The Train Derailed

An analogy of the Establishments quest for the good life at the expense of the ordinary people.

I have thought of many ways to try to describe this and, the previous Governments, desire to keep this glorious Country of ours in the despicable Union that is the EU. 

The stupidity of this venture has led me to write something equally frivolous but none the less to the point.

The Gravy Train

Once upon a long time ago, when everything was ticketyboo, there used to be a regular train service from London to the Shires. The train in question was a very special freight carrier and the cargo was freshly made, piping hot gravy. Obviously, the trucks had all been specially adapted so that the gravy did not spill or get cold on the long journey. 

The job of designing these trucks had been given to none other than the greatest engineer of his day, Isambard Kingdom Boxo. This was the man who had pioneered the transport of gravy in all parts of the Empire. It was even rumoured that he was the first to arrive in Mafeking, breaking the 217 day siege by distracting the encamped Boers  with salvos of gravy encrusted Yorkshire puddings fired from a specially adapted eight inch calibre mixing bowl that he had, had specially mounted on the front of the train.

Here, however, his task was to be a lot more difficult. Not only did he have to please his paymasters in Government, he also had to please the public at large. let’s face it, once you find a good gravy train you would be foolish to give it up.

His first priority was to be the laying of new track; a special train needs special rails and so he put his considerable engineering mind to the task. Traditional materials were cast aside, he could not afford to have his new train sliding off the rails at the first spillage of gravy. It was this project that gave him, possibly, his greatest idea. Pre-cast, high tensile, liquorice coated, knot free gnarly wood. 

He had first come upon gnarly wood whilst designing a log flume for use on the Dutch canal system. Over the course of two hundred years, gnarly trees grow to a height of precisely five feet two and one half inches. They grow on the cool slopes of  extinct volcanoes in the Lesser Antilles. Whilst only five feet two and one half inches high, they have a girth of exactly thirty nine and one quarter inches when fully mature. It is probably the softest wood in the world. Not great if you want to run a gravy train on gnarly wood rails.

Kingdom Boxo was, inadvertently, shown by the Dutch canal and dam puddlers how to convert this soft wood; which they used to fill cracks in their dams as it swelled when soaked in water; into one of the hardest materials known to man. Alongside the dams, the engineers would dig huge saw pits into the thick china clay, here they would saw the gnarly wood into strips for use in the construction of the dams. The sawyers would take the sawdust and use it on their fires. Sometimes they would unknowingly pick up a quantity of clay with the sawdust and throw this on the fire as well. 

It was whilst enjoying a medicinal spliff and coffee with the sawyers one evening that Kingdom Boxo saw, in and old fire pit, a dull brown lump. At first he thought that it was a rock but one of the sawyers told him that it was just a clinker from the fire and quite useless as it could not be broken or shaped for any use. This set him thinking and he took the dull brown lump back with him to his workshop in Knorr-le-Stock, a small village just north of Griddlestone. After many months of trial, error and badger baiting; he liked the distraction, he devised a method by which he could machine the gnarly wood/clay alloy into any shape that he wanted. What is more, he perfected a method of making gnarly wood alloy in his own foundry. 

He soon incorporated the use of gnarly wood into all of his new design projects, from bridges to public buildings. He had thought of using gnarly wood for his new rail system but every train that ran on his experimental rails got precisely nowhere. The reason, gnarly wood is so hard and smooth that the wheels of the train engine just could not get any grip, they would just spin, causing clouds of evil pink smoke. He was running one such trial when his son came down to see what new invention dad was working on. The boy was sucking on a stick of liquorice at the time and when admonished by his father he dropped it onto the smoking gnarly wood rail of the last trial. Of course, the liquorice immediately melted and formed a dull coating on the rail. Kingdom Boxo was about to admonish his son for a second time when his staff pushed and pulled the steam engine into place for the next trial.  The staff and crew had not had time to carry out any modifications, they just hoped that scorched gnarly wood would offer more traction. 

He told his son to go away and leave him whilst he was working and then paid full attention to the new test. To everyones surprise the locomotive started to move along the rails; everyone started to cheer, Kingdom Boxo included but, after ten yards, it stopped, with the wheels spinning furiously. Another failure. However, Kingdom Boxo was not so sure, why had the engine moved straight away and why, had it stopped so suddenly? That’s when he noticed the dull stain down the side of the inner rail. He was also alerted by the strong smell of burnt liquorice. That was it, he would heat the pre cast high tensile gnarly wood rails in his furnace and then coat them in liquorice as they came out. It worked, as soon as the engineer put the train into gear traction was immediate. Not only that, but the North Yorkshire Liquorice Allotment Society suddenly found themselves inundated with orders for industrial strength liquorice and the Lesser Antilles became the Greater Antilles because of the wealth generated by the foresting of gnarly trees. 

 However, the Dutch Canal and Dam Puddlers Association were less than happy, claiming that Kingdom Boxo had stolen their idea for high tensile gnarly wood, naturally, the British High Court threw their case out on the grounds that Kingdom Boxo had used gnarly sawdust and all sorts of materials to make his alloy; a fact that gave a juror by the name of Basset a fleeting idea, whereas the Dutch claimed it was simply clay and wood dust and heat.

The rails were done and now Kingdom Boxo set to the task of designing specialist trucks for the transportation of the hot, fresh gravy. He first tried gnarly wood but a chemical reaction between the wood and the components of the gravy turned the whole mixture pink and gave it the smell of a field latrine.

Undeterred, the great engineer turned his attention to the actual shaping of his new gravy vessels and came up with the idea of shaping them to look like a dingy on wheels. He put in a double bottom and sides for greater insulation and fitted windproof tea lights with adjustable wicks in order to keep the temperature of the gravy precisely at the manufacturers recommended level. He also designed and fitted anti spill skirts along the top of each vessel; these were made from dried gravy sludge which was found, and usually discarded, at the bottom of all commercial gravy vats. He discovered that if bat droppings were mixed with the gravy at room temperature, the resulting compound solidified into an elastic block within one hour. 

However, as with most great inventions, luck played a major part; he made his discovery whilst camping in a cavern which was part of the Greater Hemel Hempstead cave system. He was there to study the habits of the bats that inhabited the myriad of caverns; he liked the distraction and it added to his CV. He and the other two enthusiasts, similarly dressed in snug blue duffle coats with GHH Cavers emblazoned across the back, who were accompanying him were sitting eating their meagre rations of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with roast potatoes, cabbage, carrots and peas when an inverted bat emptied its bowels. The contents of said bowels landed in Kingdom Boxo’s gravy, narrowly missing his Yorkshire pudding which, he always left until last. This however, was to be one of those Eureka moments, he threw the plate down in disgust only to watch as it bounced back onto his lap. The ratio of excrement to gravy being such that the resulting compound solidified almost immediately.  

Subsequent trials proved that the compound was only successful when using the excrement of the Hemel bat. He was later to find that this was because of the diet of said bats. They fed on the very rare but, extremely annoying, Hemel four ringed, bilious mosquito. So called because the entomologist who found them not only rolled his R’s but also had a lisp. He tried to say that the mosquitos; the Hemel Saw Winged variety, were vile mosquitos. He added the vile because of the persistence of the blood thirsty creatures. To his assistant it sounded like four ringed bilious and the name has stuck and that is what he wrote in the entomologists journal.

Kingdom Boxo’s trials of the new vessels were a great success, proving that the shape of the new trucks had a better drag coefficient than conventional trucks and spillage was zero. Even at high speed, the vertically challenged employed by Kingdom Boxo as tea light wick management operatives  were able to trim the candle wicks and maintain a steady temperature; as per the manufacturers manual for safe yet tasty gravy. He had been forced to employ vertically challenged people because they were the only ones, apart from children, who were small enough to attend to the tea lights.

 Kingdom Boxo was keen to stress to the assembled press that not one VCP was harmed during the trials and that they were all given extra perks and bonuses for carrying out their work. A cynic might say that the derogatory term ‘gravy train’ evolved around the VCP wick trimmers because it appeared that the small minority always got the extras. 

You may also have guessed that it was the shape of these gravy vessels that brought the term ‘gravy boat’ into the English language.

The line was opened to great fanfare in 1889 and ran into trouble almost immediately. The Dutch canal and dam puddlers formed a militant group named the Dutch Canal and Dam Puddlers. The DCDP caused havoc by scraping the liquorice from the gnarly wood rails which brought the trains to a wheel spinning stop. They would then throw buckets of Hemel bat droppings into the gravy rendering it useless and incurring days in the maintenance sheds whilst the resulting elastic goo was removed. Several vertically challenged people were mummified during these atrocious attacks when they tried to scoop the poop from the gloop and fell into the gravy.

The militant wing of the North Yorkshire Liquorice Allotment Society offered to stand guard on the track to prevent the DCDP from damaging the rails but their offer was politely refused. The NYLAS boys had a reputation for taking the law into their own hands and The Greater London Freeboating Rail and Gravy Company could not afford a scandal. meanwhile, questions were being asked in The House. Were we, as a nation, in danger of going to war with the Dutch over this dispute? The Prime Minister; himself a great advocate of the gravy train, said that this country was in the best possible position to ride out this storm. 

The Opposition leader disagreed, saying that positive action was needed now as the crisis was escalating. He pointed out that only that very morning a gravy train had been stopped on its approach to Gravy-Le-Hill near Birmingham, mummifying two more midgets in quick setting gravypoop alloy. He was, later, forced to apologise for his unfortunate slip of the tongue. He added that vertically challenged people were valued members of society and questioned their use in this endeavor. The House was in uproar, with accusations being thrown from right to left and vice versa. The Speakers cries of order, order,  went unheeded and the Sergeant at Arms had to be called in to help the Speaker gain control.

A delegation from the Dutch Embassy  delivered a petition to Downing Street demanding the rights to gnarly wood alloy and five members of the DCDP, who were being held in Gnarlywood Scrubs on suspicion of causing excessive spin,  were put on suicide watch.

The Government, ever mindful of Public opinion, called Mr Kingdom Boxo to Downing Street where he faced questions from a hastily assembled committee of the Nimby Society.

Two hours later a disheveled and broken Isambard Kingdom Boxo appeared before the press, who were gathered on the steps of No Ten. He said that the DCDP had caused a lot of spin which had halted the gravy train and that the country and, especially the Politicians, was all the poorer for it. The gravy train had, effectively, been derailed and, for the foreseeable future, hundreds of whom he referred to as ‘the little man in the street,’ would now be denied gainful employment!

 He added that he felt that he had been made a scapegoat by the Government and because of this he was retiring, effective immediately.

The moral of the story is; the little man always suffers when there is too much spin. 

                                                                                                                       

Hitler had His "Brownshirts", The far Left have their, "Cybermen"!

Some years ago I saw an article written in Workers Liberty detailing the protest against Nigel Farage’s North East rally. This spurred me to dedicate a blog to Hope not Hate and its celebrity supporters such as Billy Bragg. For those not familiar with this brazen Left Wing organisation; Hope not Hate is a advocacy group based in the United Kingdom that "campaigns to counter racism and fascism". Founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, a former editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. It is backed by various politicians and celebrities, and is a beacon for several trade unions.

However, whilst researching for the article I started to think about the looney left who turn out, come rain or shine, to accuse any so-called Right Wing organisation, i.e any organisation or individual who does not go along with their particular kind of Left Wing dogma of racism, fascism, homophobia and what ever ism or obia they feel able to spell when assembling their placards.

Imagine the nightmare scenario had we decided to stay in the EU. Better still, imagine the panic amongst these clowns when, after a month of EU Gestapo tactics, the people of this country actually woke up and started to rebel. Don’t get me wrong, I feel no sympathy for them, I believe that they should get everything that they deserve.  They remind me of ‘Dr Who’, and the Cyborgs from the planet Mondas, these; cybermen whom, because they have had to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies as a form of self-preservation has led to the race becoming coldly illogical yet calculating, with every emotion deleted from their minds. The description fits the far left perfectly. Perhaps we should start calling them Mondasians
Can you imagine;
'Quick, there are a load of Mondasians coming down the street all carrying placards with Facelifts fascists out written on them!'

The unfortunate thing is that these people, through the socialist press, have the ear of the electorate. More so now since a rabid left Winger by the name of Corbyn held the reins in the Labour Party. In his successor we have a, European Union-loving,  Labour Party leader who,  as Director of Public Prosecutions, seemed to openly ignored the plight of thousands of young girls  in the UK who were victims of vile Pakistani Asian grooming gangs. Very few of these men have been brought to justice, protected by Left Wing local government and a Pakistani community which refuses to integrate and looks upon these young girls as mere infidels, trash to be used and abused as their men see fit.

We should be doubly worried enough to get out onto the street to scotch their filthy lies and innuendo and to speak out loud to condemn the abuse suffered by our children, then and now!

Take for example the "Bard of Barking" or as I refer to him, Billy Bragg the "barking bard", back in April 2014 he was, apparently, the lone voice speaking out against a boycott of a United Kingdom Independence Party rally held at the Gateshead Sage. He said and I quote.
‘I want people to hear UKIP, every time they open their mouths everyone can hear what crazy people they are. It make them feel like martyrs if they are banned. Let them come, make their argument and then we’ll put some facts into it.’
The man is a  hypocrites, hypocrite and patron of ‘Hope not Hate,’ the organisation which I described above and which is allegedly dedicated to the destruction of free speech and real democracy. Their biggest claim to fame is that they have hounded the BNP almost out of existence. Not a bad thing when you consider that the BNP truly acted like an offshoot of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. However, HnH then set its sights firmly on UKIP and the English Defence League (EDL), which begs the question, are we really in the presence of Mondasians?
We should certainly be wary!

Like the majority of far-left activist, card-carrying loonies marching for the “rights of the working man”, the majority of these hypocrites haven’t a clue. Most of them compose their eulogies in the comfort of their own homes on expensive iMacs, in fashionable parts of whatever city they live in. Take Bragg for instance he lives in the Dorset town of Burton Bradstock enjoying a wealthy lifestyle, far removed from the back streets of Barking, yet he still plays the part of the champion for the lower classes. I am not envious of wealth, I applaud anyone who gets up off their backsides and makes something of themselves. What does irk me though is that some of these so-called 'self-made people' totally ignore the fact that it is capitalism and a free society not socialism that has allowed them to succeed. By all means support those who, for one reason or another, have not been able to fulfil their dreams but be honest about it. Tell people the whole story, tell them that by adopting socialist ideals of equal pay and equal Rights for all  that someone has to pay! Unsurprisingly, ‘that someone’ is every taxpayer in the land. I do not mind contributing a little more if it means a better society, a safer society and a more prosperous society but if contributing a little more is the result of socialist ‘politics of envy’ then I draw the line!

In this age of social media, networking and false news, is it any wonder that people are duped by celebrity fuelled Hope not Hate. Let's face it, most people are impressed with celebrity, mobile phones have seen instant celebrity become a daily worldwide occurrence. One could argue that this is aimless, apathetic attitude is a result of New Labour’s policy of deliberately dumbing down the UK populace. So when you have people such as these posing as prominent supporters of Hope not Hate: -
Lord Sugar, boxer Amir Khan, singer Beverly Knight, actress and screenwriter Meera Syal, TV presenter Fiona Phillips, chef Simon Rimmer, songwriter Billy Bragg, entrepreneur Levi Roots, singer Speech Debelle, actress and singer Paloma Faith, presenter Dermot O'Leary, Baroness Glenys Kinnock and comedian Eddie Izzard.
You have to ask, are you surprised that the New Labour generation are impressed by vacuous celebrity?

The Left Wing media goes out of its way to support and sponsor Hope not Hate and other similar organisations. My message is; tell everyone you know NOT to buy into it any more. In my opinion most of these Left Wing organisations are hiding behind charitable status and need to be recognised as such and not applauded.

OLD KING COAL!

OLD KING COAL!

(Why We Need More Investment Into CCS Technology.)  Part 1: Setting the Scene

Some Background:

The UK has relied on fossil fuel for thousands of years. Coal was the backbone of the Industrial Revolution and, after sail, was the fuel which helped to power our ships across the seven seas, it was a coal fire which people came home to after a hard days work, it was the life blood of our rail system, both as a fuel and as freight. All very nostalgic, however coal has many drawbacks when used as a fuel. The most obvious is that it is carbon based and, therefore, when burned, vast amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere plus it leaves behind in the form of ash particles, heavy metals, mercury, nitrates and sulphates plus many more.

Coal, more or less, fuelled the country and the Empire. Unfortunately, in doing so it brought many serious problems. As far back as 1853 an Act was passed, (Smoke Nuisance Abatement -Metropolis - Act) in London because of the poor air quality there, Something from which London had suffered from for generations. 
In 1952 an event happened in London which woke the Government up to the fact that, whilst a cheap fuel, coal used as such was a potential killer. In December of that year the “Great Smog” fell over the city and it was the after effects of this which gave rise to the Clean Air Act of 1956. It was estimated that over 12000 people died because of the Great Smog with more (over 8000) dying in the following weeks and months. Fog was so thick it stopped some public events, public transport and, cars in the street. 

To reduce air pollution, The Act contained a number of measures such as, the use of smokeless fuels, cleaner coal, the re-allocation of power stations away from cities and for some factory chimneys to comply with a minimum height. Households were also encouraged to find alternative methods of heating their homes, such as using gas or electricity. There was another ‘Clean Air Act’ which came into Law in 1968. This reinforced the previous Act and was designed to spread awareness and further address the problem of air pollution in this country. 

After a speech by Margaret Thatcher to the Royal Society where she called for action against man-made climate change the the British Establishment and media took an interest in Climate Change. It was widely believed that Mrs Thatcher drew attention to this to promote the need for more nuclear power after destroying the British coal industry following the miners strikes of 1984 - 85. She also had large and vociferous environmental organisations demanding alternatives to the Government line on energy. It was not only in Britain, many European country’s also ‘took up the cudgel’ and implemented policies to reduce “Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. West Germany started to take effective action after the Green Party took seats in Parliament during the 1980’s. 

In 1997, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), took place in Kyoto, Japan.  The recommendations were ratified by all but a few Nations and what was to become known as the Kyoto Protocol was born. Even after this historic agreement, Global Warming was not big news,  that is, until the drought, in the USA, during 1988. In a testimony to the Senate, James E. Hansen, head of  the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, stated that, 

“the abnormally hot weather plaguing our Nation is explicitly attributed to global warming.”  

This really started the ‘ball rolling’, Environmentalists started crawling out of every conceivable nook and cranny. Fossil fuels, which had sustained the human race since the discovery of fire, suddenly became a cause for evil. Everything that was wrong with the Planet, from bad weather to volcanic eruptions was because man burned fossil fuels, ergo, man was destroying the Planet.

Ex Vice President, Al Gore jumped on the band wagon, lying his way to a best selling book and film both decrying the drastic effects of climate change on the Planet. Minor celebrities saw their chance and rushed to the nearest tree for a hug and then sold pages of tabloid space by telling of how they felt at one with Nature. If nothing else, Global Warming and Climate Change have probably given more wannabe’s their “five minutes of fame”, than any other subject.

Cleaner Coal & Fossil Fuels.

It was obvious that something had to be done to clean up fossil fuels. There is a whole other argument about Climate Change and Global Warming but that will be for another blog, however it is safe to say that the concerns raised by the prospect of Global Warming through the release of, so called, greenhouse gasses' accelerated the research into ways of cleaning the emissions from fossil fuels. Here, though, I am going to concentrate on “clean coal” 

Cleaner coal (Some would say, by whose definition.) was already on the market in the form of coke, anthracite and other derivatives but most coal fired power stations were still using coal transported straight from the pit-head. What was needed was a new technology if coal was to continue to be used on a Global scale.

Carbon dioxide, identified as a greenhouse gas, was being used in the early 1970’s for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). CO2 is extracted from fossil fuels and liquefied before being pumped into the oil well to force the crude up to the wellhead. Whilst this proved that extracted CO2 could be safely put to good use it didn’t answer the basic question about fossil fuels and the emissions from them which polluted the atmosphere. 

Then, in 1989, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program was initiated at MIT. This investigated methods of capturing CO2 from a large stationary source and then transporting and storing it in a safe environment. For example, extracting CO2 from power plant flue gasses. 

As of 2002, the only known industrial operation engaged in CCS for the purpose of avoiding carbon emissions was Statoil’s natural gas mining operation off the shore of Norway. As in other natural gas operations, chemical solvents are used to remove CO2 from the natural gas, which is approximately 9% CO2 by volume. Rather than pay Norway’s hefty carbon emissions tax—which was lowered from about £130 per ton of carbon (tC) to £92/tC in 2000 (Herzog 2001)—Statoil has been compressing and injecting the captured CO2 into a deep, saltwater aquifer below the ocean floor since 1996. The project incurred an incremental investment cost of £52 million, with an annual tax savings of £36 million. Scientific monitoring of the site indicates that the aquifer is indeed holding the injected CO2, though monitoring, modelling, and analysis will provide a better indication of storage stability.
A paper released in 2003 by Soren Anderson and Richard Newell analyses the methods and cost implications of CCS in the USA.
 "The Prospects for Carbon Capture & Storage."
http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-02-68.pdf   

Cost and Political Interference:

The UK is a world leader in CCS research but commercialisation is slow to take off. Something that both Government and industry will live to regret. The Government offered a £1 billion prize to help commercialise CCS  but it didn't generate a winner. CO2 storage in aquifers, onshore or offshore is the apparent stumbling block. It has been estimated that there is enough storage capacity for the next 200 years of global emissions and that at least 99% of injected CO2 will remain trapped for the next 1000years. Add to this, storing CO2 underground can lead to enhanced oil recovery from oil fields, which could boost oil outputs by 7-20%

As usual with this country the real problem lies with the question of liability. The companies interested in this technology wanted the Government to accept any liability from underground storage of CO2 but the bureaucrats in Whitehall, backed by the then Coalition, expected the companies to keep the liability on their balance sheets. Herein lies the problem, to achieve the 80% carbon emission reduction target by 2020 then CCS technology is vital. For a coal fired power station it would mean reductions of 80 - 90%. 

To quote Paul Fennel, of The Imperial University's Grantham Institute, 

"At a UK level, if CCS is developed elsewhere and the UK doesn't play its part in the development then you are looking at an industry that is about the same size as the oil industry is at the moment. It's a trillion dollar industry that the UK would fail to secure its rightful share of. We are currently world leading in the research areas and we punch well above our weight as it stands."

He continued.

"At a global level, the consequences of failing to develop CCS technologies are that the cost of CO₂-neutral electricity could sky-rocket because you’re relying on renewables and maybe nuclear. The problem with these is that you can’t ramp them up and down in response to demand. Renewables switch on and off themselves without any controllability so what happens is you need to build hugely more renewables than you actually need to produce a particular power output. 

The problem as I see it is threefold; the EU,  EU compliant politicians and profit hungry power generators. 

The EU Renewable Energy Directive, accepted by our politicians, will force thousands of British families into fuel poverty. A situation which could have been avoided if the greedy power companies had diverted their vast profits into CCS technology for existing coal fired plants.  Solvent scrubbing which can be retrofitted to existing plants was ready for use in 2010. This method cleans and extracts CO2 after combustion. Other than the question of liability over storage, both the Government and the power companies quoted 'fiscal restraints' as the reason for not adopting this technology. The result of this paucity of forward thinking is that 5 coal fired power stations were closed before the end of 2014 and they accounted for 10% of the UK's electricity needs. Typically the operators had been running them flat out to take advantage of cheap coal and so boost there profits. So, we will have less spare capacity, it is estimated that this will fall to less than 4% by 2016

We not only have the technology, we also have very cheap raw materials for CO2 absorption in abundance. Studies at Leeds University have shown that limestone and dolomite are natural CO2 storage materials and can be used for either pre or post carbon capture technologies. 

It was envisaged in the early days of CCS that the cost of implementing these technologies would be extremely high and therefore prohibitive. Leeds University have shown this not to be true anymore. 
Using this technology, coal would still be the most cost effective method of generating electricity.

The table below is the estimated levelised costs (pence/kWh) of low carbon electricity generation technologies.

Technology	2011 Estimate	2040 Central Projection
Wood CFBC	10.3	7.5
Tidal Stream	29.3	13
Tidal Barrage	51.8	22
Solar PV	34.3	8
River Hydro (best Locations)	6.9	5
Onshore Wind	8.3	5.5
Offshore Wind	16.9	8.5
Nuclear	9.6	6
Geothermal	115.9	9
Energy Crops	17.1	11
CCGT with Carbon Capture	10	10

I'll leave you with this little gem; for all the Wind worshippers out there -

On the night of 5-6 April 2011, the wind in Scotland was high, it was raining heavily, which also created more hydroelectricity than normal. The grid became overloaded preventing transmission of the electrical power to England, as a result the electrical wind power generation was cut. Wind Farm Operators were paid compensation known as "constraint payments" as a result, (approximately £900,000) by the National Grid, estimated at twenty times the value of electricity that would have been generated.
After its implementation in 2011 it was estimated that nearly £10m in constraint payments would be received, representing ten times the value of the potential lost electricity generation. That year, several Energy Companies informed the Government that 17 gas-fired plants costing £10 billion would be needed by 2020 to act as back up generation for wind. They added that as they would be standing idle for most of the time they (the generating companies) would require "capacity payments" to make the investment economic, on top of the subsidies already paid for wind.

The Last Post

“Mummy, where are Daddy’s benches?”

“Darling child, come to me,

Your Daddy is in the trenches,

Far across the great North Sea.

The trenches are quite comfortable,

Daddy is dry and warm,

His men are all quite affable,

He’s sheltered from the storm.”

“Will Daddy get hurt by the Huns?”

“That, I cannot say,

Knowing he’s facing deadly guns

All we can do, is pray.”

“Your Daddy is brave, fit and strong

He knows not fear nor dread,

This war, it will not last too long.

Darling. Prayers and then to bed.”

‘Wife, I miss your touch, your smile

I miss our little boy,

We have no time to sit and while,

Out here there is no joy...’

Alone, she reads by candlelight

The letter from her man.

Tears flow for his sorry plight

As only wives tears can.

‘The cold, the screams of injured men,

The mud that’s ankle deep,

I try to lift moral for them

But words are oh, so cheap.

I am frightened, my darling wife,

I try to be brave for my men.

I really fear for my life

My constant thought is; when!...’

The tears flow freely, down both cheeks

The lady is in despair.

First letter in nearly seven weeks,

How she wishes he wasn’t there!

‘When will this madness come to an end?

When will the dove of peace,

Feather its wings and descend

To give us sweet release?

I send my love to my darling son,

And to you, my cherished wife.

I go back now to face the Hun

And the mayhem that’s my life.’

© The Last Post by Phil Bottomley. All Rights Reserved. 2023

NHS IN CRISIS?

Every winter we have the same headlines:

"NHS IN CRISIS _ PATIENTS QUEUING IN CORRIDORS, AMBULANCES STACKED UP OUTSIDE A&E UNABLE TO OFFLOAD SICK PEOPLE!"

The Unions, Doctors, and, of course, the useless Labour Party are all screaming at the Government to put more money into this beleaguered service. The problem being that no matter how much money is thrown at it the same problems will arise again and again, year in year out.
You would think that with the amount of 'managers' populating the NHS it couldn't possibly fail. It does beg the question, 'why are so many people who are obviously no good at their jobs still employed by the NHS?' In any other failing industry questions would be asked and heads would, quite rightly, roll.
So, why are these people, most of whom enjoy ridiculously high salaries, exempt from scrutiny? This is public money and it is being mis-managed so someone must be held accountable. Its no good blaming the Secretary of State for Health every time Labour and the Left Wing Media cry for more, like some latter day Oliver with the needle stuck in the groove. The responsibility lies with the various Trusts under the auspices of NHS England.

The main problem we have in this country is a cowardly bunch of self-serving politicians all slavishly tied to the European Union who are unwilling to tackle the real problems. Instead they blame an ageing population, lack of doctors, lack of nurses, lack of beds, etc. etc.  The political blame game has become the 'go to' excuse for failure.
We even have a Prime Minister who, instead of ordering the various NHS heads of Trusts and Department Seniors to Downing Street for a dressing down, meekly sits in front of a TV camera and says. "I apologise". A hollow statement from a hollow Prime Minister.
There are at least six reasons why the NHS is failing;

1. PFI repayments
2. GP Contracts
3. Immigration
4. Health Tourism
5. Gross Mismanagement
6. Political interference.

The first four can be attributed to thirteen disastrous years of Labour in government and the last two are down to successive governments tinkering and fear of tackling the real issues within the Health Service.

How then can we improve this service?

Firstly, for all of us who have paid into the system for all of our working lives there should be a Health Card issued. If you have not got it with you or, haven't registered it with your GP Practice then you pay for treatment. The NHS, like the BBC, is a Public Service and should be treated in the same way, i.e issue a licence (medical card). 

Secondly, we must recognise the pressure that excessive uncontrolled immigration is putting on the NHS and put a stop to it. This is not 'easier said than done', it just needs the political will to do it. Politicians are the servants of the people, not the other way round and perhaps we should be more forceful in reminding them of that.

Thirdly, GPs could do a lot more to ease the burden on A & E Departments. Too many people are being referred to A & E when they could, quite easily be treated by their own GP. If it is the case that there is a gross shortage of GPs then the NHS should be training more or, asking the government to bring in more from the Commonwealth. However, the emphasis should be on home grown doctors trained by the NHS.

Fourth, stop blaming the old! We are lucky to live in an age where we do live longer and instead of using this as a political football we should all be joyous and embrace the fact. From the States point of view, growing old is expensive. I agree, it is but instead of giving money away through the Foreign Aid Budget to help despots and crackpot schemes abroad, channel it back into the Welfare System and help those at home who need aid the most! Whilst we are discussing the 'old', dental treatment, hearing tests, hearing aids and eye treatment are all areas where the older generation really suffer. The cost of these treatments is often prohibitive to the elderly and its no good the government saying, 'ah, yes but they can get financial help with all of that' because this help is means tested and the figure that the government say a person can live on is quite ridiculous. All these services, dental, hearing, eyes (spectacles) should be free to everyone over the age of 65.

Fifth, stop health tourism. Pay before treatment or be sent back to where you came from. It really is that simple. No excuses, credit card out or valid health insurance otherwise; bye, bye! Also, start suing those who have had treatment and not paid.

The Health Service is not sustainable and, if we are honest, we all know that. However the money that is put into the Service should be used more efficiently. More recycling of equipment where that is possible, better procurement procedures to ensure more value per £ spent.

Better use of staff and resources. Stop using A & E as a doctors surgery, it clogs it up!

More in-house facilities, e.g laundry, catering, maintenance.

More emphasis on cleaning and hygiene.

The argument will be that all I have suggested will cost extra money, I say, no it won't. Managers must take on extra responsibilities, earn the fat salaries that the taxpayer is giving you. Those at the top must lead from the top and stop delegating responsibility down the management chain unnecessarily. 

Do I see a phoenix rising from the ashes? No. But is is possible with a bit of forward thinking and better use of money and resources to avoid these, so-called, 'winter crises'. 

May v The Will of The People

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the excitement of having Mrs May at the helm is swiftly turning to dismay. The longer she holds out on the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty the more annoyed and suspicious of her motives people get.

The argument being foisted upon the Nation by number 10 is that she is being naturally cautious because she wants the best possible deal for the UK. This is simply not true. For Mrs May and the majority of Tory Mandarins the best deal would be to stay in the European Union.

To this end she is delaying invoking Article 50 for as long as she possibly can.  Don’t forget for one moment that this woman is a very astute politician. She is in the job that she has always craved for and you can bet that she intends to be in it for a very long time. 

As Home Secretary she spent six years absorbing and deflecting criticism, Followed the EU diktat and reduced the UK Border Force to ineffective. Made swinging cuts to the police force and then had the temerity to criticise the police at their own conference for not doing enough to fight crime and, especially, for not doing enough to investigate crime within the Force itself. She announced that so concerned was she that she would put forward a Bill aimed at protecting whistleblowers within the police force.

In her we have a woman who is not afraid to face her critics and a politician with complete confidence in her own abilities so, when she says that she is in no hurry to trigger Article 50 you had better believe her. Telling the Nation that she wants the best possible deal is, as I have said just not true. She needs to invoke A50 as soon as possible in order for negotiations to start on the terms of the UK withdrawal.  The terms are dictated by the EU and we have no say in the matter so all of this globe trotting by the “Chosen Three” under the guise of pre-negotiation talks is just a crock of crap.

Read the following, taken from Open Europe, so as to get a better grasp on why I believe Mrs May is deliberately dragging her feet.

“Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union allows a member state to notify the EU of its withdrawal and obliges the EU to try to negotiate a ‘withdrawal agreement’ with that state – it involves five points laid out below.”

1 “Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.

2 A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. That agreement shall be negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament.

3 The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period.

4 For the purposes of paragraphs 2 and 3, the member of the European Council or of the Council representing the withdrawing Member State shall not participate in the discussions of the European Council or Council or in decisions concerning it. A qualified majority shall be defined in accordance with Article 238(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

5 If a State which has withdrawn from the Union asks to rejoin, its request shall be subject to the procedure referred to in Article 49.”

It is no coincidence that the Tory Party had no intention of letting the lowly membership have a say in who was to become their new Leader. It was pre-ordained, the writing was on the wall as soon as Boris Johnson and then Gove were ceremoniously sidelined. I have no doubt that in Mrs May's eyes, BREXIT does indeed mean BREXIT. But it will be BREXIT on her terms and her idea of BREXIT that we get. 

We must not allow this to happen and to this end the 17.4 million who voted to leave must be on her case day in day out.

The argument that we do not have the number of trained negotiators required to carry out the task of leaving the EU is another lie. We have been offered help by several of our Commonwealth partners, most of whom are eager to strike up trade deals with the UK and because of this they would obviously look to get the very best deal that they can. 

Theresa May must be pressured into invoking A50 before the end of the year, shortly before or, just after the Conservative conference would be good.

The longer this drags on the more the insecurities grow within the public and the business community. We have done the first part and now we must be strong enough to carry through the will of the majority of the people by making sure that the government keeps its end of the bargain.

The doomsayers argue that we are heading down a path of self destruction, heading into an unknown world whereby we (the UK) have no option but to fail. I say, rubbish! We are on the brink of greatness and only those with limited vision or snouts glued to the EU trough cannot see this.

Even the economists have had to admit that they were wrong in their estimates of how far we would fall economically if we came out of the EU. Major companies are eager to stay and create jobs, the financial situation is not as good as we would like but it is nowhere near as bad as predicted, plus the signs look good for future economic growth.

So, Mrs May, it is now too late to throw caution to the wind and do as Cameron promised he would do? Had he kept that promise Article 50 would have been invoked on June 24th. So it is now up to you as his successor to uphold the will of the majority and make sure that you carry out the people’s wishes. Your dithering has caused all of this uncertainty and the unnecessary court cases which are being lodged with the sole aim of delaying the triggering of A50!

Where is the Middle?

In Western politics much credence is given to Right Wing, Left Wing, Far Right, Far Left, Left of Centre or, Right of Centre. The fact is, whether you want to believe it or not, since the Second World War we have all been voting for the Left in its various forms including Conservatism.

Even the UK Independence Party, hailed as the saviour of British politics by its members, is more Left leaning than it would care to admit. 

I do not advocate Nazi style Far Right Wing politics nor, for that matter, the Far Left of Stalin or Mao. What I am trying to say is that there is no balance, especially in British politics. Post WW11 Western Governments were so afraid of the Far Right that they virtually banned it. I would suggest that this is why it is now creeping back and getting stronger. It’s a bit like Japanese Knot Weed, if you don’t eradicate it completely it eventually comes back and is as invasive as ever.

To take this line of thought one step further; calling anyone who disagrees with your political views “Fascist” - a term invented by the Communist Bolsheviks - seems to be de rigueur nowadays. The truth is that although there are still true Nazis out there, they are few and far between. What they spawned though is an abundance of sick Left Wing political classes intent on pursuing the very insular politics that their predecessors fought so hard to eradicate.

There is no balance, only imbalance!

It is time for a new Right Wing Party, not Ultra Right Wing, not Far Right Wing, or, even, Right of Centre. Just plain and simple Right Wing, a movement that will, after nearly seventy years, give some balance to British politics.

The Left has totally lost direction and, more importantly, the trust of the people. Take the debacle that is BREXIT. He lied, she lied, the ebb and flow of public opinion often fuelled by a vitriolic Left Wing Press. A Government totally out of touch with the people that it is supposed to serve. A result that the Establishment did not want, the architect of choice gone like a thief in the night. Too afraid to stay because he only had a “Plan A”. 

A total dog’s breakfast.

More than ever, this country desperately needs a new Party, there is no “Middle Ground”, the scales are leaning ever more to the Left and the only ground to the Right  is barren. BREXIT is stagnating whilst the politicians fight amongst themselves, all blatantly ignoring the people.

It will take a brave bunch of people to set up a new Right Wing Party and an even braver person to be leader of it. They must all be prepared to be compared to the Nazi Party. Expect the usual epithets of hate and derision and through all of this they must compile a manifesto which appeals to the majority of the people.

Not an easy task but a necessary one. Every Government Department must be looked at and policies written to cover the activities of those Departments.  Energy, Climate, Defence, The Economy, Fisheries, Agriculture, etc. All must be addressed with sensible and affordable policies which must then be presented to the people.

The Party needs to bring a new form of Conservatism to the table, not the wishy-washy Left leaning tripe that we have grown up with but a fresh ideal favouring free enterprise and espousing a commitment to traditional values and new ideas. 

Institutions such as the NHS need to be completely restructured. It is and always has been a ‘political football’ and this helps no one. A start could be made by addressing the following: 

 No Privatisation for the sake of Privatisation, Every department to be thoroughly scrutinised and every penny spent costed and valued. Bring back in-house NHS laundries and housewifery to cut down on super bugs. Standards drop when tendering for services because of cost to the supplier. 

Procurement within the NHS is a notorious money wasting section. Departments are too big, drugs are brought at vastly inflated prices and all to the detriment of the patient. Equipment is thrown away when it is perfectly serviceable meaning more money is being wasted on the procurement of new to replace it. The list goes on and on and I haven’t even mentioned the unnecessary bureaucracy.

The country has been given the chance of a new start, a fresh beginning. I doubt the commitment of the present incumbents to carry out successful negotiations as we go forward but they are all we have. Now is the time to sow the seeds for the future, now is the time for a new style of politics. A politics open to scrutiny with politicians who see being a politician as a calling rather than a well paid job with benefits. A politics driven by the people and steered by the elected few. A government for all.

Utopia in a bottle, hidden somewhere in the barren expanse of the elusive Middle Ground. 

LEAVE IT!

At the moment there is a lot of talk about ‘Hard Brexit’, ‘Soft Brexit’, confusion as to the terms of the UK leaving the EU, confusion as to who has a say on said terms.

I’m sorry but to me; and excuse me for being simplistic, but if I had joined a club forty years ago I would have first had to accept all of the rules of that club, agreed the annual fees and I would have acted in the best interests of that club. However, if said club had over the past ten years or so started to act in a manner that was not in my best interest I would have wrestled with my conscience and if I felt strongly enough about my mistreatment I would leave.

In doing so I would have severed all relations with that club and would be free to join any other club or institution at my will. 

The United Kingdom belonged to a club, a trading club initially but, it soon became apparent that the Officials who ran the club wanted it to be so much more than just a trading bloc. Their indifference to club members and the largesse afforded to certain supporters of the club led to widespread unease and distrust in the  management of the club. 

Fearing for his position as Prime Minister and also for his chances of winning a General Election, David Cameron gave the British people a referendum on the issue of membership of the EU (club). The questions were simple; ‘Do you want to remain in the EU?’ “Do you want to Leave the EU?”

As I said at the beginning of this blog post, to me the outcome of both questions is quite simple to understand. If the country votes to stay, then it stays as a member of the EU and accepts all rules and conditions associated with being a member. On the other hand, if the country votes to leave the EU then it does so on the understanding that it severs all ties with the EU and must stand on its own in the world.

The British people chose the latter and did so by a one million plus majority. To argue that because the margin between the Leave vote and the Remain vote was only just above 3% and that sixteen million people wanted to stay in the EU and this therefore gives these people a Right to have a say in the Terms of the UK’s departure is ludicrous!

Put simply, there are no ‘terms of leaving’ what is to be discussed are Terms of trade. This is not as big a deal as the anti Democratic Establishment MPs make it out to be. To listen to them one would think that the EU is the only trading bloc in the world and that we have made a drastic mistake in leaving it. This would only be partially true if that were the case. 

No, we now have a fantastic opportunity to get back onto the world stage proper. Like a Mandela being released after forty years of false imprisonment. This is the UKs “Rainbow Moment”! Taking the analogy one step further, it does mean that before the rainbow we will have to weather the storm.  So far we have been able to do so despite the whinging and whining from the unDemocratic Establishment figures who can see no further than their bloated egos.

We do not need to debate our terms of leaving, we do not need to debate what ‘model’ we adopt. What we do need to do is to get on with it and start the formal process. You cannot leave a club cleanly if the club management do not know of your intentions to do so.

Invoke whatever needs to be invoked, repeal the 1973 European Communities Act, Scrap the Common Agricultural Policy along with the Common Fisheries Policy and lets get on with it. As the they used to say in the old Wild West when starting a cattle drive. “Let’s git, daylight’s a wasting!’

The State Of The Union

This United Kingdom, this union of four great nations is, at this momentous time in our history, being let down by the very people whom we chose to lead it for us. What is wrong with our politicians that they cannot ever see the wood for the trees? We have a fantastic opportunity to forge a safe, secure and prosperous future for our children and their children and instead of embracing it, Westminster has gone into meltdown!

The Labour Party, once a beacon of hope for both blue and white collar workers is in total disarray. It has returned to the tried and failed dogma of the sixties and seventies and the leading lights are squabbling over which version of apathy the Party should follow. They are not alone, The Conservative Party, whilst looking all rosy on the outside is having its own little war behind closed doors.

The problem for all the Westminster Parties is that they have been found out. By voting for Brexit the public has shown our politicians up for the amateurs that they really are. Whilst they could rely upon the cushion of the EU and the diktats and laws that flowed ever too freely from Brussels or Strasbourg, the Houses of Parliament became no more than a clubhouse for hubris.

“Brexit means Brexit”, I’m sorry but it does not! Until Mrs May goes over to Brussels and invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and informs the EU of our intentions it means absolutely nothing. Even then, she needs to get Parliament to repeal the 1973 European Communities Act before any real meaning of Brexit becomes apparent. However, if she really does mean what she says about Brexit, Theresa May has got to become dictatorial about it. Democracy is being cast aside by the Opposition Parties because they, in the main, want the UK to remain subservient to the European Union. They still do not get it, still do not realise why 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU. They can see no further than the buffers behind which the gravy train sits. Blind to the obvious and lost in a lexicon of lies, rhetoric, red-tape and EU jargon.
The message that the Electorate should send to these muppets is, “toe the Democratic Line, adhere to the will of the majority of the people or face deselection”! Perhaps then the penny will finally drop. Alas, that is but a pipe dream.

What is really saddening is that potentially the only real Opposition, UKIP, is doing its usual and tearing itself apart. With the prospect of boundary changes before the next General Election the UK Independence Party stands a real chance of breaking through and putting UKIP MPs in the HoC.

Nigel Farage, usually a Master of the Obvious, completely misread the signs and decided that now was the time to quit a leader of the Party. The Party, indeed the country, needs him now more than ever. Whoever is voted in as his replacement will not be “Nigel Farage” and there lies the problem. Like him or loathe him, his is the voice that people up and down the country listen to. He single handedly turned the tide against the Establishment and brought about Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Given the threats to himself and his family one can understand his desire to walk away and hand the reins over to someone new. Unfortunately there is no one who even comes close to fitting into his shoes. Surely, given the track record of threats against him and his stoic resilience when faced with them, he might have given it one more year before resigning. One more year in which he could have ensured that Brexit does really mean Brexit. After all, he indicates that he wants to be in the forefront until we actually leave the EU for good. What better position to be in to do this than at the helm of the very vehicle which started and ended the fight to unshackle Britain from the European Union?
The future of Great Britain is reliant, now more than ever, on good, strong leadership. The jury is still out on Mrs May but our future depends not just on her but on smart politics. The Parties have got to pull together on this, they have got to realise what the people voted for and act upon it accordingly. Without a cohesive Parliament, the EU will run all over us in the next two years and all those who still cling on to the fantasy of somehow remaining in this corrupt bloc will be very disappointed. The EU would give us very unreasonable terms of re-entry, one of which would be acceptance of the €Euro as our main currency.

No, the people have spoken and the politicians have got to get behind the battle bus and push for the best possible deals to ensure our future prosperity. Anything less will see the demise of a once great nation.