The sole faintly amusing aspect of the utter chaos that is the “Mother of Parliaments” at present is the serious belief that getting Boris Johnson back into Number 10 is a possible solution. Tidemarks’ call is for Larry the Downing Street Cat to take over the leadership of the Conservative party and the country. He sleeps a lot in warm spots, keeps an official door opener employed and cares nothing for politics. His disdain for the press vultures clustered outside his home is legendry. Perfect.
Amidst everything else that is happening – interest rates in the USA are trucking inexorably upwards. This means that the cost of borrowing money is increasing and depending where abouts on the yield curve you are looking, the increases range from large to massive. This tends to strengthen the US dollar against other currencies as money can flow back to the USA and still earn a decent return. Unkindly, commodity prices on average have this year fallen the most since the covid scourge was discovered. This is building up to be a rather nasty double whammy that will hit many, especially ourselves. Large parts of the globe will find it increasingly difficult to find the holy grail of economic growth and soon even President Biden may be forced to admit this. Indeed, anyone who sits at a desk behind a door that says President, Prime Minister, Chairman, Chief Executive or even Boss, needs to stop politicking and focus on navigating the upcoming tough times. Prancing about saying “Putin did it” is not helpful, for even if this is true, your subjects, employees, customers and dependents crave stability and predictability. Focus and productivity will be required. Incidentally a loyal and smart reader tells me that this actually means “switch off your cell phone” when you are at work. Think about it. So true.
You will be pleased to know that Cabinet has approved the hosting of the 32nd Annual International Railway Safety Council Meeting in Johannesburg from 1 to 6 October 2023 under the theme: “Reshaping railways in an uncertain World”. Our delegation should easily be able to introduce the subject of how the theft of miles of railway track removes uncertainty about whether to take a train or not.
Even the Cabinet were embarrassed by the Cyril’s attempt to slip them each the tax-free benefit of free water and electricity at both their official homes. They have now reversed this amendment to the Ministerial Handbook for 2022. What is the frog-boiler up to? Is he trying to buy off ministerial curiosity in what is now tagged as #PhalaPhalaFarmGate and just won’t go away? Incidentally note the echo from that decades old Watergate incident in the USA.
Now that we have experienced a complete season of United Rugby Championship and are receiving grudging praise from the European teams for bringing a new dimension to their competition, this year is easier to watch. Not only can we sort of pronounce names like Zebre and Connacht we might, if pushed, find their base towns on a map. It’s interesting to see the number of obviously homesick SA supporters in the stands offshore. Rather gratifyingly there are noises of regret emerging from the antipodes who, it seems, are missing the Saffers from their tournament. Nobody however will miss the apparently inconsistent and puzzling referees calls that we have experienced in this season. (By the way is there even such a thing as a season anymore?)
The organisers bringing a Formula E race to Cape Town in February are brave folk. Hopefully they have consulted the load shedding schedules. Tidemarks saw his first E Car charging point last weekend at the BP garage in Bufflesjagsrivier on the N2. Appropriately the petrol pump-like device was branded Jaguar but showed no sign of use. Presumably its location is approximately a single charge distance from Cape Town. The real reason to stop there, however, is the café turning out warm roosterbrood sandwiches. Excellent.
James Greener
Friday 21st October 2022
