A Good Surprise and a Mind Aghast.

Well, what d'ya know. I mentioned recently that I'd written a letter of complaint to the infamous BT, and also that previous letters of complaint had gone unanswered. Today I had a phone call from a personable young chap in BT's complaints department, wanting to discuss the nature of my current issue. He listened, he understood, he agreed, and he said he would raise the matter with the relevant people. (And he apologised, in writing, for the previous lack of response.) We even had a chat about certain technological issues I've been experiencing. So let's hear it for Ashley from Tyneside. Good chap, Ashley.

 

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So what about Trump offering every adult American $5,000 if the Republicans win the midterms? This is quite astonishing even by Trump's bargain basement standards, so I'll offer my thoughts as they occur to me (if you don't mind.)

1. It seems that Trump is becoming rather more desperate than he would care to admit.

2. I think this is the kind of thing you must expect if you put a big businessman in charge of a country. Big businessmen tend to go through life wearing polarising glasses, which see dollar signs clearly but very little else. They're also prone to the certainty that every individual has his or her price, and every situation is solvable by simply throwing money at it.

3. Trump's statement amounts to a naked attempt to buy votes. Apart from striking at the very roots of democracy, it insults all Americans by casting them as latter day Esaus by presuming they will be willing to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.

4. Given the above, I don't see how a serious legal challenge can fail to be made.

5. Even if Trump is allowed to maintain his outlandish proposal, he has failed -- as usual -- to say how the expenditure of several trillion dollars would be financed.

6. When he made his proposal to some Republican gathering or other, the BBC reported that it was met with 'rapturous applause.' It should have been met with stunned silence. This suggests to me that the delegates at Republican gatherings come from the same litter of swivel-eyed loons as the UK's Tory faithful.

Apart from that, I don't really care. Why should I?