US Progress on Gun Laws. Firing Tillerson by Tweet. Tigger Hammond. My Two Front Teeth

The V&A on the way to the Natural History Museum side entrance.

President Trump backtracked on increasing the age of gun ownership to 21 after threats of NRA lawsuits, citing there was “not much political support (to put it mildly)” for the policy. Campaigners are obviously disappointed and the current level of support for increasing the age for gun ownership stands at 70%, according to recent polls. On the positive side, the President does support a new strategy of 'Extreme risk protection orders', where guns can be taken away from people deemed to be at risk of suicide or other relevant mental health issues. The evidence based method has shown that in Connecticut, where the orders have been used since 1999, that for every 10 risk warrants issued (and guns temporarily removed)), one life is saved.

However, all this news was overshadowed by President Trump's sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via Twitter. The news had to be broken to him by an aide as Tillerson did not follow Twitter. Mind you, it was probably only of matter of time as the two were not on the same wavelength and the Secretary of State had been undermined or contradicted by the President over the past year on a number of occasions.

More worrying is perhaps that the replacements for Secretary of State and Head of CIA, Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel respectively, were supporters of water boarding and Guantanamo Bay. Supporters of torture and internement/prison camps of dubious legality.

Before he left, Tillerson did come out strongly in favour of the UK position against the misuse of possible Russian Novichok nerve gases on UK soil and President Trump seems to be supporting the UK too. Other EU countries have also expressed strong support. Russia is dismissive of the accusations and threatens to respond in kind if there is any action by the UK government. The deadline for the response requested by Theresa May has just passed. We await to see what the consequences announced are tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond gave an upbeat Spring assessment on the UK economy and possible signs of national debt beginning to decline to Parliament, comparing himself to a bouncy, bouncy, bouncy Tigger (of Winnie the Pooh fame), as opposed to the doom-mongering Eeyore's on the other side of the House. However, there were no tax or big spending decisions, merely a more positive outlook, one which is, according to political reporter Laura Kuenssberg, aiming for a future position for the 2020 elections. 

Tellingly, the UK economy is currently the slowest growing of all G7 economies, down to 1.5% in the first part of the year.

The rather mild and partially sunny day was rather eventful, starting with an incipient migraine, fortunately quashed in time. It was followed by a delightful visit to the dentist to have some extensive drilling on my front teeth, fortunately without pain, but still nerve wracking. I rewarded myself with a hot dog on the way home. Yes you CAN eat immediately after having a filling done if it is set using UV. I then traveled to London for the Quekett Microscopical Club AGM, after which I gave my talk/demonstration on macrophotography.