Category: Environment

Reeves is trying to kick start the economy, I am not being hypocritical here – the economy needs attention but not necessarily growth! RyanAir boss O’Leary complains that runway for Heathrow would not be complete for 15-20 years (good reason to start now AND impose pollution restrictions. On EV’s the government is considering a guarantee scheme for EV loans. Until second hand EV’s become widely available and affordable the market will stagnate. More rapid charging points will help.

Labour is still shackled by Brexit. Farage still dominates the politics of leave. There is no environmental sense in developing ties with the rest of the world and ignoring Europe. Europe is a very diverse area, culturally, economically, politically, socially, etc. – the UK should welcome the challenge. Diversity is good for the environment. The USA might appear to be a homogenous whole, but the cracks that are there are likely to widen with the OMC!

I am not suggesting that we tell the rest of the world to fuck itself, just find markets and production that makes sense. Africa and South America does not need to fuck its environment just because we did! Our rampageous MNC’s are causing havoc and should be reined in.

Pension funds – I have my own which has been paid for over 40 years. But is not huge. It allows me to retire (to early in my opinion there should be a staggered retirement for people like me). But there should be regulation on who they invest in, and ….. sustainability? Perhaps more later!

The buzz word for this government is growth. I think tthey are SOO wrong! Britains population is greater than France for the first time ever. I know we have an ageing population and thus will have a rapid drop in working aged people. However we just need to get cleverer. Yesterday I posted about housing for the elderly. I guess that whilst migration is a favorite topic for those on the right, they do not want to deal with the consequences of a falling population.

However, the planet requires it. Insect populations and thus those organisms higher up the food chain (apart from humans) have suffered too. So not growth but cleverer should be the mantra of government. Only new roads allowed should be where efficiency is enhanced. Use AIto control access to motorways and cities at sustainable levels. Only non-electric flights would be those where the technology for long distances does not exist yet. Solar and wind power increased, and heat pumps made mandatory on all new builds and where gas boilers are being replaced.

Farming – ban harmful chemicals but subsidise sustainable crops. Of course a balance is needed between imported foods and locally grown – no polishing of UK apples in Kenya, or imported flowers from there.

On a social front a move to a shorter working week is desirable, emphasis on quality of life not profit. Longevity of electrical appliances and furniture should be priced in with variable vat!

I think you get the drift of my thinking. Move from a society based on wealth creation and growth to one where happiness is the main objective. Happy clappy nonsense or just pragmatic common sense? You decide!

So a $trillion wiped off stocks! No doubt Trump will put trade barriers up but it is about time! The tech giants will have to get used to smaller profit margins if the competition really hots up! The US embargo on exporting top quality chips to China apparantly led to them producing a much more efficient version of AI, one which does all the important things that ChatGPT can do, and for a cheaper price. Quite why US giants have got away with a cartel situation for so long is strange. Their purchasing power has meant that competition has been bought out quickly. The open laissez faire policies of European nations has allowed this with firms such as ARM being sold abroad.

The huge investments firms are making in developing ‘thinking’ AI may be optimistic – just as the development of the motor car saw the main profits in the mass produced ‘available to all versions’, so AI may be similar?

As for the moguls of the tech era – we have/arewatching the Murdoch dynasty fight it out in court, wit at least 12 children the word can look farward to the Musk empire imploding. Tessla is already suffering from competition whilst the space industry is getting crowded out with satellites (Amazon now entering the competition).

The Planet will also see increassing environmental disasters as the natural systems adapt to the changes – there is usually a time lag with climatic change. I fear that we ‘haven’t seen nothing yet!

Conflicts over resources continue with the latest escalation being DRCongo where Rwandan supported rebels have taken over a major city (Goma) in the mineral rich area of the country. The world has too many people in the context of the current economic system. Countries like Britain should ensure that multi-culturalism and equality are embedded in the system whilst also reducing migration and thus the population. In my lifetime the population of the world has trebled and the UK has continued its growth from 50 million to 70 million.

A thought – I am having these, and some are appalling (e.g. Why are all Auchwitz survivors QPR supporters? I know, I Know – very, very bad and poor taste). But in the UK we have an ageing population – maybe it is not new housing for all that is required but retirement estates with facilities for all – gardens, sports, meeting rooms, communal dining areas? I know many old people are set in their ways and obnoxious but it would free up lots of housing. £10000 per bedroom grant to move out (on top of value of house or just is for rented). Thus freeing up houses in the suburbs for families. Cost-benefit would be amazing! No new builds and infrastructure improvements. Increased efficiency in health care for the old. Just thoughts!

What have you done? Oh my, are you going to regret it!

the orange man baby has acted with both speed and spite. The rioters have been pardoned, he has quit the WHO, opened up the USA for further fossil fuel exploitation, renaming The Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali, declaring a state of emergency on the southern borders, withdrawing from Paris Agreement, declaring that there are only 2 genders. Americans will come to learn what it is to live in a fascist state.

Of further concern was the guest list for his inauguration – the mega rich, the inhumane, the bigots were all out in force. The British contingent were obviously not rich enough, not inhumane enough and not bigotted enough to get an invite and were left fawning outside.

He has already impregnated the Supreme Court with his minions, now he has passed a schedule to allow dismissal of any civil servant at his whim. Promoting the macho image augers ill for women – rape charges have not been disproved against him; anti-abortion laws have been enforced by some states even in cases of paternal rape. The man is a disgrace to the human race. Planet Earth is unlikely to submit without a fight! Unfortunately she does not have the ability to be selective in the disasters she can wreak. But we can be sure that the USA will not be spared from drought, flood, fire, earthquakes, tornado and even tsunami.

God spared him (according to himself) – I am definitly a confirmed atheist!

Can the bullshit come to an end please. The inheritance tax adjustment to what the rest of us have (but not as bad) is being used to vent frustrations that the likes of Clarkson and Farage (looking like a ferret!) are quick to inflame. In France farm owners have to prove their capability to farm, not sure how? In this country the vast amount of our land is owned by a tiny number of people, like the Duke of Westminster (who I bet does not pay much as he has an army of lawyers working on tax avoidance). Land equal to the size of Greater London is set aside for shooting Red Grouse! How many people can afford to go shooting?

The small scale farmers (most) should be quite rightly complaint about the prices paid by supermarkets, about chlorinated chicken from the USA (hang on though – the intensive chicken farms in the Wye Valley have numbers counted in 100000’s and pollute the river), So not them then! The consumer must be prepared to pay for environmentally produced meat – and then eat less of it!

So keep the inheritance tax, but also close loop holes that make buying agricultural land that makes it attract pension funds and investors.