The talk of the town or rather of the country in the UK since
last month’s election has veered from
hung parliament to what is being called ‘bung’ parliament. The word bung is as
old as beer kegs or casques and its dictionary meaning is the wooden cork or
stopper of the beer or wine barrel to prevent the liquid from overflowing. In
the current parliamentary parlance, however, it has acquired a sort of reverse
connotation to allow the flow of one billion pounds to Northern Ireland the
votes of whose ten, anti-abortion, ultra-Catholic MPs have saved Prime Minister
Theresa May’s Tory government, at least for the time being.
A further grant of about one million pounds a year has also
been agreed to cover the cost of travel for abortion in mainland Britain required
by about 1,000 N. Ireland women every year.
The billion pound allocation to N. Ireland has acquired the
sobriquet of bung or bribe to save Mrs May’s
government. The bribe translates into 540 pounds for every person in N.Ireland. A mega case of cash-for-votes.
All too familiar in India !
How long Mrs May’s government or her premiership lasts is
anybody’s guess. But the Brexit project of Britain to leave the European Union
hasn’t started well. Britain has lost the first round, with Europe demanding
issues of its three million migrants in the UK and the UK-EU divorce bill to be
discussed first before going further. The British offer of allowing EU migrants to remain in the UK,
subject to completing a five-year residency clause, in return for reciprocal
rights for UK migrants in EU, has not enthused the Europeans, in fact quite the
reverse.
Within Britain, the talk among almost all parties is about
how to enjoy the trading benefits of EU’s single market without remaining in
the EU. To have the cake and eat it too !
Britain’s Brexit decision, after 44 years of EU membership,
is its own and has its costs too. During all those years Britain extracted a
fair amount of flexibility or
‘independence’ while remaining a full member and exercising veto on various
issues. It opted out of euro, the EU’s
common currency, and also out of Schengen travel arrangements which make a
single visa good for all EU countries. Thus Britain retains its own sterling
pound, besides keeping its own separate visa which makes Schengen visa
non-applicable for UK travel.
Reminding Britain of such major concessions, former Southern Ireland
Prime Minister John Burton has said that time has come for the UK to realise
what it will be giving up. “ It will lose common arrangements on everything
from flights taking off and landing, lorries on the toad, the safety of food, the
movement of workers and many more matters on which agreed standards have been
built up over the past 44 years. It will lose the benefits of hundreds of
treaties the EU has negotiated with other countries.”
“The UK will have to negotiate a new deal on every topic,
then agree a procedure for subsequently amending, enforcing, and interpreting each
one.”
And that’s not all. Major issues like that of security and intelligence cooperation to
fight the new menace of terrorist attacks will have to be dealt with, besides
the much larger issues of defence and
technological cooperation.
In common with other mega cities, London, like Indian metros, is grappling
with the menace of air pollution. The British capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is
proposing a 12.50 pound (Rs 1,000)
charge on most polluting vehicles entering congestion zones of the city from
April 2019. The announcement coincides
with a report which reveals that seven in ten hospitals and health centres in
inner London areas are blighted by illegal levels of toxic air.
Marking the National Clean Air day, the report found that as
many as 577 hospitals and medical facilities were in areas where nitrogen
dioxide (NO2) levels breached EU guidelines. Additionally, all 800 health
facilities were in areas where PM-10 particulates level was above WHO limit.
Nitrogen dioxide and PM-2.5, identified as major pollutants, are both found in
diesel emissions and linked with the
deaths of nearly 9,500 people every year in the British capital, according to a
King’s College, London, study.
Greenpeace campaigner Baroness Jenny Jones called for local
government action to encourage people to drive less and use public transport to
reduce pollution in hotspot areas. Already in 15 London boroughs or
municipalities, parents who keep their car engines running while waiting outside
school gates face crackdown by ‘ant-idling’ patrols. Drivers who refuse to turn
off their engines can face penalties of up to 20 pounds per each offence.
The conditions in Indian cities like Delhi, with ever
burgeoning population, are more acute and more complex due to a dismal lack of
buses and over-use of cars as a status symbol by the urban elites. Badly
maintained diesel or petrol cars and failure to switch to electric or hybrid vehicles are challenges that must be
faced for a modicum of healthy living in Indian cities.
Tailpiece: To tie or
not to tie has become a parliamentary question. The Speaker of the House of
Commons, John Bercow, has allowed MPs to dispense with the ties, if they so
wish. Comment from angry quarters was swift. “Are you going to wear tracksuits
next?” If put to a vote, the issue might end in a tie !
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