Posts

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Why is it that politicians take a ‘pragmatic’ view on further exploitation in the waters around the UK?  Basically it is a class thing.  Poor people are concerned about paying the rent/mortgage rather than the esoteric thought of controlling climate extremes, as a human race we are very adept in prioritising our personal needs before empathy for others.   As ever it is the poor who suffer most from extremes of temperature in poorly insulated houses or concrete blocks of flats.  `it will be the poor who suffer most from floods, not the toff on the hill!  It will be the poor who face the brunt of price rises due to crop failures or poor harvests, not the rich or even the middle classes.  Got a pension? It will almost certainly have investments related to fossil fuels, so please explain this to your grandchildren, children understand the world better than adults.  Old people are nostalgic for their past and oblivious to the future of there offspring, I could call it selfish.  Perhaps storms Austen, Boelo and Chloe will make our politicians take notice?  It may not be the poor who are most affected but those who have bought their first house and are skint!  It seems that planners and house builders have not even studied Geography at GCSE, covering farmland with impermeable concrete and tarmac will result in floods – no shit! Oh but add in the water companies lack of investments it probably will result in shit!  

Solar and onshore wind turbines generate electricity at about £30 megawatt hour, much cheaper than fossil fuels and nuclear.  Solar power is set to exceed 61% of world electricity generation by 2050 – so a lot of good news, it is just that sometime it needs bad news to stimulate action, Reform thrive on it but offer no solution just lies and propaganda for their fossil fuel donors.

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AUTUMN

Whilst hoping for an “Indian Summer” it is noticeably cooler at dawn recently. Forecasts for the next 2 weeks are for changeable weather and nothing to get excited about! Unlike South Korea which is preparing for a lot of rain. My apples are smaller this year and not ready yet, tomato plants are nearly done. Cutting back the herbs .

Note how the racist press lines up to criticise tax increases, but fails to criticise the policies of government, ‘have their cake and eat it’ comes to mind. The luxury of being not in power is that there is no need to justify policies or say how they will be funded. So Reform &Co can talk about deporting people without having to justify how they would staff the NHS and many other industries; they never address the facts about the future demography of the uk.

Apparently the government is running scared of the legal costs of privatising the water industry. Just pass a law – stupid. Parliament is above the law ultimately, so just pass the law, and refuse the judiciary allowance to change it. This may raise other issues, but the government was able to imprison people for showing support Palestine Action posters. The hedge funds that have been ripping off customers of water companies can just fuck off. They will continue to seek out opportunities for easy profits in the UK – and no one will fuck off out the UK unless they are total losers. Where would they go? The Middle East is fucked up enough – maybe Canada?

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TRUMP ASSUMPTION

Does he really have the time or the ability to create stupid AI generated pictures of himself(many examples), or does he pay someone to do it. Either way the answer is farcical – as if playing golf was not enough! He has become the biggest joke on the world stage since, maybe Liz Truss? or is this too unkind to Liz, she gets very upset easily, just mention lettuce in hearing. He meanwhile did not manage to sabotge the take off of the Nancy Grace Roman telescope from the NASA base. Was he annoyed at the name, or just that a bit of metal and glass was a gazillion times more important than him! The telescope offers further opportunities to expand our knowledge of the universe – without political of economic interference – I am slightly astonished that Musk did not arrange to sabotage the take off – he seems to want to build the future around himself.

Further details from Nepal/China are showing the disaster to be even more horrendous than at first thought. Other news, Iceland has voted not to pursue EU membership for now, again a 52-48 vote, but as they are already members of the EEA and the Schengen agreement, it made some sort of sense to protect their fishing interests, Reykjavik voted in favour. The rural-urban theme is becoming popular with the Observer running an article about devolution to urban mayors. First the fact that the percentage who live and work in rural areas is tiny, and mainly retired. the totals for the UK are 168000 employed as owners, directors or farmers, and another 65000 permanent farm workers. less than 2%. However their importance is greater than that, the tractor rallies in London and elsewhere have faded away – maybe due to the facts appearing. First measles related deaths in USA – Trump and Kennedy should be prosecuted!

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HOW THE RIGHT WORKS

As relatively sane person I am interested in how the right creates such virulent aggressive people. I blame the News outlets. They run a never ending diet of depressing stories and put a negative twist on others. This creates an of depression and ‘who shall we hate today’. The victims of this hate campaign are often women who they perceive as incapable of fighting back (Meghan and Angela Rayner are examples). Then they promote someone who pretends to offer reform and a better future (often by appealing to the hazy mists of years gone by. Minority groups are also easy targets, migrants, people of different skin colour, the disabled, the unemployed, and sometimes just the young – never the old, they have the money and power. Fortunately for them the people attracted to this vision of the futurebased on the past are generally not very bright, lacking empathy for others, selfish and not very bright! (the bright ones are in charge of the narrative and making money out of it (Trump,Farage). If the youths in the car that killed 2 police officers had been black/migrants there would have been riots in Middlesbrough – insstead the area is left to stew in its crime and poverty, Brawn manipulated by brains. Why else would people vote for rich twats living abroad and funded by dodgy money? Oh my god – what a rant for early on Sunday morning1. So a positive – lovely article in the Observer on St,Gary Lineker, he really does seem to be a nice guy, but also ordinary.

But I have more venom to air! This time the Met.Office. I am fully aware that weather forecasting is a notoriously difficult task. That said – why publich a rainfall radar map if it is palpably wrong1. I will illustrate – Friday morning I looked at the map, I dismissed small pods of light rain, but it looked like decent rain at 11.15’ish – it did not rain until the evening. Tody the map shows little rain until this evening, but the forecast has 80-90% rain all afternoon. And what does the 80% bit mean, I am told that it means there is 80% chance of rain in the area – but it does not say what the area is! The site lets me pinpoint my location to within a kilometre, the map marks my locatioon accurately. I would rather that they used statistics to predict the certainty of their prediction, or better use words! “Todays forecast is a bit iffy, there is rain about for North Somerset but exactly where is difficult’. Or even analogies – like ‘a good day to put washing out, go for a long walk or have a picnic’ or stay in and get a good book to listen to the rainfall”. Temperature wise they are almost always accurate. So should I do the washing? It is 16.22 and it has not rained!

My herbs are all doing well on the patio and its table – I have trouble finding room for my chair and a glass of wine on the table! They should be fine for another month or so – then I will bring them in, or put into greenhouse cleared of tomato plants. Then next spring I will try and sell some offshoots at the shop.

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LIES, DAMN LIESS AND STATISTICS

South West water has been named as the most polluting water company with574323 hours of sewage spills – crap pumped into rivers and beaches. Their spokesperson talked bollocks for a while, overflow spills down 17% etc. but refrained from talking about the 39% increase in water billssince 2024. The highest bills in the UK at £726 – have their executives and profits reduced – of course not, the present system is a gift for rich people to get richer. Come on Burnham, if you have to change the law to fuck these bastards, do so.

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TIBET

The scale of the disaster is becoming more apparant with every day – now over 1000 dead and the possibility of further horrendous floods are possible. Of course the trash press are only interested in the 30+ Britons who have been killed, why when every loss of life is to be mourned, the press no longer report the executions of Children and medics in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon. Is this due to the lack of ‘Brits” killed or the Israeli/Jewish influence. Yes I include ‘Jewish’ as there are many Jews who support Israeli actions, or chose to stay quiet – i.e. complicit. Tens of M.P.s have accepted donations from pro-israeli bodies including any Labour (and Ministers). Burnham promises positive action, but we wait and see; just like we do on proportional representation and donations to parties where he seems to have back tracked after Union pressure, donations from abroad should be a straightforward ban? But politics is a messy business.

I hve a suggestion, as the UN seems to be ever more toothless, why not create an international brigade, made up of a mixture of troops and civilians, who can intercede when dusters occur. All countries would be invited to aprticipate and pay for it, It would have ‘blue hat’ status and ability to call up experts to aid difficult situations (nuclear accidents). TBH it is pathetic that we rely on charities to aid (even with government funding). Unfunding by Trump has probably led to many thousands of deaths – despicable apology for a human!

Beans and pulse sales are up over 7% in the last year. This has to be good for both our selves and the planets, Eating meat will always be an option, but a reduction hs to be welcomed by the NHS.

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I LAUGHED

The orange faced child has thrown toys out of his pram and attempted to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America – fucking lunatic! Has he finished yet? The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed Gulf of America. The egoistic fool has already added his name to several federal buildings – next up “the Atlantic Ocean” “New York” or “…… “- suggestions please. I just read that Trump said he would maybe ‘change the names of both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans)”! Perhaps he will insist that African Countries revert to their subservient times and regress to names like South Rhodesia and Gold Coast.

Russia states that the UK is “playing with fire” by supporting Ukraine. Russia may well attack UK bases as it has threatened – but we have no choice but to combat a madman (Putin – who Farage adfmires as a leader!). Europe is under threat and whilst not all Eastern European countries are anti-Putin we should defend the borders of our allies.

Summer holidays are nearly over, it would make more sense to bring them in line with Europe and Scotland and have July off? Temperature examination shows this makes sense. Rain predicted later – I have had it explained, but do not understand the MetO prediction of rain, it says 30% but when I look at the rainfall radar there is no rain anywhere near! So why bother with a fictitious percentage to cover all eventualities. If 30% represents an area that may get rain – I need to see the size of the area! Is it North Somerset, England, UK, Europe? Pointless. Looking at the rainfall radar an hour ago it says we should get decent rain at 11.18 – we will see!

Tomatoes are looking worn out so I doubt I will get many more – is this early, maybe I did not feed/water to their liking – but whatever I have had a supply for at least 8 weeks.

Numbers of asylum seekers in hotels has halved, small boat crossings reduced and yet the trash want to continue with a narrative because they have no other – the deaths in Middlesborough are horrific and a result of austerity (a right wing policy espoused by Reform and Regress).

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NEPAL (and water supply UK)

200 dead and another 800 missing; (revised totals on Friday am are 400 dead and 1300 missing) another result of climate change; warmer weather may have allowed a big chunk of rock and ice to plumet onto a glacier causing it to break and send a wall of water, ice and debris down a valley. An avalaunche a few weeks ago killed mountaineers in the `Himalayas and a village was destroyed in the alps last year. These events will beome increasingly common as the temperatures warm. Wildfires are sweeping across Northern Algeria. But fires are old news! Next up are floods in the UK as the earth has been baked hard and infiltration lowered. Interesting that a hosepipe ban comes in tonight in this area, they are blaming low flow in the R.Severn – that could be ironic if floods hit the normal places like Tewksbury! Average water use pp in the UK is about 140 ltrs., so add in 10000 houses and 2 per house and we get an extra 1.4m litres per day needed at least? And they have built zero reservoirs and their pipes are still leaking! And all this without considering data centres, but of course it is the citizen who will have to pay, price of water is rising, whilst the fat cat investors who ensure investments are not given priority over their profits. When will our politicans come clean on the need to spend money now, to prevent further crisis.

I have just done some calculations Population increase in the last decade in Bristol and North Somerset is 62000, and @ 140 litres per day that is over 8 million litres a day – what have Bristol water done about this? And it is projected that the increase will be similar over the next 10 years without new data centres (and there are a few proposed).

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META

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1bn (£12.57bn) to settle claims brought by 29 US states that its platforms harmed children. What is sad is that it could have done something to protect children before being forced to do so, and that the settlement is all small change to the $trillion business. It is still subject to the courts approval.