Sleepwalking into the Night.

 As I said way way back, I'm pretty good at analysing trends and finding structure where other people way not see it.

But my mind is really going crazy at the moment, mainly because there structure is screaming out from everywhere, yet very few people see it.

I see preparations for war everywhere. I see countries squaring up to each other in preparation. The next war will be global. 

Until a couple of months ago. Then the "preparations" took on  a softer, more normalised cadence.

Then last week the news came out that China had launched their hypersonic globe-spanning missile I believe back in August.

It was interesting to see over the past couple of months amateur investigators try and see what object it was that spanned half the globe in minutes, because it had been noticed, it's just that there was no in the amateur community on what it was.

I suspect it took a while for the professional intelligence agencies to confirm the object  as well. 

But Western ships will still sail through the South China Sea with a little more humility and  China will buzz Taiwan airspace with a little more aggression.

The Western Armed forces need to analyse this information and decide on a strategy to counter it. But it looks like war is inevitable. I suspect China will take Taiwan eventually. It just depends how quickly they can weaponise the hypersonic projectile.

But either way, we're all fucked. Because China do not know when to back down. They have the money, they have the technology either stolen from the West or home grown. They are not Iraq or Afghanistan. 

Sadly Western Leaders do not have the nous to deal with China without warfare. They would prefer to square up and see how China compares.  

Instead we should be crippling China financially. We should be extracting the West from the drug of cheap Chinese labour. Trump tried it, but didn't give the real reason: that if we didn't start to starve China of funds, the economic "cold" war would turn into a hot one.

Budget: Some Suggestions For Sunak.

 Okay, here's some suggestions for the Chancellor regarding the budget. We all know that after spending squillions on propping up pandemic-affected people, he needs to raise some cash.

The first one would be to start charging people to Enter the country. This has a two-fold effect. The first is to raise much-needed cash, the second is to reduce the numbers travelling to the UK from abroad, thereby helping reduce emissions.

I suggest £25 per tourist arriving in the UK. £50-100 for every business traveller entering the UK. That should get them making more Zoom calls rather than travelling on jets. People entering the UK on private aircraft will be charged a blanket charge of £100 per person. Aircraft on medical missions will be exempt.

£5000 for anyone entering illegally, charged to the last country they travelled from. If the country refuses to pay, then legal entrants from that country will be charged pro-rata to cover illegal immigration from that country, based on a formula to cover the expected annual immigration.

I expect a lot less French people in the UK Sorry Percy!

Successive governments have endorsed the Inland Revenue IR35 rules introduced by the Blair Government that treats self-employed contractors working under certain conditions as "disguised employees". It's now been law for some time that contractors working for companies exclusively, using company equipment, wearing company uniforms, driving branded vehicles, etc. will be treated as employees for tax purposes. Therefore they are liable to pay full PAYE tax levels rather than the reduced tax payable by a self-employed person. 

In the same vein, it's about time companies were brought under similar rules.

I would introduce changes to legislation regarding head offices and corporate tax payment. ALL companies trading in the UK will be treated for tax purposes as if they have a head office in the UK.  Those with offshore head offices will be expected to pay full UK corporation tax as if they have a head office in the UK. Offshoring and paying reduced corporation tax in other countries will be outlawed.

It's only fair that companies benefitting from the patronage of the UK public should then repay the UK public by paying corporation tax in the UK. Many big-tech companies have usurped the high street over the past decade and they need to step up and start to pay their fair share of the revenue that has been lost from the high street.

Cigarettes duty to be increased by %5.

Beer and Spirits to stay the same.

Fuel Duty to stay the same.

Electric cars will now be liable to pay full VED and electricity used for transport will attract a new duty, which will be used to introduce new or improve existing charging infrastructure where private companies are unable to compete. It will in part be used to create a fund for councils to draw from in order to improve supply infrastructure to street lamps or completely new wiring, with the intention of providing adequate infrastructure to install chargers on normal streets.

The initial rate of VED for electric vehicles will be £2 per KWh.

The duty on electricity used to charge a vehicle will be £1 per KW.

These rates will be under constant review as the duty from fossil fuelled transport reduces and electric powered transport replaces it.

Fuel Cell hydrogen technology is still in it's infancy, so Hydrogen Gas used for transport will still be exempt from fuel duty. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be exempt from VED as well. 

Work is under way to provide incentives for companies installing Hydrogen fuel filling infrastructure. 

The Pongy Problem: Sewage Discharge.

The latest debate about raw sewage discharge directly affects me. I have a boat moored in Langstone Harbour, one of the places affected by Southern Water's discharge of raw sewage from it's works. No Gin Palace for me, I blog on Blogger as the Skint Sailor. The boat was a freebie.

The drone video that has gone round the internet and TV is of the discharge of raw sewage from Southern Water's Budds Farm treatment works, which empties directly into Langstone harbour. You can tell when it happens: the smell is let's say potent.

Now this discharge is only supposed to happen during times when the treatment works are overwhelmed by rainwater. Except the discharge happens when there has been no heavy rain, which is supposedly illegal under their operating licence. 

So you can assume that the discharge is a normal operational thing at Budds Farm, because it happens so regularly, even when there has been no rainfall. It seems that Southern Water would rather pay any fines (if they actually do get fined) rather than invest in bigger and better treatment works.

It really has to stop. At one time there was a thriving Oyster business in the harbour. The Oyster beds are still visible on Hayling Island. But now there are signs stating not to harvest shellfish and eat them. I assume because they will be so polluted by the outfall. 

I did query why the local University had a new pontoon out in the harbour growing Oysters, supposedly to bring the business back to Langstone when the Harbour is so polluted. Never assume a University will use common sense...

Or maybe the burgeoning Oyster business is the one putting pressure on Southern Water through all this publicity. 

Either way, it really needs to be resolved. Because I really don't like sailing through sewage.