Sunday 8 April 2012

Another little joy for British citizens to come from the London Olympics. The Border Agency (whoever heard of not being actually totally in control of your borders but handing the responsibility out to an agency) has said that it will roster all staff for the period of the games. But after the festival is over, all the staff who didn't get leave during the 6 weeks of "sport" will want to grab what little is left of what passes for summer. There will be a desperate shortage of staff, at the same time as controls are stricter and the government is demanding a reduction in staffing. Well duh! One way to get you to stay at home.
Tory Minister for Drought Richard Benyon, who is the great great grandson of Lord Salisbury and who lives in the house shown (yes, that's all one house, not a block of flats), has been accused of leaving a hose running for two hours, the day after a hose pipe ban was introduced, presumably by him! He denies it, and insists it was a plot by a  newspaper to stitch him up. The house has extensive grounds including ornamental gardens which are normally open to the public at this time of the year (for a fee), but mystifyingly they are not this year. I wonder why...
For some reason the mother of these two little ducklings abandoned them only hours after their birth. But as luck would have it they were found by two animal lovers and taken to a wildlife centre where they are pictured swimming around in a sink. They will be looked after and returned to the wild when they are ready to fend for themselves. [I thought we should have a story with a happy ending for Easter!!]
The fact that the toffs' race, Oxford and Cambridge's boat race had to be  stopped yesterday is a matter of supreme indifference to me. I didn't even know it was on or indeed that it had happened until I saw the incident at tea time. What is worrying is the way that this London government is driving wedges between people more than I've ever seen in my lifetime. The haves and the have nots; the toffs and the plebs, are being marked out in a way most of us haven't experienced before. (Mrs Thatcher managed to divide, and cause misery in her doing of it, but it wasn't a Downton Abbey kind of split; a class thing.) What worries me is that those 'beneath stairs' are hardly likely to take this lying down for very long, and the boat race incident is, I suspect, just one of many protests against the elitism that the government of Old Boys. I suspect that protests may make this a very difficult year for the Botox Toff.

14 comments:

  1. That Mr Benyon got £1.2m in EU farming subsidies last year according to reports so you would think he would be able to dig his own bore hole and be self sufficient in water. But that might mean spending his own money I suppose.
    The loon who stopped the boat race ( I didn't know it was on either ) is a toff as well so I'm not sure what that was about. False flag to make the Olympic security costs more palatable to the sheep ?

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  2. LOL Monty. Mr Benyon getting farming grants...so did the Queen I hear. Unto those which have...etc.

    These people almost never spend any of THEIR money, but I would have thought his farms would have special dispensation as far as water use is concerned (in common with other farms). This was his ornamental garden, I think, he was watering.

    No matter what they do, they can wreck every single nobby thing from now till doomsday and the security costs for the Olympics will not be acceptable to me.

    Nor is the cost of security for hundreds of royals turning up for Liz's do. Even if she's paying for the grub herself (and I don't know that she is) we'll be picking up the secret tab for keeping her mates safe. Millions and millions of pounds.

    Incidentally I'm not convinced when the royals say that they are paying for stuff themselves, that it is true.

    We were told that the only cost to us of Willie's wedding was to be security. But then Charlie boy's expenses went soaring last year, and the reason was that he had to take on extra staff to deal with the wedding.

    Well he would, wouldn't he? But HE was supposed to be digging into his own funds to pay for it. I suspect he has deep pockets and short arms that one and despite getting something like £34 million a year he doesn't like to spend it...

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  3. wuverwy ickle duckerlies tris..did that water come out of a hose?
    Camermong is going to have that face on a lot in the future methinks...ugly spoilt brat...you can see he has practised that look to perfection can't you...

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  4. No Nom. I have it on good authority that the water was imported from France courtesy of a couple of bottles, Perrier, don't you know? Not a drop of English water was used.

    As for Camerass, yes, obviously that was the look that made Nanny give in. Fat faced fool.

    He, apparently, when asked why he wanted to be prime minister, said because "I think I'd be good at it!".

    Pfffffffff.

    Well wrong there, wasn't he! and then some! And his value judgements haven't improved much either. Not only is he crap, but the people he appointed are crap too.

    Francis Maude: minister for Crisis Management... Bwah ha ha ha ha.

    You really couldn't make it up.

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  5. The lovely private English water companies (that’s the water that’s English, the companies aren’t they are usually French, German, Spanish or some such) managed to pay a dividend this year despite being unable to invest in collecting any water. And why? Well apparently rainfall in the south east of England (let’s just call it Britain for short) is down a third (33%) but the water that is in reservoirs, aquifers etc is down by more than half (50%). Now I know these private water companies are not very good at collecting water but they don’t seem very good at maths either because if rainfall is down 33% should water in the reservoirs not be down 33% as well? And that’s less than 50%! It can’t have all leaked away can it? After all they like to tell us that they have invested hugely in sorting leaks. Perhaps we should ask Mr Benyon? He can explain at the same time just how wise it was to privatise water, I’m sure he will have some bizarre justification for why we all NEED competition in everything!

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  6. Not entirely sure that you can even have competition in water supply, Munguin. I mean, if you live in London, you can hardly decide that Yorkshire Water must supply you... So the great "competition" argument fails here. it must simply be that the Tories wanted to give away the family silver to their mates. How we managed to avoid this is a mystery to me...

    Reasons anyone?

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  7. I imagine privatising water would work the same way as electricity and gas.

    A company is formed to look after the pipework and others form to sell you what comes out of it, (they rent the pipes from the first company.)

    Its what British Gas did with Transco and why Transco get sued if your house blows up in a gas explosion, they look after the pipes. Not sure if its even transco any more...

    So, someone in London could buy their water from Yorkshire Water.

    Classic film Trading Places has the technique on why competition is bad in this area and why gas and oil prices (probably water would go the same way) are so volatile; futures trading.*

    Not that any of that will affect Mssr's Osbourne and Cameron given that they probably bathe in goats milk and brush their teeth, or I should say have their teeth brushed in Perrier water.

    Whether in Cameron's case the teeth brushing happens beofre or after the forehead-buffing, I couldn't possibly say.

    * http://www.fazzledown.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/trading-places.html (Shameless pluig for which I apologise profusely.)

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  8. LOL at Pa...

    Forehead buffing sounds like fun. I'd volunteer to do that for him...with a cheese grater!

    I see about the water and pipes. If we were to sell Scottish Water could I get my water from Orkuveita Reykjavíkur in Iceland then?

    Incidentally, the company is owned by the municipalities of Reykjavik, Akranes and Borgarbyggð. Not private!

    It's just that (a) they do everything much better in Iceland; (b) the water is so ckear and clean up there, and (c) it would make things difficult for the authorities.

    Unlike you, I am petty and vengeful and can be a complete pain. Revenge I say, is a dish best served cold!

    Anyway, I didn't know you have a blog, which I have now put on my blog roll, because it's hilarious and brilliantly written (or at least the two things I have read are). You also made me want to watch that film...so thanks.

    http://fazzledown.blogspot.co.uk/

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  9. Thanks for that.

    I don't advertise it much, I'm shy you see...

    No really...

    ;-)

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  10. The pleasure is all mine. I've read some more of your articles since last night, and found them hilarious and well crafted...

    It's not fair that you don't advertise the fact that it is there. More people should read this.

    Write more, shy lad....

    :)

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  11. Many thanks again.

    I'm blushing now, furiously.

    ;-)

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  12. Erm... why are you furious, Pa?

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