Donald Tusk's response to UK initiation of Article 50

Fri 31st March. After over a week of inability to connect to the internet, finally caught up with the diary for the day! An early start off to the A14 network for tea and conversation. Afterwards, photography at the Norris Museum in the Town Hall of some paintings and photographs that needed archiving.

The St Ives Wetherspoons was running a training day as part of its opening and the Norris staff, volunteers and town hall staff were invited for a free meal and drink. I stayed on for an excellent chicken, bacon and avocado salad. The exterior of the new Wetherspoons looked great and the interior was enhanced by copies of pictures from the Norris collection and paintings by a local artist.

In the afternoon, spent a couple of hours back in Milton planning the interview with a local resident who will be our speaker for the Milton Local History Group next Tuesday.

My replacement phone and sim card arrived. Because they were backed up, the loss of apps, information and contacts was minimal - Hurrah for the Cloud!

I had a chance at last to look at the full text of PM Theresa May's letter initiating Article 50 - the full text is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prime-ministers-letter-to-donald-tusk-triggering-article-50
The conversation yesterday on the text was all about having the Brexit negotiations running in parallel with the negotiations for the new trade agreements. There was an element in the letter taken out of all proportion and seen as a potential threat - security cooperation is dependent on a good relationship.

What the media did not mention at all, is that the letter also links the exit from EURATOM, the regulatory framework for nuclear power stations and waste. The consequences could be delays in current nuclear power projects progressing and issues with waste management that could affect the quarter of our energy provision from nuclear. I bet it also impacts on nuclear research collaboration.

EU President Donald Tusk gave his recommendations to the remaining 27 leaders today. The two key elements are that a) divorce first followed by trade negotiations second and b) With UK exiting EU, EU takes Spain's side in concerns about Gibralter and this may be part of negotiations.

Whilst both sides are beginning to flex their muscle, I'm not sure that the realisation has yet sunk in with the government that the 27 EU states are in a stronger negotiation and ability to dictate terms and pace of Brext negotiations that UK is.

And whilst the UK is dependent on the EU to set the negotiation and likely to bewail the fact in this instance, the government is not afraid to use the same attitude of a larger partner controlling a negotiation wit regards to Scotland and the desire for another referendum

It is also ironic that the next highest item on the UK news agenda is the National Health Service, which is suffering increasing financial pressures - since more money for the NHS was a promise made by the Brexiteers.

Recovery, photos and smart-phone replacement

Thu 30th March. A day of recovery and first screen of the photographs taken whilst away. Also found that I had actually insured my mobile. A replacement of the same model was initiated. to be delivered tomorrow, as was the replacement sim card - all with relatively little hassle. Visited by an old friend travelling back to Wales from Lowestoft who we put up for the night.

Madrid Zoo, Accessibility, Flight home, Article 50 initiated

Wed 29th March. A glorious cloud free warm day. Typical - on the day of departure! I wanted to go to the Madrid Zoo, so we hailed a taxi for the 5 minute trip, to arrive at 10:30 am to find the zoo didn't open till 11. Once in, my aunt and I asked about the wheelchairs available. These were conveniently situated about 100 m or more from the entrance, in an administrative building, in a first aid room, released on filling out a form. I was not impressed by this approach to accessibility. But the wheelchairs were good and could either be used for my mother and uncle seated and pushed or as a walking aid, which speeded up our progress no end.

There was a limit to what we were going to be able to see. Fortunately, there were the baby elephants to delight the viewers, and the delphinarium. We watched the show with ambiguous feelings, the pod of eight dolphins went through their routine to the delight of the many schoolchildren, yet it was sad that they were confined; how endangered was this species?

We managed to have lunch in a cafe that could have served us faster if run by sloths and catch a taxi back to the flat. Then it was time for me to set off for the airport. I took the metro and bus to cross Madrid and this time was not robbed.

My flight was from Barajas Air Terminal 1, linked to T2 and T3. The journey on foot , first to the check-in and then to the boarding gates, was interminable, the process taking close to half an hour on foot for a healthy person like myself. I felt that I'd walked a significant part of the hourney even before getting on the plane.

During the day, Prime Minister Theresa May's letter initiating Article 50 was delivered to Donald Tusk, President of the EU Council. It was top of the UK news stations, but featured lower down in the German and Spanish press. Landing at Stansted and finally getting through security and baggage collection, I went for the newspaper stand and could only buy a Telegraph to catch up on the local response. Not my first choice - and the nauseating content confirmed that.The various news apps available at last at home, as well as the BBC and other TV stations gave a better all round perspective. The Brexit train has truly left the station.

Madrid Meander, Phone Theft and May signs Article 50 letter

Tue 28th March. Boarded the Tourist Sightseeing Bus for a tour of Madrid's sights, getting off at the Prada Museum to find a restaurant and lunch. I excused myself and wandered off on a meandering route through the side and back streets of Madrid centre, aiming for the Opera Metro station. I soon became fascinated with the tile paintings that adorned shops, farmacias and cafes en route. Anything from portraits of poets, animals to bread and meat in vibrant colours. I turned on Google tracking to record the twisted route and also took pictures of the road name tiles, not just for reference but because they were a delight.

After a welcome tea break at the Art Nouveau styled Taberna Tirso de Molina, with its numerous large tiled picture homages to Toulouse Lautrec, I finally reached the round Basilica of  of St Francisco el Grande. Going in, I was swept away by the fantastic painted and decorated interior. It was worth coming to Madrid just for this. Photography was permitted, so I spent a good hour there amongst the few visitors.

Squinting after emerging from the subdued interior lighting into the late afternoon sunlight, I was on the home stretch with a stop-over of the much busier Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena. Forewarned by my aunt that it was a great disapointment after renovation, I found it a bit better than expected, with the modern windows catching my attention and photography. The Basilica still vastly surpassed it.

I thought I'd make my way back to the flat by Metro. The tube was full and I was squashed in a corner by three youths who disembarked after two stops. With my phone pinched out of my shirt pocket. I was fairly philosophical about the incident and bought some churros on the walk back from my station to the flat. There I phoned home and with Jane's help, went through the rigmarole of blocking the phone and changing crucial passwords. I think my aunt and uncle were more upset about the incident.

The advice was to report the incident to the police. With auntie's help, we set off to find the fabled police station 'close to Aluche metro station'. Apparently, the blue and white striped building was just along the road and unmissable. A quarter of a mile later and only after asking several other pedestrians we finally found the marvellous establishment. Guarded by two friendly but well armed policemen, they shook their heads at the futility of reporting a stolen phone. We persisted and they let us through to the next guardians to the outer sanctum and persuaded them to let us pass too.

By this time, the futility of reporting a phone without having its IMEI number had been impressed upon us. I phoned Jane again and on the off chance asked her to check if the old phone box had the information. This changed everything. We were rewarded with access to the Inner Sanctum, and a policeman who was looking forward to practicing his English. It was obvious that the chances of catching the perpetrators was infinitesimal but, they would be prevented from profiting from reselling it as the police kept a look out for IMIE numbers of phones on the second hand market.

The melancholy end of the day was topped with the pictures of Prime Minister Theresa May signing the letter initiating Article 50, ready to post it to the EU the next day.

Tilting at Windmills

Mon 27th March. Driving from the mountains to Madrid, the weather cleared from mist and rain to sunshine. Even though the Spanish capital city was a chilly 11 Deg, it felt warmer. After dropping bags at the relative's flat and taking a short break, an early lunch today, at 2 pm and speedily completed by 4 pm. We took the No. 5 bus into the city centre, stopping off at the Cervantes monument, featuring Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and the different aspects of the Knights infatuation,  Dulcinea del Toboso. She was shown as the maid she was and the princess his love transformed her into. A bit like the Government and Brexit

We walked on to the Palacio Real de Madrid followed by a Chocolat at an open air cafe by the Teatro Real. Some lads were doing BMX bike jumps and let me try to photograph them in action.

In the absence of churros in the visit so far, my aunt relented and took me to a churreria kiosk near their flat. I discovered that the finger length churros I'd remembered from a holiday in Figueras, 45 years ago, had mutated into 40 cm loops. They still tasted delicious and, due to abstinence on everyone else's part, I carefully consumed all five over the remainder of the evening.

Debates on Parenthood and major disappointments for Trump and UK

The seasonal benefits of a tree, seen in a playground in Pedro Bernardo

Sun 26th March. Chilly weather and continuing evidence that the rain might fall mainly on the plain but it also falls heavily on the hills. An earlier lunch (aperitif, salad & roast lamb by aunt, roast potatoes by me, green beans by my mother and cocktails by uncle) ran until quarter to six. This was due to the increasingly animated arguments on whether children needed a married couple for a real home, followed in decreasing rank by cohabiting couples (mixed sex), cohabiting couples (gay) and then single parents. Whilst I was at the losing end of sticking up for modern rights, I was amused and vindicated by the follow-up tales of apparently happy families and their skeletons rattling in the closets. 

President Trump and the Republican party were licking their respective wounds today. His characteristic tweet being: 

'Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!' 

The UK is now on is way to triggering article 50. Excellent and chilling Observer editorial here on the erosion of UK democracy brought on by Brexit, rather than a rebirth: 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/26/observer-editorial-triggering-of-article-50-jeopardises-60-years-of-unparalleled-peace?CMP=share_btn_fb. 

And also this interview by Die Zeit with Cambridge'a British Germanist Nicholas Boyle, which baldly states that the English have never been able to see others as equals, and how this impinges on the relatiionship with Scotland and the EU: 

http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-03/brexit-grossbritannien-referendum-theresa-may-eu?utm_content=zeitde_redpost_zon_link_sf&utm_campaign=ref&utm_source=facebook_zonaudev_int&utm_term=facebook_zonaudev_int&utm_medium=sm&wt_zmc=sm.int.zonaudev.facebook.ref.zeitde.redpost_zon.link.sf

Pedro Bernardo and EU 60th Anniversary

Oil-can decoration of facade in Pedro-Bernardo

Sat 25th March. Today's trip after a leisurely breakfast was to the mountain village of Pedro Bernardo. Driving on the empty roads was a bliss. Junctions needed some getting to. If you want to turn left from a minor road onto a major one, you first cross right over to enter a little loop of road that let's you safely join the traffic by turning right onto the main road. I quite like the idea! 

The main road with its gentle curves followed the wide river valley, then it was down a gear to take the sharper curves and hairpins into the lower cloud base. Clouds were interment so you popped in and out of the mist. The village or small town of Pedro Bernardo Collins which clung in a crescent around the hills overlooking the distant river plain and far, blue grey mountains on the other side. 

I let the elders slowly plod on ahead upwards towards the church whilst I made good use of the borrowed tripod. Entering the narrow streets was a delight, with twists, backgrounds and even covered paths and roads. The pesky family phoned having reached the church, so I had to hurry up to meet them. We meet another international family with a Spanish base and Peruvian and other in-laws and then came down to a small cafe opposite the town hall. I gulped down my drink and dashed up to the church again (sadly closed) and came down slowly taking photos. 

The town was remarkably empty, just the occasional local pedestrian or car and small gaggle of Spanish -American tourists. The elders had moved on. The good natured owner was at his meal and called out that they had gone on to the car. Pulling the car keys out of my coat pocket and waving them with a grin was met with laughter. I found the trio one cafe further down the hill, joined them for a tea before we set off together back to the car. The road led through the town's small bullring and back down through the cloud and home. 

The news today was full of the 60th anniversary of the signing of 'The Treaty of Rome'. Back then, the UK was invited, but huffilly declined to join in, changing is mind about being a part of Europe a couple of months later. This time the UK was absent again, but intent on a Brexit path. 

Speeches at the event suggested that Europe was contemplating a two speed path, with the fast track going for closer integration.

A Potty Birthday and Potted Luck for Obamacare Repeal

Fri 24th March. Morning birthday hug for Mother and then set the table with birthday presents and cake baked yesterday. It was a Victoria sponge but in a loaf tin, so we improvised with lashings of whipped cream and chopped strawberries on cake slices.

We'd visited a small pottery in Sartajada yesterday to choose a gift in addition to the ones brought along and the cards. Afterwards, we visited a cafe in the small deserted village, where we chatted to the only other occupants, a 90 year old couple who originally owned the cafe. He used to play the Spanish lute, and when accompanying a band in a neighbouring village, a local beauty caught his eye. He woo'd her over the months and finally, they married and have been together for 65 years, with children, grandchildren and great grandchildren following.

When they started out, Sartajada used to be a busy village with many potteries because of the fine clay, and the cafe catered for the many local workers. Now they've all gone and only one pottery remains, yet it does manage to export to the Dominican Republic!

Lunch, well I say lunch, the main meal doesn't start here till about 3 pm, was a delicious paella, freshly made in a small shop in Sotillo, and delivered in the pan it which it was prepared. We segued into an evening of the card game Phase 10, a family favourite. 

The surprise news event of the day, President Trump's attempt to get Obamacare repealed hit opposition from within the Republican party. After much personal lobbying by the President, to-ing and fro-ing between various parties by House Speaker Paul Ryan, it was scuppered by the Right wing House Freedom Caucus, whose two dozen members agreed to act as a bloc to get a more conservative bill. Rather than go for a vote that would fail, Ryan and Trump withdrew the bill.

The Tale of the Family's Wandering Grandfather Clock

Thu. 22nd March, Spain. It's snowing! It's the first time in a decade that is snowed here in the mountains in March, according to my Spanish aunt. Fortunately, my mother couldn't get her tablet ready in time to photograph me as I stood enraptured on the veranda of the hillside house in my pyjamas, photographing the snow falling on the mountain, the black pines, olive trees and into the valley.

I missed the old clock, with it's faux pine cone weights. it was in for repairs with one of the rare true remaining clock makers in Madrid. For the first time, I learnt it was one of the very few family possessions dating back to my German Great-grandparents, and that it had a family story neither I or my mother had heard before. My 92 year old German uncle began the tale. 

In the late 1800s, Karl August Hermann Porrmann, traveled out of his home in Arnsberg (now Milkow, Poland) around Silesia, then in Germany, as journeyman gardener, learning his trade. In 1889, he became the gardener at the palace of Baroness Senfft, Schloss Kritz near Liegnitz. There, he meet the palace chamber maid, Karolina Pauline Emma Eitner. Love blossomed, and they married in 1892. The couple moved back to Arnsdorf where his wedding present, a weight driven wall clock, hung on the wall of their new marital home. It chimed on the hour and every quarter.

The clock saw the birth of four children. The eldest son Paul died at just 23 days of age. Robert caught TB and fought for his life - and survived. Two sisters, Clara and Seed followed, later becoming a midwife and Cook respectively. Karl and Emma, soon fell out and didn't speak with one another, though they loved their children. Life was hard and as the paltry Gardner's salary was insufficient, Emma took on work, first as a seamstress, then with washing and ironing. 

The clock saw Robert, my grandfather, dream of being a gardener Like his father, but, as he later said "Mother ironed me to be a teacher! " insisting on, and paying for his training. The clock saw The Great War, the interwar depression with its rampant inflation, and the rise of Hitler. Great-grandfather Karl passed away, aged 77, in 1939 and the second world war began, as the clock tick tocked on the wall. 

Like many German families, they were swept along in the tide of Nazism. It was only towards the end of the war that the reality of bombing and death set in, with son, grandson and granddaughter swallowed into the grim war machine. As the Russian front crept ever closer, the elderly, women and children, including my mother, her sisters and youngest brother, fled westwards, leaving behind the 82 year old Emma and the clock in the house in Arnsdorf, with those others who refused to leave their homes. 

The family had made the decision to return to Great-grandmother Emma's house once peace had been declared, irrespective of where they had been dispersed to. In 1945, they came back in dribs and drabs, to an village now occupied by the Poles, full of humiliation, dispossession, starvation and abuse for the Germans - the boot was now on the other foot. But only for a short while. The four powers had redrawn the map of Europe. Silesia was acceded to Poland and the Germans were expelled. 

The clock no longer hung on the wall, it was buried deep amongst the washing and escaped the general last pilfering of the refugees before they set off on the trek to the now westward new German border. It was the time of the greatest migration of peoples in Europe. 12 million Germans displaced westwards with half a million deaths as a result by 1950; just part of the 30 million people in general who moved west from central and eastern Europe. 

Emma traveled 117 km west to Bautzen to live with her spinster daughters Clara and Selma and the clock tick tocked in its new home in the Russian occupied zone. My grandfather Robert and family were relocated as refugees near Oldenburg, much further away in the British occupied West. As a former headmaster in the old regime, he went through the de-nazification process in the English occupied sector, working at menial jobs in agriculture for three years before he could visit his mother for the first and last time in the now Soviet occupied zone. 

By then, Emma was confused with age related dementia and repeatedly tried to walk back home to Arnsdorf, now Miłków in Poland, only to be picked up and taken back to Bautzen. She died aged 89 in 1952. The clock stayed with Clara and Selma. 

1952 was also the year that the iron curtain descended, restricting movement between the communist East Germany and the now united West Germany, created from the occupied British, French and American zones. With the building of the Berlin wall in 1961, it became practically impossible for the East Germans, and the clock, to cross into the West. Westerners could visit the police state but with possible negative consequences for their trapped family members. 

My Grandfather passed away in the 1960s and it was my uncle, the oldest son, who tried to regularly visit his ageing aunts with his Spanish wife. But they too passed away. 

Selma and Clara had specified that the wall clock should be passed on to the next Porrman in line, my uncle. It came into the care of cousins in East Berlin, in readiness for a secret handover. My uncle and his wife crossed over for a registered family visit. The wall clock was carefully placed in a floor compartment of their "Bulli" VW camper van. They drove to one of the few places where Germans could cross between East and West Berlin, Checkpoint Bornholmer Straße, over the Bösebrücke. 

East German guards were habitually rude and obstructive, specifically to Germans crossing. This is something I can personally vouch for when I crossed both the DDR/FRG and Berlin wall as a Brit with German friends; we were treated very differently. My uncles papers were rigorously checked and the guards began an initial search of the camper bus. At this critical moment, one of the clock's weights rolled into view. The search went into overdrive and the deliberately hidden clock was exposed. The grim faced commander was called. This was trying to smuggle out property of the communist state and the family clock was to be confiscated. Risking arrest, the couple argued against this, and luckily, a compromise solution was reached. They had to return the clock to the place they had collected it from before they would be permitted to cross back to the West.

Another Berlin crossing was out of the question. The clock was secretly moved to another relative in East Germany, my Grandmother's brother, who lived in Wismar, on the Baltic coast. Uncle and aunt arranged a visit in the autumn. It was the height of the Apple harvest and the apples from that region were renowned for their taste. The clock was buried in a box of apples and some family crockery was also loaded in the van separately and simply covered with a cloth. 

At the East-West border crossing, it loked as if this trip too would be doomed. They had immediately raised the ire of the border guards by stopping 50 cm over the line they were supposed to halt at. Such little incidents always gave the East German guards the excuse to be as obstructive as possible. I remember on my border crossing on a German school bus, our teacher was taken away because her hairstyle was different to that on her ID card and a new photo had to be taken so she could be identified if needed. In their predicament, Aunt and uncle were apologetic. They declared the covered crockery and my Spanish aunt gushed about the wonderful East German apples she was looking forward to turning into preserves. It worked, they were let through.and the clock was finally liberated! It now rick tocked on the wall in my uncle's house, in the rolling mountains near Siegen. 

When my uncle retired as a head teacher, he moved to another, more rugged mountain range, near Avila in Spain. And the family clock came with him. When it returns from being serviced in Madrid, the 125 year old family wall clock will continue tick -tocking, chiming the hours and quarter hours as it measures time towards some future family adventure.

To Spain on the day of the London Terrorist Attack.

Wed 22nd March.  It was a 4:15 wake up this morning for my trip to Spain. The Ryanair flight actually arrived 20 minutes early in Madrid, where my mother, aunt and uncle were waiting with hugs and smiles at the exit. We traveled on to Sotillo de la Atrada,  stopping on the way for a three course lunch at only €10 peer person!  It was only around 8 pm that I hard of the terrorist incident in London after 2 pm, due to  the absence of an internet or mobile data connection.

The news still continues to reverberate in the rolling news programs. A car was driven over Westminster bridge. The white Datsun veered onto the pavement, hitting up to 20 people,  many with serious  injuries and two dying later. The car continued and penetrated into Parliament Square and crashed. The driver jumped out and killed a policeman before being shot dead himself. The number rising to 5 deaths  Streets were cleared and Parliament was in lockdown,  trapping MPs ,  reporters and visitors. In typical British fashion,  one female witness talked of bring trapped and the distribution of tea and biscuits during the lockdown. It immediately evoked memories of shortbread, Nice and definitely custard creams, the staple biscuits of any UK event in an emergency.  A tragic incident, the first terrorist event after 14 other foiled plots. The important thing is to go ahead as normal over the coming days.

Digital flight ban, Bank plays my cards close to its chest

Last push on the Quekett Bulletin and have done the bulk of the work, just a day or two more work to do. It will have to wait a week as I travel to Spain tomorrow.

Seeing as I'm flying, the news today is particularly of interest. Earlier today, the US banned the carriage of electronic devices large than a smartphone in cabin baggage for airline passengers from 10 airports in north Africa and the Middle East, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This was followed by the UK, which instigated a similar ban.

The devices have to be placed in the checked baggage in the hold, creating , as stated on the BBC, new opportunities for thieves!

The fear is that cavities in laptops and other digital devices could be used to hide explosives.

As well as striking the fear of work withdrawal in executives from the restricted countries on long haul flights, there have also been the first cries of anguish from parents whose children cannot be digitally sedated.

Now unsure whether I should take the additional charger for my phone

The other frustrating thing today was trying to ensure that my cards would not be blocked whilst away. The bank advises going online and registering your trip. This is what I did. When I then tried to check on my entry, it looked as if it had not been submitted. So I tried a further two times before initiating the online chat help. They could not help me apart from passing me on to the security section, who I should call. Phoned the number and got through to the fraud section. After a long wait in the queue, it turned out I should be talking to customer services and they passed me on. I then had to go through the same security checks as online, for someone to acess my account and enter exactly the same information that I did, with no absolute guarantee that the card would not be blocked anyway.

Over an hour later, both cards allegedly registered for travel abroad, I also had the two phone numbers to use in a blocked card emergency.

Brexit preparations had not only given me a worse exchange rate for Pounds to Euros. The price pressures of additional fuel costs and other food and commodity prices is gradually creeping up the list of main worries for UK consumers.

Some good news for space science as President Trump signs legislation funding NASA for the coming year. NASA will continue its efforts to eventually send humans to Mars, and the legislation "amends current law by adding human exploration of Mars as one of the goals and objectives of NASA and directs NASA to manage human space flight programs to enable humans to explore Mars and other destinations," according to a statement from Ted Cruz of Texas.

Milk Chocolate and Old News Confirmed re Brexit and Wiretapping

As Jane says, the "Saga of the Fruit Pastilles" continues, this time using milk chocolate. The mental battle is now on to retain enough of these to use as a gift later in the week.

Visited textile artist Heidi Lichterman this morning. In-between discovering her magical chocolate saucepan and finalising the new website (going live next month), we had fun expanding our vocabulary of descriptive colours and shades for her beautiful silk scarves.

Prime Mister Theresa May has been letting us know that she would be initiating Article 50 at the end of the month. It was therefore a total surprise and therefore eminently newsworthy, when she declared that she would invoke Article 50 on the 29th March, 2017. Not sure I can stand the tension until the fateful surprise announcement next week.

The other anticlimax of the day was FBI Director Comey appearing in front of the House Intelligence Committee and a) confirming that the FBI was indeed investigating possible links between the Trump campaign team and the Russians and b) That there was no evidence that  former president, Barak Obama ordered, or even could order, a wiretap of Trump Tower or the current President Trump. This was underlined by National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers who also confirmed that accusing the British intelligence Service at GCHQ was not actually a constructive move, apart from being factually false.

It is a very effective distraction from the actual progress of the Government with its healthcare bill reforms and proposed budget. In the meantime, Trump goes to Kentucky to relive his campaign and bask in the reassuring warmth of supporters, ignoring the heat in the White House kitchen.

Chocolate coated sweets, Brexit ignites common sense.

Chocolate coated pastilles might make better gifts; Big guns speak out against hard Brexit rhetoric, Public sees breakup of UK more likely with Brexit.

Pastille mix set and fairly firm, sliced beautifully, and could be cut into cubes. When covered n granulated sugar, they looked and tasted delicious, if slightly soft.

However, if I wanted to give them as a gift, there was a problem. The sugar coating gradually took on moisture during the day. Therefore, in between cooking lunch, I tried covering some slightly thinner rectangles in chocolate. This transformed the sweets into a totally different taste experience, as well as making them longer lasting and more transportable.

It's good to see a continued call for some common sense in Brexit negotiations with former Prime Minister John Major pointing out the lack of substance and predominance of bluster by the Brexiteers. Liberal leader Tim Fallon invited the more rational Tories to come over and vote with them. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recommended Labour to be prepared to offer voters the option of staying in a reformed European Union if the Government fails in the Brexit negotiations of “unparalleled complexity”.

Ironically, public opinion is definitely taking a greater interest in what is happening in the rest of Europe, with the Dutch election just past and the French presidential elections heating up, to be followed by German elections later. As noted in the Guardian, it has taken Brexit to see that Europe does have a big impact on us in the UK.

A survey by Opinion reveals that 54% of Britons think that a breakup of the union is more likely to lead to a breakup of the UK. The figure rises to 65% in Scotland.

US rumblings at a low point today, awaiting the questioning of the security agencies this coming week.

Pastilles, Pectin, Sweets and Trump's Testy Tweets

Making better fruit pastilles, the importance of pectin, President Trumps mixed message tweets and plans for The Wall

Yesterday's orange pastille mix was too soft, so converted it to marmalade. It turned out I needed more pectin. I therefore set up a new mix with peaches, sugar, lemon juice and 30g pectin in solution (most of the bottle of liquid). This time it set much better on cooling. See what tomorrow brings.

But what is pectin? Pectin is found in the plant cell walls, helping give them stiffness. We probably eat about 1g or pectin in every 100g of vegetable and fruit in our diet. Although it is made up of chains of sugars, mainly D-galacturonic acid, it is more a type of dietary fibre than a nutrient for us humans. However, it does have health properties, aiding the passage of food though our guts, reducing sugar uptake and binding cholesterol. Because it can be used to make gels and give food a better texture, pectin is used in a variety of processed products - including jams and sweets.

Unripe apples and the peel of citrus fruits are particularly rich in pectin. and used for its commercial extraction. In contrast, soft fruits like strawberries are low in pectin. This is important in jam making as it is the pectin that makes jam set. Whilst commercial fruit pastilles are made using animal derived gelatin, they can also be made using plant based pectin, as I've been trying to do.

President Trump's tweets continue to sow confusion about US policy. Examples include his response to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit:
"Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel..."
immediately followed by:
"Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!"
The latter statement appears to be a misunderstanding of the role of NATO, it is not a paid service provided by the US,
Worrying too, that whilst U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is trying to bring China on board in having an influence on North Korea, POTUS tweets:
"North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help".

However, the much proclaimed wall between the US and Mexico is in the pre-solicitation stage. The specifications have been set, for example the walls height at 9 m (30 feet) height and minimum requirements for aesthetics, at least on the US side. As part of the process, a selected list of contenders will  asked to build demonstration sections of the wall to illustrate their designs and proposals. Not sure if the Mexicans, designated payees, have any say in the selection process.

Wetherspoons, GCHQ and US 'Fake News' sources, Brexit and the Union

Wetherspoons in Huntingdon; Chilly response from UK/GCHQ to US wire-tap claim; Best news sources; Brexit more important than Union.

A bit of website work in the morning before setting off for Huntingdon, with the aim of bagging a table at Wetherspoons for this weeks HBN meet. Up to now, I'd taken the statement that the Wetherspoon Ordering app only worked on i-phones as gospel. Being there early, I enjoyed finding out that the app certainly worked on my android phone and promptly placed an order for a tandoori chicken starter and diet Pepsi. They arrived at the same time as the first HBNers. We had a lively lunch with two large tables drawn together and conversation bouncing back and forth. I was pleased to hear that the transcription of an interview I'd conducted for a company was useful and the source of future blog articles.

It was a chilly, blustery grey day and, coming over the bridge back to the car park on the Godmanchester side of the river, the ruin by the riverbank facing imminent destruction caught my eye. The wind was so strong that the pedestrian bridge was actually wallowing up and down slightly.

I bought some oranges, lemons and liquid pectin on the way home. After dinner, I used them to make some orange fruit pastels.  They have set and need to stand further overnight.

In the absence of finding any evidence of wiretapping of Trump by the US agencies, his spokesman Sean Spicer claimed that Obama had sidestepped them and actually had GCHQ do the dirty deed. This generated a sharp response from the UK government and an unprecedented statement by GCHQ itself that this was not the case and - please DO NOT MENTION IT AGAIN. This was obviously respected by the White House, because, when asked about this issue at the Merkel -Trump press meeting, President Trump stated that they had not themselves claimed that GCHQ was responsible for the wiretap, rather that they were merely quoting a very talented lawyer on Fox News.

Perhaps this is a sign that the expensive public FBI and CIA can be scrapped and replaced by an independent commercial organisation, Fox News. Blindingly obvious in retrospect. After all, according to POTUS, news agencies generally spew out 'Fake News', so where better to get your own fake news from?!

It looked like an uncomfortable meeting between Merkel and Trump, for example the ignored offer of a handshake by Merkel, but at least she is the pragmatic realistic one. She did comment that it was better to talk with one-another rather than about one another.

According to a Telegraph survey, sixty percent of respondents polled thought that Brexit was more important than  keeping the UK together. Now I can quite believe that - you can be for or against Brexit and regard it as an important issue.

The follow on claim that "the majority of people would still vote for Brexit, even if they knew it could trigger Scotland's independence" bears closer scrutiny. According to the article's charts, 50.5% would still vote for Brexit. The percentage seems to reflect the Brexit voters anyway, i.e. those who are predominantly from England, so maybe national self-interest dominates. Perhaps the source of the survey, the ORB, will reveal more detail in the near future. The Telegraph article can be found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/17/brexit-important-keeping-uk-together-public-say-poll-telegraph/

Inspirational Women, SNP Powderkeg lit, Slasher Trump Budget

Author Ruth Moulder at Histon Library Library evening talk on Inspirational Women

A day of visits, talk of inspirational women, Brexit news squeezed by other political turmoil, no evidence for Trump wiretapping followed by slasher budget.

A morning visit to a prospective client in Cambridge again impressed me with the fact that there are still many people who are just daunted by technology and need assistance and reassurance. A fascinating afternoon with the prospective speaker/interviewee for April's Milton Local History Group meeting.

Today's highlight was the evening talk by author Ruth Moulder at Histon Library. We arrived early at a library in the dark as the volunteers and staff arrived. There was a good-natured melee revealing the complexities of entering after hours - without initiating the alarm and inadvertently expanding the audience with the men and women in blue. We all mucked in to move heavy book shelves on wheels out of the way and create a cozy seating corner amongst the books. Ruth's book "These Wonderful Lives" arose from a need to provide stories of inspirational women for children. I really liked the way she used the theme as the topic for the evening's talk with the book playing a secondary part. It generated a lot of lively discussion afterwards.

Best quote of the day today by Michael Portillo on tonight's "'Allo 'Allo" themed intro to 'Question Time' with his toast "May you have 'A Piness for all of your life". It could be his most memorable epitaph.

The Queen's assent to the Article 50 Bill today disappeared in a smorgasbord of other political tit-bits. These included the stab in the back (or not) of the Chancellor by the Prime Minister, the latter also lighting the blue touchpaper under the SNP powderkeg by rejecting Nicola Sturgeon's call for a second independence vote. Then there was the fining of the Conservatives to the tune of £70,000 for breaking election expenses rules.

Across the pond and after last night's blow to POTUS's travel ban in Hawaii, a second federal judge in Maryland ruled against it, forbidding the core provision of the travel ban from going into effect.  The combined House and Senate Intelligence Committee stated that they had not seen any evidence that Trump or Trump Towers had been tapped. President Trump's budget is released and it plans cuts to funding for all departments (including infrastructure, which was promised an increase) by between 11.7% for the Department of the Interior to 31.4% for the Environmental Protection Agency. Defence was the only exception. It looks like the less well off and the environment are due to suffer.

Across the Channel, some reassuring news as the far right does not win in the Dutch elections. However, the tension increases between Turkey and the EU with wild accusations still emanating from the former.

A14 Artwork, Hard Brexit and US Travel Ban Flaws

Trip to St Ives and A14 artwork under threat; David Davis admits no economic assessment of hard Brexit made since he became Brexit Secretary; Trump travel ban II blocked.

Business trip in the morning to St Ives. The A14 roadworks now begun in earnest and leading to traffic queues and speed restrictions. Until now, there has been an isolated small farm building just beyond the Swavesey/Service station turnoff travelling West. The building was notable for the graffiti which a couple of years ago proclaimed "You are now leaving the future", then more recently "The Future". Today it looked vulnerable as it stood exposed amidst the earth clearance taking place.

This evening consisted of two meetings, the Milton Patient Participation group at the Surgery and then the monthly meeting of the Milton Photographic Club at the church hall. The latter was a show and tell. These are always interesting, not only because of the different images and perspectives of the group's photographers, but for the unexpected tips you gain.

Today I came away with the insight that if you photograph a red object on a blue background, you reveal more detail in the red object, rather than saturating it out. I'll have to play a bit to see if this really a function of he contrast when capturing the raw image, or whether the combination works best with the automatic adjustments for exposure made by the camera software.

Today there was the astonishing revelation by Brexit Secretary David Davis to the Brexit Select Committee. There had been no costings since the referendum of the consequences of a Hard Brexit with no deal. This was rather surprising since he had been asking his Cabinet colleagues to at least prepare for the possibility of a hard Brexit, however undesirable it might be.

The revelation was buried by the major u-turn by the Chancellor on changes to National Insurance Contributions by sole traders and businesses.

News hot off the press as I write on Trump's second travel ban. It has been blocked by a Hawaiian federal Judge and the ruling applies nationwide. CNN states 'US District Court judge Derrick Watson concluded that the new executive order still failed to pass legal muster'. He was rather scathing:

"The illogic of the Government's contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,"

"Equally flawed is the notion that the Executive Order cannot be found to have targeted Islam because it applies to all individuals in the six referenced countries. It is undisputed, using the primary source upon which the Government itself relies, that these six countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations that range from 90.7% to 99.8%."

"It would therefore be no paradigmatic leap to conclude that targeting these countries likewise targets Islam." "Certainly, it would be inappropriate to conclude, as the Government does, that it does not."

Other good news, the far-right takes a knock in the Netherlands elections.

A Trip to London and no Bexit or Trump news

Apparently life still goes on after the passage of the Brexit Bill! A couple of hours work before I took the Waterbeach train to London. The miles passed quickly in conversation with a Facebook friend, till the tunnels before the Big City and the Underground itself cut us off.

Arriving at South Kensington, I gave the tunnel walk a miss and came directly out of the station. Despite the grey skies, the Natural History Museum greeted me like an old friend, slightly muffled by the boards of an ongoing facelift.

Needing to get to the Darwin Centre part of the NHM, I made my first ever trek to the temporary Queens Gate entrance. The road and the front of the museum were awash with busloads of school children in their different uniforms, getting ready to go back home. It was slightly surreal going in through the public entrance with no queue because of the lateness of the afternoon.

I stopped off at the Cafe for a tea and a (slightly stale) blueberry muffin and chatted to one of my Quekett contacts who was there a couple of hours early before the Quekett AGM. It was then off to a pre-meeting beforehand.

By eight pm, getting out of the museum when everything is locked up and closed is quite an adventure. Our Quekett meeting was in a room below the Flett Theatre, close to the entrance on Exhibition Road. To exit after hours, we first had to migrate into the museum, through silent halls, where the exhibits intermingled with the shadows in the dim light and our steps and slightly hushed voices echoed off the marble floors. There was an unexpected turn and a lift journey into the maze below.

One of our group of 7 remarked on the way that they had once been trapped in one section of a corridor beneath the NHM, where they were faced with three automatically locked doors. They were released only after banging on one door till a researcher working late came to their rescue. Primed by this story, we were therefore quite perturbed when our leader with the magic card encountered a door that didn't open. He dashed off through another door and - we were left standing in a corridor with three locked exits!

Fortunately, the key bearer returned and the journey continued until we were released form a side entrance - just a couple of metres from where we had originally set off in the building.

Kings Cross station was also looking emptier when I arrived. With a half hour wait for the return train, I stopped off to get a Prezzo Pizza. Here I had the privilege of buying a lite pizza with fewer calories but at a higher price than a more calorific one. It did feed body and soul as the train trundled back to Waterbeach under a rising gibbous moon.

Brexit and Trump news? Don't care today! Humanitarian catastrophe in Africa and Yemen more of an issue at the moment, as are the increasingly vitriolic ravings of a future tyrant on the continent.

Ryemilla born, Brexit Bill passed and Obamacare repeal predictions

First step towards the end of the Brexit Tunnel as Brexit Bill passes Commons and Lords

Back to work; Ryemilla, daughter of sourdough Camilla; Brexit Bill passes through commons and Lords; Obamacare repeal bill to lead to 14 million more uninsured by next year.

Almost surreal to be back home and at work again today. I added the new kindle book on 'Photographing your own Artwork' to the social media and on our Milton Contact website. Followed this with editing the Quekett Bulletin.

Last night, I also had to feed my sourdough Camilla that had been neglected due to our absence. I used the opportunity to create a daughter culture, Ryemilla, a 50:50 mix of strong white bread flour and rye flour. This morning Ryemilla used to set up a half pound wheat/rye loaf that relied on the natural yeasts and lactobacilli to rise during the day. It was baked by 8:30 pm.Quite a mild sourdough taste.

With the Brexit bill being debated in Parliament, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland called for a second independence referendum for Remainer Scotland in 2018. Apparently this announcement was totally unexpected and generated a sharp rebuke from the Prime Minister Theresa May to the recalcitrant child. Surprise? Surely we all knew it was on the cards.

The Brexit bill finally moves through the Commons with votes against the Lords' amendments even greater than the first passage in the commons. Only the Liberals stood their ground and voted for the amendments The unchanged bill passed back to the Lords who approved it. We are now on the road to Brexit. Whilst initial speculation was that article 50 would be acted upon this week, rumours now trend towards action at the end of the month, to avoid the elections in the Netherlands on Tuesday and the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on the 25th March - oh, and to avoid constant questions on the Scottish referendum.

The US Congressional Budget Office finally released their calculations for the Obamacare repeal bill and predicted it would lead to 14 million fewer Americans being covered by health insurance by 2014, 24 fewer by 2020. Whereas previously it was understood that CBO's mandate is to 'provide Congress with: Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analysis to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on a wide array of programs covered by the federal budget; And the information and estimates required by the Congressional budget process', current Republican consensus is now that the non-partisan organisation is unreliable and not taking the whole plan into consideration.

STEMming the tide of Climate Change Deniers

Morris Dancers in front of Shakespeare's House

STEM activity; Involuntary enforced internet holiday; Stratford upon Avon; UK Budget and impending Brexit; Scott Pruitt Climate-Change denier! The importance of supporting STEM activities.

Having been in a positive internet and mobile blackhole for the past  (yes, they do still exist in this country), I'll try to catch-up now that I'm back online

Wed 8th March: A rather short night of  3h sleep and an early start, setting off at 7 am for a 9 am visit to Bedford Free School to give a STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Maths) presentation at the invitation of their WISE (Women In Science and Engineering) group. The talk was on my science career and included 4 interactive sessions. They involved the students and illustrated different scientific problems and solutions that I was personally involved in from being a lowly researcher to project leader with collaborative links to other univeristies and companies:

1. Determinism or cell signalling in chick limb development
2. Plant receptor protein purification
3. PCR amplification in cloning viral sequences
4. Root growth, root knot nematode infection and targeting feeding cells

The young women actively took part and I hope that they took something away with them.

Out of the door shortly after 10 am and stopped off parched for first welcome cup of tea of the day in with S. in St Neots. Back home in Milton after a 5h round trip.

An urgent family situation that arose yesterday had developed further. It meant that we had to set off for a trip cross country, after urgent messages had been sent to contacts and clients whose work would be on hold for the rest of the week.

Thu 9th, Friday 10th, Sat 11th March: Found out on arrival that, with the urgency of travelling,  I had left my laptop and, more importantly, phone charger at home when we packed the car. Days spent buying charger and newspapers, being involved in getting social support in place, doing cryptic crosswords, watching news and other programs on TV and sleeping.

Two frustrating elements in trying to get social support are, the difficulty in getting NHS and social care in place, and the mis-communication between different agencies supposedly coordinating with each other.

Sun 12th March: Felt able to return home. The long journey was broken by a welcome stop in Stratford upon Avon. More than 30 years ago it was the nearest town when I worked nearby at the then  National Vegetable Research Station. The main tourist attractions are the pedestrian area passing Shakespeare's house and the river area close to the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. These were very busy on a Sunday, but go slightly off from the centre, and the streets were more muted.

From a Brexit perspective, the main news was actually the Budget given by the Chancellor Philip Hammond on Wednesday. It created a growing outcry within the Conservative party for apparently breaking a manifesto pledge NOT to increase National Insurance Contributions by increasing them for the self employed. 

Much heat has been generated between the Remainers and  Brexiteers, in advance of the Brexit bill returning to the Commons on Monday with the two suggested amendments by the Lords (guarantee of right of residence for EU citizens in the UK, right of parliament to have final vote on on Brexit deal struck in negotiation). Concern is also rising about the apparent lack of a plan so far to deal with a hard, cliff-edge jump Brexit. There is also talk of a GBP50bn 'divorce settlement' demand from the EU even before actual  negotiations begin. Boris Johnson wheeled out to comment that hard Brexit will not be a problem and UK will simply not pay anymore the EU.

Perhaps the scariest news for me this week was Scott Pruit, Head of the US EPA, saying on CNBC "...I would not agree that it’s (CO2) a primary contributor to the global warming that we see." According to Vox, it is not about Pruitt but symptomatic of a party that wants to free itself from environmental legislation for short term commercial benefits for its primary donors from fossil fuel industries (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/10/14871696/scott-pruitt-climate-denial).

The two main contributors to the greenhouse effect that keeps our Earth significantly warmer than the -18 degC it would otherwise be, are water vapour and carbon dioxide. This is because they absorb infra-red radiation or heat. However, water vapour cannot sustain the greenhouse effect on its own. Carbon dioxide is the main controlling factor.

The reason is that water vapour has a short lifetime in the atmosphere, condensing and falling back to earth as rain within a couple of days. If there was no carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, climate models show the water ultimately condensing out of the atmosphere and the earth becoming an ice-ball. Indeed, there is strong evidence that we nearly became an ice-ball several times in the past (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth).

In contrast, carbon dioxide persists for 30 to 95 years in the atmosphere. It is absorbed by plants, the oceans, and precipitated carbon is then subsumed by plate tectonic activity.

Increasing carbon dioxide leads to increases in temperature, which in turn increases the level of water vapour that can be held in the atmosphere. This amplifies the greenhouse effect, giving even more warming (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas).

The planet Venus is a good example of what happens when you get a runaway greenhouse effect. It totally dried up and ended up with an atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide and a temperature of 462 degC, higher than the melting point of lead (327.5 °C).

Both Earth and Venus were thought to be in a similar situation up to 4 billion years ago, having water vapour, carbon dioxide and a temperature of about 230 degC. It is suggested that on Earth, plate tectonics and the later formation of oceans removed enough of the carbon dioxide to bring the Earth to its present temperature, whilst on Venus, the balance ran the other way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus).

All in all, it is political ignorance or plain avoidance of inconvenient facts that makes supporting STEM events in schools so important. Mores STEM might ultimately lead to more SENSE.

Tudor Cambridge, Brexit Woes, ObamacareLite and the CIA's Weeping Angels

Delayed by a migraine, I was able to continue with the Quekett Bulletin. Jane had completed the conversion of my edited 'Photographing your own Artwork' manuscript into a Word web-page version, in preparation for producing a Kindle edition. Jane had also begun to design a striking cover. We then sat together for a while ironing out some of the edits and page breaks in the text as well as finalising the cover.

We tested it on Kindle, re-edited and then uploaded the final version to  Kindle Direct Publishing. It can take up to 72h for new publications to be processed, however, a couple of hours later - it was live. By midnight, a copy had already been sold!

We had an enjoyable evening learning about Tudor Cambridge from speaker Honor Ridout, informative, entertaining and relaxed, she  introduced us to the much sparser, smaller Cambridge of Tudor times, surrounded by sheep, pigs and fields. The colleges were still in a strong growth phase and there was the continued lively friction between town and gown. As an audience, we shared Honor's regret at the loss of some of the more evocative street names, such as Shoemaker's and Shearers. I hadn't realised that the description of a place as 'hill', as in Market Hill, referred to an open area.

The big Brexit event today was the second defeat of the Government in the House of Lords by 98 votes. They insisted that there should be a meaningful parliamentary vote on the final terms of withdrawal. Pro-European Lord Heseltine went with his conscience as as a result was sacked from the five advisory positions he held with the Government. It is quite likely that the changes will be over-ruled in the Commons and presumably the sacking of Heseltine is a clear warning shot across the bows of Tory MPs who might be tempted to vote against the Prime Minister.

The signing of the Obamacare replacement bill was highly praised by none other than President Trump himself. Today, there are signs that not only are the democrats and supporters of Obamacare outraged, so are the many conservatives who feel it does not go far enough and is simply Obamacare lite.

The big story of the day is however, the newest Wikileaks revelations, showing how the CIA uses hacking tools to bug people by turning on phones and also via accessing some Samsung smart TVs via a fake 'Off' setting named 'Weeping Angel'. Apparently Whatsapp encryption can also be circumvented. Most incendiary, and likely to muddy the waters of the Russia investigations, is the allegation that the CIA attempted to ensure that anyone trying to track the CIA hacking would be misdirected to think it would be other sources, for example Russia.

Online and Offline Behaviour

An itty bitty day, the sort where there is lots happening and things are getting done, but you feel like you are running on the spot, or worse, through a maze. The positive element was an unexpected call from a prospective client, leading to setting a first appointment. There is also the excitement of a possible Spanish version of a book by one of our authors. The text came through today and we will begin setting it with the relevant pictures in the text.

I had an interesting phone conversation today with a friend about how we act on social media and it made we wonder, do we behave differently than in conventional social interactions? There are of course opportunities to play out different roles on social media, but I've found that for me, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain over time. Ultimately I revert to my current state of opinions, interests and reactions. And when I follow Facebook friends, they too seem to reflect their actual nature and interests. Some people do react more freely, and occasionally even aggressively, online, when not directly face to face. Fortunately, this has been rare in my experience. I'm generally tempered by the belief that ultimately, everything online is public and could backfire on you!

Regarding Brexit, we have had a period of consumer confidence, lowest unemployment for decades and the benefit for exporters of a weak pound. One of the results is a potential windfall for the Chancellor of about GBP12bn prior to the budget. However, it seems that business confidence is waning and events such as the takeover of Vauxhall by the Peugeot-Citroen group PSA are raising questions of potential Brexit impact. PSA has an excess of car plants and will be rationalising them, with inevitable closures. Will the UK's exit from the EU mean additional barriers to moving car components into the UK or exporting cars to the continent that make UK plants less viable?

It looks as if President Trumps accusations of wiretapping continue to stoke a mixture of media activity. Depending from your stand, the anti-establishment right wing are escalating this into a major grievance and taking the claims as fact. Democrats and officers in the past administration are aghast at the slur of these unsubstantiated allegations. The FBI has approached the Department of Justice to refute the wiretap allegations, as to their knowledge such wiretaps did not take place. But such is the mistrust being generated around the US administration that facts may simply be lost in disbelief.

Is the president learning. A second immigration act was signed off today by POTUS, where consultation appears to have taken place and it's implementation is delayed till next week, allowing organisations and institutions to adapt. This second act may still be challenged on the grounds of religious discrimination.

Maybe it is a first step out of the current chaos and things will improve again.

Red Lion Meal and Trump Wiretap Fallout

Hayfever kicking in early with itchy eyes for me this week and countered with eye-drops. Whilst taking the day gently, I began planning my STEM talk to year 11 students on Wednesday. In the early evening, Jane and I spent an enjoyable dinner and conversation with L, S and S's parents, who we were meeting for the first time. Got on really well and, I hope, avoided embarrassing L&S. The venue was the Red Lion in Grantchester, who were great hosts, providing excellent food at reasonable prices. Back home, watched the film 'Florence Foster Jenkins' on demand, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

Rather reluctantly trawled the media for news on BrexiTrump. UK News attempting to anticipate Budget.

President Trump's allegations that Obama ordered his phone tapped are obviously having the desired effect in dominating the news The White House is asking for the possibility of Trump tower wiretapping to be included in House and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations. This is generally seen as a distraction tactic from the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign links to Russia.

Trump may have been extrapolating from a known specific authorised wiretap on Trump tower servers in the public domain to a more general one of 'his phone being tapped'.

The US legal situation re the president's powers is that he can only authorise a wiretap, without a court order, through the Attorney General if no US Citizens are involved. Otherwise, orders are applied for by the Justice Department/FBI from the Foreign Intelligence Court (Fisa court) and are regulated by the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act'. A narrow warrant WAS issued for tapping a Trump tower server in October 2016, with regards to investigating the campaign links with Russia. This was NOT for tapping Trump's phone.

A good summary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39172635
Information on FISA and wiretapping here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act

No Obligation Brexit and Wire-tapped Trump

Yesterday started off with a bit of excitement as a car transporter turned onto the guided busway, just as I was approaching the Science Park stop. I ran shouting and waving and fortunately, the driver stopped just before hitting the car trap across the busway and was able to persuade him that there was no entry to the car show rooms. You did have to admire the way he was able to back up his transporter with trailer back out of the busway track. By the end of the day, a deep tiredness overcame me and I unusually went to bed early. The somnolence persistence persisted today.

Britain can apparently default on any financial obligations with Brexit, was the considered judgement of the House of Lords. They also pointed out that that might not be a wise strategy if wanting to keep some goodwill int he negotiations with the rest of Europe. Ingeborg Grässle, a German centre-right MEP who chairs the European parliament’s budget control committee, said:

“Do you start with a view to let everything go straight to the wall or do you want a result?” she asked. She suggested the UK was not taking Brexit talks seriously. “The EU feels that we have to organise a real divorce and we have to sort out the money, the kids, who gets the dog and the cat … and for the British, it is as if they are leaving a golf club.”

The news was rapidly eclipsed by President Trump's incredible tweets in the US morning (newest on top):

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

By this evening the claims by Trump had been refuted in a tweet by a former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes :

No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,

There is speculation that the FBI might have been monitoring links to Russia and that Trump tower then came into the circle of contacts to monitor.

Cynics are suggesting that this might be a strategy to divert interest from the continuing investigation into links with Russia during the Presidential election.

Volcanic eruption and Recused Attorney General

A sunny day as Jane and I finally were able to tackle setting the Quekett Bulletin. This evening we went to the Milton Artists and Craftists. At the last moment, I decided to take along my soft pastels and A3 coloured paper block. Confronted with an angry red page, and with Etna currently erupting in Sicily, I chose a night scene of an active volcano.

The equally heated topic of Brexit naturally arose in conversation as one of our group is in the unenviable position of being an EU citizen, married to a Briton, who has lived here a significant part of her life, yet has no security of permanent residence. Current statistics show that more than a quarter of the applications for permanent residency by EU citizens are refused (28%), according to a study by the Liberal Democrats.

The House of Lords decision that there should be an amendment to the Brexit Bill is still causing heated debate - in fact it is featuring on the TV program Question Time at this very moment of writing. However, it is still likely that the amendment will be ignored by the House of Commons. With 3 million EU residents in the UK and an increasingly labyrinthine application procedure, the real fact is that the system could not cope properly with applications on this scale.

President Trumps' Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, had to publicly remove himself from any hearing into the investigation of Trumps campaign. This was after admitting that he had talked to Russian representatives, albeit as a Senator with defence interests, and yet failing to mention it during his Senate confirmation hearings. As part of this news, I learnt a new word, recuse. The meaning is actually deliciously double sided in this instance. It is a North American word that can mean:

A. Challenge (a judge or juror) as unqualified to perform legal duties because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

B. Recuse oneself (of a judge)- to excuse oneself from a case because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

So on the one hand, Jeff Sessions is clearly simultaneously unqualified to perform his legal duties AND has to excuse himself, all because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

When the Day and BrexiTrump Were Like a Box of Chocolates

An unexpected gift

I had been looking to an evening of light relief, great speeches and a bit of participation, after what had been a mainly planning and administration day with co-director Jane. My toastmaster's club, Huntingdonshire Speakers was at a new venue but the familiar welcoming faces were there. Toastmasters is all about not just practicing speaking but giving constructive feedback and generally participating in any event. I'd taken the role of an Evaluator, this time for the impromptu section of the evening, called Tabletopics. I had no inkling of what would happen at the end of the evening

At the start of the meeting, we have a member giving us a short inspiration out of their experience. Unfortunately, tonight's inspiration was taken ill, so our compere, TOE or Toastmaster Of the Evening Michael Gaadt, invited a volunteer to either speak. I volunteered, and talked about the inventor of aquariums and Sicilian visitor turned scientist, Jeanne Villepreux-Power, back in the 1830's (see 'UK Deporting Grandmother, and Marine Argonauts', diary entry). My amnesia with names immediately set in, but as the story unfolded of how she did not take events or situations at their word but actually made discoveries by finding out out for herself, I first remembered her surname and then her first name, Phew! I sat down relieved when finished.

Nikki was the Tabletopics Master for today, her first time in this role, and she came up with a novel idea. One after the other, she gave six volunteers a challenge. For example, you are stuck in a lift with a screaming child, or your car breaks down whilst you are en route to a job interview. Each speaker had also chosen a card giving them a Power they were to use to resolve the solution, from energy, to a smile, to happiness. You have to talk for up to two minutes after being given a topic - it really challenges you as you have to react in the moment. Practice like this helps you deal with the unexpected. 

As part of my evaluation, I highlighted the different strategies that I had seen the speakers use. There was taking a sideways leap; going from energetically tackling a problem to using green energy; reliving a similar personal experience to the problem, and your solution; over-exaggerated blagging your way out of the problem; to making the audience laugh. I kept to time and again sat down relieved things had gone fairly well.

Near the end of the evening is a time for recognition and awards - Best Tabletopic Speaker, completing a manual, taking part in a competition, for example. 

I was caught totally unprepared when TOE Michael awarded me the giant box of chocolates for my contributions today. I was rendered speechless! It is something that I will remember.

The good news continued when I came back in time for the 10 o'clock News. Yes!! The House of Lords had voted for an amendment to the Brexit Bill, to give EU residents currently in the UK the right to stay here after Brexit. The overriding argument was that people's lives were not political playthings, that common decency demanded they were treated fairly. The motion was carried by over 100 votes and included Conservative peers supporting it. It was a choice for humanity and against the attitudes of Them and Us. (Much to the incomprehension of Lord Tebbit "Somehow or other we seem to be thinking of nothing but the rights of foreigners,")

Yes, the amendment can still be overturned when the bill passes back to the House of Commons, but this decision will at least be memorable. A principled stand was taken.

President Trump gave a great speech to Congress, a big, big speech. There was a vision of a united America, a chance to seize the moment. There big vague plans: the major investment in infrastructure; the cutting of taxes; more support for the military. The bogeymen and their impending doom were also mentioned:  Obamacare would be repealed and the drug barons, criminals and rapists on the other side of The Border would be blocked by a big, big wall. There were tears as heroes were remembered. I didn't watch the whole speech but I am sure that at some points the angels in the audience stood up and spread their wings in exaltation, there were after all a lot of silent beings clothed in white waiting in readiness for the right moment.

We saw a new Trump, a real President Trump, and the world will surely now become a better place. I certainly hope so.