Tessa Munt MP seeks comment on Severn Barrage proposals....
Here
My comment......
.......
".....Actually, I thought the Select Committee report was pretty unequivocal ....
(Wiki)
"..... In June 2013 the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee published its findings after an eight month study of the arguments for and against the Barrage. MPs said the case for the barrage was unproven. They were not convinced the economic case was strong enough and said the developer, Hafren Power, had failed to answer serious environmental and economic concerns..."
I understand it has already been said that the project would destroy as many jobs as it would create.
Peter Hain has formed an All Party Parliametary Group (APPG). Promoting the interests of lobbyists, and healthy expenses for those involved. Seems a long way from Hain's younger days, fighting injustice and racism in South Africa.
The identities of those behind the the construction companies (Hafren Power) seem rather murky. My guess is one or more of hedge funds, or Asian and Arabian monies.
Hedge funds seldom really invest. They tend to look for large guaranteed cash flows. Or the opportunity to extract rather hefty dividends for shareholders. Usually fairly immediate ones.
The overwhelming likelihood is that project budget would at least double or treble. The project would only be attractive to the backers, murky or otherwise, if public money guaranteed their profits.
There are better uses for public monies.
.
Friday 23 August 2013
Thursday 8 August 2013
It's Still Summer
Well, thank goodness the temperature has dropped.
I've never really cared for the heat. Even when I worked abroad. I could cheerfully do large doses of running through jungle, wading through swamps, leeches fastened to my legs. Sweltering, massive humidity, the knowledge that of 17 native species of snake, only 16 were deadly poisonous.
I could do all of that, just so long as come the end of each day, I could be in a cool room, with the air-con set to Average British Summer. And a can of cold Tiger beer.
No relief here recently. One day, I was so zonked out, I could hardly raise the energy to fetch strawberries and ice cream from the kitchen.
Anyway, cooler now, and my mind turned to ......
GLIDING
Open day at Mendip Gliding Club. I drove up through Cheddar Gorge, and then circled round to their airfield above Draycott.
I'm an almost Gold Standard qualified glider pilot, though somewhat lapsed. As I watched the activity, I recalled what sparked my interest.
18 years old, on a working vacation with relatives in Wetherby, Yorkshire. One Sunday, we went to a nearby gliding club, at Rufforth. £2.50 each for a day's membership. That entitled us to push, and grunt, and pull gliders around the airfield for the day. And to have 2 flights.
Mine were in an open cockpit glider, side by side with an instructor. The full Biggles..., flying jacket, goggles. Whoosh of air, otherwise silence. Multi-hued patchwork of fields and their crops 1,500 feet below. Exhilaration and wonder.
The following day, I returned to my student work. Mixing concrete to resurface a rugby club cess pit. My sister wouldn't let me back in the house at the end of each day. I had to strip off in the back garden. Her English Setter, though, was absolutely ecstatic at the arrival of all these wonderful new smells right on his doorstep.
Fast forward 17 years. I worked as a freelance computer programmer. I'd just finished a 1 year contract in SW London, and worked the Saturday to tidy up odds and ends. Come lunchtime, as I ate my sandwich, feet up on the desk.., I thought... "What now..?". Suddenly that day from long ago appeared .
There is summer left. Still time to have a go.
Mendip Gliding
Clip filmed at Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons.
In Britain, most gliding is done by seeking out thermals, warm rising air. There is though, another kind.
When strong winds hit mountains, in addition to flowing over the mountain, they sometimes create shock waves of rising air which can reach heights of many thousands of feet.. These winds, typically North Westerly, start to arrive in Autumn.
This clip was filmed at Aboyne, on Deeside, Scotland. A course for pilots new to wave. They are at an altitude of about 7,000 ft ; see altimeter on the right of the instrument panel. The instructor helps them to position themselves in the wave. The rising beep notes indicate rising air, and that you're going up. The low drone means you are going down.
A Gliding Club Near You
Just to add...
One of my flying instructors was a man named Derek Piggott. He also worked as a stunt pilot in films. 'Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines'., 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'The Red Baron'. He flew the parts of both German pilots in the bridge scene of 'The Blue Max'.
He was also a former aerobatics champion. I was never too keen on taking up aerobatics. I had this strange desire to be alive after a day's flying.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wi-Fi Comes To North Somerset Libraries
Meanwhile, over the border in Somerset, where libraries are among the most miserably funded in the country ( see post 'Truth, Smoke and Mirrors...) .
Councillors concentrate on getting re-elected.
The same County Councillors who voted, as a pack, to try to close down the libraries in our towns and villages, continue with their project of do-it-yourself public services. Except by another route. By cash bribes, through their local friends.
Do you ever feel that you are being treated like a child ?
I've never really cared for the heat. Even when I worked abroad. I could cheerfully do large doses of running through jungle, wading through swamps, leeches fastened to my legs. Sweltering, massive humidity, the knowledge that of 17 native species of snake, only 16 were deadly poisonous.
I could do all of that, just so long as come the end of each day, I could be in a cool room, with the air-con set to Average British Summer. And a can of cold Tiger beer.
No relief here recently. One day, I was so zonked out, I could hardly raise the energy to fetch strawberries and ice cream from the kitchen.
Anyway, cooler now, and my mind turned to ......
GLIDING
Open day at Mendip Gliding Club. I drove up through Cheddar Gorge, and then circled round to their airfield above Draycott.
I'm an almost Gold Standard qualified glider pilot, though somewhat lapsed. As I watched the activity, I recalled what sparked my interest.
18 years old, on a working vacation with relatives in Wetherby, Yorkshire. One Sunday, we went to a nearby gliding club, at Rufforth. £2.50 each for a day's membership. That entitled us to push, and grunt, and pull gliders around the airfield for the day. And to have 2 flights.
Mine were in an open cockpit glider, side by side with an instructor. The full Biggles..., flying jacket, goggles. Whoosh of air, otherwise silence. Multi-hued patchwork of fields and their crops 1,500 feet below. Exhilaration and wonder.
The following day, I returned to my student work. Mixing concrete to resurface a rugby club cess pit. My sister wouldn't let me back in the house at the end of each day. I had to strip off in the back garden. Her English Setter, though, was absolutely ecstatic at the arrival of all these wonderful new smells right on his doorstep.
Fast forward 17 years. I worked as a freelance computer programmer. I'd just finished a 1 year contract in SW London, and worked the Saturday to tidy up odds and ends. Come lunchtime, as I ate my sandwich, feet up on the desk.., I thought... "What now..?". Suddenly that day from long ago appeared .
On the Monday morning, I started my first gliding course.
Every person I've met who's done a trial flight in a glider has loved it.
Every person I've met who's done a trial flight in a glider has loved it.
There is summer left. Still time to have a go.
Mendip Gliding
Clip filmed at Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons.
In Britain, most gliding is done by seeking out thermals, warm rising air. There is though, another kind.
When strong winds hit mountains, in addition to flowing over the mountain, they sometimes create shock waves of rising air which can reach heights of many thousands of feet.. These winds, typically North Westerly, start to arrive in Autumn.
This clip was filmed at Aboyne, on Deeside, Scotland. A course for pilots new to wave. They are at an altitude of about 7,000 ft ; see altimeter on the right of the instrument panel. The instructor helps them to position themselves in the wave. The rising beep notes indicate rising air, and that you're going up. The low drone means you are going down.
A Gliding Club Near You
Just to add...
One of my flying instructors was a man named Derek Piggott. He also worked as a stunt pilot in films. 'Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines'., 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'The Red Baron'. He flew the parts of both German pilots in the bridge scene of 'The Blue Max'.
He was also a former aerobatics champion. I was never too keen on taking up aerobatics. I had this strange desire to be alive after a day's flying.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wi-Fi Comes To North Somerset Libraries
Meanwhile, over the border in Somerset, where libraries are among the most miserably funded in the country ( see post 'Truth, Smoke and Mirrors...) .
Councillors concentrate on getting re-elected.
The same County Councillors who voted, as a pack, to try to close down the libraries in our towns and villages, continue with their project of do-it-yourself public services. Except by another route. By cash bribes, through their local friends.
Do you ever feel that you are being treated like a child ?
Sunday 4 August 2013
The Alternative Richmal Crompton....
"Hold this..", said William, gruffly.
"Yeth pleathe..", breathed Violet Elizabeth.
"Yeth pleathe..", breathed Violet Elizabeth.
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