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Update: An Epitaph to Wagner ?.... So Prighozin is no more – as we forecast in the original post (see text below this update.) In some ways it’s surprising it took so long, given Putin’s initial reaction to the attempted coup in late June and his previous 'form'. One way or another,  the ‘Putin brand’ had to make it crystal clear that any opposition to its rule would attract the maximum penalty - or risk suffering a fatal loss of credibility. There’s little doubt about the ultimate instigator of the ‘accident’ that destroyed Prighozin’s private jet – the only questions are ‘who actually carried out the hit ?’ and ‘how ?’ The answer to the ‘how’ question now appears to favour an on-board bomb rather than an overt shoot-down. A surface to air missile would in any case have been too easy for outside agencies to detect and ascribe blame for, and thus much less ‘deniable’ than a bomb.  The ‘who’ question is a little more interesting – although Putin must have sanctioned the j...

Editors note: I first compiled this blog in late 2022 in the aftermath of  the ignominious fall of Trussonomics and before the 'advent' of AI. Many of the ideas are still very relevant today, so a revisit with recent developments in mind is probably appropriate.... Introduction This has been a momentous couple of weeks all told, with more than the usual quota of economic and political U-turns, and probably more to come. The ‘new’ regime’s primary task now has to be to restore some sense of stability and prevent the economic meltdown which still beckons…. I’ll take the optimistic viewpoint and assume that the new team (whoever they turn out to be) somehow manage to pull this off over the next few weeks. I sincerely hope my optimism is justified, for all our sakes. Assuming they do, what then do we need to do ‘post-crisis’ in the medium- and long-term to improve our economic and social prospects as a nation, and avoid getting ourselves into a similar mess in the future ? ...

 As I suggested in my blog released in February  , a new upgraded vaccine has emerged in the form of a bivalent Covid19 product developed by Moderna. This has just been approved by MHRA for use in the UK. This is something of a milestone in vaccine development, since it is the first approval anywhere in the world of a vaccine designed specifically to mimic the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants (in this case BA.1). This is not before time – all the current approved vaccines are based on the spike protein of the original Wuhan variant, which was   identified and sequenced by the Chinese way back in early 2020. Many changes have occurred in the structure of the S-Protein since then, making the Omicron variants 'look' quite different to our immune systems, and this has resulted in a considerable reduction in the effectiveness of our vaccines against the virus (although mercifully not so far in their effectiveness against its most serious manifestations). T...

  Have you suffered from problems with older phones, tablets or pcs not working following software and firmware upgrades recently ? Read on for a possible explanation of why it’s happened… It’s been apparent for decades that international 'Big Tech' firms such as Google, Apple and Microsoft have been collaborating with product manufacturers to ensure planned obsolescence for their combined products.  There are good commercial reasons for this – it makes them all more money. The last thing Big Tech want is for people to hold onto their old devices, rather than buying ‘nice’ new ones. The snag from their point of view is that modern tablets, phones and pcs are inherently pretty reliable beasts generally, and if treated carefully, can go on performing well for years or even decades. Consumers who take advantage of this longevity are, of course, anathema to the Big Tech firms and device manufacturers, who want as much product ‘turnover’ as they can get to ensure their profi...

T his blog was originally published in October of last year when the steep rises in food prices resulting from Covid and the Ukraine war were beginning to bite in earnest. We have now emerged from what was a winter of significant deprivation for some, and things are likely to get even tougher now that the various one-off  winter financial subsidies have disappeared, and much higher accommodation and other living costs are really kicking in. The ideas and proposals outlined last October would seem equally relevant today, given that the steepest price rises of all now seem to be in the food sector. Although Jack Monroe's sterling work in early 2022 persuaded at least one supermarket to stock their complete budget price range items in all their stores, careful observation will reveal that stocks of these items are often being allowed to run out, and are eventually quietly discontinued. Unfortunately, I don't see much evidence that retailers are making any additional efforts to eli...