The other night before I came to bed, the latest news from the Trump 'blitzkrieg' of policies was let loose on the world and, in particular, what Trump intended to do about the various tariff regimes across the world. Trump is announcing that he will deal with tariffs country by country and if a country imposes a tariff of x% on American goods, he will apply the same tariff in the other direction. The smidgeon of comfort in all of this for the UK is that the UK has no real trade imbalance with the USA (a slight positive according to one UK series, a slight negative according to the way the USA calculates things) and Trump is going to work his way down the list from worst offenders (probably China, Canada and Mexico) before turning his attention to the UK and the EU. But the devastating bombshell came from the Trump remark that he was going to treat VAT as though it were a tariff wherever it was applied, particularly by the EU. This either means that Trump has no understanding of what VAT is or how it works or is being completely disingenuous. Most EEC countries and the UK have a vat rate of about 20% with tax being paid and reclaimed at various stages during the manufacture of a good or service. The Americans, by contrast, levy a sales tax of about 6.6% just on the finished product at the point of sale. Now I understand that the way that international trade works is that the system of VAT due and reclaims is made in such a way that there is actually something approaching a level playing field between those countries that employ VAT and those that deploy a sales tax so that no one nation has an undue advantage in trade terms over another according to international trade experts. Now if Trump is asserting that VAT is a tariff, then he is in effect demanding that other markets let in USA goods at a price of 13.4% cheaper than the competition (20% VAT minus the 6.6% sales tax). The EU, in particular, which is in Trump's sights, is desperately worried by all of this and it could be that a massive disruption to world trade and to subsequent GNP and all of its living standards is on the cards. Of course, Trump would love all of this as he has the mindset that the rest of the world is ganging up on the USA all the way from International Courts to the World Trade Organisation (the successor to GATT). Another Trump bombshell is the way in which Trump is, in effect handing the Ukraine conflict to Russia by saying that the Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO and should cede the lands to Russia which are illegally occupied. If this is 'The Art of the Deal' (Trump's infamous book) then it is a strange deal in which one hands to one's adversary all that is being demanded even before the negotiations start. On the domestic front, we have Kemi Badenoch making an absolute fool of herself as leader of the Opposition, probably because her background research was faulty. She used Prime Minister's Question to ask Keir Starmer why Ukrainian refugees were being allowed to use a scheme to enter Britain designed for those fleeing Afghanistan? All that Keir Starmer had to do was to agree with her that the decision was wrong as the policy, and the legal framework supporting it, has actually been put place by the last Conservative administration. Some critics of Badenoch are saying that her 'research' is clutching at Twitter posts or right-wing press headlines without doing any proper checks on the veracity of the information. Already most Tory voters think she is a disaster and one of the worst leaders of the opposition it is possible to have.
Fridays are the days when our domestic help calls around so I do not normally go out with Meg when she calls. It was also a day when we receive a visit from our Eucharistic minister from the local church, and we always after the little service exchange a little gossip about the things happening in our lives. Our friend seems to have had much more than her fair share of close friends and some relatives who have passed on and evidently this happens as the years roll by but we trudge on. Tow carers called around for Meg's lunchtime call and it was pleasing to see that Meg was much more alert in the late morning and we managed to get some tea and some fruit juice inside her. Meg always consumes all of her porridge and her share of a banana so any fluid we can get inside her is a bonus. We lunched on fish fingers which I cooked in the oven part of our microwave and complemented this with some broccoli and some cooked tomatoes (which, incidentally, is meant to be quite good for you) Incidentally, I gleaned the following information from the web on this subject. Cooked tomatoes are healthier than raw tomatoes, offering a wide range of health benefits. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that is more easily absorbed by the body when the tomatoes are cooked. Cooked tomatoes also contain higher levels of beta-carotene and other nutrients, such as vitamins A, C, and E. Lycopene, a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes, is released more easily when the tomatoes are cooked. Studies suggest that consuming cooked tomatoes may help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, such as prostate cancer. Cooking tomatoes can also improve their flavour and texture, making them more palatable for some people. Additionally, cooked tomatoes are often easier to digest than raw tomatoes, making them a good option for people with sensitive stomachs. In the afternoon, Meg and I watched the remainder of the Mozart 'Magic Flute' which had some stunning set design and costumes, courtesy of the Paris Opera House and then we were delighted to see, even though we were not going out today, that the clouds had rolled away and we were getting just a little burst of sunshine which we do not seem to have witnessed for days now.
No doubt, in the Ukraine that are severe worries about a massive sell out if they forced to give up lands to Russia and eschew Nato membership as the price for peace. I had not realised that Czechoslovakia was forced to yield the Sudetenland (largely German speaking territories) to Hitler. Germany's occupation of the Sudetenland was a crucial event in 20th-century history. Indeed, it was a key step on the path to war. Furthermore, it demonstrated the futility of trying to appease a tyrant bent on reshaping the world order in accordance with his perception of reality. So we almost have a case of history repeating itself. But Keir Starmer appears to be standing firm in his support of the Ukraine including membership of NATO which puts him on a straight collision course with the Trump-Putin axis, if I can call it that.
© Mike Hart [2025]