CLIMATE ON TV

There should be a 10/15 minute broadcast the latest progress or not regarding climate change. This should include electricity generation on a weekly basis to show renewable/fossil generation. It should also have regular updates of electric car sales, houses insulated, CO2 levels.

All this could be supplemented with relevant innovations and analysis of government policies, both home and abroad (new coal mines, power stations etc.).

It should not be scaremongering, but should attempt to keep the issue at the forefront of everyones minds. Excerpts should be put on social media and politicians asked for comments on specific issues.

There is plenty of material available to make it an interesting programme with a valuable contribution.

Canada, Russia, Brazil and the USA and the Middle Eastern producers are all offering subsidies to fossil fuel companies to expand production. At present fossil fuels accounts for 60% of greenhouse gases – so basically governments are subsidising fossil fuel extraction using your taxes. Britain is not squeaky white on this with one of the 22 mega projects (although one of the smallest of the biggest.

RECYCLING

Recycling in England has fallen to 44% whilst in Wales it has risen to 56.5. Total amount of waste generated by households in the UK is 27m tonnes, up 2.4%

Whist recycling may not be a primary major cause of the climate crisis it is an indication of how we are running the planet and not cutting emissions.

FOOD BANKS

Lee Anderson (very nasty party) says a nutritious meal can be cooked for 30p. In my local shop this might buy me some gross children sweets (do we hate children in this country by feeding them these sweet chemicals concoctions.). I definitely do not call this nutritious.

CLUELESS

Millions of Britons struggle to make relatively declining wages cope with rising prices. So the government says it will make laws to stop street names being changed, stop property developers having new housing stoped by locals, make it illegal to protest against the government, scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with ‘at the discretion of Ministers”, declared war on anyone “Woke’, scrapped legislation to prevent a repetition of the banking crash, etc. Not a positive anywhere. And still people support them?

Northern Ireland

An English layman’s thoughts. Firstly the election whilst significant, has been over hyped. First preference votes were 29% and the party did not add to its number of seats. The Unionist vote was split. Perhaps the most significant change was the Alliance party getting 17 seats which is 9 more than last time. However the Unionist parties did get more seats than Sinn Fein, but not enough for a majority. Unionists claim this is enough for them to retain First Minister Post, which to my mind shows little faith in the fragile democracy of NI. Whether Sinn Fein could form a minority government and form a coalition with the SDLP and the Alliance Party remains to be seen. So a difficult situation.

Made much worse by the Westminster Government who are supporting abandonment of the NI Protocol they negotiated with the EU. Having already cost the UK economy around $£250 billion since Brexit the government seems to want to further ostracise ourselves from the rest of the world. I am fairly sure the Biden administration would have something to say too. As to what will happen – it is more difficult than predicting a teenagers mood.

Meanwhile the government is still having tantrums about Starmer and curry. It is not like Starmer is important at the moment, leader of an English Political party which did well I London and Wales, OK in Scotland and not particularly well elsewhere. So the governments obsession must be seen as a diversion from Johnson’s failings (his visit to the Ukraine did not sway the voters as hoped.

The UK seems to be at a tipping point. I believe that most people in Scotland, Wales and N.I. do not want independence, but are fed up with Westminster and its arrogance, so a move towards a more federal state seems inevitable?

COST OF LIVING

The government and big business do not get it. The problem is the growth of disparity in wealth. Without a few enjoying excessive wealth we would not have the poverty that is growing across the UK.

BEERGATE

Things must be bad for the tories for the trash papers to bang on about a non-story for so long. was there an election recently?

Cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine, Foreign Office/Hoe Office shambles over migrants, women’s rights in the USA, climate crisis on Indian sub-continent, but no – Starmer eating a curry a year ago is more important for sub species like Dominic Raab. Of course I would not expect him to understand anything regarding Northern Ireland.

POLITICS

What a load of hot air and bullshit is being spouted this morning. Labour claiming they are doing well outside London which is palpably untrue, Tories claiming that doing worse than they did in these seats last time was not a disaster and reflection on Johnson, LibDems claiming great success from a very low base, the same is true for the Greens although they are still just getting established.

AMERICA

We watch Friends and Cheers, Hollywood blockbusters, but America is a foreign land. I have not travelled extensively but felt more comfortable in rural Spain than I did in Chicago. In Spain no one spoke English but we had an unspoken companionship of a common heritage and history – obviously different but similar in patterns. In Chicago everything was similar but somehow distorted – water waiters, only black performers in blues bars with only white customers, the richest country on earth with a subway system seemingly held together with chewing gum.