A good chance of it being clear here – but will I wake up, then get up at 05.30?
CONFUSED
The trash papers tell us that we must prepare for an attack by Russia; I know it probably sells newspapers but really! It would appear that Russia is struggling against the Ukraine. Why do right wing newspapers and parties want to increase military spending, whilst all the time complaining about taxes and welfare. Anybody under the age of 80 in this country has not lived under war conditions – what are they afraid of?
Water compaanies have said they will fight any change to the insolvency laws – But Parliament makes and passes the laws, so the greedy hedge funds will just have to suck it! Just as Trump will have to do in negotiations with Canada. Canada can open trade links with other countries and benefit from the tariff war, Similarly China can do the same if Trump gets uppity about Irans exports of oil to China. The world is not a peaceful place at the moment with Trump, Netmanyahu and Putin strutting like old cocks in a farmyard.
Will we finally get a fair voting system in the UK? Whilst I shudder at the thought of more toss pots from Reform and the other ones, in Parliament, in a democracy they deserve to have their racist incoherrent lies heard. Argumentsabout the need for FPTP and strong government have been totally washed away by the ineptitude of the last government, and to some extent the large majority of the present one.
Fuel bills rise again – and no dumbass, opening up fields in the North Sea will not help, but a war like effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels would, jobs would be created locally, especially if combined with insulation. Data centres are a difficult problem – we are increasingly becoming dependant in AI and the super computers (until a hacker takes one down!). They use vast amounts of water and electricity – climate change should determine that they are always sited on the coast – the finance these companies make is humungous – so they should have to pay extra to ensure that local people never lose their power supply before an AI company.
Floods predicted across the country. Hey guys, what were you doing in your Geography lessons! I fear that more will become aware of ‘infiltration rates’, ‘saturation point’, ‘overland flow’ and the need for beaver in preference to grouse moors. If it means job loses, so be it.
Burnham also seems ready to speak out about Israels annexation of the West Bank – will he stand up and be counted.
STUPIDITY
War is stupid. Trump and Putin and Netmanyahu are stupid. Thousands die, many of them innocent children, all salve their gigantic egos and deflect attention from thair criminal activities. So should the UK be aiding Ukraine – yes, should we be aiding Trump, absolutely not. Should we take sanctions against Israel – certainly (although there may be hidden costs here!). Trump is also upping tariffs with Canada – the man is a childish moron.
I still have not made my mind up on Andy Burnham – has he the balls to take on Israel, halt new developments in the North Sea, truly sort out the NHS and education in the UK, provide an alternative way of providing for the care sector and asylum seekers. Take on the City of London’s monopoly of, and financial distortion of the housing market. He has the majority to do it all!
Reform have said they will evict tennants in social housing who do not keep their gardens tidy – ha fucking ha! A tidy world is a boring world – perhaps they would use agent orange of wildlife areas? The Telegraph also has a very strange article about paddle boards ruining rivers! 96% of rivers in England deny access to the public and paddle boarders. 75% of river banks are forbidden zones for the public. So the Telegraph runs an article with a header on its front page, for one or two individuals who are put out by paddle boarders. Fucking ridiculous. Surely a responsible journalist would have referred to every river in England being polluted and most a hazard to health.
Trump, again, has IndyCars racing around the streets of Washington – there were no reports of children taken to hospital with breathing difficulties resulting from the pollution (suppressed no doubt). ULEZ has been a great success for London – wood burning stoves are a greater hazard! – with childrens lungs recovering. Wood burning fires in London seems a bit daft! Does London produce much timber for burning? Or are they stripping the area around it for their pleasure? Smog was common during my teenaged years – I think we should have moved on.
DISRESPECT
The Sun referring the two Police Officers killed in a crash with a cra going the wrong way down a dual carriageway, called them ‘cops’, this is disrespectful. ‘Cops’ is slang and the death in the line of duty should be treated with respect and gravity. This is the second crash of this sort in days – the last was in ireland and has been blamed on TikTok, if this is correct, social media must be made to be responsible for its misdemeanours, either banning or heavily fining. The case in California against Meta is expected to last 6 weeks. The outlook for Meta is not good, they have already been fined $942m in New Mexxico and have also settled out of court with a school district in Kentucky and have another 6000 case being pursued in the courts in the US. The fines could become $billions!
Of course the Mail is still preoccupied with Meghan and Harry! The Express concentrates on concerns regarding the green belt, whilst the Telegraph has a big pic of Harry and leads on a cyber attack on a power plant that has been attributed to Iran. If you play with fire, you may get burnt! (Halt the planes feeding Trumps war from using the UK as an offshore base).
Applications for onshore wind turbines have increased in England, half the cost of gas produced electricity, it makes sense. Most applications are relatively small scale “small is beautiful” and would increase manufacturing and employment in the UK, and strengthen our independance.
M.P.S FREEBIES
The newspaper was full of the £400000 worth of freebies accepted by MP’s, however there should be some caution. Free tickets to pop concerts and top sporting events should be shunned, however a local MP attending a cup final or such llike is reasonable (although being able to write off against tax would be fairer?). Basically if attending in a private capacity they should pay..
El Niño – politicians are out of touch with the public. Surveys put environmental issues at no.4 of concern and climate change was blamed for the recent heatwave by 86% of voters as the major factor. It is not another boring policy decision on which views can differ – action is fucking essential and should be a priority. Wankers like Tice should be told to shut up for making stupid comments about British Champagne – what a prick. The Daily Mail, swimming in damages monies should also shut up if it has nothing sensible to state (if it ever gets over Harry and Meghan (15 pages on Friday!) and stop making accusations about Nature Reserves being a fire hazard – they may well save many people from the effects of flooding. Whilst predictions are notoriously difficult, it seems that we may experience more extreme weather events over the next few months – time to call a COBRA meeting?
A SORRY PLACE
The UK is a sorry place at the moment, racism and sexism are on the rise. Reform and Restore are blatently racist and senior Conservatives have joined the band wagon, even Labour have been afraid to criticise for fear of losing the racist which used to form its base. The police have been slow to pursue rapists and domestic abusers of women. How is thiss happening? The racist ideology of the right wing wankers has been promoted across the media, including the BBC, most people on social media are in echo chambers where there outlandish and horrid thoughts are supported and amplified; I forget how many times I have heard that something is “all over the internet”, where in reality it is only their friends and most used sites, most of the time I have to actually search to find out what it is that “is all over the internet”. People are more isolated than before – the pub’s are shutting or rarely used (and Westminster Council want to ban ‘vertical drinking’! the social interaction is disappearing, individual conversations become “everyone says …”. Empathy has receded as we, as a society, become more selfish and people become more bigoted. How many people actually know meghan and and Harry>. yet that did not stop a phone in from airing the veiws of the bigoted and small minded from repeating the lies pedalled by the Mail, Express, Telegraph and Sun. Basically I could not give a shit about royalty, I wish they did more, for the less endowed and perhaps were a humble example for everyone.
Solar panels and heat pumps and batteries could be rolled out cross the country quite cheaply with 90% low interest loans repyable via the energy bill (to avoid non-payment). With savings in excess of £900 per year repayments could be manageable for the majority of home owners and landlords.
Trump is not wining the war against Iran, Israel contnues to be despicable, and mid-term elections are looming. What ridiculus prank will he pull next? Invasion of Greenland is an easy option militarily but has dire consequences diplomatically,; invading Cuba might be difficult, militarily and politically.
PUTIN THREATENS THE UK
Should we be worried? I suspect not at the moment – Russia has enough problems trying to protect itself from Ukranian drones, which are increasingly effective. However we should not be complacent – the UK is also allowing US Military to use airfileds in the UK on bombing missions to Iran. So a double threat and Trump is capable of not passing on intelligence via NATO.
In the USA Meta are defending a case brought by 29 states that allege that Facebook and Instagram collected data on children under the age of 13. The case will obviously go to the Supreme Court and the predicted fine is likely to be in the region of $200 billion if Meata are found guilty. The real question should be why is it that they can afford a fine even 3x as big!
North Sea gas supplies will run low in 10 years a report states. So we need to to move quicker on alternatives. It would seem that we have the capability to prove electricity from alternative sources to fill the gap, but not the storeage capacity – yet. I suspect that I could be just about self sufficient in energy with decent battery storage.
We had some rain, which I would classify as Goldilocks Rain! Not too heavy, not too light, just right. Enough to water the garden, but not much runoff – except on the roads! A report states that some of our ancient oak trees over 9m in circumference maybe at peril – just water them then! There are only 114 in England and 98 in the rest of Europe (including Scotland and Wales). An oak tree supports over 250 species of insects.
Meanwhile a study of children in Ulez areas has shown a significant improvement in lung recovery and basically death – So well done Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and I hope that those who took action against the ULEZ are suitably ostrasized by their communities.
TRUMP
Totally lost the plot; He has threstened to bomb the shit out of Oman ‘if they get in his way!” whatever that means; he has reduced collaboration in a military exercise with Soth Korea because he likes the President of totalitarian North Korea (my very good friend); He has said that sailors complaining about conditions on USS Abraham `Lincoln, “have not had long enough at sea”; whilst equipping ICE operatives with gloves that deliver an electric shock; whilst appointing Kennedy to be Head of Health; whilst obsessing about vanity projects in Washington. Our own looney duo. Jenprick and NotNice said we should forget about climate change and just enjoy the warm weather as it definitely is not caused by human activity and approximately just under 30% of voters will still vote for the wankers!.
I just had a free eye test (NHS) and despite being bored silly and not reading the bottom line, my glasses prescription is the same – although the optician was fascinated by my Christmas condition (like a snow dome). Tens of thousands of non-racists attended a vigil for Jason Arday who was found dead after a relentless hate campaign by the shit press.
The UK water regulator Ofwat is considering rule changes to allow water companies to trial “surge pricing” and seasonal tariffs during droughts, charging higher rates in summer or when usage passes high thresholds to curb demand. Burnham said he will stop this. OFWAT should be renamed OFRIP – not content with letting the water companies may executives and shareholders money taken from customers, they have also accrued vast debts – nationalise with no compensation – NOW!
We had a little wetness this morning, which may keep my neighbours at bay. More overnight and tomorrow hopefully. I did not realise that we were not under a hosepipe ban – Wessex Water do the sewage, but Bristol Water provide the cool stuff. I think I may need to double my present water butt capacity to 700ltrs,
FIRE
The severe alert continues to agitate the ignorant. So far there have been 1017 wildfires recorded by the fire service, given that 99% are caused by humans that is at least 1000 caused either maliciously or by ignorance. These fires are not like a building fire, they move very quickly and cover huge areas – just one fire in the Peak District covers an area the size of 900 football pitches. Across the world an area equivalent to Spain, France and Germany combined has been burnt. The estimated cost in Europe is £16.3 billion with up to 1.5 million deaths due to smoke inhalation. And the Army has been called in to aid the fire service in the UK. Andy Burnham has also had a COBRA meeting. It has taken me a while to suss out why so many people are getting their knickers in a twist and their hackles up. At first I thought it was a political thing, lets knock the government ‘even if we do not have any facts’; but there is a deeper anger based on selfishness. Wild fires do not affect most people and empathy for others was destroyed by Thatcherism. Personally I do not have a BBQ (do not like greasy burnt food! ), no longer smoke and am intelligent enough to avoid situations where I might cause a wildfire. So should I be incandescent with rage over the governments severe alert (although I agree that it was rather loud!). Fortunately I do not consider myself to be selfish or egoistic, and neither are my family and friends – which is why they are all appalled at the ignorance of the moaners.
Andy Burnham is ‘minded’ to allow the development of Jackdaw and Rosebank gas/oil fields. This might make some sense, but only if it is accompanied with a supercharged environmental programme (actually I think opening up the fields would be abhorrent.
Another interesting statistic is that the triple lock on pensions was £10 billion more for the tax payer than if pensions had been linked to wage inflation. That is ridiculous. I get some arguements regarding pensions and poverty, but again the real problem is rent and property prices. I am fortunate enough to have paid off my mortgage and have 2 supplementary pensions, but the state pension, to which I contributed for 35 years (late starter!), is an entitlement that I paid for. The triple lock is ridiculous as there are many who rightly claim a state pension they paid in for, but should it reward above wages ? We have a welfare state to combat poverty, not supplement the wealth of the rich!
DAILY MORON
Leads on the severe alert saying thousands have switched the alert off. With the fire service not coping and calling in the Army, just what do they expect a severe alert to consist of? If 1205 wild fires so far this year with 43 in the last 24 hours, 38 homes burnt, 9 destroyed in Stourbridge, and no comments on the polluting impact of the fires. I am genuinely puzzled. An invasion of flying saucers orchestrated by Count Binface? Ok, but I genuinely cannot think of a better use of the system? I think we should now have a weekly Climate alert programme, accessible on all phones, there is too much ignorance. In the last year we produced 43.6% electricity from renewables and just 27.2% from fossil fuels. I am sure we could double the amount using renewables by sensible planning legislation. Announcing new initiatives for insulation measures, the number of EV charging points, together with weather events from around the world. Initiatives by countries like China, and an idiot of the week slot reserved for Trump, Farage, Badenoch and acolytes! It could be financed by a special tax on fossil fuel companies.
And with 2 trains derailed in the last couple of days there are still morons who buy ridiculous papers and beleive every word, even when they are reading shit about issues created by Brexit and the last government (very short memories regarding these issues by the aged!) nb. small boats (none prior to Brexit!), NHS waiting lists spiralled under tories, despite privatisation of swaiths of services. Why is water so expensive?- privatisation. And with AI likely to guzzle more energy than ever – maybe they should pay for new infrastructure?
European Athletics Championships have been spellbinding, not just for the niceness of the athletes, the near lack of nationalistic bollocks (the crowd clapping in time for a Bulgarian or basically any athlete). Maybe I was wrong in decrying the absurdly high ticket prices – it kept the knuckle draggers away! The crowd seemed generally enthralled by the exertions of the athletes before them!