… BLAME BREXIT
We had a touch of rain in my little neck of the woods last night. I wonder if other areas of these Isles have been similarly blessed. I only ask because one water company has imposed a hosepipe ban starting on June 26th. As we all know: it takes a hosepipe ban to make the weathergods turn on the rain. More on that below, first a quick look at the print front pages: “Newspaper headlines: Anna Wintour’s ‘top honour’ and ‘UK mortgage rip-off’ .”(link).
If you wonder why ‘staff’ at Auntie Beeb thinks the Nation is deeply interested in a fashionista receiving a gong, well, it’s a top story in the grauniad. The rest of the MSM couldn’t have cared less. They led with the ‘mortgage crisis’. And then there was ‘iNews’ …
I went and looked at their ‘exclusive’: “Great British interest rate rip-off: Banks pocket £4.8bn by hiking UK mortgages faster than savings” (link). Yes, dears – this is something that has been going on forever, it’s the business model of banks: higher rates for borrowers, lower rates for savers. Why is this now a problem? Haven’t savers been abused for years with nobody of the combined Left raising an eyebrow?
If you take a look at the nice graph in the report (link), you’ll see what these interest rates looked like for earlier years. The current rate pales in comparison to the earlier years, but look at the years of ‘cheap money’, of near-zero interest rates! There were even talks by international banks to create ‘negative rates’, making savers pay for the privilege of keeping their savings. I remember that – the reporters at iNews clearly don’t.
Now though, as mortgages rise, the Left – and I count the Libdems amongst them – isn’t simply blaming the Tories for this because there are no global events influencing our economy, they have come up with a demand:
“Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for a £3bn emergency mortgage protection fund to support those at risk of losing their homes because they cannot keep up with payments.” (link)
And who, pray, will pay for this ‘emergency mortgage protection fund’? Yes, we taxpaying peasants. After all, it’s only fair, innit, that ‘Teh State’ pays bennies to all, so why not for mortgage payers.
Meanwhile, the former governor of the BoE, Mark Carney, has told the DT what is to blame for the inflation (all emphases are mine):
“Mark Carney has blamed stubbornly high inflation in Britain on Brexit, claiming he had warned the public that leaving the European Union would damage the economy.” (paywalled link)
He left the BoE in 2020, so obviously he must be ignorant of what befell the UK’s economy since then. Still, as former ‘top banker’ he knows, saying that:
“[…] a series of “negative supply shocks” had disrupted the economy and led to an unexpected increase in costs. He said the single biggest energy shock since the 1970s, combined with a shrinking workforce and the impact of Brexit had triggered a “unique” adjustment in the UK that he suggested could take years to unwind.” (paywalled link)
So neither covid, worldwide lockdowns and disruptions to supply chains nor the war in the Ukraine, with the demolition of NS2 gas pipelines and the green crap politics in German, closing down all their nuclear power plants, have had anything to do with anything. It was ‘only Brexit’ … Aren’t you glad that such a wise person used to govern the BoE and influence our economy!
Having talked about ‘money’, let’s now talk about the weather! It was hot. There was no rain. People used more water. And so:
“The water company [South East Water] introduced a hosepipe ban for its 2.3 million customers on Friday, as it scrambled to turn the taps back on for residents of Wadhurst, east Sussex. It blamed last week’s hot weather, when temperatures peaked at around 30C (86F), for a record rise in demand that left it unable to supply around 4,000 homes and closed three primary schools.” (paywalled link)
Last summer, this and other Southern England water companies blamed their empty reservoirs, amidst outcries from the long-suffering public that leaks hadn’t been fixed, with Ofwat pointing out that much water was lost through leaking pipes. This time it’s different:
“The shortages came despite the water company’s two main reservoirs at Ardingly and Arlington being at almost full capacity, with the company blaming pressures on local infrastructure.” (paywalled link)
It’s as if yon water company couldn’t possibly have foreseen that more and more houses built for more and more people could have any impact on demand! And don’t ask how a hosepipe ban in a week’s time will alleviate the current ‘supply shortage’! I just love this excuse by the SE Water director ‘of operations’, saying that;
“[…] the company had not been prepared for a 20 per cent spike in demand over the weekend. “The nub of it is I cannot produce any more water at the moment. I’m producing as much water as I can. […] The customers we’ve got off at the moment are towards the end of one of our networks, and so much water is being used as it travels through the network that we can’t push enough in for that to be some left at the end. And this is something that’s been a problem for South East Water for the last three years.” (paywalled link)
Oh dear. So it has been ‘a problem’ but they couldn’t fix it during the preceding three years? Ah – I forgot: there was covid! And so it doesn’t come as surprise when we read:
“The company has been caught out by an increase in working from home among residents of commuter towns and villages that has left its supplies straining at times. This has been compounded by a perverse impact from installing water meters in around 90 per cent of homes which the company said has caused demand to actually increase during peak times, particularly in affluent areas.” (paywalled link)
‘Pervers’ it is indeed! I duly note that it’s ‘teh rich’ WFHers which are being blamed. Masses of ‘new people’ and ‘new housing’ are of course irrelevant. I’m sure it’s also ‘Because: Brexit’ – and Mrs Thatcher, who is being blamed in the comments for privatising water companies.
That’s all I have for today. Life is so simple when one is a Lefty: there’s always someone or some circumstance to blame, and when in doubt, there’s always Brexit and “Teh Rich!”. Easy. Have a good weekend.
I have been away for the past week walking Hadrian’s Wall trail and whilst looking at the BBC News yesterday evening in my hotel bedroom in Carlisle, it was reported that South East Water which provides my home with water had indeed instituted an immediate ban on the use of hosepipes for an indeterminate period, and an area close to where I live having had their supply of water cut off altogether for the past five days. I mean after all the rain we have had to endure over the Autumn and Winter period the whole situation defies bloody belief. Personally, I don’t have a hosepipe so the ban will not affect me as I water my garden with the aid of a watering can. An official of South East Water was rambling on about the fact there wasn’t actually a shortage of water in the Resevoirs or in the ground aquifers, but the company could not produce sufficient fresh water to meet demand in the hot weather. I hope the councilor numpties who make up our local authority planning committees bear this situation in mind when they come to consider planning applications for yet more housing estates, but somehow I doubt this, as giving a home to all those flooding into our country by illegal routes will be given due precedence over the rest of us. I was yet again reminded as to how dire the BBC is with regard to reporting news. One crap news report after another with all the biased sensationalism that goes with it. It is a thoroughly disgusting organisation, and I am so glad I am not contributing to the wages of these so called reporters.
Lovely trail. Enjoy yourself Colin.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/639235
A petition to repeal the climate change Act.
Lisa………I’ve signed it a coup[le of hours ago, but who else has I wonder…….only 1436 signatures so far. Come on who hasn’t signed this. Harry Again……probably not???
If it wasn’t for Brexit we’d have the best economy in the whole of toyland. BDS? Next on the list for BBC verify.
Dear life,
Grant me the courage
To change what I am capable of changing
And the grace
To accept what is beyond my control
And choose my battles wisely.
Please help me to fix what has fallen apart and is broken in my life
That would benefit from being mended
And accept what would not
And move on accordingly.
Grant me the strength
To fully seize each day
And make the most of each moment
Savouring the ones that provide me with joy, meaning and fulfilment
And remind me to treasure time spent with those I love
And pursue my passions and what uplifts and energises me
And focus on all that lies ahead of me
Rather than all that lies behind me.
Please help me to embody love
And radiate it to all whom I encounter
Regardless of whether they remain in my life
Or are no longer with me.
Please help me to remain calm and at peace
During the chaos and shifting seasons of life
And flow with it
Understanding that everything is fleeting and temporary
But that the true nature of who I am is eternal
And more than this limited body
And transitory physical experience
Please show me how to let go of fear, pain and resentment
So I can feel light, unburdened and free
And prioritise what is important
While disregarding what is not.
Please comfort me in my grief
And reassure me with the knowledge
That I will one day be reunited with those I love who have left this reality
But remain in spirit with me
And in the times when I feel hurt
May you show me how to heal and move forward
In the times when I feel small and fragile
May you remind me of my inner strength
In the times when I feel weak
May you remind me of my inner power
In the times when I feel lost
May you help me rediscover purpose and meaning
In the times when I feel lonely and isolated
May you remind me that everything is interconnected
And in the times when I have lost confidence and trust in myself
May you help me remember who I am.
Words inspired by the ‘Serenity Prayer’
by Dr Reinhold Niebuhr
Thank you Lisa. How true its message.
We will never get Brexit as long as the remainers are in charge. The plebs get what they vote for (or do they)? As for those poor beleaguered civil servants, they refused to do what they were asked to do, or were they? I think we were spun a pack of lies and the deckchairs were just moved around to look as if Brexit was getting done. They had no intention of making a success of it and look as though they were wrong.
When are he communists get into power it will be game over. If the smaller parties don’t collaborate, and UKIP has tried to do this, we will never have another opportunity. Those who follow Neil McCoy Ward no exactly what they are doing but it’s the next generation O feel for even though they think I’m mad. God help them there isn’t anybody else.
Indeed Lisa.
Lisa………. there are signs that the UK Independence is upping its game, and not before time. Green shoots and all the rest of it hopefully. It needs to, because one thing is for sure we cannot rely on either Reform UK or indeed Nigel Farage. He is all talk and no action. I am totally fed up with him, as indeed many others are on our side of the political divide that I have comer across just recently. This past week has been a Farage free week because I have been away, and it felt good. We need to find somebody else to fight our corner of the battle as he simply cannot be relied upon any longer.
Farage is a media man now, that’s how he pays his bills – end of. He will tell us any tosh that will get clicks.
At least Tice has had the good sense (so far) of keeping a healthy distance from the Doris storyline whilst Farage teased the viewers about the possibility of forming some kind of movement with Doris and other Tory Brexiteers to save Brexit. What!!!!! here is someone who is President of Reform UK musing aloud about forming a movement with others to save Brexit. What’s that old saying – you can judge a man with the company he keeps?
Reform UK need to watch their backs in case Farage does a UKIP on them.
Jake…..well, you’re right there, what Farage comes out with these days is utter tosh and not worth the paper on which it is written. Insofar as him paying his bills, he is receiving a very good MEP pension worth something like £100,000 plus per annum and I believe he has his own PR company and promotes somebody else’ Gin products. So I don’t think he is short of a bob or two. Until fairly recently I was still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and wanted to believe in him, but we have been let down once too often and its now water off a ducks back and I no longer treat him with any due seriousness. It took a long time to realise this, but we now have to find another charismatic figure on which to pin our hopes. Ben Habib is a possibility, but for me he would have to leave Reform UK first.
If, or when Brexit is enacted, we shall see the consequences, but not before leaving.
Until then, when Hell freezes over, we will have our betters ignore us and the Nation they supposedly represent.
Truth is our mps just want a slice of the mep money laundering operation, and such like.
Indeed Biscotte, traitors the lot of them.
Chou En Lai, when asked about the effects of the French Revolution, famously said that it was too early to tell. Fifty years later we can see he was right. A fear of the mob haunted the British Establishment after 1789 and in Brexit Derangement Syndrome it still does. Snobbery affects how Remainers express themselves but at root anti-populism is a based on a deep seated fear that is still being worked out in the long arc of history (which includes Trump Derangement Syndrome).
BDS is not one simple thing though. There are self-regarding, self-satisfied mandarins unable to see their own snobbery and some no doubt forever fearful of the mob. But for the civil service as a whole there is phantom limb syndrome. Just as an amputee experiences the lost limb as still attached so the civil service as a whole, none of whom who have ever known life before the EU, are akin to amputees not just mourning their lost limb but behaving as though it was still attached.
An amputee gets counselling and help adjusting but Leave had no plan for after the referendum. Like Blair in Iraq there was no plan for after the invasion. Everything was to be miraculously OK. It is easy to berate the civil service, but they have been left to cope with an amputation with no rehabilitation strategy or programme, no confidence that the future can be successfully managed, and so left vulnerable to the more malign Remainers. The state of the civil service is fundamentally government’s fault. Civil Servants are amputees and should have been be treated as such. Instead they and the wider country were left to be miraculously OK.
The latest delusional remarks by Carney made me laugh. We will have to put up with this sort of gibbering nonsense for some time yet. But we mustn’t let these eruptions distract. It is Cameron and Osborne who decided no plan or preparation was needed for the possibility of Leave winning and after the referendum May et al were not up to the task even without the thinly disguised agenda to not really leave. Whatever dismay we feel over civil servants, the media and assorted hangers on we should see it for wha it is: Cameron and Osborne’s legacy. They have got off far too lightly.
So what are the effects of the Brexit? Far too early to tell. I just hope it will not be another 200 years before we can begin to see how the arc of history is playing out.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:
Interesting article: https://www.gbnews.com/opinion/rishi-sunak-immigration-martin-daubney-uk-latest
It is indeed well past time for action to prevent our country being overwhelmed by the invaders, although too late already for many areas…
As if one needed further evidence of the decline in education. When I heard Daubney read this off the auto-cue, I laughed when he said ‘Labour luminaires’. I assumed he misread ‘luminaries’, of course; those who inspire or influence others. But the transcript in the link does indeed say luminaire, which is a light fitting, and the last things these Labour gargoyles shed is light.
Actually neither is appropriate to these people, whether or not it was a typo.
But I am guessing not, because he also referred to Sunak trying to emulate Canute and stop the tide (of small boats.) But I thought it was common knowledge that Canute knew he could not stop the tide and was demonstrating to his sycophantic courtiers (civil servants) that he had no such powers. But then again, neither does Rishi, as he has already ably demonstrated time and again.
One has to conclude that those opposers of Brexit had a significant financial benefit in being a member of the EU. Time for us to get the Brexit that we voted for, not BoJo’s version of it.