I have no actual records but! it does seem that we have had more Easterly winds this year? It has not been bitingly cold here, just colder than it should be due to the wind? Today is another example – dry and bright sunshine, but a little chilly in the wind.
BRAVERMAN
Not a major mistake but reflective of te attitude of some in Government to the rule of law, she was just mimicing the ex-PM Jihnson in thinking she was above the law. However this should be just the excuse Sunak needs to get rid of her from the Cabinet.
Meanwhile Chris Heaton-Harris Secretary of State for NI has called for the return of Storming. Sein Fein recorded 30.9% of the first prefence vote, DUP 23.3%, Alliance 13.3%, UUP 10.9%, SDLP 8.7%. The key here is that the DUP have less than a quarter of the vote but are able to paralyse the NI Assembly. Could the UUP and Alliance parties form an alliance to oust the DUP from its dominant place at Stormont?
ELECTION RESULTS
Just gone 8am and 62 council results in, out of 230. First impression is that it is a bad result for the Tories. Labour are probably privately disappointed whilst the LibDems and Greens will be happy – although they always seem to do better in local elections. The Green Party is building an influence but until they are winning councils they stand little hope of a breakthrough in a GE.
3pm and nearly half results are declared. Labour up 222, Tories down 374, LD up 91 and Greens up 87. Very good results for last 2 – very bad for Tories and only good, not very good for Labour.
North Somerset results will be out later. North Somerset results = hung council with I think C-13, Lab-10, Ind 11, LibD 9, Green 7. My to councillors are now Green. Turnout was 32.5% which I assume is low?
I suppise the statistic of the share of the votes will be interesting as there is little evidence of tactical voting at this level.
Lessons to be learnt. Conservatives – things have to change to win back the middle ground. Their policies are too right wing for many – maybe they need to stop fearing the Reform Party (UKIP). Labour needs to get its policies out and aired widely to win voters, and stop fearing the tory right. LibDems are making headway but like Labour are basically an unknown quality so far. The Greens policies – I have no idea if they have them or not! They also need to capitalise on the huge environmental problems facing us all. Turnout is thjought to be lowish but not markedly down to be able to say that the voter ID had a major impact.
The RWPress will be able to bury the results in the Coronation farce.
Councils have had their budgets cut so have little room for manoeuvre even if a new party takes over. And do people actually care – only the Green Party put leaflets through the door (2) and the rest nothing. So what were people voting for? Democracy is only effective with participation by the majority.
ALARMS
Despite 10 years of planning and a 7 figure cost this Government could not get the warning out to all. Those did get it found that the arrival varied by at least 12 minutes – a long time in an emergency. Assuming that those with 4 or 5 G coverage will get the warning, a more important question is what plans are in place for those who for whatever reason do not have a mobile phone? It appears none!
WEATHER 18 APRIL
A chill wind from the north east before veering to the west on Friday night. But nights are set to be chilly througout the next week so I will leave the heater in the greenhouse on! tomato seeds are growing – I will have to think about potting them up in the next couple of weeks – whilst the chilli plants will need doing this week. Amaranthus seeds are doing well! I will harden them off in a couple of weeks and then put some by the pavement?
APRIL – Weather
8th April and bright and sunny but still cold in the mornings. Hanging baskets going up tomorrow – plants have been potted and hardened on patio table so should be ok. I am leaving the heater on in the greenhouse until hight temperatures are above 10C – seeds have germinated (well some!) so I hope to be able to plant them up into their pots in 5 or 6 weeks. Chillies looking good, but not sure about the basil plants I bought – they are on kitchen window sill so getting sunlight and water. Green wheelie bin filled again – one more time should put me on top of things for a while! Although I will need to cut back various plants around the greenhouse and raspberries.
Weather forecast is to get wet and windy again for a bit and then maybe high pressure again with warm days.
WEATHER AND …
Our weather recently has been a bit odd. Nothing dramatic but February was very dry, and now March has been wet. Temperatures have been OK with only a couple of frosts last month. Plants in greenhouse – flower seeds are growing but no sign of the tomatoes yet. A dozen mints arrived today, along with 9 chilli plants and 16 plug plants for hanging baskets – I might get proper liners this year. Question – do I keep rosemary plants and sage plants in pots or plant out?
Cooking today for important people – wraps with marinated lamb, salad in greek dressing, greek lentil salad, cold roast potatoes cooked with rosemary, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, brown, red, black rice, spicy chick peas, ……….;;; followed by Cheddar Strawberries and a variety of nuts and dried fruit. Breakfast tomorrow – home made baguettes, bacon, sausage, egg.
WEATHER – MARCH
Its cold!. Oissibility of snow tonight and temperatures close to zero. Last March we had temperatures over 20C. What impact this will have on the environment I am not sure – I guess it is not abnormal and we should wait to see what happens next – a warm end of the month and April would enable things to catch up.
WEATHER 2 MARCH 2023
Cold and bright here but no frost. Looking at the weather map it is possible tht we could get snow next week. High pressure oover Shetland will bring down the cold air, then low pressure systems out in the Atlantic could bring the moisture. About a 20% chance but we will know more by Sunday.
WEATHER -WORLD
USA is experiencing extremes of weather at the same time. The South-east has hot weather with temperatures around 32C; meanwhile the Dakota’s are experiencing -50C. Blizzards are affecting much of the country with Los Angeles issuing an alert as they may get 2m of snow.
Australia has had relatively wet weather which has encouraged plant growth. So far so good, but whenthe next dry period comes there will be more than twice as much vegetation to burn in wildfires. Whether this is exacerbated by the reduction in numbers of wild herbivores I do not know. Certainly houses have been built in areas where the natural periodic fires take place.
New Zealand is still recovering from the floods caused by a hurricane which destroyed homes, roads and rail lines besides deaths.
Flooding in São Paulo state, Brazil has left 48 dead after 600mm of rain fell.
The UK faces another month of high pressure with cloudy damp and cold weather. Not good for solar or wind, although yesterday wind and solar outstripped gas with none from coal. Readings from the BT Tower show that pollution has dropped markedly since the. introduction of the ULEZ seems to be working – next up will be building emissions.