Jan 20th, 2012 by Oldfart
From my last blog you may be able to guess that I will be flying the Union Jack this year for Her Majesty’s jubilee and I now have a flagpole to fly it from! The gardener and I concreted in the base a couple of days ago and the pole itself will be erected shortly. Very flash it is as it swivels from the base for ease of use.
So it will be up in good time for the jubilee celebrations which is just as well. We are having the village ‘big lunch’ on the front lawn and Mrs Old Fart is already organising it with others. There will be a hog roast, music and much red white and blue bunting. Just hoping we get some decent weather because it is a bit of a lottery at that time of year - those of us able to remember will know that on the Queen’s coronation day (2nd June 1953) it absolutely tipped down all day.
Incidentally I note that the 22 year olds in the media are getting mighty confused about dates and seem to think that the Queen acceded to the throne in June. She did not of course but in February (1952) and was then crowned nearly 18 months later. So in fact she will have been on the throne 60 years in just a few weeks time.
Tags: Queen's jubilee, Union Jack
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Jan 15th, 2012 by Oldfart
So Alex Salmond will have his referendum and we will all be caught up in the tiresome issue of Scottish independence - or some engineered version of it that gives Scotland the good bits without the tough stuff (like funding it from their own coffers rather than relying on Westminster to finance their lifestyle).
As a true Brit (primarily Scottish and English with a little bit of Irish thrown in - though no Welsh) I cannot see what all the fuss is about. Of course there is a very old emnity if you want to go that far back which ties the Scots in with our traditional foes, the French. But since the union the Scots have a proud record on the battlefield fighting alongside the English against Napoleon, Hitler and all the rest. As somebody who has spent a lot of time in Edinburgh where half my family came from I shall be extremely sad to see the break up of the union.
Alex Salmond is of course a pillock, and not a very endearing one. Typical jumped up person who would like to be of some importance as a head of state (albeit an inconsequential one). But if he does manage to persuade the whingers north of the border to vote for secession then let it carry all the implications - no more public spending per head at 20% more than people south of the border courtesy of the English taxpayer, no more investment in Scotland to stimulate jobs (again funded by the English taxpayer), no more rescuing of over ambitious Scottish banks (funded by guess who) and the full blast of economic reality. Anyone with half a brain will realise that securing independence in this economic climate will be rather like turkeys voting for Christmas , Jimmy
Tags: Alex Salmond, Scottish independence
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Jan 12th, 2012 by Oldfart
Sorry, I just could not resist the title. All these women who wanted bigger ones are now in real trouble. The private medical organisations who put them there will not take them out/replace them and the NHS is now left having to fill the gap (no pun intended, indeed they have said they will only remove the faulty implants and not replace them with anything). The Harley Street Clinic says they will go bankrupt if they have to replace the 14,000 they put in place and are blaming the MHRA - the organisation charged with ensuring that drugs and devices used in the UK are safe - for cocking it up. Some justification in this.
Meanwhile there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth along with a view on the part of those involved that somebody else should take responsibility for this and make it all right for them. Obviously they did not read the small print - all surgery carries risks. At the end of the day they have to take responsibility for their actions.
Guess there will be a few disappointed guys when their girlfriends deflate……………
Tags: breast implants
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So the Government has decided that those out of work for a long time will have to undertake unpaid community work in order to qualify for their benefits. If they refuse payments will stop. Already opposition is forming that is going to seek to challenge this on the grounds of denial of human rights. This would be unbelievable in any other age. So what about our human rights as taxpayers who earn our money by working? Shall we argue that we should have benefits too because going to work in an infringement of our human rights also? Sure hope Call me Dave and his henchmen stand firm on this one.
Meanwhile they are about to approve spending £32bn on another railway line from London to Birmingham, so the people can get between the cities 20 minutes quicker. Are you crazy? Here we are in the middle of a recession making public service cuts all over the place and we want to spend this much for the sake of 20 minutes - oh and in the process wreck a whole new area of countryside to make way for the line. This is just arrant nonsense which frankly beggars belief. How on earth can this be seen as a sensible thing to do when measured against just about any criteria? As somebody said on the TV this morning if there really is a desire to spend money on the rail infrastructure then how about investment in the existing network to improve its reliability and capacity.
Tags: London-Birmingham rail link, working for benefits
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So another year comes. Right now a very windy one with another branch down from the Wellingtonian I can see from the window. Has a habit of dropping branches and to be avoided when there is a wind blowing. But despite all this there is a large dead branch near the top caught up in another branch that refuses to fall - has been like this for at least 6 months. Good news is that the oil bill is way lower than last year as it is so much milder. Can’t tell you how great it is not to be shovelling snow - well so far anyway.
Let us hope it is a good year and that all the economic woes do not engulf us. Still do not see how the Eurozone is going to get itself out of trouble - or indeed where the political will is going to come from. The logic of accepting a bunch of countries with inherently shaky economies into the Eurozone never did make sense. Only the good times made it possible and when the economic wind changed it was obvious there would be severe problems.
Logically it must surely go one of two ways. Either Germany stops paying guilt money to these economies to shore them up and accepts that they will have to leave the Eurozone, or the kind of closer political union necessary to integrate the European economy as a whole must be put in place. At present the chosen route seems to be the latter but I am not sure that this is going to stick as the countries affected wake up to what they are signing up for. Either way Cameron was right to stay clear of it all and it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Anyway hope you all had a great Christmas and look forward to another year of writing this rubbish.
Tags: Eurozone
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Dec 23rd, 2011 by Oldfart
Funny old year really. Call me Dave seemed strangely hesitant and did not seem to have the balls needed to put into effect the various promises to curb bureaucracy, illegal immigrants, public sector pay etc and there were some spectacular own goals - as with the immigration service. Meanwhile Nick somebody spent the year wrestling with his conscience about being in power and having to ditch a whole bunch of hair brained Lib Dem policies. Every so often there was an outburst from him only to be followed by a statement that he didn’t mean it really and nothing would affect his support for the coalition. Not helped by the media almost willing a crisis between the two parties.
The Labour party meanwhile reached new heights (or should it be depths) of hypocrisy by trying to suggest the economic crisis was somehow the fault of the current Government rather that their sad failure to mitigate the global economic meltdown in any way. Interestingly their view is that we should continue to spend money we do not have (they left us with the second highest debt level in Europe) which would put us in the same mad house as Greece, Spain and Portugal.
But in the last few weeks everything has changed. Dave has proved he has balls after all by using the veto in the EU to the consternation of the media and all the chattering classes - all of whom have misread the situation and likely effects. Is the EU really going to turn its back on us when we are the second largest contributing nation? I think not. Even Angela Merckle has said as much. Now is the time to stand firm and insist on some changes. Otherwise the bunch of jerks running it will do rather worse than let the euro collapse (not that I am suggesting that would not be a terrible disaster).
What was really funny was the way Dave’s ratings went shooting up taking the media pundits by surprise. Suddenly his stand became seen in a more positive light! There is a huge groundswell of opinion in the UK that thinks the whole European experiment has gone too far. After all the prediction is that while the BRIC countries race ahead Europe will simply become the museum of the world. And there are many now starting to believe that the Germans won the war after all - by economically dominating the rest of the Eurozone. Do we really want to be a part of any of that? We have always being a very independent little country (some would say simply bloody minded) so European hugs are not really us.
So let us hope that 2012 brings something better and to all those who have had the patience to read this blog - or the lack of anything better to do - Mrs Oldfart and myself would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, whatever you are doing. The bad news is that this blog will be back in the New Year!
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Dec 15th, 2011 by Oldfart
If I banked with Lloyds TSB right now (which I don’t) and was told that I had to become a customer of the Cooperative Bank, courtesy of some bureaucrats in Brussels, I would be absolutely furious. I have absolutely nothing against the Coop but this takes European meddling to new heights. Without giving the customers who signed up for a service from Lloyds any say in the matter they are simply having their accounts transferred to the Coop. This is outrageous. It is one thing when a bank gets taken over in the normal course of business, but this is on a different level and totally unacceptable.
Talking of Europe it is interesting to see how the media have backed off in their attacks on Call me Dave now that they have seen the poll ratings for the level of public support for the stance he has taken. A great move on his part which shows that when it comes to it he does have balls. The Labour party are of course talking a whole lot of rubbish about it (and how we should spend more public money and increase debt to solve the unemployment problem - which planet are they on?) and how it will exclude us from Europe. Truth is we are still the second largest economy in the EU and a net contributor so they probably need us more than we need them. German exports for a start would have a problem if we stopped buying their cars. Indeed Angela Merckle has already said how important we are to the market and the opposition leader in France who will probably beat Sarkozy in the spring elections has voiced grave concerns about the deal.
So who’s got it right then?
Tags: Angela Merckle, Cooprerative Bank, Lloyds TSB, Sarkozy
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Dec 12th, 2011 by Oldfart
So it was Mrs Oldfart’s birthday party at the weekend - couldn’t possibly say what number she has reached but it was a great bash with lots of friends and family present. Most of the mottly crew of contributors to the blog were also present but that did not stop us enjoying ourselves. Mrs Oldfart decided we were going to have a ceiligh - celtic barn dance to the rest of you. Lots of swirling about, collisions and foot stamping (which Mrs Oldfart is particularly good at).
Meanwhile last week in the storms there was a spectacular failure of a wind turbine which went up in flames. In fact a whole lot had to close down because they could not handle the winds, even though the manufacturers said they would be able to. So the output from them dropped dramatically and has apparently raised questions about their viability as a power source and the cost of providing back up when they cannot operate.
This is paraded as if it was a new discovery whereas those who have any experience of the power industry have been saying this for ages. In fact the problems they are finding are pretty obvious to anyone who thinks about it. So now there will probably be another stupid eco scheme that will also cost the consumers loads of money and similarly fail to deliver. The answer is nuclear.
Tags: wind power
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Chris Huhne - you know the barmy Lib Dem that has wheedled his way into Government as Secretary of State for Energy - now has a plan to desecrate the countryside with 32,000 new wind turbines and new lines of marching pylons in the ridiculous notion that this is going to enable us to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. This is so that we can run our homes and cars on electricity by 2050. The man is barking.
Anyone who has any knowledge of the power industry knows that the only viable non carbon alternative is nuclear and so if they are serious about reducing the carbon footprint then that is the way to go. The proposed policy is bonkers because:
- As argued many times here the concept of man made global warming is completely unproven;
- 32,000 wind turbines would ruin forever the beautiful countryside and wild places across the UK (just look at where they have been implemented already, not just in this country but places like Spain);
- We won’t be able to drive our cars or have a bath unless the wind is blowing - the ultimate stop/start economy;
- It amounts to massive misguided public investment (ie our taxes) in in pursuit of the mistaken belief that this is somehow going to save the planet. Let me remind you that even if all the global warming arguments were true, the UK only generates 2% of the world’s carbon emissions so how on earth is this going to make a difference?
So Dave, toughen up, get real and act like a Prime Minister. Just junk all this nonsense.
Tags: Chris Huhne, climate change, wind farms
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So the biggest day of disruption since the General Strike didn’t quite live up to its billing. Where were they all? All these people who were so concerned about their pensions they were going to bring the UK to a standstill. Maybe after all some of them realise that they have a great deal and far better than they would get in the private sector.
You really do wonder what planet the union leaders are living on. Guess the truth is they thought they had found an issue they could wind their membership up over and were playing it for all it was worth.
And now Jeremy Clarkson is in trouble allegedly for his remarks on the One Show. But he only said that he would line up all those on strike and shoot them, which seemed quite reasonable to me. But he has certainly fired up the lefties who run the BBC. My guess is that if they took a viewers pole they would find that many of us find Clarkson funny because he is a release for our pent up fury over all the screwball things that go on.
Tags: Jeremy Clarkson, public sector strike
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