So easy to forget

From time to time, I fantasise about confronting ageing climate change deniers (such as Nigel Lawson (89), Peter Lilley (78) or Ann Widdecombe (74)). If you do not trust the graphs and tables from the scientists, I would say, just use your own experience. When you were young, can you recall a year when it did not snow; can you think of a recent year when it did?

That day-dream came back to me when listening to Hannah Cloke this morning. Jim Al-Khalili asked his hydrologist and climate scientist guest why, when the mathematical models were now so good, people did not act when the European Flood Alert System which she helped set up gave reliable warnings that floods were on their way. People forget quickly, she replied.

The powers that be forget that old coal tips are unstable, even after Aberfan. Hence Tylorstown. Houses are still being built in flood plains. And how long will the flood in Skewen be remembered, except by the people who live here?

"Pandora Papers" highlight Johnson government foot-dragging over beneficial ownership lists

 It has taken ICIJ's publication of the "Pandora Papers" to reveal that dictators, hereditary rulers and elected politicians from around the world own swathes of prime London property. We are promised further details of how rich donors to Tory politicians take advantage of anonymity of ownership of property, which should have been ended by now.

Journalists from the Guardian newspaper and BBC's Panorama have trawled through the wealth of documents unearthed by the ICIJ. Both they and those subjects of the investigation who have deigned to comment stress that no laws have been broken. However, that is only because the law is deficient in this area. King Abdullah of Jordan may well have legally bought millions of pounds worth of mews homes in the West End using family wealth, but his subjects might well query why they are in need of international financial support to survive. More serious to my mind are the politicians elected on a "transparency" ticket, including our own Tony Blair, who also shelter in the ambit of anonymity. 

This government is, like the Blair administration, fond of gesture politics, making law where there are already remedies under common law if not previous statutes. A prime example is their recent knee-jerk in response to the Insulate Britain demonstrations. They are not so ready to fill a gap in the law whose need has been highlighted not only by campaigners for political transparency but also tenants who have been victimised by faceless entities with addresses in tax shelters.

As NATO shrinks, could OSCE come into its own?

 As the US becomes (rightly) more preoccupied with threats across the Pacific, particularly from the dictatorships in China and North Korea, she is turning her back on Europe. President Biden has not repeated his predecessor's threat to withdraw from NATO, but will no doubt expect, as Trump did, larger contributions to NATO from continental Europe. But there is another player which may come into its own. The European Parliament Research Service reports:

 The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE): 

The OSCE describes itself as the world’s largest regional security organisation, extending from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Uniquely, it brings together NATO countries in Europe and North America, and the former Soviet Union. 

 The OSCE’s origins go back to 1975, when the countries in the two opposing blocs in the Cold War signed the Helsinki Final Act, enshrining principles such as territorial integrity and respect for human rights. The act was followed by a series of follow-up meetings to monitor implementation, in a process known as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). Following the adoption of the 1990 Paris Charter envisaging a new post-Cold War European order, in 1995 the CSCE was put on a more permanent, institutional basis and renamed the OSCE. The OSCE, like the CSCE before it, is based on a vision of ‘comprehensive security’ that encompasses human rights and economic cooperation, as well as traditional ‘hard’ security. 

However, hopes that the OSCE could become the central pillar of a new post-Cold War order faded as divisions re-emerged, between an enlarged EU and NATO on the one hand, and Russia on the other. The OSCE lacks the legal powers and the resources needed to live up to its ambition of becoming a platform for pan-European/trans-Atlantic cooperation. With decisions taken by consensus, disagreements between participating states hamper decision-making and prevent the organisation from becoming more effective. 

 The OSCE plays a useful though limited role in several areas. The organisation has been powerless to resolve conflicts in the post-Soviet region, but its observers are the main source of detailed and reliable information on the situation in eastern Ukraine. OSCE agreements, such as the Vienna Document, help to promote military transparency, and election observation missions have advanced democratic reforms in several countries.

The case of Prue Leith

 On the latest Food Programme on Radio 4, asked about her political stance Prue Leith said "we are probably woolly liberals". Yet unusually for her generation - my generation - she voted for Brexit. There is certainly an anti-authoritarian strand in traditional liberalism. Leading up to the 2016 referendum, the Brexiteers' PR machine, helped by the BBC, exaggerated the control exercised by the European Commission and dismissed that of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. This may well have deceived liberally-inclined voters who ventured no further than the Daily Mail and BBC current affairs programmes in forming their views on political topics. I know several grass-roots members and former members of the Liberal Democrats who felt that way.

But I suggest that the real reason that Ms Leith did not see the necessity for remaining in the EU was her background. She had been brought up in comfort in South Africa, disagreeing with apartheid (indeed she said she went on demos. against it), but nevertheless benefiting from the privileges it afforded. South Africa, although being committed legally to supporting the UK and the rest of the Empire against the Nazis and Japan, was distant from the main action and thus virtually unscathed. Those of us born in Britain in 1945 and earlier, and brought up here, would have been all too well aware of the damage, both physical and social, wrought by conflict between European nations. Politicians returning from action against Nazi Germany, like Harold Macmillan, Denis Healey and Edward Heath, supported the move to create a tighter bond between European nations so that war in Europe would be impossible in future. Our wartime leader Winston Churchill, a survivor of previous conflicts, also wanted to see Britain as part of such a community. As an immigrant to London in the 1960s, when the economy was apparently booming after a decade of austerity, Ms Leith would have missed all that.

"Liberal" would certainly not fit her son, Danny Kruger, Tory MP for Devizes. In his relatively short time in the Commons, he has consistently voted against increased devolution to Scotland and Wales, against fair votes and against evening up the size of constituencies. He has also voted for a meaner redundancy package for civil servants and for a hostile environment for EU nationals. 

None of the foregoing excuses the nasty tweets and other communications which the two have received. Feelings are strong, especially on Brexit, but we should not resort to thuggery.

 

When will something be done to prevent these auditing failures?

 It is clear that the big four financial services firms in the UK treat fines by the Financial Reporting Council as no more than an unwelcome overhead. The Patisserie Valerie auditing scandal has been known about for some time, but Grant Thornton has only just been brought to book over it. Another recent ruling has been against EY for failures in auditing the transport firm Stagecoach in 2017. The 2019 judgements against PWC have proved no deterrent. 

These continuing scandals damage London's reputation as a place to do business in and must be a deterrent to long-term investment in companies quoted on the LSE. 

UK liaison with US Congress

 Now that we are out of the EU, has the government set up an equivalent to the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington DC? Or are Johnson and company still under the delusion that all power in the US resides in the presidency?

Petrol hoarding hits nurses in Wales

 The Royal College of Nursing has warned that the inability to get fuel could affect NHS care in Wales.

Some nurses had faced aggression when trying to identify themselves as key workers at stations, said Diane Powles, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). She called for key workers to be given priority over fuel, and urged people to act responsibly.

This is yet another argument against the closure of local hospitals and concentrating medical care on fewer and fewer large centres. Nurses and ancillary staff should not have to make the long journeys to work in facilities not easily accessible by public transport.

HGV driver shortage - an opportunity for rail?

 Michelle Meagher in the Guardian sees a bleak future for convenience stores as a result of the plethora of online shopping apps. But these still depend on a supply chain where large lorries form a link or links. One advantage which locally-owned stores have is that their owners need only vans under the 3.5 ton weight limit and thus do not need a HGV licence to pick up supplies. There may be scope for more warehousing near rail stations where bulk supplies of non-perishables can be delivered more efficiently than by road, leaving the final stage to be completed by the local store-keeper with his or her light van.