As might be imagined, the whole of the British media is dominated by England’s failure to get past Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Almost universally, the observations are the same that the England manager made a critical error in asking his team to play for 30 minutes in a purely defensive mode to defend a 1:0 lead that England had taken. There is a well-known maxim that ‘the best form of defence is attack’ and the truth of this maxim was well illustrated today as England held out for 25 minutes but could not prevent the equaliser from Argentina five mintues before the end or the eventual winner one minute into injury time. So now we look forward to a Spain vs. Argentina final on Sunday and then it will be all over (apart from the recriminations). It has been announced overnight that the UK have nationalised the remnants of the British Steel industry. The UK government took control of British Steel operations in Scunthorpe last year, though it has since remained under the ownership of the Chinese firm Jingye Group. Jingye has said it has begun the process of seeking compensation for nationalisation, having previously said the business was losing £700,000 a day. However, the UK government has said it could limit or refuse compensation. One would imagine that even a Conservative government would have taken the same decision and one wonders what the actual cost, and ongoing costs of nationalisation will prove to be. But it is unimaginable that a country like the UK could be left without any native steel making industry of its own so I expect the decision to nationalise will be greeted with a grudging acceptance of the inevitable. As we approach the second half of July, we are entering the prospect of another heatwave but one of less intensity of the past few weeks. But the prospects of rain seem far distant and restrictions on water supplies will soon be forthcoming throughout the whole of the country and must be on the cards. The political world will be dominated by the shape of the new administration associated with Andy Burnham from next week onwards and there is fierce speculation as to who will eventually be appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer as Ed Miliband, the presumed incumbent, is said to frighten off the international investors on whom Britain depends will tolerate. What I find to be a bitter irony is the slogan beloved of Brexiteers, ‘Take Back Control’ takes no account of the fact that Britain’s ability to control economic and political affairs is so clearly circumscribed in whatever direction one looks. There is no evident source of taxation to tap in the short term and even a skilfully designed wealth tax will surely be evaded by the economic elites who have the ability to move their assets around. But there is a point that taxes on income are now probably at a maximum and that wealth, as such, is relatively undertaxed. But I personally I have long felt that tax on wealth which one has accumulated oneself by one’s own savings out of an already taxed income never seems to be justifiable but that tax on wealth that one has inherited or acquired through no efforts of one own are more so. But how does how one distinguishes between the two forms of wealth is a conundrum that has evaded our decision makers (with the exception of inheritance tax which can prove to be problematic as the Labour government found when it attempted to impose greater inheritance taxes ran foul of problems such as the transmission of small farms from one generation of a family to the next)
Yesterday turned out to be quite a full day. In the morning, I attended my Tai Chi class where the instructor was the daughter of our regular instructor and I think I quite enjoyed the somewhat different routines. Afterwards we repaired to the coffee bar for coffee and were greeted with the news that this facility would be closing until September to take into account the school holidays, although we do not know how this impacts on the elderly volunteers who staff the coffee bar. So we were all inclined to linger and to chat for longer than normally be the case as the opportunities will be denied to us for some weeks. I left the Methodist Centre and re-parked the car as I had an optician appointment. I think I have been attended to by this particular optician for at least 15 years and probably several yeasr beyond that and, of course, he used to examine Meg as well. We always have a tremendous amount to chat about and I was glad to learn that all of my readings including the puff-of-air pressure test all showed exactly the same results as last year so my eyes do not seem to have deteriorated in the last year which is excellent news. Then I got home and made myself a mini stir fry for lunch. Then I got a group text in which one of my Spanish club members was apologising for being a few minutes late and I had forgotten about this class so I had to race t get there but I arrived 14 minutes late in an hour and a half class so I had only missed part of a video. Then I got home and had some refreshments and then realised that with being out yesterday and my appointments today the weekly shopping had not yet been done. Instead of leaving it until the end of the week I decided to go shopping immediately after I had ad a bit of tea.So I got the shopping done and unpacked and this blog completed before I settle down to a documentary on Sky News exposing he story of the way in which the Americans bombed a school on the first day or so of the Iran war killing over 100 schoolchildren and, horrendously, blaming the Iranians for bombing their own school. There are sequelae to the World Cup match because some of the Argentinian players in clear contravention of FIFA rules displayed a banner before the English fans bearing the message that the Falklands (Malvinas) belong to them. The violation of the ban on political expression was so flagrant but FIFA will not want to disturb the equilibrium so will probably give the Iranians a slap on the wrist in the form of a fine and, in any case, not before the Cup Final itself next Sunday.