vivweb01blog

I first published this blog immediately after the last general election when Labour were seen as the peoples' choice and the best hope for the future. What a difference  day year makes.... Given the Labour Leadeship's abysmal popularity ratings, Reform's success in the local elections on May 1st was anticipated, but it's extent certainly wasn't. It's obvious now that this wasn't just a 'punishment vote' against Labour, but a wholesale rejection of the old 2-party system with its perpetuation of periodic swaps between the two 'old guard' major parties to the exclusion of the others. Even the Lib Dems did barely more than tread water this time.  The message is a clear one - the UK electorate are clearly desperate to see an improvement in their morale and fortunes after a prolonged period of decline - if the old guard can't provide it, they will simply vote them out and try someone new.  The caveats: It remains to be seen whether Reform c...

Editor's note: I first published this blog a year ago - little has changed since then despite a change of government to one supposedly more aligned with green objectives (if you ever believed their election manifesto, that  is). There is clearly a mountain to climb, here, particularly now that the principal offenders, almost all of whom are US based, have the MAGA doctrine to shield their environmental misdeeds. Roll on November 2028 !  ----------------------------   Introduction ‘Big Tech’, as the corporate technology giants are often collectively known, have a business model that is based on planned obsolescence.  Their argument for defending this practice in the face of recent and growing worldwide concern about e-waste is that they are merely responding to consumer demand, and must therefore ‘innovate to survive’.   What they carefully avoid highlighting is that their products are designed to be replaced frequently,  are usually not ‘upward compatibl...

The Trump ‘rumour mill’ has been active again this week, with attention focussed on a possible ‘walk-away’ from the Ukraine peace negotiations, and the possibility of future back-tracking on prohibitive tariffs as part of Trump's now-celebrated ‘deal making’ strategy. The Greenland and Canada acquisitions do seem to be on the back-burner – for now at least, although Charles may have some explaining to do regarding 'a certain speech' when he has his next audience with 'the Donald' during his state visit to UK. I did pick up on one quite interesting variant on the territorial acquisitions front which might be of interest to UK readers, however – 'bonnie' Scotland. Apparently, Trump and his acquisitions team have picked up on the problems the Scottish Nationalists are having in government at present, and 'twigged' that Reform are likely to do well in the Holyrood elections next year. Their recent increase in vote share in the Hamilton by-electio...

Editor's note: I can now confirm from personal experience that the situation with respect to availability of 'routine' appointments is truly dire.  I attempted to book one at our local GP practice over the counter yesterday and was told '...sorry, there are no available appointments on my system'. An attempt today to book an appointment online via the SystmOnline software our practice uses for bookings showed no appointments available in the period where booking was available, ending mid-September (i.e. at least an 8-week wait, with no guarantee of anything would be forthcoming after that.) This is clearly unacceptable and confirms that a policy of 'Rationing by Availability' by the NHS is firmly in force. On the basis of recent media reports, I suspect this is country-wide and not just an isolated case. The government has emphasised the need to keep the population healthy to help the NHS, and we are regularly encouraged not to delay if we detect anything ...