For no accountable reason, the name Lembit Ökpik came into my mind the other day and I wondered what had happened to him.
There was a time when he was all over various media outlets and you couldn't get away from his face. There's no doubt he liked the limelight.
Didn't he have had an affair with a Chuckle Brother - or was it a Cheeky Girl?
Mortgages are in the news; however, it's interesting to note that house ownership didn't really take off in the UK till after WWII and the house building policies that were introduced.
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We tend to think that home ownership is quite high in the UK when we are compared to the rest of Europe, but the rate here is only about 63%, whereas in Eastern Europe it's at 90% or more.
During the transition from centrally planned economies to market-oriented systems, many Eastern European governments implemented policies to privatise state-owned housing. These policies provided opportunities for tenants to purchase their homes at subsidized prices or with favourable financing options. This facilitated a widespread transfer of housing ownership from the state to individuals, somewhat similar to the Right to Buy scheme under Thatcher, which is estimated to have resulted in some 2m former council houses having been sold, which swelled home ownership by between 5% and 10% - and is the reason why there's currently a desperate shortage of council homes.
Here's a list of countries by home ownership.
The government and the right wing press always respond to rail strikes with the accusation that the rail unions are targeting major events and spoiling people's enjoyment.
What they don't say is that the rail unions target dates when the rail companies are making maximum profits, which happen to be those dates that coincide with major national events and a lot of people are travelling by train.
It's utterly pointless targeting dates when no bugger travels, as any leverage the unions would have disappears into the woodwork. The whole point of strikes is to bring employers to the negotiating table and that's achieved by hitting them and their shareholders in their pockets.
A couple of trials of Universal Basic Income are taking place in the UK, in a very small way. The right wing is coming out with the usual drivel about people being paid to stay at home, something about widescreen TVs (despite it being impossible to buy anything else) and the rest of us in work paying for them.
It won't be long before AI takes a helluva lot of people out of the workforce. This will be a huge shock to the economy and the labour market, a situation that's being ignored by strategic policy makers, which is hardly surprising when planning forward generally means no more than 5 years ahead. Having millions of unemployed people brings with it a risk of insurrection, thus burying one's head in the sand is not an option.
Possible solutions? Tax people and companies on the basis of the ratio of profit to number of employees. For example, a company making £2m profit with 100 employees has a ratio of 0.005%; one making the same profit but employing only one person has a ratio of 0.00005%.
Those employing AI and laying off people would pay an additional tax based on this ratio - the lower the ratio, the higher the tax. Those having great wealth and living off the proceeds, but employing no people at all, would also be taxed - which would, in effect, make it a wealth tax, which is exactly what some are suggesting needs to be implemented to go some way to level up inequality, which grows every year.
The above could, depending on levels of such a tax and how much it could generate, fund a Universal Basic Income and keep the large number of unemployed off the streets, thus buying off a revolution.
Would it make the UK less competitive? Yes, but other countries would also have to implement something similar, or risk revolution. It could even make the country more competitive.
Then there's the fact that the UBI would be spent wisely on necessities - the things that make the economy work, such as widescreen TVs and fags - the very things produced by robots and AI. Some would undoubtedly use it to fund a university place, enabling them to study for degrees in occupations where AI cannot penetrate and thus give the country a competitive advantage in its workforce skills.
Thinking about the areas where AI cannot penetrate - would it perhaps lead to an explosion in the Arts? However, that said, AI is forecast to make inroads into the Arts by way of computational creativity. There again, the Arts are losing money and therefore there may not be the driver to push AI into creativity.
If the right wing think UBI leads to a life of ease (and 50 inch widescreen TVs), then perhaps they should try it (or invest in widescreen TVs). I somehow doubt they would. And why should they worry about how people spend their money, so long as it's spent and circulates in the economy, rather than being put in offshore accounts to avoid tax.
The question is whether the vested interests that hold the reins of power, be that overtly or by proxy, would allow it to happen? If they don't, they risk decimation in a revolution by the New Luddites.
The Cabinet Office refuses to accede to the Covid Inquiry's request for Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages while Johnson himself strangely volunteers to hand them over. The Cabinet Office responds by threatening to withdraw public funding for Johnson's defence and is leaning on him heavily with blackmail.
So, what's going on?
Yes, there's a legitimate claim that private messages between ministers, many having nothing whatsoever to do with the Covid Inquiry, will be seen by the Inquiry and set a precedent that prevents ministers from discussing things in private, but it's not up to the defendant in a trial to determine what is or is not evidence.
Johnson is loyal to his acolytes, but so long as it's expedient to him, and no longer. He's well prepared to throw people under a bus if it benefits him or if he can extract vengeance for perceived slights.
The government mishandled many aspects of Covid and Johnson was the prime mishandler because of his inability to pick competent people. He much prefers fawners on whom he can work his undoubted, jingoistic expertise.
Johnson has scores to settle with those who ousted him. He's probably resigned to the fact there's no political future for him under the current administration, which he sees as responsible for his ousting, nor the next, which is likely to be Labour. He's made some £5m on the lecture tour circuit since leaving office, so he can bide his time - becoming PM was only ever a means to an end and not an end in itself. With his bank balance now very positive, his end has been achieved, for now. One wonders whether his constituents have even seen him during the time he's been restocking his larder.
Claims that the Government got all the Big Calls Right are likely to be trounced by the revelations within Johnson's WhatsApps - something the government will be desperate to avoid in the lead up to a General Election. The grossly stupid Eat Out to Help Out policy, for which Sunak was responsible, as well as the rise in Covid cases and deaths following its implementation, is definitely something Sunak will want to to leave buried.
The whole debacle stinks.
The next Inquiry that should be convened is one into Brexit, with Lady Hallett once more leading it.
Had another day of routering the ash slab, and I'm very pleased with the results.
Bit of a mucky start, but I persevered despite the warp being even worse at this end.
I knew the old roller blading knee pads would come in useful some day.
Finally got there and am now thinking of turning it over and routering the other side, so as to even up the thickness. As you can see, it's now a bit wedge-shaped at the ends that have been routered. Not an issue in itself, as I can compensate with the legs, but it's not aesthetically pleasing.
The top was the crucial part, not wanting to shave off too much in case I hit the destressing cuts on the underside. From not ever having seen a router before, I'm now a confident expert.
The top now requires a sand with a 120 grit sanding belt and the knotty features need it be filled with clear resin. I have bought some individual, warm white LEDs, which I want to insert into the knot holes before filling with resin, drilling tiny holes through to the underside for the wires and having a small battery pack mounted on the beneath the slab to power them. I'm only talking of about 5 or 6 LEDs.
One thing I did discover was that I hadn't extended the bit as far as it would go - the struts along which the machine body plunges was a bit dirty, meaning I hit a dirt stop before the real stop, which was a good inch short. That is good news for continuing with the other side next weekend, as the base thickness of the router sled is no longer an issue.
I was looking at the 25cm sections I cut off and, for merely a nanosecond, I considered drop-leaves at either end....
Decided to bite the bullet and have a go at attempting to router the ash slab dining table top. What a palaver!
Got everything prepared and discovered the slab was so warped that I had to build up the rails along which the routing sled was to slide.
To reduce the amount of work, I cut the slab to the correct length, thereby eliminating the worst of the warp.
I then discovered the routing sled base was so thick that the router bit didn't protrude anywhere near enough, meaning the job would have to be completed in minor increments.
Then it transpired than the 1/2 inch router I'd bought 2nd hand on Facebook Market didn't work - checked the fuse, but no, it was totally dead for some unknown reason.
Went and got the 1/4 inch router and that at least worked, but made the job even more laborious.
Got one corner done - the less warped of the two diametrically opposed corners that were raised.
The dragonflies have been breaking out of their cases, but one poor bugger never made it before being drowned.
Hadn't seen much activity on the part of the nymphs this year. Last year was an absolute bonanza of dragonflies. Must have been the relatively chilly spring, unless the koi ate them, although when they hatched there was only one koi in the pond.
Dragonfly nymphs eat small fry so, if the koi do manage to reproduce, the dragonflies get their own back.
The keyrings we saw in Broadway gave me an idea - to use the large bag of spent shotgun cartridges we have (courtesy of out neighbour, Colin), along with my newfound wood turning skills, if you can call it that.
I made these keyrings, using dowel, turned to the correct diameter to fit the caps, and eye rings:
I couldn't find brass coloured eye rings of the right size anywhere, so bought a box of steel ones from Lidl, where they're currently selling them.
The steel ones don't look right on the brass cartridge caps, but go perfectly with the silver cartridge ends. I'll have to buy some brass screw-in rings on e-Bay and also need heavy hardwood for the shank, but this was just a proof of concept.
The likes of Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg and 30p Lee astound me. They believe, with some justification, that they can win a General Election by appealing to the lowest common denominator of a small base of supporters on the far right of the Tory Party. They chose Truss, for God's sake, and are more than willing to support the arch liar, Johnson.
As a means of government, democracy is a relatively young phenomenon, with some form of despotic feudalism having been prevalent since we left our caves and created civilizations. Democracy is fragile and depends heavily on engagement, trust and accountability.
Accountability comes through institutions, but what the far right of the Tory Party wants to do is to utterly demolish any institution that holds parliamentarians, and especially government, to account. This paves the way for a brutal and genocidal totalitarian regime like that of Putin, where even the official opposition (and the Orthodox Church) is an arm of the state and is allowed to say nothing without Putin's approval.
Trust in politicians is at an all-time low, and a certain Boris Johnson led the charge in that respect, being utterly incapable of telling the truth. Unfortunately, all politicians have become tarnished with the same brush, which is a dangerous state of affairs.
Whenever someone says something is 'obviously true' or 'unambiguously irrelevant' (the latter in respect of Johnson's WhatsApp messages and diaries as pertaining to the Covid inquiry), you can smell a rat. Something may well be true or irrelevant, but adding the words 'obviously' or 'unambiguously' means the burden of proof is on those who use those weasel words and someone impartial has to be the arbiter. The subject of the obviousness or unambiguity rarely is so.
The fake War On Woke that the right is engaged in is not only ludicrous but hypocritical. I heard last week that a recognised expert on chemical, biological, and radiological warfare, who was invited to speak at the world Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in the UK, was 'cancelled' by the Tory government because he had criticised them in the past. So much for the Tory far right's support of free speech and legislation against 'cancel culture'. What they mean is that they only want certain types of free speech - the type that supports their ideology.
DeSantis in America appears to have gone the full fruit loop in the War on Woke and is making himself appear a complete tool by cancelling everything, yet people support him - and Trump.
Democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it and, when they become scared and it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go badly wrong very quickly. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely and don't become depoliticised. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is not only education, but engagement.
It would seem that the internet is partly to blame, as it allows Village Idiots from widely dispersed areas to congregate in a manner in which they have hitherto been unable to accomplish. This makes them a force to be reckoned with.
The young too, according to polls, appear to favour authoritarian regimes to democracy and some two thirds have shown a preference for a Strong Man leader. Many political philosophers believe western style democracy is slowly edging toward totalitarianism and it's on open display here in the UK, Hungary, Poland, India, Israel, Turkey, America, Uganda, etc. The young no longer read books or listen to the mainstream news (the MSM), preferring to obtain their information from the internet, where some pretty insidious algorithms determine what they see - and thus believe.
