As John Major Strikes, is Trump Planning War?

Orangettes

Bread, Orangettes and video editing. John Major strikes at Brexiteers overoptimism. Trump plans increased military spending to win wars.

Yesterday's bread was rising a bit more actively than expected, so that by 2am, I put it in the fridge till the morning. It did bake well today and, on slicing for lunch, had a good closer, moist texture.

I finished editing the videos by about 3am, but was then kept awake by stomach cramps until having a bite to eat. Copying the raw and the edited video files to memory sticks took till the early afternoon. At last, covering letters written, they and memory the sticks went out in the post today as promised last week.

Job done, I tried tempering some plain chocolate and dipping the orangette strips. Once the chocolate had set with the hoped for snap, a taste test. Wow! it was the combination of the bitter sugary, slightly crunchy strips plus initially hard and then melt-in-the-mouth chocolate suddenly made the sweet work. I've had to put them out of sight for today.

Tempering chocolate is a process where chocolate is first melted and then cooled to a specific temperature which promotes the formation of lots of small cocoa butter crystals, then is heated slightly again before use.  This gives tempered chocolate its snap and silky appearance on setting. One method listed here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-temper-chocolate.

Former PM John Major came out of the shadows for a broadside at the Brexiteers, during a speech at Chatham House. It should be noted that he accepted that the people had spoken in the referendum. However, he decried the shouting down of the remainers since and the over-optimistic bullish attitude of the current government. John Major said he was giving a reality check that Brexit was not going to be an easy negotiation, also that a hard Brexit with a shift to an aggressive market, could mean the loss of the NHS and Scotland. Misleading the public again about the realities of Brexit would in the long run lead to an even greater disconnect between politicians and the public.

I particularly liked this quote from his speech:

"Negotiations are all about “give” and “take”. We know what the Brexiteers wish to take: yet we hear nothing about what our country may have to give in return. If anyone genuinely believes that Europe will concede all we wish for – and exact no price for doing so – then they are extraordinarily naïve."

Full text of his speech published in the Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/john-majors-incendiary-speech-branding-9929258.

President Trump outlines a major element in his plan to curb government spending, by increasing the military budget by 10%, as "“We have to start winning wars again.."! Is he thinking of starting one? Perhaps against Iran or North korea? The $54bn raise in the military budget to over $600bn, should assist with that. Currently US military spending is practically 3x the spending of China ($215bn in 2015) and about 9x that of Russia ($66bn in 2015).

All these happenings still being supplanted by the Oscar Best Film Award fiasco in the news!