? Thanks.

Rob, 20th February 2023, 15:45

One thing to /not/ do with back transfers is to humorously put in such things as "drug deal", "bomb making supplies", or references to banned terrorist organisations. Banks can get stuffy about it and delay your psyments: https://www.ladbible.com/news/man-told-off-by-bank-for-his-payme nt-reference-names-20220216

Rick, 20th February 2023, 18:45

Of course. It's one thing putting in weird comments and song lyrics, it's quite another inviting the bank to consider your "worthiness".    I'll give you a good example. Back in the mid '70s, mom and my father were flying from the US back to the UK. Mom went through the scanner with me as a toddler. No problem.    My father followed and set the alarm off. In his pocket was a Zippo lighter.  He was asked what it was. For some reason he thought it would be funny to say "just my gun".    It wasn't funny. He vanished from sight (and mom just kept on walking 😂).  Half an hour he was frogmarched onto the plane, seated, belted, and told that he would not be welcome to return, like, ever.    Whatever happened, he took it to his grave. Mom reckons he'd have been lucky to get away with a strip search and interrogation.    But, yeah. Sometimes you can have fun, sometimes you do not screw around. So, don't worry, it never crossed my mind to write "bomb supplies" as the transfer reason. Especially these days!    (I'm more likely to get told off for writing it all in English 😉)

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