Week 119 – Wales and Devon – JC Travels -The Blog

Back to the UK this week – took care of some medical issues and getting settled with several trips within the USA. Most of the week was with my colleagues in a conference room – of course US politics came up and luckily I could counter our situation with Brexit (Britain leaving the EU). Professionally, we have develop different scenarios for energy policy and the matrix of Trump/moderate GOP/Hillary/Bernie versus Brexit (yes/no) was pretty much meaningless because of the wide ranging variation, especially when the participants are from different countries as well.

President Obama was here too – he had been pretty popular until he dipped his toe in the Brexit fight. Although most experts agree it would be an economic set back for the UK, it is the self-governess issue that upset the Brits as the USA would never agree to the same terms. An analogy (and maybe not a good one) is if NAFTA was converted from an economic agreement to a political agreement. Initially the USA gets 5 votes while Mexico gets 2 and Canada gets one. So USA controls the outcome. But if NAFTA added 10 Central American countries and ultimately the small countries could band their votes together to force the USA to change their laws. Imagine the USA being told that because a NAFTA commission with people from the other countries decided that abortion should be against law and guns need to be collected and made illegal. That is why even people who are against Brexit were not happy with President Obama – the USA would never stand for it.

Cotswolds

**My residence for the week – a old B&B near the office**

***The White Hart – home away from home***

Most of the weekend free – made a quick trip to Wales for lunch then down to Devon. Spectacular scenery. It is called the English Rivera – on a sunny day it is not an overstatement. Although chilly in the high 50’s and low 60’s. Lots of pictures and all are within a couple of hours of each other. Most pictures are from Torquay “Tor-Key” to Salcombe on Southwest coast – facing France.