What it says on the tin; a perspective for the silenced majority.
Keep in mind that until the last 30 years and the rapid replacement of the sane old world order by newspeak and spin, most fairy stories were introduced by the phrase "once upon a time", now they are introduced by "according to experts".
This letter is (allegedly) from John Cleese - originally in 2003. Nothing much has changed, and it has been only slightly updated .... I invite someone to provide a response fromour restored Colony...
"... To the citizens of the United States of America,
In the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. His Sovereign Majesty King Charles III will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except Utah, which he does not fancy) Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. (play nice, or that might be Prince Harry). Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. An X poll will be held to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter "u" will be reinstated in words such as "favour" and "neighbour" skipping the letter "u" is nothing less than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell "doughnut" without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter "z" (pronounced zed not zee) and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix "burgh" is pronounced burra; e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as "Pittsberg" if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as like and you know is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more bleeps in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.
2. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter "z" and the elimination of -ize.
3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.
4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.
5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The King, but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.
6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like nancies).
We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the "World Series" for a game that is barely played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.
7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.
9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered "fries" while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer, which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.
12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all; it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.
13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon) - get used to it).
14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).
16. Last but not the least, and for heaven's sake.....it's Nuclear - as in "clear" - NOT Nucular.
Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day
Firstly, consider the many ways that the statistics are collected and manipulated. There is no easy way to "normalise" - summed up by this urban heat island graphic. Climate change cultists will tend to choose stats most likely to support their contention, and the middle of a busy airport runway is an old favourite...
26AUG23
This post is an effort to bundle up and summarise a year's worth of accumulated "roll-up" blog posts on the climate debate, now that the controversy around ULEZ reality (ie it's about the money) has flushed out some brave souls willing to recall that it is easy to fool people, but much harder to convince them that they have been fooled: the principle that has served religious indoctrination over millennia.
https://youtu.be/c79UkAnrFhw?feature=shared&t=2
Alan Jones on Sky News Australia sums up, and this was first shown on YT 3 years ago when it was heresy likely to get the author sacrificed on the righteous altar of wokeness.
But there is now a growing number of politicians and people willing to call it out and not be cowed by Marxist manipulation. There is plenty of evidence that many wildfires have been set by arsonists - and who would bet against the fanatical zealots of the "Climate Cult" - who have been in "ends justify means" mode for a long time now.
Plus all those who have made money from various aspects of the cult - from hastily erected wind turbines and solar farms - to the ending of the ICE vehicle trade, so that it can be replaced by remotely controlled electric vehicles costing upwards of £30k that can drive themselves back to the dealerships if a payment is missed... never mind the global property speculators eager to put farmers out of business and grab their land.
Not forgetting that fossil fuels are loved by politicians as they are so easily taxed.
Most suspicious climate sceptics do not deny climate change exists (and has done for life-span of the universe), but read the blog linked in my profile and learn that there are many factors other than "carbon" that contribute to the process.
Some factors are "left field" - the Earth's magnetic north pole has been migrating northward at an average rate of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) per year since the early 19th century. However, in the past 100 years, the rate of migration has accelerated to about 30 miles (48 kilometers) per year.
Did you know the qualitative reason for Sun's 22 year activity cycle has barely been understood for around 15 years - but still cannot be accurately predicted or quantified beyond the 11 year period between sunspot maxima - which is now attributed to the gravitational tidal effects of planetary alignments?
And those who bet the farm on "anthropogenic climate change" have no solid proof other than a hypothesis based on heavily contested, manipulated and coincidental statistics that they call a "consensus".
So please do your own research and thinking before buying "the narrative" from those who livelihood depends on trying to persuade (dupe ?) you. I have left plenty of clues and links in my blog posts to provide many rabbit holes to explore.
Short answer - mostly not the elected politicians.
Tony Blair's 1997 Junta especially perverted the system. Those who vote and pay taxes are way down the pecking order when troublemaking "lawyers" and uncivil servants blissfully ignore the Official Secrets Act with impunity, disobey orders from elected politicians and game the system...
03september23
A former senior civil servant - Sue Gray - who was largely responsible for the partygate report that precipitated the exit of Boris Johnson - is announced as a key player in Keir Starmer's shadow reshuffle.
This really ought to be regarded as incredible, but the fact that it is not is even more incredible... How can any government minister trust any civil servant again if they are immune from any requirement for impartiality?
The Daily Sceptic is a reliable source of stories that will raise your blood pressure concerning the denial of democracy and infiltration of government by agenda-driven idealogues.
Emma Haddad, former Home Office Director General for Asylum, has joined the human rights charity Amnesty International U.K. Haddad was previously viewed as a roadblock to the Government’s strict immigration policies – policies that Amnesty has openly criticised as “inhumane, racist and divisive”. TheTelegraphhas more.
Emma Haddad, who was the Home Office’s Director General for Asylum until October 2022, will help to oversee Amnesty International U.K., which has been campaigning against the Government’s attempts to halt Channel crossings and deport migrants to Rwanda.
Ms. Haddad’s appointment will intensify tensions between Conservative ministers and senior officials. A senior Tory said: “This demonstrates the extent of the institutional hurdles that we have been up against.”
One source described Ms. Haddad as “very difficult” and the “chief blocker” of ministers’ policies during her time at the Home Office. A Home Office source claimed that, during her time at the top of the department, the senior civil servant was “hostile” to the Government’s agenda on asylum, including a plan to move migrants out of taxpayer-funded hotel rooms and into large-scale accommodation.
The Home Office source said that Ms. Haddad also oversaw the introduction of “lenient” guidance in which asylum caseworkers were told they could not reject the testimony of a migrant caught lying.
Sources cited her move to Amnesty as evidence that Ms. Haddad was politically opposed to Conservative policies on asylum and immigration.
Responding to the claims, Ms. Haddad said: “As with any civil servant, my job was to serve the government of the day. All civil servants must abide by the Civil Service code and uphold the Civil Service’s core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.”
The row came as a poll by Public First found that almost half of pro-Leave voters who backed the Conservatives in 2019 believe the Government is not trying hard enough to deal with asylum and immigration.
update 21 APR 2023
News of the subversion by rogue lawyers trying to game the system from Steven Barrett in the Spectator...
" There was a two day hearing involving a King’s Counsel and three
other barristers for the Good Law Project, and another King’s Counsel and two more
barristers for the government. That is an expensive two days.
What did the Good Law Project want? Well, they weren’t actually clear initially,
so we’ll come back to that later. But it was all to do with the issue of
ministers using private emails and private WhatsApp or other messaging
services for government business. The GLP were determined to stop that.
They failed.
They failed, but in some ways, they won – because people who are
making our society effectively ungovernable cried ‘shame’ at ministers
anyway when the case was announced. No one waits to see what a court
actually says these days before rushing to judgement. It’s much easier
instead to accuse your enemy of breaking the rules or law and watch the
mob burn them anyway.
We have lost perspective in society. A small gaggle of retired civil
servants can go on the media and claim some technical breach of a rule
nobody has ever heard of and get real people sacked. Our entire
government can be swept away over a lawful slice of cake.
But I stay in the law precisely because it’s the only place left the
mob can’t get you. And the Court steadfastly refused in this case to
start policing ministers and controlling how they carry out their
business.
The argument used by the GLP in this case was confused. And it’s
right to note that the judges were extremely angry that the case had
been brought at all. Now, because I know judges, their anger is obvious
to me, I hope it’s obvious to all. Here it is:
‘The fact that a claimant is unable or unwilling to particularise the
relief that they seek, may be an indication that the claim should not
be pursued.’
This can be translated as, ‘the fact that you can’t even say what you
want us to do about this thing you are pretending is really important
is a good indication it isn’t important and you should not have wasted
our time’.
That’s because all sorts of things are technical breaches of law. We
have a lot of law. A new law student will inevitably walk to the pub
after class and suddenly see lots of crimes taking place. And what GLP
focuses on isn’t even crime – they focus on lesser things called ‘civil
wrongs’. You can probably guess that there are bucket loads more of
them.
A good example is the tort (civil wrong) of trespass. If your
neighbour trespasses on your drive once – and just once – do not try to
sue him. Because yes it’s technically a civil wrong – but no the judge
will not be happy and all you’ll get is shouted at and a big legal
bill.
Indeed, on the second day of the GLP hearing, when they had finally
made up their mind, the GLP asked the Court to effectively turn
government ‘policy’ and ‘guidance’ on communications into law. This
strikes at the foundation of who makes law. Previous courts have made
concessions on this in the past, and said that some policies are binding
on the government. But this time the Court was clear that office
policies on WhatsApp – that doesn’t deal with the way ministers interact
with the public – is definitely not law.
The Court also confirmed very clearly that guidance in general is not law.
We used to have laws that stopped this type of campaigning lawfare, such as the torts of Champerty and Maintenance and the tort of Barratry. The modern tool to end this kind of GLP campaigning might be the law of Standing,
which asks that a party involved in a case is actually harmed by the
law they are challenging. But this is only important if you want to stop
GLP.
What matters for now is that ministers can, of course, carry on using
WhatsApp. They can carry on using personal emails (subject to security
concerns, leaking etc, etc). Our laws are made flabby so that they catch
everything. That system requires something called common sense for it
to work. And for common sense to work, it has to be common. So the next
time you hear someone crying ‘shame’ about some technical error you’ve
never heard of, you have a role to play – join the mob or resist it.
But we need to know who is paying for this vexatious behaviour - every penny in the hands of the GLP should be traced - and its source listed. Remember Bezmenov!
December 8th 2022: Clive Thompson spells out the reset of fiat money with CBDC
A retired wealth manager gives very interesting reviews of how a national currency reset might work as a way to tackle inflation and the impossibly high deficits piled up across the global banking system now climbing interest rates are changing the game. Remember LVs? Clive does...
Earlier... June 2022...
The "globalized" world that has evolved since the 1980s has produced many companies with the financial might of nation states, and no end of unelected organizations, oligarchs and billionaire plutocrats. Some of whom - like George Soros and indeed the European Union - have quite openly promoted global agendas to interfere in the democratic process and diminish nation states. Check out the World Economic Forum and its Marxist "own nothing and be happy" agenda.
Russell Brand explained back in 2021... (if you had not already found out - RB has morphed from wild man to an engaging commentator, with a fast-growing global following. Yes, interesting times!)
So how does the WEF plan to take over? Take a look at this video by Liz Wheeler where she discusses how
WEF elitists led by Klaus Schwab wants to replace capitalism. You will
realize a lot of the necessary impositions are already in place and
ready to go. Covid did all teh groundwork in many countries to establish online central identity; next stop all money controlled by CBDC.
The
question of the legitimacy of the 2020 US presidential election
continues to fester, and the accusations of Russian interference and
inconsistencies around postal voting have not gone away. Biden's
bumbling and awkward performances range from embarrassing to
incomprehensible, but the media that supported his candidacy and lined
up against Trump are not rushing to reconsider their allegiance.
The dystopian imagery is all too obvious. But the UK's "righteous left" has spent 20 frustrating years without finding its way to power through the ballot box; and simple subversion is seen a fast track option to take control of a national political agenda without the annoying inconvenience of the democratic process. In 2022, the UK and USA are currently up to their ears in subversive influencers looking to incite regime change by fomenting some form of protest and/or insurrection.
The UK is currently sinking under a pile of strike threats from various privileged interest groups ranging from train drivers to barristers and doctors. One of these privileges generally being the opportunity to "stick up" the country and cause disruption and inconvenience unless the government accedes to their wishes.
Those involved all seem to have a common theme of a pathological hatred of Boris Johnson and his government. These are fed by the Twitter swarms that are at ease with the use of any profanity in their assaults on politicians as they strut and parade their pseudo passion and bluster for the benefit of impressing their echo chamber followers.
Applying a little objectivity, it seems fair to remind the nation that we have only just emerged from the blind panic of a disease that might - for all we knew at the time - kill millions and certainly break the NHS by the overload - with unknown consequences. The nation gave credit to Boris for managing to keep just ahead of the worst case.
Many were understandably suspicious of the origins in Wuhan, where the Chinese have a biological warfare facility, and the consequent cover-ups resulting from suspicious coincidences and the equivocation by the apparent take-over of the World Health Organization by Chinese interests.
But we were in a state of siege, and we accepted that extraordinary times and circumstances required extraordinary responses. Did we have a choice at that time? Covid involved throwing an improbably vast amount of ("quantitatively eased") money at everything from face masks to paying people to stay locked down at home. LOTS of money. Sane commentators warned that this would have the traditional economic consequences and lead to inflation. No one was really paying attention.
The pandemic also provided the basis for installing a government controlled surveillance society with apps and certificates. It was even called "track and trace" - talk about in plain sight! And this was accepted with minimal objection. Anyone questioning the wisdom of this policy was singled out as a callous potential granny murderer, and all round "anti-social". They were readily castigated and muzzled by government's new best Big Brother friends with their control of the "community standards" of social media.
It has always been in the nature of the righteous to be able to justify (to themselves) almost any means to achieve what they believe to be a righteous end. The examples are all around - overreaction to the imagined threats arising from the unproven (really it is, don't hate me- just be scientific) global warming hypothesis has cost us all a fortune, and put Russia in control of Western economies and is about to trigger a serious global recession and food shortage.
One takeaway from the Sunak "wifegate" affair was that yet again an out of control civil service colludes with the rabid media, using unlawful access to confidential information to make determined mischief. These unlawful intrusions into communication and security video are only possible with tacit support from our woefully biased judiciary, whose objectivity deficit was exposed during the Bercow Brexit rebellion. Sanctimonious remainers have always been willing and able to believe that the holy Grail of EU membership justified any means and compromise of principle - and law...
Anything that can be used to undermine the job of government to hasten the demise of Boris is being eagerly and relentlessly whipped up into a feeding frenzy, especially by the BJ haters of certain "mainstream" TV news services. Mainstream media commentators eagerlytry to marginalize the one outlier in the competition to be the most woke finger-waggers, so GBNews (and now TalkTV) gets parked in the far right corner at every opportunity using any scornful pejoratives they can muster, especially the unforgivable sin of not observing the same enlightened liberal agenda that has created the predictable, dull and anodyne TV news industry serving the globalist wokocracy in the UK.
The absence of anything of interest to those who do not share the censorious left wing outlook of the mainstream media has encouraged the creation of a number of independent online news channels and commentators that have been driven off YouTube and Facebook by "community standards", if they dare to question the promoted narratives around pandemics, US elections, climate change and avoid mentioning inconvenient truths emerging around uncomfortable ethnic and religious behaviour.
The media appears to be completely unbothered by the use of unlawfully obtained information, and tells all politicians that any and all aspects of their lives are to be considered fair game and in the public domain. Howsoever obtained.
The stench of hypocrisy is strong with this industry, but apparently all is fair in love, war and journalism, so it is now hardly surprising that politics is struggling to attract good people willing to put their heads above the parapet. Only inconsequential people with little or nothing to lose need apply.
The curious hybrids of radio and online - LBC, Times Radio, Talk Radio, and now TalkTV, seem to go round in circles. Broadcast TV news is being sliced and diced for online soundbites and lost in the balkanization of media and "device" options and standards. Murdoch's News UK has been fumbling about trying to work out the way ahead, and after years of indecision, has now stepped out with TalkTV on Freeview channel 237 from April 25th 2022.
Meanwhile...
How many times has NewsScape warned of the toxic and subversive alliance that seems determined to fill the UK's present "opposition void" with dirty tricks?
When the BBC refers to BJ's swipe at Starmer over the missed opportunity for a Savile prosecution - indisputably missed on Starmer's DPP watch - they carefully emphasize "Boris Johnson's FALSE accusation..."
The variable standards of the BBC were nicely illustrated by the Beijing Olympics ceremony - and the reading of the Olympic Oath by Chinese Olympic officials, talking about respect, inclusion, solidarity, inclusivity and discrimination.
So here's a tough call for BBC... should they kowtow to China and turn a blind eye to awkwardly well-known abuses of human rights, and the unilateral dismissal of the Hong Kong "agreement"? Should the BBC meekly allow China to parade its highly polished PR on our screens, using technology that was almost certainly originally seeded using "borrowed" tech that was acquired in the days when they couldn't afford to just buy up the entire world's ideas and resources using ill-gotten gains?
So it seems that what passes for the BBC's adaptable notion of morality comes with pragmatism and without moral judgement - as long as there is no accommodation of the corporation's right wing bogeys..? News of China's funding for Labour Party MPs has been quietly forgotten for now. The focus is on Russian oligarch influencers and the government.
If the Johnson scalp eventually ends up in Laura Kuenssberg's trophy cabinet, that will of course not be the end of the assault, but merely encouragement to drive harder at the liberal elite/BBC agenda that plainly still holds out hope that the UK will rejoin the EU. There are many Islingtonian media folk with holiday homes in the EU.
This latest news of social engineering at that BBCconcerning gender identity is just another example of the hopelessness of the DCMS and Ofcom to regulate the BBC...
It is alarming to realise just how deep the subversion has been allowed to penetrate.
And now we have Home Office uncivil servants, already with a
history of defying their job description, trying to undermine the policy
of elected politicians, are threatening walkouts. They threatened to
refuse to implement the government policy of moving asylum seekers
ushered across the channel in rubber boats by compliant French
"authorities" to Rwanda for processing. But not to worry, their end was
achieved by other means thanks to the fellow travellers of the liberal
elite- as it usually is.
The tempting option is to move a section of the Home Office from Whitehall to Rwanda.
#1 "... the EU is a confluent mass of vanity, arrogance and undisguised contempt for anything that stands in its way..."
This is compilation of interesting pieces "borrowed" at random from many sources. This piece is from Douglas Bulloch, @douglasbulloch
"... In order to understand the ferocity and relentlessness of the demonisation of Brexiters, one need only read this article.
We didn’t just leave the EU, we turned down a future that Remoaners yearn for, but were utterly unprepared to make the argument for.
It is the process of integration and the grandness of a United Europe that they have attached themselves to, seeing an independent UK as an insult to their own vision, faith, and most importantly to their judgement.
This is why they scorn the UK and wish the UK to collapse in on itself. Not simply in order to ensure we rejoin the EU (the temple they worship at) but because the faith of Brexiters (in their own country) must be exposed (forcibly and by subterfuge if necessary) as a heresy and cleansed in a purging fire. Most of all, however, it is their judgement that has been exposed, and that cannot be permitted.
But their faith is also sustained by fairy stories like this. We can all see that the EU, in order to function, has to transform itself, but we also know that will not be cost free, that there will be resistance, and that the whole process will be violent and undignified, exposing once again that the EU is a confluent mass of vanity, arrogance and undisguised contempt for anything that stands in its way.
The real story is that this proposed ‘giant leap’ is a response to a crisis. The EU is like the proverbial shark, if it isn’t moving forwards, it is stalling, suffocating and people increasingly see that it has no real purpose or answers to everyday problems. So when the EU is in question, the answer is always that there must be more of it.
The EU creates the ‘constitutive lack’ that the EU itself is the solution to. So it must proceed, deepen, widen, intensify. More flags, more money, more values. And concomitantly less money for anything else, fewer flags (apart from pride flags) to nurse contrary sentiments, and the proscription of any values that aren’t approved.
And all the while people in Europe see problems worsening with no solutions at hand, or even in prospect. And they see their ordinary lives and loyalties being progressively constrained and forbidden, even their freedom to speak suppressed.
And they see that the UK has left with its economy intact. So it must be desecrated, in word and in deed. At least part of which involves a renewed parade of grand hopes all over again, to make it seem like there is a glorious future from which the UK will be absent.
Well I for one am very glad about that. And for all the brio and confidence heralded by initiatives like this, emanating from the centre, there will be deep unease reflected back. If they were wise they would see the enthusiasm with which such initiatives are met is itself a sign of that same unease.
But they are not wise. They are dogmatic and fixated on a future that is already falling away.
The EU is poised for a giant leap towards further integration
The electric vehicle myth / reality - hydrogen or bust?
First published August 2022 but being continuously updated.
UPDATED - 31AUG23
Large lithium Ion batteries are being superceded in fixed applications (grid level storage) - possibly leading to a Lithium supply glut that might cut the price for EV and "untethered" use. The liquid metal battery was first announced in Donald Sadoway's original TED talk from March 2012. 10 years is a long time in tech, but electro chemistry cannot (yet) easily be reliably simulated and emulated in software. It's a part of the real world of reactive chemistry that still requires hands-on experimentation and observation.
Prof. Donald Sadoway is a prominent scientist renowned for his breakthroughs in materials chemistry and renewable energy. As a professor at MIT, he's acclaimed for developing the innovative "liquid metal battery" a potential game-changer in renewable energy storage. Donald's work has earned him prestigious awards and recognition, including membership in the National Academy of Engineering.
There an engaging disussion of the progress of this breakthrough in an interview with Kryten on the Everything Electric Show.... so is it the power storage breakthrough we have all been wating for? Quite possibly. Will this technology find its way into EV applications? Unlikely, but it should relieve demand for the components of mobile lithium batteries - and delieverd in 40foot container format, it should support the creation supercharger sites in remote locations plus reliable backup power solutions across the grid.
21JUL23 Draft 0v5
The Nickel Hydrogen battery seems to have a lot going for it: proved in space for many years. Relatively abundant materials; maintenence free over 20 years. Scalable... but only in speciality applications.
09JUL23 Draft 0v4
Oh dear oh dear... the EV depreciation by Geoff discsused in this video makes everything else you have ever heard about the economics of buying an EV irrelevant...
07JUL23 Draft 0v3
Geoff nails more of the inconvenient truths around current EV ownership and discusses the news that EV repair costs are far higher than ICE repairs. Get his merch - a Mug printed "Save the planet by driving old cars". Will common sense ever get back in fashion?
06JUN23 Draft 0v3
Mr Bean points out the Lithium Emperor is becoming threadbare: Just keep vehicles longer, use synthetic fuels and don't fall for NetZero
YouTuber Geoff Buys Cars read the Rowan Atkinson Telegraph article, so you don't need to...
APRIL23: Toyota has a new Hydrogen format ready to deliver... and it is well worth a close look...
This is awkward news for the "carbon lobby" that has driven the growth of wind and solar power just as the considerable downsides of disposing of worn out windmills and solar panels are emerging. We are still going to require clean tyrant-free electrical power for all other "non transport" power requirements - just not nearly as much of it, and our needs will be more flexible.
Toyota is an industry giant that has been relatively subdued in the race to replace fossil fuels - but it has been cooking up something radically new. We're talking about a brand new, revolutionary hydrogen vehicle! So, you may have heard about the Mirai, the hydrogen-powered Toyota vehicle that uses fuel cells to generate electricity - not too exciting in many ways but this new hydrogen combustion engine ticks all the boxes.
Uses the most abundant fuel in the universe
Only emission is water
No lithium battery gotchas - messy mining, disposal problems
No overload of electricity generation infrastructure
Faster refuel, longer range
Not dependent on China and other tyrannies for rare earth metals, motors and batteries
Familiar (good old fashioned!) ICE-engineeering - from 5 to 12 cylinders configurations
Suitable for boats and aircraft ..?
Scope for less invasive software platforms and control. Just about feasible for 2nd and 3rd party industry to emerge that can operate without being 100% beholden to manufacturers.
Downside? Hydrogen recharge infrastructure is very thin on the ground - but building charge points is simple - no 200A cables carrying vast current are required. Hydrogen charger points can be tanker re-fuelled, and in the future, onsite hydrogen generation is not impossible. Vehicles can be "field refuelled" from tankers in an emergency.
But we won't retiring earlier posts on the subject of next gen motoring ...just yet.
Feb 2023
The mounting problems of EV ownership...
Here's a recent wake-up tale of ransomware by Porsche, who want to charge an owner £1500 to reinstate a feature that Porsche deleted during a software update... remember "you will own nothing and be happy" ?
This "remote control" applies to ALL EV ownership, and requires governement and politicians to be much better engaged with all the issues - including CO2 misdirection.
Back to the nitty gritty...
The idea that the UK is going to be ready and able to switch to mostly electric vehicles by 2030 is so fanciful that it's difficult to know where to start. According to https://versinetic.com/:
"As it stands, the UK is on a slow trajectory to support these EV rollout plans, with a significant deficit to the current charging network. Indeed, the ongoing rate of growth allows for only one quarter (76,849) of the required public charging points to meet expected demand from EV drivers by 2032. The target is significantly higher, at 325,000 required electric vehicle chargers.
To mitigate this gap between the forecast and requirement, £1.3 billion of funding will be poured into charging projects by the UK government. The intention is to cover costs for planned road networks, home owners, local councils, and building owners, alongside regulatory changes."
The question of the folly of lithium ion fueled electric-vehicle assumptions continues to crop up. Social media "mind control" bots are busy scanning for any posts that may undermine the "narrative" of the efficacy of the plunge into overpriced electric vehicles, and vehicle burnouts attributed to lithium ion "bombs" come under close scrutiny.
So this story from Paris is more inconvenient truth for green fanatics.
Rivian is is an EV maker in the US in which Ford has invested, but Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently suggested that the supply chain for EV batteries is still far behind where it needs to be to achieve many of the goals pushed by Western governments, the WSJ reported.
“Put very simply, all the world’s cell production combined represents well under 10% of what we will need in 10 years,” Scaringe said last week. “Meaning, 90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist.”
If this green conspiracy/madness continues, we had all better get used to cycling, unless the hydrogen alternatives have come a very long way.
Autocar has produced a pretty good guide to home charging - and starts by summarizing the problem:
There are effectively two options when it comes to home charging - you
can either use the slow charger provided with the vehicle or have a
wallbox installed. The former uses a standard 3-pin plug to take power
from your domestic supply, plus is simple to use and extremely portable.
However, with battery sizes increasing all the time these units can
take over 24 hours to deliver a full charge and as a result
manufacturers recommend they are only for ‘emergency use’. A better bet,
especially if you’re committed to everyday EV use, is a wallbox
charger. Installed on the side of your house or in a garage, it is
capable of delivering faster charging times safely and reliable. It’s
also easier to use and doesn’t require numerous cables running from the
house.
Most wallbox units are fast chargers, delivering electricity at 7kW,
although there are simpler and cheaper 3kW slow chargers available
To put this in perspective, 7kW is 30A which is a large cooker, 3 times most electric heaters, 2-3 times a kettle. The cost of which just doubled!
3kW is 12.5Amp - using just about all the rated power from a regular 13A socket. Sucking large currents through domestic wiring is likely to show up weak spots - where corroded or loose connections introduce resistance that causes heating - leading to arcing (the problem that led to the Grenfell Tower blaze); all such circuits should really be connected to a separate supply feed with no splits or junctions. So, like all UK energy policy and strategy over the past 30 years, the situation is shambolic.
EV capable Lithium batteries are expensive, heavy, dangerous and
nigh-on impossible to efficiently recycle and need recharging with
monotonous regularity. Lithium batteries are serious fire hazards; when fully charged, the energy they contain equates to a small bomb. And a fast charger requires twice the average domestic supply capacity; there is just not sufficient mains supply capacity available!
Lithium is highly reactive
and flammable, and must be stored in vacuum, inert atmosphere or inert
liquid such as purified kerosene or mineral oil. When cut, it exhibits a
metallic lustre, but moist air corrodes it quickly to a dull silvery gray, then black tarnish. It never occurs freely in nature, but only in (usually ionic) compounds, such as pegmatitic
minerals, which were once the main source of lithium. Due to its
solubility as an ion, it is present in ocean water and is commonly
obtained from brines. Lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.
So let's leave EV Lithium here for now and look at the alternatives. The limitations of lithium EV technology are currently contained by the realities of chemistry and physics, where significant breakthroughs are unlikely.
It makes limited sense, like much of the "Carbon bad" mantra. But using the EV battery as part of a household power saving and backup scheme (cf Tesla powerwall) might be a sensible way through the basic muddle.
So let's use Hydrogen - the fuel of the stars!
Powering with Hydrogen is an interesting alternative that uses the most abundant element in the universe - stars are powered when two hydrogen atoms "fuse" to create helium.
H + H → He + ENERGY. Gosh, that looks easy, eh?
But Hydrogen "in the wild" on earth is always going to be combined in compounds like water (H20) and the numerous hydrocarbons (many are combustible *ane energy sources) where the hydrogen needs extracting. Overall, it is the most likely long term solution, since even if the much anticipated fusion generation eventually results in fabulously cheap electricity, it does not solve the problem of "off grid" storage and portability, and lithium batteries may yet turn out to be a minor sideshow.
Hydrogen can be produced by simple electrolysis using electricity, and there are many websites discussing the challenge. The range of complex process options is vast - suggesting that there will be steady progress towards various solutions. The US Department of Energy's site is a good place to start.
Hydrogen on its own is not energy dense and is tricky to store; it leaks easily because hydrogen atoms are bloody small! But using hydrogen to create combustible compound fuels - like easily liquified classic propane C3H8 - will not satisfy the carbon lobby - the result of combustion will include C02 in most practical cases.
Using bottled oxygen to reduce CO2 is just not practical - liquid hydrogen and oxygen is basically rocket fuel and rather too dangerous to directly power the family runabout.
There has been a lot of work being carried on fuel cells that convert hydrogen to electricity and Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) should be making an appearance in numbers ... but they aren't. However, the work may have been shelved somewhat clumsily by accountants just as the latest global energy crisis was about to break. There may be a comeback soon.
Physics Girl produced a very elegant fuel cell video in 2021 as a guest of Toyota which suggests they are closer to prime time than any think. It is simply a matter making the fuelling infrastructure available. At the end of the day, Hydrogen is omnispresent throughout the universe. There are no awkward waste products.
Let's not forget Hydrogen was once a major component in 'town gas', as many students doing chemistry and in the 50s and 60s may recall the mains gas once created from coal at the "gas works" that was ubiquitous in most UK towns and used widely throughout Britain before the discovery of North Sea gas in the 1960s. Up to 60% of the gas (by volume) being used by consumers was hydrogen.
And now here is a really interesting real world "practical" Hydrogen Video - it could be nearer than we all thought... maybe nervy times for those betting the farm of Lithium power?
Autocar observes:
Hydrogen fuel cells make electricity by causing a chemical reaction
between hydrogen and oxygen, of which the only by-product is water.
However, to make hydrogen without using fossil fuels, you have to do the
reverse, and that takes a lot of electricity. Ideally, that electricity
comes from renewable sources such as wind, otherwise the point of FCEVs
is lost.
The BEV argument is that you save a lot of energy by putting that
clean electricity straight into a battery. The FCEV counterargument is
that there might not be enough batteries to store renewable energy when
it’s being generated; for example, on a windy night.
The most pragmatic solution is for UK to resume North Seas oil and gas exploration, bring fracking online and buy another ten years (at least) of sanity while a real effort to advance fusion generation is made.
Also build nuclear plants using the new generation of compact reactors, and last but not least let's also build the wash barrier project ..."Using the tide to generate power is one of the greenest
and most dependable sources of sustainable energy. The
Barrier has the capacity to generate over 1GW of
electricity, equivalent to the output of two nuclear power
stations!"
The wash itself can be used as storage facility by dividing it into lagoons where water is pumped in using surplus renewable energy that would not otherwise be storable. There is a major additional benefit of this idea, avoiding the problem of East Coast erosion, which will otherwise lead to inundation of substantial adjacent areas of mostly productive farmland. Something else that the Ukrainian invasion has reminded us is in short supply.
Increasing the height of the current sea defences would prevent inundation. However, every metre of bank
has to be raised: this amounts to over 200km when tidal river banks are included! There are no additional
benefits gained from doing this. The sea in front of the defences will get deeper and most of the marginal
salt marsh, mudflats and sandbanks will be lost to the sea. Greater erosion of the sea defences will result,
causing higher maintenance costs.
If the height of the current sea defences is not raised, then the sea will breach the defences. Initially this
will be occasional, not repeated for maybe 10 years, but progressively the frequency will increase.
Any land contaminated by salt water will take three or more years and tons of chemicals to return to full
productivity. Areas of fen below sea level may never be drained again. Eventually, all the fen area from
Cambridge to Skegness and beyond will become tidal mudflats. Over many centuries, in areas protected
from the worst tides, rushes and sphagnum moss will slowly re-establish freshwater fen, similar to that
which existed before drainage.
Today's bottom line is that solving the vehicle energy conundrum wearing Carrie Johnson's net-zero blinkers at this precise moment is likely to end up in yet more bad decisions. But politicians have an opportunity to undertake an intelligent solution for less than the cost of HS2 - which could engage the imagination of the public during a time when we have very little else to look forward to - largely thanks to 30 years of energy policy mismanagement.
The redoubtable Gene Beards, Chief Gloomologist at the Maverickstar YouTube channel - observes and analyses the bigger picture of climate and the (very real) magnetic pole shift - has analysed the electric greed of EV users that has helped put up the price of electricity for all of us. An EV family uses 8.3 times as much electricity as one that doesn't - and the supply system is just not ready to cope. So allowing the price to shoot up and reduced demand is a crude but effective way to cover the embarrassment of the government's fundamental energy deficiency.
Now you need to know how the earth's magnetic field originates and operates - and there is no better explanation on YouTube than this one from PBS.... "Is Earth's Magnetic Field Reversing?"
There is a transition point when the magnetic pole drifts passes 40 degrees south, since the theory is that the weakening field lines will offer progressively less resistance to further migration - until it flips. This is covered in more detail here.
All of which leads into this rather fine reality check from TheCarGuys.tv...
" What is the BIG EV Lie?
Will electric vehicles save the planet if we all buy them? Are cars definitely the worst causes of Global Warming? And if not, what is? This week it’s the long-awaited EV episode, and I’m afraid, it might not be what you were expecting…
When we first embarked on a whole episode about EVs, we thought it would be easy. Take the piss out of electric cars and their owners, add in some amusing movie clips for comedic effect, do some impressions, use that clip of Greta Thunberg a lot, and Bob’s your uncle.
But the deeper we dug, the more we found, and it became simply impossible to be… well… funny.
You see there are some huge issues to deal with here, and it would seem, a lot of misinformation.
Yes, it’s easy to criticise EVs for range anxiety, charging waiting times, the upfront cost of the vehicles, and in one case - that autopilot mode. But forget all that short-term guff and explore with us what will happen in the future – do we have the energy and raw materials to cope with mass EV adoption?
And perhaps more importantly, is electricity actually all that green anyway?
This episode has been a year in the making, and whilst it’s not two old guys wise-cracking in a supercar, we still felt it needed to made. We hope you enjoy it..."
Collision considerations..
The problems of EV weight in accidents is explored in this video by the redoubtable (and breathless) Scotty Kilmer, where he addresses the fact that an EV battery combined with EV acceleration means kinetic energy that is going to cause more impact damage than the traditional internal combustion vehicle, that has been refined towards improved safety over 100 years.
And then there the issues around autopilot compromise. It is a complete mystery to the writer why this aspect of motoring has been so readily accepted. The suspicion is that (increasingly authoritarian) governments have been lured by the prospect that they are going to be able to start and stop every vehicle remotely, and inexperienced technocrats have lost sight of the detail and the reality.
And finallyu, strap in for a force of nature discussion cares and much else. Turbo powereed common sense, shtick and exasperation : Here's What I Really Think of Joe Biden and What He Just Did for America
WORK
IN PROGRESS updated 0v14 July 27th 2022 - this will be continuously
updated and links added . When I am happy I have reached basecamp, I
will declare version 1.0. I
will be using external links in the way Tim Berners Lee intended at the
start of the web, but that has now become much
less popular with site creators who want to cling jealously to their
visitors, and not risk sending them away down a "competitive" rabbit
hole.
I confess I have not been a fan of Nadine Dorries in her DCMS role. But I have been deeply unimpressedd with just about every Culture Secretay and DCMS Minister since the £120m fiasco of Festival *UK 2022 was allowed to waste its opportunity to be "the Festival of Brexit", in the style of the 1951 Festival of Britain - and was instead allowed to become a confused kaleidoscope of mindlessly woke nonsense, with no relevance to anything and no discernible legacy. It was a woefully wasted opportunity to celebrate Britain's return to the world stage. And Oliver Dowden, Nads and the rest did bugger-all to drag it back on course once it was obviously going to fail.
But this valediction is worthy of note and worth including here as the UK staggeres towards a general election which will almost certainly result in siesmic electoral reform as the collapse from Boris has exposed a civil service and judiciary that is out of democratic control, and doing just what just elite subversives have been in post to do since Blair created the most poisonous pills that UK politics has ever had to swallow.
It has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life to have served the good people of Mid Bedfordshire as their MP for eighteen years and I count myself blessed to have worked in Westminster for almost a quarter of a century. Despite what some in the media and you yourself have implied, my team of caseworkers and I have continued to work for my constituents faithfully and diligently to this day.
When I arrived in Mid Bedfordshire in 2005, I inherited a Conservative majority of 8,000. Over five elections this has increased to almost 25,000, making it one of the safest seats in the country. A legacy I am proud of.
During my time as a Member of Parliament, I have served as a back bencher, a bill Committee Chair, a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State before becoming Minister of State in the Department of Health and Social Care during the Covid crisis, after which I was appointed as Secretary of State at the department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. The offer to continue in my Cabinet role was extended to me by your predecessor, Liz Truss, and I am grateful for your personal phone call on the morning you appointed your cabinet in October, even if I declined to take the call.
As politicians, one of the greatest things we can do is to empower people to have opportunities to achieve their aspirations and to help them to change their lives for the better. In DHSC I championed meaningful improvements to maternity and neonatal safety. I launched the women’s health strategy and pushed forward a national evidence-based trial for Group B Strep testing in pregnant women with the aim to reduce infant deaths. When I resigned as Secretary of State for DCMS I was able to thank the professional, dedicated, and hard-working civil servants for making our department the highest performing in Whitehall. We worked tirelessly to strengthen the Online Safety Bill to protect young people, froze the BBC licence fee, included the sale of Channel 4 into the Media Bill to protect its long-term future and led the world in imposing cultural sanctions when Putin invaded Ukraine.
I worked with and encouraged the tech sector, to search out untaught talents such as creative and critical thinking in deprived communities offering those who faced a life on low unskilled pay or benefits, access to higher paid employment and social mobility. What many of the CEOs I spoke to in the tech sector and business leaders really wanted was meaningful regulatory reform from you as chancellor to enable companies not only to establish in the UK, but to list on the London Stock Exchange rather than New York. You flashed your gleaming smile in your Prada shoes and Savile Row suit from behind a camera, but you just weren’t listening. All they received in return were platitudes and a speech illustrating how wonderful life was in California. London is now losing its appeal as more UK-based companies seek better listing opportunities in the U.S. That, Prime Minister, is entirely down to you.
Long before my resignation announcement, in July 2022, I had advised the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, of my intention to step down. Senior figures in the party, close allies of yours, have continued to this day to implore me to wait until the next general election rather than inflict yet another damaging by-election on the party at a time when we are consistently twenty points behind in the polls.
Having witnessed first-hand, as Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were taken down, I decided that the British people had a right to know what was happening in their name. Why is it that we have had five Conservative Prime Ministers since 2010, with not one of the previous four having left office as the result of losing a general election? That is a democratic deficit which the mother of parliaments should be deeply ashamed of and which, as you and I know, is the result of the machinations of a small group of individuals embedded deep at the centre of the party and Downing St.
To start with, my investigations focused on the political assassination of Boris Johnson, but as I spoke to more and more people – and I have spoken to a lot of people, from ex-Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers both ex and current through all levels of government and Westminster and even journalists – a dark story emerged which grew ever more disturbing with each person I spoke to.
It became clear to me as I worked that remaining as a back bencher was incompatible with publishing a book which exposes how the democratic process at the heart of our party has been corrupted. As I uncovered this alarming situation I knew, such were the forces ranged against me, that I was grateful to retain my parliamentary privilege until today. And, as you also know Prime Minister, those forces are today the most powerful figures in the land. The onslaught against me even included the bizarre spectacle of the Cabinet Secretary claiming (without evidence) to a select committee that he had reported me to the Whips and Speakers office (not only have neither office been able to confirm this was true, but they have no power to act, as he well knows). It is surely as clear a breach of Civil Service impartiality as you could wish to see.
But worst of all has been the spectacle of a Prime Minister demeaning his office by opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy against one of his own MPs. You failed to mention in your public comments that there could be no writ moved for a by-election over summer. And that the earliest any by-election could take place is at the end of September. The clearly orchestrated and almost daily personal attacks demonstrates the pitifully low level your Government has descended to.
It is a modus operandi established by your allies which has targeted Boris Johnson, transferred to Liz Truss and now moved on to me. But I have not been a Prime Minister. I do not have security or protection. Attacks from people, led by you, declared open season on myself and the past weeks have resulted in the police having to visit my home and contact me on a number of occasions due to threats to my person.
Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened. What exactly has been done or have you achieved? You hold the office of Prime Minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. You have no mandate from the people and the Government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, for what?
And what a difference it is now since 2019, when Boris Johnson won an eighty-seat majority and a greater percentage of the vote share than Tony Blair in the Labour landslide victory of ’97. We were a mere five points behind on the day he was removed from office. Since you became Prime Minister, his manifesto has been completely abandoned. We cannot simply disregard the democratic choice of the electorate, remove both the Prime Minister and the manifesto commitments they voted for and then expect to return to the people in the hope that they will continue to unquestioningly support us. They have agency, they will use it.
Levelling up has been discarded and with it, those deprived communities it sought to serve. Social care, ready to be launched, abandoned along with the hope of all of those who care for the elderly and the vulnerable. The Online Safety Bill has been watered down. BBC funding reform, the clock run down. The Mental Health Act, timed out. Defence spending, reduced. Our commitment to net zero, animal welfare and the green issues so relevant to the planet and voters under 40, squandered. As Lord Goldsmith wrote in his own resignation letter, because you simply do not care about the environment or the natural world. What exactly is it you do stand for?
You have increased Corporation tax to 25 per cent, taking us to the level of the highest tax take since World War two at 75 per cent of GDP, and you have completely failed in reducing illegal immigration or delivering on the benefits of Brexit. The bonfire of EU legislation, swerved. The Windsor framework agreement, a dead duck, brought into existence by shady promises of future preferment with grubby rewards and potential gongs to MPs. Stormont is still not sitting.
Disregarding your own chancellor, last week you took credit for reducing inflation, citing your ‘plan’. There has been no budget, no new fiscal measures, no debate, there is no plan. Such statements take the British public for fools. The decline in the price of commodities such as oil and gas, the eased pressure on the supply of wheat and the increase in interest rates by the Bank of England are what has taken the heat out of the economy and reduced inflation. For you to personally claim credit for this was disingenuous at the very least.
It is a fact that there is no affection for Keir Starmer out on the doorstep. He does not have the winning X factor qualities of a Thatcher, a Blair, or a Boris Johnson, and sadly, Prime Minister, neither do you. Your actions have left some 200 or more of my MP colleagues to face an electoral tsunami and the loss of their livelihoods, because in your impatience to become Prime Minister you put your personal ambition above the stability of the country and our economy. Bewildered, we look in vain for the grand political vision for the people of this great country to hold on to, that would make all this disruption and subsequent inertia worthwhile, and we find absolutely nothing.
I shall take some comfort from explaining to people exactly how you and your allies achieved this undemocratic upheaval in my book. I am a proud working-class Conservative which is why the Levelling Up agenda was so important to me. I know personally how effective a strong and helping hand can be to lift someone out of poverty and how vision, hope and opportunity can change lives. You have abandoned the fundamental principles of Conservatism. History will not judge you kindly.
I shall today inform the Chancellor of my intention to take the Chiltern Hundreds, enabling the writ to be moved on September the 4th for the by-election you are so desperately seeking to take place.
