Let them eat cake

We have our pencils and the power of delete back. Those trolls were not quick enough off the mark.

I have noticed that the new blogger indents the first letter of the first paragraph, but then reverts back to range left for the second paragraph. Being a veteran layout artist this annoys me, so I usually remember to press delete once before I begin typing. 

Which Greek deity was it that spent forever rolling a huge stone up a hill, only to have it roll back down again just before it got to the top? Anyway, that's what life feels like for most of us at the moment, and the moment keeps being put forward into the future, with about 24 hours warning to get our heads around it.

If you believe the statistics, Britain is now the worst country in the world for deaths by you-know-what per capita. There has to be a reason for this, but at the moment we only have time for bitter speculation, despite that we have more time on our hands than ever before in recent history.

Boris has finally decided - a year too late - to have checks on incomers at airports. At last, the new new variant has forced him to make a scientific decision rather than a political one, and we are - once again - playing catch-up with the rest of the world. 

The true meaning of Brexit is fast becoming clear, and the true worth of the deal becomes apparent day by day. Michael Gove continues to lie and more things are unfolding than could ever be written on the side of the nation's entire fleet of busses, let alone one.

When Gove tells us that there will be two or three years of 'teething problems' after leaving Europe, what he is really saying is that two or three years is about the amount of time it will take us to run out of the energy required to remain angry, or lose the will to say 'we told you so'. In any event, the fishing fleets have not got two or three months to stay afloat, let alone years.

Frictionless my arse. A friend of mine is going to have to go out of business because the costs of exporting her goods to Europe have now doubled. You cannot even take your dog to Northern Ireland now without complying with E.U regulations which add an extra £300 - per dog - of vets bills to your travel expenses.

Bath has a couple of very good independent book shops. I learned today that a small bookshop pays the same amount of business rates as a huge Amazon warehouse. There are so many empty shops in town now that it is becoming a civic embarrassment. 

American coffee chains and hedge fund businesses are taking over towns these days. They are the only ones that can afford to.  A new Portuguese pastry cafe has opened up next door and the owner drives a bright orange supercar.

I looked out of the window and saw our Mayor (on the left) sampling their goods just now - one of those little custard tarts with filo pastry. We have enough speed-bumps now, so what else is he going to do?

UPDATE:

The timing of this bit could not have suited this post any better.

Now that UK banks are no longer under the restrictive control of the E.U., Mastercard has today announced that it is increasing its fees for a single purchase to a retailer from 0.3% of the transaction to 1.5%. The rest of the banks will follow suit shortly, after Mastercard gets away with it.

Small shops will be hit hard by this, and the large ones will just pass on the difference to the consumer. Food prices will rise even further.

Every time the Conservative government makes a weak display of protecting the poorer people it is supposed to represent or serve, the banks just say, 'Fuck you' and do things like increase overdraft charges from around 15% to 49%. They do not give a flying fuck about the future of this country, or the troubles that some of their poorer customers now find themselves in because of the virus or high business rates or both. Who was it that first let these dogs off the leash? Margaret Thatcher. 

Boris Johnson and his sycophants are now doing to the true Conservative Party what Trump did for the Republicans. They are too stupid to do anything else in the long term. They only plan ahead in four year periods, and their backers are the last people to demand of them that they serve their country for the sake of the common good. No good will come of this.

I am too angry to write coherently right now, but let me just say that not only were the Brexit voters warned about this sort of thing happening, but we Remoaners again predict that almost every day for the next few years, there will be more announcements such as this coming out with grim predictability. I really wish I was wrong in the first place, but I was not.

I utterly despise the banks, and if you don't already, then I would protect your assets by adopting a similar attitude before it is too late. Remember what Lloyds Insurance did with all those pension funds. I wonder what happened to all those old people living their dreams in Spain?