the war on bullshit

one step beyond

2012-01-28T11:37:00.002Z

You know things are reaching a crisis point when your local subpostmaster starts talking about the end of growth and the importance of building local suppliers so you can keep going when the wholesale food market breaks down!

It is happening out there, there are signs everywhere. Fluctuating oil prices, revolutions, pay freezes, historically low interest rates, long established names vanishing from the high street, sacred cows being slaughtered.

There is, at least amongst thinking people (which excludes by definition politicians), a concensus that growth has finished, probably for good, and the more enlightened among us realise this is due to the end of cheap energy, followed by the reduction in energy of all sorts.

Even Transition cling on to the idea that the future will be different, slower, more community-based but also familiar. We all try to cling on to the idea that most of the things we have now - with the exception of cars and meat - will still exist, but in a different form - in the future.

But will it? Will we create a network of sustainable electric railways, or will many of them revert to (wood burning) steam? That's quite a change. Will we really generate our own electricity in our homes, or will we learn to live without electricity? Will we still have a network of shops - not supermarkets obviously - or will we all just grow our own food and make our own stuff?

Will the future lay at some point between these two points?

Who knows?

The point I'm trying to make is that the future may be even more different than we imagine, and we need to psych ourselves up for that possibility. It may not be quite as smooth a transitional ride as we hope.

blonde elephant

2012-01-18T14:00:00.000Z

I don't get Boris Johnson. I get the buffoon bit, and the amiable upper class dodderer, that's easy.

But why on earth is he trying to push this new London airport lunacy?? Why isn't he spending his time

promoting a city wide tram system for London? New bike routes? New railways?

What is it with toffs and nostalgia?

The reality of air travel is that it has, at most, two decades left. There are no alternatives to kerosene produced from oil to fuel the things. Oh, they might make a few prototype solar or electric gimmicky machines, that will end up in museums and are totally unscaleable, but the days when you and I can just jump on a plane and travel just about anywhere for next to nothing are soon coming to an end.

The conclusion? We need to start planning the scaling down of air travel and the associated infrastructure. We need to be thinking about how airports will be used in twenty or thirty years' time when the planes have stopped running. The idea of a new airport is absolutely hilarious. It will never be needed. It's such a waste of time and money to even think about such things.

So let's get real and start putting in real infrastructure that is sustainable and useful, in other words railways and tramways. Forget the rest, that's the past.

2011 holidays

2011-12-31T12:05:00.000Z

A strange year. We only took three holidays, which perhaps reflects the economic situation. Cuba in May was horrible, despite there being a few redeeming features! I wanted to visit a communist country before they all vanished from the earth. It was horrible seeing people in such poverty with no way out, until the system's overthrown. It's beginning to collapse, and no doubt in 10 years time will be a thriving capitalist nation, providing the whole world hasn't slipped into permanent depression by then! We are seeing the end of growth and the start of a new Rail Age, so all is not lost!

In September we visisted Switzerland, ostensibly for a Vagabond Reunion, but we knew few of the people there and they weren't from my generation. After the opening meal we had nothing more to do with it - it seemed terribly disorganised. So the rest of the holiday was BRILLIANT, with trips to Montreux and Gstaad being the highlights. The weather was superb.

In December we visited New York City for five nights, staying in Greenwich Village. Fantastic! We had a great time and saw a different side of the city with visits to the High Line, Roosevelt Island and the Meatpacking District for example. We also had a great day out with a friend from Bristol who's lived out there for years, with a trip to Bear Mountain, a classic US mall and Ramsey, a typical suburban American town (with TWO railway stations!)

redundancy

2011-12-22T17:06:00.000Z

I've aimed a lot of vitriol at the faltering Occupy middle-class movement, and it's not difficult to explain why. They are trying to present themselves as radical, even sustainable, but in reality they are desperately trying to hang on to the past of plenty, where people like them breezed through life, enjoying free education (often in a useless subject), getting their own home in their twenties and having a job for life, followed by a pension through their dotage. They are so tied up in their middle class world that they've missed the fact that the world is totally changing and leaving them miles behind.

I can write, but sometimes others can write better than I can (and it's so much easier to cut and paste). This is the brilliant Bill Bonner on normality. If you're a member of Occupy you'll probably be far happier not reading this. But for the 99% of you out there that don't have closed minds, here goes ...

*** What if the entire period from the invention of the steam engine to the invention of the internet were not the normal thing, but the abnormal thing?

What if the ‘lost decade’ we have just gone through is actually the mean... the usual... the normal thing? And what if – after nearly three centuries – we have just now reverted to it?

Until about two weeks ago, we thought human beings had only existed for 100,000 years. Now, archaeologists are guessing that we’ve been around as a species for twice as long.

You know what that means? It means that our mean rate of growth – already negligible – is actually only about half what we thought it was. In other words, it took not 99,700 years for humans to invent the steam engine, but 199,700. And now, what if we are not going on to something new, but back to something old? What if the new age is really more like the old age... where growth and progress were unknown.

Let’s see, the typical person in 1750 lived better than the typical person in say 100,000 BC. The person in 100,000 BC lived in a cave or maybe a wigwam. The typical person in 1750 lived in a hovel. There were some great houses too, of course. By the 18th century, humans had been building with arches and columns... and domes... dressed stone with elaborate decoration... for thousands of years. But most people had no access to those monuments. They lived in whatever they could put together – usually of wood or mud.

They lived on what they could grow... with their own hands, or with the help of domesticated draft animals. They hunted wild animals... or got their calories from their own herds and flocks.

The person from 100,000 BC was a hunter-gatherer. But his life was not all bad. At least he got plenty of fresh air and didn’t get caught in traffic jams or have to watch television.

But the progress between 200,000 BC, when mankind is now thought to have emerged... to 1765, when Watt produced his first engine... was extremely slow. In any given year, it was nearly negligible... imperceptible. Over thousands of years there was little progress of any sort, which was reflected in static human populations with static levels of well-being.

Then, after 1765, progress took off like a rocket. Over the next 200 years, the lives of people in the developed countries, and the human population, generally, changed completely.

It took 199,700 years for the human population to go from zero to 125 million. But over the next 250 years it added about six billion people. Every five years, approximately, it added the equivalent of the entire world’s population in 1750. ‘Progress’ made it possible. People had much more to eat. Better sanitation. Better transportation (which eliminated famines, by making it possible to ship large quantities of food into areas where crops had failed). The last major famine in Western Europe occurred in the 18th century when crops failed. After that, the famines in the developed world at least have been intentional – caused largely by government policies.

Progress abolished hunger. It permitted huge increases in population. And it brought rising real wages and rising standards of living.

By the late 20th century, people took progress and GDP growth for granted. Governments went into debt, depending on future growth to pull them out. So did corporations and households. Everyone counted on growth. Spending and tax policies were based on encouraging growth. The enormous growth in government itself was made possible by economic growth. After all, as we’ve seen in our Theory of Government, beyond the essentials, government is either parasitic or superfluous. The richer the host economy, the more government you get.

Today, there is hardly a stock, bond, municipal plan, government budget, student loan, retirement programme, housing development, business plan, political campaign, health care programme or insurance company that doesn’t rely on growth. Everybody expects growth to resume... after we have put this crisis behind us.

Growth is normal, they believe.

But what if it isn’t normal? What if it was a once-in-a-centi-millenium event, made possible by cheap energy?

the last gasps ....

2011-11-28T13:41:00.000Z

If you still have any doubt that the world's oil is fast running out, the fact that even the UK may attempt to use oil produced from the Canadian Tar Sands - the most uneconomic, damaging to the environment and, frankly, CRAZY oil that has been or ever will be produced, should make it clear!

We have tied our econmies to oil, a dirty and finite resource that is now reaching its end, rather than making the infrastrucure changes (rail travel, renewables, either abandoning or rail-connecting the suburbs) governments are burying their heads in the sand and trying to keep things the way they were. This is not only stupid and dishonest, but extremely dangerous. If we don't start redesigning our societies NOW we will be leaving future generations living in extreme poverty, environmental destruction and violent climate change. Do you really want your kids and their kids to inherit this legacy, when we ALL know what needs doing?

Please read the following and act accordingly. Remember that the change from oil to post-oil requires that we use the remaining oil to help make these changes. The fact that many of us still think it's okay to waste this resource DRIVING to out of town shopping areas to buy more tat (made with oil!) shows that the government needs to take the lead. In this at least we are too dim or too selfish to think of anyone else!

This morning 50 Greenpeace activists are blockading the Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrances and a giant handshake. Our government is trying to scupper legislation that will block tar sands oil - the dirtiest, most polluting form of oil there is - from being sold at UK petrol pumps.

Mining for tar sands is wrecking the Canadian boreal forest, destroying the homelands of indigenous people, and accelerating dangerous climate change.

So why then is the UK government trying to sabotage legislation that would block tar sands oil from European petrol pumps? Well it looks like they've been lobbied hard by the Canadian government and big oil. Now it's your turn to lobby.

Please write to Nick Clegg: he needs to tell the ministry for transport to stop standing in the way of green legislation. It's time Clegg acted on the green credentials he keeps talking about.

The tar sands deposits of heavy oil mixed with clay and sand lie below the surface of the Canadian wilderness. To extract the tar, oil companies destroy the Canadian boreal forest, gouge out hundreds of metres of top soil, and turn the landscape into a gaping black pit. Two tonnes of earth has to be dug up and processed to produce each barrel of tar sands oil.

Worst of all, tar sands oil creates three times the emissions per barrel that you would get from normal crude. There's no way tar sands oil makes any sense for our environment or climate.

Next week, officials will meet from across Europe to approve the plan that would prevent tar sands oil from ending up at the pumps. If the proposal goes ahead it would deal a major blow to oil industry plans to expand Canada's tar sands open cast mining operations.

Right now the vote could go either way because of the UK-led diplomatic effort to scupper it. That's why we need your help to put pressure on the government to stop its attempts to scupper the legislation.

Please join the lobby for legislation to block tar sands from Europe and write to Nick Clegg today.

lack of focus

2011-11-22T19:21:00.001Z

Amazing that the Occupy protest in Bristol is STILL going on.

There is one HUGE problem with Occupy, and it is the reason that the whole thing is falling apart. They have stupidly aligned themselves with the left. The left has a TINY amount of support in the UK, about 1%. So the Occupy movement is doomed from the start for this reason.

And why has Occupy aligned itself with the left? I suspect it is because of the total lack of imagination of the people behind this. They really do believe that this is some sort of crisis of capitalism when the opposite is of course true. The bail out of banks and car companies, insurance and finance set ups was 100% SOCIALIST, in a peculair attempt tp preserve jobs and ailing businesses. Capitalism would never allow this. For capitalism to progress, and if nothing else it is a fantastically progressive economic system, companies that are failing HAVE to close, so that new, leaner businesses can take their place. This is in reality the SECOND CRISIS OF SOCIALISM (the first was the collapse of the Soviet Union of course).

So what Occupy are proposing is more of the same thing that has caused the situation in the first place! This makes them probably the most reactionary and pointless 'protesters' ever seen.

In reality of course there is already a quiet evolution going on as we are faced with zero or falling growth and the end of cheap oil. The true evolutionaries are all involved at different levels in this process. Whether it's restoring closed railways, pushing permaculture, starting cooperatives, building and installing alternative energy set ups, relearning old craft skills or starting community initiatives.

I suspect you've seen the danger here. Believe it or not once, back in the eighties, the Green Party was a genuinely radical party, yet today it is just a watered down version of New Labour, with a tiny patina of green awareness. Result - all the radicals and progressives left. Some of us kept going with proper projects (such as the New S&D), others probably left politics altogether. I have heard that some in Transition are trying to set up a dialogue with Occupy - this would be a disaster if it happened. Occupy's agenda has nothing to do with the future, it is firmly set in old politics (socialism/communism) and assumes that there will always be a strong nanny state providing jobs from cradle to grave (so 1950s!). Occupy is the last fling of the old fogeys, the Empire Loyalists, New Labour, One Nation Tories, the BNP, every half thought out, of it's time, lack of vision 'movement' that was in reality just an agenda thing for a tiny minority interest group.

If Transition, or any other progressive movement, gets tainted by association with Occupy - which will be a laughing stock everywhere within months - it will be finished, which isn't fair.

To conclude, Occupy is simply a last gasp of the old world, a nostalgic hankering back for the big welfare state of the post war time of plenty, a fan club for the Baby Boomers, cornucopians who will refuse to get their hands dirty - in short the chaff that will not survive Peak Oil.

Harsh I know, but can anyone actually prove otherwise?

this is what Occupy want to preserve ...

2011-11-20T13:51:00.000Z

It is astonishing how the supermarkets shun locally grown food - even when it's readily available.

Local, seasonal food is healthy, cheap and environmentally-friendly. It supports British growers and reduces air-miles.

But in a survey by the Independent last year, researchers took 10 foods that were grown in the UK. They found seven major supermarket chains were importing these foods from as far away as South America.

Asda sold asparagus from Peru, strawberries from Spain and cauliflower from France. Marks & Spencer sold beans from Guatemala and broccoli from Spain.

These were foods that were in season in the UK!

It all comes down to costs and sales. It's better for supermarkets to buy some imports because of cheap overseas labour. If their customers keep buying this stuff instead of the local version, there's no reason for them to change.

This is an example of how we should be leading the supermarkets, not the other way round. After all they're not charities or environmental agencies - they're just businesses trying to make money.

So it's up to us to use our purses and wallets to make them change - force them to deliver what we want.

a working class view on too thick to fail

2011-11-06T14:06:00.002Z

The middle class bone idle 'protestors' currently infecting St Pauls and various other locations around the world - generously paid for by US, the taxpayers - are a very tightly-knit bunch of upper middle class low achievers who live only to cause trouble and are selfish to a point beyond psychosis.

They won't listen to me, as being working class I am an untermensch, a subhuman. The Nazi philosophy behind this 'movement' is sickening. They are classist, racist, authoritarian and ambitious for power over the rest of us. They are opportunist thugs, a blend of the SA and the Bullendon Club. They DARE to try to lump us in with them, disgustingly calling us (and they doubtless include me - and you - in this) the 99%. For we must ALL be the same, think as one.

They blame the wrong target - the idiot bankers who are the biggest beneficiaries of this horrible socialism every western government has been practising for years, rather than the governments themselves, and their thoughtless supporters.

Now, the solution. Empty these Waitrose refugee camps, by force if necessary. They bring shame on us all. Take the details of all the participants and their supporters, stop their benefits, and deport any that don't belong. Send the remaining ones to compulsory lessons on economics and capitalism, and give each of them seed capital (as a loan) to start a business. Let them understand Peak Oil and Climate Change (two terms I doubt any of them have ever heard) so they can see just how difficult the future will be. Educate these idiots, so they can become valuable members of society, rather than the dregs.

And will they listen? Of course not. I'm working class, this is nothing to do with me. This is middle class types playing games with other middle class types, the real 99%. It's up to the 1%, the working class, the artists, writers, professionals, craftsmen, businesspeople etc, to sort this mess out.

post-capitalist living

2011-11-03T17:08:00.001Z

In their breathtaking hubris the 'Too Thick to Fail' zombies are offering the following course to the bone idle middle class chumps that form 100% of the miserable campers.

POST CAPITALIST LIVING

Remember that after capitalism you will be required to live where we say, do the work we say and share your house with others.

Remember that state controlled food supply can be VERY chaotic, so try to grow some fruit and vegetables in the tiny part of your garden that we allow you to keep. However do not under any circumstances attempt to sell any produce, as this will be illegal.

If you have a business close it immediately. We are NOT interested in people that can stand on their own two feet, earn foreign exchange (money is wrong!) or live free of state benefits.

You will be required to join one of the armed services and fight for your fatherland if capitalists threaten our country.

Have any pets destroyed as they are decadent and capitalist.

Trash your environment. Care of the environment is a decadent capitalist trait and will NOT be tolerated. Socialism decrees that EVERY natural resource is to be exploited and depleted - there will be no opposition to this.

JOIN the party, which will be the only one allowed. Otherwise your career will stall and your life, and those of your family and friends, will be in danger.

Destroy all decadent art, music and literature. There is no room for beauty or art in the post capitalist future.

SMILE at all times. You are FREE. Remember you are one of the 99%, the proletariat. The 1%, those old comrades of the Occupy Movement, will be the elite.

wanted - robomen!

2011-10-30T22:56:00.000Z

WANTED - ROBOMEN

We are seeking men and women who are prepared to do exactly what we ask, who will not question authority, who will be like everyone else, who do not think.

We offer superb tented accomodation, central city locations, no need to wash, chance of a good fight.

Intelligent, educated, free-thinking people need NOT apply.

Apply to 'Too Thick to Fail'

c/o St Pauls Cathedral

LONDON

Uniforms (hats, matted jackets, combat trousers, bovver boots) provided.

Unpaid as we do not believe in money.

Applications are NOT wanted from working class people, people who have not been to university, supporters of capitalism, the most successful economic system ever invented.

foggy thinking

2011-10-26T13:31:00.003+01:00

The thinking behind the 'Too Thick to Fail' 'occupations, otherwise known as 'Occupy' is a bit of a mystery to normal people.

I read blogs and newsletters from a whole range of political types, from stodgy seventies Stalinism, through progressive right wing business orientated blogs to environmental and Peak Oil sites.

The best answer I've had yet is that this is a result of two things - rampant consumerism and a sense of entitlement to stuff, and a boom in university attendance on courses that don't actually teach any marketable skills.

So you have a big mass of 'middle class' types, who are middle class more through their aspirations, tastes and expectation of an extremely wealthy lifestyle, rather than because of their economic status, many of whom also have or are taking degrees in subjects that had little relevance even back in the growth times, let alone now, when growth is finished.

So this is an extremely middle class 'revolt'. These people were brought up by well-meaning parents to expect the future would be cosy, full of material things, drizzled with classical music, experimental theatre and super friends, in a world that would just get wealthier and wealthier. Their parents were idiots, and their little Aramintas and Lukes are the ones paying the price.

So what do they want? Well for one they want all the trappings of capitalism - mobile phones, stereos, cars, designer clothes, but they don't want capitalism to provide it, because through their perusal of Nazi anti-capitalist diatribes and foul cartoons (depicting capitalists as top-hat wearing, Jewish featured elderly men) they have a totally wrong image of capitalism and capitalists.

So they've turned to a failed system - socialism - which could never provide anything like capitalism did, destroyed the environment, destroyed freedom of thought, art and music and killed millions through neglect and nastiness. And because all western governments are socialist with a capitalist sheen, they are working with the government to destroy freedom, especially economic freedom. They are fighting the battles of the 1960s, fifty years on.

So what DO the protesters need? They need to understand that the future will be far poorer than the present. That billions of people will die over the next few decades as the oil runs out and the climate turns vicious. They need to learn the skills that will get them through this, forget decadent, consumerist socialism and start building their own lives and communities without expecting the rest of us to do it for them.

The same disease is present throught he current 'Too Thick to Fail' protests, back through the August riots and further back to the Student Protests. It's all about the same - entitlement and lack of personal responsibility.

That's what this is all about. And it will end in tears ...

nazis swarm

2011-10-24T10:16:00.001+01:00

The Nazi 'Occupy' movement continues to splutter from one disaster to another. Gaining the nickname 'Too Thick to Fail' hasn't helped their cause one bit, neither has the indifference of 99.9% of the population, who think they are a bunch of spoilt middle-class brats. And the St Paul's debacle brings shame on the whole country.

But what is really sinister is their method, and the madness behind it. We are in the middle of the Second Crisis of Socialism, as the money being pumped into failed banks is still not doing the job. The stupid corporate types who are the vanguard of weak capitalism should actually be hanging from lampposts, not being bailed out by their fellow socialists in government. This started with George Bush and is now spreading around the world.

What are they scared of? Why have they abandoned capitalism? Why suddenly do people like Bush, Obama, Cameron et al suddenly think that socialism will work when it never has before? Why don't they just trumpet Schumpeter and let creative destruction run its course?These banks MUST fail, then we can start rebuilding the economies of the world. Instead socialist measures like nationalisation and currency debasement are still being tried.

This is the real problem of democracy. Because politicians depend so much on their 'jobs' of being politicians, they have to appease the people, so they will continue to vote for them. So they offer these easy fixes, rather than tackle the problem. All it does is put things off, and when the shit really hits the fan it will be that much worse. With luck the politicians will be able to blame other politicians. They are a bunch of morons.

So where do our dear little middle-class 'protestors' fit into all of this? Well, they are thick as shit, so probably couldn't tell you why they are doing it. (The bright ones are out building businesses and communities of course). I suspect they are all Daily Mail readers, and really believe the lies and propaganda they read. And then they try the old Nazi trick of 'Us and Them'. 'We are the 99%,' they bleat. Really? I don't know ONE person that believes in any of this. 99% of people couldn't care less, and the other 1% hate them. I have even seen Nazi-style cartoons depicting 'capitalists' as fat, Jewish looking 1930s types, wearing top hats for fuck's sake! This is the level these idiots have already sunk to.

Fortunately the cold weather is coming, and the little loves will soon be sniffling into their Gucci mufflers and running out of chilbain ointment (they are all so delicate!) They will finally do the decent thing and let St Paul's reopen, and the squalor where once they were will soon disappear.

Luvvies - you are 40 or 50 years too late. Socialism failed in 1990 and is now in its final death throes. The future will be strong capitalism, single-person businesses in small communities, working through Peak Oil and Climate Chnage. There'll be no big states, no central government, no huge bureaucracy to try to create a command economy, no snazzy posters reaffirming your membership of the 99%, no more racist cartoons, no benefits, no rich parents. You'll all have to fucking work! And it's that thought that keeps my smile big and broad as I hear about your latest anti-social exploits on the news. Babies.

'too thick to fail' succeed - in closing st paul's!!

2011-10-21T17:49:00.000+01:00

Hitler would have been proud of the 'Too Thick to Fail' zombies who are infesting the area outside St Paul's (because they're too scared to confront the city types). Their little gas stoves are a fire hazard, their tents are unhygienic, and they insist on using the font as a toilet.

They are so stupid it's beyond belief. They have a big banner screaming 'Capitalism is Crisis'. What the fuck? They can't even spell 'in' properly! This has NOTHING to do with capitalism, it's a crisis of socialism, namely governments who insist on intervening in the market to win votes by putting off the REAL economic crisis that will be riding the twin pigs of Peak Oil and the End of Growth.

I detest these little middle-class protestors who have all managed to get Friday off work (LOL!) They don't have a clue what they are protesting about. And I bet they all pop to Starbucks for their espressos and paninis.

I've done my share of protests. Raiding council meetings, monkeywrenching and of course the FANTASTIC Poll Tax demos that brought the sow Thatcher down. Now that WAS socialism at its worst, a flat rate tax on everyone, no doubt predating a flat rate of pay.

Zombies that have closed St Paul's - you are not the 99%. You are not even 1%. You are a tiny nano% of a tiny priveledged minority of chinless, posh, middle class off cuts that are embarrassing the rest of us. Go back to your detached homes ...

part of the 1% - and EXTREMELY proud of it

2011-10-16T12:23:00.000+01:00

For fuck's sake! So the little sheep (read middle class lefty scum) are trying to bring down the system! It's YOUR system you divs. This is a crisis of socialism, not capitalism. Bailed out banks are socialist and socialised institutions. You are attacking your own!

The battle of the future will be between weak capitalism and strong capitalism. If the sheep want to attack weak capitalism I don't reallly mind, as long as it doesn't affect me. If the sheep want to attack the very socialist institutions that will provide their pensions and underwrite the UK weak capitalist system that pays billions intaxes to pay for their health care, roads, schools etc then let 'em do it. They are far too thick to understand what they are doing, though that's not an excuse.

Morons, your battle is a fight from the last century. Each and every one of you sheep has benefited from our government's socialist bail out. You supported it, you ARE the weak capitalist bankers! You are now (apparently) arguing against deficit cuts because YOU didn't cause them!! Of course you did. You use state services, you use credit, many of you shared in the house price 'boom', all parts of this problem.

I detest being told I'm part of the 99%. I'm not! I'm not part of this great weak capitalist revolution that is merely WASTING yet more money when we should be saving it.

The war of the 21st century will be between STRONG capitalism - small, mainly one person operations actually creating something with one eye on the environment and WEAK capitalism, which is what you lot LOVE. That's banks, oil companies, corporates, luxury goods sellers, the meat industry, chemicals, all the vile, pointless set ups that really only exist to keep people in 'jobs' and exploit the planet. If we don't reduce the deficit these socialist set ups will continue to plunder the planet's resources, foul the atmosphere and keep consumers mired in 'things' they don't need.

Be proud to be part of the 1% - the rebels, the independent thinkers, the strong business owners, the railwaymen and women, artists, musicians, writers, nurses, teachers, doctors and organic farmers. We're the future.

The 99% - the sheep, the bankers, the Daily Mail readers, the weak business employees, the racists, the Labour party members, the tories, the trade unions - can all go to hell. You've had your chance and you've blown it. Time to let the 1% run things from now on!

killing the pound

2011-10-06T17:13:00.001+01:00

So the Bank of England have just 'created' £75 billion. That's over £1000 for every single person in the country. So is every single one of us - babes in arms, benefits scroungers, zimmer warriors, my ex-wife - each going to produce another £1000+ in added value?? Of course not. So what will happen is that our money will simply inflate to make up the gap. Pointless.

This is a transfer from savers to losers, from those that work hard to those that are work shy. This race to the bottom is pathetic. It's terribly un-British so no surprise that the tories and the BBC both love it. Oh, and the stock market, that has risen over 3% today. Well of course, because that's where all this extra 'money' will go to. They are a bunch of idiots, all those that think this is 'good news'. In reality it's a disaster.

I read a disturbing piece yesterday froma US investor who reckons the following European countries are in real danger of collapse. Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Switzerland. Yes, Switzerland! And why? Because they are fiddling their currency. And once people - both in the country and outside - lose faith in their currency then that currency, and country, are fucked. I suppose he'll add the UK to that list today.

So what IS needed?

The first thing is to accept that growth is finished, now and probably for the next few thousand years, until we can create a proper, solar powered economy. So policies that are supposed to 'kick start' growth are a complete waste of time and energy.

The second step is to link the value of our currency to the amount of gold (and silver and copper) that we own. Then our currency should actually be MADE out of this resource. Inflation will vanish, digital money will be a thing of the past, and we will at last have sound money that everybody wants!

The third step is to build a transport system based on rail - railways, even High Speed lines, tramways, industrial lines, ultra light systems - anything that can be powered by electricity or wood-burning steam. Oil will vanish over the next few decades, cars will never be viable again, and air travel will vanish completely. New businesses can then grow up around these new transport systems, giving us an edge over countries that are still tied to oil.

The fourth and final step is something that has to happen inside all of us. Forget a 'career', forget becoming a 'celebrity', forget some sort of natural 'progression' that burns through energy and resources and just leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unhappy. Instead concentrate on acquiring some land, acquiring the skills to make it provide an income, learn how to defend it, get your own water and power laid on, and start building the community around you at the same time. Or become a nurse, teacher or tram driver - professions with a future.

All the rest is, as Arthur Seaton will affirm, propaganda ...

teresa may - liar

2011-10-06T16:54:00.000+01:00

What the fuck is Cameron thinking? Why did he let that droop-faced moron Teresa May LIE to the Tory conference? The sow cold bloodedly (and knowingly) lied that an immigrant had been allowed to stay in the UK because he HAD A CAT!!

This is a complete lie, and decent Kenneth Clarke attacked the old hag for it. And what's happened? Poor Ken has had to APOLOGISE to the old Isthmian League Thatcher for being a tad rude.

The simple fact is that when this person was asked to give examples of the strength of his relationship to a British woman he said that they owned a cat together. This, and other examples, were enough to convince the judge that his case was genuine. He was allowed to stay for that reason, not 'because he had a cat'.

Cameron should SACK this horrible old slut for blatantly lying to the party conference and for jumping on a bandwagon no doubt started by those idiots at the Daily Mail or some similar such rag.

Get some backbone Cameron, or you'll be finished. Start with this sow.

oh dear ...

2011-10-01T16:18:00.000+01:00

Eric Pickles - an inspiration to us all?

What the fuck are the tories playing at? Less than two years in government and they are already falling apart, pulling in opposite directions to each other and, more importantly, going in a totally different direction to the rest of us!

Eric Pickles, some sort of Trotskyite Humpty Dumpty trapped forever in a fifties black and white Britain, has SERIOUSLY suggested that money is available to help councils introduce a weekly refuse collection!! Yes, you read that right. Whilst the rest of the world is cutting back on landfill and doing everything it can to reduce waste, this left wing moron wants to do the opposite because that is what the retards at the Daily Mail want!! For fuck's sake!! What we need to do is REDUCE waste collection to once monthly. Even then many bins will be half empty. I know ours will. Because nearly everything these days is either recyclable or compostable.

And then, just to add another twist of madness, the same party decides that this is the perfect time to suggest RAISING motorway speed limits!! In reality motorway speed limits should be drastically reduced, perhaps in 5mph installments, over the next four years, giving us a maximum speed of 50mph. This is plenty fast enough in the permanent energy crisis, if you need to get anywhere faster use the trains.

The idea behind this is to increase the tax take from cars (which is of course falling as people abandon their cars - even in this age of incredibly cheap fuel) - because driving faster uses MORE oil, therefore brings in more income from duty. If nothing else it proves that this government will constantly hammer motorists through creative means, and perhaps burning through precious oil more quickly and hammering the dinosaurs through tax shows that there are some serious eco-activists operating inside the old folks' party!

oh dear Obama

2011-09-25T18:13:00.000+01:00

Do you remember all the euphoria when Obama got elected? There was going to be change in the world, the US was going to throw off its Third World mentality and become an equal member of the global 'community'. The US was going to become a normal country.

So what is the US now, a few years along the line? Well an almost certainly innocent man was executed last week, despite all the evidence showing he was not to blame. The relatives of the person killed said they were 'justice had been done'! Hardly, if the person that did it is still walking around free. Nothing learned there then.

And what of the economy? Has Obama created the sustainable society that the US needs? Not at all. He's still trying the old socialist trick of printing money to keep the plebs in their place surrounded by consumer tat, in an environment going downhill all the time.

And as for the US in the world - they still blunder from crisis to crisis missing the point spectacularly. They still think the problem is terrorism, a dying middle class pursuit if ever there were one, rather than the real horrors of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Perhaps there are just too many hippies in the USA, all growed up and in positions of power and influence. The (clearly insane) christian preachers, the corporate unimaginative types, the trailer park white trash, all marginalising, by their very ubiquity, those who would see new ways to get through the future.

Because that's the crux of it. The future won't be designed by weak and well-meaning politicians, old style corporate buffoons, christians willing an apocalypse or the great unwashed, but by individuals willing to embrace an energy-poor, wild weather enhanced future. The sad thing is that many of these future leaders ARE from the US, but are drowned out by the far more common socialist hordes, who want nothing more than endless economic growth, a house full of crap and a tree that sprouts ever common US dollars ...

the new facebook ...

2011-09-24T14:57:00.000+01:00

... is brilliant! The best feature is the way that uploaded photos are now shown really large, which give sthe whole site a much more visual feel - and has certainly encouraged me to start putting random photos on.

zero doubt

2011-09-21T11:27:00.000+01:00

It's hilarious the way politicians and commentators are still talking about 'growth'. Do they think we are stupid? Don't answer that - or course they do.

But look at the graph above. Bank rates are at their lowest for 300 years! Surely even the most economically dyslexic can see that this is the one signal that even they can't ignore. What this chart means is that growth is finished. Not just for today or the next ten years, but probably for hundreds or even thousands of years. The reason? The end of cheap energy, booming population growth and the rising cost of many basic raw materials.

The industrial age is entering its final stage. Beyond that we are going to have to adjust to a sustainable energy society, lose possibly seven or eight billion people worldwide and completely alter the way we live.

Growth was fun. It meant that we could look forward to becoming more and more prosperous each year. It meant that we could genuinely expect our kids to have 'better' lives than we did. But most of it was financed on credit, or if you will by stealing from future generations. The downside is that we destroyed communities, damaged our climate, created ugliness everywhere and softened up intellectually.

Politics will change enormously over the next few decades. There will be a rush to the parties that promise to reduce growth. There will probably be far less democracy, more coercion. Our transport systems will change totally. Roads will vanish, railways and tramways will thrive. The canals will be used once more to move non-perishables. We'll all have to learn to create with our hands. Perhaps 80% of us will spend all or part of our time growing food. Small craftspeople, carpenters, blacksmiths, horse hauliers, teachers, nurses etc will flourish. Most of the non jobs that currently waste billions will go. The public sector will vanish, small (one person) capitalism will be the standard model for the economy.

Kids will learn how to grow plants, care for animals, look after the planet. Most lessons will be outdoors. They'll be able to play on the streets again, because there won't be any cars on them!

Adults will work harder but for less hours. We'll all hopefully have a little bit of land on which to grow all or some of our food. We'll take the tram to market to buy or sell, take the train to the seaside for our holidays, perhaps a couple of times in our life travel to continental Europe, a trip that will become an epic event!

Our lives are going to change enormously. The economic crisis, which is only just entering its most benign stage, will cause huge upheavals for us all. Most of us will have to change what we do to make a living. Many of us won't make it through. Even the climate will make it harder to do what we need to do. Expect huge horror stories from around the world. The economic crisis isn't causing this, it's just a simple message or signal of what is happening behind the scenes. The market is never wrong and learning to read it will be one of those essential life skills that we're all going to need to develop over the coming years.

toxic tories abandon scotland

2011-09-04T18:06:00.001+01:00

It's finally dawning on the tories (after all, they are rather slow) that they need to change their act in Scotland. When I lived up there the tories had one MP - seems that's still all they've got.

Why? Well the Scots aren't stupid for a start. And they are their own people. Why would they vote tory?

As an openly unionist party the tories are always going to reward England first, that's where their remaining support is.

But the world's moved on from Queen Victoria and Rudyard Kipling. The Scottish tories seem to have realised that, and their main candidate for leadership of the Scottish tories - surely the most thankless and activity-free job in the western world - says he'll be changing the name of the party when he wins. The tory name is just too toxic.

This is another sigh that the UK is beginning to fragment at all levels. The tories are of course toxic at all levels and in all parts of the UK. Thatcher basically destroyed them. Yes, I know the tories currently are in government, but only as part of a coalition. We have a tory Prime Minister but he's little more than a buffoon. And ANY party could have won against the dreadful 'New Labour' rabble.

Here is Wessex we are primarily a Liberal Democrat area. There are a few tories, more Labour MPs. As the UK fractures England itself will, along lines that are already forming. There are regionalist and even separatist groups in all parts of England, taking their lead from the nationalists in Scotland, Wales, Ciornwall and, to a lesser extent, Northern Ireland. Whilst the regionalist parties and groups are part of the future, the fracturing of the big London-based parties will be a further sign that we are moving forwards. Scotland, once again, is leading the way.

sieg heil

2011-09-02T16:52:00.001+01:00

The Nazis are back. Last night a gang of them stormtrooped their way into the Albert Hall and started to disrupt a concert.

We don't have enough beauty or high culture in our lives, these SA types would close what we do have down.

The reason the assault happened was because the orchestra was the Israel Philharmonic. So?? Apparently this was enough to justify a bunch of racist thugs to disrupt and yell abuse, because of some nonsense over Palestine. It appears that each of these musicians has a double life, as well as puffing away on oboes and scratching away on cellos, they are personally responsible for the policies of the Israeli government.

I only wish I'd been there, clutching the community gun ...

subspecies

2011-08-31T11:31:00.002+01:00

Here's some to get you started ....

You'll almost certainly think I'm making this up but I promise I'm not!

This appears on a christian's blog in the Third World hell hole that is christian USA.

Brothers and Sisters , I have been seriously considering forming a ( christian ) grassroots type of organization to be named “The christian National Registry of Atheists” or something similar . I mean , think about it . There are already National Registrys for convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..

This type of “National Registry” would merely be for information purposes . To inform the public of KNOWN ( i.e., self-admitted) atheists . For example , let’s say you live in Colorado Springs , Colorado , you could simply scroll down ( from the I-Net site /Blog ) I would have , to the State of Colorado , and then when you see “Colorado Springs” , you will see the names of all the self-admitted atheist(s) who live there ( e.g., if an atheist’s name happened to be “Phil Small” ) . The individual’s physical address , and other known personal information would NOT be disclosed ( though , perhaps a photo could be ) .

Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .

Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ) .

Why exactly does this moron think athiests are something to do with that perverse and exclusively christian god Satan?? Ignorant as well as mad! And athiesm is NOT a religion, buffoon.

0

2011-08-30T20:21:00.001+01:00

I'm sick of hearing politicians and even economists (who should know better) that the cure for our economic woes is - GROWTH!

Ladies and gentlemen - you are being prize twats. Growth has gone, never to return. The important thing now is managing decline. The last two hundred years have seen relentless growth. Why? Because we used our ingenuity to create technologies that would utilise the Earth's resources. But those resources are now in terminal decline, especially oil.

The future will be about realisation, adjustment, and very very slowly creating new technologies, based on renewable resources (principally wood and sunlight). Population will plummet from the current ridiculous levels to hundreds of millions. Eventually the Earth will be in balance again.

So what's our future, the next three or four generations? Probably one of great difficulty mixed with big helpings of calm. It's going to be an incredibly interesting time. There will be great opportunity for creativity. There'll be loads of wars, fought with ever decreasing technology. For a generation or two we'll see a return of conflict, heroism and excitement.

The crap we're surrounded with from the celebrity culture, socialism, nine to five misery, motorways, traffic jams, shit architecture, the elevation of stupidity will die, and far more quickly that most of us expect.

So do you still think there's room for growth you twats in 'power'??

wake up call?

2011-08-28T11:49:00.001+01:00

It looks like Hurricane Irene may not be quite as devastating as initially expected BUT surely it's time for the US to start taking Global Warming seriously (as if Katrina wasn't enough!)

The general concensus is that this hurricane has taken this more northerly path because the sea temperatures are unusually high along the NE coast - 1 to 3 degrees F.

Hurricanes have of course taken similar routes before, in 1938 for example. But that hurricane took that course because of the way pressure systems were aligned, it had nothing to do with sea water temperatures.

Of course if this temperature anomaly is to become a regular feature then the NE will need to prepare for more hurricanes. If anything the sea temperatures will continue to rise. In fact it's this particular signal - sea temperature rise - that is the clearest and least ambiguous marker of clear global warming. Sea temperature rise is of course the least complex indicator of global warming and has been on the rise (in both senses of the word!) for decades.

And the most disturbing thing I've seen so far in relation to this? An MCNBC reporter standing in front of a fifty storey skyscraper - on a Sunday morning - with ALL the lights on!!! Why? Do people work in every one of these offices at 4am on a Sunday morning? Highly unlikely. It seems the US still doesn't get what's happening, or make the links. WAKE UP!!

I predict a lot of bullshit

2011-08-15T13:17:00.002+01:00

Riots. Typical English recreational activity. And lots and lots of hand wringing and soul searching from people that really can NEVER understand what motivates people to do this because, let's face it, their backgrounds are as different from those of these kids as possible.

Rioting's wrong. Attacking shops and, even worse, individuals', homes is disgraceful. To be fair no-one is justifying this part of it. It did get rather out of hand ...

Of course a lot of it was opportunism from organised gangs. And have pundits made any real attempt to work out why kids join gangs? Of course not.

I was in a gang in my twenties. I absolutely loved it. I loved the power we had and the fear from 'straight's when we were around. We didn't ever start any trouble, and we were rather tinged with intellectualism and irony, but we did some pretty terrible stuff, far worse than a bit of rioting!

My other little bit of personal experience is that I actually live on one of the estates where rioters generally originate from. This time we had no trouble, but we certainly have had in the past. In fact the whole of Hartcliffe's pretty proud that the kids here didn't get involved. This estate does have a very strong sense of community which I'm sure helps.

So what really is behind all this? I reckon three things. Peak Oil and the end of growth, consumerism and crap communities.

Peak Oil effects seem to be affecting the whole world, principally by wiping out growth (from the 'credit crunch' onwards), which leaves almost all of us on the edge finacially.

Consumerism is a really sad substitute for real life. I hate it. I couldn't care less what things are or what they cost. It's pathetic.

Crap communities? Caused mainly by the idiot freak Thatcher and stupid rags like the Daily Mail, which seek to frighten people, setting different sections of society against each other.

It also didn't help that Thatcher, probably the most moronic prime minister we've ever suffered, created this dependency culture that led to the rise (in numbers) of the underclass. Whilst there was a chance of growth I suppose everyone had a chance, but those days are clearly over. When the Fed announces that interest rates in the US will remain 'extremely low' for at least two years you know the game's up. We need massive hikes in interest rates to bring the real message home, that the days of waste, credit and badly directed resources have to end. The government is still sending out mixed and pointless messages.

They've been stirring this pot for years and now it's boiling.

will the chickens be coming home tomorrow?

2011-08-04T17:18:00.002+01:00

This was going to be a post on stupidity based around formula one, but today's market developments mean I really do need to allude to them as well! So I'm going to try to struggle through the anaemia and diabetes and hay fever and attempt to blend the two. Don't judge me harshly ...

This appeared on Facebook the other day -

Please vote, we don't want another sport on Sky

Keep F1 coverage on the BBC for ALL races from 2012

Oh dear! I thought it was 2011, not 1961!

So I responded - very meekly for me!

I love the idea that there's a whole alternative world out there where oil isn't running out, where there will be constant economic growth and where something as unimportant worries people! The idea that there will be anything resembling car racing in ten or twenty years' time is hilarious!

Amazingly this came back to me -

Clearly you know absolutely nothing about the sport, which for a non-fan is to be expected. If you took all the fuel from the cars for the year, and stuck it into a jumbo jet, you wouldn't reach New York with it. The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear - I appear to have rattled a hippy's cage!!

Let's analyse this.

Really? I did ask for a source for this amazing claim, but obviously none was forthcoming.

Well I checked and here goes - A fully loaded 747 carries a maximum of 63,705 U.S. gal which is sufficient for an almost 8,000 mile range. Shorter trips or less cargo and it would carry less fuel.

So let's be unscientific and say that it's 4000 miles (discounting the lower fuel weight resulting in even better fuel efficiency) so say 32,000 US gallons.

The average F1 car has an 80 litre tank.

32,000 US gallons is 121,000 litres. This allows 1500 trips full tank to empty tank. There are an average of 17 F1 races a year. So this will allow 88 trips each race. So I reckon he could be right - but I'd love to see his original source.

However of course the actual fuel used during a race is a tiny proportion of the fuel used to keep the whole show going ie transport from track to track, support vehicles and, most importantly, the fuel used to get punters to the racetrack! This is why EVERYBODY should be taught basic economics at school!

The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

This looks like classic Greenwash to me. Amusing that this most unsustainable of 'sports' has to resort to it, but none of this is 'sustainable'. The end of cheap fuel and the eventual end of all fuel (for cars) will see to that. Our poster totally misses the point, then really descends into one ... and I love the idea that he thinks there will be road cars in the future!! Someone clearly hasn't had their Peak Oil moment yet - what a shock he's going to have!

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear, here we go! What the fuck is going on in his head here? I think that because I've gently pointed out a few inevitabilities that he thinks there's some agenda here! There obviously isn't, he's probably confusing Peak Oil proponents with those scummy environmentalists. The last sentence is pure stupidity, and although he doesn't know me I suspect he'd want to retract that if he was aware that I need to take around 30 pills a day just to stay alive. Hippy moron!

So from the ridiculous to the sublime let's look at some of the events that have happened in the real world.

A week or so ago those bloated oddballs that run the EU, together with the dipsticks that run Greece, came up with a plan to keep the Greeks in luxury and indolence. 'Kicking the can down the road' is the phrase most commentators have employed to describe this money juggling.

But even I didn't expect it to blow up so quickly. The contagion has moved to Italy and probably Spain. This will pull the Euro apart and push the world back into recession. But what did we expect? Permanent recession now seems to be the only way forward, until we finally all realise that growth has finished, not for good but probably for at least a thousand years. We've obviously reached Peak Oil and those idiots and hippies in power haven't allowed for it. Some of them still talk about growth as if it's an option. It isn't. Once energy and commodity inputs start to level off and then fall all those caught with debt are NEVER going to clear it. That applies to individuals, families, companies and countries.

So we need a radical reappraisal NOW, not this constant nostalgic fiddling with a system that has died. How long will the politicians take to realise it? I don't know but those who understand it the quickest have the best chance of surviving this and taking their countries with it. There's not one British politician who gets it yet, at least the US has Ron Paul!

So, what next? The same advice as always - clear your debts, buy seeds, hand tools, gold, silver and land. Learn real skills and crafts that don't need energy inputs (other than elbow grease) and start putting down deep roots in your community.

it's dino time

2011-07-22T17:09:00.001+01:00

Bomb in Oslo? Yawn.

For fuck's sake, when will these mummies boys ever learn? WE DON'T CARE! The world has VAST problems ahead of it and your decadent, babyish gestures are pathetic.

Terrorists are all mummies' boys scum, brought up by priviledged parents, paid to get through uni, discover Marx, 'Jesus', some twat mullah or Hitler and, to gain kudos with their drug-addled, low IQ chums, start dabbling in explosives. Oh well, they're never going to get girlfriends, pets or jobs so why not take all their uselessness out on the rest of us?

Destroying is easy, creating is difficult. The mummies' boys ALWAYS take the easy way, never dare venture outside their safety zone.

And such cowards! They don't dare take on a big, serious country, but a little, uninvolved, quiet country like Norway. A PAGAN country for fuck's sake!

We ALL have a common enemy - the transition from oil to whatever comes after, and all whilst the planet's being ravaged by climate change. You mummies' boy Marxist islamic twats are a waste of space and have missed the point big time. Not one of you will survive the transition, you'll be crying your little baby eyes out when your allowance cheques dry up and you can't afford to fly or drive anywhere. Wankers.

a great leap backwards

2011-07-21T11:51:00.001+01:00

'That's a small step for Man, a giant leap for mankind,' fluffed Neil Armstrong when he was the fourth person to step on the Moon in 1969. (The first three were Lionel Jeffries, Edward Judd and his girlfriend in 1900 of course).

1969 was the same year that Concorde was launched.

Perhaps 1969 was the peak year of human progress. US oil peaked the next year. Since then we've been treading water and now it seems like the whole world is drowning.

Yes, the final space shuttle flight has just landed, the shuttle, like Concorde, now destined for a museum. So what's happening?

Firstly the US is the world's poorest country, it really can't afford to continue in space.

Secondly, and more importantly, peak oil is clearly on us. The space programme has been fueled by oil, not nuclear power. Even the US can't justify the spiralling cost, even if it is putting it on the national credit card.

Obama, despite appearances, isn't stupid. He knows the reality of the energy crisis. He knows that there's little point in wasting vast amounts of increasingly scarce energy on a project that's doomed to failure precisely because of the nature of the energy crisis.

Sci fi writers have always seen our future in space, the human race gradually spreading out amongst the stars. Sadly it's not going to happen, at least not in the next few millenia.

Firstly we have to find a way of continuing technological progress without easy oil. That will take centuries. We're going to go through the most enormous upheaval over the next couple of decades as climate change and peak oil REALLY kick in. Civilization will practically collapse, we'll all return to subsistance farming and perhaps, if we're lucky, driving trams or steam trains, making furniture or frowing wood. Probably for centuries that will be all we do. The space race will become a distant fairy tale. We'll be too busy surviving to build spaceships. But eventually, once we've all adjusted and once we start progressing again in a solar economy we may find a way to get out into space again. And this time it won't be a race with an end. We really will get out amongst the stars.

california regrets ...

2011-07-16T17:23:00.000+01:00

A ten mile stretch of an ironically named 'freeway' is to close - sadly not permanently - this weekend in Los Angeles. So? Why don't all those sad car drivers simply switch to the magnificent, world-leading, state of the art modern transport system that is the Pacific Electric Railway? With its fast big cars linking LA with its suburbs and other towns in southern California we should all be jealous of far thinking LA's preparation for the future ...

We wish - this magnificent system CLOSED by the 1960s, DELIBERATLY purchased and run down by a dinosaur combination of car and oil companies.

It's payback time commies! Okay, LA is gradually, slowly, reintroducing trams, but the current system is a tiny shadow of what it was and will be again.

So why is this 'freeway' being closed? So they can make 1 billion dollars worth of 'improvements' including widening a bridge. Why?? Who's going to be using it in ten or twenty years time? California surely should be investing for the FUTURE, not the past? They are even planning $4 helicopter trips to avoid the mess, though there are FREE journeys on mass transit. California is the crazy state that still thinks it's the 1960s, that there's still oil in USA oil wells and that the world's their oyster.

Not so long ago California planned to convert its entire road system and accompanying infrastructure to take hydrogen fuelled cars - no doubt until some bright spark explained to them that hydrogen wasn't a fuel but just an energy carrier, and one that required MORE energy than existing internal combustion engines. This is of course the state that has suffered from energy blackouts due to lack of generating capacity - how exactly were they going to generate even MORE electricity to fuel their hydrogen cars?

California really needs to start taking the future SERIOUSLY!

the underwhelming 'right' in the USA

2011-07-13T13:15:00.002+01:00

The so called 'right' wing in the USA are in terminal decline. They are supporting the candidacy of a complete moron - Michelle Bachmann - for the US presidency. You would have thought they'd learned their lesson with the borderline retard Sarah Palin, but hey, these folks ain't for learnin'!

This Bachmann twat has many failings. Firstly she's a 'creationist'. These idiots believe the world was 'created' by a 'god' 6000 years ago. Not just the world but the whole universe. Now, we can disprove this on any clear evening. Michelle, ask your warders to let you out one starry night. Look up in the sky. See the stars? The light from many of them has taken well over 6000 years to reach us. We are seeing them as they were 10000, 50000, 100000 years ago! And look out for little blurry shapes as well. These are galaxies. They are at least a million light years away. Yes, these have been around for at least a million years. TWAT!

Secondly she thinks global warming is a 'hoax'. For fuck sake you commie cow - the only people that believe that are far leftist scum who don't want it to be true as it will be the end of the socialist dream if we can't just exploit the earth's resources for ever. The evidence is everywhere, no sane person 'disbelieves' it. It's happening. Don't be such a fucking moron!

Thirdly she doesn't believe that gays should have rights! Her fuckwit of a husband actually said, last year, on a 'christian' radio station, that gays are 'barbarians', and that they 'need education and discipline'. Discipline eh? No doubt with him wearing leather pants. I think we've sussed out his agenda right away.

In reality the USA is both the world's poorest country (because of its huge pile of debt) and it's last communist nation. Joke candidates like Bachmann are a sure sign of the once great nation's decline into irrelevance and decadence. It's sad to see that the 'right' is the worst offender. The USA is heading for collapse - I have two more trips there, New York city in December and Orlando next October. I suspect they may be the last times we'll be able to go. The USA will collapse sooner rather than later.

The right isn't all stupid and decadent - the excellent Ron Paul holds true to REAL RIGHT wing values with no hint of the communism, fiscal childishness and absolute uneducated stupidity of the other right, of which Bachmann is just one of the stupidest and most incompetent examples. But he won't be voted in because he actually confronts Americans with the reality of their situation.

Meanwhile in the UK we don't even have a right wing party!!

pravda ...

2011-07-12T13:20:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Rupert Murdoch and his parade of brainless, immoral twats, we've been given a taste of the communist media. Decent people live a life that never thinks for a second of the sewer that is the Sun and News of the World. But it's been rather waved in our faces over the last week or so.

But who are the real villians? Why, the readers of those rags, that's who. People whose lives are so damaged, so vile, so fucking STUPID, that they allow this muck into their lives. People that have no respect for anything, the uneducated, smoking, litter dropping, thoughtless scum that should, let's be honest, be the victims of mass murder.

I know that none of my readers would ever allow this filth into their houses, so you are safe, but surely now is the time to begin building a register of worthless people to be culled once Peak Oil hits? It's hardly an extremist viewpoint.

never again

2011-06-28T14:45:00.000+01:00

I thought I was dreaming this morning when I spotted the following, unbelievable, headline in the Evening Post.

'Let us smoke in pubs again'.

This is ridiculous. Life should be lived moving forwards, not backwards. The smoking ban in workplaces is there to protect employees from secondhand smoke. IT WILL ALWAYS BE THERE. From now the war against this old man's habit should be stepped up, with smoking banned in all open spaces, and within 5 years completely. It is an embarrassment that a few old men still do this, I suppose they've simply given up on life. But should a tiny minority ever have the right to force this on others? Of course not.

Pubs have improved no end since the ban. It seems incredible now that it had ever been allowed. The pubs are now full of decent people, families, teenagers etc. Okay, we still have to (for a few more years) have to run the gauntlet of a few elderly losers in the pub entrance showing the whiole world how uncool and fucking stupid they are, but once in a pub I'd challenge anyone to say that it's not 1000% better than the old days.

So a simple message to all smokers - FUCK OFF AND DIE!!!!!!

greece ... oh dear

2011-06-28T11:44:00.001+01:00

There's something very wrong with Greece, and if you stand back and apply logic to the situation it gets even stranger.

Greece was the cradle of civilization, but it really isn't European in the sense we think of 'European'. And the behaviour of its people at the moment is about as un-European as you can get.

Situation - the countrty has been living beyond its means for years. Entry into the EU made it even worse. And membership of the Euro simply gave them another layer of protection from the real world.

And now some very large chickens have come home to roost. Greece has enormous debts, a crumbling economy, Stalinist style infrastructure and a people who seem to think that it's 1972 and there are still 40 years of cheap oil in front of them.

And how do they react? Do they pull together to get the country out of the mess it's in? Do they start paying taxes rather than think they are voluntary? Do they give their government the respect it needs to get through this? Do they fuck! No, they stick to that 1972 mentality and call a general strike! How exactly is that going to solve their economic problems? Will it increase productivity? Efficiency? To my simple mind all I can see it doing is decrease economic activity and cause even more problems.

And who's behind this? The usual suspects - communists (remember them?), socialists and trades unionists - the very groups that think the world owes them a living, that the future will be one of increasing wealth and sod the environmental destruction.

In a year's time Greece will be bankrupt, Europe's first (but not last) failed state, and its people will be much, much poorer than they are now. They may even have been expelled from the EU.

The simple fact is that the centuries of growth are over. Without growth interest and debts can't be paid off. Without growth our huge nanny states will have no option but begin to shed parts of themselves. Perhaps the Greeks will be lucky, being first to suffer they will scale down, build resilience into their communities and start living off the land again. Perhaps, at least in that sense, they are fortunate. Who will even remember socialism, communism and trade unions in fifty years' time?

trees - your time is coming

2011-05-05T10:02:00.000+01:00

Amazingly British orchards are in decline. It seems incredible that something as important as our trees can be neglected in this day and age. Trees are going to be our lifeblood in the future, for food, fuel, building and controlling climate change. The reason British orchards are in decline is because the chavs and the supermarkets are working in collusion to destroy the British apple market.

It won't work. Supermarkets are beginning to source food locally. This has nothing to do with environmental responsibilty but everything to do with economics. Transport costs are rising and are only set to rise faster and faster as the cheap oil vanishes.

Now is the time to start planting. Trees take a long time to grow but even our two year old apple tree, less than five feet tall, is absolutely full of apples this year. We've only room for three trees in the garden, but one advantage is that they have a very small footprint and tou can grow other things underneath them.

In fifty years wood will be everywhere. It will heat our homes, the trees will produce tonnes of fruit and nuts, even our steam trains will burn wood rather than coal. Houses, furniture and carts will be built from it, and there will probably be hundreds of other uses we haven't even thought of yet.

£50 fine? A bullet more like ...

2011-05-05T07:49:00.000+01:00

They're planning to amend the littering law so that the driver of a car is responsible for the people in the car not throwing rubbish out of the windows.

About time. But you know what - some fuckers are whining that this is wrong! The classic was the mother who said she couldn't be expected to keep an eye on her kids and stop them throwing rubbish out.

Er, why on earth has she not educated her kids not to do this? What sort of people are these? Her kids should be taken into care and she should be taken out and shot. Scum.

They are only planning to fine between £50 and £80 yet some civil liberties baby was whining about the 'huge' fines.

If we want a clean country we can be proud of perhaps the law should be £1000 for a first offence, £10000 for a second and deportation for a third. We'll soon see a cleaner Britain.

absolutely insane

2011-05-01T16:27:00.000+01:00

We live in seriously peculiar times. Now I'd have expected a Labour government to attack allotments - all that freedom, fresh air and working class accents make them sick to their stomachs. But the tories? I'll grant that Eric Pickles looks like a 1950s cross between Humpty Dumpty and a far left northern Labour councillor, but does he have to act like one?

It seems the bulky bolshevist wants to take away the requirement that councils provide allotment spaces. WTF?? There are huge waiting lists for allotments, and they will only get longer. EVERYONE grows their own these days, and in just a few years once oil-based inputs such as fertilizer and tractors wither and die we are going to need to grow on every available square inch of land. It will be grow or die.

Churchill encouraged us to Dig for Victory. I doubt that the corpluent commie has ever even heard of him. Peak Oilers often quote Churchill - he was a man centuries ahead of his time. Growing food will become the most important thing for all of us soon enough.

And what's forecast for the abandoned allotments. Social housing! What the FUCK!

We need to be planting fruit trees everywhere NOW. Parks and open spaces need to be planted with crops NOW. Every single allotment and garden needs to be planted NOW. People need the skills, the seeds, the tools and the space to learn to grow successfully NOW.

Can't someone just puncture this Trotskyite twat with a pin?

hunter's rest

2011-04-24T17:11:00.001+01:00

The pub car park.

Entrance.

Stilton and Cheddar ploughmans.

A surprise extra - miniature railway on site!

The Hunters Rest is one of those pubs you have to work hard to find. All I'm saying is that it's to the south of Bristol! Great atmosphere, great range of drinks and a decent vegetarian food selection.

And a real treat is the miniature railway in the grounds which gives an excellent ride through the woods - and was open today.

the good the bad and the totally fucking stupid ...

2011-04-23T15:29:00.001+01:00

Everyone in Bristol should be very proud of yesterday's event, when a group of local people defied the police - including foreign officers imported from Wales - and told Tesco's that it wasn't wanted in Stokes Croft.

Stokes Croft is a Bohemian and forward-looking community in Bristol. It's a place of small local shops and sustainable initiatives. Yet multinational hippy supermarket Tesco decides it's the ideal location for one of its useless Express supermarkets. No need to ask the locals, what's it got to do with them?

So yesterday they paid the price. Decent Bristolians went out on a sultry evening and told Tesco's exactly what the community really thinks of them. The police, duffers that they are, totally misunderstood what was going on and decided to randomly strike out at locals looking on. What a chance for the Welsh to have a go at the English.

But of course what happened is that the heavyhandedness of the outsiders was splashed all over the media. Local heroes have ensured that not only will Tesco's NEVER open a shop in Stokes Croft but, hopefully, as a result of this sharp learning curve will NEVER do the same anywhere else.

Does this mean that all supermarkets are bad? Of course not! Here in Hartcliffe Morrisons opened a new store in a very run down part of the area giving locals a good place to shop, where most of us can walk to, and providing dozens of jobs in the area. They didn't take trade from anywhere else (apart from the ASDA in Whitchurch) and certainly nobody in Hartcliffe opposed it.

Of course in the long term all supermarkets will fail as the oil runs out, but hopefully the building itself will find a new role in the future, perhaps as an indoor market and bring and take centre.

And as for Tescos in Stokes Croft? Well this is what one of their spokespeople said (probably a 23 year old middle class prefect who seriously believes he'll be driving an electric car in 20 years' time) - 'we'll defy local resentment and reopen the supermarket'.

No you won't you hippy twat! 'Cos if you try the WHOLE of Bristol will chace you back to fucking London!

barricades ...

2011-03-26T19:30:00.001Z

Seething. There is some socialist dinosaur twat scumbag currently whingeing on about how it's the workers in the country who create the wealth, not the entrepreneurs. We should bring the gallows back for these maniacs.

This is of course a response to the disgraceful scenes in London where some scumbag prats have got it into their tiny brains that Fortnum and Masons is a legitimate 'target' for their 'protests'. This is because in their middle class world anyone who is not a lifelong student and member of the Socialist Workers' Party is some elitist, Eton-educated git.

Alongside the dinosaur was a very sound fellow who bore an uncanny resemblance to Paul Whitehouse and made the BRILLIANT point that if we (that is mainly the public service workers) continue to pay ourselves for doing fuck all we are stealing money from our kids and their kids. This should have shut the lefty up but of course it went through one ear and out the other two.

I am proud to say that I attended both the Poll Tax events in the 80s. But I went because I DESPISED Thatcher and her socialistic policies. These fat, soft, tory scum that now go on protests are opportunist lowlifes of the idiocracy.

In this case we should have taken a leaf out of the soon-to-be-late Colonel's book and GUNNED the fuckers down!

fool prices

2011-03-24T08:09:00.001Z

(Copyright Steve Sainsbury Collection/Rail Thing)

George Osborne - yet another socialist trying to keep consumerism going. Pathetic. Why are British politicians so frightened to let the price mechanism determine the pace of the change from oil to renewables? Why keep subsidising gormless motorists rather than let the market dictate quicker pick up of mass transit development and change the amount we drive?

And what do you make of the BBC giving air time to idiots (of the conspiracy theory persuasion) whimpering that garages put up fuel by 1p a litre yesterday morning as if they had foreknowledge of what was probably the biggest surprise in the budget? What world do these dickheads live in and why do the BBC pander to them?

So the idiocracy continues to get ludicrously cheap petrol, still go for growth and still push their bullshit conspiracy theories.

Never have I felt so needed or wanted!

idiots

2011-03-04T12:14:00.002Z

There's been a parade of idiots this week! A couple of days ago a group of real skanky humourless looking chavs took a petition to 10 Downing Street claiming that fuel prices were too high and would the government kindly subsidise their anti-social behaviour and spread its costs on to general taxation. Morons. Listen you fucks - petrol and diesel is incredibly CHEAP. Make the most of it because prices are going to skyrocket over the next decade and most of you will not be able to get fuel at ANY price. Get used to it.

Whilst here in Bristol a bunch of equally chav dinosaurs were celebrating our spineless council's pathetic attempt at keeping the past going by authorising a new Sainsbury's supermarket. The chavs are some football team supporters who seem to think that this is a green light to build a new stadium. Miles from the railway!!

The best thing about Ashton Gate is that it has its own railway station, currently unused but easy to reopen (it's on what will be the extremely busy and profitable Portishead line) which is obviously Sainsbury's main criteria for grabbing this site at a knock down price. Not that supermarkets have a long term future, but it may keep customers coming for a few more years after oil, and will of course make it easy to bring in fresh stock.

All in all a bit of an anachronistic week!

the war on bullshit

2010-12-11T20:50:00.001Z

Yes, this blog gets a new name yet again, but I reckon this will be the last one!

There is a theme in most of what I write, and pretty much a life theme too. I HATE bullshit. Whether it's lying christians, multi-level-marketing, meat eaters, politicians, socialists, Ufologists, cowards, racists, smokers, the BNP and a horde of other morons, I'm sick of them all. And from now on this site will attack every bit of bullshit I come across, whether in real life or on the news.

So use it. I'll try to post every day, I promise. Have stuff on students, multi-level-marketing and 'Chrsitmas' in the pipeline. Please feel free to comment!

the wisdom of students ...

2010-11-01T13:39:00.001Z

This is a true story. You won't believe me but it's no less true for that!

University Plymouth, this week. Question by lecturer - 'Who believes in global warming'. A sea of hands obviously goes up. But just to be naughty he then asks 'Who doesn't believe in global warming?' A few hands go UP!

Now remember, these are students - they are supposed to be reasonably informed and intelligent. And they are on a travel and tourism course, one of the areas already affected by global warming. WTF??

A simple fact - you can't 'believe' or 'not believe' in global warming. Global warming is happening. Climate change happens nearly all the time. Nobody disputes it. All scientists agree it is happening. So you can't 'believe' or 'not believe' it - it's a simple, recordable, scientifically proven FACT.

Where there's dispute is in the level of global warming caused by human action. Common sense suggests, and scientific records prove, that as carbon dioxide increases so do global temperatures. But the earth circles the sun in an orbit that changes over long periods of time. Movement of continents also change ocean currents. Volcanic activity can drop the temperature, pollution can mask levels of temperature rises. How much climate change is caused by human activity? That's the question.

What's scary is that despite the facts a proportion of even educated people haven't got it. I know it's not nice having to deal with it, and their lives will be a lot harder than ours were, but hiding from it won't make it go away. Idiots.

halloween

2010-10-31T17:54:00.000Z

Halloween is the most important time of the year for Pagans, even more so than Yule. We had a huge party here last night and have had a procession of trick or treaters this evening. This is becoming a big thing even for non-Pagans. It is of course our New Year's Eve too.

Bristol's the gateway to the most Pagan part of the UK but even here there's still a vestigal christian influence, trying to ruin everything British as usual. The Bristol Evening Post actually had a poster to put in your window saying 'Trick or Treat NOT welcome here'. Total twats. They did redeem themselves a little by running a spoof letter from 'Vic Veritas' (obviously a Pagan!) saying that kids dressing up are flirting with satanism (despite 'Satan' being a christian, NEVER a Pagan god) and that children should instead dress as saints LOL!

battle of the blands

2010-10-17T19:09:00.001+01:00

Most people live life at 10% of capacity. Everything they do is a shadow of reality. They never get out of their comfort zone, and they are rewarded accordingly.

You only live an infinite number of times. Why waste a single second of a single life?

Why do people accept the shit that's thrown at them? Why do they listen to crap music, eat bland food, drink Fosters, go to boring places on holiday, stay in crap jobs, stick in boring relationships, vote socialist, watch soap operas, just waste time? I don't get it - especially from the christian and atheist 'one-lifers'? If they think this is all they'll ever be why don't they just go for it? What exactly have they got to lose??

Ahhh ... come to our Hallowe'en party and see what REAL life's like!!

the dying gasps of thatcherism

2010-10-15T18:39:00.001+01:00

A consumerist socialist paradise was what arch-twat Margaret Thatcher promised us in the 80s. Nobody had to work, we'd all have enough money for drink and the future would be just like the present. Nobody would need to think. We'd finally be one huge flock of sheep, and scum like her would lord it over all of us.

But it depended on a certain amount of economic activity. Not real work of course, that built communities and gave people individual power. Socialists like Thatcher hated both, they were a threat to her.

A lot of my readers weren't even born when this vile pointless sow ruined the country. Ignoring reality she fell deeper and deeper into her utopian socialist fantasy and tried to bring us down with her.

Soon Idiot Blair was singing from the same hymn sheet, treating us all as stupid and expendable. He quite sincerely set the start of the new millennium as 1 January 2000 (01/01/00) rather than the genuine date of 1 January 2001 (01/01/01) becuase we wouldn't understand that!!

Easy credit and an engineered house price bubble kept us quiet, made us think we were better off than we were. Decline set in everywhere, but we felt we'd never had it so good.

Thatcherism taught us all that we didn't need to work. My Thatcher years were spent signing on through the winter and then spending the summers in the south of France and the Swiss Alps. I doubt my life was a lot different from most peoples. Of course Thatcherism taught us all the little tricks that keep the tax-free income coming in. Poll Tax taught us that we could comfortably avoid paying tax - did you ever meet anyone that had actually paid it?

Then bastard son Tony Blair kept at it, telling people to go to uni to learn stuff that may have been useful in the twentieth century but would be meaningless in an energy-poor twenty first.

A load of wankers ... and they're still at it.

But at last the world is catching up. Soon there'll be big cuts. Everyone will have to actually search for productive work, real work, making things, offering real services, building real communities. Dole money, sickness benefit, pensions, all will wither and die. You'll save for a house, and much more. You'll travel on foot, bike, horse, tram and train. The roads will crumble and be converted to footpaths, bridleways, cycleways and tramways. Culture will be more locally based. Business will be real, capitalist enterprises, not subsidy junkie jokes, wasting resources, there just to 'employ' people.

Soon Thatcher herself will be dead, and after the celebrations we'll all be getting down to work.

cassandra time ...

2010-10-12T12:18:00.002+01:00

From the excellent Whiskey and Gunpowder people ...

How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Turmoil

I was in Paris recently, in a park near the Louvre museum enjoying a lazy summer day. I wasn’t the only one with such a great idea, there were probably a few hundred others enjoying the sunshine — children playing football, kissing lovers entwined on the grass, businessmen on a lunch break…

You can imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw a squad of French infantry troops on patrol through the park, brandishing assault rifles at the ‘ready’ (essentially holding the weapon in a fire position with index finger over the trigger).

The only thing missing to complete the picture would have been Taliban forces and the Afghan countryside.I was shocked at the display, wondering what possible threat could necessitate sending infantry troops through one of the world’s most peaceful city parks. Even more, though, I was shocked that no one else seemed to be shocked.

This sort of security charade has become commonplace. Ridiculous and unnecessary shows of force are simply accepted in today’s world; our governments blame faceless, conceptual enemies like ‘terrorism’ and have convinced everyone that such measures are for the common good.

Think about it — when taking public transportation or patronizing public buildings, how many times do you see signs or hear announcements that start with, “Ladies and gentlemen, for the safety and security of all passengers…”

This wasn’t the case 10-years ago. If French troops went marching through Paris in 2000, the whole city would have gone nuts. In fact, consider many of the other ways that the world has changed so drastically over the past 10-years:

The endless War on Terror and the rise of police states around the world

Elimination of any semblance of financial privacy

The bursting of four major bubbles — stocks, credit, derivatives, property

Developing nations’ increasing economic dominance

The end of America’s economic and diplomatic primacy

The greatest global economic decline since the Industrial Revolution

Rising world population coupled with food and water shortages

Loss of confidence in major institutions: government, banks, corporations

The growing, addict-like social dependency on technology

Central planning in the world’s most “free” economies Lying there on the grass in Paris hoping to not get clipped by a negligent discharge, I started thinking about the boiling frog.

The allegory illustrates that when you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, he immediately senses danger and jumps out. When you put him in cool water and slowly bring it to boil, the frog won’t sense danger until it’s too late.

The changes over any decade are remarkable, but what’s happening now is vastly different. In the next ten years through this period of dramatic change, your country, your business, your neighborhood will look nothing like they do today.

In the past, the world ran on a system of endless debt and consumption; everyone played a part. Students would rack up huge debt at university and in turn enslave themselves immediately to corporate jobs in order to service the debt.

Social reinforcement was a powerful mechanism, encouraging people to indebt themselves further through mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Conspicuous consumption became a social tradition, and corporate profits surged as people filled their McMansion garages with useless imported trinkets.

For those who got in early and played by the rules, the system was very generous. In exchange for unwavering trust in the system and continued indebtedness, people were rewarded with large salaries, excellent standards of living, soaring investment returns, home price appreciation, health benefits, and generous retirement plans.

In fact, the baby boomer generation, which rode the bulk of this tide, is the most prosperous generation to have ever existed in the history of the world.

Little by little, though, this system has been changing. We have spent decades living in a period of unsustainable fiscal irresponsibility. The crisis is accelerating and the consequences are now being realized.

These economic consequences will drive future political decisions, geopolitical tensions, social stability, demographics, crime rates, resource availability, immigration policy, police activity.

They will even affect the reliability of our infrastructure, utility grids, and food transportation networks, leading to a significant reduction in standard of living for hundreds of millions of people.

Undoubtedly, we have entered what I consider to be the Age of Turmoil — a time that is marked by exceptionally rapid change and fluctuating crises.

Many people will resist the change and instead cling desperately to the old system — the cycle of debt and consumption that provided jobs, stability, and prosperity. These people will have their lives turned upside down because that system is gone forever.

The game as we know it is being reset, and the new rules have not yet been written. For those who are well prepared, this is a time not of fear, but of once in a century opportunity. During this rough period, the die shall be cast for generations. Fortunately, we can see what’s coming and there is still a bit of time to act.

The action required is the same as always - get hold of gold and silver, buy land, buy seeds and hand tools, reorientate your life so you don't depend on others, learn good, solid skills that will be needed in the future - carpentry, plumbing, building, tram driving, teaching, nursing etc. And become useful to your community. Anything less and you may well be signing your own death warrant.

china twats

2010-10-09T12:45:00.002+01:00

China should be proud that one of its own has just received a Nobel Prize. So do they fete him, push him towards the world's press, shower him with awards, make him an ambassador for their country?

No, these communist twats JAILED him. For eleven years!! For advocating democracy.

And they even had the gall to suggest to the Nobel prize committee that he shouldn't be honoured.

For fuck's sake!

I'll be skipping sweet and sour this week in protest ...

moscow tops 38 degrees - C!

2010-07-30T17:41:00.002+01:00

The heatwave in Russia and Finland has broken many records. Both Finland and Moscow have broken their all time temperature records, and this heatwave has been going on for a month.

Back in February Bristol had a cold snap with plenty of snow.

This local weather event, hardly unusual for February, brought out a magnificent rant from 'John of Whitchurch' who very boldly asserted that because it was snowing (in February) there couldn't be global warming!

So where is John of Whitchurch now? Surely the heatwave in Russia just as obviously proves the existence of global warming as the cold snap in the UK disproved it? Or does he have different parameters when things go against him?

Frankly, the man is a twat. NOBODY claims that global warming isn't happening, the only argument is that it is difficult to ascertain how much of it is due to human activity. And the point of global warming is in the name - GLOBAL warming. Local weather events mean nothing, it's the global mean temperature (which nobody disputes is rising) that is the important thing.

So is the heatwave in Russia and Finland proof of global warming? Or course not, no single weather event proves anything - except that John of Whitchurch is a left wing wanker supreme!

good news

2010-05-19T11:49:00.001+01:00

Our new government is starting to take shape and it's nice to see a breath of fresh air breezing through politics. Governments of any hue start to go stale after about 6 or 7 years and the last crew were looking very shabby and decadent. Nothing like the hopelessness of the Thatcher era of course - those governments were degenerate rather than decadent and were stale from day one!

So it's shaping up that the tory part of the coalition will be handling the economy and the liberal part will be dealing with dismantling the disgusting authoritarian state Labour left us with.

In my view Labour lost because it was reverting to the mean - idiotic unions were causing trouble for no reason, the authoritarian streak (ID cards, 'terrorism' etc) was winning the battle, money was being borrowed and 'created' in a desperate attempt to keep their natural constituency - consumerist chavs - in tat. It had to fall.

With a coalition the hope is that the two elements will continually challenge and refresh each other, stopping this reversion to the mean - very mean in the tories' case!

All it now needs is a HUGE dose of reality, Green reality, to inform these two pillars of new politics. Get kids out of the classrooms and into the fields and farms for at least half the time, start closing roads and building railways, switch from hydrocarbons to renewables, stop net immigration, encourage small businesses and co-operatives, bring the soldiers back home and localise politics whilst winding down globalisation.

create centre

2010-05-16T15:47:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago we took a trip on the train along the harbourside and ended up at the Create Centre. This weekend we visited the centre itself and were very impressed. Bristol should be very proud of this innovative and forward looking venue. As well as an eco house (which made us somewhat jealous from our Hartcliffe council house perspective) there are exhibitions and a nice cafe. It's accessible by bike and train (and even by the old fashioned 'car') and gives us all a glimpse as how we are going to live once the oil runs out. Great stuff!

phoenix rising

2010-05-08T20:20:00.002+01:00

After years of lingering around doing nothing the characters made famous in the 80s through Oh Cracky! comic are springing back to life via Facebook. Best known in Sussex, around Newcastle and Leysin, Switerland they ae now offering themselves to a whole new audience.

Join the Facebook group today!

election time!

2010-05-05T20:58:00.001+01:00

Big day tomorrow. Unusually after years of certain Labour victories this one's wide open. Obviously the tories are irrelevant, especially in the SW, and I've always had a healthy and natural revulsion of Labour, being brought up in a fiercely Labour household, like all Sussex folk.

I've been a member of the Green Party, Wessex Regionalists and SNP over the years. None of them were quite what I was after. I'm naturally Green but detest with a passion the left wing scum that have infiltrated and altered the party so that it is no longer a genuinely Green party, but a far left wing party with some patronising semi-green policies.

So tomorrow I'll be voting Lib-Dem for two reasons. Firstly they have a genuine chance of kicking out the vile sow Dawn Primarolo who currently serves as MP for South Bristol. Secondly if they do hold the balance of power, or even win outright, nationally, then there's a very good chance that PR will be pushed through. This will be the most important move forward in British politics since the Norman Conquest. Once PR's in there will be a huge resurgence in British politics as suddenly EVERY vote will be worth something.

As always I'll be doing an all-nighter tomorrow, with canapes and drinks, watching Labour squirm, the Tories fall short of an overall majority, election of the first Green MP in Brighton and a big swing to the Lib Dems. This will set us up nicely for the autumn 2010 election ...

towards sustainablility

2010-05-03T19:19:00.001+01:00

A new organisation set up in Bristol is Shift Bristol, which offers practical advice on sustainable living.

After the latest bombshell from the US Military we're ALL going to need this!!

steam in bristol

2010-05-02T19:21:00.001+01:00

A real treat in Bristol, and perhaps not as publicised as it should be, is the Bristol Harbour Railway. This runs from the SS Great Britain, along the harbourside for about 400 metres, then reverses and runs alongside the river to the Create Centre.

This is an unusual railway with some street running and open carriages for passengers which gives a much more intimate ride than your average steam railway. It is also very accessible for the same reasons.

It's not open every weekend, but check the timetable and if it is running please take a trip - you won't regret it!

vegenomics

2010-05-01T22:09:00.001+01:00

A rather perverse argument used by guilty meat eaters is the 'if we didn't eat meat there'd be no cute farm animals'. Tossers.

This lamb lives at the Hartcliffe Community Farm. Her twin died shortly after being born, but she's flourishing and will soon join her mum, and the rest of the sheep, up on the hillside. She'll never go to the abbatoir, or the butchers, or end up on some sad hippy's plate. The farm just about supports itself, and may well become a model in the post oil era. The animals are pretty much able to wander at will at the farm, and it's great seeing the kids touching them, and sometimes getting bitten by them - it's all part of the skills and knowledge they'll need in a supermarket-free future.

Farms in the future will need to be both 100% organic and 100% arable. Farm land is too valuable to waste energy converting grain to meat, and as oil-based fertilizers first rise in price astronomically, then vanish altogether, they will all need to switch to organic farming methods. Of course farm animals will have a role in the future - sheep for wool and milk, pigs for manure, ducks, geese and hens for eggs, horses for farm work, goats for milk etc. But the mad waste of energy and the pure nastiness and unhealthyness of a meat diet will ensure that modern farms will do the right thing and stop exploiting animals and mistreating them. And as for the current crop of farmers? y Destined for the scrapheap, unless they can keep ahead and change their ways.

the scum is coming home to roost

2010-04-30T11:18:00.003+01:00

The south of the USA is poised for a huge environmental disaster in the shape of a state-sized oil slick that has spilled out of a dead oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

We need to wean ourselves off oil NOW! It's running out in any case and only the countries that start decoupling from this muck will survive in the 21st century. Why the USA persists in exploiting this filth is a mystery to me - Saint Obama is even planning MORE offshore oil rigs. Is everyone in the USA a cretin or are they so nihilistic that they just don't care?

Over the next few weeks we're going to see nasty images of oiled seabirds and worse - totally innocent victims of moronic humanity's need to cling on to the past.

If any good comes from this it can only be the realisation that the price of oil - both morally and economically - will soon be out of our reach.

The disastrous Green Party needs to drop their idiotic worship of 'Climate Change' and start to realign their policies to deal with the real threat - Peak Oil. All UK parties need to clearly identify the need to switch from oil to sustainable energy sources over the next ten years. At the moment only the BNP are even talking about it!

plan b

2010-04-28T13:01:00.001+01:00

I absolutely love the new Plan B album, but I find it pretty odd that suddenly everyone knows him! I saw him live a couple of years ago in Bristol, and 'Who Needs Actions When You've Got Words' was always playing somewhere in the background. He followed that with the bootleg 'Paint it Blacker' (we've got a signed copy) which had some great tracks on. Now he's gone and totally reinvented himself and reveals he's probably got the best white soul voice since Dusty Springfield.

So once again Plan B is everywhere. This will definitely be THE sound of the summer!

earth day - and political upheaval

2010-04-22T19:48:00.001+01:00

It's Earth Day but Bristol's more caught up with the goings on at the Arnolfini, where the bland and identical 'leaders' of three of Britain's least relevant political parties are going to chat for an hour or so.

A carefully hand-picked audience will fire bland, unimportant questions at the three non-entities, and probably pop over the other side of water for something to eat and drink afterwards.

What galls me is the way that here, in the heart of OUR city, police are walking around with sub-machine guns. It's not what life's about and it shouldn't be allowed. This is Britain, not bloody downtown Baghdad, and this sort of macho, 1950s posing makes me sick.

So I'll be glad when this little jaunt is over and Bristol, and Britain, can get on with the things that matter in life.

naturism on bristol's doorstep

2010-04-21T20:35:00.001+01:00

Ridgewood is the closest naturist site to Bristol and we've been members for about three years now. This is the recently created garden feature by the patio.

Overall look at the site with the small pool in the background.

Our very own 'chalet' in the grounds, close to the trampoline and miniten court.

What happens when a deer takes a liking to your Christmas tree!

Naturists are probably the coolest people on the planet. And Ridgy is probably one of the coolest sites of all - and all on Bristol's doorstep. It is a bit basic, and that's part of its charm, but we have big plans for the coming years. The land is now held in perpetuity for naturism by the limited company we set up last year, so is totally secure. There are even a few places available this year - if you're a naturist or want to give it a try please look at the website for more details.

harbourside circular

2010-04-19T20:57:00.001+01:00

Outside Cafe Gusto.

The little ferry across to the SS Great Britain.

Steam train on the Bristol Harbour Railway.

Hoarding outside the new museum.

We took a circular tour of the harbourside on Saturday under the bluest sky you'll ever see (thanks to the volcano). On the way we stopped at Caffe Gusto which does an excellent range of paninis and salads. Then across on the ferry to the SS Great Britain. There was a smell of steam on both sides, the Bristol Harbour Railway was running. Then back past the new museum which is getting closer to opening every day. Bristol had a seriously continental feel!

peaches and scream

2010-04-18T16:20:00.001+01:00

This was the ribbon cutting ceremony at the opening of the rainforest kids' waiting room at Southmead outpatients department on Thursday. Among the guests were the chief executive of Southmead/Frenchay, the High Sheriff and top brass from John Lewis, who donated lots of toys.

High Sheriff Peaches Golding attempted to overcome her fear of spiders by allowing a tarantula from Bristol Zoo to touch her hand. It was great fun!

All in all an excellent day and probably a nice break for many of our visitors from either the more onerous duties of high office or the stress of bringing kids to hospital.

funderworld

2010-04-17T17:49:00.002+01:00

Best fun in Bristol this weekend is Funderworld - not just the yukky rides but the big tent with food, drink and entertainment. We went up in the week, the day before the volcano, with the sun setting behind the chairoplanes. Great stuff!

feet on the ground

2010-04-16T16:51:00.002+01:00

About the only thing moving through the air at the moment are the kids on theh Chairoplane at Bristol's Funderland.

We've now had two days without aeroplanes roaring overhead and isn't it brilliant? This is a glimpse into the future if ever there was one. The air industry is in serious decline with rising fuel costs, pig-headed 1970s style staff and a 7% fall in tourist traffic over the last year. Several airlines have already shut down. Continental is stopping all flights from Bristol from November. Airports are beginning to be under-utilised, and things will only get worse for them.

As the airlines falter, and as the climate continues to heat up, perhaps the British will finally realise that we don't need to go abroad for all the things we want from a holiday? We're having four holidays this year involving flying but I can't see us doing the same next year.

wolf man

2010-02-13T12:43:00.001Z

The Wolfman is an excellent film. If you ever saw the original with Lon Chaney Jnr you won't be disappointed and if you're new to gothic horror remakes you won't be disappointed either!

Benifio del Toro is perfect as Lawrence Talbot, with the necessary hangdog expression and hard done by aura. And a real treat is Hugo Weaving, an actor with such presence that you can't be sure he hasn't made a pact with the devil, if such a fellow existed.

There are lovely echoes of other films, the original Wolfman of course, a few nods in the direction of An American Werewolf in London, little Silence of the Lambs touches and much recreational defenestration a la Father Ted.

Great fun and a good, daft, story.

Disney's A Christmas Carol

2009-12-24T19:39:00.001Z

Last night we watched the 1951 Alistair Sim Scrooge. Tonight we did our traditional trip to the pictures and watched the Disney version, featuring cartoons.

It really is a very good film. Americanisms hardly enter at all. Some of the camera angles are fantastic. I love the way the characters actually have the facial features of the actors voicing them.

Dickens is one of Britain's few genius writers. He was the Jim Morrison of his age, being both critically and popularly acclaimed, a master of his art. And A Christmas Carol is one of his best works. It's been done many times and will probably be done many times again.

Go on then, have a great Christmas/Yule!

newes 10.11.90 - 20.12.09

2009-12-20T15:15:00.001Z

We had to have Newes put to sleep today. She'd made it to 19 so had done very well but over the last couple of weeks she'd become very frail and by yesterday could hardly walk, and was looking very sorry for herself.

She'd adopted me from the start, and I'd always wanted a black cat. My first sight of her was with her four sisters in a bread tray in a very cold Leadhills back in 1990. She used to chase me around the kitchen.

When I moved back to England I had to take the five cats in various carriers, with Newes in a cardboard box. She escaped within ten miles and spent the next four hundred miles sitting on my lap! She's had a great and varied life, living in the hills of Scotland, down on the south coast, up in the hills again at Horningsham and finally in Bristol.

Bottom shot is her (background) going out in the snow in about March 1991. Her sister Pyewackett is in the foreground and is still going strong!

A serious man

2009-12-20T00:49:00.001Z

The latest Coen Brothers film is one of those where you're dropped into someone's life then drop out again at the end, not being 100% sure what you've seen but sure that you have seen something pretty brilliant. I picked up a bit of Yiddish and Hebrew, always a bonus. The film's set in 1967 and captures the atmosphere brilliantly. There are some excellent comic moments throughout the film and all the professionals are totally hopeless, so you do wonder whether the hanging ending, where Larry's doctor calls him in right away to discuss his x-rays is as ominous as it sounds. One of the ten best films of 2009.

real action

2009-12-08T09:38:00.001Z

Guerrilla Gardening

On Sunday 13th December the Transition Bath Food Group will be working on a piece of land in Lansdowne at the top of Park Street. Bring gloves, spades, forks, secateurs. We will start at 10.00 and work for a couple of hours to clear the land. Once this is done we will plant fruit bushes for anyone to harvest. This is one of the many steps we plan to take to plant edible food on spare land in and around Bath. Just turn up and join in. If you want to know more about where it is contact Lynn on 01225 426 039

crumbling walls

2009-11-09T11:06:00.001Z

(Berlin 1989)

It's now twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down. As far as I'm concerned this was the most important event in European history.

I visited Berlin in December 1989. The Wall was still there, East Germany still existed and try as I might I couldn't get through to the east as UK citizens could then only use Checkpoint Charlie. So there was still a touch of the old ways about. I stared through from West Berlin into East Berlin and the contrast was incredible.

I'd never doubted the superiority of capitalism over socialism but if I had done that moment would have set it in stone for me.

You probably notice my disdain of socialism on this site. I detest ANY system that deprives people of their freedom. I particularly detest those socialists that have tried to hijack the green movement. The two ideas couldn't be more different. I've had to attack Bristol Greens for letting this scum in. Given the chance these fuckers would build walls around all of us, keeping ideas and prosperity out.

Socialism will never return but the little nastinesses that so defined them will struggle on for some time yet. If you ever feel tempted by the ideas of these maniacs just remember the Berlin wall.

dignitas

2009-10-29T08:51:00.001Z

Poor Dignitas in Zurich are going to be very busy over the next few weeks.

Tens of thousands of postmen are about to commit suicide between now and Yule, under the whip of their union, the CWU.

To hear their fuhrer talk today about strike breakers was sickening. They are now targetting the brave casual workers who are being brought in to clear the backlog that the lazy fuckers have left. Of course the postmen want to do this work themselves - as OVERTIME!!

The management are being far too soft with their lazy soon-to-be ex-employees. Why not bring in 100,000 casual workers and sack ALL the postmen who have been striking? It may mean a few weeks of disruption as the newcomers learn the ropes, but will it be any worse than the disruption the idiot CWU are threatening.

What sickens me is the way the postmen have absolutely no pride in their work. They should be ashamed of themselves if even a single letter or parcel is held up. We, as consumers, should be able to claim every last penny lost to these morons, through the union funds and when they have all gone through the PO pension pot.

But of course the strike will soon start breaking down. Even the gormless postmen will realise that they ain't going to have any sort of Christmas if they keep losing pay. And I suspect that soon a few posties will be getting serious beatings from decent folk, once this starts actually affecting people.

And just think how many jobs this (in)action will lose - far more than any that will be lost to modernisation. So many businesses will discover the alternatives which are generally faster and cheaper than the PO that they will NEVER return to the post office.

This is the biggest mass suicide since Jonestown.

thick griffin - the end of a career

2009-10-24T19:21:00.001+01:00

Britain's reality today - people of all races, all getting on. And Britain so much better for it.

Thick Griffin will NEVER get to this position. No charisma, no intelligence, no charm.

And when the BNP actively push a FOREIGN religion - christianity - their credibility suffers. They are NOT British.

SA Mann Brand would have kicked the shit out of Griffin.

So the BBC, despite the best efforts of the crypto-fascist left wing scum trying to prevent free speech, finally allowed Thick Griffin on Question Time. It was a master stroke - he was totally destroyed by the Isthmian Leaque intellectuals they wheeled out. Bonnie Greer picked him up, tickled his tummy, wound him up and put him back down, an empty husk.

And as for Thick bringing up Churchill - what a joke! Churchill is a prime example of the benefits of mixed blood. His American mother introduced lots of lovely non-British blood to him, including Sioux Indian. Of course Thick was too stupid to know this, and he walked straight into Bonnie's trap.

Right wing politics is NOT about race, but about creating a different world view opposed to the sickly, consumerist, non-heroic left wing one. We NEED a strong, genuinely right wing and obviously non-racist party. Perhaps the post-Thick Griffin BNP will become that party, who knows? They are scrapping the hilarious and self-defeating racist entry rules. Apparently half their membership is non-racist. There's something to work with.

And as for Griffin being a Nazi - that is an insult. Hitler was probably the most successful politician in history. The Nazi Party really did create a new world from the most unpromising beginnings. They brought in the world's first animal protection and environmental laws. They even attempted to outlaw smoking - how cool is that? They tried to create a genuine European political system drawing on Europe's folk roots, our Pagan heritage and a feeling of community first. They stupidly embraced racism which was the thing that destroyed them. But then I was brought up in a (Labour) racist household, and quickly learned how STUPID such ideas were.

As the environmental crisis deepens the left will fall apart and politics everywhere will take a right wing path. Not a racist path, there is no future in that. But borders will toughen up, consumerism will be a thing of the past and nations - probably nations far smaller than most of those that exist today - will build their own communities, with little regard to events happening outside of the nation state. Spectacle and community spirit and coolness will once again be part of the daily diet. We may even see the swastika flutter again over much of Europe, but it won't be a Thick Griffin sort of backwards-looking nationalism but that of a dynamic, inclusive and modernist sustainable national community state, more in keeping with National Socialism's original vegan, Pagan and libertarian ethos.

Thick Griffin would not even understand any of this.

BBC - shame of britain

2009-10-20T16:45:00.001+01:00

Leadhills.

Littlehampton.

Hartcliffe.

Did you see that disgraceful BBC programme last night?

I still can't believe that such rubbish masquerading as journalism was actually broadcast.

The synopsis was - take two middle class British people with dark skin, plonk them into one of the tightest-knit working class areas of Bristol, get them wandering around with weird clothes on and acting stupid to the gangs of kids who, rightly, regard the streets as THEIR territory, and wait for sparks to fly. Inevitably some of the thicko kids reacted and threw stuff at the toffs.

Conclusion - working class people in tight-knit communities don't take kindly to middle class toffs goading them, all for entertainment.

BBC's conclusion - racism is rife in Bristol. All Bristolians get tarred with the same brush. A few hate sites are set up on Facebook and a few kids get a hiding from their parents for showing up the neighbourhood.

This was NOTHING to do with racism but everything to do with community. You have to live here and be part of the community for years before you are accepted. The residents think, quite rightly, that you need to prove yourself.

These whingeing toffs did everything they could to goad those kids, then ran to the police to tell tales. Two of the kids have been taken into community care. Does that make the BBC proud?

One of the named girls has four friends in common with Debs on Facebook. Turns out her mum died recently. There's nothing racist in her Facebook and Bebo pages.

But probably the very worst thing that this show did was to try to blame the BNP for all this. Absolute drivel! None of these kids would even know who the BNP were - they'd be considered just as much toffs and outsiders as the two reporters. We all know Thick Griffin is on Question Time this Thursday. The BBC are trying to stir up trouble, and they think we're too stupid to spot it.

I was brought up in Littlehampton which was and still is a scary place if you're not from there. Think the Falls and Shankhill in 1978, but with added knives.

I spent five years in Leadhills, a Scottish village up in the Lowther Hills south of Glasgow. There was real anti-English racism there, but once you'd been there a few years it went. People finally accepted you because you'd proved you had a link to the place.

These knobheads spent six weeks in Southmead. Six weeks!!

And if the luvvies at the BBC had picked on Hartcliffe rather than Southmead then no doubt they would have found the same feral and ignorant - but hardly racist and certainly not BNP - kids here. The story would have been the same.

going postal

2009-10-15T18:59:00.001+01:00

So the idiot postmen and women are going on strike are they?

They are absolute scum and anyone striking or feigning illness next week should be immediately sacked with no compensation. The PO has to modernise to compete with couriers. Yet these communist scum are OPPOSED to modernisation.

It's ridiculous. We have mass unemployment. Their work hardly needs brains. At Yule even students work as postmen with a day or two's training. Sack them and send a message to other far left nostalgists that the world has changed forever.

Any postal worker that does strike next week should hang their head in shame, and be run out of their homes. They are morons.

republican commies in the US - your time has passed

2009-09-08T17:46:00.001+01:00

First they had Sarah Palin. Then George Bush showed us all that he was the biggest commie ever when he bailed out the banks and dinosaur car companies. Remember that many republicans even believe in 'god' and 'creationism'. These people ae SICK.

Then it all got wiped out by Obama, a hero of the right. He stands for all the things decent people believe in. Individual responsibility, business, education, culture, a decent society.

Today he gave a keynote speech to kids that they should stay at school and educate themselves. He warned that if they drop out they will end up as useless, commie, benefit SCUM.

So how do the republicans react? By claiming that this is spreading SOCIALISM!!!

We need to nuke every republican hippy on the planet, the same way we got rid of the commies. Republicans no doubt believe that kids should leave school at 11, read their bible (if they are indeed able to read), take drugs, smoke and claim their dole money every fortnight. Republicans are the last commies on earth, and should be culled. They want us all to be useless and pathetic.

If you are a republican and you've found this site - FUCK off and crawl under a stone with your benefits-claiming hippy christian commie scum friends. You are already dead. Sieg Heil.

barely believable

2009-09-03T12:35:00.001+01:00

Over the last couple of days it's been all over the news.

'Giant oilfield discovered in the Gulf of Mexico!!!'

Shell shares go up 2% on the day. Peak Oil is over!

There was no mention of the size of this oilfield so I did some searching.

Amazingly this 'giant' oilfield, the saviour of globalisation and the rubbishing of Peak Oil is expected to produce - wait for it!!! - 600 million to 900 million barrels of oil. In other words, at current consumption rates (about 82 million barrels a day), 11 days worth!!

This says a lot about how deep the crisis is. That such a tiny and inconsequential find should set the markets alight and warrant 2nd or 3rd headline on the news shows how serious our situation is.

This is the biggest find this year. To keep the oil flowing we really need to make a discovery as large as this every fortnight ...

the age of stupid!!

2009-09-01T10:10:00.001+01:00

Last month, for the first time, more money was paid back in mortgages than paid out.

Unbelievably the BBC were reporting this as BAD news! This is the best economic news I've heard in months. It means that individuals and families are at last claiming their lives back, gaining control over their own economic future.

When will the BBC and other leftist snivellers realise the world has changed? That their wonderful proletarian equal socialist consumer hell is beginning to wind down? That the hold over normal people of these great social reformist bankers is beginning to fade, that the move towards strong local communities financed through hard work and thrift rather than borrowing is gaining pace every day.

The financial crises of 2007 were not only the death knell for globalisation but for consumer socialism too. We're gaining more freedom every day.

nobody does it better

2009-08-08T12:34:00.002+01:00

We're constantly told that political parties are not taking the coming energy crunch seriously, but this is a quote from a leaflet pushed through our door last night.

Could any of us have said it better or clearer? Notice no mention of the current cover-up story of Climate Change.

You'll possibly be surprised that this is from a BNP leaflet. The rest of the leaflet was pure old Labour, but this caught my eye. It's interesting that the BNP are now active somewhere as remote (and white!) as Hartcliffe. This suggests their organisation is growing fast. This is probably the one part of the leaflet that will not particularly appeal to voters here. All the guff about British jobs for British workers, pulling out of the EU and nationalising everything probably will.

I suspect that as things get harder people in all countries will start adopting a more BNP approach to foreigners, that there will be attempts to pull up the drawbridge. I'd been arguing for this for years in the Green Party but they are even more old Labour than the BNP so it fell on deaf ears. Nothing to do with racism of course, but everything to do with protecting the people (of ALL colours) who were already here.

There'll never be a BNP government of course, but more and more politicians will begin to see the drawbridge approach in a shrinking economy as a sensible move. The biggest danger is if the BNP lift their ban on 'non-indigenous' people joining the party, and we get lumbered with more unworkable old Labour policies, but even New Labour are starting to do that!

balloons over bristol

2009-08-08T12:15:00.001+01:00

Early yesterday morning I was hauled out of bed at some unearthly hour to 'see the balloons'. It was almost worth it! Then yesterday evening at a friend's house in north Bristol we saw more balloons.

Now here's a form of transport that may survive Peak Oil. It existed well before oil was discovered so it's pretty odds on that they will survive the post-oil period. So even in fifty years time a few favoured people will get to see what the Earth looks like from the sky.

social history

2009-07-28T16:27:00.001+01:00

Digital photography should mean that these early years of the 21st century should be incredibly well recorded. 20 or 30 years ago I used to take photos whenever I could but it wasn't cheap and nowhere near as easy as today. It did have the plus side that I've got hard copy (including negatives) of everything and, because of the cost, most photos were worth having!

But look at the average photo today. Kids tend to fill the screen when they take a shot, usually posing. There's none or very little background. All this info will be lost. Most of the images will not survive. Many that do will have no interest to anybody.

I always used to try to set my family shots into a social history background. Even record shots were of the everyday, rather than the unusual. I also tried to catch atmosphere whenever I could.

At the time I had no idea what I'd do with these shots. But already they are historic. They trigger loads of memories on various Facebook groups and on Panoramio. I'm really glad I took them! And I've got a huge resource for blog posts!

back

2009-06-10T10:21:00.001+01:00

That was a bloody long shopping trip!

This is a bit of a catch up. Yes, I voted for Ricky in the end, but he still didn't get in. Instead we're stuck with 6 irrelevancies in the south west, but at least there's no Labour member!

We've had a ridiculous strike here over the last few weeks with binmen striking for a pay RISE. In the end they actually got it, though why nobody knows. We made the local papers with our own strike back at the hippies, creating a huge pile of rubbish outside our houses, then contacting the papers. It was cleared the next day - local initiative or what?

Now the tube drivers in London are striking for an obscene 5% RISE. These fuckers START on £40,000 a year!! Who earns that sort of money?? So the roads are blocked, we're wasting yet more fuel (petrol/diesel rather than electric) and yet more inefficiency gets built into this dying system.

Over everything hangs that 'one-eyed Welsh idiot', Nick Griffin. For all his party's daft 1960s racial drivel, they have been elected on a fair vote. So what makes the far-left unwashed scum think they have the right to chase him off? Their disgraceful display yesterday was probably the biggest recruiting tool the BNP now have in their armoury. And who were the fuckers behind it? Those crypto-fascist scum, UNITE. The very same union that earlier this year staged racist wildcat strikes at various sites in the UK with their Love Thy Neighbour cry of 'British Jobs for British Workers' (now cleverly purloined by the BNP) - and, amazingly, were also behind the idiot binmen strike in Bristol.

Thanks Nick for flushing out the true enemies of democracy. Once the BNP drops its ridiculous rule that black Brits can't join - and it will - they will become a GENUINE alternative to the establishment backwards-looking parties who now infest us.

dilemma

2009-05-26T11:49:00.000+01:00

It's the European elections next Thursday.

It's left me in rather a dilemma. Unusually I actually know one of the candidates quite well. Ricky Knight (above) would be my obvious choice I suppose. But he's being trodden on by his stupid party. The Green Party has changed completely from when I joined it in the 1980s. It was a genuinely radical party, interested in individual freedom, small scale business and solving the climate crisis. It's no longer any of these things. It has been TOTALLY infiltrated by left wing scum fleeing from old Labour and even more sinister 'parties'. It is dying from within. It is not prepared to face genuine challenges such as increasing population, immigration and the destruction of personal liberty. And why should it? As a left wing party it is now supporting the class struggle, poverty and centralisation. It has even done deals with the vile 'Respect' 'Party' in Bristol, carving up seats, clearly believing that they are targetting the same loser lefty demographic. I HATE losers. I HATE benefit scroungers, whingers, parasites and people who are in a position of power because of family connections (royal family scum) or nepotism (everywhere). We need to live in a complete meritiocracy.

(More to follow - I'm off shopping ...)

idiot nostalgists

2009-05-23T14:32:00.001+01:00

Oh dear. Our dustmen didn't collect the bins yesterday. You won't believe why not ...

These wankers are striking for a pay ... RISE!

Yes, we have deflation, mass unemployment and a severe recession but these neanderthal socialist twats seem to think a pay rise is a right.

Elsewhere, in the real world, many workers are taking pay cuts, which is only right under deflation. Our council house rent has just been REDUCED.

Now, I may be wrong, but doesn't the average dustman live in a council house? So why with falling rent and falling prices should these toads not get a pay cut like everyone else?

If this council had any teeth it would sack the lot of them. This isn't the 1970s ...

what's important

2009-05-04T11:35:00.000+01:00

For too long Western society has been on autopilot. We have come to respect material possessions, credit cards, social status and job titles as more important than character, intelligence or strength. The result is that our society slowly eats itself from within because, discontent with what it has become, it knows no other option.

Politics has come to mean a convenient way of constructing public positions that attract human interest. It does not address decay on such a fundamental level that it corrupts all that it touches. Right or left, black or white, and anything inbetween can agree that our society has thrown caution out the window and gone wholeheartedly into whoredom for money.

Our heroes these days are people who make the tabloids and sell many CDs, movies or books on the basis of their popularity and sex appeal. These factors are in turn carefully managed by industries which derive much profit from this practice, and we cheer them on as well, because there's nothing more praiseworthy than rising from nothing to be wealthy and important, at least in liberal democracies in America and Europe.

While our societies have slowly collapsed from within, we've been distracted by all the things we can buy and the perceived freedom we have, if we just give ourselves over enough to the process of earning money that we can get fanatical about it and earn a small pile. It's mine, get away. There is no higher law than this in the modern society. A home is a castle, and disposable income is for the pleasure of the individual.

For too long "get a job and earn money and work everything else out later" has been the dominant attitude of our society, creating people who function stiffly and inoffensively during the day, but at night go home to alcohol abuse, Internet pornography, drug habits and unhappy marriages. Since what defines character is earning money, our ideal of character is someone submissive to social will while quietly earning enough money to escape society.

Employees hide neuroses and secret desires behind function and feel a secret need for power. They exert it from their families and social groups, seeking to dominate in a time when dominance in any form except that of earning money is frowned upon. Their public faces grow more bland as their private dysfunctions become more bizarre and twisted. Does child molestation occur in every society? Assuredly. But does it happen this much in every society?

You can spend years reading philosophy and politics, trying to find out "where we went wrong." But to me, it's very clear that once money became the only value we had in common, our societies began degenerating. If everything can be for sale, it will soon be sold, and then the power of the individual is only dictated in terms of money. Forests are consumed, families are broken up, and the way we see each other takes on the sinister coloring of intent to manipulate.

This site has many excellent political ideas for you to read and think about. But what I have to tell you today is that in order for any sensible change to occur, we have to abandon this addiction to money at the expense of all else. It's fine to earn a living and have a place in society. But it can't be the only thing we all believe in, or we will come to serve it as, for too long, we have.

Source.

setting themselves up for the cull

2009-04-19T11:30:00.001+01:00

The socialists' idea of the rich.

Dinosaurs driving cars unselfconciously are the real enemy.

These people have the right idea - but only when there's a larger, tolerant society to support them.

Recent events in 'London' have made me rethink my attitude to the police yet again. The film of that 'sergeant' hitting an unarmed, tiny, female protestor was a fucking disgrace. Every policeman and woman should hang their head in shame that such scum are allowed in the force. And as for the unprovoked attack on a totally innocent newspaper seller that led to his death - the whole force needs to rethink its tactics. It's even been claimed that diabetics who were 'kettled' were not allowed access to insulin. That's disgusting and if true should bring the wrath of every decent person who wants a better society down on the police.

I did both Poll Tax Riots. Arch socialist Thatcher had to go and I'm glad I helped bring the bitch down. I saw the police tactics there, not dissimilar to those used in London again last month. I've nothing against the police cracking open the skulls of leftist filth who go only to make trouble, but the Climate Change protests were something we ALL have to support. The anti-capitalist scum that latched on to the demo should have stayed away. They should fade away altogether.

I can't understand why the lefties have tried to tack themselves on to the Green movement. They have infiltrated the Green Party (see recent post) and now try to barge in on genuine demos.

This following post to a friend's facebook helped a little.

It is so depressing that a bunch of greedy super rich wankers have the power to kill our Mother Earth even while the rest of us protest, vote, etc etc. Nothing we do within the system seems to evict these parasites. I'm growing my own food here and living as simply as possible, what else can one do? I'd like to tax the rich at 90% globally (no offshore escape funds) and use the money to alleviate world poverty and to live sustainably. How HARD can it be??? What is it going to take to break the stranglehold of the greedy????

What absolute childish unthought-out drivel. Lets dissect it.

It is so depressing that a bunch of greedy super rich wankers have the power to kill our Mother Earth even while the rest of us protest, vote, etc etc.

'Power' is not really held by a bunch of rich people but, mainly, by elected politicians. To retain power they need to give people what they want. Sadly, in most cases, this equates to more material things (which DO in most cases damage the earth, in embedded energy, material waste and pollution). All business people do is fill these needs. Unless you vote Green (and REAL Green, not leftist-infiltrated Green) you are supporting this system.

Nothing we do within the system seems to evict these parasites.

Intemperate RUBBISH. The parasites are the millions of people who live on others. Benefits types, the royal family, the established churches, politicians, local government officers, even in the strictest leftist sense of the word the young and old who do not work. Businesspeople are NOT parasites. They are living the life most people give up when they are still at school, happy to just be cogs in a huge machine, safe, comfortable and with few worries. Businesspeople are HEROES, not villians. Without them we would have nothing.

I'm growing my own food here and living as simply as possible, what else can one do?

This is excellent news, and is the best way you can attack this system and prepare for an energy-constrained future. This sentence goes totally against the grain of the rest of the rant.

I'd like to tax the rich at 90% globally (no offshore escape funds) and use the money to alleviate world poverty and to live sustainably.

Would you? Well fuck off. You'd have nobody starting businesses. We'd all happily live off the crumbling state. There would be starvation, war and no health care. Sounds like 1930s Soviet Union LOL! Offshore tax havens should be protected, they provide employment for many of the people that live there, and attacks on them is nothing but bullying. Trust a lefty to support it. Tax is evil anyway, except on purchases. We should be allowed to retain what we earn and choose our own level of taxation by choosing how we spend it. We need LESS taxation, not more. That incidentally would be an excellent way of stopping the tax havens! Alleviating world poverty would not happen if you introduced punitive levels of taxation, everybody would be worse off.

People can not aspire to developed world levels of wealth - it would destroy the planet. We're going to all have to live simpler, less materialistic lives. And billions will also have to die off I'm afraid, if the Earth is to have a chance. I'd rather those billions were made up of parasites than hard working and innovative businesspeople.

How HARD can it be???

Oh, give it up you whingeing twat. If it was easy surely we'd have done it by now. The Soviet Union and its puppets tried it and look what happened. Power was held by an elite, people were imprisoned in their own countries, nastiness and intrique ruled and the environment was shattered. Is that what you want again?

What is it going to take to break the stranglehold of the greedy????

Well, not a bunch of middle class lefties who've identified the wrong enemy for a start! Let's dissolve politics, that would get rid of a lot of them. Let's starve the real parasites. Reduce the oppressive tax burdens we currently have and let true Green business flourish. Build sustainability into everything we do, throw out christianity and bring in Paganism. Break up the big countries - USA, China, Russia etc. Teach kids to grow and sew, fish and shoot, teach them the value of heroics and self sacrifice rather than self self self. That would be a start.

And let's use all lefties and tories as fertilizer!

morphing heroes

2009-04-18T23:41:00.001+01:00

Heinrich Himmler.

Tupac Shakur.

I always wondered what would happen if my two greatest heroes were to be morphed into one person. The great National Socialist Heinrich Himmler managed - despite his feeble eyesight, keen interest in philately and chickens and inability to really ever carry a military uniform well - to rise to the top of his party and bring joy to millions in the process.

My other great hero is Tupac, who along with creating some of the finest music in the nineties also became a keen gardener and an inspiration to others.

So when I discovered morph and match I put 'em in to see if my theory - that morphing these two would create Barack Obama - would be proved correct.

Not a chance - I came up with this!

get ricky knight elected

2009-04-16T16:39:00.001+01:00

Don't waste your vote on 4 June. Use it to get Ricky Knight elected as Green MEP for the South West. Try to get involved with the campaign, encourage your friends to vote and join this Facebook group!

Whilst much Green work does need to be done locally some of the more important policy making does, sadly, have to be at the international level. It's essential that as many Green MEPs as possible are doing this thankless job.

Ricky's a great bloke, quite unlike the careerist politicians who think of the EU as a gravy train. Get him in!!

south bristol car share

2009-04-15T17:42:00.000+01:00

Want to help the environment and save money? Want to help reduce road traffic and pollution?

If you live in south Bristol like me here's your chance to help make the future work ....

the death of the green party

2009-04-15T11:59:00.003+01:00

I've been hearing some very interesting and disturbing stuff from local Bristol Green Party friends. It appears that the Green Party in Bristol are talking about discussing the possibility of trying to do deals with a shabby outfit called 'Respect', carving up wards in Bristol and offering not to stand against each other. If true this would be a disaster.

What on Earth does the Green Party have in common with a rag-tag bunch of whingeing London middle-class lefties?? Nothing, as far as I can see.

But, apparently, they are like twins. People will happily vote for either. Well, I wouldn't. If I found a 'Respect' Party candidate in Hartcliffe I'd probably turn the community gun on them. At the very least they would get a serious kicking. That's if somebody else decent hadn't beaten me to them ...

I HATE socialism. It was a system devised by middle-class losers to punish successful people. In all its forms, wherever it has sprung up, it has brought nothing but poverty, ignorance and often death. From Lenin through Hitler and Thatcher to Blair and Bush, socialists have laid the world bare. The fact is that the world would be a better place without politicians and politics. It has created this mad consumer society, taken away our historic freedoms and has hampered business development. It tries to mould us all as perfect, consuming, citizens. It throws us madness like christianity, Gareth Gates and soaps, it tries to shepherd our kids into the whole industrial treadmill from the age of 5, keeping them indoors and teaching them stuff they'll never need. This is the sytem the Green Party supports.

Socialism only had an existence in a world where the economy could endlessly grow. Those days have finished, but Bristol Green Party don't seem to have noticed. To provide champagne for everybody, the socialists' stated aim, was impossible even in a growing economy, let alone a contracting one.

I've been a Green Party member on and off for 22 years. What attracted me originally was their radical vision. Yes, they had one once!! 'Neither left or right, but Green' was the slogan. No wonder we joined in droves.

That seems like a different world now. These new 'greens' want to do mad socialist stuff like renationalize the railways!! Railways should be owned by the communities and people they serve, not by the same sort of fucking bureaucrats that destroyed our system in the 60s. Barbara Castle, socialist, was the most evil sow ever. In fact there were even calls for me to be thrown out of the Green Party a few years ago because I dared to suggest they look at the local ownership idea for railways. Oh no, they wanted them to be run by distant civil servants. They even happily exhibit the authoritarian streak that socialists love.

I was brought up in a socialist family. I was taught to hate business, the royal family and foreigners. Foreigners started at Emsworth and Dorking. I still hate the royal family - more socialists living on the state rather than working for a living. Foreigners and business are cool.

And now the Green Party are considering (or at least talking about considering) disenfranchising large swathes of Bristol's voters. It would be like taking away a Mars Bar and replacing it with a pile of dog poo.

So the Green Party dies by its own hand, absorbed by the very socialist system that it originally set out to destroy. Perhaps all those environmental votes will go to the BNP ...

fear and loathing

2009-04-14T17:45:00.001+01:00

So people are now more 'fearful' than ever are they?

What fucking drivel.

And what are they fearful of? Drastic climate change, the end of cheap oil?

Are they fuck ...

They are worried about (LOL!) TERRORISM.

It's 2009. Terrorism was one of the first victims of this Depression. Terrorism was a bit of middle-class fun for middle-class twats. It was irrelevant in 1970, it is absolutely pointless now. Yet our leftie Daily Mail readers still take it all in, programmed by their glorious leader Brown, in the hope they'll meekly accept ID cards and more limits on our freedoms.

You gormless lower middle class sheep are pathetic. You should be ruthlessly culled. Now there's something else for you to be fearful of.

Imagine how healthy our society would be if we began to use selective culling of scum.

you fucking scum

2009-04-12T10:58:00.002+01:00

(Photos - Innsbruck 2009 - Pagan imagery rules in this nominally catholic country).

You will probably think I made this up, but I haven't. This appeared on AOL News this morning.

The Archbishop of York has attacked the "glory hunting" decision to stage two Premier League football matches on Easter Sunday.

John Sentamu joined other church leaders in saying the decision to play games showed disdain for the religious traditions of Britain.

His call comes after Premier League chief Richard Scudamore and Setanta director of sport Trevor East were accused of disregarding the importance of Easter Sunday and treading on the sensitivities of employees and football supporters in the name of profit.

Politicians have been asked to ban future matches on Easter Day.

What the fuck????????????

I know you have to be borderline special needs to entertain the madness of christianity, but surely even the christians don't think Easter is anything to do with their death worshipping 'religion'?

Easter is 100% Pagan. All the imagery, TRADITIONS and icons are Pagan. 100%. No arguments.

What this self-appointed 'archbishop' has to do with anything is beyond me. If they love this 'religion' so much why don't they fuck off to bloody Jerusalem and whinge over there?

These foreign scum have been treading on British religious traditions since they first set foot on our islands. How dare this idiot claim that playing football shows 'disdain for the religious traditions of Britain'!!!!!

This madness even goes as far as closing our local Morrisons ALL DAY today. Why????

Easter (or Ostara) is the celebration of the beginning of Spring. It happened on 21st March as it nearly always does. These morons try to steal OUR traditions and ruin them with their own death drivel, but in the end the Pagans will win and these scum will be shown the door.

Good luck to the footballers playing today. If you see the 'archbishop' try to knock his fucking pinhead off with a well aimed ball!

getting it wrong

2009-04-03T19:30:00.001+01:00

All this international gallavanting that our 'leaders' are currently boring us with is all well and good, but what really is the point?

You have crusty fuckers outside whingeing about capitalism and praising marxism missing the point totally. Marxism died in 1990, it's never coming back. And the 'problem' isn't capitalism, which is the finest economic system ever devised, but marxist-light politicians interfering with the market because they simply can't believe it's all over.

It's the availability of oil that is causing this crunch. Our leaders are floundering about trying to engineer a recession to hide the fact that Peak Oil has already hit us. The $140 a barrel oil price scared them shitless - the only outcome had to be a recession whilst they figured out what on earth they could do. The market was sending such a strong signal that the party was over that the consumer-lovers had to do something ...

They triggered a media circus that saw first hedge fund managers, then bankers, as the 'problem'. All the time the oil price was falling as was demand, which got the Saudis out of a hole as it can hide the fact that their oil wells are drying up. Our new breed of politicians - Obama, Brown, Sarkozy, Merkel et al - grin inanely as they see power flooding to them. Idiots like Brown continue to plan their anti-liberal measures such as ID cards so that as things break down, as the consumer dream is shattered, our benevolent masters can control us.

Fuck 'em all.

capitalism IS working

2009-04-01T12:31:00.001+01:00

Oh dear. The hippies and lefties have got their rotten teeth into a reasonable climate camp protest in London.

Why do lefties and hippies feel they have anything in common with climate change and peak oil types?

I left the Green Party because these oddballs think they can infiltrate the green movement, and a lot of (middle-class) greens are too fucking soft to beat them out of the movement.

No my soft chums, capitalism isn't dead. It's your fucking wonderful state interference that has caused all these problems. And what's your solution? More fucking moribund socialism.

Just go back to your mummys' and daddys' big houses in the shires and shut the fuck up!

custard the fucker!

2009-03-06T08:55:00.001Z

Well done Plane Stupid for custarding smug hippy lefty scum Peter Mandelson, the arch twat brought in by Gordon Brown to save his skin.

The woman who did it is on telly right now, and has been given around five minutes to put the climate change message over. A true heroine - and a decent, middle class person at that.

This is a generational thing. Young people out there have a grim future thanks to idiots like Mandelson, Lenin, Thatcher, Bush, Blair and all those other lefty creeps who think they know better than scientists. They are already suffering the first Peak Oil generated depression, they've got climate change horrors to come. They should show all these old fuckers, who have probably lived the easiest and most liberal lives since we switched from being hunter-gatherers, what they think of them.

Let's hope this is the start of a great generational conflict. I suspect custard won't be the sharpest weapon used in this war! I'm off to soak John of Whitchurch right now ...

aaahhh

2009-02-14T15:25:00.001Z

Poor John of Whitchurch won't believe it, but Australia has just had record breaking heat!

These two shots came from a customer in Australia and are unbelievably cute ...

a bullet for your thoughts ...

2009-02-13T17:22:00.001Z

This is nicked straight from Glenn Vowles' blog, apposite because the moron he quotes lives just down the road (in Whitchurch, or Lower Hartcliffe as we call it. 'Lower' represents their subhuman IQ).

John from Whitchurch seems to think that the brief spell of recent cold weather we’ve had in the UK is evidence that there is no global warming (‘Global warming? You must be joking’, Open Lines, Feb 12). Questioning of evidence is what science is all about and I’m all in favour of it. John seems not to have applied this principle to the evidence he uses however.

His evidence is only for a very, very short period of weeks and days. He refers to information only from the UK. Climate is about decades of changes not short term weather. Climatic change as now discussed, of which global warming is only one aspect (albeit very important), is a phenomenon which is global and which is tracked over geological time (hundreds, thousands and millions of years).

Has he considered whether the recent weather around the globe fits predictions made by the scientific ‘experts’ he scoffs at? Has he looked at patterns and trends over long periods of time and over large areas of the globe as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have in their independent work for the United Nations?

John very properly asks who these ‘experts’ are and what qualifications they have but this information has been very widely publicised for years now. The IPCC were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work last year! There is no doubt that the United Nations are served by very well qualified scientists as are hundreds of governments and thousands of businesses and scientific institutions all around the globe. They have all assessed the evidence and conclude that climate change is real, very serious and requiring urgent, large scale action! However, its not the fact that they are ‘experts’ that convinces me about climate change – it’s the fact that their central evidence and their expertise has passed continual and rigorous testing. This testing rightly continues to be an essential part of the problem solving process.

Glenn's too understanding and kind. To my mind anyone this stupid needs to be exterminated, as they have no use to us. Their idiotic left wing ideas will have no place in a new world - poor John would not even make it as a slave. Would you want him?

once in a lifetime

2009-02-07T16:38:00.001Z

You've got a once in a lifetime chance of seeing, on the big screen, the finest film ever made.

It's a full screen showing of the fantastic Moon and the Sledgehammer (in London unfortunately) with a question and answer session with the director, Philip Trevelyan, afterwards.

You owe it to yourself not to miss it!

bristol snow

2009-02-06T17:34:00.001Z

It's been an amazing week, with four big snowfalls hitting Bristol. This morning's was the heaviest with around 6 inches.

Pundits are aleady blaming climate change, and this does seem to fit the pattern. But it's not that different from 1947, 1963, 1979 or 1981 so perhaps there's nothing sinister about it.

But what it does show is how vulnerable we are. Forget comparisons with Switzerland, Finland, New England etc - that's not relevant. Those places get regular cold winters with lots of snow, and it's worth them spending plenty of money on protection. More to the point is how quickly regular activity can come to a halt. Imagine if this was Peak Oil!

But there's been a fun side too. Kids have been off school, adults haven't been able to get to work. Hartcliffe's been even friendlier than usual these last few days. We think we're above (and beyond) nature, but it's clear we're not.

ciao racists

2009-01-30T09:56:00.001Z

I was woken up by a big delivery, but in my half-asleep state I really thought I was dreaming when the news was running a story about lefties going on strike in the UK because 'foreign' workers were being employed taking 'British' jobs.

Well I wasn't dreaming and when I was fully awake I lost it!

I was brought up in a tough working class area in the 60s and racism was everywhere. But that was FORTY years ago.

Take a closer look at this. These workers aren't foreign, they are EU nationals (Italian and Portugese). They are not taking 'British' jobs - they are a skilled workforce employed by the Italian company that won the contract to do this construction work. Doubtless British companies tendered for this but weren't cheap/skilled enough.

When we were out in Switzerland in December a bunch of Essex lads sat next to us in the Mexican restaurant. They'd been out a few weeks working on a contract! So British people are doing the same thing in Europe, even OUTSIDE the EU!

So our dim lefty scum racist friends need to think this through.

Firstly the workers are EU nationals so there is no way we can stop them working in any case.

Secondly if this craven government did try to bring in some arcane anti-Free Trade rules then surely reciprocal arrangements would send tens of thousands of British workers back to the UK as their contracts were terminated?

Net result? A rise in UK unemployment.

Think it through you socialist scumbags and get back to work!