tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73875322027396733512024-03-13T22:47:43.240+00:00The GrumpologistAll sorts of stuff that makes me grumpyWoodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-36384437546541989972023-07-04T13:12:00.002+01:002023-07-04T13:12:41.570+01:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> A long time gone....</span></p><p><br />It's been a while since I was here, basically the world has become so unbelievably stupid I couldn't decide what to write about, I still can't.</p><p><br />I thought about discussing why it was that Rowan Atkinson, given that he says he has an electrical engineering degree, has taken so long to realise that electric cars are not a solution to any known problem. It's been obvious to me for years. <br />The battery tecnology is simply not good enough, requiring enormous resourses, huge fossil fuel use, and creates dangerous pollution to mine and refine the materials. Then the car must be large and heavy to carry the weight, to the extent that building it has created more CO2 and pollution than a small efficient petrol car creates during its build and use for tens of thousands of miles. Add the fact that in optimum conditions only about half the UK's electricity is from so-called green sourses the other half is fossil fuel generated while on a still winter night virtually none is 'green'. the saving in pollution and CO2 is minimal.<br />Meanwhile their practicality is limited. Millions of homes can't have home chargers, charging is slow, range is problematic in cold weather, the batteries can be unstable and catch fire, the car's cost is appoaching twice that of a small conventional car, they cause more road and tyre wear, and they suffer massive value depreciation because the batteries deteriorate over time and replacement costs half the price of a new car. So who would buy a 7 or 8 year old one when a well kept conventional car can last over 20 years?</p><p><br />So I dismissed that topic as too obvious and thought about wind turbines. Again lack of cost effective battery technology makes them of limited use. Just like the cars they need materials that are expensive and dangerously polluting to obtain. Along with the millions of tons of concrete base, fibreglass blades that have to be replaced, are not recyclable and are denuding the rain forests of balsa wood trees for their internal bracing. The turbines need to be in use for over a decade before they produce an electron's worth of 'green' energy and much of that is wasted because there are no suitable batteries to even out the vagaries of the wind. </p><p>Neither are they cheap to build or maintain, especially at sea. They exist on subsidies added to all our bills, with another hefty subsidy to be added next year as the grid system needs extensive replacement to accomodate any more of them. In any case the grid needs half it's power to be reliable and consistent or it would be unstable, 'green' electricity is only half of that, while electricity is only 20% of the county's energy use. So all these expensive windfarms and massive grid costs only represent 10% of our total energy. The believers witter on about 1000's of 'green jobs' - yes which means 1000's of salaries for maintenance and construction which will have to be paid for with more levies on what are already some of the highest electricity prices in the world and creating severe economic problems. It's the cost economics of the madhouse.</p><p><br />Moving on I considered the next threat to our mobility and prosperity that none of us voted for: ULEZ zones, LTNs and the like. The road I live on used to be a toll road, I think it was about a penny per sheep if you wanted to herd them through the village. But sometime in the 1800's a decision was made that travel and trade were more important than making profits for landowners and corporations and most tolls were scrapped. Apart from a few private bridges and to pay back construction costs for new 'convenience roads' (and the immoral extension of tolls at Dartford after the crossing was paid for) roads were essentially toll free. Trade flourished. Now towns around the country have decided to turn back the clock and make entire cities into a toll road system. It didn't work before and it won't work now, business will simply close or move out and the city's economy will die.</p><p><br />Then of course we have the banking scandal of people the banks don't like being debanked without even a basic current account. This is devestating for the victims in our modern economy and in my view should be immediately made illegal without a court order. I fail to see how banks working together can legally misuse and extend regulations against fraud and money laundering into a personal vendetta against individuals whose beliefs they don't like. Surely they are breaking both commercial anti-cartel laws and their own regulations? How, in the case of the vicar, a banking 'regulation' can be allowed to overide religious belief discrimination laws is beyond me. I hope the banks and the individuals who allowed it to happen are sued for every penny the victims can extract.</p><p><br />I could go on about the never ending plague of potholes, the failed NHS, the hopeless driving test agency, the useless local planning departments, hotels full of immigrants, councils who stretch and miuse every power they have to fleece motorists and taxpayers, the invisible police service, child grooming, stealth taxes, net zero nonsense, or almost any other factor of the current utterly disfunctional UK. It's pointless, they won't be fixed because the WEF puppets in government want things this way. </p><p><br />So down to small scale issues. Why does Google think I spend so much time in Oldham? The Mrs and I have tracking on our phones for each other and she has the offspring tracked on hers. It's useful when meeting up for family activities, picking up at the station and such like. Then a while ago, checking whether to put the kettle on as Mrs was due to returne from a local meeting, I found she was apparently in Oldham. The next day she checked and found she was now home but I was in Oldham. According the Google tracking I have been in Oldham much of the past fortnight. I just checked again - and sure enough I'm in Oldham along with my GPS blue dot on the Google road map! It's 50 miles away from where I'm sitting and at least 25 years since I once went to Oldham for a concert. Mrs should be arriving in London on the train but Google has lost her again. I can only conclude that Google, like most other things in the modern world, is totally fucked (Techical term!). It's bound to get more fucked as systems get more complex and interrelated while programmers seem ever less competent. So what about a social credit banking system? You must be joking, they can't even build a victorian technology railway line from London to Manchester, what chance for a computer system to track 70 million people's habits?<br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-20405879513745182892023-01-18T18:33:00.002+00:002023-01-18T18:33:20.599+00:00<p><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">A Business Opportunity?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I notice Beckham the younger recently got himself married, I wish him well. But I also notice that Mum and Dad gifted the happy couple with a rather expensive classic Jaguar car, expensively converted to all electric.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgScL8plD_i4f2TUn_yJdv209TMoEbI3mWrBB88hnWZmqrdbj2q7S24i_celKISF9-x0wwgY5foN4wQK3RYBEvqrhVyCcqGExKf23SMhoCMPhh6dingmz2NpPldHdSstajCWDN47qqXr5doNHQYwIZdO1pUoHPKFdBfKAlyOdz9I-eGjzAXYbU2VeEUxw/s620/becks.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="620" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgScL8plD_i4f2TUn_yJdv209TMoEbI3mWrBB88hnWZmqrdbj2q7S24i_celKISF9-x0wwgY5foN4wQK3RYBEvqrhVyCcqGExKf23SMhoCMPhh6dingmz2NpPldHdSstajCWDN47qqXr5doNHQYwIZdO1pUoHPKFdBfKAlyOdz9I-eGjzAXYbU2VeEUxw/s320/becks.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Personally, as someone who appreciates old vehicles for their elegance of design and technical simplicity I don't really approve of such conversions. To me it's rather like remodelling the Elgin Marbles to show Simpson's cartoon characters. But as I won't ever be in the market for a half million quid's worth of classic Jaguar and they have kept it looking original I suppose I have no grounds to complain too much,</span><p><span style="font-size: medium;">More to the point I don't think electric cars will prove to be particularly useful in the near future because so-called Net Zero is fast heading to be a failure. If we want the country and our society to continue to run and allow security and prosperity then significant new, and as yet unknown, sources of reliable and cheap energy and battery technologies are needed first.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There is plenty of official information about how much power, oil, gas, electricity etc, it takes to run the country and there simply isn't enough electricity being generated for everything they want to convert to run on electricity. The pie-in-the-sky political solutions of more windfarms, solar panels, economies, insulation etc, simply do not fit. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Essentially windfarms and solar are not 'free' energy. The government threw billions of pounds of subsidies, and promises of huge feed in prices, to get them built. And while the wind is indeed 'free' when it blows the cost of building the infrastructure, in cash and CO2 terms, then harvesting that energy has steadily increased our energy costs for the last decade. Not forgetting that some days have no wind when they produce nothing, so we have to pay for a complete parallel, mostly gas fired provision. They save some CO2 but in no sense do they remove our need for oil and gas. What they have done is make everything expensive. Every single item you and I need in our daily lives: Food growing, food processing, heating, lighting, transport, shops, manufacturing, right down to rubbish disposal has at its root fuel cost. When fuel goes up everything goes up, and thanks to the total lack of consideration by our politicians of fuel security, reducing drilling licences and a reliance on Russian gas to 'fill the gap', we are now in serious trouble where many can't even afford basic heating and lighting, Firms are closing because they can't afford the overheads, international manufacturers are pulling out of Europe because prices make them uncompetitive. As long as places like China and India can offer cheap energy we are on a downward spiral into 3rd world poverty. We shouldn't be needing or considering 10% and 20% pay rises for some, that just makes things worse. We should be lowering living costs by at least 20% instead. We could do that if energy were cheap and plentiful!<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So back to the electric cars. They take twice the energy input of a small petrol car to build. It takes about 5 years and 50k miles of running on green electricity before they save any CO2 compared to a small efficient petrol car at the same mileage. They are not saving significant CO2, just moving the production of it from the exhaust pipe to the mining and manufacturer. At the same time creating huge environmental damage mining and refining lithium. They are unafordable to many ordinary people, have range problems and charging difficulties, lose efficiency in cold weather, are almost useless for towing, and millions of people have no private driveways or home charging point. We could think this is nothing to do with climate, simply a deliberate plan to reduce car ownership, that makes more sense.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But, ignoring the side issues, the main issue is a battery problem again. There is nothing wrong with electric cars as such, just their expensive and environmentally damaging batteries, which like all rechargeable batteries lose efficiency after a few years. At which time the car becomes an expensive liability. After about 7 -10 years the battery needs replacing, typically £20k. Half the vehicle cost or indeed the price of a new small petrol car. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">What do you do with a nice car, in structurally good condition, that needs a £20K battery? Which is where my business opportunity comes in. One obvious solution would be to take the battery out and retrofit the running gear with a conventional high efficiency petrol or diesel engine. Or a small battery and petrol generator to create a hybrid. There are plenty of small autoengineering companies capable of such work and 'reuse and repurpose' is far more 'green' than scraping a part used car.</span><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-31227709408814641782023-01-03T18:25:00.001+00:002023-01-03T18:25:25.738+00:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> NIMBY is what NIMBY does</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Not In My Back Yard ephitet has been banded around for years. Usually in a negative context as established inhabitants with their undeserved housing wealth and gold plated pensions blocking the youngsters from much needed housing or commercial development. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Anyhow while I thinking about this and whether to write something - I had the phrase 'like a wart on the Mona Lisa's nose' ready to go - when a different matter emerged on a FB music group I'm on. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This concerned the permission given for a coal mine in Cumbria. Given that social media and the folk music world is infested with 'people of wokeness' you can imagine the comments against it. Ranging from coal is dirty and polluting, via leave it in the ground or it's not needed to the classic Tory Scum. It was quite interesting and hopeful to see some serious pushback in places. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Coal is not used significantly in the UK nowadays as a fuel, maybe a few heritage railways and folks living outside smokeless areas, so the question of climate effects is irrelevent. But coal is needed for current steel manufacturing processes and as a raw material for hundreds of products ranging from asprin, soaps, glues, nylon and rayon materials and more recently carbon fibre. Even the 'leave it in the grounders' had to acknowledge some of those things were useful.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So I imagined a conversation between a 'leave it in the grounder' and a'realist'.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG)The country needs more houses -- (Realist)The country needs coal.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG)We can get coal imported, even the steel firms say they don't need it -- (Realist) Of course they would rather buy it cheap from foreign places with lower safety and employment standards and then advertise their (fake) environmental virtue by not mining it here. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG) The mines already exist abroad why can't we use those? -- (Realist) There are depopulated villages in Italy desperate for people, can we send young families there and reduce building here? <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG) People need reliable access to their jobs and travel to family -- (Realist) Manufacturers need reliable secure supplies of raw materials.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG)Communities need houses for new people to keep them vibrant -- (Realist) Indeed, just as Cumbria needs new jobs and opportunities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(LITG) Cumbria is an environmentally important area for its landscape and biodiversity -- (Realist) So are the fields and woodlands that they want to build houses on.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I came to the conclusion that most of the objectors to a Cumbrian mine were simply NIMBYs. Not the traditional old, white, overwealthy, prime property hoarding, Brexit voting NIMBYs as maligned in the left wing press but a whole new generation of brainwashed, shallow minded, tribal, sloganising, new age NIMBYs.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><br />Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-57426538751846035242022-12-10T17:31:00.001+00:002022-12-10T17:31:20.366+00:00<p><span style="font-size: large;"> An Idea For Our Time</span></p><p>I have been reading that an astonishing number of younger people actually firmly believe that during their lifetimes the world will descend into a hell of spontaneous combustion, sea level rise and catastrophe heralding the end of society as we know it. Over 20% are apparently avoiding having children to save them suffering.</p><p>Clearly this generation have never been taught critical thinking and are absolutely brainwashed by the alarmist climate nonsense of the past couple of decades and believe every word of the most extreme and idiotic pronouncements of the climate modellers and scammers who make money out of the pointless and expensive schemes to 'mitigate' this cataclysmic end to the planet.</p><p>The clue to a solution may lie in the way they think of Covid. For sure a nasty illness for many elderly and folks with existing health problems but these youngsters firmly believe that Covid was vastly worse than the reality, that it could be controlled by a bit of paper over the face, and even now can be prevented by repeated doses of an essentially untested and now well known to be both ineffective and dangerous magic injection.</p><p>So my idea of today is that some sensible non-woke company should develop a (harmless) injection to prevent global warming and climate change. This should be heavily marketed to the affected generation of non critical thinkers. Slogans like 'Protect your kids and your friends, get your anti heat jab' or 'Build back Cooler' could be used. These along with summary dismissal from jobs and social benefit entitlements plus cooling passports to control travel for the non jabbed should see a decent takeup. Then when a reasonable percentage are jabbed the warming scam can be declared over.</p><p>It may seem a crazy solution but this is a post-truth age and we are dealing with some crazy people.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-59791344183321429092022-11-03T21:26:00.000+00:002022-11-03T21:26:17.379+00:00<p><span style="font-size: large;"> I Have Not been Procrastinating, Honest.</span></p><p>About 3 weeks ago we were sitting around lamenting that we hadn't seen friends in France for 3 years so hatched a last minute plan to go visiting. We had crossings via the tunnel, bought pre Covid but not used, and Eurotunnel have been very nice and kept extending their validity so that bit was easy. (Score good service points for Eurotunnel!)<br /></p><p>The rest of the preparation was anything but easy. Having not considered foreign parts for 2 years we had to sort European insurance, breakdown cover and various new rules like UK stickers instead of GB ones, Crit'air sticker to drive through Rouen plus having some bits and bobs fixed on the camper van. Elderly enough now that the AA and RAC don't want to know and even specialist insurance companies roll their eyes and demand service history before they will provide breakdown cover.<br /></p><p>Anyhow, we made it and had a week's trundle about catching up with people and places around Normandie. One wet day and a week of warm sunny days and blue skies. No serious problems with the much publicised petrol shortage, no traffic jams, and no parking charges in the small Normandie towns. France has its problems but the rural areas simply reminded me what a total mess the UK is nowadays. Underlined by getting back to a blocked M20 in Kent, gridlock on the M25, and an horrendous pitch black section of M6 in torrential rain, unbelievably heavy traffic and of course no hard shoulder.</p><p>But the wine stocks are replenished, I recommend Lidl for the best selection of perfectly pleasant, drinkable basic table wines, many between 2 and 3 euro a bottle, equivalent to £6 or £7 here. And best of all my friend had bought a second hand electric log splitter then found it couldn't cope with the huge logs he uses in his enormous french fireplace, so I am now the owner of said splitter which is ideal for the smaller log burner we have. I was trying to decide if I could justify one at new UK price, now the problem is solved. Had a funny look from the customs when they checked the van for stowaways but I suppose they don't have a rule for such stuff.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfanMgbO70XpZ90svMsb-gPCfbUD-5__cFBI19_exREkK2AcEOzpnAtE_EMm8ZnHZXYF7Qcf2S9Tdrt8nEzwDxGPul0fUdabHfAr6vZkPcapQRnT8f-T_YxSPH0hMsxyUsbrx9n1MMFtIOxYSuVqX3w0a8yh9F_7QT6KevS_Q82Y_ixaJen8_w1EK1A/s3264/IMG_20221101_105540_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfanMgbO70XpZ90svMsb-gPCfbUD-5__cFBI19_exREkK2AcEOzpnAtE_EMm8ZnHZXYF7Qcf2S9Tdrt8nEzwDxGPul0fUdabHfAr6vZkPcapQRnT8f-T_YxSPH0hMsxyUsbrx9n1MMFtIOxYSuVqX3w0a8yh9F_7QT6KevS_Q82Y_ixaJen8_w1EK1A/s320/IMG_20221101_105540_5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>So back to the UK winter, although with the rain the lawn, which was burned brown for weeks is growing like crazy now so that looks like the next job if the stupid mower will start.<br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-31035283106494445672022-09-29T12:13:00.007+01:002022-09-29T16:09:34.023+01:00<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Nostalgia and Memories around a Jowett Bradford Van</span></p><p>This is a dual purpose post, someone on the car group asked for any stories of Jowetts, and I decided to expand the idea a bit - but it's all true, I promise. Just edited because I have actually found some photos. I don't know who took them. I'm sure the cat was helpful.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfsCnsdZy9UOrNeZ7CPtCeYrVjhEhfi4s6b7EnZdlWRKUqcAfDS5OoXo3919xpKOzqFXIW3UiQlUYBt4DLUwikuY-y8vdf0_gzxuthc7ODgamdnP6PRF9td8he7I42P18rVrwVspPlzYbzsck3K7d0v4zStpUPDOyzNt6uOf16_KNwiD9Eim5vjBX9Q/s1812/jowett-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1812" data-original-width="1247" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfsCnsdZy9UOrNeZ7CPtCeYrVjhEhfi4s6b7EnZdlWRKUqcAfDS5OoXo3919xpKOzqFXIW3UiQlUYBt4DLUwikuY-y8vdf0_gzxuthc7ODgamdnP6PRF9td8he7I42P18rVrwVspPlzYbzsck3K7d0v4zStpUPDOyzNt6uOf16_KNwiD9Eim5vjBX9Q/w323-h470/jowett-1.jpg" width="323" /></a></div><p></p><p>My grandfather spent WWII as an engine driver based at Stratford, so he Granny and their daughter lived in the area during the blitz. Their daughter met and married my father, and the end of the war found the whole family living in a largish terraced house near Stratford. My parents had the downstairs and my grandparents lived upstairs, quite a luxurious amount of space for the post war housing shortage in the area. It's probably 4 or more flats nowadays.<br /></p><p>Soon after the war I came along, followed by my younger sibling. While space became an issue my grandfather retired, close family friends emigrated to Canada under the £10 scheme, my father got a job outside London and so moving house became a possibility. The chosen area was Colchester, between the grandparent's family and my parent's friends in and around East London.</p><p>I was about 6 so wasn't consulted, but one day my father arrived home with a rather battered and scruffy grey Jowett Bradford, this was to be the transport to go house hunting! The van had a rear seat and side windows, described by Jowett as a Utility Van - she got the nickname Tilly.</p><p>Wow! Money was scarce and material goods were expensive, we had no phone or TV, but we had a car! There was only one other car in the whole street. Admittedly that was a pristine brand new Jaguar roadster which I walked past with almost religious reverence and awe on my way to infant school but now we had a car too! Even though it was rather a jaded, folorn and less sleek design than my childish dreams might have wished.<br /></p><p>In those days there was none of this needing a licenced driver or lessons while you learned. My father got a provisional licence and a pair of L plates then spent every spare moment driving round the local streets practicing 3 point turns, reversing round corners, changing gear (no synchro on it) etc. I was often allowed to go with him, perched and bouncing around on the front passenger seat. Health and safety would have a fit nowadays with a new driver driving round London with a unrestrained 6 year old in the front seat, but I was mesmerised by the exitement and that was back then. You have to go somewhere like Alton Towers to get that feeling nowadays. Dad passed his test, threw away the L plates and we were set.</p><p>The next summer became house hunting season. Back then estate agents published a list of houses for sale which was snail-mail posted out to prospective purchasers, then, each week my parents would check the options and every Saturday was looking at houses day. It was a bit like a military operation as the estate agents all closed at midday, so viewing arrangements, or borrowing keys for empty houses (people were trusted then), had to be done before noon at the Colchester offices.</p><p>My mother made up picnics and drinks then early in the morning the whole family assembled outside and climbed abord the Bradford for the trip. Dad driving, Granny in the front with her favourite bonnet, Mother, Grandfather and me on the back seat and my newly arrived sibling in a carrycot on the floor. Even in my memory it makes me think of the Carl Giles cartoon family that was syndicated in the press.<br /></p><p>The A12 had few by-passes back then, and the Bradford struggled to reach 40mph, so the trip, as we chugged along through Brentwood, Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverill, Witham, Kelvedon and Mark's Tey took well over 2 hours on a good day, then there was the race around Colchester town to visit all the estate agents of interest before the noon deadline and the afternoon's sight visits could start. My memory of that summer is of the A12, being lost in rural Essex and sitting in empty houses with sandwiches and orange juice. But we succeeded, a small house for my grandparents near some shops in Colchester and a family house in a village just outside the town, which became home for my next 12 years.</p><p></p><p>The old Bradford had done sterling service chugging steadily east and west along the A12 and all around North East Essex week after week with just one breakdown to its name. That was on the Colchester one way system at some traffic lights, (the St John's St/Head Street junction for any locals). The van refused to pull away but instead made a loud thump and rolled slowly backwards, being brought to a halt by the front bumper of a police car waiting behind us. Oops! Fortunately cars were solid then and the police car was undamaged, they were very considerate as we all exited from the vehicle and en masse pushed it round the corner out of the way. Tilly was left to the tender mercies of a local garage and we had a very late night getting home on the train. It turned out that a half shaft had snapped.</p><p>For the next year or two Tilly was the family transport, taking my father to work in the week and making regular trips to the grandparents on Sundays, sometimes a drive out to Suffolk and Constable country for a picnic. Tilly again was trouble free except for one occasion on the drive when a petrol leak caused a - fortunately small - fire under the bonnet. </p><p>The MOT was introduced in 1960 and the local garage warned it would fail, various bits needed attention including a badly rotted wooden floor. Not many cars fail for wood rot in the floor nowadays. As a result that summer holiday became the car rebuild year. My father bought a second Bradford, I suspect a later one with the more powerful engine, and proceeded to dismantle both on the front lawn. Mother, who tended to care what the neighbours would think, was less than amused! Then he built one good one from the two. I can remember Dad assembling a 'work gang' of me, and assorted neighbours to lift off the rear bodies so that the floorboards could be removed and the best chassis painted, then replacement of the floor with new tongue and groove floorboards before a reassembled work gang lifted the best body back. My grandfather, who was interested in clocks, sat for hours with bits of rear axle and differential rebuilding the axle assembly. The final touch was managed by bribery of the sprayer at the local garage for a smart paint job. Dark blue below the waistline, light blue above and - if I remember correctly - black wings.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkyh6BeYXRgGRjXPjDADO9jFK1xtXsh4yFHW9GAgCMYZCYcnXJW50rDDOCNvFxdEBSPVS1qPMhn4CechOSuQ-ehRUaZSeAMH499jikrcnjSnmufRv-2C_vgPxWU86-X-cqzkaum5X-r4DeeNEbKrxPKflTPhEK0Q1id-G54zYO_MWj2g0c7BlS4LR3w/s1773/jowett-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1773" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkyh6BeYXRgGRjXPjDADO9jFK1xtXsh4yFHW9GAgCMYZCYcnXJW50rDDOCNvFxdEBSPVS1qPMhn4CechOSuQ-ehRUaZSeAMH499jikrcnjSnmufRv-2C_vgPxWU86-X-cqzkaum5X-r4DeeNEbKrxPKflTPhEK0Q1id-G54zYO_MWj2g0c7BlS4LR3w/w397-h268/jowett-3.jpg" width="397" /></a></div><br /> The unused unwanted parts were disposed of by using a trench, conveniently dug through the garden as part of water board improvements to replace all the septic tanks in the road with mains sewerage. I wonder if the people living in the house now realise that under the path round their house is most of a Jowett Bradford?<p></p><p>A year or so on the Bradford was sold - I think to a local dairyman who already used Bradfords - and replaced by a fancy second hand Hillman Minx estate which distinguised itself very soon by breaking down comprehensively on a sodden wet day half way up the hill to Dover Castle just as we arrived there on holiday. It was swapped for a 1960 Morris Traveller, which I inherited and still own, now rebuilt.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-54488362888493443522022-09-15T20:20:00.000+01:002022-09-15T20:20:09.091+01:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Today's Project</span></p><p>After a few welcome days away in the campervan it was home again to the next job on my never ending list of 'stuff to do', the dratted tap in the toilet. I only renovated the toilet as my Covid project but the tap gave up after under 2 years.</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMSquc4ZCHdsQcmeUnGUCT0vyPqz2ZjJ3Ajxu9vKPJfzc-ftgGmESU5tvAijYov8jKlMRRZb1h7vay3anEOZhWJahpYXQKpXwlnvRpV0Dp_ikxrMq6CwyI1NtE5Dl62nDspXyx-mSzKLWphOSUCUx_eAYDlMQxEWYBNT_AvONi6wC_rfapxeLHKqZuw/s1980/IMG_20220915_144027_2-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1443" data-original-width="1980" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMSquc4ZCHdsQcmeUnGUCT0vyPqz2ZjJ3Ajxu9vKPJfzc-ftgGmESU5tvAijYov8jKlMRRZb1h7vay3anEOZhWJahpYXQKpXwlnvRpV0Dp_ikxrMq6CwyI1NtE5Dl62nDspXyx-mSzKLWphOSUCUx_eAYDlMQxEWYBNT_AvONi6wC_rfapxeLHKqZuw/s320/IMG_20220915_144027_2-crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Why on earth would a tap manufacturer make a nice solid chromed brass sink tap and equip it with a cheap nasty plastic support ring where it attaches through the sink? There are no children or anyone here who has strained it or misused it, it's simply rubbish! Without the ring the tap can't be fixed to the sink so just wobbles around and can't be turned on or off.<br /></p><p>So Amazon to the rescue and a nice shiny new tap. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LeVNJzShsmBYi19EewZNvz3qOiLopVkcpJTC38yTtwaAbVI3Qv4rh4txrzpvciaFix8QpaHg5JZJC0OYJGsC7VhOVxnd98AUyhFxbBJT-X797BCarHSy9xAYyofOrSe7Q76gi-rxSYb2TSwqVnlmLSArhYDZwGy2ZHVzMYPiJbnZvUQ-_uVLlswNvg/s3264/IMG_20220915_144100_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LeVNJzShsmBYi19EewZNvz3qOiLopVkcpJTC38yTtwaAbVI3Qv4rh4txrzpvciaFix8QpaHg5JZJC0OYJGsC7VhOVxnd98AUyhFxbBJT-X797BCarHSy9xAYyofOrSe7Q76gi-rxSYb2TSwqVnlmLSArhYDZwGy2ZHVzMYPiJbnZvUQ-_uVLlswNvg/s320/IMG_20220915_144100_3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>The only problem being that I attached the original tap with the tails to the sink before fixing the sink in place, this time I had to remove it and refit the replacement with the sink in place or face having to dismantle the waste which runs through a boxing wedged in behind the toilet. </p><p>Fortunately after an epic struggle and a lot of naughty words it's done. But a note to self: If you ever fit another handbasin position it slightly further from the wall so your hand can reach behind it!<br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-5168313647147375192022-09-01T15:11:00.003+01:002022-09-04T13:26:54.911+01:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> Today's project</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p>The outdoor log rack.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3x0_ttoyOPz_5EiiVriz-P1fUGoJF6SxNer7zRE6VGxVG6Bi7hvRFHuYNHGWGC9sFbnx9AMpqYW0CjTTLmCV3dvWpYIQDU0439yQMMo3YTeTRgfrdTRZR4D75zwUAp1oSPx9GZMfLWqoBHD6Qd1YiLNVIGo6pPJHvD_ohQvfi7sRMjak8xNiQJbk0Mg/s3264/IMG_20220901_145304_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3x0_ttoyOPz_5EiiVriz-P1fUGoJF6SxNer7zRE6VGxVG6Bi7hvRFHuYNHGWGC9sFbnx9AMpqYW0CjTTLmCV3dvWpYIQDU0439yQMMo3YTeTRgfrdTRZR4D75zwUAp1oSPx9GZMfLWqoBHD6Qd1YiLNVIGo6pPJHvD_ohQvfi7sRMjak8xNiQJbk0Mg/w376-h282/IMG_20220901_145304_2.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><p>I shall convert it into a 4 foot unit with a shelf rather than a long 8 foot rack, some drilling required!</p><p>So that's the main frame. I'm done for the afternoon.</p><p><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtMATSAYt33lb-ct8nlOJCji3ybsdA1YuYQZba7mVHmv0tGn7KDD_fJqlIbk2wGXW0bxO4DoqdDH8hyrIeiaQX12L6d984WpsuGRWlklAlbHKvpLik9BpIQuykD9NNJ6QV1BPb9FYQ4eQecYZURXdYEWvlRq3VqQpVrNNz3q5vrJDwc8-JjI_ZfLXjA/s3264/IMG_20220901_170647_7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtMATSAYt33lb-ct8nlOJCji3ybsdA1YuYQZba7mVHmv0tGn7KDD_fJqlIbk2wGXW0bxO4DoqdDH8hyrIeiaQX12L6d984WpsuGRWlklAlbHKvpLik9BpIQuykD9NNJ6QV1BPb9FYQ4eQecYZURXdYEWvlRq3VqQpVrNNz3q5vrJDwc8-JjI_ZfLXjA/w363-h272/IMG_20220901_170647_7.jpg" width="363" /></a></div><p></p><p>Update - almost done.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHT4j32EoP08pnYnlRFlOMvZPwuCusw89zgCDE3Q2exthhZSDV45iabCjLjvSEcGFfzJzfNeHCOLWn96AkUp2mezgY4VtK5c93SqHbLE2opWkLaWfYEbQky8ixYs10e_agZ9c5VddhgwEdCIPQZr-HoCH-GKoAVbrBYBrHVQItIfc_UrY7Wk-H7P68w/s3264/IMG_20220903_104455_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUHT4j32EoP08pnYnlRFlOMvZPwuCusw89zgCDE3Q2exthhZSDV45iabCjLjvSEcGFfzJzfNeHCOLWn96AkUp2mezgY4VtK5c93SqHbLE2opWkLaWfYEbQky8ixYs10e_agZ9c5VddhgwEdCIPQZr-HoCH-GKoAVbrBYBrHVQItIfc_UrY7Wk-H7P68w/s320/IMG_20220903_104455_9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHsyUfnC5uzqcjZhRB2bMEtRLDrKk2AZ8W-20gtdHajNFq38DZ-ogJ3QV66TxnW7JQvMFSw-yoasdsJZ4iLzmCkET-GavHWNbZuLPle1ajjkDBp4jQiiqLIJBeMmpdQqVAwsUwNPWWiFnzFgq6WKMN_aF08DQkjmc2O38Tyb9SJu0_EnoMl1B1n9SGg/s3264/IMG_20220903_184112_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHsyUfnC5uzqcjZhRB2bMEtRLDrKk2AZ8W-20gtdHajNFq38DZ-ogJ3QV66TxnW7JQvMFSw-yoasdsJZ4iLzmCkET-GavHWNbZuLPle1ajjkDBp4jQiiqLIJBeMmpdQqVAwsUwNPWWiFnzFgq6WKMN_aF08DQkjmc2O38Tyb9SJu0_EnoMl1B1n9SGg/w291-h197/IMG_20220903_184112_9.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's wierd how the brain works. Nagging me that the roof needed supports underneath. But of course it doesn't, it's simply a 'hanging'shelf rather than one supported from below. Some mesh on the shelves and it needs some angle to protect the lath ends then I think I have some
cheap stick-on flashing to seal it to the wall (when the rain stops and the wall is dry).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So that's part 1, the easy to grab quickly ready to use log store near the house door. Now I need a larger store elsewhere in the garden for the longer term storage.<br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-85775492332443184202022-08-27T20:43:00.001+01:002022-08-27T20:43:49.871+01:00<p>Another week, Another Music Festival </p><p>I was intending to write last week about the music festival we went to early in August but I'm afraid I have been practising my procrastination skills. It's very easy to practice procrastination, it takes very little effort and is a low cost activity. True it's a bit disheartening that nobody can be bothered to provide a certificate or reward for all the time spent but it's sometimes our fate in life to have our unique and special skills unrecognised.</p><p>My other excuse is that real life got a bit annoying. The ageing camper van needing tax and reinsuring for another year. Pre Covid we always took out EU driving cover then EU breakdown insurance combined with travel insurance as a separate policy so we could enjoy 2 or 3 trips to France. But the van is now too old to use that breakdown company, so hours waiting in telephone queues to get details of what's available and finding proof of regular maintenance, then discovering the costs to decide on a sensible alternative - if indeed there is any point to finding an alternative in today's world. I suspect we'll be lucky to pay for food and fuel and stay comfortable at home by next spring so it became more a case of the cheapest way to keep options open.<br /></p><p>Anyhow our second festival of the summer: Still folk based music but more electric folk rock and with a twist of nostalgia acts this time, the Fairport Convention Annual Reunion which is held every August at Cropredy in Oxfordshire.</p><p>It's a very special and unique festival as it encompasses the entire village. The local WI serve meals in the village hall, the local Scouts act as marshals and litter wardens, there is a village charity car boot sale. The local pubs put on events, the cricket club rents its showers and opens its bar for drinks and snacks, there is a street market, while farmers clear their livestock to make camping space and the whole lot becomes a festival site for 3 days of music in a field at the edge of the village. <br /></p><p>You might wonder why the villagers tolerate such an event? The festival has its roots in the village fete when the first reunion of the then disbanded band took place for charity back in the 1980s. So village events are fully coordinated with the festival, the shop and local pubs make money to stay in business, the village cricket club has some of the best amateur facilities in the country, the WI, scouts and other clubs are well financed for the year, the local economy, and local charities thrive on the income from the event and hopefully everyone has a good time.<br /></p><p>There is still the puzzle of how to define folk music. Some is obviously traditional, Scottish airs, Irish jigs, Morris tunes, very old songs of unknown origin. Singer songwriters are generally accepted as folk music if the material is designed to tell a story, fits the style of traditional songs, and hasn't come from commercial 'Tin Pan Alley' writers. Other material is more borderline. For example the tune of Matty Groves is found with different words in the USA as Shady Grove, and as a song called Lady Margaret,. Origins lost in time, transmitted by sailors and settlers it's very obviously a folk song. But whether it counts as folk music or folk-rock when played by Tom Petty, or the 60s psychedelic band Quicksilver Messenger Service is an open question?</p><p>I'll finish by recommending some videos that to me explain a little about wht folk rock is. The first is a US singer songwriter Emmit Rhodes, who back in the 1960s wrote a song called Time Will Show the Wiser and recorded it with his band for the US market.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M7t72TKtdos" width="320" youtube-src-id="M7t72TKtdos"></iframe></div><p> Fairport Convention heard it and recorded a cover version for their first album.</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/XtyCsSkIALk" target="_blank"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/XtyCsSkIALk" target="_blank"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XtyCsSkIALk" width="320" youtube-src-id="XtyCsSkIALk"></iframe></a></div><a href="https://youtu.be/XtyCsSkIALk" target="_blank"><br /></a>Then in 2017, at the Fairport Annual Reunion, to celebrate 50 years since the band was formed, all the same original members of Fairport - excepting the drummer Martin Lamble who was sadly killed in a tragic road accident and was replaced here by Dave Mattacks - got together and played it live onstage.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EnbKzGZblrA" width="320" youtube-src-id="EnbKzGZblrA"></iframe></div><br /><p>So now back to procrastinating, This weekend is the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, I'm not there but they stream excellent quality live video from both their main stages. It's watchable via their festival website or via Youtube. Just google, there is some great music going on there this weekend.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-87910941488141706652022-07-25T15:23:00.002+01:002022-07-25T15:23:17.943+01:00<p> Holidays</p><p>A couple of weekends ago we took ourselves off to a music festival. Many people probably associate the idea of an open air music festival with events like Glastobury. But apart from being on a farm in a beautiful part of southern England this was as far from the crowds, mayhem and myriad horrors of Glastonbury as it's possible to get. A few thousand sensible, considerate people gatherered to listen to what was predominently english folk music. The photo showing the half empty post festival camping field as people left, devoid of any rubbish or abandoned tents and chairs with not even an errant piece of paper left behind shows the difference.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQvhUt4OlRCKz1SNcaUv8PMxgrDcGs40TgfDSidOCLQcvKHVxEnim-43Hr4liE_Ox0e0-Yk06gSEDG6F_lrJVwYUjrqr9C7laOnU1LCLS1tmHPIsom72xhcYhsVFP1TF6YW6Lv7XZiKsyCOaGEZYr5fw2VbN7zMO4NyEY5R6GLlEexCpU1PpkiONsPA/s653/small.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="653" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQvhUt4OlRCKz1SNcaUv8PMxgrDcGs40TgfDSidOCLQcvKHVxEnim-43Hr4liE_Ox0e0-Yk06gSEDG6F_lrJVwYUjrqr9C7laOnU1LCLS1tmHPIsom72xhcYhsVFP1TF6YW6Lv7XZiKsyCOaGEZYr5fw2VbN7zMO4NyEY5R6GLlEexCpU1PpkiONsPA/w398-h298/small.jpg" width="398" /></a></div><br />The other thing many people may not realise is that, although taking influences from all around the UK and elsewhere, there is such a thing as english folk music.Maybe it is that wider mix of influences that separates it from Scottish reels and airs or Irish jigs?<br /><p></p><p></p><p>While the Beatles were revitalising pop music in Liverpool down in some London clubs there was increasing interest in folk music. American
artists like Paul Simon and Dylan encouraged english singers and guitarists like Ralph McTell, Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch. Then bands like Fairport
Convention, Pentangle and Steeleye Span added modern electric instrumentation and began to investigate old english
songs and musical traditions. Morris dance tunes, field ballads, industrial work songs, nautical songs were reinvented for a new audience. </p><p>Some of those artists and bands are still performing. Fairport Convention still play regularly, Steeleye Span occasionally get together, Ralph McTell played this year, great songs and he is still the best ragtime blues guitarist I have ever heard. Younger bands like Merry Hell from Wigan with energetic electric social commentary, Trad arrr, with a mix of electric morris tunes, traditional ballads and self-penned songs in a traditional mould are carrying on the traditions.<br /></p><p>The other pleasures of these festivals is checking out the specialist food sellers, craft ales in the beer tent and small specialist traders and artisans around the site. I usually end up with a few CDs, a tee shirt or a bit of local artisan work. This year however was unexpected, a charity who collected refurbished then supplied tools to establish workshops and small businesses in developing countries, any unsuitable for shipping being sold to pay their costs, so I ended up with a lovely old, but excellent quality, refurbished electric mitre saw. Not something I expected to find at a music festival!<br /></p><p><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-75400450645712443402022-07-03T00:48:00.002+01:002022-07-03T00:48:25.989+01:00<p><b> How Woke Is Your Cat?</b></p><p>A few days ago our grocery delivery arrived (Yes, I know I'm lazy, if the shop will deliver why bother to drive into town to the shop?). In the delivery was the usual bag of treats for the cat, called Dreamies, made by Mars Petcare, and well known to most cat owners.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A87gO1WgqX1z3AG4o1LVGQkmreDds_XSrfaS0JJRiTItjbTpC38iUa5VylmcWAVtMpcqae_tqKVc9Njq6m929f7K_e0W7UPTxYc_chnOsjOml9oCqjutpJQhT7BrBPOe1AN_tqhamaZ_Xnr16ADsUYaCxO2q1de5vgiNfWolrvXVfzGYjFhcOOhCNg/s320/dreamies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="198" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A87gO1WgqX1z3AG4o1LVGQkmreDds_XSrfaS0JJRiTItjbTpC38iUa5VylmcWAVtMpcqae_tqKVc9Njq6m929f7K_e0W7UPTxYc_chnOsjOml9oCqjutpJQhT7BrBPOe1AN_tqhamaZ_Xnr16ADsUYaCxO2q1de5vgiNfWolrvXVfzGYjFhcOOhCNg/s1600/dreamies.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>And on the pack was a rainbow and the declaration of how proud Dreamies were to be sponsoring an LGBT charity. <p></p><p>I can well understand how a company division making pet products could sensibly sponsor a pet related charity. There are various such charities who I am sure would love some commercial sponsorship and many pet owners would be happy to choose the product, approving of the charity.</p><p>However, to the best of my understanding our cats have never once asked about or required LGBT counselling services. LGBT issues have absolutely nothing to do with cats or any other pets and are unlikely to tempt the product purchaser. Especially if, like me, they are sick and tired of being bombarded with LBGT propaganda and news coverage.<br /></p><p>Yet another blatant case of a company ignoring their primary job of producing products as efficiently and cheaply as possible for the customer and making money for their shareholders by wasting their time climbing on the woke virtue signalling bandwagon. Fortunately there are other cat treats avaiable.<br /></p><p><br /><br /></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-21951089852523328572022-05-31T18:58:00.001+01:002022-05-31T19:01:44.084+01:00<p><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> After 10 years....</span></p><p>I gave up on this blog in 2013, there comes a point where being grumpy about stuff gets old! Plus the stuff I am grumpy about is now international and merely whingeing about the WEF, UN, EU, Boris, the influence of American leftists and wokeism is pointless when others have better information than me.</p><p>I'm quite surprised that the blog is still here.<br /></p><p></p><p>So just for old time's sake here is a picture of the door trim I have just renovated for my car project. Doing trim can take as long as welding bits of floor back, it can't be hidden. More importantly for now it's not political and something I can control and a classic car is immune from ULEZ zones - opps political....<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghanf9TJIuCnkKtGr6gudSIDO9hDI1Cx2s91lneFQ5HNkRpr1Wy4ffKfSoJZfNLkbC1_W9otzX_i8qLGfOfabeldlcrCCbp3d8gZj_uGc70p8mXzVWfZa_Ha0CcEqPDuV6s9hgohDEZswe7KhcGStruxXzjuX6gEMArja9L5JMFWqV1og1LX3XoHc3Aw/s640/IMG_20220531_172957_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghanf9TJIuCnkKtGr6gudSIDO9hDI1Cx2s91lneFQ5HNkRpr1Wy4ffKfSoJZfNLkbC1_W9otzX_i8qLGfOfabeldlcrCCbp3d8gZj_uGc70p8mXzVWfZa_Ha0CcEqPDuV6s9hgohDEZswe7KhcGStruxXzjuX6gEMArja9L5JMFWqV1og1LX3XoHc3Aw/w454-h341/IMG_20220531_172957_3.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><p></p>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-27156100504907419542013-10-01T12:49:00.001+01:002013-10-01T12:49:53.119+01:00Politicians – solving yesterday’s problems today<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">So we will get a plastic bag tax? Wow, big
deal!</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">The sheer quantity of rubbish strewn around
our countryside is something that has long annoyed me. Plastic bags being a
particular bugbear, some roadways being strewn with them on the verges, some in
the hedgerows and often bags flapping around in the trees. Yet in recent
years, although the level of litter has not improved, there are fewer plastic
bags in evidence. The biggest plastic bag problem has now become dog mess bags,
which some dog owners use to collect the poo then for some strange reason use
to decorate trees along footpaths.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">I tend to avoid using plastic bags in most
circumstances but occasionally they are useful, an unplanned purchase or to buy
something that could spill like some DIY materials. I then reuse them for a
while before finally relegating them to rubbish sacks, especially for ‘dirty’
rubbish in the garage. Yesterday was one occasion, when I went to get a Sunday
paper only to have the heavens open with a torrential rainstorm – so I had a
plastic bag rather than get home with a block of <em><span style="font-style: normal;">papier mâché.</span></em></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal;">Reading the bag was quite instructive. It says that “Over 20% of the
material in this biodegradable bag is from a renewable source” It also says
it’s recyclable and biodegradable to ISO14855 standard. Well, perhaps that’s
not environmentally perfect, but it’s better than most of the packaging around
the shop products themselves. If I were to simply throw it away it wouldn’t
hang around on my garden hedge for 1000 years.</span></em></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal;">On getting home I pulled out a few more bags from my garage rubbish
stash. Yes, recyclable, yes biodegradable. Next one, yes recyclable and
biodegradable. The next one was a French one – Catena, a DIY/houseware shop in
Normandy. Recyclable, indeed it is, and biodegradable, with a nice cheerful
message explaining how the bag is 100% ‘fragmentable’ by light and heat.</span></em></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal;">So why do we suddenly now require a plastic bag tax? It’s not as though
it will only apply to non-degradable bags and encourage degradable ones – which
would make at least some sense. It will of course cause increased use of paper
bags – which require more energy to make and are less useful because they are
not rainproof. It will increase the sales of manufactured bags for waste bin
liners which are thicker, more material and energy intensive and only get used once.</span></em></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal;">As is all too frequently the case our politicians see a problem late
then come up with a solution which we have to pay for and which will make
things worse, in this case by failing to promote biodegradability and causing
people to adopt more environmentally costly and damaging solutions.</span></em></span></div>
Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-46345028073157272262012-03-07T11:25:00.000+00:002012-03-07T11:25:02.756+00:00Using the Right Words<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Words have power. We all know this but often we assume this refers to words when used as communication to transmit information when it’s actually the information that has power. Or maybe the words convey authority, that too means power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That’s not the sort of word power I mean, it’s the power of the words themselves that is often important. Poets, songwriters, novelists and journalists use this word power all the time, but we rarely stop and think why it works, often we don’t even notice it at all. One reason for their power is because of the unconscious emotional association we make to different words.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As a simple example think about this sentence; “The bright red car accelerated quickly up the road”. Nothing special about that, it’s a simple description. We think of bright red as a nice attractive colour. There is nothing wrong with accelerating quickly and roads are designed to accelerate on when driving off. The sentence is emotional positive or neutral, maybe the family going off on holiday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Change a few words. “The lurid red coupe accelerated fast up the carriageway”. Same event and the words mean the same but we get a totally different message. Now it’s a bad colour, the car is a fast one, the driver is violent, probably socially irresponsible, and carriageways are somehow faster than roads, the sentence now describes a bad situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The use of emotionally positive words in place of words with negative connotations is a staple method of the political correctness movement. “Intellectually challenged” is far more positive than “stupid” and the classic “Gay”, with connotations of carefree innocent enjoyment, was chosen to be the emotional opposite of “homosexual” which carries the stigma of political scandals and sordid toilet encounters of the 60s.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Such wordplay is far more subtle and more dangerous than ordinary spin. Spin simply exaggerates the good points and downplays the bad ones, at the extreme it is to lie by omission. It’s not hard to spot it. Choosing the right words to skew the emotive content however can be so subtle as to be almost subliminal.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The global warming movement have always been good at extreme spin. Their data lies by omission, their models lie by omission, and their power generation ideas are close to fantasy without any regard to the problems. Most of us have long realised it has to do with tax and control, the environment was simply a useful (probably manufactured) artificial problem. But in any case the whole global warming scenario had the great political disadvantage that it was all based around negative concepts, alarms and difficulties.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Recently the movement has moved beyond talking about AGW or climate change or even mentioning CO2 levels. The latest references leave all that behind and increasingly talk glibly of “carbon commitments” or “hitting our carbon targets”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This has the useful political effect of deflecting any criticism of the real environmental reality by removing the entire tax and control system and the practical problems beyond it. But more dangerously it uses an emotionally positive phrase to make it sound good. After all commitments are a good thing, targets are fun to hit. They have converted the language of the situation from a negative scenario into a positive aspiration making a celebratory event of their stupidity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">To get the truth we need to remember that the only reliable forms of energy we currently have for many purposes are carbon based. We also need to understand that “commitment” doesn’t mean agreement, it means “ration”. What they are talking about is our conforming to our energy ration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That of course would be why they seem so lackadaisical about building new power stations and why they are trying to convince us that smart meters are for our benefit. We are heading for energy rationing, so don’t let phrases like “carbon commitment” fool you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Reading any political commentary it is littered with emotive content. It’s quite interesting to try finding the emotional positives, words like simplicity, fairness, openness, accountability, democracy, safe, ones that nave nice cozy overtones then try substituting alternative words and phrases that mean the same but have negative connotations.</span></div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-47636346717041761422011-04-22T12:05:00.000+01:002011-04-22T12:05:41.715+01:00I Hate Batteries!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxf3-fpr0D_VAOnXUcRBSAnmhHCDWqqqyS6jZzG74bNxU76qls-GNWt_CA6JU0vkl5PmRHHu5nRN2QPQi-pR8_iJZUUBH23RgzRAC3OvlrSLit0oMJkXId_EBCSnMqrKW6j8kQ65_cXWO/s1600/keyfob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxf3-fpr0D_VAOnXUcRBSAnmhHCDWqqqyS6jZzG74bNxU76qls-GNWt_CA6JU0vkl5PmRHHu5nRN2QPQi-pR8_iJZUUBH23RgzRAC3OvlrSLit0oMJkXId_EBCSnMqrKW6j8kQ65_cXWO/s1600/keyfob.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So my old car has sat most of the winter because the little remote thing, of which I only have one, had a faulty button. Sometimes it unlocked, sometimes it didn’t. If the cat sat on the car’s roof the alarm went off and sometimes the button silenced it, sometimes it didn’t. As some steaming <span> </span>pillock of a designer had decided to provide only one button, which sets/unsets both the immobiliser and the alarm it was totally impossible with an erratic malfunctioning button to know what state the car was in! The fact that there is no visible dashboard light to even warn when the (auto setting) immobiliser was set just made it more of a gamble, having got into it without waking the street then sometimes it would start, sometimes it would churn round uselessly. I despair of designers!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As Saab are one of the most expensive main dealers I found a spare remote, then spent hours trying to find someone who could code it. Nope! It might be the same system as a Vauxhall but the Saab software is locked to Saab’s electronic analysis machines. Dear Saab. I don’t want to steal it just want to drive the damn thing without being held to ransom for a trivial bit of programming.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eventually I found a helpful lock specialist, they couldn’t re-programme it, but could repair the faulty button (thank you Longton Lock Centre) and collecting the rejuvenated remote I dashed off home to test it. Nope. It seems to click at the right times but the car battery is flat and doesn’t want to take a charge. Presumably months of very cold weather and little use have damaged the battery, so the car is back on ‘hold’ until I get a new battery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">No matter, there is plenty of work to be done around the house, so out comes the cordless electric drill and the new door lock to be fitted. I drill half a hole then the drill stops, battery flat! Into charger with it, while I flatten the spare battery on the second half of the hole. Looks like age or winter killed the drill batteries too. About half a hole or three woodscrews seems to be their limit. Of course all cordless drills use different battery packs which are often more expensive than the drill complete. So that can wait.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Never mind. The trees and garden looks beautiful so I’ll take some pictures, or I would if the camera worked, but the batteries are flat. No matter I have more ready charged, but they won’t work for more than 5 minutes either, then the camera dies with a picture half saved and the memory card and existing pictures can only be rescued on the computer. Two or three years use and rechargables lose most of their capacity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is the technology that is meant to replace petrol and diesel in our cars and allow us to travel to work and visit friends or go on holiday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Dream on greenies!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Thank goodness the bottle opener is manually operated!</span></div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-24921600217324893482011-04-19T22:32:00.000+01:002011-04-19T22:32:39.883+01:00The Referendum nobody cares about<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We are now approaching the date for the referendum on AV. The politicians are full of it but even they seem completely unable to find a positive aspect to either outcome. All the prattling is negative and sniping at the opposition. We are told it will let in nasty fringe parties like the BNP or make for ‘weaker’ government (how I wish, so weak they didn’t exist would suit me!)<span> </span>If this referendum is so good and meant to be so good for our democracy why is all the canvassing so negative? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So what if it does allow an occasional 'nasty' fringe candidate or a totally loony environmentalist into Parliament, they would have to work hard to be loonier and nastier than some of the present or recent incumbents? We may abhor some people’s views, whichever political extreme they come from, but since when does a once-free democracy like ours choose a voting method on the basis of deliberately censoring and excluding fringe parties? That is what is being argued for!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The papers and TV news are similarly full of AV. If there was any way such a voting change could make any real difference or have any real impact it just might matter, but it won’t. Our political classes are now so self-obsessed, so out of touch with real people, and so hard driven by a heady mix of self aggrandisement and love for EU and world integration that it makes not a jot of difference how we vote for them. Whatever the system we will only get a slightly different mix of the same we-know-best-and-will-ignore-you politicians.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There may be minor differences between parties. If one lot end up with more lobby fodder they will throw slightly more of our money at new schools and benefit claimants while the other lot will pretend to be more responsible and shuffle taxes around and prattle on about immigration. But even if they wanted to they can’t do anything significant because the EU won’t let them. It makes no real difference to ordinary people like me, how we vote for the political elite when all three main parties are cut from slightly different shades of the same cloth</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The mainstream media have long since colluded with this farce. Pages full of AV voting rubbish. It's no great loss because otherwise they are full of X Factor, the royal wedding, and similar trivia. Or pushing the latest wheeze of the health and control agenda, the familiar tobacco control, booze drinking, food freshness, and all the similar nannying<span> </span>and nudging that has become part of our daily lives. They don’t bother to even report about the political issues that matter. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span></span>Changing the voting system won’t make a bit of difference, the AV referendum is only being held to keep Clegg happy and more importantly pretend voters have power. It's main purpose being to distract us from the referendum we do all want, the in/out of the EU one. That’s the one they dare not permit to happen.</span></div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-83219637024603909642011-04-16T00:05:00.000+01:002011-04-16T00:05:33.368+01:00Are Politicians really so Stupid?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<span lang="EN-GB">Some difficult family matters have taken my time this week but I have been listening to the news on the way past.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">We had Cameron prattling on about immigration and why it should be controlled. A very populist sentiment with many people, but a moment’s thought makes it obvious the damage is long done and he can’t do anything about it. As long as Italy gives temporary residence to North African refugees and the EU continues to expand eastwards we have uncontrolled borders and a continuing influx of people able to claim benefits, housing and help from the UK taxpayer. While the European human rights act is raised above the needs and rights of the native population then he can’t do anything about many non-EU arrivals either. He waffles on similarly about controlling EU budgets, opposing votes for prisoners and all sorts of stuff where similarly he has no real control because that power has long been given away.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">So why do politicians say these things and pretend? Are they really too stupid to realise that they are powerless or that we won’t notice the broken promises? Much as I despise many of them I personally don’t think they are. Individuals may be a couple of slices short of a sandwich, but the powers that pull their strings are not, the body politic is not stupid.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Could it be simply populist rhetoric? On the basis of increasing their popularity while they hope and assume nobody will see the reality that belies their words. Do they assume that we will approve their supposed position, think positively of them, and by next week a new issue will have made us forget their vacuous assertions of this week? I expect there is an element of this, just as there are parts of society intellectually feeble enough to be swayed by it, but again it doesn’t explain why they say and do these things.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">The more likely explanation is that they are working to an agenda. It all seems idiotic and nonsensical from here and looks as though they have no plans or visions, but that’s because we don’t fully understand what their agenda is. What looks stupid, contradictory and out of touch with reality is usually being done to pursue hidden goals, and indeed often to disguise those goals. Why, for example, at a time when climate science’s alarmism over man-made warming has been severely discredited, and industry needs every helping hand it can get did Osbourne introduce a carbon tax during the budget?</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">The problem is that we don’t know those goals. Self aggrandisement and personal profit are obvious but there has to be more, and the EU is generally held up as the driving force. All our main politicians are pro EU integration (or have been bought into the cause) so we need to look at EU plans to see how some ‘local’ developments and pronouncements fit, and we can find a very good fit for much government activity.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Cuts to the armed forces mean that any military action has to be a co-operative EU activity where states share resources, and this is exactly what is happening. The discussion about 2 year MOT tests has little to do with freeing motorists, it brings us into line with the EU norms. Our NHS is being reorganised to be more like continental Europe. The carbon tax is the EU’s intended vehicle to enable direct EU taxation, it is mostly hidden from public view and can be collected separately to other taxes. Raising speed limits on motorways, well of course it brings us into line with France and Germany.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">And so it goes, everything the political elite do and everything they say has to be seen in the context of their real agenda. Start doing that and all sorts of things begin to make sense.</span>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-61369314116414509432011-04-12T09:46:00.000+01:002011-04-12T09:46:36.918+01:00Happiness Happiness<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess<br />
I thank the Lord I've been blessed <br />
With more than my share of happiness<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">So sang Ken Dodd in a simpler era.</span><br />
<br />
I heard this morning on the BBC early propaganda broadcast that an organization called <a href="http://www.actionforhappiness.org/" style="color: blue;">Action for Happiness</a> has just been launched. Sponsored by a somewhat bizarre mix of The Dalai Lama, Carol Ann Duffy and Alain de Botton.<br />
<br />
I will restrain my cynical tendencies with regard to the coincidence of Cameron’s previous vacuous uttering’s about a happiness index being as important as financial ones and I will try to put aside thoughts of fake charities, vested interests and social diversions.<br />
<br />
I will also assume that their image of happiness does not consist of us sitting around and gently exercising on the weed free grass outside our zero carbon eco-caves watching the pretty windmills turn lazily in the warm breeze, smiling as we eat our salt reduced, low fat, allergen free, non-alcoholic 5 a day meals.<br />
<br />
Maybe their idea of happiness is similar to mine, a society where people have maximum freedom, where their wishes are respected and where people show respect for and a lack of interference with, one another and other life choices. Somehow I doubt it, and their <a href="http://www.actionforhappiness.org/10-keys-to-happier-living">ten keys to happier living </a>do little for my confidence, but until my cynicism is confirmed I’ll wish them well.Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-74819384664625280702011-04-08T12:49:00.000+01:002011-04-08T12:49:42.373+01:00The Denormalisation of Pleasure<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggUs5l_eza1XSaWmOMtPux0hAL9OqN1lpnh7JGtVtuV38LrZnOK12_aWMV9Nn-Y7CKFI7-_X2-bx55UjmrS10eL8u56PrNmMhWcFOJyKNn2bUFnOU2t_VvEALaSVgFVs2bG8gN4ZLGLBPe/s1600/beer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggUs5l_eza1XSaWmOMtPux0hAL9OqN1lpnh7JGtVtuV38LrZnOK12_aWMV9Nn-Y7CKFI7-_X2-bx55UjmrS10eL8u56PrNmMhWcFOJyKNn2bUFnOU2t_VvEALaSVgFVs2bG8gN4ZLGLBPe/s1600/beer.jpg" /></a></div><span lang="EN-GB"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Having succeeded in driving smokers outside and turning them into social pariahs the campaigns against drinking, fast foods and various other of life's pleasures are now gathering pace. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Today yet <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12999000" style="color: blue;">another scare story</a> about how anything beyond the smallest drink consumption causes cancer. Their claim is that about 4% of certain cancers are caused by excessive drinking, but as usual in such reports they don’t say how they arrived at the definition of excess or calculated their figure. Nor do they explain how countries like France, with more of a drinking culture than the UK manages to have lower cancer rates. They seem blind to the fact that many people who do drink to excess do so in combination with other life situations, whether depression or homelessness or a poor diet, that would increase their cancer risk irrespective of alcohol.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">As is so often the case this research is backed by the World Health Organisation, who are rapidly getting a similar reputation for agenda driven alarmism as their discredited IPCC. And of course such a report is followed by the useful idiot choir of bansterbators like Sir Ian Gilmour and the Alcohol Health Alliance and other fake charities who start wittering on about how regulation is needed.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Yes of course too much alcohol can cause you problems, so can too much sun or too much water or too much horse riding or too much coffee or too much skydiving or too much sex or too much of anything! Basically being alive involves doing things that have a risk, often things that have to be done to stay alive carry a risk and most assuredly most of life’s pleasures do.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">I am pleased to know, if only someone would make an honest assessment, what the risk is for any activity then I can decide for myself if the pleasure justifies my doing it. The rest of the choir can just go away, preferably to somewhere hot and unpleasant and carry out some sort of self inflicted painful procedure. I am up to here with do-gooders, bansturbators, nannies and people trying to inflict their own agenda’s on my behaviour Be very sure there is an agenda.</span>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-27313397678793800122011-04-06T15:08:00.000+01:002011-04-06T15:08:15.200+01:00Thumbs Up for Eurotunnel.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmGXuzPhggaNVW2AYqsSWv5mSUQdHtS9u_Kw2kJqdsL4n83jUAYxJcHTs7_-0Uq-tJBtOgBmtoeEkty0hjnsVSD3qMLPdo1pdbKynzgiHE62Yi-agQ1OdVByWZK1KpN-HHulRlkxulR9q/s1600/800px-Chargement_voiture_Eurotunnel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmGXuzPhggaNVW2AYqsSWv5mSUQdHtS9u_Kw2kJqdsL4n83jUAYxJcHTs7_-0Uq-tJBtOgBmtoeEkty0hjnsVSD3qMLPdo1pdbKynzgiHE62Yi-agQ1OdVByWZK1KpN-HHulRlkxulR9q/s320/800px-Chargement_voiture_Eurotunnel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span lang="EN-GB"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Travelling to and from France to sort the hideaway we often use Eurotunnel. They sell a 10 journey car and passenger package for just under £400 which allows the actual crossings to be taken any<span> </span>time over the next year and journey times booked or changed on the Net at short notice on off peak trains. <span> </span>Using peak times or a larger vehicle ads a surcharge but the flexibility is useful.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Using the tunnel is not as relaxing as a ferry, and Dover to Calais involves a bit more driving than some ferry routes, it’s not as cheap as the cheapest ferry, but it has the advantage that it’s quick, and given the impossibility of time planning a long UK road journey it’s useful. If there is space they often offer an earlier train when you arrive early and it’s only half an hour to the next train if you miss the booked time.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">This time we gave them a puzzle. Having been in France last year when the petrol delivery drivers went on strike, a national pastime, and with an almost empty fuel tank we shelved our tunnel crossing home and headed for the nearest ferry port. Going last week but in the van not the car and with an odd number of crossings on the ticket we decided to go ferry and return on the ‘shelved’ Tunnel ticket.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">So we fell through the gaps of the online system, it couldn’t cope with the outward journey in a car last autumn and yesterday's return in a van subject to a high vehicle surcharge. You could change cars, change times, but couldn’t change vehicle type for the return.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">So we phoned and booked a high vehicle place, but they couldn’t take the surcharge over the phone and said we would need to report on arrival to pay rather than simply drive through the usual automatic toll gate. So we made an effort to arrive early, explained to the woman in the toll kiosk why we had a high vehicle reservation but hadn’t paid the extra. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">She intercomed her supervisor, asked us if we would like the just loading earlier crossing to save waiting, printed the boarding ticket and handed it over with a smile saying not to worry, the upgrade is free. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Thank you Eurotunnel, and we will be using your services again.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Makes a change to uncomplain about something. </span>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-83351296351766169622011-04-04T00:55:00.000+01:002011-04-04T00:55:23.247+01:00A Week Away From Political News.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRS9NYHzZw_qXH1v98ygWX0e886D3JxbWnN7ijfPKJiZp2ZJLeAApCC-PP3Yn7Gx2vWu3Hkbe6Kw-WJztN315SSk-WX4-qXy05ljA60htsHW7oNbMUOV0eYGOB3e832rF99hwV-TQ-Jhdf/s1600/cheese.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRS9NYHzZw_qXH1v98ygWX0e886D3JxbWnN7ijfPKJiZp2ZJLeAApCC-PP3Yn7Gx2vWu3Hkbe6Kw-WJztN315SSk-WX4-qXy05ljA60htsHW7oNbMUOV0eYGOB3e832rF99hwV-TQ-Jhdf/s1600/cheese.bmp" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I’m currently sitting in rural </span><span lang="EN-GB">France</span><span lang="EN-GB">, cheese and Calvados country, where I’m continuing to work on the potential escape pod and get it up to our standard of habitation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s strange how being out of the </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB"> for a week some of the anger and horror of the </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB"> political scene gradually ebbs. Here a couple of cars go past each hour, the local roads are virtually empty by UK standards and free of potholes, the sun is warmer, the food is excellent, the locals are friendly, there are wild flowers along the roadsides, parking in the local town is free and the loudest noise today has been the bumble bees as they bumble around searching out the early flowers. The supermarket, when it’s open, which excludes Sundays and evenings (I’m sure the neighbours didn’t believe me when I said we had a 24 hour one near us in the </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB">!) sells locally sourced vegetables which have far more flavour than anything in a </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB"> one. The bread is all fresh and tasty, making </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB"> supermarket efforts taste like plasticized cardboard. At night it’s pitch dark, the stars are stunning, with no evil orange glow from the nearest town and the silence is unbelievable, the UK has a constant background noise.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The silly thing is that I’m further inside the EU here than at home. There are corrupt politicians here, politics still happens, but it seems much more distant. I don’t think it’s because I don’t have such a stake in it. People resent long-life light bulbs and new rules on septic tanks but it’s no big deal. They tend to nod quietly and ignore the rules which make no sense or intrude too much. The French state has always been bureaucratic but fill in the forms, jump through the hoops where you have to, pay the taxes, then it leaves you alone. It doesn’t intrude all the time staring you in the face like the </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB">. There isn’t the micromanagement or the obsession with political correctness and health and safety. You are meant to take care of yourself, think for yourself, and take responsibility for yourself. People do just that, and also look out for their neighbours.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This area is full of small tradesmen and small businesses. As most houses are detached and well spaced small tradesmen can, and often do, work from home without disturbing anyone, many houses have basements and outbuildings. Registered tradesmen are allowed a notice in front of their house, and driving around you see not just plumbers, electricians and carpenters but there is a geo-heating engineer (at least that was what I decided it translated to) and a medical supplies distributor not far from here. In the UK they would need the overhead of an industrial unit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This area is rural and has quite traditional values, so even </span><span lang="EN-GB">Paris</span><span lang="EN-GB"> is somewhat like a different country. Someone once told me there were only two nationalities the locals didn’t like; Americans and Parisiens! But I think part of the relaxed attitude is because the local commune is run hands on by the elected local Mayor. The Mayor has immense power, over everything from planning to housing benefits, and while I expect there is plenty of opportunity for cronyism there is also plenty of opportunity for quick common sense actions and decisions. Everyone knows who he is and where he lives, and he knows almost everyone in the village. Things get done, the village is always clean and tidy and well maintained and every year sees a few more improvements as needs show themselves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s still possible to buy a small rural house round here needing renovation for under 50,000 Euro, I wonder why anyone is left in the </span><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span><span lang="EN-GB">?</span></div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-49086600748021063482011-03-31T23:47:00.000+01:002011-03-31T23:47:05.525+01:00The Power of Words<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dxX2WBs-k-VcXfMJooHf5PlWY2e1s7ovBVUBvN5UgaBmz8mUC_ktqxqP-EmQnkn49GXd6qtIHUX6Un4DPEWF8cm_xlnBD8Bi2QKE_2hUYO1hc4naNvDz1iEx0hWNCxSdbQZH7fWD8rTc/s1600/smartmeter.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dxX2WBs-k-VcXfMJooHf5PlWY2e1s7ovBVUBvN5UgaBmz8mUC_ktqxqP-EmQnkn49GXd6qtIHUX6Un4DPEWF8cm_xlnBD8Bi2QKE_2hUYO1hc4naNvDz1iEx0hWNCxSdbQZH7fWD8rTc/s1600/smartmeter.bmp" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Words have power. We all know this but often we assume it refers to words when used as communication to transmit information when it’s actually the information that has power. Or maybe the words convey authority, that too means power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">That’s not the sort of word power I mean, it’s the power of the words themselves that is often important. Poets, songwriters, novelists and journalists use this word power all the time, but we rarely stop and think why it works, often we don’t even notice it at all. One reason for their power is because of the unconscious emotional association we make to different words.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As a simple example think about this sentence; “The bright red car accelerated quickly up the road”. Nothing special about that, it’s a simple description. We think of bright red as a nice attractive colour. There is nothing wrong with accelerating quickly and roads are designed to accelerate on when driving off. The sentence is emotional positive or neutral, maybe the family going off on holiday. Change a few words. “The lurid red coupe accelerated fast up the carriageway”. Same event and the words mean the same but we get a totally different message. Now it’s a bad colour, the car is a fast one, the driver is violent, probably socially irresponsible, and carriageways are somehow faster than roads, the sentence now describes a bad situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The use of emotionally positive words in place of words with negative connotations is a staple method of the political correctness movement. “Intellectually challenged” is far more positive than “stupid” and the classic “gay”, with connotations of carefree innocent enjoyment is the emotional opposite of “homosexual” which carries the stigma of political scandals and sordid toilet encounters.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Such wordplay is far more subtle and more dangerous than ordinary spin. Spin simply exaggerates the good points and downplays the bad ones, at the extreme it is to lie by omission. Choosing the right words however is often so subtle as to be almost subliminal.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The global warming movement have always been good at extreme spin. Their data lies by omission, their models lie by omission, and their power generation ideas are close to fantasy without any regard to the problems. Most of us have long realised it has to do with tax and control, the environment was simply a useful (probably manufactured) artificial problem. But in any case the whole global warming senario had the great political disadvantage that it was all based around negative concepts, alarms and difficulties.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Recently the political movement has moved beyond talking about AGW or climate change or even mentioning CO2 levels. The latest references leave all that behind and increasingly talk glibly of our “carbon commitments” or “carbon targets”. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span> </span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This has the useful political effect of deflecting any criticism of the real environmental reality by removing the entire tax and control system beyond it. But more dangerously it uses an emotionally positive phrase to make it sound good. After all commitments are a good thing, targets are fun to hit. They have converted the language of the situation from a negative scare scenario into a positive aspiration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">To get the truth we need to remember that the only reliable forms of energy we currently have for many purposes are carbon based. We also need to understand that “commitment” used here doesn’t mean agreement, it means “ration”. What they are talking about is our energy ration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">That of course would be why they seem so lackadaisical about building new power stations and why they are trying to convince us that smart meters are for our benefit. We are heading for energy rationing, so don’t let phrases like “carbon commitment” fool you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-76111934621165311042011-03-30T21:43:00.000+01:002011-03-30T21:43:26.523+01:00What to do with the broken light bulb?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Having builders in has left me short of time recently so I missed this excellent bit of news a couple of weeks ago.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It seems various local councils are now <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363448/We-pick-toxic-new-bulbs-Councils-say-energy-saving-lights-dangerous-binmen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml" style="color: blue;">refusing to collect</a> expired low energy light bulbs because the mercury content classifies them as hazardous waste and the vapour is dangerous if it escapes!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363448/We-pick-toxic-new-bulbs-Councils-say-energy-saving-lights-dangerous-binmen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml"><br />
</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Just out of interest here<span> </span>is the man who proposed the discontinuation of real bulbs <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365740/Mr-Lightbulb-does-bit-save-energy--leaving-lamps-outside-luxury-home-day-night-weeks-end.html?ITO=1490" style="color: blue;">and how he lives.</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-31053625160323154712011-03-27T23:29:00.000+01:002011-03-27T23:29:09.266+01:00Product<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbQPG3l6uDWIFNYAHArE9tQxxkVTfrrpS89-e2PiJsaQa2pI4EYHH7Lajsh8Uy8F7to813X1otACwvbUQMdoT70dOWiHjxyzAxWvxver3tQOCu5soRXw-0V9aWNfbf1OrarVwWwr_mqy7/s1600/shampoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbQPG3l6uDWIFNYAHArE9tQxxkVTfrrpS89-e2PiJsaQa2pI4EYHH7Lajsh8Uy8F7to813X1otACwvbUQMdoT70dOWiHjxyzAxWvxver3tQOCu5soRXw-0V9aWNfbf1OrarVwWwr_mqy7/s320/shampoo.jpg" width="137" /></a></div><span lang="EN-GB"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">This week has all been a bit of a rush, builders working in the garden, (why is it that employing someone, even a good tradesman, seems to be more exhausting than doing the job yourself?), someone to collect from the airport (what possible excuse can there be for Manchester Airport to charge £4 for an hour to park and pick someone up?), then there has been miscellaneous stuff to do in the garden while the weather was good (the tobacco seedlings are doing well Mr Osbourne and I’m sure the lack of additives will be good for my health). </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">All in all an excellent opportunity to touch base with reality and avoid the media with their gung ho attitude to Libya where the New World Order is busy helping the good rebels, as against Afghanistan where they are fighting the bad rebels. The cynical might suggest that the differentiation between good and bad is connected with ownership of oil terminals or minerals but I’m sure there must be some high moral consideration that I’m missing.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Then there were the usual infantile hide and seek games of Clegg and Cameron as they pretend to be annoyed at the EU while they sign up to yet more of it, just how stupid do they think we are? This time it's bailing out Portugal. Isn’t it nice to know we are each allowed to give £300 to those nice people in Portugal, makes you feel warm all over with a glow of generosity. I was wondering whether to comment on the census, <a href="http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.com/2011/02/cense-or-censibility.html" style="color: blue;">but I did that </a>as a guest on <a href="http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.com/">Subrosa’s blog</a> a while back and I think we know what we are going to do with it by now, although its treatment may not be quite as dignified as intended.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">And yesterday there were all those people protesting because they are scared the rest of us may stop providing them with free lunches and stuff. So Ok I’m happy to provide when someone is otherwise going unfed, or even temporarily when someone is between jobs through forced redundancy, but most of the freeloaders in London yesterday looked to me either better off than me, and thus capable of buying their own lunches, or else had made a lifestyle choice to scrounge off the rest of us.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">So to trivia, which is much less gloomy. One of the columns I usually enjoy in the Sunday Times is Jeremy Clarkson’s. Of course he plays the gallery, and goes out of his way to pretend to be a clown and get up the noses of the politically correct, but he often touches serious topics, and hits out at many day to day irritations. One of the things he mentions today is the annoyance of shower/bathroom products that are unrecognisable once one is in the shower (I strongly suggest you avoid imagining any visuals!)</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">As I am totally blind to small visual details without my reading glasses he has hit on a pet peeve that has bugged me for years. Standing underwater squinting to decide what ‘product’ is in the bottle before anointing one’s head with some anonymous concoction is indeed one of the daily random experiences of getting older, although it can afford considerable pleasure when one gets lucky there are risks too.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">It’s quite obvious that package designers think it’s a fun game, especially when they make a range of unguents, soaps and liniments in identical bottles, proudly proclaiming the manufacturer’s name and marketing range name in large print but the actual product in the smallest possible type and the most unlikely location. <span> </span>I would single out Tree Same Me and Jill Ette as prime players, although Jill Ette cleverly prints the product description in white against a yellow section of the label, which I think is probably cheating.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Even worse are those firms who don’t even say what the stuff in the bottle is! Somehow you are meant to have enough psychic ability to know that McCorporation Valley is an air freshener while McCorporation Elf is clothes washing powder while every instruction and endorsement on the container talks about ‘this product’. I suppose the sorts of people who can reel off the names of Xfactor contestants or boyfriends of ‘c’ list celebrities might know what things have what names, sadly I don’t! </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">I think package designers for household products probably deserve a special hell of their own, even though it need be nothing like as bad as the one I would reserve for politicians.</span>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7387532202739673351.post-91689420610289893732011-03-24T18:26:00.000+00:002011-03-24T18:26:44.188+00:00A Budget for Man With a Van<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML/> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<span lang="EN-GB"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">What a depressing budget from Osborne! Another smoke and mirrors job from the ConDems that gives with one hand while emptying your wallet with the other.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">The rise in income tax allowance is welcome, the low paid should never have been in the tax net in the first place, so throwing a few poor folks out is helpful, except it’s such a drop in the ocean when all the other taxes are taken into account and only pays them back for the VAT he already added to the cost of living</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Not adding another pre-planned duty rise to petrol was a no-brainer, except that he carefully said it had been deferred, so no doubt he will slide it back with interest when he thinks we aren’t looking. But in any case he has recently added 5 pence a litre to the around 80 pence already taken in duty so are we supposed to be grateful that he hasn’t stolen another one? It’s frightening to think that 5 pence a litre is almost 25 pence a gallon and I can remember in old money when petrol, at 4s 11p per gallon, cost less than that.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">The killer section, which he glossed over in a matter of seconds, was the plan for a carbon price. He even sounded proud that the UK was now the first country to set a floor price for carbon. Well of course he is first as most other countries have realised that the econut/IPCC alarmism and renewable energy windmill nonsense is a scam and totally ineffective and as a result have pulled back their plans. Osbourne, presumably spurred on by Huhne the Hopeless, seems to prefer to energy tax and energy ration our country back to third world status. <span> </span>As a tax it’s ideal for government as it creates a whole new tax platform, hidden from obvious view and taxing every business, every activity and every man, woman and child in society. And of course as we are already forced to pay a ‘renewable levy’ in our electricity bills we instantly have a double taxation.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">Then, the sting in the tail, with the vicious rise in tobacco duty. <span> </span>Having raised the tobacco price to virtually the same level as illegal drugs does this overage schoolboy not realise what will happen? It’s essentially prohibition based on price, and the profits from smuggling will almost certainly draw in more people and probably organised criminals. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">But at least a couple of occasions in his speech raised a smile for me when he was forced to admit he couldn’t do what he wanted because his preferred plan was illegal, in particular the EU rules forbade him from adjusting VAT on petrol. The words ‘petard’, ‘own, ‘by’ ‘his’ and ‘hoist’ come to mind.</span>Woodsy42http://www.blogger.com/profile/12355671210161625647noreply@blogger.com0