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The need for food banks is most severe in the post industrial north of Britain. Five years of austerity measures 2009-2013 have left their mark, as have rising prices and stagnant wages. Average hourly earnings are up 7% in that period while the cost of living is up 20%. About 500,000 people are dependent on food aid, triple the number in 2012, according to the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity. A conservative MP says 1 in 5 children go to bed hungry in his constituency of Wycombe. In Hull, one in three children live under the poverty line. Food charities doing most of their work in Africa, now concentrate efforts in the north of Britain.

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WSJ look at Lloyd's of London culture that is unique to Britain and the insurance market in 2025.

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DJT MAGA factions in general support action in Venezuela and in Western Hemisphere for Monroe Doctrine, this includes J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and Hispanic supporters from Cuba and Latin America in Florida. They support action to bring drug traffickers to justice in the Western Hemisphere. Essentially supporting the Monroe Doctrine that no colonial European or other foreign powers should interfere in the running of Latin America in the western democratic tradition set by Britain and the United States, and now popular throughout Asia and Latin America and Africa. The government in Venezuela say Canada and Britain is illegitimate and lost the 2024 election by a huge margin 30% or lower to 67% for the opposition under Machado and Gonzalez. And the drug trafficking by Maduro and his associates against the US is an offence that can be tried in US courts, is something Republicans support, and has general support in America. Worse drug trafficking to the European Union constitutes something the Europeans should be worried about because of its growing scale and damage to Europe. ...

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Russia uses SCO or Shanghai Cooperation Organization to present it's case on Ukraine saying a coup supported by the US and Europe was the root cause of the crisis, in other words an effort to turn a Russian language country against Russia with it's effort to delink from Russia and join the European Union. US seeing China as the main competitor is trying under a Republican administration to bring Russia back into the European and US fold. The Europeans Germany and France, UK under Macron, Starmer and Merz are pushing back and see it primarily from the Northern European perspective of a Russian threat as they have over centuries of rivalry in Europe since 1600. China sees Germany and German led EU as its main source of western technology, trade and capital needed for a state run capitalism to function effectively. Germany seeks to keep it's China relations on a even keel for its economic interests, so does China. In this situation it can be surmised that it is the Europeans that asked DJT to sanction India for buying Russian oil to cut Russian source of oil resource sales by $119 billion leaving China's $136 billion purchase of oil from Russia aside (knowing China would not cancel sales easily), to buy time till Germany can build up arms supply to Ukraine. India is buying time to make a gradual shift to stand with the US and the improved US-Russia relations under the Republicans can only help India gradually shift to where it always stands- with the English speaking people of the world, the US and Britain, a policy Gandhi firmly supported and which India as an ancient civilization of the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita finds itself at home with.   ...

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This editorial in the Economist magazine says the banks have paid large fines for wrongdoing but individual accountability has not been achieved. Only one individual conviction has been achieved related to market rigging in Britain. The penalties paid by banks between 2009 to 2014 worldwide add up to $245 billion, according to CCP, a research group. The problem says the editorial is that without individual accountability this is likely to be seen just as a cost of doing business. For the culture at banks to change individual acountability has to be established, and only now are banking regulators realizing that the public's disillusionment with the political parties in power during the last decade in Europe and the U.S. has its roots also in the way accountability has been tackled. Editorials in the WSJ and the NYT have addressed the same theme and expressed the same concern. The May 21, 2014 editorial on the U.S. Justice Department's legal settlement with Credit Suisse. "Holder convicts Switzerland," was critical of the Justice Department because this settlement did not bring accountability or justice. Columnists Eavis and Reilly in the WSJ, Protess and Greenberg in the NYT, were also critical of the settlement. Other legal settlements followed the same pattern throughout 2012-2015. Another aspect of this and a larger problem is that the same management has remained in place in some places. Shareholders expressed their feelings at the recent Deutsche Bank meeting in June 2015 when one shareholder association asked the question: "Mr. Jain are you the solution to the problem or part of it?" questioning how the same management that created the problems was going to fix the problems. A week later the two co-CEO's departure was announced and a new CEO appointed. BaFin, Germany's regulatory authority was described as not providing effective oversight on management at Deutsche Bank, by Eyk Henning in the WSJ March 28, 2014. It is too early to say if the public's frustration with the slow pace of establishing accountability and generating culture change is at long last registering with regulators and the political parties running the government. Prime minister Cameron and chancellor George Osborne's decision to put $1 billion into communities throughout Britain from the fines, described in the WSJ May 31, 2015, and an additional $227 million pounds from a legal settlement with Deutsche Bank in April 2015 for creating 50,000 apprenticeships, is the first sign of a conviction developing in political parties that instincts of fairness and the compact between the people and their government handed down over many, many years and generations, need to be respected. In the U.S. communities devastated by the recession and foreclosure crisis, especially inner cities, could benefit from Cameron and Osborne's exceptional idea. For the political parties and the political elites in Europe and the U.S. it is a way to restore some of the trust lost in the last decade. For banks a change of management, cultural change, will benefit the employees and shareholders, and improve relationships with customers, restoring trust over the next decade....

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A conflict is developing between Britain and the European Union over vaccine supplies as both sides try to get access to limited supplies. Britain and the US have moved ahead with their vaccination drives, causing alarm in Europe as Germany, France, member states of the EU lag behind. The problem comes from the delay in approving the vaccine by Astra Zeneca and Oxford University by the European Union. European Union prestige is at stake because its slower process of approving vaccine has led to a delay of 1 month in approving the Astra Zeneca vaccine. The Oxford vaccine is only now approved in Europe. Other problems have emerged. Astra Zeneca has announced that its vaccines made in Britain are now running short of supply and it can only provide 39 million doses to the EU instead of the 80 million originally arranged by EU. Soon after this announcement Pfizer said its factory in Puurs, Belgium, near Antwerp, is running into production issues. This would reduce supplies to the EU.  The EU has responded to this situation by saying it was being treated unfairly by Astra Zeneca. In response it has introduced new paperwork that would limit supply of Pfizer vaccines to Britain from the Belgian plant. Other countries are watching this situation with dismay as richer countries are fighting for the vaccine supplies. ...

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There is serious lack of depth in leadership in the Tory party today. Names proposed in The Guardian for Tory leaders after the July 4 election should Rishi Sunak have to resign are clearly short of what Britain needs in leadership. It depends on which Tory MP can hold on to his seat. Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Kim Badennoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Penny Mordaunt, all lack what is needed to lead the Conservatives on July 5, 2024. This has been true all through the last two decades.  David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Liz Truss who preceded Sunak for most of the last decade were also lacking in leadership. The decade wasted with Nigel Farage and David Cameron, Boris Johnson trying to get Britain out of the European Union has hurt Britain. Today most Britons want to go back to a Britain that is growing as part of the EU and Europe. 

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Venki Ramakrishnan, head of the Royal Society and a Nobel laureate in Chemistry says that even with all the growing evidence of the importance of mask use Britain is way behind in mask use. Only one fourth of Britain's use masks compared to two thirds in the U.S. On public transport many people do not use masks in Britain.

The Royal Society has put together a scientific advisory group to look at the evidence on pandemics.

Ramakrishnan says it was once normal to have a few drinks and drive home, and normal to not wear seatbelts. Today this is considered not socially acceptable behaviour, the same has to happen for use of masks. It is as important as handwashing and social distancing, says the Royal Society.  

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Theresa May, Britain's Home Secretary in the Cameron government, is a candidate for prime minister with the planned resignation of David Cameron by the fall of 2016. May was first elected to parliament in 1997 from Maidenhead, a town west of London. She was educated at Oxford University, worked in financial services and the Bank of England, before entering politics. She is known for hard work, a direct approach, and candor on policy issues. During a annual party convention she told Conservative party members that "our base is too narrow, and so occasionally are our sympathies," adding that people called Conservatives as the "nasty party." This was the period when Blair's Third Way was popular and Labor Party was in power. A daughter of a clergy man, she presents a rather austere image but reassuring in turbulent times with a down to earth and patient manner.  Her sports hero is a cricketer Geoffrey Boycott, known for taking long patient batting stands on the cricket  grounds- something Britain needs as it faces long and difficult negotiations with the European Union.  During the EU referendum she supported Cameron and the Stay campaign but quietly, so that she can be seen as the Unity candidate for the deeply divided Conservative Party. On immigration  she was as Home Secretary responsible for one of the difficult issues of the Brexit campaign- with net immigration at 330,000 in 2015 exceeding the 100,000 target set by Cameron. That she retains confidence from all segments of the party, as well as her education, experience, and resilience, may provide some of the "calm and composed" manner that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for in the Brexit negotiation. ...

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Galston of the Brookings Institution says globalization has hurt workers in manufacturing with job losses and declining incomes. It has produced outcomes that have favored some industries such as tech, and not others such as automobiles which in the past helped create the broad middle class by offering good paying jobs to people with less than a college education. Immigration has created an issue that political leaders outside of the main parties have appealed to in France, the U.S. and Britain. The result is a polarization in the voters that has rarely been seen to this extent before. The middle class in the period from the 1950's to the 1980's is not the middle class that we see today in Europe and the U.S. The 2008 financial crisis added to the problems with the slow and uncertain recovery for some groups such as white men, the less educated, students, and people on minimum wage. 

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Viktor Orban's defeat in the Hungarian election in April 2026 comes after decades of his blocking policies that emerged from the European Union in Brussels and is a relief for the European Union and Germany as it takes on the responsibility of leading continental Europe in its stance of opposition to Russia in the war in Ukraine with help of France and Britain. Peter Magyar who is staunchly pro European Union wins Hungary's 2026 election in a landslide with 137 seats to 57 with 77% of electorate voting as Viktor Orban concedes. Magyar's Tisza party gets 57% of the votes to 40% for Orban. Peter Magyar 45 years was part of the Orban Fidesz party before he formed his own party with dissatisfaction about the extent of corruption under Fidesz. Orban as head of the Fidesz was prime minister 1998-2002 then again in 2010 to 2026 for a period of 20 years spanning the first quarter of the 21st century. Magyar is not a progressive or so called liberal and shares many of the same views on social issues of Orban but he is pro-European Union and reflects the views of the Hungarian nation as independent in Eastern Europe and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in an uprising against Soviet rule. In the period before the two world wars from 1600 Hungary was the place where in addition to Austria and Vienna, the Hapsburgs and other European armies pushed back the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe. Hungary was a key part of the Hapsburg Empire which ruled from Vienna, Austria, over most of Eastern Europe for 1600-1918. The Hapsburg Empire collapsed in World War I on the side of the Germans and a new nation Hungary emerged by 1921 but was much smaller than Hungary of the Hapsburg era. Today Hungary is a nation of 10 million with its capital on the Budapest on the Danube river in the heart of Central Europe. ...

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WSJ analysis of NatCen data from whatukthinks.org show much has changed since the last general election in Britain. Boris Johnson's popularity is at a negative 20% and Theresa May's at negative 35% in July 2019. By the time of the general election May's popularity was at negative 1%.  Another major change is that the popularity of Leave has dropped.  By July 2019 the situation is reversed Remain now has 52% support and Leave is at 48% support. During the referendum it was just the reverse.  Also significant is that some of the claims of Leave's Mr. Cummings that were used in the campaign such as $436 million going to the EU in Brussels that would be diverted to National Health Service are now not credible. The migration issue has also become less important as migration into the EU is now down to a trickle and Germany has reversed its policies to trying to keep migrants at home in Africa through aid and other means. The migration issue was played up in the campaign. Germany was seen as pursuing the austerity policies that hurt the working class as these policies made headlines daily for Greece and other countries during the period of Britain's referendum. In 2019 Germany is taking a less active role in the European Union and the leader of the CDU Kamprauer has openly called for Britain to remain in the EU alongside other Germans from all walks of life. In short the mood is now different in Europe as there is disillusionment with leaders from the far right or the far left and the centrists on the right (Merkel)and the left (Blair) who had used politics to stay in power instead of tackling the tough problems of wages, middle class decline, infrastructure and family friendly policies. The Irish backstop is now in the picture when Brexit comes up as Mr. Johnson wants to drop it. The Irish backstop is the term for the agreement reached with the EU so that Ireland's return to peace with open borders ending Catholic vs Protestant conflict would not be disturbed by Britain's leaving the EU. This could also swing voters who are undecided to maintain what has been achieved so far. The Labour party leaders who were fed up with the austerity policies of the European Union driven by Ms. Merkel and the CDU now have a situation where the issue of Brexit can be seen not in terms of the past- austerity, dependence on Brussels for Britain's economic future and working class decline. Other issues such as unity of the UK, the end to austerity policies in the EU and in the U,S. with the Trump economic policy of dropping deficit targets in budgetary outlays, also signal a different climate for the Labour party in which to campaign for remaining within the EU and continue Britain's policy of working to improve conditions for the working class and middle class after the Blair/Clinton/Merkel years.    ...

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Six European Union states pass Britain, France and Germany in fully vaccinated percentages on August 5, 2021- Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Malta. Fully vaccinated are very close to 60% in these states. The fully vaccinated person in the EU gets a EU Digital Covid Certificate as shown here. The vaccination drives in Britain, France and Germany have now stalled due to the vaccine hesitant groups. To get some idea of this the second dose was given to 265,000 in France and 165,000 in UK on August 4. In the US southern states vaccination drive never got off to a good start adding to the problem of unvaccinated who are most of the people in new daily cases, leading to a new surge by August 4. France will soon overtake the UK in fully vaccinated percentage, showing that an early start as in UK is not enough. One in three in the UK in the 18-30 years age group has not taken the first shot, which is alarming. The US has a similar problem in the southern states in an aggravated form and also across the US in some form where young people have not taken up vaccination. ...

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The problem facing Africa is whether vaccine supplies will run out before new vaccine supplies come from America, Britain and France. Only less than 1% of African people have been fully vaccinated out of a population of 1.3 billion people. US president Biden said America will provide 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to poor nations before the G-7 meeting in Cornwall, UK. Britain added 100 million and France 30 million doses. With new more transmissable variants out there Africa is in considerable danger today. The Delta variant from India has been shown to be about 70% more contagious than the Alpha variant from Kent UK. It is already the dominant variant for new cases in the UK. The new variants are now spreading in Africa. Cities such as Johannesburg, South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda are seeing a surge in cases. Another problem in Africa is that governments are increasingly reluctant to impose strong lockdowns because of the economy. Already it is believed that Africa's middle class has been severely affected during the last 18 months. ...

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Difficulties facing Britain which depends on continental Europe for exports and would be affected by whatever happens in Europe, and yet is reduced to being on the sidelines. This comes at a difficult time for the Cameron government, which is a coalition of Conservative party members who are euroskeptics, and the Liberal party members who are the most europhile of the the three major British parties. Sarkozy and Merkel have made clear that they would move ahead with a closer fiscal union within the eurozone, no matter what Britain's views are. This leaves David Cameron's government to what Labor leader, Ed Miliband, called "handwringing," as Britain can do little about the future direction of the EU. Cameron is able to please backbenchers in parliament from his party with talk about protecting British interests, but has no neotiating leverage, according to Steven Fielding, director of the Center for British Politics at the University of Nottingham. Britain may also have antagonized European leaders. Sarkozy said about Cameron and British government views: "You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere with our meetings." This also happens as Britain faces rising unemployment, and deficits larger than anticipated after austerity measures taken by the Cameron government....

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Queen Elizabeth II says in her Easter message to Britain- "Coronavirus will not overcome us."

"We need Easter as much as ever." Remembering the tradition of lighting candles at Easter she said: "As dark as death can be - particularly for those suffering with grief - light and life are greater."

"May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future."

This is her first Easter message and comes after her televised address to Britain on Sunday March 5th with its rallying message "we will return."

 

 

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A threefold increase in immigration to meet staff and labour shortages makes using immigration as an issue in the next election risky for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives in Britain. In a strange twist it is the Conservatives under Boris Johnson who campaigned on immigration  to take Britain out of the EU now having a record on immigration of this kind. In 2019 Sunak battlecry " get Brexit done" was for lower immigration from a level of 245,000 that year. In 2022 it was a net migration of 720,000 for Britain. Most of this has come from student, work and family visa routes, and legal asylum channels from Ukraine Hong Kong and Afghanistan. Now economists believe it is a result of shortages of labour and staff, and high domestic wages.

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Britain is moving ahead with a new online safety law after 5 years of discussions. European nations are leading the way as the US lags behind in taking action to protect children and keep the internet safe. Discussions are taking place in the US but Congressional action is missing.

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It comes as a shock to central banks and is pressuring governments- the food price explosion that won't go away even as energy prices are moderating. OECD graphs in this WSJ report show food prices up in 2023 over the prior year by 15-20% in France, Germany and Britain, compared to 5-10% in the US, Canada and Japan. In France households have cut food purchases by 10%, and in Germany by 10.4% over prior year in the largest drop since records were being kept in 1994. In Britain the statistics agency shows that 40% of the poorest 20% of people are cutting back on food purchases. Ludovic Subran who worked at the UN World Food Program says it is an "access problem." Food production has not dropped, people just can't afford to pay the prices. In Britain The Resolution Foundation says higher food prices since 2020 means the British public by summer 2023 will have to pay more in food bills $35 billion more than the 25 billion pounds for energy bills. Policymakers call higher profit margins by retailers as a possible cause as in world commodity markets food prices are falling since April 2022. Andrew Baileyof the Bank of England says it is the "fourth shock to inflation" after the supply chain bottlenecks, the energy price increases from the war in Ukraine, the tight labor markets. In Italy, Spain and Portugal governments have offered sale tax relief, in France and the UK government is leaning on retailers to curb price increases. ...

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There is a sense from Remainers and Brexiters in the Conservatives and in Labour that Brexit is "acting as a drag on UK growth and limiting its potential" after the pandemic and inflation. Senior members of both parties are meeting in Oxfordshire including David Lamy of Labour and Michael Gove of the Conservatives, and the heads of banks and large business. Gove and Boris Johnson led the campaign for Brexit, and Gove is now interested in ensuring Brexit is not viewed as a failure in the long term. The Office of Budget. Responsibility says Brexit will reduce Britain's per capita GDP  by 4%, over the 15 years from 2016. Labour sees it as a threat to any future Labour government to leave unaddressed the relations with the European Union. In a bipartisan effort what sort of conversation to have with the EU so that Britain's economy benefits? President Biden's effort in working with like minded Republicans for America's renewal may be seen by Labour and the Conservatives as reason for doing the same in Britain to ensure European recovery.   ...

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Years of Tory cuts and austerity spending left the UK unprepared for the pandemic, says this editorial in The Guardian. The running down of the public sector was a policy choice says The Guardian. In the decade before Covid the Tories cut public spending as a proportion of the GDP from 46% to 39% leaving Britain exposed during the pandemic. Jeremy Hunt continues in a long line of Tory chancellors who are impervious to comprehension of the fall in incomes of ordinary households, the working nurses and teachers who turn to food banks. Hunt even talks about another 100 billion pounds of cuts over the next 2 years. And  turning Britain into a Silicon Valley, when Silicon and Tech is failing in the US, and when the US Justice Department is seeking the breakup of Big Tech with support from Republican Bill Barr. 

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This editorial view in The Guardian says the Tories win in 2019 was a result of homeowners and mortgage holders feeling richer with the soaring house prices in England. It could hurt the Conservatives as interest rates rise and house prices drop. Conservatives could lose support gradually, then suddenly as home prices drop fast. It cites the forthcoming book Shattered Nation by Prof. Danny Dorling of Oxford University on the extractive model of housing in Britain being out of step with its European neighbors. Dorling says that had house prices gone up with inflation in the last 70 years, the average home in Britain would have cost 63,000 pounds, that is twice the median UK salary of 31,000 pounds. Instead government's ONS shows price of average house in Britain is 296,000 pounds in 2022 August, up 36,000 pounds- the price increase of 14% is one year's salary. Dorling says money is siphoned off from the less well off to the already wealthy when paying excessive rents, buying an overpriced house, or keeping up with larger mortgage payments. Lawmakers don't see the problem Dorling says because so many of them are landlords including Mr. Sunak. ...

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Bide meets British prime minister Starmer in Wasnhington as Britain is ready to approve use of its long range missile systems inside Russia. This comes as Russia is about to gain control of the Donetsk region. Republicans other than Mr. Trump and his supporters are for stronger support to Ukraine following US policy of opposing invasion to achieve military goals since 1900 against the Japanese in China and the Vietnam War was fought on the same basis in the 1960's considering the South Vietnamese state as an independent republic, just  invaded by the north, by North Vietnam, just as the US had done in the Korean War between North and South Korea. In the Vietnam War nationalism played apart with the Vietnamese nationalism prevailing by 1970. Russians see Kiev as the origin of the Russian State in the 9th century, and eastern region of Donetsk as Russian if western Ukraine seeks to join NATO and EU. Britain has opposed Russia since 1750 as it saw Russia as the threat to an Empire it was building in South Asia, in India that financially supported its Empire worldwide for 200 years till about 1950. Britain engaged in the Crimean War against Russia so that along with the French it could control Turkey and its Ottoman states in the Arab Middle East under the guise of trade. This effort was pushed back by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920's when he founded the modern state of Turkey in Ankara. ...

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After the US and China, three other nations are in the top 6 in the Tokyo Olympics- Britain, Australia and Japan. In Britain one household has 11 gold medals in recent Olympics- the Kenny household, husband and wife. Laura Kenny is a British track and road cyclist who has won 5 gold medals.