Commercial property: asset or liability?

Regular readers of this blog will know that it reflects the view of many that the days of council-sponsored city and town-centre malls are long past and certainly before various south Wales councils were persuaded to pour council taxpayers' money into shopping developments which have not matched their promoters' promises. Now Private Eye records:

Just over a year ago the National Audit Office warned tha ounils could find their burgeoning property investments badly exposed to market whims. Yet 2020 saw little let-up in the appetite for commercial real estate. England's patchwork of 353 local authorities added a net £1.5bn to their balance sheets in 2019-20 - just in time for the pandemic to throw the market into disarray. [...] The strategy is simple: borrow money at record-low rates, buy up property, and pay off loan interest and expenses with rental income. Whatever's left can be used to fund public services.

Councils need all the income they can get to cover the shortfall from central government. Alas, theory and practice are different things. Take Newcastle city council, which owns shopping centres and office blocks. The portfolio fell in value by more than 20 percent last year, leaving a £40m hole in accounts which had to be plugged from reserves. 

The picture is unlikely to be any different this side of Offa's Dyke. 

 

Poet who saw the dark side

 Michael Collins was not the first human to see the far side of the moon. That honour belongs to the crew of Apollo 8, followed by those on board Apollo 10. However, he was memorably the man who commanded Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin dominated the TV screens of the world. He was also the first man in the Apollo programme to possess the gift of the use of language, as this article celebrating his 85th birthday demonstrated. He was known as the poet of the group, which caused President Nixon some slight amusement when he spoke to the astronauts on their return and not even Collins could find the words to describe their experience. 

His lack of bitterness on net being selected to set foot on the moon wss clearly genuine. He also, rarely among the astronauts, kept his marriage together. He may have left NASA not long after the moon landing, but he remained in public service and, as National Geographic records, he stayed involved in human space exploration for most of that time. An estimable man, and an inspiration.

Hurrah for cronyism

 President Bolsonaro in Brazil is to be investigated by his country's Senate; Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party in Northern Ireland is reported to have lost the confidence of her senior colleagues; but in Westminster the prime minister sails blissfully on, defended stoutly by an erstwhile challenger in the Commons last Monday. As a rebuttal of the charge of cronyism, Michael Gove singled out just one success story:

Opposition Members criticised the appointment of a vaccine tsar as cronyism when Kate Bingham has been responsible for saving millions of lives. What she does not say is that Opposition MPs criticised Kate Bingham for spending money on public relations when that money was there to ensure that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were able to get the vaccines they required.

That PR campaign does not seem to have proved value for money, but one has to accept that Ms Bingham's direction of the vaccine programme has been successful. This is because she is, apparently alone among the friends of the prime minister and/or the Conservative party who have benefited from pandemic-related contracts, she is an expert in the relevant field. Her unique achievement does not justify the whole slew of dubious hand-outs of which some are listed here.

The Mullin gap

 I am near the end of Chris Mullin's View from the Foothills now. It has been an entertaining read, very good on the difficulties of reconciling family life with a Westminter MP's existence, particularly when the MP in quesition is a junior minister. In turn, Mullin makes clear that the life of a junior minister is not as attractive as the title sounds. There are some interesting analyses of places which are still in the news today like Afghanistan or one which has achieved even more prominence, Tigray province. 

Disappointingly, the diary entries for the most critical months of the period which the book covers are missing. There is a huge gap in the late summer and early August coverng the period when Dr David Kelly was hounded to death. It must have been during this time that the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction which he had taken on trust because of Tony Blair's assertion that they existed were finally shown to be smoke and mirrors. Will those missing diary entries see the light of day eventually?

Canada's sheen peeling

Canada still had sufficient faith in her Liberal government, in spite of the revelations of a corruption cover-up, that they returned Justin Trudeau to power in 2019. The mood was reinforced by a better handling of the immediate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic than Trump's USA. However, Christian Science Monitor says:

The pandemic amplified all the things Canada lauds itself for when it compares itself with the United States – as a nation that is a fraction of the size of the powerhouse next door often does. Its universal health care, a functional government, a communal spirit, and a rule-abiding culture were held up as reasons that case numbers stayed reasonably low. The U.S., meanwhile, bickered about masks and whether the virus was a hoax as cases surpassed anywhere else in the world.

Now Canada finds itself amid a daunting third wave. And as the U.S. has flexed its muscle in an ambitious inoculation campaign, a counternarrative is emerging among some Canadians that finds them unsettled but also humbled. It underscores a national inclination toward comparative assessment that can often blind the country to its own shortcomings on everything from gun violence to racism to health care – and make it too hard on both the U.S. and itself.
Quebec and Ontario have been hit by a "third wave" necessitating severe lockdowns including school closures. This in spite of Canada being the world's most egregious hoarder of vaccine.

The current situation is just a snapshot in time; Canada’s per capita death toll is still only a third of that of its neighbor. But the reversal comes as a punch, particularly because it involves health, one area where Canadians overwhelmingly agree their model is superior to the market approach taken in the U.S.

However:
despite a harsh third wave, Canadians remain firm in acknowledging that that shouldn’t take away all that Canada has done right, while the U.S. fights culture wars around the pandemic. Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, says the pandemic has not been politicized like it has in the U.S. “I think Canadians can be too smug about themselves,” he argues, “but on the other hand, it is objectively the case that our society is, at the present time, more sane, more coherent, and just more together.”

Johnson's personal phone and security

 He may or may not use a Huawei, but the Daily Telegraph reports that Boris Johnson's careless use of his personal phone has long concerned government security advisers. All and sundry can lobby him directly as Peter Black commented last Thursday. It may even be that it was not Dominic Cummings who was responsible for the leaks about wallpapergate, but a simple hack of that smartphone.

Apology to those expecting posts today or tomorrow

 I have been preparing for an electoral photoshoot tomorrow, but hope to resume normal service on Sunday.

Russia avoiding Ukraine confrontation?

 It is underatandable to act cautiously in response to the withdrawal of some of Russia's military from eastern Ukraine. However, to the world at large, the West should welcome the defusing of tension on the borders of democratically-run Ukraine and in the Black Sea. We should also go easy on the treatment of the opposition in Russia. While we may deprecate the way Navalny in particular has been treated, imposing sanctions over what is an internal matter is dubious, especially as some of our "friendly" nations are at least as repressive as Russia. We should, though, call out Putin on his recent bellicose pronouncements which threaten the freedom of his neighbours.

European Super League suite et fin

 With reference to yesterday's post, I must admit I anticipated a more drawn-out struggle between the organisers of the American-style breakaway and the representatives of football organisations in Europe. However, the withdrawal of all the English teams, half the proposed roster, has killed the Super League.

Media commentators are already praising fan power, and no doubt Johnson's spin-doctors will ascribe the uey to government ministers' threat to legislate. (There is in many people's opinion still a need to legislate in this area in view of the many scandals in English football since big money entered the picture.) However, I believe the decisive factor was manager power. If there is one commodity more precious than star players in European football today, it is star management. Manchester City's Guardiola has publicly criticised the lack of sporting competition implicit in the Super League scheme; Liverpool's Klopp is known to be unhappy about it; and Chelsea's Tuchel with his roots in Germany, where there is a regime of clubs being directed by fans rather than money-men, may be assumed to feel likewise. These are three of the top ten managers in Europe, and would be difficult to replace. 

Europe's football Superleague

 The London Evening Standard has a summary of the situation. The journal also carries a powerful statement by Everton football club. It does not mention their local rivals by name, but historians of Merseyside football will no doubt recall that Liverpool FC arose from Everton's expulsion from Anfield after a dispute over money.

Everton stateement

Everton have this morning released a very strong statement on the Super League plans...

Everton is saddened and disappointed to see proposals of a breakaway league pushed forward by six clubs.

Six clubs acting entirely in their own interests.

Six clubs tarnishing the reputation of our league and the game.

Six clubs choosing to disrespect every other club with whom they sit around the Premier League table.

Six clubs taking for granted and even betraying the majority of football supporters across our country and beyond.

At this time of national and international crisis - and a defining period for our game - clubs should be working together collaboratively with the ideals of our game and its supporters uppermost.

Instead, these clubs have been secretly conspiring to break away from a football pyramid that has served them so well.

And in that Pyramid Everton salutes EVERY club, be it Leicester City, Accrington Stanley, Gillingham, Lincoln City, Morecambe, Southend United, Notts County and the rest who have, with their very being, enriched the lives of their supporters throughout the game's history. And vice versa.

The self-proclaimed Super Six appear intent on disenfranchising supporters across the game - including their own - by putting the very structure that underpins the game we love under threat.

The backlash is understandable and deserved – and has to be listened to.

This preposterous arrogance is not wanted anywhere in football outside of the clubs that have drafted this plan.

On behalf of everyone associated with Everton, we respectfully ask that the proposals are immediately withdrawn and that the private meetings and subversive practises that have brought our beautiful game to possibly its lowest ever position in terms of trust end now.

Finally we would ask the owners, chairmen, and Board members of the six clubs to remember the privileged position they hold – not only as custodians of their clubs but also custodians of the game. The responsibility they carry should be taken seriously.

We urge them all to consider what they wish their legacy to be.

These are sentiments with which most genuine football fans across Europe, never mind the UK, will agree. Sadly, the motivating factor behind the Superleague is not the improvement of the game in Europe, but brand marketing internationally, especially in south Asia. The South Korean habitués of the Juventus Bar or the Liverpool Bar could not give two won for promotion and relegation in the English leagues and are probably familiar and comfortable with the American sports franchising system. It is rumoured that the backing for the Superleague comes from a large US investment bank and a streaming service. Many of the teams in the twelve breaking away are American-owned. 

UK politicians now have a decision to make. After years of benefiting from the reflected glory of the successes of English and Scottish league teams on European fields, not to mention the exploits of the Welsh and English national teams, they should feel that they have to give something back to the game. There have been fighting words from prime minister Johnson, but so far his only action has been to set up a committee, a typical civil service cop-out. The fact that it is to be chaired by a former Conservative MP further casts doubt on its value. 

One measure which could be brought forward relatively quickly and would surely gain majority parliamentary support is to give fans, by law, controlling interest in league clubs, as the Guardian reports is the case in Germany. The "fit and proper person" league rule as to club ownership could be given legal teeth. 

The alternative is to stand aside from Superleague developments, accept that the big football teams are no longer sporting clubs but businesses, and treat them as such. There should be no more hidden subsidies. The Revenue should no longer give them an easier ride than other commercial entities. The concession to alien sportsmen (and women) that they alone can by-pass immigration regulations should end.

One fears that what will happen is neither one thing nor the other. The government will huff and puff but do nothing of consequence. The result will be that a few rich football teams will prosper, but lose touch with their tradtional followers. The grass roots, the weekend amateur clubs on the King George Memorial playing-fields and the like will no doubt survive, but British football will be hollowed out as the professional league clubs in the Championship and below go to the wall.

If Johnson and his advisors take the trouble to look ahead, something they have conspicuously failed to do on weightier matters, they will see that a government which came to power on a populist agenda will be seen to have destroyed the people's game in this country. Moreover, because Murdoch does not have an interest in the Superleague, which may even pose a threat to Sky, he will find the Sun, the Times and other Murdoch media against him. Electoral catastrophe looms, not because the Tories failed to keep Covid-19 out, nor because they lied about Brexit, but because of ordinary people being denied the spectacle of their local favourites kicking a ball about on a Saturday afternoon.

Gun ownership: battle for the hearts and minds of the English-speaking world

 This documentary is two years old (al-Jazeera should really be more open on the face of its films as to when they were originally released) but it seems that the issue is still live. It shows how the bigoted, racist One Nation party in Australia wants to reverse that country's strict gun control laws instituted in the wake of the mass shooting at Port Arthur, and is happy to solicit covert help from the USA's powerful gun lobbyists, the NRA. Complementarily, it also shows how concerned the NRA is that the successful action taken by Australia and New Zealand, who used the Australian law as a templete, could resonate with the voters in America. There is hidden-camera footage of NRA activists demonstrating how to discredit the gun control movement and its adherents using social media, shamelessly lying in the process.

Two thoughts occur: though One Nation's Pauline Hansen is an extremely effective politician, One Nation is still in a minority in the Senate. The PR electoral system allows such minority views to gain public expression while showing how small a minority they represent.

Secondly, if Australia and New Zealand can hold the ring, then the pressure for a more civilised gun regime in the US will increase. On the other hand, if there is a retreat down under, our home nations could be next in the line of NRA's fire.

Comedy horror

Having replayed last week's Film Programme, I wonder if there might be a comic slant on the situation the film crew find themselves in. They have been shooting The Power in a superannuated hospital of the type which used to be known as a lunatic asylum. This has been on the brink of being disposed of for some time but remains in constant demand as a TV and film location. Some of the people who spoke to Antonia Quirke for the programme claim to have heard the sound of children crying on one of the deserted corridors. 

What if the ghostly inhabitants of such a building wanted to protect it from an evil property developer and therefore tried to scare off said developer while at the same time contrived to prolong the stay of the last film crew using the premises? Their motivation would not be revealed until the final reel, of course.

Peter Ustinov

 Yesterday was the centenary of one of the most remarkable men of stage and screen of the twentieth century. There is a biography on the Internet Movie Database which neatly summarises his remarkable background and his varied achievements. He was probably at his best as a raconteur. BBC4 was wise to show his performances on Parkinson on Thursday, but their choice of film showing him as an actor (Topkapi) was not so worthy of his talents. I would like to have seen a revival of Private Angelo, which was something of a hit for him in its time. He not only took the title part but also wrote the dramatisation for the screen of Eric Linklater's book. 

It is surprising that the adaptations outnumber his own work. Probably his best original writing is in  Romanoff and Juliet a superficially light-hearted romantic comedy set against the background of the Cold War but which has some sharp points to make about the futility of the stituation. Typically, it started as a stage play in which Ustinov himself had written a key part for himself, one which he carried forward into the screen version. It is good to see that it is in Talking Pictures TV repertoire of classic films.

He also wrote Beethoven's Tenth (with himself as Ludwig, of course) premised on the return to life of the composer in the twentieth century. Clearly thought too highbrow for the English-speaking market, there was a French TV version which surprisingly did not cast the multilingual Ustinov.

Finally, radio listeners of a certain age remember with affection In All Directions, written, acted and improvised in partnership with Peter Jones.

EU'a recovery fund may be too little, too late

 Euronews briefing earlier this week reported that the €750 billion recovery fund that EU leaders agreed last July is still on stand-by

Despite the new rise in infections, the re-imposition of restrictions and the closing down (again) of businesses, the much-awaited package, also known as Next Generation EU, is paralysed. In fact, the cash doesn’t even exist. At least, not yet.

The European Commission is still waiting for the ratification of the Own Resources Decision, the legal instrument that would allow the executive to borrow the money on the financial markets and then distribute it in the form of grants and loans. As of today, only 17 out of 27 member states have ratified the bill, with approval from every country needed for the process to continue.

As we told you last month, the German Constitutional Court delayed the country’s signature and is now examining an emergency appeal that argues the Own Resources Decision breaches EU law. It’s still not clear when and how the Court will respond, but the decision has already cast an ominous shadow over the whole process.

"It was German Chancellor Merkel, together with President Macron, who very much pushed exactly for this financial facility (that) we have created on the basis of Article 122 in the Lisbon Treaty," Johannes Hahn, the EU Budget Commissioner told Euronews this week.

"It's important that they (the German court) lift their reservation. And I'm also confident that this will be done in due time so that we are indeed not losing any time."

The Commission is also waiting for the recovery and resilience plans that each EU country has to submit before April 30. These plans must lay out the reforms and public investment projects that will be financed by the billions of euros from Next Generation EU, and they have to be approved by both the Commission and the Council.

But these programmes are also proving to be controversial and divisive. In Poland, the ruling coalition is split on how the money should be spent and repaid. Even the pro-European opposition parties are threatening to vote down the plan because they fear the current right-wing government will not use the cash in a fair and transparent manner.

Brussels is feeling the pressure. Southern countries are increasingly impatient and investors are becoming concerned over the lack of action. To make matters more awkward, the US Congress managed to pass a colossal $1.9 trillion relief bill in a matter of weeks, a fact that only served to underline the EU’s tardiness. The International Monetary Fund has welcomed the Biden-led initiative with open arms: the forecast for the US economy has been upgraded to an impressive 6% in 2021.

The Commission hopes that the recent developments will turn out to be just temporary hiccups and the eagerly anticipated cash will arrive in summer. The team of President von der Leyen deliberately designed Next Generation EU to advance the twin goals of making the bloc more sustainable and digital. Around 30% of the bonds (equal to €250 billion) will be green bonds, making the EU the largest issuer of this kind of debt security.

"At the end of the day, we will only be successful if each and every member state is contributing to this reform agenda because it's about the recovery of the single market and the single market is only as successful as every part of the single market is," Hahn told us.

The clock is ticking and the pandemic rages on. And the recovery fund still has a long path ahead.

The EU is a great and necessary institution, which the UK was ill-advised to leave, but it does not respond well to emergencies. Such things as response to epidemics are best left to individual nations. In the long run, the measures taken by China and the US will lift the global economy, including European nations and the proposed recovery fund, if it is ever ratified, will prove to be irrelevant for all but the very weakest economies in the EU.

Key dates

A reminder from our friend Anthony Tuffin of Real Democracy

The critical dates for voting in next month’s elections are:

 

• You must be registered to vote by midnight on Monday 19 April (next Monday).
• The deadline to apply for a postal vote for the elections in England and Wales on 6 May is 5pm on Tuesday 20 April (next Tuesday)..  The deadline for Scotland has passed.

 

To apply for a postal vote, go to www.electoralcommission.org.uk where you can find a link to an application form. Download it, complete it and send it to the Electoral Registration Officer. [at the Civic Centre in Port Talbot]

More from the foothills

 The Chris Mullin of 1999 to 2002 was prescient about policies (he early caught wind of Tony Blair's eagerness to fall in behind GW Bush in the plan to invade Iraq and condemned it, and also predicted a disastrous outcome for New Labour's embracing of PFI) but not so good at assessing people. Here he is about someone he saw as a fresh young libertarian:

More than once, when we reached an impasse [on a select committee on drugs], David Cameron came to the rescue. The more I see of him, the more I like. He's bright, personable and refreshingly open-minded.

In the light of Greensill, what does Mullin think of him now?

River pollution

 I missed the Panorama programme on this subject yesterday (BBC Wales shunted it to a late night slot). However, it is clear that the negligence of water companies in England in allowing the frequent overflow of raw sewage into watercourses is greater than that of Dwr Cymru, which at least has no shareholders to answer to. Presumably there were no complaints from Scotland where water and sewerage are predominantly still under public control.

 One trusts that the Westminster government's laissez-faire attitude to the water companies who are a crucial factor in English public health will be rigorusly questioned in the House this week.

What has gone wrong with nursing?

 Has anything changed for the better since this special report by Christina Patterson for the Independent starting 12th April 2012?

Prince Philip: a footnote from the foothills

As part of my programme of returning to print books at bedtime (all this playing spider patience on my laptop is clearly not good), I have recently started on "A View from the Foothills". This is a distillation by former Labour MP Chris Mullin and his editor of his diaries from his time as a junior minister in the Blair government. It is obvious that Mullin has no time for royalty in principle and little respect for her majesty in person, but it was natural the other day to peek in the index for references to the late Prince Philip. It is also obvious that Mullin does not like the Blairite waffle of most of the pre-prepared speeches he is expected to deliver. So one suspects a certain sympathy with the late consort in this entry from 5th December, 2003, when Mulliin accompanied Jack Straw, then the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, at a Commonwealth Conference in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria:

Jack has gone home, so I am 'attending upon' the Queen, who is officially opening the new British Council offices. We are on the roof terrace. Her Majesty, the Duke, a fresh-faced equerry, an immaculate lady-in-waiting and myself. David Green, the Council's top man, has just read out a little speech with the Queen standing impassively beside him. I am next to the Duke, alongside a group of English women. When Green has finished the Duke remarks loudly, 'Huh, that speech contained more jargon per square inch than any I've heard for a long time.' Then he turned to the women: 'You're teachers, aren't you? Can you tell me what all that meant?'

One of the teachers, a bit right-on, replies, 'No, sir. We're not actually teachers...'

'Not teachers? What are you, then?'

'Well, sir, we empower people.'

That set him off. 'EMPOWER? Doesn't sound like English to me...'

Do not go gentle

 It was appropriate that Stravinsky's setting of Dylan Thomas's poem to his dying father should have been playing on Radio 3 just as all BBC networks were taken over by the news that Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh, had died. One can imagine few people more likely to rage against the dying of the light than the queen's consort for more than two generations. 

As the tributes from biographers, industry and the environmental movement poured in, we were reminded of what a driven and multi-faceted individual he was. He would have been a remarkable figure in his own right even if had not married into the royal family. One imagines him rising to a high rank within the navy, then retiring but then, still full of vigour, chairing one or more of our great public companies.

Critics remind us of his casual expressions of racial prejudice, something common to people of his generation and class, which he never quite shook off. A greater failing in my view is ironically a reflection of his own strengths - that he failed (possibly through trying too hard) to instil those very attributes in his own sons. As is so often, it was his daughter, the present Princess Royal, who most takes after him, and, as a commentator pointed out, skipping a generation, Prince William very much resembles him.

One expects Queen Elizabeth, out of her oft-expressed sense of duty, not to give up the throne but to soldier on to the end. It will be more difficult without her husband of seventy-three years and ones heart goes out to her.

Racist abuse of footballers: Swans take a social media intitiative

 BBC reports:

Swansea City have announced a week-long social media boycott on all platforms to combat abuse and discrimination. Players, including first team, academy sides and women's team, staff and the club's official accounts [stopped posting] from 17:00 BST on 8 April.

This is a significant gesture, but it seems to me that Facebook, Twitter and the rest will take notice only if more star players, those with a large online following, join in. Swans probably have a fan base out of proportion to their present position in the League hierarchy, but with all due respect do not command the star power of the leaders in the Premier League and the glamour of their international players. If the latter, in whom commercial interests have a stake, show solidarity then we might see the social media platforms take steps to reduce, if not eliminate, this blight on both the beautiful game and the Web.

Seaborne conference

There was a nice little spoof on Liberal Democrat Voice last week, suggesting that negotiations were under way (sorry!) to hire cruise ships unused in the current pandemic as conference and fringe venues. That brought back memories of early days as a keen young attender of Civil Service Clerical Association annual conference and hearing tales from the old sweats. Apparently, in the straitened times after the war, there were few alternatives to the big conference towns like Blackpool and Brighton which were expensive. (They still are, but at least there is now more competition among towns and cities for conference and convention business.) The bold decision was taken to hold the 1947 conference in a holiday camp at Pwllheli, which would presumably have then completed its summer season. It was a bright idea not repeated - conference delegates presumably missed the more agreeable resort venues - but in many ways it was a great success. Because all the facilities, including the "chalet" accommodation, were concentrated in a relatively small area and there was little incentive to leave the camp area, there was much positive interaction between members from all points of the kingdom who would otherwise hardly meet in a more normal conference venue. This unusual cohesion even led some leading lights of the CSCA seriously to consider an out-of-season liner for a later conference but nothing came of the suggestion.

AstraZeneca vaccine: a slight pause

 It seems I was too dogmatic in my condemnation of all reservations about the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine a month ago. It remains the case that any adverse side-effects of the vaccine are minuscule compared with the dangers of catching SARS/CoV-2, dangers which include affecting the brain, but a scientist has postulated a mechanism by which the vaccine may stimulate an auto-immune response resulting in abnormal platelet production in a small segment of the younger population. As a result, Oxford University has suspended a trial involving children and teenagers.

As I understand it, the proposed mechanism applies to all vectored vaccines. The university has hitherto produced candidate vaccines against 'flu, Zika and MERS. Moreover, Johnson & Johnson's new vaccine, developed by their Belgian subsidiary is of this type.This is still awaiting approval in the US. More data about very rare events are clearly required.

It does, however, seem suspicious that only AstraZeneca (AZ) has attracted adverse publicity about their vaccine. The platelets scare is the latest of several reports of different national health bodies suspending or attenuating programmes of vaccination involving AZ. Some liberals have pointed out that, alone among the big pharmaceutical companies, AZ is selling the vaccine at cost and is "collaborating with a number of countries and multilateral organisations to make the University of Oxford’s vaccine widely accessible around the world in an equitable manner". At present, demand is outstripping supply, but the time may not be far distant when vaccination against pandemic diseases becomes a "buyer's market" and competition among the multinational giants becomes fierce and profits are squeezed. An ethical approach to pricing will not be welcomed by rivals.

Let's stop multinationals shopping around for most favourable tax regime

 There will surely be a general welcome for US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen's call for a  minimum global corporate income tax rate, while at the same time doubts abour her ability to gain agreement - in the short to medium term at least - must arise. 

Vaccine certificates and Big Brother

As someone who wholeheartedly joined in the campaign against the Blair-Brown governments' tendency toward a police state, I unsurprisingly object to prime minister Johnson's proposed Covid certificate scheme.  In 2010, the incoming Conservative/Lib Dem coalition quckly put an end to Section 44 and ID cards. Incidentally, it is good to see that the organisation which sprang from the No2ID campaign is still in existence and keeping a beady eye on government attempts to invade our privacy. It is worrying to see Johnson and company reversing that liberalisation along with other coalition policies. For all their faults, Cameron and Clegg would not have countenanced Johnson's repressive measures.

I have no trouble with individual employers insisting on proof of immunity where their circumstances demand it. Pub landlords already have the power to bar or eject people on certain grounds, so setting additional criteria for admission seems a minor step. Such bottom-up initiatives should be accepted, and, because their own money is involved, implementors would surely put in place optimum schemes. A Tory administration putting its grubby finger in is another matter. Apart from the civil liberties aspects of any government supervising citizens' access to employment, to hostelries and to places of entertainment, one suspects that the Johnson "trial" is yet one more opportunity to throw public money to government cronies for minimum effective return.

Happier railway news, closer to home

 The figures for passenger transfers, published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) last month generally show a slight decline in March 2019 to end-February 2020 over the corresponding 2018/19 statistics. However, Neath held steady (0.7% increase) while Port Talbot Parkway increased passsenger usage by 4.7%. Indeed, Port Talbot has showed a steady increase from the time of the (what many people consider sub-optimal) remodelling of the station completed in 2016.

Incidentally, for those interested in taking an active part in the improvement of railway services in Wales, https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display2552 gives a good introduction to the work of Railfuture. The organisation could always use more young people and more women.

Two railway disasters

 In the early hours of the Friday of Easter weekend, we learned of a fatal railway accident in Taiwan at the beginning of an important festival for people of Chinese heritage.  In a beautiful part of the island, over 350 people were involved in a bizarre accident in which 48 were killed and over 100 injured. At the time of wrting, over 100 had escaped with difficulty and many were still trapped. Several carriages had derailed in a single-track tunnel in a mountainous region which has made rescue efforts difficult. The cause is said to have been a service truck parked on a slope near the entrance to the tunnel which slipped onto the track just before the train was due to pass. Until now, government-owned Taiwan railways had a forty-year record free of serious incidents.

That is more than be said for Egyptian state railways, starved of funds for investment, track maintenance and safety while the military-dominated government borrows from the EIB for prestige light-rail projects in Alexandria and Cairo. Last week's fatal collision was only the most recent and doleful of frequent incidents often involving casualties. Some low-level functionaries will, it is predicted, carry the can for the 32 deaths and dozens of injuries while the people at the top who failed to make vital spending decisions will be untouched.

April spoof abandoned

This was originally to have been a report of an imminent invasion of Gibraltar by Spain. However, in view of the recent cuts in British forces manpower the spoof may well have been overtaken by reality and thus has been abandoned.