Remember this?

A few years ago there was some publicity about the Highway Code and various changes related to its hierarchy of road users. One change was Rule H2, giving way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross at a road junction

Rule H2 - Rule for drivers, motorcyclists, horse drawn vehicles, horse riders and cyclists

At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.

At the time, Rule H2 was often illustrated like this -

 

Mrs H and I reckon the situation is now worse than it was before the change. Vehicles turning into a junction like this virtually never give way to waiting pedestrians. It would be suicidal for pedestrians to assume otherwise.

We encountered yet another example this morning while walking back from town. A chap driving with his mouth open didn't appear to see us at all. I'm not sure why it is necessary for pedestrians to be wary of people who drive with their mouths open, but it is.

Our plan is working

Keir Starmer insists 'our plan is working' and says he will 'keep pushing forward'

The Prime Minister has defended his government's plan, as he battles to remain in his position. Sir Keir Starmer said efforts to cut costs, reduce net migration and boost growth showed 'our plan is working'.

Sir Keir - who has insisted he will not walk away from number 10 if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election, triggering a leadership contest - has sought to highlight his own record.

European Union rejects Keir Starmer's Brexit reset demand in major setback

Brussels is said to have rejected Sir Keir Starmer's proposal to establish a single market for goods between the UK and EU in a major setback for Government's goal of improved relations.

The Cabinet Office's most senior official handling European relations, Michael Ellam, put forward the ambitious plan during recent trips to the Belgian capital as part of efforts to strengthen economic ties with the bloc.

To avoid or not to avoid, that is the question

We navigate through life by avoiding surprises, it a basic survival trait. The instinct to avoid threats or harm still dominates our lives, it is essential to what we are - obviously. 

As we should expect, there are numerous examples of how this essential instinct has moulded itself into modern life. We live in a world of avoidance, as we must.

Ideology seeks to avoid the messy unpredictability of life.

Political parties offer voters the opportunity to avoid their democratic responsibilities by passing it all on to a party.

The EU avoids many of the responsibilities of national government, that’s mostly what it is for.

Bureaucracy is a way of avoiding responsibility by diffusing it within the foggy realms of process and procedure.

The climate change narrative seeks to avoid the insoluble problem that the natural world never can be natural.

Gender politics even seeks to avoid the facts of human reproduction in what must be one of the most extreme avoidance ideologies ever concocted.

   

It's a long list because avoidance is part of life. Sceptics try to avoid irrational avoidance, but it is not the popular approach. Just avoid and have done with the messy responsibilities of analysis, that’s the popular way. As a philosophy of life, avoidance has a very long history. We can’t avoid avoidance.

To avoid a blog post which would go on forever, I'll finish with an old quote which points out that many things are well worth avoiding. Sceptics know that too.  

Do not make a Business of what is no Business. As some make gossip out of everything, so others business. They always talk big, take everything in earnest, and turn it into a dispute or a secret. Troublesome things must not be taken too seriously if they can be avoided. It is preposterous to take to heart that which you should throw over your shoulders. Much that would be something has become nothing by being left alone, and what was nothing has become of consequence by being made much of. At the outset things can be easily settled, but not afterwards. Often the remedy causes the disease. ’Tis by no means the least of life's rules: to let things alone.

Baltasar Gracian - The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Not exactly the political equivalent of splitting the atom

A couple of weeks ago Karl Pfefferkorn wrote an interesting Brussels Signal piece on the unpopularity of Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Macron of France. Interesting because it highlights a common problem with limited, technocrat leaders who isolate themselves from the populations they supposedly serve.


Emperors lost in their Labyrinths, unwilling to listen to the common people

If one factor links the dire unpopularity of Chancellor Merz and President Macron, it is their political insularity. Neither engages freely with their disaffected voters, and neither has a close cadre of advisors willing to present unwelcome news. Macron is a creature of the French elite and has never “pressed the flesh” with the commoners in anything but carefully staged events. Merz retains the grandiose hubris of private capital, but has not cultivated a circle of seasoned confidants to keep him politically grounded. Every leader needs aides willing to dispute the boss and suggest better political alternatives. Merz and Macron prefer to remain cocooned within the trappings of high office, wilfully deaf to the angry complaints of the commoners.

Compare them to Indian PM Narendra Modi. After his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its parliamentary majority in 2024, it roared back last week with a landslide victory in the West Bengal heartland of the previously dominant Trinamool Congress party. How did Modi engineer this dramatic turnaround? According to the Financial Times, Modi has a “relentless focus on grassroots issues … [and a] determination to stay close to voter concerns.” The Eurasia Group’s Pramit Pal Chaudhuri tells us, “Modi will often bring in people with differing views and have them argue … He is very focused on ensuring he gets dissenting opinions [and] multiple sources of information.” A brilliant innovation: Respond to popular discontent by … soliciting dissenting opinions and staying close to voter concerns. Not exactly the political equivalent of splitting the atom, but apparently far beyond the political skills of Macron or Merz.


The whole piece is well worth reading as we in the UK wait with weary resignation to see if Prime Minister Keir Starmer is ousted by someone cast in the same sequestered mould.

Disaffected voters look for reason to believe in their homeland and a candidate offering their country a claim on the future. Policies without patriotism fail these tests. One suspects that any populist successors to Macron and Merz will not.

Voters Don’t Matter

 From the US, but the UK is no better.

Blotted Out

Starmer's achievements 'blotted out' by political instability, says Harriet Harman

Despite the government turmoil, Baroness Harman says, "the irony is that there are quite a few good things" that have been happening.


Good old Hattie, always ready to say something batty. There seems to be a lot of blotting out going on though, 100 Morrisons convenience shops being blotted out for example.


Morrisons ‘set to close 100 lossmaking convenience shops’

Reports come after supermarket giant launched consultation over job cuts at its Bradford head office

Supermarket giant Morrisons is reportedly planning to shut 100 of its loss-making convenience stores, attributing the decision to mounting cost pressures caused by "government policy".

People can shade themselves in a number of ways

UK-wide NHS 11am 'rule' reminder as 33C hot weather forecast

People are being reminded of an NHS-backed 'rule' to follow as temperatures rise across the UK. The reminder comes as the bank holiday weekend brings heat that could reach around 33C in parts of the country.

With high heat, Brits are being reminded to consider an 11am 'rule' to keep themselves and others safe during hot spell of weather. The NHS says: "Spend time in the shade when the sun is strongest. In the UK, this is between 11am and 3pm from March to October."

People can shade themselves in a number of ways, including spending some time indoors when the heat gets too intense. The home can stay cooler during hot weather by closing curtains, despite that sounding counterintuitive.


A standard fine weather filler but the notion that people need reminding where shade comes from - that raised a wry smile.

It's almost surprising that we weren't treated to a picture of shade. Maybe there was a risk that the media AI system might come up with something like this -