Home Nations Brexit Talks. Trump and Macron Love-in. A Visit to Reading Town

Fragmented in a Reading Loo

Windrush recedes from the headlines after the grovelling u-turn by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, from hostile treatment to promise of assistance to Windrush claimants towards no-cost British nationality. A Royal Birth of a boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also captured the world for a day yesterday. Today's headlines concentrated on Jeremy Corbyn's inability to allay concerns by the Jewish community about increasing antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Brexit news is still in under most people's radar but there are some interesting developments. Intense negotiations have been going on between Westminster and the other home nations, about the repatriation of more than 150 EU powers. The worry has been that the UK government was trying to claw back power that the other nations wanted to retain for themselves. Unity between Wales and Scotland in negotiating against Westminster appeared to have been fractured by Wales agreeing to sign a deal with UK ministers, whilst Scotland was still arguing for more concessions.

The House of Lords discussions of the Exiting the EU Bill were also raising calls for insisting the UK stayed in some form of Customs Union with the EU. This was immediately refuted by the Prime Minister and raised a literally incendiary comment from an infuriated Jacob Rees Mogg, quoted in the Express, that the Lords were “playing with fire” by blocking Brexit and “it would be a shame to burn the House down”. Oh, and that with a new petition to debate the house of Lords gaining ground, they would "have to decide whether they love ermine or the EU more".

With aircraft design and safety still a matter for debate as part of the Brexit negotiations, Rolls Royce is contemplating a "technical measure" of moving its design approval process to the EU, to avoid Brexit disruption.

President Macron has traveled across the Pond as President Trump's new best friend and first official state visitor. The Middle East was high on the agenda, especially with POTUS reiterating his low esteem for the nuclear deal with Iran. The hope is that Macron might have persuaded the President to work together with Europe on the issue. Lots of hand-wrestling, hand-holding and mano-a-mano posturing. Boys, please grow up.

Perhaps the most telling clip of news today was the footage taken of the Canadian police officer dealing with the killer who ran down pedestrians in his car yesterday. The suspect was pointing something in his hand at the officer and repeatedly asking him to shoot him, saying he had a gun in his pocket. The incredibly brave armed officer, refrained from shooting and continued to approach the suspect, finally getting him to get onto the ground and hand-cuff him. In a world where shooting seems to be the easier option, the officer deserves a medal for delivering a live suspect for a proper trial.

We had been in Reading over the weekend, enjoying the last of the warm weather with daughter and son-in-law. We traveled down and returned avoiding motorways, which meant that we enjoyed both beautiful wooded Chilterns and numerous small towns and villages. We stayed for two nights at a hotel close to the University, one which can only be regarded as a homage to the artex and decay of the 1970's. Indeed, it was almost at the level of dilapidated student accommodation, rescued by a better decorated bedroom and a restaurant room with attentive service. The words 'lactose intolerance' and 'Brown bread' had not yet entered this time warp.

Reading itself had a good city centre with modern shopping malls that retained its grand architecture in the wide Broad Street and upper floor facades. I would have liked to find out more about the history of the town but the museum was closed over the days we were there and we could not find a map showing historic features of the town centre.

We did make an outing to "The Living Rainforest" at Hamstead Norreys, which had the promised lush vegetation, with a smattering of birds, beetles and reptiles. We would have liked to see more butterflies in the dedicated space. Perhaps later in the year.

Back home, it was community cafe today. One of the guests was researching the history of Milton school and ended up bringing back memories from the others on their and their children's experience at Milton Primary School. All over cups of tea or coffee and some excellent cakes.

Windrush rumbles on. Brexit Ireland Negotiations at a deadlock. Meetings and Frogs

Dandelions flowering a pristine gold 

The Windrush scandal continues to reverberate with the Prime Minister and colleagues issuing apologies.  Citizens perfectly entitled to be here are being subjected to life changing mis-treatment by an uncaring bureaucracy. Promises have been made to rectify the situation, but the issues are likely to linger.

Attitudes to illegal immigrants came to the fore as a major  public concern and were picked up by politicians on both sides of the house. This allowed the deliberate and very public establishment of a hostile environment on illegal immigration.

The bureaucracy has now built up its own momentum in absorbing the attitudes turned public policy. The burden of proof now lies with the individual. Woe betide the person who accidentally falls into a machinery whose aim is to aggressively combat immigration numbers. Landlords, employers and other government departments have been co-opted under the pain of punishment to make their judgments on whether to provide or refuse their services. As usual, the victims are often those who cannot fight back, or afford to pay for some of the impossible hoops that they are made to jump through.

Brexit has really been in the background, despite the fact that several weeks of negotiations have been going on. The talks on the future of the border between Northern Ireland and Eire appear to have gone nowwhere. The EU still insists that there should be no hard border - to meet the concerns of the Irish and retain the benefits of the Good Friday agreement. The UK has suggested having a unique "customs partnership", something already rejected previously by the EU 27. The EU has asked for new proposals.

President Trump appears to be making significant progress in getting North Korea to make positive moods on the subject of nuclear disarmament, prior to the planned meeting between the two leaders at as an yet unspecified date.

I finally completed the Bulletin and sent it off to the printer yesterday, adding to the three other books also now off our hands, making life easier. We therefore set off in the evening relatively unburdened to help with this months CETC event on business models. What might have seemed a dry subject was quite lively as we had talks on social enterprises, investment and growth strategies and one company sharing it's experiences with it's model based on the internet of thinks and data analysis.

Had an interesting project at the Norris Museum today, creating some possible window displays to attract passers by. Lets wait and see if they meet with the director's approval.

Could not see any frogspawn in the pond anymore, though it could have sunk down. However, I was surprised to see two frog's heads peeking out of the water rather than the one I expected. So far, not much is happening with the frogs eggs in the garage, they still appear to be at the blastula stage, where the cells reproduce but overall the clump retains the same volume, though it becomes hollow as development continues. The water temperature seems to stay in the range 15 to 20 degC and there is a population of phototropic brown algae in the water shown as a brown cloud at the side facing the windows.

Lords Support Customs Union. Frogspawn. Photo Show and Tell and Pokemon Gym.

Milton 's Jane Coston bridge on the first warm day

The Lords dealt the government a blow today in their debate on the UK EU Withdrawal bill. They voted by 348 to 225 in favour of a plan requiring ministers to report on steps to negotiate a continued customs union. This will be one of the points passed back to the House of commons.

Whilst a customs union with the EU would be desirable economically, it would be a political catastrophe if we had one but without any political say in EU decision making. In my opinion, the UK really does wither have to stay in the EU or leave..

Overnight our pond gained a ball of frogspawn and a visible frog, peeking up out of the pond occasionally. Keeping an eye on the spawn duing the day, it was soon apparent that it was being predated as it gradually reduced in size. I took a small proportion of the spawn with pond water and placded it in a plastic fish tank in our garage where it still gets light but is less subject to overheating during strong sunshine.

This evening we went to the Milton Photographical Club 'Show and tell'. Our pictures were randomly mixed with those of the other members and then shown on screen for the audience to comment and appreciate. I came away with the intention to try more landscape photos with a detail in the foreground as well. As we came out of the church hall, we passed another group. Curiosity won and we found out that it was a pokemon group. Apparently the churchyard is a Pokemon gym.

Windrush Scandal Worries EU Citizens. Cervantes and Barbary Slavery

EU citizens are looking on with concern at the current 'Windrush Generation' scandal. People invited in from the former Commonwealth countries to help rebuild Britain in the 1940s and 1950s also brought in their children who then lived all their lives in the UK. Their rights to stay were guaranteed in 1971. An 'update' of the regulations in 2013/2014 quietly dropped the key paragraph providing this guarantee without any one really noticing at the time.

However, with the introduction of a more hostile immigration policy, some of those who thought they were British but had never applied for a passport or other form of digital ID in their lives, suddenly found that they had lost their jobs, rented accommodation and were deemed illegal immigrants. Unless of course they could provide at least four pieces of admissible paperwork for every year that they had lived here.

The issue, reported on by the Guardian and other newspapers, came to a head today with Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, apologising to parliament. This was for the appalling and heartless treatment of individuals approaching retirement age, some of them pillars in their community, who were now at risk of deportation. Indeed some had already been deported. 

The real worry for EU citizens in the UK, currently without settled status, is that the problems with the immigration system, and its treatment of 'Windrush' individuals, possibly presages how they could be mistreated after Brexit. EU Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt echoed their concerns.

Spring continues to warm Milton.

A chance comment by Jane about the reverse slave trade from Europe to Aftica led to a search that revealed a history that I had hitherto been unaware of.

With a decline in the centralised power of the Ottoman empire, piracy grew rapidly with bases in Tunis and on the Barbary coast. Raiding ships were not only a hazard to European ships at sea but also to coastal village communities in Cornwall, Ireland.  Raids even reached Iceland. The raids grew in audacity in the 1600's and continued right into the early 1800's, till US and British naval attacks on Tunis and other Barbary ports made slave piracy impossible. Until then, the main treasure for any pirate was capturing sailors rather than treasure. These could be sold on as galley slaves if they were poor, or could be ransomed if they had connections.

Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote was himself held to ransom by pirates. He had served in the Spanish infantry fighting against the Turks  when he was captured by pirates in 1575 and taken to Algiers. He was kept as a slave for five years before regaining his freedom with a ransom raised by Trinitarian friars from the convent where he would be buried later. He wrote his novel upon his return.

Estimates go as high as 1 to 2 million Christians being enslaved over a period of 200 years. The village of Baltimore in Ireland was completely depopulated and people also moved away from coastal villages on the Mediterranean to avoid the pirates. There was a simple way to escape slavery, convert to Islam. Unfortunately, this meant that it was impossible to return home. The punishment for apostasy could be death.

Syria Bombing Contained? WATA Laugh and Spring Banners.

Woke up this morning with the news that the US, UK and France had conducted a major strike on Syria. 105 missiles rained down on one target in Damascus and two sites outside of Homs. The targets were chosen for being research, production and storage centres for nerve gases. None of them were intercepted by Syrian or Russian defence systems, though apparently the Syrians let off several of their own ballistic missiles after the attack at 4 am local time had occurred.

At this moment in time, it looks as if this limited action has not initiated a counterattack by the Russians as they had planned, saving us from an escalating conflict for the time being.

By 2013, Syria had a large  stockpile of chemical weapons, estimated at 1000 tons. When the country joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, Syria agreed to have it's stockpiles destroyed under the supervision of the  Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The task was believed to have been completed by 2014.

Presumably, the detailed knowledge on the locations of production and storage facilities came from the work done under the OPCW and subsequent military intelligence. At least five facilites were listed openly on Wikipedia.

The general consensus appears to be that whilst the argument behind the strikes by the US, UK and France was to send a a clear signal that the use of chemical weapons would not be sanctioned, this would be unlikely to affect the outcome of the current civil war. More than 99% of the Syrian government's military action, and the resultant misery, has been conducted using conventional weapons, with the support of  Russian and Iranian forces.

Life goes on, despite the efforts of the media to build up the potential danger of the current situation, with the US's President Trump and assorted Russian diplomats willing to goad each other with inflammatory rhetoric. There is the benefit that Brexit and President Trump's irritations are pushed into the background. Yet we are in a surreal position where the danger of the current situation does not really seem to impact, being simply another item interrupting sport and entertainment on TV and Radio.

Yesterday, Friday 13th, was the last grey day and the memorable event was the HBN Out and About visit to WATA (West Anglia Training Association). We arrived at an almost deserted site, it still being the Easter break for the students, and also to the frankly hilarious absence of the person who was going to give us the presentation & tour of the site. Fortunately, the site manager sprang into action and admirably filled the gap, with his decades of experience of the site and it's activities. The two things that stuck in my mind were the large scaffolding training hall, which catered both to students and experienced construction workers, and the stretch of highway used to prepare apprentices for work on the major construction work on the A14.

Today, Spring sunshine and welcome warmth took over. After a trip to Cambridge to pick up my new glasses, I found myself driving our local Liberal Councillor, handicapped by an injured arm, around the village and hammering in election signs at various locations under instruction.

Trump Prepares for Syria Strikes, UK to Follow? A Day Out at the Museums.

Well, apologies for the significant gap in this blog, I was distracted by a rather big tome to read, AERA by Markus Heitz. At over 700 pages of fantastic fiction (in both senses of the word) it seemed just so much more important than the background chatter on Brexit and POTUS across the pond.

Now however, as my eyes turn again to a more worldly look at - the world, it seems that in addition to having a chemical attack on the UK's soil by an agency allegedly linked to the Russian military or even the Kremlin, Trump and Putin are squaring off for a more direct confrontation in Syria. With much of the world supporting the UK in its reaction to the Novichok attack in Salisbury, the sudden use of chemical weapons in Syria, most likely by the Assad regime, could not go unchallenged. The UN had been stymied in its attempts to investigate the matter further by Russia's veto. Russia, the current main military ally, with Iran, with the Assad regime.

With Russia threatening to shoot down any US missiles fired at Syria, President Trump replied:

"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia,  because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"

The heightened rhetoric on both sides and the complexity on the ground in a weaponised Syria makes for a risky strike environment, whatever the rights of opposing the use of chemical weapons. This could turn out to be either a mega-bluffing game between two super-powers or the start of a major conflict. And we have little say in what happens. The Prime Minister will be holding a cabinet meeting on the situation, with possibly the UK joining the strikes.

Kuwait Airlines has already cancelled all flights to neighbouring Beirut for the foreseeable future.

At least I had an enjoyable day yesterday in London. I walked past Euston Station and stopped off at the Wellcome Collection to look at three current exhibitions. There was a short walk further to stop of for a quick lunch at the George Farha cafe, then on to the Grant Museum of Zoology. As this opened at 1 pm and I had to be at the Natural History Museum at 2pm for a committee meeting, this was a short 15 minutes to see the interior. The main  magnet for any microscopist due to the myriad of slides on display was an illuminated booth. I took a panorama picture which makes it appear larger than it really is:

The extremely entertaining evening talk to the Quekett Microscopical Society was by the Senior Curator of Hemiptera (flies to you and me), Erica McAlister. Check out her book 'The Secret Life of Flies'.

US markets drop in reaction to Tech Giant Problems and China's Trump-Tarif Retaliation. Hot Cross Buns.

Giant mutated Hot Cross Buns

President Trumps comments on Amazon, the Cambridge Analytica impact on Facebook and todays retaliation by China for the US tariffs on steel and aluminium, they all contributed to a 3% drop in the US stock market. Again, it is the insecurity about how the president will react next that seems to give markets and politics the jitters. From my perspective, the two global economic giants will no doubt continue to jostle each other for power and influence economically. It makes the EU appear a sane third major giant on the economic world stage. I have doubts about the real power that the UK might have in negotiating on its own with, with the one partner we are supposed to deal with being unpredictable in his actions, other than putting America first. 

Domestically, the issue of the new Blue UK passports being produced by French-Dutch firm Gemalto is rippling through the news, with the existing UK contractor, De La Rue, planning to formally launch an appeal in court.

Over Easter, I had two projects of interest, the first being the microscopy of mouth cells and the second being  making Hot Cross Buns. Though these are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, they appear to be available commercially from just after Christmas onwards. Depending on the source on the internet, bread buns with a cross may have already been baked by the ancient Greeks and by pagan Saxons to celebrate the beginning of Spring. They became associated with Christianity by the Tudor period, when their sale was prohibited at times other than burials, Good Friday and Christmas  by the London Clerk of Markets. Wikipedia states that there are superstitions associated with the hot cross bun; take one on a sea journey and you will be protected against shipwreck, for example.

I had a go using a simple Tesco recipe, but substituting some of Jane's excellent three fruit marmalade for orange rind and reducing all ingredient proportions to match those for 200 g flour instead of the full 500 g. This should have been enough for four buns. Room temperature being around 19 degrees Centrigrade, I left the rolls to rise for quite a number of hours to double in size. The cross of flour, sugar and water paste was decoratively added just before the buns entered the oven. During baking the buns fused to form one gigantic mutant bun with only hints of quarters, the crosses almost disappeared into indistinguishable blobs. The crusts were a bit chewy, but otherwise they were OK, with two to be eaten tomorrow.

Watched the first episode of Westworld Series 1 this evening. A slow burn but disturbing enough to want a bit of distraction after watching it and before going to bed.