Ireland and the EU fought to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Now the Republic wants to close it to economic migrants!

The EU and the international lawyers  fought against the UK returning illegal migrants to France. Now they think the EU should be able to return them to the UK.

Why do so many upholders of the international rules based system set out to stop the enforcement of law against illegal migration?

I am willing to publish critical views and different opinions to my own. I have not been willing to publish one correspondent who every day writes in to explain how a couple of billionaires run the world. If they changed their minds global government would still be pushing the same net zero and WHO agenda.It is vexatious  to have to delete the same old refrains every day.Some billionaires are attracted to following the fashionable follies of the world establishment.

I have allowed people to state some disagreement with covid vaccination. This too is not what I wish to pursue as I do not have a sufficient grounding in medicine and the vaccination programmes are now behind us. I was critical of the length and severity of covid lockdowns at the time. Their past wrongs cannot be altered. Astra Zeneca is currently in court proceedings over side effects of its vaccine, where there will be a judgement in due course.

You and I will get more out of these exchanges if you engage with the campaigns I run and the issues I raise. By all means tip the site off about new mistakes and disasters. When responding it helps to build bridges with others rather than just expressing anger about most things.

Several of you want a box None of the above on ballot papers. That is a cop out. Democratic politics is about choosing between what is on offer. If you don’t like what is on offer join the party nearest to what you want and battle to change their offer, or start your own party. If you think all the candidates are bad persuade a better one  to stand  or stand yourself. If you decline to stand or start a party you are admitting your idea of what is needed is not sufficiently widely  shared to take off  in an election.

I have been out and about delivering leaflets and talking to people about the local elections.

People did want to talk about local matters controlled by Wokingham Borough Council. They are understandably very critical of the Council , which charges too  much, delivers too little and ignores public wishes.

People are angry about the extreme anti driver policies the Council  is pursuing. The big increase in car park charges is a rip off, putting people off going to local centres.

They are annoyed with the plans to end weekly rubbish collections for all items, and amazed that worsening the service will not lead to any cost savings.

They are opposed to such poor road maintenance, leaving the roads badly damaged with potholes.

They are fed up with expensive consultations to be followed by doing the opposite of what the public  wants. Why waste £5.5 m on damaging the California crossroads when the advice was not to do this scheme. Why plan a similar mess up for the Woosehill roundabout?

They worry that the Council’s refusal to publish a local plan leaves Wokingham wide open to more development.

The Council specialises in undermining  local businesses that want to give us good service. Road closures and dear and restricted parking are hitting local businesses hard.

The Council delights in doing what people do not want and then sending them the bill. Time for a change.

The world is being changed by two simultaneous revolutions. The green revolution is a hugely ambitious global government inspired project driven by international treaty, laws, targets, bans and subsidies. The digital revolution is a bottom up consumer revolution, driven by huge demand for smart phones, computer pads, online retail, downloaded entertainment, social media, business computing power and robotic assistance. The digital revolution shows what is possible when you have the consumer on your side. The Green revolution is stumbling to find the products and services that people will willingly buy as it seeks to harness sufficient private capital and spending power to add to the large sums of public and  business money green transition currently relies on.

Mc Kinsey  in their study reckoned the world would need to spend $275 trillion in the years to 2050 to get to net zero. That is almost three times current annual world income and output. The sum is so large because a full green transition requires the end of most fossil fuel energy, the radical change of electricity generation, and  the massive extension of electricity grids and cable systems. It means  the switch over of most vehicles, planes, and ships to low or no carbon alternatives, the change of people’s diet from meat to vegetable based food, big change in the way people heat their homes and cook, and the transformation of factories that currently rely on gas, coal and oil for their power. There is  no way governments can afford all or most of this. It needs most homeowners to find the money to rip out the gas boiler or replace the solid fuel fire, to change their car or  van and to find diets, holidays and entertainments that are light on the CO2.

So far world business has not found the Beetle or Mini of the battery car revolution to fill the parking lots of the average family. They have not produced the smartphone or ipad of the home heating world that flies off the shelves and replaces fossil fuel heaters. Governments are proceeding by trying to force or persuade people to buy products they do not want to buy, or by banning or taxing products they like until they give them up. This causes friction with many voters, and can lead to parties in government losing elections by being too bossy about green issues. The Dutch government fell in a general election when many electors thought it had gone too far in trying to rid Dutch farms of livestock for a meat diet. The French have rioted over higher fossil fuel taxes.  Candidate Trump in the US is polling well on a platform of rejecting the net zero imperatives and turning to extracting larger quantities of cheap domestic oil and gas to stimulate industry and help home consumers. President Biden has carried on offering more drilling licences against the wishes of Green Democrats for fear of losing votes.

Governments treading the road to net zero are urging or nudging people to buy electric cars. Recent figures show falling sales in Europe. Tesla, the pioneer of expensive electric vehicles for the richer consumer has been forced into layoffs and scaled back production. It is cutting prices to try to widen its appeal. Many people find battery electric cars are too expensive to buy. Many are worried about the lack of range on some  battery cars.  Many are also concerned about the lack of charging points and the time it takes to recharge when you reach one. Some are concerned  about battery life, repair costs and insurance given the impact the large battery has on the structure of the  car and how central it is to the lifetime costs of the vehicle.

Some think government and business should do more to develop low and no carbon fuel for existing internal combustion engines. After all, it is generally agreed that there cannot yet be battery powered long haul jetliners so the accent there is on the production of synthetic no carbon fuel for conventional jet engines. People can produce small quantities of synthetic petrol for existing car engines, so why not scale it up and try to find the economies of scale to make it more affordable? Many people are nervous about electric cars as they expect when there are more of them governments will need to tax the electricity they use to make up for the loss of petrol and diesel duties.

Governments want people to adopt heat pumps or electric heating systems. All electric heating is usually  dear to run. Heat pumps are expensive to install. Anyone in an older property may need to undertake extensive and expensive insulation and cladding of the buildings  first. They may also need to change the size of the pipes and radiators to get it warm enough with heat pump energy. Some people who have adopted heat pumps complain of high electricity bills to run them. Some find it difficult to get the water and the rooms hot enough. As a result only a very small proportion of people have so far bought them. The gas boiler remains more reliable, a lot cheaper to install and may also be cheaper to run.

Democratic governments will not stay elected if they force people to buy products that are too dear or do not fit people’s expectations of how they should perform. Governments should learn from the digital revolution which took off using private capital and thrives on the freely chosen wishes of billions of  consumers worldwide. It did  not take bans  and subsidies to get so many people to buy gas boilers or cars, replacing coal fires and the horse and cart. There are many ways of creating a cleaner and greener future,  but all successful ones will rest on consumer goodwill. The transition is too big and too dear for governments to carry the burden themselves.

There was a lot of interest yesterday in the history and performance of the railway. I was asked what would I recommend.

I voted against HS2 and would complete as elegant an  exit as possible whilst of course completing the section to Birmingham currently under contract. I would accelerate the introduction of digital signals which increase capacity substantially and improve safety.

I would break up Network Rail , re uniting track and trains around mainlines into  London terminuses as franchises fall in. The regional or line companies created could be opened up to private capital progressively on new and different franchise terms. All these companies would be subject to open access challenge. Freight companies and challenger passenger companies could compete for the increased number of track slots available. If any regional/line co sought to exclude from reasonable access there would be an appeal to the Regulator who would be under a duty to allow fair competition.