Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

I thought we could have a bit of a change today. This looks like it had the potential to result in a war between Egypt and Ethiopia. Source - BBC - 29/07/20 Link to article As Ethiopia celebrated rains which began filling a controversial dam on a tributary of the River Nile, Egypt was fuming. The North African nation had long been opposed to any development on the Nile upstream that could reduce the amount of water it receives from the river and has regarded the Ethiopian project as an existential threat. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), which has been in construction since 2011, is now holding back water - and contains 4.9 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the Blue Nile's water after this season's rains. This is despite Egypt's insistence that no filling should take place without a legally binding agreement about how the process will be managed. In another four to six years the reservoir, which sits behind what will be Africa's largest hydroelectric plant when i...

"We will not accept a deal at any price. Better no deal at all than a bad deal," says new French minister for Europe Clément Beaune. Source Daily Telegraph 29/07/20 Link to article French minister for Europe Clément Beaune has said Paris would rather bail out coastal communities than accept the UK's current demands French minister for Europe Clément Beaune has said Paris would rather bail out coastal communities than accept the UK's current demands CREDIT: Annie Sakkab/Bloomberg France has warned Britain it is not "intimidated" by threats to walk away from the Brexit talks and parroted Theresa May's mantra that "no deal is better than a bad deal".  The country's new Europe minister Clément Beaune vowed that French President Emmanuel Macron will be "intransigent" over his demands for full access to UK waters in the future.  In his first public comments on the negotiations since being appointed on Sunday, he told France Inter radio:...

A similar phenomenon is developing with the Covid recession as happened with Brexit. News outlets – the BBC in particular – are choosing to focus on dire economic predictions at the expense of more positive real-world data.  Source- The Spectator - 28/07/20 Link to article Yesterday we heard no end of it when EY forecast that the economy would not reach its pre-Covid size until the end of 2024, 18 months longer than it had previously forecast. Yet where is the coverage today of the CBI’s distributive trades survey, which suggests that retail sales in July have been pretty much back to where they were a year ago, and that car sales are actually up on last July? The tracker is a survey that asks retailers, quite simply: are you doing more business this year than you were doing last year? For July, 4 per cent more retailers said sales had increased since last year than said sales had fallen. For motor traders, the difference was starker: 18 per cent more of them reported an increase i...

It's happening again. Despite having lost four general elections in a row, supporters of the Labour party have already convinced themselves that Boris Johnson is doomed and they are on course for victory next time. Source - The Spectator - 28/07/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-s-astonishing-complacency Their reasoning was expertly set out by Andrew Rawnsley, still the doyen of left-of-centre commentators, in his Observer column on Sunday: Jeremy Corbyn was a gift to the Tories, but now Labour has the much more ‘capable and substantial’ Keir Starmer at the helm and the government doesn’t know how to deal with him; Boris Johnson’s basic lack of competence has been shown up by coronavirus; people are warming to the technocratic Starmer and while he is fully in charge of his party ‘a growing number of Tory MPs’ believe they will need a different leader by the next election. I recently had a similar argument relayed to me by a long-time Labour activist: ‘You ...

Our exit from the EU makes the economic cost for Scotland of leaving the UK much greater. Source - Daily Telegraph 26/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/26/eu-infighting-shows-scotland-should-careful-wishes/ Last week saw one major deal concluded, while another appeared to be slipping away. Meanwhile, one political union seemed to be strengthening as another seemed to be weakening. But things weren’t quite as they seemed. The deal that went ahead was between members of the European Union on a new coronavirus relief fund. The sums involved looked huge – namely €750bn (£683bn). This looks like the beginning of fiscal union, with full political union following not far behind. But it is just the first skirmish. In practice, the sums are not that large. The fund amounts to about 5pc of total EU GDP and is to be distributed over at least three years – and it comes with strings attached. More important than the measures was the mood music. Now that the UK is ou...

Why should governments fund courses which are of little economic value? Source - Daily Telegraph 26/06/20 Ross Clark https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/26/australias-war-woke-university-degrees-inspiration/ If ever there was a place to sign up for a degree in surfing studies you might think it was Australia - but maybe not quite so much in future. The country is reforming funding of higher education so as to nudge students into subject areas where there is a shortage of graduates. Fees in those subjects will be lowered, and the change funded through increased fees for students following courses where there is a less obvious need for qualified people. You want to read gender studies? From next year the government’s contribution towards your fees will fall from Aus$ 11,015 to Aus$1100 (£6050 to £605). If you want to study maths, on the other hand, the government’s contribution will rise from Aus$11,015 to Aus$13,500 (£6850 to £7420). Generally, student contributions f...

I thought this was a nice summary of recent events in the EU and some interesting questions raised about the future and what a Remain Britain would have done at the recent summit. Source - The Spectator 25/07/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/new-fault-lines-are-appearing-in-the-eu Anyone who imagined that the departure of Britain would make for more harmonious EU summits in future will have been disabused of this belief by the four days of meetings to establish an EU coronavirus recovery fund, which came within an hour of being the longest on record. Agreement was reached on a €750 billion package — just over half of which will be made up of grants and the rest loans — but not before the French President, Emmanuel Macron, had reportedly thumped the table and accused a group of countries of putting the entire European project at risk through their refusal to sign for an even higher sum. Even now, the deal might still run into trouble: the European parliament is already voici...

High-handed, patronising and provocative, the Frenchman has been a complete failure over three years. Source - Daily Telegraph 25/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/25/eu-wants-deal-solution-simple-fire-michel-barnier/ The clock is ticking down. The ports are being prepared, customs officials are being hired on both sides of the English Channel, and companies are being warned to make sure they have new systems in place. After yet another tense round of negotiations, this week it looked more likely than ever the UK would end its transition agreement with the EU without a trade deal. The two sides remain as far apart as ever on fishing, and a level playing field on regulations and state aid. After months of talks, there is no sign of positions shifting. The EU keeps saying it genuinely wants a deal. But if that is true, there is a simple solution. It should fire Michel Barnier, its chief negotiator. Over three years, the Frenchman has been a complete failure. ...

Ok time for another article from Rod Liddle. One of the best "winder uppers" of the ridiculous woke. Source - The Spectator 18/07/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-I-will-wear-a-face-mask We are enjoined by certain experts to wear face masks while having sexual intercourse. No change there, then, for me. It’s the only way I’m allowed it. I don’t even get to choose my own mask. My wife keeps several in a cupboard under the stairs. If, when I retire to bed, I see the face of Benito Mussolini or Douglas Murray neatly laid out on my pillow — or, for more exotic excursions, the late President Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon — I know that fun times are ahead. This usually happens twice a year — on my birthday and on Walpurgisnacht. I don’t know if these largely latex creations protect either me or the recipient of my laboured exertions from Covid. Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t. They certainly wouldn’t protect me from any of the other vile diseases associat...

Proponents say the policy will "level up" left-behind coastal regions but critics warn it risks facilitating illegal activity. Source - Daily Telegraph - 23/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/23/free-ports-post-brexit-triumph-emperors-new-clothes/ Typically of a government led by an admirer of the ancient world, its consultation paper on free ports opened with a classical image: "Greek and Roman ships, piled high with traders' wines and olive oils, found safe harbour in the freeport of Delos, a small Greek island in the waters of the Aegean. "Offering respite from import taxes in the hope of attracting the patronage of merchants, the Delosian model of a freeport has rarely been out of use since." The idea of free ports has been dormant in Britain, however. since the seven created from 1984 to 2012 were quietly dropped by David Cameron. Now it is being revived as a central plank of the Johnson government's twin strategies ...

Disciplining Corbyn would draw a line over Labour's anti-Semitism struggle, although Keir Starmer is likely to prefer the quiet life. Source - Daily Telegraph - 22/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/22/jeremy-corbyn-deserves-lose-whip-would-plunge-labour-uncontrollable/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr There was much excitement in the Twittersphere this morning about the prospect of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn losing the party whip. Corbyn wouldn’t be the first backbench MP to lose the whip but it would be an interesting development, more of which later. Because first and foremost, we need to address the much more substantive and important events in court this morning, where Labour finally and formally apologised to former staff members for smearing them. The seven had agreed to take part in BBC Panorama’s expose entitled “Is Labour anti-Semitic?”, a title that would surely have benefited from the loss of the question mark and the rearrang...

Britain needs to break free from EU faux-federalism to rescue its economy from this crippling lockdown. Source Daily Telegraph 21/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/21/eu-summit-fiasco-final-proof-need-clean-break-brexit/ Finally, they struck a deal. Early yesterday, the fifth of a two-day meeting, European leaders agreed the details of a €750 billion (£678 billion) Coronavirus Rescue Fund. Emmanuel Macron hailed the outcome of this epic haggling battle as “a pivotal moment in EU history”. It could be, but not in the way he hopes. What this half-cocked outcome certainly demonstrates, though, is that Britain was right to choose Brexit. The EU just took a big step towards a more federal Europe. For the first time, the Commission will borrow against the EU budget, breaking a long-standing taboo. Under the cover of the Covid emergency, Brussels has secured permission to raise large amounts of common EU debt – dividing it between the member states hardest hit. Mill...

So there you go. There is still no hard evidence that Russia interfered in the EU referendum. What’s more, it would be ‘difficult — if not impossible — to prove’ the existence of Russian meddling. Can we now, please, put the Russia-Brexit conspiracy theory to bed? Source - The Spectator 21/07/20 https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-we-finally-put-to-bed-the-russia-brexit-conspiracy- The quote above comes from the Intelligence and Security Committee’s long-awaited Russia report, published this morning. Some people, especially hard-line Remainers, have been waiting for this report with bated breath. They hoped it would back up their conviction that the mass vote for Brexit in 2016 was essentially the handiwork of pesky Ruskies who infiltrated our public life and brainwashed the electorate into voting Leave. This ‘Russia Did Brexit’ lobby is likely to be disappointed by the report. Sure, the report makes many criticisms of UK governments and is stinging in its critique of R...

Yet another watershed moment looms for EU as summit ends in acrimony over scale of Covid bailout. Source - Daily Telegraph - 20/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/20/dutch-replace-britain-europes-new-top-troublemaker/  He doesn’t swing a handbag as Mrs Thatcher famously used to do at fractious European Union summits during the Eighties. Nor has he yet demanded an opt-out as John Major had to when he was prime minister, or called a referendum as an exasperated David Cameron eventually did. Even so the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has taken on the traditional, time-honoured role of Mr No. At one point France’s president Macron even accused the Dutch of being the new Brits. “You are taking the place of the UK around the table,” he thundered late on Saturday night. In Brussels, there can surely be no more deadly insult. And yet, in truth, the Dutch better get used to it, and so should the rest of the EU. On any contentious issue – such as creating a co...

A hydrogen revolution could halt our looming over-reliance on China for electric cars, and Britain is well-placed to do it. Source - Daily Telegraph - 18/07/20 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/18/britain-can-lead-world-transmuting-water-fuel/ Never mind Huawei. A greater menace is posed by our looming dependence on China for electric cars. China makes 73 per cent (and rising) of the world’s electric vehicle batteries. It controls the production of the African rare-earth elements that go into each unit. As the West continues to decarbonise, there is a danger that China will become what Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia were in the late twentieth century: a capricious autocracy which, because it can switch off our energy supply, rests its boot upon our windpipe. Britain no longer has to worry about dodgy Middle Eastern dictators. We are phasing out fossil fuels at breakneck speed. Coal will be banned from our power stations in 2024. The last gas heating system will be instal...