‘Plebs’ actually enjoying the summer days? How dare they!
The ‘cost of living crisis’, a.k.a. inflation, dominates this morning’s front pages, closely followed by ‘drought’ (link). The ‘outcry’ is that Truss, Sunak, the government ‘do something about it’. A delve into the innards of the online papers however shows that we’re subtly being prepared for accepting ‘unforeseeable’ circumstances, i.e. the acts of the weather gods for which politicians and CEOs cannot possibly be blamed.
For example, there’s a report – probably first of many, I don’t doubt – in the DT, under the headline “Vegetable shortage looms as Europe battles heatwave – Lack of water and shipping chaos mean shoppers will have less choice” (paywalled link). I note in the margin that ‘chaos at Dover’ is the new ‘because: Brexit’. Never mind that haulage firms, border police and port authorities have had enough time to prepare for Brexit and the consequences thereof. This is veiled by the current ‘excuse’, the drought and the consequences of drought:
“Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, said Britain “could be in a major deficit position”, where domestic supplies cannot meet demand […]: “The temperatures we are seeing here are being replicated around Europe so European production sites are facing similar challenges. This could lead to less product and less choice. […] At this late stage of the season, finding growers with surplus production may not be that simple – plus the cost of transport has escalated in the past few months even if you can get hold of it. Many European freight operators are less than keen on coming to the UK due to the problems at Dover and the extra waiting time as a result of the additional checks.” (paywalled link)
Yes, well, who could foresee that last year’s ‘problems at Dover’ had still not been sorted during the past months! There’s more – firstly, the obligatory ‘blame Putin’ but don’t mention ‘sanctions’:
“The price of food is soaring as the war in Ukraine hits supplies from the “breadbasket of Europe” and farmers face a jump in costs, particularly in fuel, fertiliser and animal feed.” (paywalled link)
Next, we learn that inflation is actually higher than the Bank of England has acknowledged:
“Food prices rose by 10pc in the 12 months to June, the fastest increase since 2009, and the heatwave is expected to drive grocery bills higher still. Vegetable prices were up 9pc, with milk, cheese and butter also soaring as dairy farmers pass on higher costs.” (paywalled link)
There was also a warning last month from Tom Bradshaw, deputy president at the National Farmers’ Union who said that farmers growing potatoes, onions and carrots had been using “irrigation for several months now and will be getting to a situation where it is running very, very low and there will be some that are running out imminently.” (paywalled link).
Why were “we’ not talking about imminent drought last month? Were the water companies not aware of the state of rivers and reservoirs since spring? Did they, did the farmers, not consult the long-term Met Office forecasts which are, as we all know, the bee’s knees? Or did they hope for the weather gods to give us some rain, pretty please?
I’m no agriculturalist but I would like to know if the huge decrease in arable and growing land thanks to solar and wind ‘farms’ might have contributed to this. Wouldn’t masses of solar panels reduce the amount of rain soaking into the formerly arable ground, just as plastering over more and more stretches of countryside and city green spaces does? I mean – solar panels are hot, innit, so rain would evaporate, no?
It’s also remarkable how said MSM are falling over themselves with shock-horror photos and articles on this drought and on the unfairness of some hosepipe bans. Look at the DT again, with a report on the ‘craziness’ of said bans which apparently exempts hot tubs but not swimming pools, and which allows new-laid lawn still to be hosepiped (paywalled link). They do not ask why SE Water is starting this ban on the coming Friday instead of today. If the situation is so dire – why wait? They also don’t remind us of the exorbitant leakage, losing 25% of the water they transport through their pipes. Do they hope that we plebs have already forgotten?
Another report in the DT, published last week, seems to have sunk without a trace: “Water boss in charge of ‘mothballed’ emergency plant pockets nearly £500,000 bonus – Sarah Bentley’s performance-related payout doubles in a year, as Thames Water faces scrutiny over drought” (paywalled link). This is Thames Water and their abandoned desalination plant: no money for this, but money for the CEO and, I assume for under-CEOs. This money comes from the customers of said company, customers now exhorted to ‘save water’ and wash themselves using a wash flannel rather than shower.
But never mind all that – there’s still the good old NHS! The latest ‘Health’ minister has assured readers of the DT that he’s doing all to make said organisation ‘fit’ for the coming horrors:
“Mr Barclay told The Telegraph his department was in a “real sprint to get ready for September” and that decisions – including on hiring more staff from overseas – could not wait until a new prime minister was in post. The NHS is facing a triple threat from seasonal flu, another Covid wave and the fallout from the cost of living crisis, all of which are expected to increase demand.” (paywalled link)
Interesting, isn’t it, that Mr Barclay, his mandarins and apparently the DT seem to assume that a rise in inflation will make us ill. They must allude to the fact that the exorbitant rise in energy prices from October will make more people sick, thanks to sitting in cold homes, mustn’t they!
As for hiring ‘more staff from overseas’: well, The Times reports that one NHS Trust was telling their specialist nurses they might also have to do cleaning jobs (link, paywalled). Is ‘Our Sacred Cow’ now so impoverished that they cannot pay cleaners? Or is there a ‘cleaner shortage’? How amazing, given the huge numbers of dinghy-drivers coming here on a daily basis! Perhaps our wannabe PMs might propose a law which demands all those refugees be made to do such work, or else? After all, even males can push brooms, no? That might be a better deterrent than ‘Rwanda’.
I leave you with two extraordinary claims. One is by the Archbish of Canterbury who told a conference that “[…] selfishness of the rich has caused global warming” (link, paywalled). Who knew! Not the ‘climate change scientists’, it seems. Will it be the ‘unselfishness of the poor’ which will stop climate change? Is that why our government is so hell-bent on impoverishing us?
The other extraordinary claim is by one of the laydee opinion writers in The Times. Her piece is titled: “Now Brexiteers are taking aim at net zero – The forces that so successfully fused populism and Euroscepticism now have a climate referendum in their sights” (link, paywalled). As concoction of anti-Brexit, anti-Farage bile it is unsurpassed. As propaganda piece, packaging ‘populism’ and ‘anti-net-zero’ into one unsavoury mess it is astounding.
This laydee writer doesn’t seem to notice that turning support for ‘Net Zero’ into a righteous, lefty, anti-populist campaign means they and Labour will carry the can for the coming disaster of inflation and energy shortages, not the current green-blue Johnson government. Inconvenient questions are never asked, facts are only used when they support ‘Teh Narrative’ which is pure watermelonism. Perhaps the next article/report/analysis will blame Brexit for causing ‘climate change’?
Meanwhile, high summer with high temperatures is upon us. Best we don’t enjoy the sunshine but feel guilty for the weather, the drought and climate change. Let’s ‘save water’ now, just as we’ll ‘save home fuel’ later while paying for it all. It’s our fault, see – not that of politicians and CEOs and all their mouthpieces in the MSM. It never is.
The Russians are saying the Ukrainians are firing shells at that large power Nuclear Power Station starting with ‘Z’ whilst the Ukrainians are saying the same of the Russians. When I last looked at a map of land that had been taken by Russian forces that power station was under Russian control. So if is receiving hits by bombs, missiles or shells why would the Russians be doing this. It doesn’t make sense to me at least that they would be responsible. However all we get to read or hear about is that any shelling must be the fault of the Russians. Setting that apart, why the hell isn’t that utterly useless organisation called the United Nations getting involved in this war and trying to negotiate at least a ceasefire between the two opposing sides. What is point of the UN if it is unable or unwilling to prevent a war of this magnitude from occurring. I hear nothing from Truss or Sunak trying to get the two sides to come together and talk, but I hear plenty of rhetoric from both saying how they are going to supply weapons in ever growing numbers to the Ukrainians which is likely escalate this grave problem still further. Truss has a loose cannon of a mouth and appears not to engage brain before opening her mouth and has as much tact as the average earthworm. She shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the corridors of power, let alone 10, Downing Street and is a dangerous woman. What a choice we have as prime minister is either bad, bad or bad.
” What a choice we have as prime minister is either bad, bad or bad.”
It is worse than that Colin.
JB
Indeed it is JB.
Well I’m not concerned about energy costs as it affects me very little.
I grow most of my own vegetables so that will hardly affect me.
My car runs off sunlight, so once again, no effect.
Am I bovvered?
Your self-regard alone, is probably enough to keep you glowing.
Harold, you’re just a bloody marvel and right about everything, at least in your own mind you are. So your car is powered by sunlight, thereby solar powered, but its funny how you didn’t mention that particular phrase. What make of car is it then, where is it made and how much does it cost, and how many people does it carry? You tell us half a story probably because the remaining half doesn’t exist, and is a figment of your over active imagination. What happens in winter when the sun don’t shine and its tipping down with rain. Oh yes, I think I know the answer…Shanksy’s Pony..
“The price of food is soaring as the war in Ukraine hits supplies from the “breadbasket of Europe.”
Hmm? We keep hearing this ‘breadbasket of Europe’ trope, ramping up the panic, but I saw 3% quoted recently, so thought I would have a look.
On the most recent figures (2020), the EU-27, China, India and the Russian Federation account for 60% of world wheat production;
add the U.S. and Canada, that’s 70% of world production.
The EU-27 top the list with 17.62%.
Ukraine is NINTH at just 2.77%. Some bread basket, eh?
France produces 25% more than Ukraine, and Germany a smidgen less, but both at almost double the yield per hectare; far more efficient.
More efficient still, by far, are New Zealand, Netherlands (until Rutte gets his way), Ireland, Belgium, and the U.K.
Although their total yields are less, being from fewer acres (and falling in the UK) available, of course.
In case you still thought Ukraine’s ‘bread basket’ total is still not inconsiderable and is worth shouting about, the UK is not far behind, 12th on the list, at 1.86% of world wheat output. Have we ever been likened to a breadbasket, or even 2/3rds of a breadbasket?
I am not saying losing some of that grain is not causing, or will not cause, hardship, particularly in Africa where a lot of it goes (although I think the interruption itself has been blown out of proportion for propaganda purposes), but let’s get things in perspective.
If ignorance is bliss the “dead tree” (I love that phrase) columnists must be very happy.
‘Vegetable shortage looms……’. Not up here in North of England. All the local allotment holders are celebrating a bumper year – fruit too; and thus plenty of insects to germinate.
Jake…………our ‘Arry’ has plenty, he is growing them in his window box. Perhaps he could give you the odd pea pod or two.
Nigel Crisp, now Baron Crisp, was appointed NHS Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary in the Dept of Health in November 2000. In 2004 (aged 52), following a report that said “Crisp had no control over costs and didn’t have a clue what to do”, he was induced to retire by Patricia Hewitt with a pension of £100K a year. (In 2004 median gross earnings in the UK were £22K.) He was made a life peer in 2006.
There have been many Nigel Crisps whose gold plated incompetence has led to the NHS being the worst run health service in Western Europe. The great myth is that we have a “Rolls Royce” civil service and that the NHS is the “envy of the world”. What we actually have is an extractive public sector that is a scandalous source of inequality, that operates by rules reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s politburo. And it’s not just the mandarinate. Local Authorities, once run by civic minded town clerks, now have ‘chief executives’ many of whom earn more than the prime minister with pensions funded by singificant proportions of the council tax (up to 40% in some cases goes to paying pensions). I forget the exact year, but Kent County Council once hired a chief executive on a 3 year contract with a guaranteed pension of £90K a year. I have no idea what the people of Kent got for their money.
Our ancien régime – I call them that in the hope that is what they will become – get greedier by the year. As we are reduced to eating cake, they will still enjoy bread. Revolutionary France sorted out their ancien régiem with the guillotine. I am coming to the view we should do the same.
‘Reduced to eating cake’ – too right! Our ‘betters’ will eat organic artisan bread which cost at the very least two times as much as ‘cake’ for us plebs …
We do indeed need rid but the guillotine is a bit messy so our traditional hanging might be preferable or even injection with a massive dose of the vaccines they are so enthusiastic about.
As a lethal injection the vaccines seem to work best on the under 40’s and may not be as effective as we would wish on the key age group of 40 to 60 year old mandarins. I take your point about mess. We could bus them to an abattoir, but may be good old fashioned English hanging would suffice.