Trump's Stick for Iran and Rage for Spy. Brexit Hits Company Registrations. Train and Phone delays.

Letchworth fountain

With a bullish attitude apparently having an effect in intimidating North Korea into action over nuclear disarmament and initiating a response from China re the trade imbalance, President Trump is turning to Iran and putting it under economic pressure. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised the harhest sanctions ever - and woe betide anyone daring to cross them, like the Europeans. He issued a full twelve demands for Iran to comply with. The demands might on the surface all seem perfectly laudable as ideals to the presenter, but they are going to rile the recipient, Iran and are therefore not realistic. Any nation would be strongly irritated by the imperial tone. But perhaps, these are meant to fail as the idea for the US could be regime change - and I presume that would require continued suffering of Iran's people for a while to foment discord.

Meanwhile, the President is in paroxysms of rage about the possibility of a spy being placed in is election team, according to his weekend tweets. He had demanded an investigation into his claims that the Obama administration inserted an FBI spy into his 2016 campaign. He tweeted:
"I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" Barbed comments were also directed towards the previous (Obama era) CIA director John Brennan, who Trump apparently regards as the possible initiator of the Mueller investigation. All this before the new director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, was sworn in.

Since the initiation of Brexit, company registrations in the UK by foreign businesses has dropped dramatically by between 38%  (Belgian applications), to 48% (France). According to the Guardian, " OECD figures show that foreign direct investment into the UK tumbled in 2017 by 90%". Apparently analysts lay the blame squarely at the feet of the split and indecisive British Cabinet.

On a glorious sunny morning, I set off on foot to Cambridge North station to catch a train to Letchworth. This on the day where more than 60% of rail timetables had been changed over a significant part of the network and trouble was anticipated. The journey started off late due to difficulties with power to the train. Eventually we got underway and I had an interesting conversation with a septuagenarian marathon and half marathon runner from Devon, on the first leg of his home journey. The Broadway in Letchworth proved a pleasant walk to my destination, for a Quekett related meeting. After a light lunch, it was back on the train to Cambridge, fortunately catching one that wasn't cancelled. Ensured a revised flyer was printed and delivered correctly to one of our authors. Caught a delayed train back to Cambridge North. Jane not answering the phone, so walked back home. Only to find that whilst the phone seemed to be ringing on my smartphone, it was actually silent at home - courtesy of BT's newest hole and box on our pavement. Phoned BT (yet again) to get the problem resolved!