Come on Thérèse sort the sewers out!

Thérèse Coffey revealed her plans yesterday to clean up the sewage being dumped into the environment. Most people agree that her clean water plans are not hard hitting enough.

Feargal Sharkey, a campaigner on cleaning up our polluted rivers and beaches said “There was little in yesterday’s announcement to suggest that the government has a grip on the problem”.

So Thérèse, it’s time to toughen up the legislation, issue fines to the polluters that are big enough to be a deterrent rather than a slap on the wrist and ring fence the money collected in fines to upgrade the sewage network. It is not for you to give up on the problem and let the water companies pass the clean up costs onto the bill payers.

A Flying Shame

In 2019 8% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions came from domestic and international flights.

The UK government have made a pledge to have net zero aviation in place by 2050.

Under the the Jet Zero plan commercial airlines will have to use a sustainable replacement for jet engines.

Reaching Jet Zero will be a challenge to say the least.

Electric engines are not a viable option due to the weight of the batteries needed to produce the power to get an aircraft off the ground.

So the sustainable options lie with non-fossil fuels, all of which are far from perfect.

A report on these alternatives has just been published by The Royal Society and it is sobering reading. The four non-fossil fuels outlined in the report are as follows:

  • Bio fuels – these are made from crops such as rapeseed or poplar. However it “would require more than 50% of the UK’s available agricultural land to replace aviation fuels.”
  • Hydrogen – Hydrogen gas can extracted from water using electric current. “Producing enough ‘green’ hydrogen to replace current fossil aviation fuel would require around 2.4 to 3.4 times the UK’s annual renewable electricity generation (2020)”
  • Ammonia – ‘Green’ Ammonia production requires vast amounts of electricity – in fact “producing ‘green’ ammonia as a jet fuel would require 2.5 to 3.9 times the UK’s annual renewable electricity generation (2020).”
  • Synthetic Fuels – “When done sustainably using renewable electricity, this would require 5 to 8 times the UK’s 2020 renewable electricity capacity.”

The report also points out that there is not a full understanding of the impact of non-CO2 emissions from jet engines, and the formation of contrails, which currently contribute significantly to warming by aviation globally.

This should worry us all.

Laugh or cry

Talk about a blast from the past. I give you my first boss in the teaching profession. Former Secretary of State for Education, Kenneth Baker.

The now, Lord Baker of Dorking has been in the House of Lords for the past 26 years. Yesterday he got wheeled out onto Newsnight for his opinion on the teachers’ strike and the current batch of Tory ministers who break their own code of behaviour.

The poor bloke’s phone kept ringing during the interview. I thought Victoria Derbyshire handled it all pretty well.

Compare and Contrast.

A picture says more than 1000 words

Last week Rishi Sunak flew on a private jet to Leeds and back. He also did a quick trip to Scotland for lunch meeting with Nicola Sturgeon using the same method of transport. The taxpayer picked the tab for these two trips.

The “PM” clearly is doing his “green credentials” no good at all. Flying in private jets is not recommended by climate change experts

Meanwhile Greta Tuneberg was protesting in Germany against the expansion of a huge, lignite (brown coal), opencast mine.

Greta got arrested, but she was later released. Sunak got back in time for tea.

Update – The UK prime minister has continued to use a private jet at the taxpayer’s expense. Trips to Indonesia, Egypt, Latvia and Estonia have clocked up a bill over £500,000.

Meanwhile at the same time Sunak has been tearing round the globe his Government has halved Air Passenger Duty (APD) a decision which encouraged Ryanair to add an extra 9 domestic routes to its flight schedule.

It makes you want to weep.

It just goes on and on. Today the press is reporting that Sunak has used a private helicopter to fly from London to Southampton at tax payers expense. A journey that takes just over an hour by train and costs about 30 quid for a ticket.

Sir Grayson Perry.

Well done Grayson Perry. He is to be knighted for services to the arts.

His Art Club tv series on Channel 4 was a real tonic during lock down. It kept us all sane.

He is an artist who also makes a point of not charging admission to his exhibitions and visitors turn up in droves as a result.

It is a shame that a knighthood these days can be had by a Tory party donor for a bag of cash.

So it somewhat devalues the honour given to likes of Grayson Perry who earned it, rather than paid for it.

Sir Greyson’s knighthood is richly deserved and it also gives him the excuse to buy a brand new frock for when he goes to the Palace to get his gong.

Good on him!

Classic one liners……8

The Bristolian dialect can be confusing to a lot of people. 

Bristolians will often mispronounce words, or change their meaning. Just like those old boys down at the football  in a previous post.

My mate Jon tells the story where a group of work colleagues were arranging a lift share to another office.

During the discussion one of the girls pipes up with “We could all go in my car, but I don’t think it’s a good idea, as my driving is a bit erotic”

What was the Score?

4824C07300000578-5268925-image-a-45_1515970584236

Those that know me will know that I am a soccer nut and love following not only my team (Bristol Rovers), but the game in general. In the days before smart phones there were only a few ways that you could find out how your team had got on on that particular Saturday, unless you were actually at the match.

When I was teacher training in Leeds I would often walk into town and pick up a Sheffield Star Green Un at the Central Station. The last of these match day results newspapers has ceased trading of this season. The Portsmouth  Sports Mail “Pink ‘un” is no more.

Another way of finding out how your team had got on was to listen to the results on the radio at 5pm. 

Sports Report with its instantly recognisable theme tune was a national institution and still going strong today. Having said that I learn today that the BBC are going to end the Classified Results service on Radio 5

Nothing is sacred when it comes to football in the modern age.

My days, it cannot be happening, can it?

The press reports about Boris Johnson has been given summaries of sensitive material via WhatsApp for administrative ease raises the question as to what the prime minister uses his red boxes for.

Somewhere to keep his colouring book and crayons?

Do they double up as his lunch box, or maybe somewhere to stash his party snacks?

Boris Johnson gets summaries of sensitive government material via WhatsApp

Bike Hero #8 and #9

The Tour of Britain has been Live on TV this past week and yesterday there was a magic moment during the Stage to Edinburgh.

You get the odd nutcase in the big Grand Tours of France and Spain who run along side the competitors shouting encouragement they grind up a mountain.

A local lad, Xander Graham, kept pace with the leading group of riders for a fair way along the route by cycling on the pavement. His efforts were rewarded by race rider Pascal Eenkhoorn with a water bottle.

It was a great moment to see.

https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/pascal-eenkhoorn-meets-young-cycling-fan-xander-graham-at-aj-bell-tour-of-britain/

Bike hero #7 Beth Shriever

There have been a few posts on this blog about my bike heroes. Only 6 have been chosen so far:

  1. Sheldon Brown the bike building oracle was the first on the list of heroes. He was a great inspiration, source of information and point of reference when I did my own build.
  2. Danny MacAskill has come a long way since he received my second nomination. The things that he can do on a bike still take your breath away.
  3. The come back kid, Mark Cavendish, has broken records in this year’s Tour de France and has always been a legend in my opinion.
  4. Mario Cipollini is a blast from the past. Bike Heroes #5 and #6 are more personal additions to the list. These last two inductees have with no links to competitive cycling. Nevertheless the latest bike hero is a true competitor. An olympic champion no less.

Beth Shriever take a bow – you are (BMX) bike hero #7.

Let’s face it. BMX racing is more fun to watch than archery.

BMX racing is more accessible to young people who want to try it out than Equestrian sports.

Despite a funding cut from UkSport and a double leg break in the lead up to the games, Beth Shriever won an Olympic gold in Tokyo after a thrilling final race. Her gold medal represents a better return for team GB than the entire rowing squad can muster.

This girl is a new sensation, yet she humbly points out that it was an achievement just to get to Tokyo in the first place.

Beth has had to self finance her training and travel to events through a crowdfunding website and working as a teaching assistant in a primary school for 2 days a week.

Meanwhile the lottery funding for the Olympic rowing team is £24.6 million

Equestrian team get £12.5 million from UkSport

Even Archery gets £1.1 million to fund the Olympic squad.

From what I can see Beth won her gold medal in spite of and not with the support from UkSport.

There are some other interesting totals in these funding figures

https://www.uksport.gov.uk/our-work/investing-in-sport/current-funding-figures