How many more children, like Sara Sharif, will need to die before England falls into line with Scotland and Wales, and gives children the same protection as adults. Forget the stupid arguments against a ban ‘It never did me any harm”. (have a look in the mirror – pal!). The a gentle tap does no hardm – How much is too much?, Who gets to decide. But they were being really naughty and could have hurt themselves or others – I suggest you sign up for a parenting course!
There should never be a situation which warrants hitting a child (even 12 year old rioters!). There may, as with any crime, be mitigating circumstances, but only a judge or magistrate should be able to decide on these! A child dies of abuse every week in England
However, based on the number of child homicides recorded by the police each year, we know that, on average, at least one child is killed a week in the UK.( NSPCC).
Yes it would be great to see the anti-woke twats getting flamed up about a ban – but that is just anside bonus to the ending of cruelty to children. Well probably not and end too, but hopefully a beginning to the end of …
Sloppy journalism in the USA. Watching a weather forecast from Florida the presenter (presumably not a meteorologist) stated that the storm surge was caused by the winds blowing the water onshore. This may be a small part of the process but it is the fall in air pressure thatt has most impact. This effect is estimated at a 10 mm (0.39 in) increase in sea level for every millibar (hPa) drop in atmospheric pressure. The average for the Caribbean Sea is just over 1000mb, so Milton coming in at 900mb could see a potential surge of 10m – this is obviously too high and I am out of my scientific knowledge, I guess te surge also depends on how enclosed the area is and also on surrounding air pressure, and the shape of the shoreline and its depth close to the shore? Definitely out of my depth now!
Hurricane Milton is turning into one of the most dangerous to hit the USA. Estimates of wind speeds upto 165mph, a storm surge of over 4m and nearly 500mm of rain could bring devastation to the Tampa region. The geographical extent of the hurricane is still being determined but it is thought it may broaden to several hundred miles which means that many will not have evacuated far enough! Petrol stations were also without fuel anyway! The area to the north of the expected path of Milton was affected by Helene anyway so there is probably still problems there. It is somewhat ironic that over 1000 flights have been cancelled (what clmate crisis!). So tonight will see landfall. Some questions I have! Will the Evergaldes be flooded? and if so is it likely that Alligators will become a problem in urban areas?
So BP and Shell are scaling back on green energy and increasing oil production – fucking stupid and greedy. Rivers world wide are drying up! Amazon, Ganges, Bramaputra and Mekong have all suffered lower than normal levels this year. As glaciers melt there will be a reduced flow from some of the rivers that are relied on by large numbers of humanity (rivers eminating from the Himalayas primarily, and then the Rockies and Andes).
A ski resort in France shuts as it cannot provide the snow, 3 die in Thai floods. Several hundred have already died in the USA. Will it be the insurance industry that leads us into action? When premiums go high that amybe when the government takes notice.
3 Hurricanes are around at the same time which is bit of a record! Kirk is already well north and may bring non-hurricane winds to Europe (but is causing high surf and rip currents to Bermuda and beyond), Leslie is also faffing about in mid-Atlantic but may bring a storm surge to the Eastern seaboard of North America. Of most interest is Hurricane Milton which was an ‘enhanced’ tropical storm until it picked up energy from the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea (which is warmer than normal for the time of year (climate change). Milton will likely hit a similar area to Helene and will certainly add inches (USA!) to the rainfall already received. Latest predictions are that it will be south of the Florida pan handle, but will reach Category 2 or even 3 with a storm surge likely.
Again time for reality! This was copied from National grid web site at 11.15am today. The interesting one to me is biomass – how is that so high? Nuclear we have to accept as we transition from fossil to renewable. However the National Grid will not record off grid production? So my consumption via solar panels will be ignored? As Schumacher said – ‘small is beautiful’ and with the advent of better batteries, maybe the need for nuclear power is obsolete? With batteries I reckon I could be self sustaining in power for testing and everything! I realise that this is not possible for most people or industries. But it could be possible if we stopped believing in macro economics!
Time for us to follow the French and ban pesticides from cities, including private gardens. Paris has been pesticide free since 2019. My garden is pesticide free and full of food plants for insects, bees and birds. I have a large area of raspberries and I expected the birds to beat me to the harvest – but it is largely bird free although there are plentiful insects. Yes I have seen the odd bee and butterfly but they too have been disappointing in their general absence. I guess that whilst in a rural village the other 80 or so houses in my sunurban road have only token flowers, and 80-90% mow their lawns with enthusiam every 2 weeks. Next door neighbour even sprayed an escaped wallflower that managed to flower close the wall of her house! I will admit to using slug pellets occasionally when planting out young plants from the greenhouse, but once established they are on their own! Butwhere are the birds – the bird feed in the feeder went rotten and the seeds started sprouting?
I thought of more professional terms like the Sunday Surmise, or the Sunday Sermon, or even the Weekend Wankfest. But a stumble through events seems most appropriate!
Firstly I have made a strawberry sponge – the test will be in the eating! Basically a sponge recipe with home made strawberry jam in the middle topped with stewed strawberries and lemon. I might add double cream for complete decadence! and then sprinkle some nuts on top! Pickled onions – first 2kg done, and pickled garlic up next. Baguettes – Millie is doing her bit at the moment, so this evening or tomorrow morning. My baguettes with herbs went down well, next time I will try with some flaked chilli, or even homegrown chillies. Tomatoes are very slow at the moment – not enough sun? I still have breakfast of raspberries when I go down to water the greenhouse, and have left the mulberries for Martin who is coming tomorrow. Apple harvest also looks good this year.
Well enough about me, int he News. First off, the sinking of the super yacht. This is very disturbing! Mainly because of the absurd amount of publicity it has received. He was said by a friend to be a lovely unassuming and grounded person. So unassuming and grounded that he owned a million £ boat with worlds largest mast. Not exactly bashful then! The drowning of his daughter aged 18 is obviously very sad – but as I did not know her, no more sad than the deaths of desperate people travelling across borders all over the world. It is a fucked up world!
Then Kate Allsop – front page again as she let her 15 year old son go inter railing. I had no idea who she was or that her family has close connections with Diana’s – did this help her get a job on TV? So basically a rich and connect mum lets her privileged son, aged 15 go inter railing with a 16 year old mate. Let us leave aside the rich and privileged bit (I am fairly certain he will have stayed in hotels rather than roughing it on park/railway station benches around Europe. Personally I think tat if he was mature enough I have no problem. I would not have been happy if it had been my son at 15, but like me he took a while to mature (and others seem to regress like Donald Trump! – is he even let out alone?). However I would have been happy for either of my daughters (Maz will say different, but she had to teach me to be cool – and I did put her on a train from Weston-super-Mare to Newhaven alone and aged about 12! Tams at 18 went to Africa with a pal and without the financial or societal backup. One of my memorable moments. Tams would use my credit card to buy clothes and always paid me back. I was a tad surprised when she told me she had just put £££ on it which was for a flight for her and Sofia to South Africa and the Buzzbus and a safari! So I back Kate Allsop all the way.
Much has been reported about the fake news that contributed to the riots. The BBC has investigated and can find no evidence that it was spread by Russia so that itself is fake news. I suspect that the rioters were just waiting for them to happen so they would have found an excuse anyway. I am sure they were not expecting to be arrested en masse and banged up for substantial periods of time!
and Houston cannot help! Supertanskii summed it up with Stochastic terrorism.
Farage and co are MP’s and are there to serve all the people, not just a few racist thugs. I will come clean here as I am guilty of similar double standards! I whole heartedly condemn Just Stop Oil disrupting traffic and everyday events ….. but support their concerns. However Farage did not even go that far – before the BUT came in that basically gave his support for the riots.
