October 8th, 2023
Recent letters from me have referred to the UK as “Batshit Bonkers Britain”. Thanks Katie Hopkins.
Just to emphasise that description, Acer Ecology has issued a handy guide to the bat droppings of the UK. One can now identify the species of bat responsible for the profusion of droppings.
It is getting to the state where one can almost imagine the UK as being a country invented by Lewis Carroll.
Following the strikes – railways, fire service, junior doctors, consultants and so on and so on we have the situation where firearm-registered police officers are refusing duties requiring them to carry arms. This follows on from the case last year when a car was identified as being of interest after having been identified as one needing attention following an armed incident the previous day. The car was stopped and in the resulting action the unarmed driver (who had borrowed the car that day) was shot dead, the bullet passing through the windscreen before hitting the driver.
The police officer was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to investigate possible misconduct. After this investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service considered the report and evidence and recommended that the police charge the officer with murder. This they duly did late last week. The police officers who are certified to carry arms then refused to perform such duties if requested.
The performance of such duties is voluntary, so they weren’t in breach of regulations which forbid police from going on strike.
Five long-term residents, Bulgarian nationals, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to conduct espionage on behalf of Russia. They were based in Great Yarmouth which is under the radar and not exactly a place that comes to mind as a hotbed of espionage.
We are in the middle of the political party conference season, with the Lib Dems having had theirs and the Conservatives having theirs last week. Rishi Sunak gave a keynote speech confirming his lack of charisma and he presented policies which were intended to halt the slide in popularity of the Conservative party. Strangely enough, if implemented they may actually halt the slide and give the Conservatives a fighting chance next year. The biggest drawback to getting the public to get on board with these policies is Sunak himself. He just does not inspire and is not the right person to sell policies to the electorate. The highlight was the cancellation of the HS2 train line from London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. This will still run from London (well, a new station 3 miles west of Paddington) to Birmingham. The Leeds and Manchester forks have been cancelled, with the new trains running on normal west coast lines to Manchester giving no improvement in speed or capacity. The Leeds branch has been cancelled completely. He has promised to spend the money saved on improving west-to-east services “to help the north”. They have been allocated £36 billion to implement this.
The whole project was originally costed at £37.5 billion. In 2020 this was revised to £106.6 billion and until cancellation was increasing daily. In terms of incompetence, by comparison, the people in charge of Auckland Transport light rail are mere amateurs.
It is interesting to look back to the Beeching report, which decimated the UK rail system in the 1960s. This resulted in the closure of an electric trans-Pennine service between Manchester and Sheffield which had been steam-powered until the early 1950s. In 1895, work was begun on extending this trans-Pennine line to London. It became known as the Great Central Railway and was the last of the mainlines to be built between the north and London. As such it gave a faster service from Sheffield to London than the Midland railway service. If it had been kept open it would have been relatively easy to upgrade to modern standards without the need to buy up houses and land for a new build railway. It would also give a service to Manchester and Leeds as well. This would have been a much cheaper option and provided increased capacity and speed.
Sunak also wants to introduce a smoking ban similar to the one introduced by the Ardern Government in New Zealand.
Tomorrow sees the opening of the Supreme Court case reviewing the appeal court’s decision that the Rwanda scheme for housing of possible illegal immigrants was lawful. This is a key test of who rules the country. If it goes against the government then expect to see the UK withdraw from all European human rights judiciary systems and if necessary legislate appropriately in parliament to abolish all links. The government wants to stop the creeping trend of the judiciary, not Parliament, making laws, under the guise of the European Human Rights judiciary overriding the democratically elected parliament of the UK.
Finally, on a personal note, I was introduced to a new NHS service. I needed some physiotherapy and I received this by phone. Yes, the NHS is reducing personal contact and having physio consultations by phone. I received the advice to buy an exercise bike and an email with some suggested exercises contained therein.
Welcome to Batshit Bonkers Britain.
