So the 4 days of the latest heat wave has gone, we had about a mm this morning but unless we get a thunderstorm it is unlikely to do much. Another area high pressure is likely to build next week. I recommend https://guyonclimate.com a blog with lost of facts and sensible comment.
WATER
Companies should be forced to produce monthly figures for reservoir , river and groundwater levels. Also number of leaks stopped, km of pipes replaced. Subsidised water butts provided and all new housing required to have them and only brown water going to treatment. No wage rises or bonus payments for those earning £100,000 or over until environmental and social targets are met (i.e. not for 15 or 20 years).
Farmers should meet certain standards too – with aid if necessary. Pollution of rivers like the Wye should be halted immediately – preferably by increasing cost of pollution to eye watering levels. If chicken costs go up, so be it – environment first. The same goes for intensive beef/dairy pig facilities.
Venison sales, especially wild, should be encouraged.
OH SHIT, what a mess we are in. The environment is still seen as a free lunch for large landowners, to be exploited and abused as they arrogantly wish. The economy is distorted massively, the financial system is corrupt (can anyone explain how a person in an office in the City of London actually increases the quality of life for the human race?
LEMON DRIZZLE
I got give 3 out of date lemons so :225g each s-r flour, caster sugar, butter and 4 eggs. 50 min at 180C. Let cool – drizzle = 85g caster + lemon juice. Then strawberry jam and dust with icing sugar.
1976
A similar dry summer with hosepipe bans. In 2022 the announcement of a hosepipe ban was announced with a plea ‘to dob on a neighbour’. In 1976 this came much later. In 1976 we had a government (not in 2022). Will this government make golf courses and stately piles exempt? Will it impose laws that wastage must be cut by 15% per annum with no dividends until this takes place, and no price hikes.
Of greater importance is the need to ensure a long term protection for our chalk streams and wildlife. If these waterways are in private ownership, then the owner must create access in a equable way.
Water companies must comply to environmental standards or be nationalised without compensation. They should also have to pay an environmental fee for the privilege of becoming guardians of our environment. Everyone should also be provided with a set quantity of water free. I do not know how to work this out – but 5 toilet flushes per person, 3 minute shower, 5 litre for cooking and 10 litre for washing up. Then charge.
Perhaps the same should occur for households. The first x therms free, then progressively tax (allowances made for disability recipients).
HOLIDAYS
Seem to remember in the past that an announcement would be made that the PM was going on holiday and that the DepPM or other would be in charge. Not this shit show if incompetence. They have all either fu(ked off or are queuing up on morning TV to state how brilliant it will all be when MaryT or RishiS take over and correct the appalling mess that we are in. No mention of 12 years of Tory misrule – just arse licking for a government pension.
So inflation nearing 10%, a water crisis, a climate crisis, an energy crisis, a NHS crisis, a cost of living crisis, a crisis of democracy, a crisis created by BREXIT, and they all fu)k off to the beach, along with the shadow cabinet.
WEATHER
Have just retreated indoors to sit by the fan which states a temp of 29C. I have filled some bowls with water for the birds and insects. We have a few more days of this I think. The south east looks totally parched. Tomatoes are ripening quickly at the moment.
THEFT
The government has got so blasé about ripping off the public they hardly try to hide it. The Energy Regular seems to have only one objective – maximise the profits of the energy companies (Whilst OFWAT does the same for water), The Chancellor will no doubt tell us how much money he is giving us to help pay the bills, all he is doing is allocating our tax revenue for us to give to the energy companies. Crude oils fallen on the wholesale market but not at the pumps.
If they gave a shit about poverty there would be an emergency package of insulation for all. homes (funded by a second mortgage repayable when the house is sold) – so basically would cost nothing for the government or renters. Homeowners would benefit from increased property values. The same method could be applied to solar panels which should have a FIT to recognise the investment being made by the individual.
None of this will add to the profits of the energy companies and hence will not be done by our rip off government, which will retire to the HoC bars and taxpayer subsidised drinks.
OFWAT allows companies to pump shit into OUR waterways with impunity. Billions of water are leaked and profits surge (often to foreign governments?).
And all the time objections and the means thereof are being curtailed. Judges will have their roll diminished, demonstrations will be made illegal, strikes will become illegal.
Wages are rising at a rate way below inflation, but the Nasty Party and its complicit press and media monkeys like Farage and the scarecrow continue to pedal the like that it is the workers who are funding inflation. No PMQT for BJBJ to trumpet how we are leading the world with energy rises and inflation. Only Russia is doing worse in the G7.
So we are being ripped off, isolated from the EU, Truss has said we need to save BREXIT (presumably from being a massive pile of shit).
Every £1billion the govt spends is about £10 per head of our tax money.
SHAMEFUL AND PATHETIC AND TREASONOUS
Mary Truss seems to be fermenting the break up of the Union. I totally understand how pissed off Scotland is, and surprised Wales is not more radical. BUT – just like I was remain, I will not alter that fundamental position just yet. It does not take the intelligence of a chewed up wine gum to realise that the 4 nations are not treated equably. Devolution should go much further, and where the 4 nations meet there should be equality. Maybe other areas of the UK would go dow a similar route? London? Yorkshire? Cornwall?
Greater devolution should mean a smaller civil service in Westminster? What do police Commissioners do? Why is the Dept of Education so huge? Devolve the running of schools to local areas and use OFSTED to regulate if there seems to be a problem (results, discipline, finance). Similar discussion needs to be done for the NHS. Tories have spent £100 billion on privatising the NHS; the dental service has collapsed..
OUR MONEY
Every time the government boasts about how much it is spending we should all remember that it is our tax money they refer to. £37bn on Test&Trace, £100+ billion on HS2, etc. I think there is a Public Accounts Committee? It should publish detailed accounts of all government expenditure.
MONEY MAKING
The Treasury has presumably made millions out of ‘special’ 50p’s? basically bought then taken out of circulation. Could they not do the same with special edition bank notes – maybe designed by Banksy? The rich will stare them away thus creating the need for the treasury to produce more. It would be like a tax imposed on people by themselves. Also give each one a shorter code to reflect smaller number issued – and more letters so people can but personalised ones. It should keep the greedy rich busy for years.