So the EU has done a ‘deal’ with Turkey to send boat arrivals back from Greece, before sending an equivalent number of genuine refugees for allocated resettlement in Europe. Now watch the shambles as they try to implement the ‘deal’ with false Syrian passports at a premium price. We use the term ‘deal’ with tongue in cheek. It sounds better than terms like over a barrel, not a position of which Angela Merkel has much experience. As the Turkish Prime Minister said immediately after the deal, ‘we today realized that Turkey and the EU have the same destiny’. Nicely put and he tried not to smile as he said it! David Cameron seems to have given the nod to the deal without coming back to parliament for ratification, probably because we’re not in Schengen. In reality, if the EU says yes, it’s deal done for the UK. Those who favour Brexit are regularly asked to describe our circumstances if we vote to leave. It has to be time to toss the question back. Perhaps the ‘yes’ campaign can describe our circumstances if we vote to stay in. It will probably mean a switch from over the barrel to our turn in the barrel!  (You might need to be a pensioner to remember the old joke about a monastery.) Will post it if I get requests.

     North Korea seemed to declare war on Neptune after firing five short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast. They seem hell bent on escalating tension in the area after another nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch, this following a barrage of nuclear strike threats to Seoul and Washington. While taking their threats with a pinch of salt you have to be concerned about whose finger is on the button. Most countries have complicated protocols to ensure that a brainstorm keeps the crazy finger under control. We wonder if that applies in North Korea.

    Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation has the pundits leaping forth with their analysis of his reasons. Is it cuts to benefits or Brexit? IDS says it’s the proposed cuts – now shelved it seems – but it raises another interesting question. Who crunches the numbers for George Osborne? Did he really believe that a proposal that would cost the most needy people in the country around £3,600 would be acceptable? Is he that naïve or unable to assimilate the detail? Hopefully neither but it leaves another question. How good is his judgment about the people close to him. If he is focused on strategy, he needs good people close to him to focus on tactical detail. It’s time he reviewed his advisors. Or maybe it’s true that him and Dave are just a couple of posh lads with no idea how the rest of us live. Maybe Boy George needs to read a bit of military history to widen his parameters.

            ‘A plan which succeeds is bold, one which fails is reckless.’

                                                General Karl von Clausewitz, 1832

    Green Park, next door to Buckingham Palace, appears to have become a dogging hotspot at night according to Sexwithstrangersuk.com. Hopefully someone will explain to Her Majesty that it doesn’t mean that the park would be an ideal spot for her to exercise the corgis. And it might be better not to tell Philip at all.

    Another fine episode in the history of the police draws to a close as Operation Midland is scrapped. It only cost £1.8 mill and led nowhere. The claims of a VIP paedophile ring named several elderly high profile individuals but protected the name of their accuser. So reputations were trashed, some post mortem, though no evidence came to light. At some stage the police will have to take a hard look at the accuser’s stories and background before dragging the accused into the limelight.     

    Jamie Oliver should have stuck to the debate about sugar. Stepping into the breastfeeding arena shows him to be either courageous or crazy, the backlash totally predictable. For or against doesn’t matter (he seems to be for) since he’s perceived as moving into the women’s rights area. We have no wish to be involved though I had one experience I don’t wish to repeat. In a crowded coffee shop at a railway station, a lady with a young baby took the only available seat, next to me.  Either baby or mum were inexperienced and her attempts to feed the child resulted in enough splatter to make me move my Americano – I hate Latte. Was I embarrassed? Of course not, it’s a mother’s right! Is that politically correct enough? 

    Obama really is struggling if Cuba has become his legacy!