QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Big Kev]

One way of looking at the situation -

If something is REALLY harmful, you don't carry on doing it.
If someone says it's OK to carry on doing it if you pay me £12.50,
It is NOT REALLY harmful but a way of raising money.

Yup

[Stanley]

That thought had struck me as well. Thanks for confirming it.

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. "
H L Mencken
(He also said that governing is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.)

[Tizer]

The Ukrainians have been fitting two rollers on the front of their tanks to deliberately set off Russian mines which have been laid in multiple rows of minefields. A tank commander told the BBC: "Normally our rollers can withstand up to four explosions," he says. But the Russians, he adds, have been laying mines on top of each other to destroy their mine clearing equipment. LINK

[Tripps]

When reading such items - I find this comes in handy. . .

Salt.jpg

[Stanley]

I think that's a bit harsh David. I heard the news item and the depth of the mine fields was referred to by more than that one quote. It sounded genuine3 to me.....

[Tripps]

I've just heard Jacob Rees Mogg described as - A penny farthing in human form.

I like that. . .

[Stanley]

Quite accurate.... Can you imagine him on the beach in swimmers?

[Stanley]

I have just heard this in respect of the panic over crumbling concrete.....
"The crippling short termism that infects most of government"
How true.... Sorry I didn't catch who said it.

[Stanley]

Rishi Sunak has said it was "utterly wrong" to suggest he oversaw budget cuts that led to crumbling concrete in schools in England not being repaired.
I saw this this morning in BBC News. Now I can't find it. Is this my incompetence or is the quote being deliberately obscured?

[Tizer]

I put your words - `Rishi Sunak has said it was "utterly wrong" to suggest he oversaw budget cuts' - into google and this came up as the top offering...
`School concrete: Don't blame me to failing to fix RAAC - Rishi Sunak' LINK

[Stanley]

That's the one that I couldn't find Peter.....

[Tizer]

At the end of a report on the damage cause by Storm Daniel around the Mediterranean...
Climate scientists have warned that global warming means more water evaporating during the summer, leading to more intense storms.
This is not a guess, nor does it need research or `proof'. It is a simple fact of physics.

[Tripps]

Quite shocking to read yesterday that floods in LIbya caused two thousand deaths. The BBC are reporting "thousands dead" .
CBC (Canadian) are reporting "the collapse of two dams". Locally they say still 5 - 6 thousand missing.

Desert and drought would be more expected for that area. I note that the average annual rainfall is normally just 3.8 inches.

Tizer was right about dams.

Sorry - going off topic. Tizer has covered it better on "Seen in the News"

[Tizer]

Also off the main topic but relevant to disasters, listen to last week's BBC Sounds `Science in Action'. It's 27 minutes and three stories. BBC Sounds Go to the last one which is on the following topic:
And one year on from the Hunga Tonga eruption, where a shockwave circled the globe four times, researchers have been able to calculate the speed of the currents in the southern Pacific Ocean. BBC correspondent Jon Amos caught up with Michael Clare to hear how other South Pacific Islands can learn from the most explosive volcanic eruption in 100 years.

It describes the `landslides' on the ocean floor caused by the eruptions and which broke the underwater cables. These flows of rock crossed the ocean floor at speeds of over 100mph. Even the presenter had to repeat the speed because it seemed incredible. Imagine the wall of rock having to push a wall of deep water away from its path at that speed!

I've just looked up the fastest speed of a submarine and it's about 50 mph or 45 knots.

[Stanley]

That speed is incredible Peter..... It would be hard to believe it on land never mind in the deep ocean.
(I don't mind off piste, it makes for interesting threads!)

[Tripps]

Suella Braverman - in a rare moment of political pragmatism -

"We're not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people"

[Stanley]

That caught my attention also David. Most unlike her and I have to agree!

[Tripps]

"SINGAPORE, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The complete phasing-out of fossil fuels is not realistic, China's top climate official said, adding that these climate-warming fuels must continue to play a vital role in maintaining global energy security.
China is the world's biggest consumer of fossil fuels including coal and oil, and its special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua was responding to comments by ambassadors at a forum in Beijing on Thursday ahead of the COP28 climate meeting in Dubai in November. Reuters obtained a copy of text of Xie's speech, and a video recording of the meeting."

[Stanley]

And, as is often the case, China could be right in taking an ultra pragmatic view of what is in fact the reality.
I read Old Sparky in PE talking about the state of the contracts and negotiations we are having with EDF about the completion of Hinkley Point and the agreeing of a contract for Sizewell and there is no realistic estimate for any completion or agreement. Thinking about that, China's Special Climate Change Envoy could be spot on.

[Tripps]

China could be right in taking an ultra pragmatic view of what is in fact the reality.

China's Special Climate Change Envoy could be spot on.

Of course he is - but he doesn't have to worry about those pesky democratic elections every few years does he?

[Stanley]

True David and very much Graham's view when he was with us.
One is tempted to day that any system of governance would be better than the one we are suffering under at the moment!

[Tripps]

One is tempted to day that any system of governance would be better than the one we are suffering under at the moment!

Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies

" It rather looks like we’re going to totally waste the money on this in producing a railway at the cost of tens of billions, which will get you from Birmingham to central London less quickly than you can do at the moment.”

[Stanley]

I heard an interesting point of view in 'Thought for the Day' on the BBC. A bishop, noting how almost everything in modern life and society has been speeded up asked the question "Who does this acceleration benefit?'
I have to say that getting to Birmingham twenty minutes quicker, if this was possible, was hardly likely to save the UK economy.

[Tripps]

Choice of two today. . . .

"Rishi Sunak has insisted he hasn’t given up on the HS2 railway joining Manchester but urged caution saying he wanted to take the time to 'make the right decision for the country' with billions of pounds at stake."

This surely has to be the most badly handled bit of news management ever. I saw in last night's Sky press review that The Times (a newspaper of record) says the decision has been taken and will be announced tomorrow.



Liz Truss - former Prime Minister (just)

"Make Britain grow again"

See what she did there. . . .

Surely not parodying Donald Trump - known today in court as "the accused". She sounds 'demob happy' and can only be positioning herself to be next leader of a right wing Tory party (surely well 'over the water'). One way or another there must be a vacancy soon.

[Stanley]

I noticed that in the end of her speech David, References to 'friends' and substituting 'grow ' for 'great' in what was a straight rip-off of Trump. I like to go back to the simple tests, remember Tricky Dicky Nixon? The killer question was 'Would you buy a used car off this man?' Use that on any of these modern politicians. I find there are remarkably few who pass this test......