March 2025
Car tariffs and King’s letter
What will the Trump administration do next?
We have tariffs squeezing global trade, causing turmoil in markets and leaving car manufacturers losing value hand over fist.
Close allies of the United States are being hit with cars and car parts manufactured in Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom the target for swingeing 25% import taxes. Re-ordering the world to make ‘America great again’ is the objective. Retaliatory measures are inevitable.
The UK is trying to negotiate a way out of US car tariffs. Will Prime Minister Starmer’s hand delivered letter from King Charles inviting the President on a State Visit carry any weight and convince Mr Trump that the Brits should get special treatment? Doubtful, but it was worth giving it a go.
**********
Worth it
Flying the flag at glittering events during St Patrick’s Week in the United States costs a shed load.
The annual exodus of our political leaders went as planned. We had glad-handing in the White House with the customary felicitations and expressions of goodwill. The First Minister boycotted President Trump’s bash but there was no such reluctance by the deputy FM.
Friendships were renewed, business cards exchanged and promises made. If you think it’s all champagne and fun, think again. It’s draining, tiring and demanding and there are those who question whether we should even bother.
There’s no doubt it can all be a bit on the cringey side, but it’s one of those annual shindigs where we can be front and centre, even if it’s only for a few days.
**********
The Birds
A beautiful Harris’s Hawk has been causing pandemonium in a quiet village in Hertfordshire. A dozen people were targeted by the bird, with tall men particularly vulnerable. A number of people have reported cuts to their head.
Just imagine the damage it would do if it nested in the grounds of the White House. It might even lead to a bad hair day for Donald.
For the good folk in Hertfordshire, there’s this advice from Whipsnade Zoo: ‘We do not recommend feeding birds of prey.” Seriously, that was the best they could offer.
**********
A wry take, Stateside
President Trump and Elon Musk took to the roof of the White House to witness what astronomers called the rare ‘planetary parade’.
They looked at the February night sky to see Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury and Saturn appear to line up as they orbit the Sun.
Trump whispered to Musk that just as he coveted the Panama Canal, Greenisland and Canada, he’d like Mars and Jupiter.
Musk replied that he could make that happen with his Space X rockets. Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy was also looking skyward to see what weapons of death were coming Ukraine’s way from a war-mongering President Putin.
**********
No spring
The Spring Statement by the Chancellor had anything but a spring in it. Cuts in public spending and welfare, increases in defence spending and the growth forecast cut from 2% to 1% made it a stiff G&T day for Rachel Reeves.
That was bad enough, but it got worse for the Treasury with a warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that more tax rises might be on the way when the Chancellor returns to the Dispatch Box to deliver the Autumn Budget.
2025 has taken on the appearance of an annus horribilis for this Government.
**********
Outside the box
Northern Ireland Executive finances are hardly the picture of rude health. There’s a crying need for monumental levels of investment to address chronic shortcomings in services and infrastructure. The problem is there’s not enough in the kitty to do what’s needed.
The money tree from London will continue to bear fruit but it still won’t be enough to bridge yawning gaps. We require a large dollop of dosh to fix what’s busted.
At some point, our Executive Ministers are going to have to think outside the box and countenance the unthinkable. That means water charges, road tolling and having a candid conversation with the Government on Corporation Tax. A reduced CT rate could be a big game-changer – just look south of the border - but benefit should not adversely the Block Grant.
It'll be a tall order to convince sceptical and conservative-minded Treasury mandarins, but surely it’s time we were prepared to have that grown-up conversation.
**********
Choo-choo
The hourly choo-choo from Belfast to Dublin has transformed the service. Passengers are flocking to the new Grand Central Station to board the Enterprise which now ‘boldly goes’ on a much more regular basis.
Between October last year and January 2025, passenger numbers jumped by almost 50% to just shy of 400,000. That, in anyone’s language, is a ringing endorsement. And now that signage at Grand Central is to be in Irish, there’s no excuse to miss the platform or the experience.
We’re on track (pun intended!) to get new trains and cut travel times between the two great cities and that will make the train all the more appealing and popular. Anything’s better than the stress of driving.
**********
Bible and earrings
Two stories caught my eye. The first was the sale of a Bible at auction for £56,000. The second was the recovery of two sets of diamond earrings worth just under £600,000.
I’d better explain.
The Bible wasn’t any old, run-of-the-mill publication. No, it was a rare text, the first to be written in Chinese. It had been left at an Oxfam shop in Chelmsford. Volunteers thought it a bit special and decided to sell it with a pre-sale estimate of up to £800. The couldn’t believe it when it sold for £56,280.
The Chinese Bible dates back to 1815 and was a best seller at Bonhams, outdoing a first edition of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and a first edition of Karl Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party.
Proceeds will go towards helping to tackle poverty and inequality worldwide.
Now, the earrings.
An alleged thief swallowed the desirable Tiffany & Co diamond earrings after being taken into custody by Orlando police in Florida. They remained in his body for about two weeks before Mother Nature took over.
According to the BBC reporter who covered the story, Tiffany jewellers have since cleaned the earrings.
**********
Yours for a quid
BT is in the naughty corner for suggesting it might be time to remove two red phone boxes in Downpatrick and Strangford.
They’re not being used to make calls but they’ve been re-purposed and found other community uses. Locals are aghast. The local council may be asked to adopt the iconic structures rather than see gaping holes in the streetscape.
Adopting ‘phone boxes isn’t new. BT brought in the ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ scheme in 2008 and since then, some 7,400 boxes have become the responsibility of communities. If you qualify, communities can buy their beloved structure for just £1.
**********
Great relief
Sub-postmasters treated disgracefully by the Post Office in the Horizon IT debacle are beginning to see light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Recently, a former sub-postmaster from Belfast was told he’s to receive the maximum compensation of £600,000. It’s the end of a 15-year struggle to clear his name. Many other former sub postmasters are in the same position
To describe what happened to 900 postmasters as a ‘miscarriage of justice’ fails to convey the sheer hell they endured for being falsely accused.
Settling compensation claims quickly is the least the Post Office can do for this shameful episode.
**********
No budget to grow
At £50 a-year, it’s a bargain. A patch of earth in one of the seven allotments run by Belfast City Council is a place of joy and creativity for the lucky ones.
They’re in high demand. A total of 964 people are on the waiting list for 281 plots; many will never be able to realise their dream.
Annadale Embankment in the south of the city is the most popular where 353 want to put down some roots. Sadly, there’s no budget for increasing the number of allotments.
**********
Only 89 seconds to go
We’re edging ever closer to the precipice. Last year, we were 90 seconds to midnight, but that has been moved one second forward on the Doomsday Clock. So what, ask the sceptics.
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), even the loss of a second should is an indication of extreme danger. They warn that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.
The war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, tensions in the Korean peninsula, ‘shadow boxing’ in the East and South China Seas, global warming and the dangerous downsides of AI are all factors leading to the latest depressing assessment.
The US, China and Russia can pull the world back from the brink. The combination of Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping can save us all. Few will hold their breath.
**********
Heating the chimney
Finally, we leave politics, allotments, taxes and the Bible to one side to consider the woman who bought her husband a chimney – yes, a chimney – for his birthday.
The 42m-tall Grade 11-listed stack was snapped up for £3,000. The towering structure has a diameter of 4 metres and the couple plan to convert it into a quirky studio space.
In a grand under-statement, the auctioneer was quoted as saying it had to be one of the most extraordinary properties they have ever sold.
Heating the converted 138-foot property may prove a costlier proposition.
**********
LOADING...