Electric Vehicles & the Weather

I drove from Oxford to Minchinhampton & back a week ago. I thought I knew how bad our roads are living in Oxford, but I was wrong. My journey took me along the A40 & then cross country to Cirencester via the A4425.

I was shocked at the state of the roads, whether A or B roads. We are all used to potholes now, but it was the frequency and the size - Both the depth, width & position of the holes. If they are at the side of the road & there is oncoming traffic you can't swerve out to avoid them. They must be lethal for cyclists. Similarly if they are in the middle of the road, where do you go? The damage being done to cars & the possibility of causing accidents must be high. 

 

Patching is obviously not the answer. All that does is to move the problem down the road, (sorry about the pun), because it is always a temporary solution. The cost & disruption caused by necessary proper maintenance required is obviously much higher. But why has this happened?

It must be a combination of 3 things, increasing volume of traffic, heavier vehicles & climate change e.g. rainfall. I can remember when my father was the first person in our street to get a car & everyone used public transport. We had trams in Birmingham. 

Now many families have more than one car, roughly a third. 78% of families have access to one or more cars. Add to that the increasing weight of cars. The average weight of new cars in the UK has risen by 400kg in 7 years due to SUV's & heavy batteries in electric vehicles. (Why & when did we move from estate cars to SUV's for extra space? Oh yes, like so much else, we copied America). Then multiply that by the huge weight of increasing goods vehicles & public transport. Climate change has meant that we have more frequent extremes of weather, named storms with much heavier rainfall & stronger winds, longer periods of high heat & drought. The only thing that doesn't seem to have increased is frost & extreme cold. But that too adds to the damage. 

It's a perfect storm, (again sorry about the pun), of circumstance added to years of lack of maintenance under the last conservative government. Between 2017 - 2023 council road resurfacing on A roads fell by 37%. The backlog of maintenance funding reached £16.3 billion in England & Wales. The focus was on reactive patching rather than long term preventative resurfacing that is much less cost effective. Austerity has put us where we are in so many areas. Local authority spending was cut by 25% betwween 2011 - 2020 for supposedly "non essential" spending.

The chickens have come home to roost. Bad short term decision making has resulted in huge problems in all of our infrastructure & services. That is the inheritance the labour government  has to deal with. Add to that the fact that the public allowed it all to happen. We could see what was happening & we didn't do enough to hold politicians accountable. 

The right to protest, the right to accurate information & effective oversight, the right to hold decision makers accountable & face legislation & justice must not be eroded. We are in a mess & getting out of it is our responsibility. We will have to pay, one way or another. Inaction is not an option.  

Is Britain Working?

I seem to spend a lot of my time firefighting. Not literally of course. But I have an ongoing list of things that have gone wrong. There are three main issues - Firstly that tradespeople  / manufacturers don't do the job properly in the first place. Secondly getting something done about that in a timely fashion takes huge commitment & wastes a lot of the customers time. Thirdly communication is really bad. When there is good customer service, & it does happen, I am truly grateful & surprised. 

But it really should not be like that. Why isn't good customer service the norm?

I have an issue currently with my car. It had a major service & MOT at a Nissan dealership & quite a lot of expensive work was done in order to pass. I've had Nissan cars for years & always had them serviced at the same dealership. Afterwards there were a couple of intermittant faults, the brakes squeal & there is an odd noise when reversing. The car is going in tomorrow to have the rear suspension done - at quite a high cost again. In order for the service people to check out the intermittant noises they want to charge me well over a hundred pounds on top. I think that is unreasonable given the circumstances, but they won't budge. It used to be the case that I had an informal chat with the service engineer & there was no diagnostic charge when the car was in for something else.

I had solar panels installed by Octopus earlier this year costing thousands. The Enphase gateway went wrong relatively soon afterwards. There was nothing wrong with my wifi & the App procedure didn't work. Eventually they admitted it was their fault & it was rectified remotely. Weeks ago it went wrong again. Same problem. I went on a forum & got advice that was well beyond my skill set. So I referred it to Octopus & got a ticket. Nothing has been done & I keep having to chase. It is ridiculous.

I re-did my LPA's recently. My solicitor forgot to put one document in when she sent it off to the OPG. We notified them & they agreed she could send it separately. Several telephone conversations chasing this, with different people, which we ensured were logged on the system, I got a letter saying my LPA's couldn't be registered because of missing documents. Despite the fact that the OPG had acknowledged receiving the document. I still haven't had my new documents back months after they were sent in. 

To my mind these are major failings. I could go on. They simply shouldn't happen. 

So I ask myself why? Is it the systems the companies have in place? Is it that they don't employ enough staff of the right calibre & experience? Is it that their personnel training isn't good enough? Is it that they are cutting costs? Is it that they simply don't care? 

I don't know. I suspect all of the above are true. 

The main issue, as I see it, is that Britain isn't working. When I say that I mean it isn't functioning adequately. Until we put this right we won't increase productivity, we won't achieve growth, we won't be a country in which people want to invest.

It isn't my micro problems that matter. It's the disfunctional country we now live in that will affect everybody. We all need to do something about this. 

  

Dumbing Down - The BBC

Radio 4 "Today" & "PM" bookend my day for reliable news & informed comment. This morning "Today" closed with Taylor Swift singing a song to mark the fact that she has announced her engagement. Really? Is this appropriate use of broadcast time. Especially as they often cut interesting interviews short because their timetable is so tight. 

Whatever were programme producers thinking? Personally I really couldn't give a toss that she has become engaged, let alone listen to minutes of a whole song. Had they just run out of real news? Similarly, is a serious news & commentary programme the place to trail other BBC programmes?

Possibly they thought a happy song & event would be "good" news. Serious miscalculation. We do need positive news, but not pop culture ephemera. We need genuine good news about things that are working, innovations that may mitigate climate change, political moves that might really impact the dire international situation.

My family didn't get a TV until after the coronation of queen Elizabeth, but we did have a radio. There were nothing like the number of stations & channels to choose from until relatively recently in my lifetime. The BBC & "public service broadcasting" was & still should be a lifeline of truth & relevance. 

Change is unavoidable, we do need to move forward as technology & the world changes. But do we really want to pander to the soundbite generation with the attention span of a gnat? Should public service broadcasters be forced into the mould of other providers?

 

I don't know how much research there has been into the capacity of the public to listen or watch content driven, fact checked, programmes. Maybe it is a niche market. But, I'm sure that, today, more than ever, it is necessary that the BBC provides it. Because, apart form a few excellent factual / documentary programmes across UK channels, we are being drip fed reality rubbish. Just look at the Radio Times if you don't believe me..

Reality programmes & sport are the modern day Roman gladiatorial equivalent. Relatively cheap to produce & engaging big audiences. That is the key to success - audience numbers. Especially for the channels that have advertising. 

That is what has always & hopefully will always make the BBC unique. We value it enough to pay for it. 

If that ends we will follow the USA into the oblivion of ratings driven, advertising heavy, mush. 

Instability

Currently I am very unstable. Yesterday was the first day for over a week I didn't use a stick. Fibromyalgia & Arthritis flare ups are a b......  But at least you do know that in the fulness of time things will improve.

I can't say that about the current state of international affairs. Instability really doesn't cover it, it's more volatility. When elected leaders like Trump, Netenyahu, Putin, the Ayatollahs et al are more interested in power grabbing & their own self interest than the people they supposedly serve we are in dangerous teritory. 

These are boys with big toys who will use those toys indiscriminately to further their ambitions. It's "willy waving" on a grand scale & it's their populations that suffer while they are in their palaces or bunkers. This is testosterone or religion fuelled autocracy that has no interest whatsoever in the devastation, death & injury they cause.

What makes men, and it is usually only men, behave like this? Is it their disfunctional childhood? Are they simply corrupted by wealth & power? They often seem to share personality traits like a strong desire for control, a preference for obedience, and a tendency to view dissent as a threat. High dominance, low agreeableness, and a tendency to be authoritarian are common traits. They consolidate power by undermining democratic institutions and silencing opposition. They weaken or dismantle democratic institutions like the judiciary, media, and civil society to consolidate power. They suppress or eliminate any form of opposition or criticism, often through intimidation or violence. 

They really are extremely unpleasant individuals with few if any redeeming features to their personality. 

In simple terms they are schoolyard bullies. On a micro scale if you allow bullies to get away with their bad behaviour they just carry on & get worse - Encouraged by the lack of opposition & sanction. In international terms this is magnified exponentially. The international community thus far has pussyfooted around these autocrats & allowed them to flaunt the rule of law. There have been sanctions, but they have not had any appreciable effect. 

Abasement, appeasement, & political cowardice have not worked. Modern warfare is technology based with drones & fighting men in bunkers, rather than face to face as used to be how wars were fought. Killing huge numbers of people without actually seeing them must be easier than shooting or knifing them. Especially for a generation who have grown up with gaming. Modern warfare is all about money & how big your arms supplies are.  

So where do we go from here? At the moment it is all escalation & the "willy wavers" digging their heels in regardless of consequences. 

It makes me sick to my stomach. If this carries on we won't have a population problem. Malthus viewed war as one of the "positive checks" that limit population growth. 

  

The world has many big problems to solve. If war takes our focus away from those, then we are all going to suffer the consequences. It really doesn't bear thinkng about. Our democratic leaders need to get off the fence or their backsides & act decisively together to stop this madness in it's tracks. 

Self Awareness - Bezos & Trump

Jeff Bezos is marrying Lauren Sanchez in Venice this month. Hundreds of their obscenely wealthy friends will occupy the best hotels – the Gritti, the Danieli, the St Regis and the Cipriani, each booked out in its entirety at an average of $500,000 a night. Some will be staying on Bezos's yachts. Water taxis have also been booked out. Venice already feels swamped by hoards of tourists who destroy it's charm & ambience. The nuptuals will go on for almost a week. The lavish, multi-million dollar ceremony could shut parts of the famous city down & the natives are not happy. Unsurprisingly they plan to demonstrate. They plan to disrupt the festivities by jumping into the canals to hinder the water taxis and blocking various calli, (Venice's narrow streets), to prevent the wedding guests from reaching the venue. 

 

I don't blame them. A better venue for this tasteless invasion would be Disneyland or Beverley Hills. 

Trump has just hosted a big parade, coincidentally on his birthday, supposedly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the army. It was not as well attended as the "No Kings" parades across America. Possibly a couple of hundred thousand went to Trumps parade & the army refused to do the normal "lockstep" marching in protest. Millions protested at the largest mass demonstrations in the nation’s history. The parade was held while the conflict between Iran & Israel escalated dangerously & while Israel is breaking every international convention in Gaza & the West Bank. Both supported by the US. At home Trump sent the National Guard in to Los Angeles - a decision that should have been the Governors. Americans against Americans!

 

Both these men are powerful & excessively wealthy. They are not alone. Apparently there are 902 billionaires in America. The highest number in the world. Bezos is the world's third richest person, with an estimated net worth of $220.9bn. Trumps actual wealth is not publicly known, after all he has filed for bankrupcy several times. Obviously the "Art of the Deal" doesn't always work. 

The point is that in today's world of Climate Emergency, War, Famine, Homelessness, Lack of the basic necessities of life, (water, healthcare & education for example), Persecution.....there is so much good these individuals could do. But they don't. Why? Because they have no self awareness whatsoever. They are blind to the way ordinary people live & the difficulties they face. Or, maybe they simply don't care. 

But there is a groundswell in many countries against the powerful super rich because most of us are only too aware of how unbalanced & unacceptable this all is. Push people too far & they will rise up & make their voices heard.

I do hope I live long enough to see it.  

Responsibility & Opting Out - Individual or Corporate?

I have just had an email from an organisation called Swiftaid telling me that one of my major charity  donations has automatically been registered for Gift Aid. There are tax reasons, according to my accountant, why this shouldn't happen & I tell all the charities not to do it. My first thought was that this was a scam. But when I checked it out it wasn't.

I am really cross. Hopefully I have stopped this in it's tracks. But this is the first I have heard about this new change of responsibility, presumably by many charities. Moving responsibility away from organisations onto individuals isn't a new thing. Now there are several. The most well known is automatic organ donor registration, for which there was huge publicity & did not happen overnight. 

Now there is also National & GP Data opt out. The balance has switched from individuals giving consent to them knowing they have to opt out. In other words affirmative action is ending. The responsibility has shifted. I'm sure this is much easier for the organisations, It saves them time & money. I'm not convinced that it is beneficial for the individual though. Personally I want to be able to make a choice, whether to opt in or opt out.

Most people are perfectly capable of making choices as long as they are aware of the choice to be made. We can make a "pre-emptive opt out" or  "withdraw consent". However that relies on individuals being notified in advance of the choice to be made & given any relevant information. The big problem is that despite our advanced technological age often relevant information is hidden away in small print or a button or link that people may not notice. 

Additionally not everyone spends their time on computers as I do. Not everyone is tech savvy. Not everyone has the time to check things out on reliable sources.

This seems to be a growing trend. I really think it is a retrograde step & will cause confusion & individuals being opted in to things they do not want to be. I suspect it is not in the spirit of Human Rights, but I can't think which one it might infringe. 

Basically we are moving to a Big State & increased power away from the individual.    

 

Annoying Filler Words

 The UK’s most annoying filler words:

1. Innit, 47 per cent
2. Like, 32 per cent
3. Basically, 22 per cent
4. Err, 21 per cent
5. You know, 20 per cent
6. Uh, 17 per cent
7. Umm, 15 per cent
8. Yeah, 13 per cent
9. Literally, 12 per cent
10. Oooh, 10 per cent

The UK’s most used filler words:

1. OK, 30 per cent
2. Err, 26 per cent
3. Right, 22 per cent
4. Umm, 20 per cent
5. Actually, 18 per cent
6. Anyway, 16 per cent
7. Basically, 16 per cent
8. Yeah, 14 per cent
9. Like, 14 per cent
10. Really, 13 per cent

The highlighted ones are the ones I most dislike. I would also add My Bad, So & Awesome. I also realise that I use the word "Absolutely" far too much. The sad thing is that repeatedly using these filler words makes people appear less intelligent, less educated and lacking in people skills. Apparently 23% of people don't realise they are using them. I'm surprised that statistic isn't higher. I have at times been tempted to count the number of times I hear people use the word "like" pointlessly in sentences or phrases  - But I do realise that would be a bit anal & weird.

Why do we do it? Why don't we realise that we are doing it? Sometimes, apparently it's to give us time to formulate what we want to say. But I don't think that applies to "like". I also don't think hesitation or uncertainty explains the over use of "like". I just think it's possibly nervousness, lack of preparation, or an  unconscious habit. I just find it really irritating.

We have been given a brain & a wonderful language. Why don't we use them?

Public Inquiries - Costly Long Grass?

Statutory or Non Statutory Public Inquiries today can last for years & cost millions. On 16 September 2024 the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee published its report looking into the efficacy of the law and practice relating to statutory public inquiries. It said that "18 inquiries ha(d) been taking place in the UK (that) year and the Grenfell Inquiry alone cost £173 million. Inquiries are frequently too long and expensive, leading to a loss of public confidence and protracted trauma for victims and survivors".

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldstatinq/9/9.pdf   

An earlier report was published in 2014 which made 33 recommendations. 19 were accepted and 14 were rejected. Of the recommendations accepted by the Government, none was subsequently implemented.

It isn't that we don't know that our system doesn't work. It isn't that the Government doesn't know that it doesn't work. No one, least of all the victims, are well served by this. Everyone who really thinks about it knows that it's death knell has been ringing loud & clear for decades. 

So why does the public clamour for it? Why do Governments set them up only to completely ignore the findings?

The public seem to have blind faith, without any evidence, that something will change as a result. Public inquiries are supposedly investigations set up by Government ministers to respond to events of major public concern or to consider controversial public policy issues. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the public seem to believe that is true. Also, there simply doesn't appear to be any viable alternative to address valid public concerns.

I think Govenments use them to procrastinate & delay making change. Public Inquiries are not legally binding. The Chair can only make recommendations. "Government has spent £639m on public inquiries over the last 30 years and increasingly relies on them to examine major incidents and tragedies. Of the 68 public inquiries that took place since 1990, only six have been fully followed-up by select committees to see what government did as a result of the inquiry" according to;-

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/report/how-public-inquiries-can-lead-change 

We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy. Really? I can't see much evidence of democracy being served here. All I can see is a complete waste of time & shedloads of public money.

Something has to change.

Christmas Waste

My book club had a clothes swap last night. Great fun & a really good way to recycle unloved clothes, especially when it's the Christmas season & we all need a nice outfit for Christmas day. Fast fashion comes into it's own at this time of year. I know people who buy a new outfit for Christmas every year. Often the clothes will only be worn a handful of times. Nothing I will be wearing is less than a few years old & some items have been in my wardrobe over a decade. I love them & I'm comfortable wearing them.

Christmas must be the worst period for food waste. Sprouts & Christmas pudding are probably the most "marmite" foods we eat at Christmas. I love both, but lots of people don't & a great deal ends up in the green food waste bin. I tried making sprout soup one year, but it wasn't a success. How many people actually use all the left over bits of turkey to make a fricassee for example? Even less people I imagine use the turkey bones to make a wonderful soup. The art of cooking from scratch & not wasting good food has been replaced by the big 5 supermarkets Christmas food.

Then there are the Christmas cards. I stopped sending them years ago & send email greetings & give the money saved on the cards & stamps to charity. I see little point in sending cards to people I can actually wish Happy Christmas to in person. The waste of paper, whatever the source including trees, or even if it's recycled paper, really isn't acceptable to me. My time is valuable, so I send the cards electronically in batches to different groups. Writing individual cards by hand just isn't a good use of my time. If I get cards I do cut up appropriate ones to make gift tags, but I still think it's a waste of finite resources.

Wrapping paper is even worse. I am rubbish at wrapping gifts & doing it causes me repetetive strain pain. I try to take wrapping paper off carefully to re use it, but actually it rarely works. When you see the over loaded recycling bins after Christmas it gives you a small idea of how much waste there is.

The decorations & Christmas tree take quite a lot of effort & money. Goodness knows how many real trees are chopped down every year & growing them must take up land that could be used for food production or re-foresting with deciduous trees. It has become fashionable to change your christmas tree decorations on a regular basis according to the current fashion. I'm pleased to say that my daughter has all my tree decorations & some were her grandmothers. I gave her my artificial tree too. The sales, often starting before Christmas are full of reduced christmas decorations , wreaths & lights. 

Finally, the presents. Many will end up in landfill, charity shops or the "present drawer". I have come to the conclusion that really presents are only appropriate for children. I'm not a scrooge or a grump, but the time spent trying to think of & find presents people will actually want or need is often wasted. I do really enjoy seeing someone open a present that it's obvious they are delighted with, but that isn't easy to achieve. Much of the time people feign pleasure & to be honest what is wonderful about socks, ties, jumpers, nightwear or slippers. Surely we all buy those for ourselves?

https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/12-not-so-fun-festive-facts/

It's a mad repetetive cycle. We consume & consume & in doing so waste so much. It's completely unsustainable. What are we thinking?

Obviously we aren't!

 

News! - Speculation, Repetition & Interruption

I listen to BBC Radio 4 & World Service news & also watch TV news. It seems to me that insidiously, in order to provide content, interviewers often ask speculative questions, or even questions that they know the interviewee will not answer. For example, what will happen now that Yahya Sinwar has been killed in the Gaza / Palestine conflict. Similarly, politicians & pundits are asked to guess what will happen to tax in the budget.

I find this very frustrating & needlessly time filling. I want news programmes to tell me what has actually happened, where, & how it has affected people & the environment. If there is certainty about what will happen as a result, that's fine too. I want that news to be accurate & verified as far as possible. It may well be useful to ask someone with real experience or expertise to comment, that isn't what I'm talking about. If an interviewee can contribute evidenced information which suppliments the facts, then I'm all for it. 

What I really find objectionable is unsubstantiated waffle which is little more than guesswork. 

I've lived long enough to feel fairly confident that this is a relatively new phenomenon. The world was not filled with people who make a living from giving their opinion on everything & anything. It goes along with the whole PR, special advisors, influencers, celebrity, ethos we have now. I really don't feel that we benefit from any of it. 

News is very important. The public do need to be informed about what is happening in the world because we are all affected in some way by what happens almost anywhere. I also do think that we need to hear other points of view than our own. We do need to be challeneged & possibly be able to change our minds if appropriate, based on factual knowledge we may not have known.

While I'm having a rant I also find repetition really annoying. The presenter will outline a story & then bring in an often on the spot correspondent. Fine. But what I don't need, in a minimal timeframe, is a repetition of exactly the same outline of the story by both. Surely the job of the correspondent is to add detail to the bare bones of the introduction?

Finally I really hate the interview techniques of some presenters. The interruptions, the talking over in order for the interviewer to make a point. Surely if you ask a question you should have the courtesy to actually listen to the answer? I realise that the media think that we have the attention span of a gnat & each section of news is very time limited. I also realise that politicians are trained not to answer the question but to put across their party points of the day. But this can all be very counter productive to the listener. 

I'm coming to the conclusion that listening to the news is less & less the best way to be informed. Longer, in depth interviews can be much better, depending on the interviewer. 

No wonder so many people are reading the news on their phones & computers. 

  

  

How Are You?

This has become such a meaningless, empty, phrase. I listen to Radio 4 a lot & am really fed up with interviewees saying that alongside "thank you for having me". Firstly, if you aren't really interested in the reponse to "How are you" then why are you asking? Secondly presumably the interviewee has been chosen because they have some expertise or experience to bring to a question & is possibly being paid for sharing it. The type of programmes I listen to aren't social occasions. I hope that all parties are polite, but phrases like this are grating & completely unnecessary. 

I do try not to rant too often on this Blog, but this is really p...... me off.

It's true on a personal level too. When someone says "How are you" generally the response is "I'm fine thanks, how are you". It tells the questioner nothing & they usually let it go, because it is generally accepted as just a convention. People rarely expect a genuine answer. 

However sometimes when you respond, the person you are speaking to then goes into lengthy detail about how they, or sometimes a member of their family, is. This has happened to me several times recently. While I'm happy to say that I'm possibly not having a good day, I really don't want to go into detail with most people, however genuine their enquiry. Similarly, unless it's a close friend or family, I really don't need to know the finer points of their medical condition or latest visit to the hospital. I especially don't want that level of detail about their relation, who I don't know.

It's all about appropriateness & balance. It is important to interact with people socially in a real & friendly way. We should be interested in eachother. But some people simply don't seem to have a filter. They don't seem to be able to judge what is & is not appropriate, genuine & interesting to someone else rather than "unloading". 

It isn't simply about saying the words. It's about listening & being able to pick up clues from facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, context clues, etc that tell you whether the conversation is appropriate to the person & the situation.

Maybe we are losing the ability to do that because we are communicating via our mobiles & computers too much. Real social interaction needs be face to face. Even touch is important. You can't do that over a phone, computer or radio. 

 

Cars - The Price we Pay

It's about time that we really added up the price we pay for our cars. Not just financial & in terms of air quality. Just think about the amount of land that is taken up with roads & parking. 

Knight Frank did a survey for the government in 2020 showing that there are 103,000 public and private surface car parks across the country, which comprise a land area of 20,000 hectares. Of this, some 7,555 hectares are owned by the public sector. 

https://www.knightfrank.com/research/article/2020-07-15-government-owned-car-parks-could-hold-the-key-to-110000-new-homes

Their estimate suggests that this alone could yield 2.1 million homes. Releasing this land could provide much needed new housing & generate income for the government. I found watching "Britain's Housing Crisis" - BBC deeply disturbing. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001rkn5/britains-housing-crisis-what-went-wrong

The Standard did an interesting article for World Car free Day 2019 

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/property-news/world-car-free-day-2019-80-000-homes-could-be-built-on-london-car-parking-spaces-within-a-mile-of-a-tube-or-train-station-a133491.html   

Parked cars take up two per cent of space in London — land worth £172 billion on which much-needed homes could be built. There are 868 car parks in London within a mile of a train or Tube station

Acording to the RAC 18 million (65%) of Britain’s 27.6 million households have – or have potential to have enough off-street parking to accommodate at least one car or van. 

https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/cars-parked-23-hours-a-day

All of this seems ridiculous when you consider that the average car or van in England is driven just 4% of the time, a figure that has barely changed in 25 years.

We have become wedded to our cars. We put up with the high financial cost & the frustration of traffic congestion & frequent gridlock. We struggle to find parking. We tolerate poor air quality which causes short & long term health problems. In 2021, 10 of the 43 UK national reporting zones suffered with illegal levels of NO₂ pollution. This is twice as many as in 2020, when lockdowns led to a temporary dip in NO₂ levels across the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) last year radically overhauled their pollution guidelines. The recommended guideline for annual average NO₂ pollution is now 10 µg/m - four times lower than the UK’s current legal limit. 

https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/news/uk-air-pollution-how-clean-is-the-air-you-breathe/

This is a complex issue encompassing multiple areas of our lives - Health, Housing, Infrastructure, Finance & possibly more. But we are literally using up precious land & adversely impacting our health for the privelege of owning our own cars. A working integrated transport system is vital to our survival as a functioning nation & to each of us individually. 

Until we have that, the problems will simply grow exponentially. According to Wikipedia the UK has a road network totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km) of paved roads—246,500 miles (396,700 km) in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and 15,800 miles (25,500 km) in Northern Ireland, but I doubt that is up to date.

We are literally letting vehicles dictate health & land use because successive governments have known all of this for years. They have had all the information about housing & transport issues, but do not have the guts to action what will be difficult policies to really tackle this. All political decision making on this has been populist & short-termist because the politicians want to remain in power instead if doing what is best for the people of the UK. I haven't even touched on the cost of road maintenence.

It has got to stop. 

Outrage, Emotion, War & Collateral Damage

Outrage is a strong moral emotion characterized by a combination of surprise, shock, disgust, indignation & anger, usually in reaction to violence & brutality or a grave personal offense. The important word in that definition is emotion.

Emotion is an instinctive or intuitive strong feeling or mental state as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.

When I listen or watch the news now I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to understand how the many conflicts ongoing in the world have anything to do with rational thought. I was tempted to say that war is less likely to happen if leaders are women, because women are more empathetic & work more collaboratively than men. I could only think of Thatcher & the Falklands. It seems that I am wrong. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2022/03/08/sheryl-sandberg-says-female-leaders-dont-go-to-war-heres-what-research-says/?sh=c7f86dc1fa77

One of the most unacceptable phrases in the English language is Collateral Damage - deaths and injuries that are a result of the fighting in a war but happen to people who are not in the military. In 2017, at least 630 million women and children—10% of women and 16% of children worldwide— were either displaced by conflict or resided dangerously close to armed conflict events. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7612212/  If you don't have the time to read the whole thing skip to the Key Messages.

Wars are not won by anyone. One side may vanquish another, but everyone loses. The price is too high. Eventually there has to be negotiation & some sort of peace treaty. Wars cause death, appalling injury, suffering, destruction & damage beyond comprehension. 

Why do people go to war? Wars have been caused by competition over land, religious conflicts, nationalism, imperialism, racism, & slavery. I would argue that the root of all of that is Power & Fundamentalism. 

While the arms industry continues to be such a money spinner wars will continue. UK arms export licences more than doubled to £8.5bn in 2022. The biggest sales were to Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Qatar. The United States is the biggest arms dealer on earth. From 2017 to 2021 it sold weapons to over 100 nations, and in 2020 alone, American companies made $111 billion from foreign military sales. The estimate of the financial value of the global arms trade for 2020 was at least $112 billion.

Currently what we are seeing in the Middle East & Europe is beyond any logic & rational thought. It simply is "Beyond the Pale". I use that term advisedly - look up the origins.  

Its all about money & power & we should be outraged at the leaders who allow this to happen so often. Or actually cause it.

 

Uk Construction - Fit for Purpose?

Currently the Department for Education (DfE) has  identified 104 schools and sixth forms with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, RAAC, problems. Some will close, some will delay opening while temporary measures are put in place. There is also RAAC in other public buildings, e.g. hospitals. 

RAAC was used between the 50's - 90's. It was used because it is a cheaper alternative to standard concrete, is quicker to produce and easier to install. It is now beyond its lifespan and may "collapse with little or no notice" according to the HSE. The risks of RAAC were identified in 1961. 62 years ago! Potential safety issues of ageing RAAC were first reported in the 1980s and 1990s, when roof collapses led to buildings being demolished. There was a 1996 government-funded report by the Building Research Establishmentwhich found cracks & bends in RAAC.

In simple terms they knew.

In 2017 the Grenfell Tower fire disaster took place. It burned for 60 hours, 72 people died, more than 70 were injured and 223 escaped. An electrical fault in a refrigerator started the fire which spread quickly up the building's exterior. Flames and smoke spread to all residential floors. The reason was because of  dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and insulation. An air gap between the layers enabled a "stack effect". Residents had warned of fire safety concerns & highlighted major safety problems, criticizing the council and KCTMO for neglecting fire safety and building maintenance. In June 2016, an independent assessor had highlighted 40 serious issues with fire safety at Grenfell Tower and recommended action to be taken within weeks. One of the earliest fires that involved cladding materials was the 1973 Summerland disaster on the Isle of Man. 

Again, they knew.

The average new build property now comes with as many as 157 defects, up by 96 per cent from 80 in 2005, according to specialists BuildScan. Snagging issues are rife and the big builders are often the culprits according to "This is Money"

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-10258569/Our-new-build-nightmare-New-homes-average-157-defects.html

Everyone knows.

Why is the UK building industry such a shambles? Why isn't there effective legislation & oversight to protect the public? Why isn't existing legislation enforced? Why do house owners & renters have to put up with our shoddy building trade?

It's all about profit. The Construction Industry is not fit for purpose but it is wealthy & powerful & the Government respond to their lobbying. Sadly people are "collateral damage" in this mess.

   

 

Ageing 2 - Having a Plan

A friend has just lent me Joan Bakewell's book "The Tick of Two Clocks". It isn't the first time she has written about ageing. She is a reflective, engaging & honest author. We in the UK don't interact enough with the ageing demographic. We certainly don't care for our elderly effectively & sympathetically. Elder care isn't just repeatedly kicked into the long grass, it's buried in jungle growth. We need action not "lip service".

There is research showing the best countries for the elderly to live in. According to Age UK the top 5 are Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland & Australia. The UK comes 17th. https://www.ageukmobility.co.uk/mobility-news/article/what-is-the-best-country-to-live-for-older-people

The UK has a tradition of Philanthropists who gave substantial sums of their money for housing the poor & elderly - Peabody, Rowntree, Cadbury, Guinness, Hill & Whiteley for example. Especially Victorians. Credit Suisse in 2021 show there are approximately 685,500 Britons in the richest 1%, with a total wealth of $3.4 trillion (£2.8 trillion). In comparison, approximately 48 million Britons, 70 per cent of the population, have a total wealth of $2.9 trillion (£2.4 billion). Where are the British philanthropists alleviating conditions for the poor, sick & elderly today ?

Individually many of us don't prepare for a possible long life either. It is, after all, our own responsibility, regardless of whether we have family, friends or neighbours to help. Willingness to help doesn't override the fact that people's lives today are complex & very busy. Social Care in the UK is at best hugely variable in accessibility or affordableness. At worst it simply isn't available if you can't afford to pay for it. 

I've come to the conclusion, as someone who is fortunate, that I have to "future proof" my life. I have to plan for possibly 5 more years of life. Average female life expectancy in the UK is 83. 

I have deliberately moved house since being widowed from a very rural hamlet to a city & then to a much smaller, more manageable, house. Accessibility to transport, services & infrastructure is important when you age. My current house is adapted so that I could, if necessary, live on the ground floor. I have a will & POA in place. Paperwork is kept reasonably up to date so my only child won't have the mess I had to deal with when my parents & parents in law died. Not to mention the mess my husband left. I am computer literate so could organise my whole life from my front room if I was housebound. I have a telephone alarm wristband in case I have an accident in my home. I'm not afraid of dying, but I don't fancy how my mother in law died - a fall in the shower & no one knew how long she had been on the floor before her hairdresser found her. Fortunately the hairdresser called the police. I have a Keysafe outside.

The thing is you have to face the inevitable - you are going to die. I know people who won't write a will. I know people who left it too late to downsize & sort out the accumulated detritus of a life. I know people who won't go to see a doctor when they should & justify it by saying they "don't want to bother the GP". I know people who are isolated, depressed, unwell & afraid. I also know people who are active, outgoing, acepting of ageing & great to be with.

Growing old can be the ending of a rich & full life. But it can also be no fun at all. It is a choice & we each have to make it. The thing is many people need support to do that & frankly it isn't here in the UK . 

That is our governments political choice & has been for years now despite numerous white papers, committees & reports. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/social-care-360

 

HS2

Firstly HS2 seems to be a misnomer. There doesn't seem to be anything "high speed" about this project.

2009 - The line was announced in January.

2012 - It got the go ahead after consultations in January.

2013 - Concerns over rising costs - Original cost between £31 - £36 billion

2016 - National Audit Office (NAO) report on HS2’s progress and finance issues. The project was facing cost and schedule delivery problems and should be delayed by a year.

2019 - BBC report finds the Government and HS2 bosses were aware the project was grossly over budget and behind schedule for the past three years. HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook didn't believe the project could be delivered within its £55.7bn budget and would be delayed.

2020 - Previous chairman of HS2 Douglas Oakervee issued an independent review stating the project could cost as much as £108bn.The NAO added it was uncertain what the final cost of the project could be. PM Johnson gives the project the green light despite rising concerns. Independent Construction Commissioner appointed. MPs warn the project has gone “badly off course”. Formal construction begins.

2021 - Public Accounts Committee HS2 accountability sessions in Birmingham. Major concerns regarding the projected increase in time and money. MPs stating there is “no clear end in sight”. Public Accounts Committee “increasingly alarmed” regarding vital parts of the project. MPs from both sides argue over the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), which aims to transform the rail network in the North and Midlands. Clashes within Government and ongoing protests. PM Johnson announces "we will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North”. The eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds is scrapped with no east-west line linking Leeds to Manchester being built. The Oakervee review of HS2 showed a major rethink was needed, (finds that HS2 could cost up to £106bn), with the National Infrastructure Commission report meaning “a flexible approach” was needed.

2022 - Ministers come under fire for cancelling a £3bn section of HS2, which would have allowed Scotland to benefit from the rail line. 

2023 - Acivists state that justifications of the HS2 project “have gone out the window” after reports that the Euston route could be axed due to rising costs. Department for Transport looks to commission HS2 to rethink its scheme, with the possibility of axing parts of the proposed line due to rising costs. Completion of the project could now be as late as 2045. (The original completion date for the original HS2 was 2033 More delays announced by Thurston in order to curb rising costs, with the route’s final destination yet to be confirmed as central London.

14 years & counting. A significantly worse deal for the North. A cost increase of at least £70 billion so far. 

 

The UK definitely needs a much better integrated public transport system. The most important part of HS2 was the improvement to the Northern cities. Why on earth didn't they start building it in Leeds & Manchester or Crewe? London to Birmingham would only be 29 minutes shorter & it's already direct. It's so typical of this government's London centric policy making. What logic is behind scrapping the Leeds link? 

This has been shambolic from start to not even finish. Its way overrun on time & cost. There have been 9 Sectrtary's of State for transport since 2009, all but 3 lasting less than a year! How can the public expect that to mean good understanding & oversight of the brief? More than 35 contracts were handed to construction firms by HS2 as of 2022. Balfour Beatty recorded an £83M pre-tax profit in its half year results 2022 - an increase on £35M a year earlier.  

It's a recipe for waste & disaster & that is exactly what we have got. Tax payers should be incensed - especially those in the North.

 

 

 

Pain relief? - Not available!

I have a repeat prescription for pain relief because of chronic conditions. Currently I need it more than usual because of very painful mouth surgery & an acute hip problem. The GP sent a medication request for soluble co-codamol out to Rowlands chemist after I was in A&E. They didn't have all the tablets & only gave me some. Now I'm nearly out of tablets & it's a bank holiday weekend.

Rowlands won't give me the remaining co codamol as hard tablets. They say I need a new prescription. Boots told me that the soluble tablets won't be available till November! They won't  give me the hard tablets either because I've already had part of the prescription from Rowlands.

In these circumstances I was told to contact NHS 111 for a new prescription. The wait on phone lines is very lengthy & you are told to go online. The menus to select from & information is also lengthy. So I went through the whole online process only to find that the only way this issue can be resolved is to phone!

So now after a very long wait I've done that. In the meantime Rowlands has closed until the 20th. Boots will close at 6pm. The person I finally spoke to has had to refer me to someone else. She couldn't issue a new prescription. I have to hope a phone call will come & someone will get the pills to me or to Boots before it closes.

 

I'm just about at the end of my tether. One of the Pharmacists actually told me to "calm down"! (I was in tears). Presumably reasonably young & fit, not a 77 year old who has been in quite a lot of pain for many days. 

Of course I understand that the NHS has to be careful about prescription drugs. Co Codamol is an opiate. What I don't understand is why I couldn't be given the outstanding pills in solid form by either chemist, given that the soluble ones are not going to be available until November. To have to go through the stressful & lengthy process I just have is more than I currently have the stamina for. 

To my mind the NHS is far too bureaucratic & seems able to tolerate patients pain & discomfort. I cannot understand why I wasn't given any pain medication after the surgery or the day in A&E. Is that a money saving new policy?

It's now 3pm - No phone call. No pills.

3.40 - phone call, prescription issued to my local Boots. I just have to walk there again to get it before they close & hope it has gone through OK. 

I had actually got as far as Summertown when I got a phone call from Boots to say they didn't have any Co codamol. I had to collect the prescription & get a bus into Oxford. I finally got the tablets at 5 pm & got home at 5.30. 

It has taken me all day to get enough pain killers to last until after the bank holiday. It has been unbelievably stressful. What on earth is going on? Why is there seemingly a big shortage of medication? Why do we not keep stocks of vital medication? I didn't have a problem with med's all through Covid. Surely this has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine?

 

  

System Failure 2

I have had to threaten 2 companies with issuing a summons through the County Court for failure to supply goods of a satisfactory quality in a timely way. Both sell double glazing windows & doors. 

The company who supplied the sliding sash windows for the original 1930's house have to replace some fittings which don't match, fitted with some rusty screws. The windows were installed & left filthy inside & out, frames & glass, with labels on which I can't remove & no keys to a couple of casement windows. Some windows were not properly sealed on the outside. They are on the second design for my front door which was ordered & paid for in September last year. My original front door is not draught proof or fit for purpose. The work on the hall can't be finished until the door is fitted.

The company who supplied the windows & doors for the new extension have fitted a side door which is the wrong colour inside & doesn't match the frame or their other windows. The windows had the wrong colour trickle vents which haven't been replaced & no keys. I have non matching handles on the windows & doors, some white, some cream. The company was paid to supply & install everything, but they didn't install the door. The frame for the door is damaged because the hinges were put in the wrong place & holes were left. The exterior frame was never sealed.

A Quality Control inspector is coming from the company I bought my kitchen from this week because of issues with chipping paintwork & an extractor fan cupboard which bowed because it wasn't strong enough. I had already had an issue with the wrong configuration of the oven housing cupboard.

I could go on. The number of trouble free transactions during this build could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I have spent hours, days, weeks & months chasing suppliers, who often don't respond. British manufacturing & supply is in a dreadful state. The building trade has always had a bad reputation, but it is now totally unfit for purpose. 

I actually don't blame the suppliers. It's the fabricators who are the problem. It is mostly down to the supply chain - difficulties sourcing materials & also a lack of a skilled workforce. The suppliers have justifiably irate customers on one hand & fabricators who seemingly don't give a toss, because they don't have to deal with the customer.

The customer is relatively powerless, at the mercy of companies who simply ignore the problem & bullshit & bluster their way through this mess. The customer is left just wanting the agony to stop & their build to be finished to a good standard & the builders to move on to some other poor client.

The building trade needs a good shake up. If Northern European countries can do it, why can't the UK? There needs to be proper quality control of both goods & tradespeople. The customer needs protection & enforcement of reasonable standards. Big builders have huge power & make huge profits. They are very effective at lobbying government, who do little or nothing to protect individuals like me who renovate old property.

My house will be very well insulated & fit for climate change. I have not had any financial support to do that. I won't live long enough to recoup the money. If I had known just how bad the building trade is I would never have started this because the mental & physical toll on me at 77 has been enormous.

It shouldn't be like this. What incentive is there for property owners to renovate old property. A conservative estimate is that 25 million homes in the UK need insulation.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/292265/insulation-in-dwellings-in-england-uk-y-on-y/

Delivery Woes - Ikea

Never, in the whole of my life, have I researched so many products, visited so many showrooms, talked to so many salespeople, ordered so many things & spent so much money. Apart from the actual building materials, everything in my house has been sourced by me. I know more about every product & building process than I ever thought possible. I also know more about the things that can go wrong on a build like this than I could have anticipated. 

Each step forward has been matched by problems. One of the main issues is delivery. Some companies are excellent. They communicate well, they are flexible, they respond positively to the clients difficulties. When a house is uninhabited & the builders are generally only there between 8 - 4 on weekdays, receiving goods can be a nightmare.

Mobile phones are a godsend. Delivery companies should be able to phone, text or email the customer giving notice about delivery slots. Preferably 24 hours in advance & then perhaps 30 minutes before arriving. Taking a photo of the goods at the premises proves delivery. Also taking photos of damaged goods & packaging provides proof for the customer.

Sometimes this all goes completely wrong. Ikea has been a nightmare to deal with. I ordered a lot of Pax wardrobe frames & fittings for 2 bedrooms in December. The products I ordered showed available on the website. So I ordered, paid & got delivery dates. That to me is a contract. Then, often close to delivery, I got emails saying that some products were unavailable & I had been refunded. There is no reliable system for the customer to be notified when these products become available. You just have to keep checking on the website. Your order isn't given any priority & you are in competition with everyone else who might want to buy those items. In fact you might order & pay & go through the whole loop again.

Ikea don't give you information about the time slot until a 6am text on the morning of delivery. My mobile is normally switched off overnight. There may be very little time between the text & arrival. This doesn't work if a house is unoccupied. You can't contact anyone at Ikea. Their whole communication system is not customer friendly or fit for purpose.

I was given the first delivery date after Christmas. In fact they tried to deliver, very early in the morning, just before Christmas day, on a date I hadn't been notified about. So then on the date I did know,  half of the stuff went to my house & half went to Bristol! Why wasn't everything on one van? They told my builders it would arrive the next day. It never arrived. It was all supposed to arrive yesterday. No contact & no delivery!

I found the email of the CEO Europe & complained. He put someone in charge of sorting this mess out. I am still without all of the wardrobe frames & most of  the shelves & some fittings. 3 of the shelves I have got are broken. I've had to pay for delivery more than once. I don't want money. I want everything I ordered & paid for. Ikea seems completely unable to do that. Their system & communication is useless. 

I can't cancel the order. It's too late. I'm committed because I have some items & ordered sliding doors from another company. I move into the house in just over 3 weeks. 

A big international company like Ikea should have better systems in place than this. I'm a fan of the furniture. It's well made. The customer service is abysmal. I understand all of the supply chain problems, but Ikea have had plenty of time to respond to Brexit & Covid & ensure that their website is up to date & communication & delivery is effective.

Ikea says 

"finding solutions to “impossible” challenges is what made us successful". I haven't seen any evidence of that.

"We want to challenge conventions and drive positive changes in our industry and sometimes even in the world. We are restless doers, driven by curiosity, enthusiasm and a desire to create a better world". My dealings with Ikea have wasted huge amounts of time & caused me huge stress & frustration.

"Our vision (is) to create a better everyday life for the many people". Sadly, not for me. It's been a journey of incompetence.

   

Oligarchy or Democracy - Which do you Want?

Oligarchy - A form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics - nobility, fame, wealth, education OR corporate, religious, political or military control.Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist.

Sounds familiar?

Double Down News just posted a piece on Facebook by Peter Jukes:- https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2021/november/16/theres-a-sickness-at-the-heart-of-british-democracy-its-called-oligarchy?fbclid=IwAR22utlghFhMwRzmfafNiRVhdnO8vDFW5RiyaHdVJeJtIV0E76I9K51tJcg

It seems to me that in the UK today we are well on the way to being an Oligarchy. The State is corrupted by an admittedly small group of wealthy, largely privately educated, entitled men. 41% of Conservative MPs elected at the 2019 General Election attended a fee-paying school. (Only 7% of the general population go to fee paying schools).

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/25/two-thirds-of-boris-johnsons-cabinet-went-to-private-schools.

 

We need intelligent & educated politicians, who come from diverse backgrounds, with a wide range of experience & qualifications. We need representation from all adult age groups. We don't need a cabal from any group. We certainly don't need people whose only experience of life in the adult world is the incestuous political world. Going from being gophers, to researchers to advisors. Or from local politics into the House of Commons.