Theresa May to gift Donald Trump a quaich when she meets him in the Oval Office

British Prime Minister Theresa May is going to the White House with gifts for her hosts. The gifts include a hamper full of produce from Chequers, the PM's country retreat in Buckinghamshire for First Lady Melania Trump.
Theresa May will also carry an engraved 'quaich' which is a traditional two-handled Scottish drinking cup or bowl for Donald Trump, the President, when she meets him in the Oval Office as announced by 10 Downing Street.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 26 January 2017.

The 'quaich' should be a delight for the President, whose mother was from Scotland and who is proud of his tartan roots. But, the 45th President of the US doesn't drink alcohol. He never has. Of course, he is not the first teetotal US president. George W Bush gave up alcohol having been a heavy drinker in his youth.
The reason for Donald Trump to become a teetotaler is because his brother Fred had died at 42 from alcoholism. Brief information on the gifts have been furnished by Downing Street - the hamper for Melania would contain "a range of produce including Chequers apple juice, damson jam and marmalade, as well as Bakewell tarts and cranberry and white chocolate shorties".
Incidentally, the Quaich is described as an ancient Scottish artefact and its form has not changed for centuries. The term "Quaich" originated in the mid-16th century from the Scottish Gaelic word "cuach" which means cup.


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China has started its first freight train service to London from Yiwu - this is a famous wholesale market town in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The train will travel for 18 days and cover more than 7,500 miles (12,000km) to reach Britain from China.
It will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before arriving in London.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 4 January 2017.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron had wanted to open up trade with China and had pitched for Britain as the pre-eminent gateway to the West for investment from China. He had proposed to make London the main international trading centre for offshore yuan.
The present Prime Minister Theresa May has continued with that trend and has said that the relationship with China remains "golden". She seeks to bring in billions of dollars in Chinese investment as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.


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President-elect Donald Trump's phone call to British Prime Minister Theresa May

President-elect Donald Trump's phone call to British Prime Minister Theresa May has revealed another side of the world leader. The casual approach has left all concerned confused. In that 10-minute conversation Donald Trump has managed to make a slip-up that has seen him labelled "un-Presidential".
In the course of the conversation, the President-elect had extended a bizarrely casual invitation to May. He had apparently said - 'if you travel to the US, you should let me know.'
This is based on a leaked transcript of his phone call with the British Prime Minister.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 18 November 2016.

The comment of Donald Trump has raised eyebrows among officials and observers. They feel that Trump is probably not aware of the months of advance preparation that go into the overseas visit of a country's leader. AS is understood, such an overseas trip attended by May would cost tens of thousands of pounds and involve the use of the Royal Airforce luxury Voyager Jet that is reserved for such occasions.
Moreover, President-elect Donald Trump had asked Prime Minister Theresa May to convey his regards to the Queen during her next audience at Buckingham Palace. He mentioned in passing that his late mother, Mary, who was born in Scotland, was a big fan of the monarch.
The President-elect called the UK a "very special place for me and my country" and it is obvious that he has plenty of work to do when it comes to playing the part of a world leader.


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British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to India - mango and visa on the agenda

British Prime Minister Theresa May is on a visit to India and a couple of sensitive points on her agenda would presumably be visa for Indians and the acceptance of Indian mangoes by Britain. She has been given indirect hints that unless Britain changes its stand on issue of visas to Indians, it could miss out on trade deals.
The clear message to her is - post-Brexit, you need Indians.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 6 November 2016.

Prime Minister May is on a mission to drum up new trade deals with India to cushion the impact of leaving the EU. However, the Indians want a reversal of tough immigration measures that she had imposed on Indians when she was Home Secretary.
Moreover, she will also have to face calls to take a harder line on neighboring Pakistan's alleged link to global terror and also to allow more Indian mangoes to enter Britain. She has chosen India for her first trade mission as Prime Minister because, in the opinion of officials, the historic business links between the two will help British businesses to ride out the turbulence caused by leaving the EU. She will have a team of 33 business representatives with her on the tour.


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Theresa May to pay upto £13,000 to families who stay on sources of shale gas

Theresa May has taken over as Prime Minister of Britain three weeks back and she has already taken several major decisions like scrapping the climate change department and, threatening to scupper the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant deal with China and France. She now plans to transform her predecessor David Cameron’s cautious fracking rewards scheme.
It seems she wants to offer five-figure cash payouts under a radical plan to boost the drive for controversial shale gas fracking. This Lottery-style ‘Frackpot’ windfall scheme is all about paying individual householders cash sums (this could be as high as £13,000) if they are living in areas where the gas can be extracted.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 August 2016.

This move by the new Prime Minister marks a major shift in policy from David Cameron’s blueprint for Britain’s energy needs. She is hopeful that her bold post-Brexit plan would open the doors to access the untapped energy reserve of Britain and give a boost to the economy.
However, it may not be plain sailing because environmental critics could argue that it is a sort of ‘bribe’ which could undermine local democracy. Councillors who are opposed to fracking could find themselves under pressure from voters who would be keen to get their share of the fracking lottery.
As per the existing proposals for fracking - sums of up to £10million in each affected area were to be taken from business rates paid by fracking firms and given to town halls and community groups. However, the new plan envisages diversion of all or some of that money to individuals to ensure that ordinary families ‘personally benefit from economic decisions’. The decision could be a game-changer in the politically explosive energy sector because it could override the green lobby’s fierce opposition to fracking.


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Theresa May, the new Prime Minister of Britain, and the Nuclear Red Button

Theresa May is slated to become Britain's new Prime Minister once David Cameron relinquishes office and will be given a security briefing from the Cabinet Secretary, National Security Adviser and Chief of the Defence Staff. These three men will bring her up to speed on the UK's secret military deployments. Specifically, she will be told the whereabouts of the Royal Navy's on-duty nuclear submarine.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 13 July 2016.

The nuclear submarine is normally on patrol somewhere in the North Atlantic, and her exact whereabouts is known only by a handful of people. In fact, even most of the crew on board are unaware of its location. The three men will apprise the new Prime Minister about the Nuclear Red Button and she will then be have to make the gravest decision of her premiership. It will be a decision that she will never live to witness.
This is because she will have to decide how she wants the military to react in the event of nuclear war. There will be four options - from retaliating to doing nothing. Once she takes the decision, she will write four handwritten letters which will be addressed to the Commanders of the four Vanguard class submarines. They will be delivered to the boats and locked away.
David Cameron had written similar letters when he took office and they will be burned without being opened. Unless he tells the world, no one will ever know what his decision was.


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Controversy over water cannons procured for London Police by Boris Johnson

#WaterCannons #BorisJohnson #London #TheresaMay #Belfast Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, had gone ahead and purchased three Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000 (water cannons) for the London Police at a cost of £218,000 – the canons were 25-year-old German machines. Scotland Yard had bought these second hand from German police last year.
But, the Mayor is now hard pressed to defend the purchase because Home Secretary Theresa May has decided not to authorize the use of water cannon by police in England and Wales because use of such cannons could cause serious injuries like spinal fractures, eye injuries and blunt trauma.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 July 2015.

She has told MPs that she was ruling out allowing forces to use these cannons after a thorough review. It seems thee were 67 issues found even after the cannons had undergone repairs.
As a result, the Metropolitan Police has said that they are "naturally disappointed" they will not be able to use the water cannons.
It seems the purchase of the water cannon had been backed by police, the Prime Minister and the people of London but, approval of the Home Office had not been taken.
Incidentally, such machines have never been used on the British mainland. They have, however, been deployed in Northern Ireland and were used to quell recent disturbances in Belfast.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Illegal immigrants threaten imports of fruits and vegetables in Calais

#Calais #TheresaMay #illegalimmigrants While illegal immigrants pose innumerable problems for Britain, the newest to get added is the import of fruit and vegetables through Calais – fresh foods are considered to be contaminated if a singly immigrant is there in the containers or lorries that carry the fresh farm products. Accordingly, steps are taken to destroy the complete load of the truck or lorry.
If this continues, Britain will face a serious shortage of supplies of fresh food because entire truck-loads of imported fruit and vegetables are being destroyed if a migrant is found inside a transportation vehicle.
Home Secretary Theresa May has agreed to hold an urgent meeting with the ‘increasingly worried’ food industry on order to evolve methods of better protecting imported food from stowaways. During the Christmas period, large quantities of vegetables destined for supermarkets and other retailers had to be ‘condemned’ for this reason.
Incidentally, many migrants climb on to the lorries as they are being loaded – sometimes as far away as Spain – and, many others sneak aboard later in a journey. But, the fact remains that once such a character is detected, either at the port of Calais or in the UK, the cargo is deemed ‘contaminated’, no longer fit for human consumption and destroyed.
Unless this is checked, it would lead to shortage as well as increase in prices due to the wastages.